001Okay, everybody, it's 6:00. If we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, get this going. >> 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. >> All right. Have all the board members had a chance to look at the agenda? >> I move that we approve tonight's agenda. >> And I second. >> All in favor? >> Aye. >> Okay, we have an agenda. First up is our literacy short showcase from Mountain View Elementary first grade. >> All right. Good evening, Board President Wielander, other esteemed board members, student board representatives, and Superintendent Jessie. I'm going to walk through just a couple of slides about literacy instruction and what we're going to be have the
002pleasure of hearing tonight and our teachers will share and then we're going to hear from some first grade representatives of Mountain View Elementary. So, this is just an example of how how children learn to read and write and looking at the developmental spectrum of that. So, here in the Shelton School District, we take the approach that all students are writers. From the moment they enter our school, they are writers and we are teaching them the skills that they need along the way. Um and that really aligns with uh both the research and our strategic plan. We do use a writer's workshop approach. We've looked at this um this one before. Just a reminder that we structure our time with writing instruction with those mini lessons. So, it's not a lot of teacher lecture time. It's
003really focused instruction. And then the children get to spend a lot of time actually doing the writing. Um and then the teacher, you'll see here for example, this is a Mountain View teacher in that slide, um doing that one-on-one instruction to help move the students along. And so, just a reframe around the why for the readers and writers workshop, this is um most of the time in this approach, the time is spent on reading and writing. And so, one thing that really differentiates our approach, rather than sort of a more scripted big box type of approach, is that often those approaches rely a lot on uh things, PowerPoint slides, worksheets. It's more about the task completion and lecture time, to be honest. So, we're really trying to frame um our instruction to allow the children
004as much time to focus on their writing as possible. Um and it's a lot you can think about like coaching. Um for example, if you were coaching a sport, you'd you spend some time giving focused instruction or looking at video or doing those kind of things. But really, you want the students to be actually practicing and trying on the skills that you're teaching. So, it's uh kind of analogous to the way that we approach um our writing instruction. All right. With that, I'm going to invite uh one of our teachers wanted to share a little context about what the children will be sharing. >> Hi board members. Our first graders have been working hard on writing opinion pieces the last few weeks. Recently they just wrote about their favorite season and explained why they like
005it the best. Students practice sharing their opinion, giving a few reasons and added detail to explain their thinking. It's been fun to watch them grow more confident in their writing. Through this work they're learning that their opinion matters while building important writing and communication skills. So up first we have Well, there yeah, no wait no actually you can just stay here with me. I think while they're updating the slide deck if you have any questions about our writing instruction. I don't think I need the stool. I'll move this to the side. I'm happy to answer any of those. >> I don't have a question but I do want to comment that all of the all of the first graders that we see before us, you guys all look so professional and ready to share your
006story with us. Just thank you very much for coming here tonight. We're really happy to have you. Yeah. I got to hear some practicing today and they did a really good job. >> I can give a plug-in for first grade literacy having a first grader at Bordo. I was just recently talking to superintendent here about just how impressed I am having had a now fourth grader and first grader move through this literacy program. Um, and my first grader finished a graphic novel today and came home super excited and it's just um, it's really fostered a sense of love for books both at school and at home. She wants to take her books to school. She wants to read what her friends are reading and just thank you for all that hard work. It's It's going
007to pay off forever. >> Yep. We're very proud of our team. And now perfect timing. So that was great. So we have our first our first uh, first grader is going to come on up and join us. >> So you're going to stand here. Can you get up there? Okay. Okay, remember to read your title and by Alan. >> Winter by Alan. My favorite season is winter. In winter you can make a snowman. I like to build a snowman with my sister. In winter it snows a lot. In winter we can have snow fights. >> You did a good job, guys. All right. And next up, why not? >> In my opinion, spring is the best season. The Oh, wait. Plants start to grow. I like to grow plants with my mom. It is warm.
008I like to swim. That is why I like the season spring. >> That's you, buddy. Come on up. >> In my opinion, summer is the best season. The days are longer. There are lots of fruits and vegetables. I like fruits and vegetables. I like long days because I play out I can play outside longer. You can go swimming. I like the warm sun. That is why I like the season summer. >> My name is Molly and I wrote about my favorite season. My favorite season is fall. We get to go to the park. I like to go on the monkey bars. It is cool in the fall. I get to go trick-or-treating. We rake up leaves and then jump in them. It is so much fun. That is why I think that fall is better.
009>> Spring by Amelia. My favorite season is spring. One fact is that it can be warm warmer in spring. In spring I like to pick flowers. Another fact is that it can rain. After it rains I like to jump in the puddles. In spring birds make nests. I like to watch the birds. What is your favorite season? >> Right. So with that that was representative of our first graders here at Mountain View. So I'll just open it up again to any questions or comments for me or the kids or the teachers. >> Um not a whole lot other than all very valid well spoken opinions. Uh I couldn't disagree with any of them at any particular moment. My favorite season was whatever they were reading. It was good. Um the their their speaking abilities as
010well as their reading and writing are are outstanding and I I feel like they're way ahead of where I was in first grade. So way to go. Nice work. >> I just want to echo that. Thank you. Thank you teachers for coming out tonight and and this is the best part of our meetings where we get to see what is happening in the classrooms and to all the students you guys look great. Parents out there you should be very very proud. Well done. >> Uh without any bias at all I think Alan's was the correct opinion. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, up next is the superintendent's report with Mr. Jesse. >> Thank you, Board President Wielander, other Board Directors, student representatives, families, staff, and students. I'll start off it just
011for recognition of classified staff week. Tabitha Whiting, head of human resources, will get up here and and share some information, but I just want to take a note. We really do rely on our classified staff. They're everywhere. They're the ones that are making this place run. Anywhere from serving meals to meeting you at the front office. If anybody's listening or or watching this, you will recall many times I'm sure that where you had called the front office and needed some information or you wanted to reach out to the med tech to get some things related to the condition for your student or you were like, I hope someone is providing amazing supervision on the playground for your student as well. These folks are the backbone and I just wanted to take a moment to highlight
012just this week I had two particular paraeducators that mostly support our special education programs yesterday put on a basketball game between some of the staff at SHS and some of our students who have graduated for our transitions program and they all have special needs. It was a really entertaining basketball game. I want to say special thank you to Nate Sartori and Scotty Crump for being there to put that show on. It was very well attended. It was awesome. They went back and forth, up and down the floor. I saw a lot of staff run out of gas, just just being honest. Um Uh, the students uh, the former students really was the real treat. Those those classified staff, they coach them. They help track them and make sure they're successful here in this community. When
