001Okay, it's 1800. Correction, it's 6 PM and tonight we will start the uh board meeting with the presentation of the color by the NJOTC and the pledge of allegiance will be led this evening by Lieutenant Colonel Harwell. >> Ladies and gentlemen, please stand. At this time, please remove your hats for the entrance of our national colors and remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. The colors tonight are being presented by Cadet Lieutenant Commander Logan McCaslin, Cadet Enson Sierra Quitese, Cadet Petty Officer Secondass Josiah Allejo, and Cadet Petty Officer Third Class Ral Morales Kamacho from the Shelton High School Navy JOTC. Navy JOTC is a full credit career and technical education elective course that places heavy emphasis on the development of leadership, self-discipline, honor, and integrity. Please continue to stand and remain silent until the colors
002are retired. Ladies and gentlemen, our 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. Ready up. Ready. Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. Okay. Has everybody had a chance to look at the agenda? >> Yes. I move that we approve tonight's agenda. I second the motion. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay, we have an agenda. With that, I'll turn it back over to Lieutenant Colonel Harwell and the Shelton High School NJOTC. >> Well, good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Is my uh is my mic working? I've got a red dot on here. Um, as you've just seen, uh, some of the finest that our community has to offer,
003our JROTC cadets at Shelton High School. I'm not going to spend a lot of time talking to you. Um, they are quickly changing over at this moment so they can come back in, do another uh, small routine for you and talk a little bit about the JOTC program uh, pretty much from their heart, their perspective. So, um, I'm going to grab them. You've already heard that JRTC is a full credit elective course, uh, part of CTE program, but in addition, we do have extracurricular activities. One of those, the biggest of which is our, uh, competition drill team. We uh participate, the cadetses participate in four regulation drill meets per year with an additional regionals which is basically all of Western Washington, 26 schools they go up against. Um and just for a plug for one
004that we are going to host here at the high school on the 7th of February. Doors open at 08 and our award ceremony should be running around 1600 or 400 p.m. for civilians. Uh with that I am going to uh or the cadetses as you were the cadetses are going to provide you a taste of part of our drill competition. >> [applause] [applause] >> Great job, cadetses. Go ahead and stay here. you don't have to put on your Sunday best again. Um, again, I'm Lieutenant Colonel Brian Harwell for those I haven't met. I'm the senior naval science instructor at Shelton High School. I'm not going to spend a lot time talking. I have brought our cadet command triad here to the school to talk to you a little bit about the JRTC program, kind of
005what we are, uh, why they joined, and more importantly, why they stayed, what they like about the program, what it does for them. I'm going to turn it over to Cadet Lieutenant Commander Logan Mccaslin here, our company CEO. >> Good evening, guys. Once again, my name is Lieutenant Commander Logan Mccaslin. I am I've been in the unit for four years now. I'm a senior at the high school. Why I joined is honestly just because I thought it was cool. The uniforms look good and my brother was previously in it and I I've went to drill meets before. Why I stayed is honestly just the family I've gathered in it. Just the friends that we I've made, the people I've made just at different schools, going to competitions, just being able to go out there and
006compete against other schools is just cool to us. So, I want to pass it on to cadet senior chief or cadet, sorry about that, cadet enson Bailey Milman, but I want to say before the original point of this unit is mostly just to have fun and like gather friends, go to meets just honestly just to instill discipline. One of the things I've gotten from it is mostly just the attention to detail like you saw on all of our uniforms, just the precision and just the measurements of the ribbons, the different measurements of all the metals, just overall just all the leadership you learned. I used to be one of the trouble kids, I guess you could say, by freshman year. And honestly, I wouldn't change a thing by joining. It helped me just honestly build
007my resume and honestly everything. So, I'm gonna pass it on to Kat Milman now. Hi everybody. I'm cadet Lieutenant Junior Grade Bailey Milman. I am our executive officer of our climber company. I joined mainly because I had a friend when I was younger who talked about ROC and her brother being in it and talked about how you could earn medals and drill meets and I thought it was pretty cool so I joined. Why I stayed was I ended up finding really good friends in our unit and it felt like a family and I learned a lot of good skills like being a leader, being more outspoken, talking to you guys. A few years ago, I wouldn't have done this. So, it's major progress for me. I've also learned how to build more better time management
008skills, like waking up super early in the morning and putting my uniform together. That is not an easy thing. Sorry. Uh, I also really loved how in our unit we could be able to communicate with each other on a day-to-day basis and make new friends and have people come in and hang out with us without feeling like they couldn't hang out with us at all. And we have a safe space to talk to people. That's all. I'm going to hand it off to our senior chief Hello everybody. I am Senior Chief Pett Petty Officer Alex Sherman. I've been in this unit for a really long time. Everybody in this unit has been very amazing and this has been my second family for five years. Ever since my eighth grade, they've been my brothers and sisters
009ever since. They've helped me get disciplined, treat everybody right, and just like have fun. We always have fun every day, all day. Waking up really early in the morning, putting everything together, making it right and perfect to show everybody else that putting a uniform together is important. especially for like a job uh for an interview, it's important to get all of that right. That helps you get all of it together and perfect. Okay, so I want to touch up on a couple more things. One thing that really just like instilled discipline and leadership in me is the drill team. So the drill team consists of there's an unarmed drill team, an armed drill team which has rifles, and then there's all sorts of duels. There's color guard duels like us that we just did and
010then there's another unarmed duels. So that's just basically clapping your hands together doing some cool stuff I guess spins and all that. It's just overall it just instills discipline. It teaches you that no matter what that there's always going to be people behind you waiting for you, congratulating you, supporting you, and most importantly it's just another family away from home. like he said is truly one of the best things that I could have joined is drill just instilling the discipline teaching me leadership and just all the different things that honestly it just does thank you cadetses uh Superintendent Jesse members of the board I want to thank you very much for having us out tonight and uh being able to share a little bit of our stories cadetses, families, um members of the community, we
011do really appreciate from the bottom of our hearts all of your attention uh and your support uh because without you, well, we're just a bunch of kids running around in uniforms that don't know what they're doing. So, thank you very much. [applause] Thank you. Okay, that was great. Um, moving on now to the superintendent report with Mr. Jesse. >> Thank you, board president Wheelander, other board directors, student representatives, students, family members, community members, and staff. Uh first uh I think NJOTC already left but they did a great performance. Um you know for our district we have three things we're always trying to do. Inspire, empower, and challenge. And today uh just the words that uh come from our cadetses and um just their performance. You can really hear how that's just one if you're not
012inspired. Um let's have another conversation. That's that's great. But you can also tell by the many programs that we offer including NJRTC which has about a hundred of our students in it. That's also empowering a lot of youth to provide discipline, understand teamwork, what it's like to be family. And then I I love the notion of attention to detail. You know, you don't hear too many teenagers uh say these days like I I I look forward to getting up early and putting together my outfit. Um so that was uh pretty cool for sure. Um uh another uh activity that we have at um SHS is the thesbians troop 831. It is the first year to my understanding of having this thesian troop. They have just performed in a regional competition with 600 other students and