013you're talking about uh, a population with high needs, really ensuring that they don't just land on a couch and that they have meaningful purpose in this community is magical and I'm very thankful for them as well as our other classified staff for making a difference for so many students. So, again, thank you so much for the classified staff, especially Nathan and Scotty. Uh, I was out in classes uh, this last couple weeks. Um, I just wanted to I have always like sometimes I just see just the most amazing things. Um, I uh, want to give a shout-out to Lori Cotton at Olympic Middle School. Um, I've been in Lori's class a number of times. She was um, really able to get the students to independently draw in their own um, learning. And so, she wasn't
014overly managing. She was asking some really tough probing questions and kids are really engaging in in what they were um, doing. It was happened to be uh, a writing task. It was great. Kids were on it and um, they were accessing the information. Um, so thank you so much Lori. Also, just uh, this morning I was with uh, board director Wielander. We were in kindergarten classrooms at Evergreen. Uh, just uh, really real treat. There was a couple novice brand new teachers in there who uh, just such organized spaces, warm and welcoming. Kids were just on point on the carpet. I know every single primary teacher knows what I'm talking about like when they're sitting ready to go. There was turn and talks. There was kids are just doing choral responses. Um, it was it was
015really it was about part of their morning meeting so, we were We're them right in the beginning of the day. Uh, and it was really really nice to see them. So, I just try to always highlight something that um I'm seeing out there. Plenty of other things that I saw um here including at Mountain View with the fourth grade team. Really again engaging students. They were doing some real tough word work, uh multi-syllabic words, their own words they were doing. Uh, of course things like fluency and word attack skills are things that were going on in those classrooms as well. So, thank you to the fourth grade team here at Mountain View. Uh, I just want to conclude uh just with a huge thank you again for the levy. Our levy means a lot to
016this school district and to this community and really want to thank folks for coming out. It is 13% of our budget. Those dollars are going to go a long way not only in supporting athletics and activities that a lot of people see, but all those other things, a lot of those classified staff are supported, their pay is supported by the levy. Those med techs need them. Library tech, need them. Those people need like pairs all across the board whether they're special ed or not, the levy supports those folks as well. Let's not forget that. So, I just want to say thank you. What I also want to draw is a your awareness on the other 87% of our budget. Those are dollars that pri- that come from the state in the form of either basic
017ed dollars or what we call grant or programmatic dollars. Like title one, like McKinney-Vento, special education, multilingual dollars. Those dollars help support the interventions that go on for the district. But, if you recall last about this time last uh at the end of last year, we received a half million dollar cut in those dollars. We no longer receive money for uh homelessness or uh kids that are in foster, which is called McKinney-Vento for some of you who are in the know. That's that's no You're talking about a high needs district like Shelton and you don't have any money coming to us for homelessness and kids that are in foster? Those those dollars matter. Every dollar actually matters. So I I really want to say thank you so much for the levy, but I want to
018also call out that we're still being shorted by the state ledge. I just heard from the superintendent Reykdal uh for public instruction for the state. He really did help call out he understands that we're not going to have it. We never got back the money that helps pay for the utilities and insurance. That still is helping to be paid that has to come out of the bottom line. So when those things add up coupled with uh a shortage enrollment, the birth rate's going down. Clinton Sherman's going to be coming up to explain a little bit more about that. So those combination of cut in those dollars, McKinney-Vento, and the intervention dollars, plus uh a decrease in enrollment, um those things do equate to a situation in which districts all across the state, uh especially in
019our region, where you're going to have to contract. This is somewhat of the new normal and it's going to keep going on. We'll explain a little bit more about that. Of course, most of the time we can get rid of uh some of the loss in this about through uh attrition for our staffing. Um but it is going to be uh lean times that will have to continue for us. Uh but we will continue to provide those great services um that that I know our our families and our communities expect. Hence the so much support for the levy. So it's not all it's not all doomsday, it's just needing to remind ourselves there really is no slack in the system. It's very tight with the dollars. We do have to prioritize things. I know people
020need to make a definitely a living wage and so those are the things that, you know, that every district, including here in Shelton, that we'll continue to wrestle with. So, with that, I will conclude my remarks. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Okay. 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 for community comments displayed on the screen above. Marilyn Aaron. >> Uh good evening. Every graduating class has a story, and sometimes that story includes a classmate who should be walking across the stage with them, but cannot. I would like to propose that the district adopt a adopt a meaningful tradition at our high school
021graduation ceremonies to honor students whose lives were tragically cut short before they had the opportunity to graduate. Graduation represents years of growth, hard work, and shared journeys. This proposal is simple but meaningful. It requires no significant funding, no major changes to the ceremony, and only a brief moment of time. Yet, it could carry a profound impact for the families and classmates who carry that loss. At the graduation ceremony, the district uh could reserve an empty chair for students who are no longer with us. The chair could include a sign, ribbon, or a cap and tassel to honor them. It serves as a quiet reminder that while a seat may be empty, that student will always remain part of their class. Just before the diplomas are presented, the ceremony could include a brief moment of remembrance.
022The names of the student who has passed could be read aloud followed by a moment of silence in their honor. The class of 2026 tragically lost a classmate in a car accident during their sophomore year. His friends, family, and classmates deserve to see him honored and remembered as part of their graduating class. While he cannot walk across the stage, he was still part of their journey. Much like the class of 2024 honored their classmate Toa, this would ensure the class of 2026 has the same opportunity to remember their friend. This brief moment carries deep meaning and dignity. It acknowledges that these students were part of the class and the school community. It honors the life and memory of the classmates who should have been on the stage and offers compassion and recognition to the families
023and classmates who still carry that loss. It reminds the graduating class of the value of life, community, and supporting one another. It ensures that their classmate is not forgotten and remains part of their story. This is a small gesture, but one that can have a lasting impact. I believe it is an opportunity for this community, and the board, and the district to establish a compassionate tradition for our district. One that reflects the humanity and care we want our schools and community to represent. I respectfully ask the board and the superintendent and the district office to consider adopting this tradition beginning with the class of 2026. Because while a chair may be empty, that student's place in their class and in the hearts of those who knew them will never be forgotten. Thank you. >> Thank
024you. Okay. On to athletics update. The state wrestling, boys swim, girls and boys basketball, Mr. Chamberlain. >> Test, test, test. Work now? Check, check. Okay. Well, I'm going to drag this out because oh I'm going to drag this out a little bit cuz I was at baseball and soccer and it's cold out there. So I got nice and warm sitting in here. Um and Director Relander, you said that you don't think you could have done that in the first grade. I'm not sure I could do that now with those first graders just did. That's pretty awesome. So Um so winners winter sports have come to a conclusion. Um and quickly 7 days or 9 days into spring sports, we already have games happening. But we have some great accomplishments that happened during the winter season.
025And we like to bring those people up. So first I'd ask the state swimmers and their coaches to come forward, please. Actually, only one state swimmer made this journey today. We do have some that are off in other events and other walks of life and not thinking very well. It is finals week. So um So what I got behind me? Perfect. So this is a picture of the boys at the I believe that's at the state meet. Yeah. Um up in King County Aquatic Center. We had eight individuals that traveled there for the two-day event. Um is Avon Young, Bruce Carpenter, Colin Wilson, Darren Arthur who is with us. Um Bennett McLin Hogan Ollenburg, Cohen Holsgrove and Tuan Benedict. And Tuan Benedict actually placed seventh in the 100 meter fly in the 3A state swim
026meet. And their coaches are here. Um coach Schrum and coach Youngquist and then coach Feelin is not here today. So, that is our state swimmers. Congratulations. Nice job. >> You guys want to stay up here? >> All right. Uh let's bring up our state boys wrestlers and their coaches. We had 10 wrestlers travel to the Tacoma Dome uh to participate in Mat Classic on a Thursday Friday. Um they were William Lacy, Aiden Dodge, John Kovacs. Um It's It's Tilo. I know, but it's he goes by Tilo, so it always messes me up. So, Tilo Kalika, uh Finnegan Ball, Preston Dom, Gunnar Jensen, JJ Rhodes, Dwayne Nunez Lopez, who also placed eighth in the 215-lb weight class, and then Noah Tuimauga, who placed second in the um unlimited I think I don't know if they call
027it that anymore. 285, right? 285 That one dead. I guess I could use this one. I don't like doing it this way. Um anyways, uh Noah Tuimauga wrestled in the finals, uh which is a pretty special stage um at the state wrestling um tournament. Also, on our boys state team, we had uh some boys state academic awards given out. We had four honorable mention wrestlers. Um but we had two academic state champions. And so, uh Gunner Jensen at the 150-lb weight class had a GPA of 3.96. And then Dwayne Nunez Lopez at the 250-lb weight class had a GPA of 3.63. And they were both uh by the wrestling coaches association named academic state champions in those weight classes for the 3A classification. So, let's give our wrestlers a round of applause. I forgot about
028coach Lacey. How could I forget coach Lacey? And the many coaches that go with our wrestling team that aren't here today. All right, if you guys will step right over there. Thank you. And then if I could have all of our girls wrestlers and coaches come forward, please. Our girls wrestling team uh had 14 individuals that traveled to Tacoma at the same time as the boys tournament. If you haven't been to that tournament, it's changed. If you've been to it in the past, it's changed a little bit. Uh wrestling for the 3As was basically all day Thursday, and then we came back in the afternoon on Friday and wrestled I think they got home at 1:00 a.m. possibly. It was a long day. Um but it's uh it's a really cool atmosphere. And they've it's
029really grown and they've had to divide it out. So, we had 14 young ladies up there wrestling. Uh Nami uh Harmon, Corey Cobb, Ariana Arnold, Victoria Cashion, Liv Rasmussen, Ian Timiskino Danker, Chloe Hughes, Michaela Ferret Bennett, Daisy Altman, uh Mahala Leclair Hernandez, Crystal Neilson, Sophia Todd, who came up here. She placed fifth place. Uh Maya Carrion uh placed fourth place. And Adele Anderson was third place in their weight class. As a team, our girls placed sixth place at the state wrestling tournament, uh which is a great accomplishment. Having 14 girls really helps that. Uh but the some of those girls that didn't place won some matches to get us get us some team points. So, great team effort. Uh coach Jazz is not here, Jazz Warren, and and coach Jacob Garrick as their coaches. Um
030and then one other one that's not on the slide. Is Amaya here? Uh Amaya was uh previous to the state tournament um at the district tournament down in Vancouver, our Prairie, I guess it was. That is Vancouver. Uh she was named the 3A District 4 Wrestler of the Year, which is a pretty cool accomplishment. So, give them a round of applause. Good job, ladies. And then, Noah would like to share something. >> Uh hi. My name is Noah Tuitea. I'm honored to represent the Shelton High School wrestling team. I started wrestling my freshman year and fell in love with the sport immediately. But, the last 2 years, I've been dealing with injuries, and I was able to recover thanks to all my coaches and athletic trainers at the Shelton High School. With their help, I
031was able to make it to the state finals, and it was an awesome experience. Thank you. >> Once again, congratulations to our state participants. Uh we have a couple state send-offs this week. One tomorrow for our um uh theater, and then one on Friday for ROTC. Thank you. Um and so, we got uh lots of great things going on, and it's great to um uh celebrate these accomplishments by by individuals. So, thanks for having us. Good job, ladies. >> Okay, up next the recognition for classified staff, Tabitha Wedding. >> Good evening. Good evening. Tess, thank you, Justin. Good evening. Thank you for having me here tonight. This week is set aside to recognize classified school employees and I appreciate being given the opportunity to acknowledge the incredible classified staff who serve our students in schools
032every day. When people think about schools, they often think first about classrooms and teachers, but anyone who has truly spent time in a school knows that it doesn't happen because of one role. It happens because of an entire community of people working together, many of whom are quietly behind the scenes. Classified staff are often the first people our students see in the morning and the last people they see at the end of the day. More importantly, our students would not feel the same sense of belonging, safety, and care without them. What makes these individuals extraordinary is not just the work they do, it's the heart they bring to it. They choose to show up every day for our students because they care deeply about the young people in our community. They're the bus drivers who
033greet students before the sun is up and safely bring them home each afternoon. They're the paraeducators who sit beside students who need a little extra patience, encouragement, and support. They're the office professionals who welcome families and hold schools together through a daily through thousands of daily details. There are custodians and maintenance staff who work early mornings, late evenings, and weekends to ensure that our schools are clean, safe, and ready for learning. There are food service staff who ensure that our students are nourished, and there are technicians, ground staff, and countless others whose work makes everything possible. Many of these uh roles don't come with recognition or applause. Much of the work happens quietly, out of sight, and sometimes without people fully realizing just how essential it is. But, the truth is our schools would not
034function without them. They help create the environment where learning can happen. On behalf of our district, I want to extend our deepest appreciation to all of our classified staff. Your dedication, compassion, and commitment make a difference. Know that you are seen, appreciated, and valued. Thank you for the care you show our students, the pride you take in your work, and thank you for being an essential part of the community that supports every child in our schools. We are grateful for you this week and every week. Thank you. >> Thank you. All right. Budget update with Mr. Sherman. Mainte- Oh, I got ahead of myself. Sorry. Maintenance and facilities with Robert Aaron. I'm equally excited, but >> Well, good evening, Mr. Chairman, Madam Chair, esteemed directors, student representatives, and Superintendent Jessie. Thank you for allowing me
035to come forward this evening to give a quick update to the current state of our facilities, as well as present the 2026 asset preservation program scorecard that will be submitted to OSPI tomorrow. The slide deck being shown here um shows some key points of successes and challenges that we're facing this school year. If you could advance that for me. >> I'll just continue. You have the slides in your in your board packet, so. The first slide shows that um we're discussing that uh or it's discussed that we are so thankful that we were able to hire an experienced local electrician that is highly skilled. So, he came on board in December and is helping us to work through our backlog. We also have the grant-funded Oh, here we go. The grant-funded ADA lift at the
036sub at Shelton High School is uh operational uh will be very operational very soon. And so, we're excited about that. That's going to allow our students to be able to access the lower and upper levels of the sub. Uh we also recently won a grant, we were awarded a grant uh to replace one of the boilers at Evergreen. And so, this is one of one of the uh original um boilers at Evergreen. It's It's It's lived its whole life and it is time for a replacement. And also, this will gain us a significant efficiency uh operationally and and save us dollars. Uh also, we were able to at the beginning of the year replace the broken windows that at Oakland Bay, relocate Cedar High School, the Student and Family Resource Center, Open Doors. Uh but
037some of the challenges that we're still currently facing this school year um is that we're having a significant increase in HVAC work orders. Uh our mechanical equipment is aging in many of our buildings. Uh and we're doing everything that we can to keep them uh functional and we're extremely resourceful, but uh it is becoming more and more challenging and uh as our buildings age. In the next slide discussing some of the things that we're looking uh beyond the school year. Um we have facility funding needs due to the age of our buildings and deferred maintenance. Our current facilities budget is challenged by the stresses of inflation and shrinking operational and capital dollars that are available. Our recurring annual budget cannot make significant headway to work through deferred maintenance issues. Additional funding outside of regular funding
038will be required in order to handle the life cycle replacements and the deferred maintenance. Grants will always be vigorously pursued, but levies or bonds in the future will likely need to be considered. Some critical items um that are currently exist include roof replacements at many of our buildings. Uh most notably at Shelton High School, ASB 300, Bordeaux, and the ELC. Also, the Oakland Bay elevator uh needs to be replaced or fully modernized. We actually can't get parts for many of the uh components at the high sch- at Oakland Bay. Uh Shelton High School has significant drainage uh issues that we have worked to solve many of them, but as we chase them out, they just pop up in a new place. It would need a comprehensive solution. We need to paint fully our exterior of
039all of our buildings, right? And uh we only only of our new buildings and Oakland Bay have been painted in the last few years. Uh and we have, as I touched on earlier, extensive HVAC mechanical work that needs to occur. And the next slide uh is discussed specifically Oakland Bay. This building seems new to many in this community, uh but it is 36 years old. After 30 years, the state considers the building any building to be obsolete and recommend a full remodel or rehabilitation to code and the current standards or a full replacement of that school. Even they'll even fund their share. Olympic View is a concrete building and its structure is in very good shape. It's like a bunker. It's in amazing condition for its age. However, it is 36 years old and needs