013five uh Shelton High School students not only uh piloted this this first u international thesbian society competition but they have many winners. So we have national qualifiers underneath acting monologue for Elliot Moy. Um music theater performance duet which was it within fine I don't know exactly what that is. Uh Trin uh Trinity Shu Shoot and Elliot Moy and then state honores for excellent scores include uh Marian Gardner, Emma Ray Simpson and um Maron Gardner and Juniper Summers. So congratulations so much to them. Um not easy. 600 students and you're already placing um some going to nationals and also state honore. So just really cool things um that definitely goes on the heels. Last week we had a roundt uh presentation at Shelton High School. This year uh we decided to have these roundt events where
014um usually a board director, the principal, a uh certificated educator um and myself get re uh interviewed by Jeff Slaky for from K Mass for about an hour. Uh it's these events are really to start to pull back the curtain is what I like to say about what we're doing here in public education. And I think so much um is relied upon uh around either someone else's experience in in public education or what's posted on uh social media or just put out there in the media in general. There's a lot of really great things going on. I that we do now that is so different than what it is that um many of us went when we went to high school. And SHS has a lot going on. It has transformed and over my five
015years here uh really is amazing. I I I cannot accentuate all the things. So many different clubs and activities. And what I think the major shift that I would want anybody to really understand is there's a difference between having a club and an activity that where kids just show up to ones where they are studentled. And that is what exactly has happened over the last 5 years. Whether that is the football team, the girls basketball team, wrestling, the thesbian society, CT programs, NJOTC, it goes, it goes on, you know, skills competition US. So that that is exactly what has happened. Um, I'm very proud of the staff at SHS. I'm very proud obviously the students and I really want to thank the families so much. More of these kind of roundt events will continue. It
016is a way that we can engage back and forth. there's questions. Hey, I wonder I wonder about this topic. Like what do you do in these situations? I love those. Um and then that way you have staff uh right there to answer them for you specific to each of our schools. This uh month is uh National School Board Appreciation uh month. So, I I would first start off uh we have some gifts here with a Shelton success sticker on it and some chocolates for each of the board directors. Uh so, thank you uh Director Wheeler for helping pass them down. Um uh folks, these are volunteers. These are people who choose to serve their community in a way that is very unique. Uh it's an elected position that you work for free and that you
017come and uh sometimes it can be heated. It's and sometimes you also have to make tough decisions and I think that today for me that's the highlight of what this school board has chosen to do. It is eight years running. This is a board of distinction. They are recognized by the state as performing outstanding service for the Shelton community. And what that is really means is that they are very disciplined by putting students first, following a strategic plan, and ensuring our resources align to getting outcomes for our students. That's why we are number one in the state for early literacy growth. We've had a 77% decrease in suspensions. Ninth grade on track is up. Our graduation is up. Um, and so those are things I think are proud. We have plenty of work to do.
018This is public education. There are always going to be issues that go on, but to get up here and say, "I'm going to spend every other Tuesday, get emails multiple times all the way through the each week, um, to continue to educate yourself about how school districts run and all the laws that are required, we are required to follow. Um, I just want to say thank you so much. I appreciate it. I know many other people do appreciate it. Sometimes it's underappreciated, but today I hope you feel that you are providing a special service here for the Shelton community. So, thank you >> and enjoy your chocolates. >> Next week is National School Counselor Week. Uh so since we [clears throat] do not have a school board meeting next week, I thought I would take
019this opportunity to uh recognize our school counselors. what a vital part of the district. Um we are very fortunate this particular district to have counselors at each of our our school sites. Um not that is not always true in this day and age. There is not always the funding that is provided for a full-time school counselor. Um we are we have an an amazing group of of professionals ready to um address the whole child as I like to say at each of the schools. um countless um meetings that they attend. They provide a lot of behav behavioral health to our students and they also do a tremendous amount connecting with our families. So, if anybody's listening and you're like, whoa, I I have this issue. I've I would like to try to make a a
020different kind of connection with the school or I have some some concerns about my student. A counselor is a great place to start. That that person, I I guarantee you, cares very much for your student. I'm sure our student representatives have their own stories for when a school counselor reached in and supported them. Um, and so I just wanted to make a special recognition also for our school counselors and and celebrate them next week. Moving on to our student reps. Uh, I would like to first say thank you to Nvea. She was the representative for Shelton High School. um and um she has moved on uh this school year but to be replaced by Sophia Todd. Thank you so much Sophia. Welcome. [applause] I know there's a lot of SHs people out there in the
021crowd. Uh we definitely I've heard a lot of really great things. You are definitely a leader. Um you pro participate in a number of activities as well. Um and so thank you. Thank you for being here and and looking forward to having you. Uh there uh my last comment is if you didn't know there is an educational programs and operations levy on the ballot. It that ballot is um going to be ultimately tabulated on February 10th. But if you have a ballot in your hand, please try to get that in by February 3rd. They do need to be postmarked. So, if you are interested in sele uh submitting a ballot, just make sure again that you put it in the mail by February 3rd to guarantee it with the postmark by February 10th. So, with
022that, thank you so much. Thank you. Moving on to community comments. We do not have anybody on the list. Uh is there anybody online? Okay, we're going to go ahead and move right on to item number six, reports and recognition 6.01, the student athlete speeches. And we've got, don't hit me if I get your name wrong, Alberto Mansza, JJ Rhodess, Abby Faula, Madison Lommire, Trac Bartholomew. You can pick your own order. Did I just read to you guys? Oh, okay. >> Hello everyone. My name is Madison Lommy. I am a senior at Shelton High School. I have been a varsity member of cross country and track and field all four years of high school. I was the captain of cross country my junior and senior year. Throughout my experience in these programs, I have given
023many opportunities to learn and grow as a person. I can easily say I would not be who I am today without participating in these programs. As someone who has always naturally filled the role of a leader, participating in sports at Sheldon High School allowed me lots of opportunities to be a leader. Being a teammate allowed me to celebrate success, encourage others, and create a positive environment where everyone on our team felt they belonged. By working hard myself, I led by example, showing others that if they too work hard, their goals and success will come. Inspiring others to find a love for sports and the things they can achieve. Throughout participating sports, I have learned you will always experience bumps in the road. While falling short of goals or getting injured is never fun, sometimes it's
024just a part of life. Through participating in these programs at Shelton High School, I was given a supportive environment where I was able to hit a bump in the road, but I was always able to learn from them. Through the support of my teammates and coaches, I would always come back even stronger. I have been able to prove to myself that I can do hard things, developing a mindset that allows me to believe in myself and know I can achieve big goals. My entire life, I have always been a hard worker. Participating in short sports at Shelton High School only grew my work ethic. I always work hard and show up on the days that I'm not feeling it because success does come from hard work. And as I mentioned earlier, by showing up, I
025encourage others to do the same. When everyone shows up, we can lift each lift and encourage each other on good and bad days. I could continue to go on about the great things that sports have done for me, but you may be here a very long time. I participating in sports has truly helped me build skills not only essential for being an athlete but required for life. I have met some of my best friends and people who make my life better and inspire me every day. I am proud to say that by participating in sports at Shelton High School, it has encouraged and gave me the confidence to compete on the next level. I thank Shelton High School sports and the opportunities and people presented to them for helping me be who I am today.