040a lot of work and its systems and components and finishes to keep it going and an investment will take it to another 25 years, maybe even 30. The district will need to prioritize this work to keep it going for another 25 years and it will need to be a part of any future bond or levy. Or we'll need to earmark a minimum of $750,000 every year to do in annual pieces. So, there's a lot to consider when you can when you're we're looking ahead and the the needs um of our facilities is very significant. This concludes that maintenance and facilities uh update portion. Now, I want to transition to the asset preservation program update. You may remember this update from years past, but it's pretty much the same blurb. This is an annual bureaucratic requirement
041from the state that I present to the board of directors. The scores that will be submitted to OSPI. This must be done before the end of March each year. This year I included in a slideshow instead of in the previous written format uh cuz I already had a slide deck presentation for you this evening. Evergreen and Olympic Middle School are the two schools that require annual APP updates. I show last year's scores and this year's scores for comparison. Each component is listed as either excellent, good, fair, or poor. OSPI is very specific on how you can rate each component. Some components, when they reach a certain age, must be marked down a category even if it is fully functional without defect. It's a pretty complex system and not necessarily intuitive. Our foreman, Chris Wallin, and
042I go through the scoring and update them every year based on their scoring metrics and requirements. And then every 6 years we're required to hire a third party to do a full APP building study and score for all the buildings, not just the two that are in the annual reporting. And that will next happen in 2028. This year, Evergreen, the bottom score you see there, went from 64.2 6 to 62.9. In this part of its life, the scores are typically expected to drop two to five points a year unless major capital expenditures occur to help slow the drop or even possibly raise the score. Olympic Middle School actually went up from a 70.3 to 71.5. And that is because we made a roof repair. We discovered some dry rot in the substrate in one of
043the rings 2 years ago. And we removed that and restored the roof in that condition. And you may remember as part of the bond, we actually replaced the Olympic Middle School roof in 2019. So, its age is actually in really good condition and with this substrate change, it actually moved us from fair to good based on their scoring metrics. And roofing scores are heavily weighted. All of these one of these each one of these components actually has a different weight to their score. Right? And roughing is considered a very, very important component in their scoring metrics. So, changes in that category move points higher or lower than say interior doors would. So, now that this information has been shared with you, next up is I will submit them tomorrow to SPI. And it will be
044part of their databases and then become public record. That concludes my presentation and I hand it back to you, Mr. Chairman. >> Thank you. Uh any questions? >> Yeah, I had a couple questions. Um Actually, you answered a lot of them in your presentation, so thank you. The lift in the sub, um are those no longer locker bays? What are we doing with those spaces now? >> I'm sorry, I didn't hear your question. >> In the high school sub, the the lift that we're installing, are those no longer locker bays or is it still lockers for the kids? >> Yeah, so it's in the southeast corner of the building, so facing the parking lot. If you were to walk in the parking lot doors, you have stairs that take you up or down, right? And
045so, it is on the left-hand side of that and it takes you to the bottom level, to the mid level, to those stairs to take you out, or up to the top level. And so, this will allow >> Andrew, so I have two kids in high school and I went there in 1992. There were lockers that were upstairs and downstairs that we would put books in. That isn't how it is anymore. >> Okay. >> It is cleared out. They've got tables up there and they also have like a student store and kind of a lounge area down below. So, it's not lockers, so the lift isn't necessarily helping every student get to a locker at this point. >> Yeah, I would I had kind of heard something that changed that, but I wasn't really clear
046on what it was. Um and then the other question I had was with the asset preservation program, we're getting scores here. Is there a score that once we achieve like a certain lowness of a score cuz you're saying some things are being devalued even though they're still in perfectly good condition. Is there a score once we get to that that the state kind of steps in and says this is a problem, we need to do something about it? >> Yeah, I'm I'm constantly in contact with our regional representative. Um several times a year we're going over these types of things. And so, uh in general, the state is not using it for the means to rate districts and whether they're doing the job that they need to. It's it's more from the standpoint of for
047funding purposes, right? And so, a building that is 20 years old, right, and is, you know, poor condition, right, would actually they would consider to be more urgent than a building that is 20 years old and in a higher condition, right? So, it's it it allows them for a for funding purposes. Now, I'm certain that if they saw something that was troubling, right, because the the main impetus of the creation of the APP, to the best I understand it, uh is to make sure that the state is getting a return on its investment, right? That districts are doing their job, right? But um and so, I think that that would be a part of it, but there's never been any part of our scores specifically that they've ever uh reported back to us and said
048they were concerning. In fact, uh up until probably the last 2 years, our buildings were generally higher for their age than average. But I think that deferred maintenance uh is starting to catch up and now we're back in the more in the mid-pack. >> Um I have one question, uh and it's probably as much for uh Mr. Sherman as you, but with uh things like our HVAC systems being not only old, but you know, obsolete, falling apart, um not energy efficient, uh is there the possibility given that uh with our number of free and reduced, the fact that we service um two totally different, you know, two tribes, we have a huge number of EL students, um have we looked at things like capital budget requests uh or um energy efficiency uh grants through Department
049of Commerce? >> Yeah, we've gone through several grant requests. I've applied for probably four grants um in the last year uh and the way it's been explained to me by our OSPI representative is that uh those figures weigh into their awards and and was probably a significant reason why we were able to get the Evergreen award. At that time we submitted for $600,000, which was the maximum, and we had a list of projects. The only one that was accepted by them was the Evergreen one and and so those those calculations were a part of their consideration. >> Thank you. >> I really appreciate the report on everything um and you always do such a good job with all of that. I'm I'm very happy to hear that we did hire a local electrician. I think
050that's a bright spot, too, and that's wonderful that they're helping get through a lot of backlogged work. So, thank you for giving us an update on that, as well. Um I'm forgetting, how old is Oakland Bay? >> 36 years old. >> is when it was completed. >> And then there are some buildings on Shelton High School's campus, cuz obviously we didn't remodel the entire campus, and that school is now how old as well? >> I think it was 1974 was its first graduating class. >> Yeah. >> Thank you, 72. Thank you, sir. >> Okay. Now, I appreciate the update and the future planning for potential bond or levy things cuz it is good to be aware of what the costs of keeping that up is going to be. So, thank you. >> Okay. >> I
051don't have anything else. So, thank you. >> Now, the budget update. >> Good evening, board. Uh tonight, we're going to walk through uh a regular budget update. It's going to expand a little bit. There's a lot of nuance uh in school district finance. And as we do a lot of planning, there's a lot of moving pieces. Um so, we're going to walk through um what Superintendent Jessica spoke about earlier about the enrollment declining a little, some some areas that we think we've identified about why that's occurring, and then what we can do about that, and how we have to respond to what that looks like. Uh so, to start off, it's a familiar graph. This has not changed from the last time. We are currently reconciling February. So, the next board meeting, these numbers will
052get updated. Um and so far, we're about on track for what we uh expect. We're performing right where we expect to be performing. Uh so, that we're still uh pushing for a positive $1.5 million fund balance at the end of this year, which is part And this came up earlier um just this last week, I guess. Last year, we had to do some pretty radical changes to to generate a $1.5 million fund balance. What what that means is that we're really only about six months six and a half months through a three-year plan to get our fund balance where we want it to be. So, although we have a lot of successes, and we're moving in the right direction, we are still in the early stages of a kind of a longer-term plan. And I
053think one of the first board meetings uh that I came here with, we talked about how the numbers are simple, but if we made such a huge reduction, it would devastate all the educational instructional programs that are occurring. So, we need to plan it out strategically and thoughtfully and and do it over 3 years instead of doing it over 1 year. And so, that is still the case. Uh we're still on track to perform how we expected to perform. Um normally, I would show you uh a year-to-year slide about our enrollment, and we had a little column about what enrollment was happening each month. What I wanted to do uh at this meeting was kind of zoom in to the annual enrollment for this month and look at what it's doing. So, you'll see a
054a giant spike in October. That's when we recognize our running start students. So, those students are here um in September, but they qualify for additional FTE funding. It's a flow-through funding. That money then gets uh paid to South Puget Sound or Olympic College or other universities, but that's why it looks like there's a giant spike. We didn't have 100 more students show up in October. We were able to claim our existing students differently. And so, that's what that a spike in October looks like. Then it moves through through February's enrollment. We are actually um the annual average for the year is 4205. That's what the other dots are representing. And so, what we normally see in January is a small uptick in our enrollment with um families coming in uh to our communities for work.