026Thank you. [applause] Hello, good afternoon. Uh, first and foremost, I wanted to thank you guys for being here and dedicating your time. And just want to start off by saying that uh Sheldon High School sports have uh given me a lot. Not only allowing me to go further and pushing myself every single day, but just allowing myself to be around a lot of people that I wouldn't find myself with in normal situations. Like a lot of my teammates, I would have never known like they're my best friends if I if I didn't do sports. And especially on the bad days of sports, I find myself going forward and not giving up, especially when it's hard, even when you're sick, even when you don't want to go. You know, my supporting coaches have always told me
027to put my work boots on and put my hard hat on. So, I always appreciate my coaches for pushing me, giving me uh the extra mile, and I really appreciate all the support that I've gotten at Shelton High School athletics because they've taught me so much discipline and instilled so many core values that have made me into the person I am today. And once again, I just wanted to thank you guys so much for allowing me to be up here today. And I hope you guys have a good rest of your night. [applause] >> Um, I'm JJ Rhodess. I'm a multisport varsity athlete. I was a captain of a football team. And one thing I learned from sports is it push it pushes me past my limits. It's not just physically, but mentally too. In
028the classroom, it really makes me work harder. It makes me a competitive student, and it just pushes me in the classroom a lot. I don't like settling with B's and C's. I want to push for a 4.0 GPA. It makes my goals higher and it really just makes me want to be a better person. And I like the people I'm surrounded by. I can call them my brothers confidently. I think whatever I would do they would do for me too. So they would go through any amount of pain for me and I would go through the same for them. And in the classroom it really just pushes me because the discipline I worked also like just helps with school work in a way. It's like I have to get it done if I want to
029be a great person. If I want to succeed succeed I have to do the work. There's no easy way around it. It's to embrace the suck and you really have to just push through it. Uh, I want to thank the school board for letting me talk. Thank you guys. [applause] Hello everyone. Oh, I didn't realize I was that short. Sorry. My name is Abby Fola and I'm one of many student multiathletes at Shelton High School. And I can confidently say that the sports I've played have given me a strong sense of family and community that I wouldn't have without the Levy. Volleyball has not only given me a family, but it has also taught me dedication, discipline, and strong work ethic that I carry with me throughout my whole entire life. I can speak on
030behalf of all athletes when I say that through sports and activities, we learn accountability and constantly push ourselves to achieve better outcomes. We experience both the highs and the lows and through it all our community becomes more united. These lessons and connections stay with us for a lifetime. The levy doesn't just support athletics. It also contributes to special education and every student deserves the right to learn in a way that works best for them. No one should have that opportunity taken away from them. The truth is is that the levy gives students incredible opportunities to build character and grow. Every student should have the chance to participate in any sport that they want just like we have access to our education. Seeing students advocate for free activities and show um throughout on the sidewalks throughout
031the town shows us how important it is to us. No student should have to go home stressed about how they should stress about how they will afford to be included. And no parent should have to go home stressed about worrying stressed over money in order to have their child included. I've seen many communities where levy failures hurt students, families, and special education programs. Don't let political indifferences stand in the way of future of the futures of thousands of students, teachers, and athletes. Thank you so much for taking your time to listen to me. >> [applause] >> Hi. Oh, can you hear me? Okay, good. Uh, I'm Lillian Lake and I was asked to speak for the swim team. What is a community? The Marryiam Webster dictionary will tell you that it is at its most
032basic terminology a unified body of individuals. They can be unified by common interests, history, or even just the area they live in. In a more abstract sense, community represents a feeling of connection, belonging, and fellowship. In our school district, there is a very special community that I and many others are a part of. It is a community that encourages its members to lift one another up and worked hard even when surrender is most tempting. It's a community that has for a long time been known to be home to students who are dedicated in their academics producing several valictorians over the years. The community I speak of is the swim community. Um, and when I first came to Shelton High School my freshman year, I came from a very small Christian school. So, it was a
033very big culture shock. And I didn't really have any friends or anywhere to eat. I didn't know anybody. And well, two weeks earlier, I had started swimming. And that's where I made most of my friends and where I developed that sense of community. And the interesting thing about swimming, the swim program, is that it's not just about community and friends and working hard. It represents swimming. And in our community, uh, Shelton, there's a lot of generational poverty. And from that comes a lot of people who don't know how to swim and living in a bubble my whole life being cuz before I came here I had been doing competitive swimming. So I had never known a world where people don't know how to swim. So when I came here and I joined other activities and
034other sports and other clubs, I met people who didn't know how to swim at all and were terrified of the water, like seniors in high school and adults. And that was weird to me because swimming isn't just something you do for fun. It's a life skill that could determine whether you live or die. And so when you have the swim team, you have people going into these high school PE classes, right? And they're going to we learn better from our peers. So when we're there in the classes with our peers and you see these high school swimmers who are on the swim team swimming really well, you learn from their examples. You work hard with them. You learn and maybe even join the swim team yourself. And from these swimmers comes people like lifeguards and
035swimming instructors who teach the younger generations who teach the little kids. Um those are the ones you got to really worried about around the water. And um so this is a community that is really important in more than just the high school but in the area we live in. So thank you guys so much for your time. >> [applause] >> My name is Logan Jacob and I'm a part of the boys swim team for Shelton High. And I'd also like to first and foremost thank you all for listening to us and taking the time to uh let it let us hear our voices and our opinions being I I've been on this Shelton swim team for three years now. I'm a senior and team captain alongside my buddy Towan who's been on it for the
036longest out of all of us. And there's something I've realized upon being on the team. It it's not just a bunch of people and it's not just a simple community all striving to be the same thing or having a simple same goal. We all learn from each other's experiences and the same experiences as well. And it's what has made us not only just a team, but more than just a community and a bunch of friends, almost a second family to each other. We I love the guys and I know the guys love the sport. even with our hardships and complications. It it not only allows us to be able to develop a new relationship and learn new people, but it also allowed us to find fellowship among one another. And I believe it allowed us
037to find our community, our clique, if you will. When I first came to Shelton High, I was surrounded by the same people I had known for a couple years, and they weren't exactly good people, per se. And I didn't want that. So, my sophomore year when I joined swim, I'd realized I found the people that I wanted to be surrounded by. And even as I've grown older and seen people join, I now even see myself in some of the first years ambitious and maybe nervous, excited to be able to see where they can expand themselves and find their own person like I had found myself. That's what I think of swim. And I do believe it not only just shapes community, but it also shapes new family and a new culture for the school. Thank
038you for your time. [applause] Thank you guys. That was great. Okay. 6.02 report on self and welcoming schools. Dusty Trickle and Chelsea Brady. >> All right, that is hard to follow. That was amazing. That was really cool. Uh, good evening, board president, members of the board. Uh, Superintendent Jesse, as you mentioned, uh, Dusty Trickle and I um are here to present an update on safe and welcoming schools, which is one of our priority areas in our strategic plan. Um, we know that safe and welcoming schools are the foundation for learning. We also know that um, this was a key part of our strategic plan and I'm sure during our focus groups and as um, Wyth and others uh, gathered feedback from our community and from our staff. Hearing about behavior in our schools, it was
039clear that we had a lot of work to do. Um, coming from someone who has been in our district for a very long time, I know that I was one of those people and we were overly reliant on punishment and suspensions. Um, you can see that in our data and we know that while in the moment sending a problem away um can feel like a solution, long-term it negatively impacts not only the students but our community. students that have been suspended are more likely to drop out, to be involved in the court system, um, and frankly become your neighbor in the community, still engaging in the same behaviors that created the issue in the first place in schools. So, as a community member and a longtime staff member, I was really excited about this work.