055Uh we did not see that this year, and we didn't see it last year. Last year, there were some things happening that created some fear in some families, and we actually saw some folks move to online schools. And we talked last year about how we reached out to those families and created some awareness about the internal online programs that we offer, so we can make sure that those students are receiving high-quality services here at Shelton. Uh cuz there's a lot of online programs throughout the state that parents get to choose where they put their students, right? So, this is what this looks like over time. So, the the other thing that we've noticed is um statewide is a decline in birth rates. We'll walk through a a graph uh in that in a second. And
056then, an increase in home-based instruction. And that is similar to what I talked about earlier about uh either home schooling or online. Those are both considered home base instruction. So quickly, here's what births have been happening in Washington state kind of over time. You can see we kind of peaked in 2016 with 90,000 births and change. And in 2023 we had 80,000. So that's a pretty precipitous drop in in just the birth rate that's occurring here in Washington state and what that means for our kindergarten enrollment moving forward. And this is happening statewide and every district. I just wanted to identify that we actually the education community is is bracing for this reduction in kindergarten. That makes sense. So and we're not immune to that. Um The next thing that I want to talk about
057was what home base instruction has looked like over the years. So in 2023 as students were coming back from the school closure, home base instruction really was reduced statewide and it also happened here in Shelton. So that orange line is what's happening state So there's two axes on this graph. There's the state numbers in orange which go up to like 38,000 35,000 and in blue is Shelton. So you can see that this graph of orange is showing a really kind of aggressive rise in home base instruction across the state. We're not seeing that same rate of increase in home base instruction here at Shelton. It's roughly around 230 folks uh who've made that choice for their students and that and that's fine. Um But what I think just like we did talk about last year,
058what's important is that we can actually do a better job marketing some of the programs we have here. So one of the things that we're doing is we're going to expand our online program. There are some rules around online education that schools when they offer that online program, there's some rules around what that looks like. And so we're bringing a board policy to update those rules for our district and kind of expand it to be able to accept students from outside of our district as well. Because what we believe is that we can um provide high-quality instructional uh experiences for our students, and then these students here who are currently in some sort of home-based program that aren't online in our system. So, what's not included in this blue line are the students who are
059in our online program because we claim them and they're uh notified to the state differently. We report on them differently, if that makes sense. And so, we are also expanding the online program to meet some students uh needs who were doing kind of homeschooling through a parent partnership program. Um Shelton is not new to Shelton. We haven't had that program active probably since COVID. Um it kind of shuttered around then, um but we were restarting that program out uh as well and expanding those offerings to make sure that we're meeting students wherever they're at and whatever those counties look like. That makes sense? What questions do you I I feel like I'm moving kind of quick. What questions do you have so far? >> Is there any possible expectation of students coming in from neighboring
060school districts whose levies didn't pass, so therefore their offerings are smaller? >> So, you That's a great question, Andrew. Uh yes, that is expected as um levies fail, it's it's a it's a it's a really catastrophic event for any school district. And and again, we are that 62% here, that resounding support. Uh the the amount of gratitude that the students and the staff have for that is uh can't be understated. But yes, we would expect to see that, but I can't qualify if that's 10 kids or if that's 100 kids. And so, I don't qualify it. So, what I what we're doing is we're taking the trends of what we've seen in our district for the last couple of years. And what we'll get into in the budget workshops is um the retention rate. How
061many kids move from first grade to second grade, second to third, all the way up. And then we how we forecast that enrollment. And so, what's I can't forecast an unknown number of students coming from other districts. I can only try to forecast what we're seeing internally. Um I don't want to say there's hope that those students come in, but if they do, we will welcome them with open arms. So, what does that mean for our enrollment? How does it impact staffing? So, we felt pretty conservative this in this budget year budgeting 4,375 FTE of students. What we're actually seeing right now is that 4,205. So, what that means for next year is we're actually going to forecast out 4,135 students. So, you can see that we are budget to budget we're budgeting 170 less
062kids than we budgeted last year, but we're already in actuals, right? We're already responding to this um reduction enrollment in real time. And so, the reduction from actual to what we're budgeting for next year is 70 students. And that happens in um a bunch of different ways. So, when we have 70 different students from what we're actually uh counting for today and what we're looking for next year, that can roughly look a reduction in staff of of two to five not not staff of positions uh of two to five positions district-wide. And that can manifest in different ways. What we don't know is how many folks are retiring. We do a survey, we get those numbers. A a lot of times in districts uh people notify late, which is fine, that's their choice. Um or
063folks move out late, they just make different choices. Uh and so, we don't know what our staffing levels will look like with our current staff. One of the things that's important to understand is that that 70 FTE is actually if you if you took 70 divided by two, it's like 35. That's that's about right. When you have a natural reduction in enrollment, you have to have a natural reduction in your staffing levels. Is that Great. Um What questions do you have for me? There's some quizzical looks, which is great. >> And maybe you're good to this. Um so looking at that, this year we we might need to reduce two to five because of enrollment. >> And into next year. >> next year, yeah. >> Yeah. >> Um if birth rate is dropping, we can
064see that dropping, are we anticipating that this is a routine thing for the next couple of years because you can see how many kids were born in five years ago that would be entering kindergarten next year, right? So do >> Right. >> or in 2027, 28. >> Yeah, so we we will be forecasting that out and seeing what that looks like. What we don't know is like what Andrew's talking about. We don't we don't know expanding our online program and re-kicking off our home-based parent partnership program. We don't know how many students that will recapture that are currently doing home-based instruction. That could be 200 students, it could be 50 students, we don't know yet. Um we also don't know how many students from other districts want to transfer in. We do know that kindergarten
065numbers will be a little lower and and we will adjust for that >> Okay. >> over time. And so we make these adjustments in real time. As we're talking about this year, um and moving into next year, this reduction that we're talking about ideally happens through attrition. And and just kind of a natural way we can do it. It can also happen programmatically. So let's say that there are uh two teachers who are only certificated in basket weaving. We uh prioritize um that as a class here and what what that could look like and the student enrollment and registration only generates enough classes for for one full sections of that. So we would have to reduce one textiles teacher to account for that lack of student interest. That's that's a normal reduction that happens um
066in in every district, just depending on what the student interest is and what the teachers are certificated in. That really is the are the two markers. But it also happens at the elementary level. So we have three elementaries and this year we saw reduced enrollment than what we thought and so we created some combo classes at two of the elementaries and the those students are doing great. Uh someone else besides the finance guy can talk about it. Um but those students from what I've seen are are doing really well. But those are in real-time decisions we're making to respond to what's happening with enrollment. And so we're trying to respond on two ways. One, we need to be cognizant of what our staffing levels are and that they're appropriate with what we expect enrollment to
067be and we try to figure out different ways to increase our enrollment and offer services and high-quality instruction to students who are already living in our area. Great. >> Go ahead. >> When we're talking about the birth rate projections, is that a Washington as a whole projection or is that like specific to our region? >> This is full across Washington state. This is from the Department of Health, yeah. >> Okay, so then how do we figure that out for our own area? >> with Mason County Health. >> Okay, so cuz we're drilling down and Thurston County. I would imagine many babies are born in the Olympia area and that live here. So, yeah, I was just wondering a little bit about that. And then in the past you've also talked about I know that our
068staff has worked really hard to track down students that maybe have for whatever reasons. Um is that still actively going on as well too? So, if somebody feels like for whatever reason their health, their whatever their situation has changed that they are not able to do the schooling that they were doing is there is there some outreach to those students to keep them involved in any education program? >> Yes, there is yes and we are actually bolstering that to make sure that we're marketing the programs we do have um a little more clearly to to parents because we have um choice has a bunch of different offerings that are um that can meet a lot of students' needs. So, so does Cedar. Um and the online program and this new parent partnership program, the hope
069is it meets students wherever they're at. And so, what we want to do is make sure that as those parents have those discussions with the schools, they're equipped to have have some inquiry around what's going on within those students' lives and then partner with them to find a solution here in Shelton. >> And it maybe I'm getting into the weeds on this, but how how quickly do is that identified? So, say a student stops going to school and you know, obviously they're getting phone calls at home, but maybe those you know, things are happening where people just aren't catching that. How quickly is is that either student reached out to or their family reached out to >> Sure. >> for different >> So, this is my understanding and so just you can correct me if
070I'm wrong, but like at the high school level, level, if students are absent for for 3 days, there's calls home by the from the teachers. If students are gone for 20 days, they have to be dropped from our enrollment. So, there's another the registrar reaches out again to try to contact those families. So, we do put effort in contacting families for students who are no longer showing up. But, we are required by the state to after 20 days of them not being there past our count day, to remove them from our enrollment. Um So, but there is outreach. And what we really want to do is when those parents come in to say, "Hey, we're moving to an online program for X number of reasons," that we offer our programs that we have here. Um
071is really our really our goal. Go ahead. >> Yeah, that's um tracking it down sometimes when we know the student has left can be difficult. We we we do have a I mean, it it's over 50% of the time we don't know exactly where they go. So, we oftentimes don't know until we get a request for records from another place. It's been some of the things that I know we've presented to the board before what what has been compounded in this problem is like who how many kids is I'd say are just floating out there, right? And just trying to draw them back. I think it would also, you know, so we will reach out. We'll do outreach. If we get a call back, and then like again, we'll have to we we uh rely
072on records. Um the the some of the this conversation I just want to make sure I captured two two things. One is newcomer, which we didn't really get into. Um newcomers coming from other countries to the Shelton School District has been a significant increase in our enrollment over the over well over a decade. That has been cut off. That that is that is part of this number. And so, which leads me to the other part is we can we will have we will continue to offer on online or the ability to do homeschooling uh connections, partnerships, but that will be a limited return, and it will eventually tap us out. So, that'll only be good for our an effort for the next year or two, but in in reality, it's still less kids moving to
073Washington state, and in particular for Shelton. So, I don't want to I wouldn't want to leave this conversation if anybody's listening in here that there's going to be this false hope that there's going to be the continued ability to pull kids in somewhere else unless housing will help, which is we have also not talked about. That that will be one of the things, or if there is any China a change in immigration policy. Those would be more significant things given that this this trajectory line uh for birth rate is a solid trajectory line headed down. >> And that's kind of where I was going with my question to say uh surprises aren't great when it comes to to budgets, and and you know, we use those words reduction in staff, and and so those things
074catch our attention. But what we're saying is this is a trend across the state in terms of birth rate, which we don't have control over. and and so that is going to happen. And and this might be a conversation with all those things kind of in flux and for the next couple of years as we figure out what is the new normal, where is that trend going? We're going to see this probably every March or this conversation every March is what where I'm kind of headed. So that if we're listening in and we're tracking along, we get back here again you're like, oh I remember this from last year. Is that is that fair? >> I love the way you stated that, right? This is This is the way we have to study this because
075there are a lot of these variables are static. This enrollment and where kids are coming from, no one could have predicted some of this issue. Um, you know, birth rate's one thing, how many kids move and are moving to certain areas, housing is part of the challenge here for sure. Long long study problem. We're hoping it's part of our solution. Newcomer is also been again, like I said I have to emphasize that, huge part of why we've had an increase in our enrollment, the why we have our enrollment or again over 50% of our families at their homes, English is not the primary language. So I just want to just call that issue out for us that we will have to continue to track it and report on this more than we have in the
076past, which I think is where you're going like we're going to have to talk about this more each year. This will be kind of a new way of reporting as opposed to just budget, it's budget and enrollment and staffing. >> And so part of that reporting as you come back to us with that enrollment ties back to every time we lose so many students that that impacts a full-time employment and >> It it does and I think it's one of the things you said uh Director Dale, I think it's really important is we're not in control of the Washington State's birth rates. Um, we're not also we're not in control of the um United States' immigration policy. So one of the things I'm excited about is the one thing we are in control is is
077how we serve our home-based instruction students in Shelton School District. And so I I want to put my focus on what we can change. So, we will report on that cuz it is a real issue. It'll affect what our kindergarten numbers look like, and we will come back and report on that. But, I also want to put energy in the things that we can control and the areas that we we can serve our students here locally. So. What other questions do you have for me? I know this is a lot and a little bit a little bit different than normal. >> Yeah, I've got one and and it can be for both of you because it's kind of probably in the middle. On the the reduction of staff that you showed is the the two
078to five. >> Mhm. >> Over the years in that trend, even if we had all the money to replace all the HVAC and the roof and the windows and everything, >> Sure. >> because the number of students is going down statewide, is that still a trend that we're going to see is that reduction of staff? I know Bellingham School District just closed an entire building um because they can't fill it. You know, so it it's a better use of funds, better use of space, better use of everything to just spread those students out. Is that something that we're looking at here? >> Um this is a multi like all the actually multi-faceted, right? If we are coming out of that negative fund balance, we're in the uh nascent stages of a three-year plan. Um it
079wouldn't if we had an $8 million fund balance, we could behave a little differently when enrollment contracts for a year. We can kind of wait and see what that looks like. When we have when we're just eking out into a positive $1.5 million fund balance, we have to we have to react to differently and respond to it differently. So, I want to be clear like if we had all the money in the world, we would be responding differently, I guess. Um and we do have a lot of needs across the system and our priority is in high-quality instruction and meeting the needs of students. >> Okay. No, thank you. That's a good answer. >> Yeah. And if anyone has all the money in the world and wants to I'm just Any other questions for me?