040Um, it is also not easy work. This is complex and this is ongoing work, but we are excited to to share some celebrations. um because again students learn best when they feel safe, connected and supported. So as we entered into this work and uh put together the strategic plan, we really started at that district level to vision out what actions we needed to have. Um and some of that work is around creating systems in our schools. It was actually really neat to listen to all of our schools pres present their school improvement plan and you heard many of them in fact I think all of them talk about MTSS multi-tered system of support and that's getting the right interventions and supports in place for students when they need it. Um also around PBIS all the
041all the acronyms but positive behavior interventions and support. So how do we set up our schools in a way that creates positive behavior supports students when they need it? Um, we also have done a lot of work around alignment and so all of our schools were doing different things and so one behavior in one space had one outcome and in another space something different. It's really hard on our families, also hard on students and staff. So we've done a lot of work over the last couple years on aligning our discipline procedures and practices. Um, and then we've done a lot of training for different groups of staff. Um, board president Welander actually today got to drop into a training that Dusty and I were doing for our assistant principles. Uh, the topic of course was
042behavior and how do we respond to students in different situations and how do we work with staff members when a student has had a challenging behavior. Um, so it is ongoing work. We have uh we've worked with teachers, classified staff members, principles um and provided a lot of training. Some of those things you now hear different folks talk about structures and routines. How do we really use student story strength and need um and so that has become common language now across our schools which is really great. Uh we have also worked to expand our student supports and so um really training up our counselors on how they provide services to students. We've been very lucky to partner with True North and have um expanded mental health supports and and other other supports in our schools.
043So what does this really look like in a building? Um so that tiered approach to behavior management looks like this. When you have strong tier one structures in place, and this lists some of them out, but your classrooms have strong structures and routines, you have common behavior expectations, which when you walk through our buildings, you can see those now posted on the walls. Those are being actively taught to students, rettaught to them throughout the year, celebrating students when they're meeting those expectations. When you have really strong tier one in place, 80% of your students can meet expectation. We will always have about 20% of students that need more support. So that is true across schools. When I was first looking at this, I was going to say that's true in any public school, public school,
044private school. This is true in any school space, right? As students are learning and growing, there is always going to be some behavior that happens. Um, and if we have strong systems in place, about 80% of our kids are going to get it. And then we have about 20% that are going to need a little bit more. And it requires really tight work to happen in buildings. This is not this is not easy. So, we wanted to give you an example. Wanted to highlight OBJ. Um, we've talked a lot. We've had OBJ come and share some of their celebrations because they did have some real challenges in their building. We've heard about that. We know that and it feels different now and it's because of this work that they're doing. Um so they really focused
045on their tier one in their building. So not only training students, they established their behavior expectations, they have taught students, they celebrate students, they are um they are doing social emotional learning in their advisory classes. They've also, as you can see, in their tier 2, so students that need a little bit more, they have small groups with the counselors. They also do one-on- ons. They have counseling services. So, this is this is layered work um that's taken a lot of time, but it's really taking hold. What's exciting is when we look at the data for this year, right now, 88% of students fall into that tier one. So, that tells us that what they're doing is working, which is really exciting. 430 students, they don't have any referrals. That's a huge celebration. So, you can
046see up there that they really fall into those numbers. This is evidence-based practices. We can see that it's working. Um, recently at a staff meeting, they were reviewing their data and just celebrating. Wow, it feels so different here. Um, for staff and for students. Students tell us that when we walk through the building. And uh the principal Maryanne Marshall said, "What what do you think? What do what really has made a difference?" And one of the staff members said, "We're all on the same page. We're all doing these things and it's really making a difference for kids." So super exciting. Um and again, we're really seeing the outcomes. One of the things that I'm sure you guys have heard a few times is um this narrative that behavior is out of control in our schools.