080>> Okay. No, thank you. >> Great. Thank you. >> All right, guys on the end. Time to wake back up here. Our report from the student uh school board representatives will start with Alan Ramirez. >> Well, I don't know if all of this is quite as fun as talking about budgets, but I do have some updates. Uh I just wanted uh since I wasn't here last time, I do want to just say thanks again for to the community of Shelton just for passing the levy. How many years has it been now that the levy has been passed in a row? About 25? >> At least as far back as I can find. >> Yeah, so it's been going going on for a while and I think it's just really important that tradition is, you know,
081maintained in that sort of uh regard. Uh speaking uh about that, um our High School and Beyond presentations were, I guess, presented last Friday. And, you know, not to toot the horn of my senior class, but I do think the ones of this year were the best in all of Cedar's history. Hopefully improved in the future. And I see a lot of promise uh within those uh new students. We also had a little celebration afterwards. Just the seniors celebrating with the with our advisor, LuAnn. We had a fun time. Uh we're just kind of at end of the second trimester, tidying up projects, finishing our little psychology sort of fair thing that we have going on. Um uh human anatomy class is wrapping up, learning about the digestive system. Pretty interesting. And ASB is now
082really going into we're sort of sort of not really getting into the rhythm of things. We're happy going planning the spring dance. And I think this year is going to be real special. As well as we're planning uh to have a car wash in April. So, be on the lookout for that. Uh get get your cars dirty with Paul and we need to test out these We need to test out all the students. Uh senior club is also uh right now we're planning a massive community event that's going to be happening in during the spring. As well as sort of trying to uh plan out a few senior trips, which we're we'll hopefully get to get to do. And Envirothon is set to compete in April, which is where we will be competing in the
083regionals. And I have a feeling we'll uh we will once again uh reach the state level. So, yeah. A lot of fun stuff coming up. >> Very good. Abigail. >> Hello. Our middle school has been finishing up their dinosaur projects in science. They've been learning about artists and making art, and they've been doing mock trials about civil Supreme Court, I mean. We're going to have a plant sale on May 8th, 9th, and 10th. Hope to see you all there. The seniors have been finishing their beyond plans. Open doors is finishing strong and meeting their goals, and taking the ASVAB test. Pathways getting ready for their end of the year volunteers. They are reviewing for jobs. >> Nice. Thank you. And Sophia Todd. >> Last week, spring sports started, and over the weekend our Shelton dance
084team traveled to Vancouver to compete in districts. They placed in palm or know if they placed in palm, but they had district or state qualifying score scores and they were state champions for their military routine. Uh state will be March 28th in Yakima. Also over the weekend uh the cheer fundraiser Tolo had a great turnout and as I said earlier that Thespians and which is theater and Andrew R. T. C. are going to state. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. It was all good stuff. Okay, on to item number seven, the consent agenda. Has everybody had a chance to look at that? I would take a motion. >> I motion to approve this evening's consent agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor. >> Aye. >> Okay. Item number eight, discussion and action
085items, proposed revised policy number 2020, repeat the selection and adaptation of instru- instructional materials. >> Good evening uh Board President Wielander, members of the board, Superintendent Jessie. We are here tonight to talk about the proposed revisions for policy 2020, selection and adoption of instructional materials. This policy was last updated in 2017, so there was a number of um updates and changes that we needed to make. Um first, like all of our other policies that we update, we align it to um current laws and policies. Uh for example, we embedded language aligned to an an RCW to make sure that our curriculum is free from bias and representative of diverse perspectives and populations. Uh we also noted that the policy had some really confusing language as it's written right now, and so we really tried to
086simplify and clarify um to make sure that this was clear. Um Instructional materials was listed in five different ways in the current policy and so we clarified that down to just two terms where we're talking about core materials and supplemental. And then the other thing is we just um we're increasing transparency in the way that this is written and giving more opportunity for parents and families to be involved. And so those are some of the reasons why this policy needed to be updated. >> Good evening. So I'll just share a couple of the updates that we did make in summary form. One of the ones was that we identified that updates our curriculum adoptions needed to align to state standards and state law as well as our curricular approach under the strategic plan. So that
087just makes sure that we have alignment across our materials and and the instruction and learning that's happening in our schools. We also made an update of course the policy included review and adoption but didn't have clear um language about discontinuing adoption of curriculum which is important right as you might imagine sometimes you get outdated curriculum that you don't want to have um as part of your programming anymore. So that also is written into this policy now. We maintained a process but added some clarity for addressing complaints regarding materials from parents and guardians of enrolled students. So um wanted to include that in there. And then also added some updates about IMC structures uh, would uh, make sure that we do have the representation, um, that Mrs. Brady was talking about. Uh, with appointing members that
088represent the staff who'll be implementing the materials in their classrooms, um, as well as families who represent, um, their diverse interests, um, and so we'd want to both make sure that that committee, uh, had some instructional expertise on the, um, uh, materials being adopted, um, and then also it was just representing our diverse student populations. So, with that, I think we'll open it up to any questions from the board for either one of us. >> It looks like this is all completely fresh language. I didn't see the normal like little bit of scribbled out area and then the then the new, so it's like 100% rewritten. >> Most it just seemed clearer because it was kind of like we went over it with such a fine-tooth comb because it is an important policy to have,
089I think the might there might be some instances in which like this word was should still be the original black, but then this one is red, and then this one is black, and these two are red, and this one is black. It just seemed more transparent, I guess, to just say we started here, but really with review of the law and also did review of other districts' policies, we looked at actually quite a few across the state. So, um, with all of those changes just seemed clearer to do it this way. >> Anybody else have any questions? Yeah, I didn't I look at it again next month and get you a policy. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> With one week less left to go, our legislative update. >> Yes, good evening. Um March 6th was
090the opposite house cut off, meaning bills that did not advance from their second chamber are no longer active this session. Legislative focus is largely shifted to finalizing the operating budget and potential revenue proposals, including the proposed millionaire's tax. Under the most recent proposal, um the most recent amendments, a portion of revenues would support early learning and child care programs through the Fair Start for the Kids Act, uh expand the Working Families Tax Credit, and exempt public schools and educational service districts from certain sales tax on services. Uh with Sine Die scheduled for March 12th, marking the planned adjournment of the legislative session, the legislature will finalize the budget and any accompanying revenue proposals in the coming days. At that point, we should have a clearer picture of potential increases or reductions affecting education funding. Uh
091key education funding issues still being negotiated this week include um Uh we went over them last week, too, or last meeting. Uh local effort assistance. Both House and Senate budget proposals reduce uh local effort assistance funding below the level anticipated when the levy lid was raised last session. The Senate proposal reduces local effort assistance to approximately $150 per pupil, while the House proposal reduced it to about $300 per pupil per pupil, raising concerns about impacts to property poor districts. Uh trans- Okay, transition to kindergarten. Uh both budgets reduce funding for transition to kindergarten programs. The Senate proposal funds roughly 5,061 slots, while the house is sitting at 5450. Uh both below current programmatic levels. And then school bus depreciation funding, uh both proposals reduce transportation depreciation funding by extending bus replacement schedules from 8 to