047Um except the narrative is inaccurate. Our discipline is decreasing not increasing. We do know that places like social media um messaging can become elevated unnecessarily but our data tells a different story than some of that. So, thinking of the evidence-based practices that Chelsea just told you about, um, we know that when we put those in place, we do see a decrease in behavior when we used to be relying on punishment. So, you can see back in 2022 when our numbers were so high, sending kids home because it is easier instead of trying to help students fix the problem. Um, the punishment doesn't change behavior. So now we're putting structures in place. We can change behavior. Now we're responding earlier. We're responding more effectively. And you can see through our data, we've had a 77% decrease
048over the past three years, which is huge for exclusions. So that's the amount of kids that are missing out on school means our serious incidents are declining across the board. And if you look over to the right, the amount of time kids are out when they are excluded um has also decreased quite a bit. So that means that there's less instruction missed for students and better outcomes for students. We're always going to have behaviors that require an exclusion. Every school does. What we're leaning towards though is when those behaviors happen, we are bringing kids back into the learning environment as soon as possible. So on the right, that's what that shows is that 76% of our kids that do present behaviors that they might need to be out for a day are missing less than
049two days of school, which is huge. So as soon as we can get them back in with a re-entry meeting, they're there. We also see the same in our referral data. Um, so our data shows a 60% a 66% decrease in referrals. So these are lower level behaviors that students are demonstrating. It does not mean that we're ignoring the behavior. It means that the systems that we put in place are working and the data is showing that serious incidents still receive appropriate consequences. Safety is always our goal. Discipline decisions now are thoughtful instead of automatic. So there's not a blanket, right? Every kid has a story strength and need. We need to know that before we make decisions. We have teams, the MTSS teams across the board where we're looking at data regularly to determine
050what interventions we might need to put in place. The other really exciting piece about this data is that there's a 10% decrease in the amount of students um not a 10% increase in students not receiving a referral. So that means 84% of our students districtwide have received zero discipline referrals. So that goes above that 80% tier one. So we know that the systems are working. Um, we're teaching our kids social skills like problem solving, self-regulation, empathy, decision- making, and it's paying off. We can see it in the data that the systems are working. Um, another narrative that we hear is that bullying is prevalent in our schools. And once again, the data does not support that argument. Um, we are teaching students to be tolerant of each other's differences. So, if you look off to
051the left, and this is part of the teaching with families and students, is that if someone does something one time and it's unintentional, they're being rude, right? If someone does something or says something once and it's intentional, that's mean, and we have consequences for when that happens. But it doesn't really rise to the level of bullying unless someone continues to do something intentionally. You've asked them to stop and they keep doing it. that what that's what kind of crosses over the level into bullying. And we know what it sounds like when students are mean, right? As students learn social skills, they have growing pains and sometimes they can be mean. It sounds like kids telling each other they don't like the clothes that somebody's wearing or who they spend time with or the things that
052they believe in. And there are times when being mean can turn into bullying. Um, we're working on educating our students and families about what qualifies as bullying versus a a student being mean. So, we're teaching skills, how to get along with others, how to navigate difficult situations, um, how to build relationships, how to build empathy and tolerance for each other. We also know that this is an issue in communities and society as a whole, how we how we treat other people. And it is part of our job in partnership with families to teach all of our students these skills. If you look at our numbers of reports of harassment, intimidation, and bullying um across the whole district, last year there were 10 um 10 reports of harassment, intimidation, and bullying filed with the school district.
053Zero of those were substantiated. This year, we've only had five filed. Two of the five were substantiated. Uh so what that tells us is that as we educate our students and families about what bullying is, we're seeing less reports of bullying as we have those conversations. This does not mean that we're ignoring those concerns when students and families bring them to us. It means that many of those incidents involve peer conflict or inappropriate behavior or students being mean to each other. And only only those that meet the statutory definition of HIP are substantiated. And there's a whole list of what that looks like. Every HIB that is filed, every harassment, intimidation, and bullying report that's filed is investigated. Student concerns are addressed. Supports and interventions are put in place regardless of whether they're substantiated or
054not. So, the data the data tells our story for us and it really shows that the systems that we've put in place are working and that our student behavior is improving across the district and all of our settings. Uh Dusty mentioned the importance of that partnership with our families. Um we know that behavior development does start at home and it does continue at home. We only get to have our students for about 12% of the year. Um and we can only control what happens when they're at school. Um and we will take them regardless of what they're experiencing outside of school. So, I will say that this is one of our challenges is continuing to build these partnerships. There are times where people don't answer the phone or they really don't want to come into
055the building or aren't able to come into the building to meet. Um, and we know that that partnership really makes a difference for for students. So, this is an this is a challenge, but it's an area that we're continuing to grow. Um, I think a lot of the things we've been trying to do over the last couple years, even as uh, Superintendent Jesse mentioned about the roundts and just different opportunities to bring our families in um, and build those relationships will help us in this area. Um, but that partnership is a key part of this work. Um, you heard uh, us talk earlier about student ownership. We're starting to see that in sports. This is where we can get in our schools, in our classrooms. We have gotten really strong foundations in place with our
056structures and routines, consistent practices across schools. Each of our schools is at a different area on this continuum, but we are all working toward student leadership and student ownership. When we get to a place where students really own that school community at a high school level, that could look like students running their own discipline panel, restorative conversations, it can it can really improve school culture. We are working toward those systems. So, behavior work is always ongoing. Um, but we are really excited about the progress that we've made. So, um, we'd like to open it up to questions. >> Any questions? no questions because I really appreciate how you answered many of the common concerns that we see in the community throughout the presentation with the examples. Thank you. Thank you for your hard work. >>
057Yeah, I'm going to jump in with a comment, too. I when I read this before coming to the school board meeting, it reminded me of one of the student reps that we had a couple years ago. might have been your sister that worked on a and and I happened to be on the board of health at that same time where they were doing a campaign that was kind of flipping the narrative on drug use and it was highlighting how many kids were not vaping or doing drugs and that's what I like about your data because you're showing like how many kids did not get a referral at all. >> Yeah. and that that is because of the system that you've put into place that's now creating better behaviors and routines that everybody understands. So, they're
058not even getting a referral. And I like seeing those positive numbers because we are always going to have situations or students and behaviors that need work and we're facing that and working on it. But that is a shrinking percentage. And don't forget about this whole other group of kids that that are taking in, you know, the instruction that they're getting and and and families are learning to help support their students, too. So, yeah, I really appreciate the way the presentation was done and how it is highlighting those positive behaviors that are going on with our students because there's so many kids, as we saw tonight, that are doing a wonderful job and it shouldn't just be a spotlight of a one, you know, situation that that takes control of all of that. And I do