09210 years for category A buses and from 13 to 15 years for category C and D, and by excluding bus purchase buses purchased with federal grants or rebates from depreciation reimbursement calculations. So for education bills that did pass through uh both houses beyond the cutoff, I have a few to update on. We have a house bill 1634 special education funding and services. Uh makes several changes to special education funding and service delivery. Uh the bill increases support for students receiving special education, adjust funding provisions, and aims to reduce administrative barriers so districts can better provide services aligned with student needs. House bill 1295 special education inclusionary practices promotes greater access to special education services and strengthens guidance for inclusive practices in public schools. House bill 2594 student rights and school safety policies that updates requirements
093related to student rights and school safety policies, clarifying district responsibilities for student conduct procedures and policy implementation. House bill 1795 restraint and isolation further restricts the use of restraint and isolation schools, including prohibiting isolation rooms as planned behavioral supports. There were several other on there several others on there, but they're not things we practice in our districts. Um Senate Bill 5346, student mobile device use. Uh this one directs OSPI to compile research and best practices on student mobile devices use and report it to the legislature. One thing I want to highlight about several of these is as we've seen in the current policy updates we've been going through, we're ahead on a lot of these. So, we're we're modeling the best practices that they're looking to put forward. Uh we have Senate Bill 5969, uh
094the high school and beyond plan and IEP alignment. This allows students IEP transition plans to satisfy high school and beyond plan requirements and directs integration of the statewide IEP and high school and beyond plan plan platforms. And then the last one I have here is Senate Bill 6065, school bus transportation funding. Updates transportation vehicle funding rules allowing districts greater flexibility in purchasing and replacing school buses. So, education bills did pass, but they didn't bring any money. They brought some rules. But, uh still holding out on the budget and possibilities of other revenue sources from the uh millionaires tax. Thank you. >> And Lauren, I heard that the the sales tax one did crash and burn. >> Uh the millionaires tax? >> No, the the sales tax. Schools don't pay sales tax. That was one of
095the ones you were talking about. >> Oh, that one didn't make it in the amendments? >> It did. Yeah. >> Cuz that would be just running last year's budget numbers. That would be an additional 1. Or 1,083,000 for us just in not paying sales tax. >> Did I say it wrong when I was nervous? So, at the My understanding of the millionaires tax amendments right now is that the Fair Start for Kids Act, the Working Families Tax Credit, and the um the educational service district exemption on sales taxes stand. >> They are still Okay, cool. >> Yes, but there were 60 amendments the other day that they were trying to talk through in one day. So, Yeah. >> Okay, thank you. Yeah, the sales tax is a big one. All right. On to board member
096comments, and we'll start at the end, Mr. Wolford. >> Uh I just want to bring in There was all gone now, but those first graders over here did uh such a wonderful job, and that little guy wearing a suit, he he looks better in a suit than I do. He Uh congratulations again to all of our uh kids that placed at state. Uh fantastic work there, and and I especially want to give a thanks to the coaches. I I the the long hours, the long nights, the headaches, you know, the the battles with the kids back and forth. I know how hard that is and all that extra effort that it takes to put in to be a great coach. So, thank you, coaches. And then uh recogni- recognition of the classified staff, you know,
097I worked here as a classified employee, and my father was here for his whole career, so that's where my heart is for a lot of the people here. We see you. I still know a lot of you, and thank you very much. >> Director Dale. >> Yeah, I'm going to say a very similar things. Thank you to the first grade teachers and students. Um thank you to Mr. Herron presenting the information about our facilities. That was really thorough, and it keeps us informed. Nobody wants to replace roofs, but we we do need to know what's coming down the road, and so I really appreciate that information. Um Clinton as always getting into that budget and appreciate the thoroughness and I I've said this a lot, but if you have questions, ask him. He likes to
098talk about it. Email him. He gets back to you right away. Ask one of us. We try to have some of the information and we'll walk you over to him. And so, we we shouldn't as a community not know how our schools are funded. We are putting that information out there over and over and so, appreciate that. >> It was a great seeing all the families and students here tonight. Really appreciate the shout-outs for athletics. We have a really great community here and it's um nice to see everybody coming together beyond the lobby. Um yeah. >> I'll keep it short, too. It's a lot of the same things. It is the best part having the students here. Seeing the first graders and my favorite season is definitely spring. So, I I related to two of
099the little gals that talked about spring being their favorite. So, um loved that. Really appreciated seeing the coaches and the athletes and them taking the time to come here. I know not all of them can. That's the other thing is, you know, good luck to all of the students going through finals week this week and their teachers. Many of the coaches up there are teachers and so, that's, you know, a reminder of how much time and investment our teachers put into our students and our students investing their time as well as their time with athletics. And also to you, I still can't I mean, top five in the state for wrestling is a pretty amazing accomplishment, Sophia. So, it's wonderful to see you up there as well. Again, getting recognized for that. Um thank you
100to the classified staff. Tabitha, I really appreciated what you wrote. I thought that really hit the mark in a lot of ways and it is all of those pictures, all of those people, they make up the community of our school and our school is such the heart of our community. Um I just don't think that any of us can thank every aspect of our schools enough and especially right now to recognize our classified staff. Um Clinton, very much appreciate your budget report and we all laugh that you get a lot of questions, but thank you for being approachable and willing to take whatever question comes your way and really give people the time um to better understand the complexities of school finance. Um it's there's just a lot that goes into it. And Robert, thank
101you very much for the maintenance report. That's something that weighs on my mind all of the time. Our buildings are aging and these things do cost money and we're not just full of cash and you can't just bus in kids from wherever to you know, fill things up and I mean, it's schools are a a funny thing and it is very complex with the finance and how we balance this out. So we appreciate everybody coming together as a community to listen and help better plan and see um you know, just how to work on all of this. But again, good luck with finals this week for anybody that has those and that's it. >> Okay. Um thank you to everybody who's already been thanked. Uh and the the wrestlers and swimmers and all that are
102having kids that have been in all these sports. It's really cool to see some of these kids that I watched as um kindergarten, first, second graders uh are now, you know, placing in state. That was pretty cool. Um I got to go out to Evergreen today and um saw some cool stuff. Uh they're doing such neat things. I I'm in a classroom and the teacher is signing to the students because one kid needs it and the students are signing to each other and they're signing to the kid and here's a kid who can't hear anything and he's included 100%. That was cool. Um, so Go Thespians, go ROTC as you head off to to do neat things. Our sports have having academic state champions. Um folks we're on the right path. We're we're going the
103right direction. Lastly, it is finals week. Um, and I'm going to I'm going to give you some advice that's based on a study. I don't remember where I read it and I don't remember how long it was or how long ago it was, but a Snickers bar 2 hours before your test statistically will improve your outcomes. Um, again, I don't know where it came from, but I I used it and I did well. So here we are. Um, with that What? It's not don't eat them for lunch, eat them before a test. Um, okay, with that we do have an executive session and an exempt session. Um An hour at least and we will come back to adjourn. So, unless you want to watch us adjourn now's a good time.