059appreciate the breakdown of bullying. I think the term bullying gets used quite a bit >> and and we forget, you know, what that terminology actually means. >> Being rude, being mean also does not feel good and isn't nice and those are being addressed, too. But to take a look at what that actually means and have families understand that. I appreciate the work that you're you're doing with all of that and meeting those parents however they need to be met with like you're saying to get that done. So, thank you for the presentation and for the work you're doing. >> Thank you. >> I guess I'll go back to uh what I was able to witness earlier today that tags on to this. Um you know, you it's one thing to say that we're going to
060know the students story, strengths, and needs. Um when I go out into the schools and I'm with Mr. Jesse, who will pick a kid out of a crowd and tell me all about that kid out of 4,200. Um, you guys can can do the same thing, the the leadership and all that. And then to to walk into a class today where you are teaching formal leadership training that is going to go down to the teachers and then um through that you're you're teaching leadership to teachers then that are going to lead students. It's it's a you can't just instruct algebra. You have to inspire a kid to want to tag along and do these things and understand why it's important in life later on down the road. And that's what I'm seeing now. And so,
061thank you first of all, but I love that again with what uh Carrie said, I love that you're showing us the the positives. It's easy to walk into any room and there's one kid acting out and that's what your eyes going to be drawn to. That's what you're going to remember. That's what you're going to see. You know, it takes five positives for every negative that stuck out there. And so for to show that the work that you you you are all doing having this positive that's that's good stuff and and I do truly appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. >> All right, my favorite part of the day, the budget update with Mr. Sherman [snorts] riveting. >> Here's one of the images we tried to get last week. Uh, and what this is really
062showing is I've reforcasted our revenue. And the next slide has our enrollment. and our Roman's a bit down um from what we projected. And so what I had to do is go through and readjust what the revenue forecast looks like for the year. And all that got drawn down um which also then drew down that fund balance graph on the bottom in gray as well. We talked a little bit last time our current fund balance in December um January is almost done. We'll have those books here in a couple weeks. But at the end of January was 1.3 million, but remember we took a um an aortionment advance earlier. So, we're holding this money during this low. I don't Does this work? Uh, could you get those during that low spell through January, February, and
063March until tax collection comes bit um in the spring. And so, that's why our fund balances looks like it's we're way outperforming. We're not. We're right where we're supposed to be based on the the work we've done so far. Um, and even with um realigning our enrollment with our current um realigning our revenues with our current enrollment, we'll still forecast at a $1.5 million fund balance at the end of this year. Um, our enrollment kind of peaked in October is what it normally does when you count the running start students and it's kind of plateaued around 4,200. That's where it's at right now. Well, probably historically most districts their annual average it ends up being January because it's the middle of the school year. Uh, and so we we kind of expect to end around
0644200 for the annual average. Our annual average is a little bit higher than that. Um, but that's where we should end up around 4200. What questions do you have for me? >> I guess Oh, go ahead. >> No, I'm gonna let you. >> All right. I was going to say excellent job. You somehow have a way of always answering the questions that I have coming into our board meetings. So I don't even have to ask the question. >> That's great. >> So thank you very much. I app Yeah, sure. Of course. >> It's [snorts] the whole goal. >> I am curious. Yes. >> Do we know why we're losing enrollment? And is there been an increase in Running Start or other programs like that? >> Running Start has picked up a bit um than than
065it had done in October. Um but actually Chelsea and I worked together on this and we pulled the reports for the withdrawals and most of it is kids moving. We we were worried about like where are these kids going? Uh, and what is the um one of my concerns was were people being pulled out to homeschool? Um, because districts our size normally have a program around that. We verified that there there are some of those students, but most of it is just regular kids moving um around. That's Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, we look at it every every month her and uh we give this a report and then we get together and and look at that. Well, every other month, I guess. >> Yeah. I know you guys are usually pretty dialed in on
066Yeah. on where what's going on with something. >> Yeah. It drives everything. things. So, we're always trying to like, well, hold on, let's double check this. And in the fall, we went around to all the buildings and double checked all the enrollment reporting uh processes because it was I was new. I wasn't sure how they were doing. I just wanted to double check. And everyone's doing a great job at the buildings. >> I I just got to jump in here. So, we just have to scale this a little bit here. Like, we're talking not like hundreds of kids here. So, that's not the situation. >> Running start. when we start bringing up running start, this is like a >> gets a little bit more complex, but it like it changes year to year. We've talked
067about that with the board. And so that that continues to evolve. And so some kids may all of a sudden elect to take a couple more classes in the running start. And so those are kind of things that change in the AFTTE. They're not full wholesale gone from the district. They still is a clear through. Um but it is about movement is our number one issue. It has been in the past. Um but I will also just take this moment there is a it is a the low lower birth rate across the state has been and so this is part of also over time we are just going to lose enrollment over time districts are projected all across the stra state um I ultimately had my last piece we I had number of housing developments
068coming in probably should equal out we we believe that it should kind of somewhere between the loss of the birth rate and enrollment But also just the number of housing that we're adding here should try to keep us flat. So I don't think we're going to add here. >> And like that question a lot though. We >> Yeah, we we do and and like we talked about maybe two or three meetings ago, we did go and find 70 students out in our community who hadn't been in school since CO had happened and brought them into our open doors program. Those open that open doors program is included in this number uh because we do we can claim them as part we're serving those students in that program. And so we are continually hunting for those
069students who need more help and services that we provide here at Shelton. >> So the last thing I had and is just kind of to confirm in my own head uh right now, yes, it does appear that we're outperforming. Are we going to see that solid gray line kind of go through the dotted gray line >> around April? There should be an intersection and then it'll kind of fall in line. Um, we made a couple other cuts to make sure that June stays positive. Yep. >> Um, >> but I wanted to lock in what we forecasted and then show what we're actually doing monthtomonth. In the past, I was overwriting the forecast with actually happening and we weren't seeing that difference. Um, so yes, you'll see an intersection of those lines and then we'll end
070up uh with one and a half million. Yeah, we made some additional tweaks to some of the um department budgets uh this year and kind of move some stuff into next year. All right, super. >> Great. >> Any other questions? You may go. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up, uh the reports from the student school uh representatives. And first we'll start with Cedar Alan RmIrez. >> Yeah. So, uh, I got a pretty that's I think I'll get the biggest thing out of the way first is that, uh, we're Friends of Cedar is going to be hosting a bingo night on the 7th of February. Uh, it's going to be over at the at the tribal center, the See if I can remember which one it was. The Skakcomish Tribal Center. Yeah, that one.
071We're going to be having a bingo night over there. We're also going to be uh, we're going to have it sort of bilingual. We're going to have bingo and we're going to have lotia. So everybody everybody's welcome to be there. We're going to have some baked goods we're going to be selling to help out our uh cedar seniors because we're getting pretty close to graduation dates. We got a lot of big plans for the um for the for the senior class. Speaking of which, um we've continued to receive help from uh licensed professionals and in order to develop our wellness plans for the high school and beyond presentation. Really just trying to make sure that each and every part of that presentation is as high quality as it can be and that it that they
072are utilized to their fullest by all of our seniors. And those presentations, I'd like to say a lot of them that I've seen are going to be very creative. It's uh it's really interesting just how much you can just how much freedom you really have when it comes to how you present your your uh post high school plans. It's um it's going to be great. Uh, we also had a mini ECP where we were able to show off a bunch of projects just sort of like having people from the school look at each other's projects so that we can teach the younger grades how ECBS usually run. And yeah, it was pretty fun. We got to see a lot of cool projects. I was able to see a lot of the projects made by our
073freshman. And I have to say those are some smart kids. They they really they really have a bright future ahead of them. And as uh Wyth pointed out, next week is going to be uh a counselor counselor week. So I just wanted to give a shout out to Susie. Susie um if I can pronounce her last name. Susie Warsbicki. Yeah, shout out to Susie. She's um she's been the teacher for our um what's it called? the senior class, the the high school and beyond class. Yeah. So, yeah, we've been been doing a lot of that. And Susie's also been helping ambassadors get ready for all the presentations we're going to be giving out at all the different schools, talking to all the eighth graders about why they should join Cedar because we're a pretty cool
074school, if I do say so myself. And uh yeah uh if you want to play bingo uh be there. >> Thank you. Uh Abigail. >> Hello. I'm Abigail from choice. The pathway program students are working on community are with community members to get work to get work ethics. There are many former and current students that are in the Special Olympics basketball program. Students are taking the ASVAB for their pathways and many are taking and passing the GED subject test in pre-EST. Open Doors is going to have people come and talk about jobs for two weeks and students starting starting adults 101 to help students with life skills. Middle school students have been working on health and wellness with art. Students are learning how famous people in government shape civil ed civil engagement. Students are writing
075about prehistoric lives. Student choice students are working hard to get their credits in their classes. 11th and 12th grade are doing good in their classes. 9th and 10th are working on math and English in term to help and teach and learn skills for students. ASB is doing a food drive and tomorrow at 3 to 4 we are going to be holding levy signs from choice to the library. If anybody wants to come by and honk and support us, I'll be there >> and I will honk at you. Okay. And our new representative from Shelton High School, Sophia Todd. >> Hi, I'm Sophia Todd. I'm a junior at Shelton High School. Um for sports, um we have new rankings came out for the 3A wrestling for girls teams and girls wrestling is now ranked nine in
076the state. Um boys and girls teams got invited to the first dual state championships which will be this weekend that they're lucky they didn't have to qualify. They got invited be 16 teams 16 the top 16 teams in the state. Um for basketball we have Janelle Christ was is now ranked 10th in the state for 2028 girls basketball players which is very impressive. Um and then this I think it's this Friday. Yeah, this coming Friday we have our winter sports assembly. Um which is also student led by me and my classmate Ellie Keely. Um, we're going to be having a staff versus students basketball games and then lots of winter sports recognizations. Um, for our clubs, DECA has five state qualifiers and they will be be interviewed by the Mason County Journal. Um, we also
077have our student led talent show on February 27th if you'd like to attend. And then there's also now a set date for a multicultural night on April 23rd. Um, I think this is kind of old news. I don't know if we had someone say it before, but we also have our Chucka Duck fundraiser, which is during the Boys and Girls Halftime. Um, it's basically a fundraiser for the 2027 class and we raise money just for like their prom and just other stuff like that. So, if you'd like to play, please attend. And then lastly, um, our leadership in ASB is planning a team bonding to strengthen the group with its new members, including myself and I believe one of the people that talked, Alberto Monzo. That's all I have. >> Thank you. Good job for
078the first time out. >> Thanks. >> All right. On to item number seven, the consent agenda. Has everybody had a chance to check that out? I would take a motion. I motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> And we have a consent agenda. Okay. On to item number eight, the uh 8.01, the proposed uh revised policy number 6800, operations and maintenance of school property. This will be the first reading. Mr. Robert, chairman, vice chairman, esteemed members of the board and student representatives. Thank you. I am bringing forth to you policy 6800 for your consideration. This is the first reading. Uh the policy is pretty dated and so but fortunately not much needs to be changed. Uh the majority of the changes presented in red are those recommended
079from WASDA. The other recommendation or changes that are proposed are related to the OSPI asset prevention or preservation program uh which I also bring to you every March. But our policy did not actually align with practice as prescribed by OSPI and so that language has been clarified and brought into alignment. uh and so and otherwise in the destruction of school property section E uh we are also aligning with the existing policies related to high school graduation requirements that already make clear these types of uh things related to damages and repayment and we didn't uh want to accidentally have uh policies that uh would would start to stray away from other policy. Right? And so th those are cited and brought to be consistent. >> Did anybody have any questions? Okay. >> I just had one
080little question. Uh I noticed the year for the asset prevention was 1994. Where does OBJ fall? I know they're really close to that year. >> Yeah. So OBJ was built in 1990 uh and is outside of the purview for asset um for the A as far as being directly managed by OSPI annually, but we do a six-year recurring assessment uh that has which is a full A assessment for all of our schools which includes OBJ. And so the next one will be in 2028. Okay. Anything else? All right. We'll see you next month. Great. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, next is item 8.02, the propo proposed revised policy number 6550. This be the capitalization threshold for leases and subscriptionbased information technology arrangements. >> Yeah. A handful of years ago, uh, Gazsby 87 and 96
081were, um, looked at differently from the state auditor's office and they required that all school district of the state implement this policy. At the time, the guidance was, uh, a percentage of your expenditures and a dollar amount threshold. And so that's what the district implemented. Um, that that has shifted since then and they no longer want a percentage, which is what I prefer because economies of scale, as we grow, that number changes a little. They wanted a hard number in there. Uh the percentage equated to about a half a million. So the range was either $8,000 or half a million dollars, which is too broad to really manage. And so uh we worked with the auditors in this last session and we came up with um the quarter million dollars that you see in front
082of you as a threshold for those. And the only thing we have that meets that criteria are our copier leases. The lease for our copers in all the buildings. Anybody have any questions on this one? >> It's a good It's a good nighttime reading one if you need it. >> Yeah. >> Okay, we will see you next month. >> Great. On to item number nine, our legislative update. I know we're into the third week of the session, so let it rip. >> Yes. Uh session's moving fast. Uh week three was is packed with hearings which are aimed at school district financial solveny as session rapidly closes in on the February 4th policy cutoff date and February 9th fiscal committee cutoff. Uh the Washington State School District Association WASDA is tracking 120 new education bills. This
083does not include the legislative bills from the 2025 session, the first half of this bienium that can still move forward. Budget issues are the main concern this session with some of the governor's key priorities focused on increasing the transportation budget to maintain roads, expanding a affordable housing, and strengthening early learning. Um there are many revenue proposals expected. Public K12 education was not listed as a priority this session um which is important for understanding expectations. These budget and revenue issues are expected to continue in the upcoming years. And that's that. Uh the governor's proposed budgets were heard this week. Uh the operating budget, House Bill 2289 and Senate Bill 5998, uh did not have any of the K12 education priorities uh that we hoped for when proposing at the beginning of session. And there have been
084cuts to things like transitioning to kindergarten and uh local effort assistance. There's a large volume of ed education bills um which a number of them not including addition which a number of them do not include additional funding which we know can put strain on the district. This Thursday the 29th is education advocacy day with the house education and senate early learning and K12 education public hearings are ongoing for most portions of that day. Um, with these public hearings and the fiscal fiscal cutoff being in eight days, um, tonight I'm just going to stay focused on what has movement and bring a better idea of what we can expect as bills switch from the House to the Senate and vice versa. So, in materials, supplies, and operating costs, MSOC, uh, as a reminder, uh, MSOC is
085really important for the district. It helps cover required costs of running the district that exceed state funding. Lo uh local revenues, mostly levies, must be used to fill the gap. And uh the main bill for right now that's moving is Senate Bill 5918 providing funding for school materials, supplies, and operating costs. that was heard in the Senate Education Committee and was really well supported by the community. It's sitting in committee right now. Uh this bill starting in the 2627 school year has each school district receiving an additional $100 per full-time equivalent FTE and with a minimum increase of 100,000 per district. If a district's $100 per student calculation falls below the 100,000, the state must provide supplemental funding to reach the 100,000 minimum. These additional funds may not be counted in base allocations for special
086education, early intervention, or transition to kindergarten funding formulas. All new MSOC amounts, materials, supplies, and operating costs must be adjusted annually for inflation beginning in 2627. For special education, um I'm combining that with pupil transportation today. Um since that's the other bill with a bit of movement, uh Senate Bill 5858 providing pupil transportation safety net funding for special passengers passed through the Senate Education Committee. It reinstates transportation safety programs that were cut during the last session to transport students in special populations. Um the current student transportation allocation reporting system known as STARS formula consistently underfunds district's actual pupil transportation expenditure. This moves the existing pupil transportation safety net program from the operating budget into permanent statute. Then the office of superintendent of public instruction, OSPI, would administer safety net awards for districts with a demonstrated
087need for additional transportation funding with documented excess transportation costs for special education, homelessness, um foster students, um while excluding the program from from basic education funding. So, uh, remember that your voice matters and anyone can tune in to these hearings and sign in pro or con on any bills. And please reach out to me if you have any questions or concerns. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> Okay, that takes us down to board member comments. Mr. Wilford, take it away. >> Well, I have a lot of notes from today. We had a lot of amazing presentations. I'm going to start with the NOTC. Uh both the presentation of the colors and their performance were excellent. Their timing and precision is clear they've practiced that a lot and they I was really impressed. Uh when we
088had our sports kids come up and give their their speeches as well, um aside from their ability to speak publicly really well, I was really impressed by their introspection and how sports has affected them personally and their personal growth in their lives. I don't really see that too very often um personally from from people their age in my kids group. So I was impressed uh to see that. Uh last month I for last meeting I talked about uh some SH SHs kids that came and visited PUB as a part of the program there and I saw them again today. One of our most senior linemen gave them a ride in our bucket truck and one was a little hesitant going up about 70 feet in the air and the other one had the time of
089his life sounded alike. So that was fun to see. Um, thank you for the gift. Um, I'm brand new here, so I don't really feel like I've earned that yet, but I will be here and I I will earn that in the future. And uh, yeah, get those ballots in. Uh, got mine in this morning. We got ballot drop boxes all around the city as well. Um, get them in. We need them. Thanks, >> Director Gilmore. >> Yes. Uh, thank you for the chocolates and your kind words. It's humbling and rewarding to serve students, staff, and their families. Um, Wy shared a lot of the great growth that we've experienced in the district and this growth is only accomplished together. I greatly appreciate the student athlete speeches and NJ Rosy um for giving their demonstration.
090I'm continually blown away by the amazing growth and wellspoken students that we have in this district and um I just I'm so proud to be here and I hope that everyone else in the community has heard what amazing growth all of the schools, the staff, students, teachers have really come together this year. Every meeting there's just been such great things from our community. I I look forward to coming to these meetings and just hearing about what we can accomplish when we come together and put students first. So, thank you for listening. >> Director Davidson, >> you both have covered quite a bit. Um, but thank you for this. I asked you what were those things and you were like, you'll find out soon. I slipped my mind that it was even board appreciation month. So,
091that was a nice surprise. My daughters were here. They heard it was chocolate. I think they're probably going to steal it from me. Um, yeah, the presentations tonight um were amazing. But first of all, just the three of you and I I know Sophia cuz you were on the volleyball team with my daughters. Um, you guys are amazing representatives of the schools here in Shelton. And I know we all as a board really enjoy the reports that you give us and the way that you represent people your age in the schools and you're all very well spoken and it's a it's amazing because there's so many activities and wonderful things that are going on in each one of your schools with the community outreach and I mean you're talking about certificated people coming in um
092to go through your your senior presentations. I mean it's it's really amazing to hear from you. So really appreciate you guys taking the time out of your busy schedules and student lives because I think there's midterms going on right now too. So if you're busy with all of that, you know, just really appreciate you guys taking the time to do this. I was blown away by the NJOTC. I always am. I mean, just incredible what they do. And then each one that got up to speak was so well spoken. And I took a whole page worth of notes from them and the student athletes because there were so many um I think for me having two teenage daughters too who do talk about this stuff from their own sports related moments but whether it was
093ROC, cross country, wrestling, football, volleyball, swimming, they were all talking about how being in those individual or unique sports or associations s changed who they were. It helped shape their life and also helped them focus more on school and work harder at school because of the discipline and the goals and the hard work that they're doing. And that's what I think is amazing about being able to offer a variety of sports and clubs in our school district because then you have it doesn't matter what interest that kid might have, they can find friends. They can find a community that many of them tonight shared with us then turns into feeling like family. And I think that's amazing. And that's why I think it's amazing when our community does invest in our students to give them
094those kinds of positive experiences. So um really appreciated all of that. The only other thing I would say is that I did attend the um SHS roundt event and I thought that that went really well. It was really wonderful to hear from principal Kipper and the vice principal um as well as one of the teachers that was there talking about freshman academy and there were a number of people that did show up at that to just listen and I think that there's um Jeff Slak has been amazing at helping get that information out online so if anybody can't make it they can view those things or listen to them on KMAS. So that's it. Shout out to the Thespians. Um, as one, I will say that it is very impressive to hear uh that we
095now have a full-on troop and we've got national qualifiers and we're doing good things out there. Um, I spent a lot of time in the auditorium as a kid. Tell you probably every corner of it and uh it's good to hear those things. Um, hearing all the the student athletes stand up here and speak. Um, I can tell you as somebody who uh tests people and hires people and trains people, I can walk onto any drill ground uh or classroom or whatever and I can tell you who the student athletes were um not just because of their physical ability, but because of their uh positive self-discipline, uh the way they carry themselves, the way they're able to talk and and those sorts of things. So being being in a in a district that not only
096supports but really fosters those things to the point where we are now seeing you know state national sports people. We've got you know DECA is off the charts. I mean everybody is doing great right now and um we we're seeing successes on levels that I don't remember and I've been here a long time. Um, this is all good stuff and and as a community, this is how we grow. Um, this is how we get people back. This is how we keep people here. This is how we grow as a town. Um, I can tell you that I have at least weekly conversations with people that I played sports with or that I was in drama with or that I was in the band with. Um, and those are the people that we we stick together.
097We have our places. um with the JRTC uh for them to all be up there in their crisp, perfect uniforms and every one of them spoke to the safe and welcoming environment. Um that's that's huge. This is a a group of people that have found their people and that's important in in everything that we do. Um [snorts] lastly, National School Counselor Week. Um, I can still tell you every conversation I've had with uh Joyce Evans, who was my counselor when I was in high school. Um, she made an indelible mark upon my life and I can't thank her enough. Uh, with that, I would take a motion to adjurnn. >> I move that we adjourn. >> All in favor? I >> I >> All right, we're out of here at 81 1927. [snorts]