001You could stand for finish. Thank you. Board Presidential, other board governors, student representatives, students Thank you for being here this evening. I'm gonna keep a little brief. We got some presentations coming up as well as a budget update. Um start off with trunk or treat. So last Friday, um it was really nice to see a lot of families and students dressed up. You can definitely see the themes of what the costumes were. There was a lot of ghouls and vampires. Um I think alien or venom or something like that. That was kind of really scary to be honest with you. It kind of covers the whole body. There's a couple kids that can contort their bodies in ways that just made it look very realistic. Um really want to thank the partnership for uh ma
002with Mason Health. Um I know there was a number of Mason County organizations that were there including public health. Um I think uh fire was there. I couldn't see everything. It was raining pretty hard. A lot of it a lot of it was just really uh big crowds and it was really nice. Um I know RCU was there too because they were right in front of us. So that was was really good. It was really well attended event. Got a lot of connections. We handed out candy and bookmarkers. So I just want to say and some stickers. So um I know uh we are a school district. So, we are going to support the candy and we are gonna also support reading and it was really nice to I saw some families I hadn't seen
003in a couple years. So, I know that was always really nice to um because sometimes just every so busy. Uh the next one I want to thank uh Director Davidson. Today we were at Olympic Middle School. We were able to do a walk through. Um again I think a lot of work has been done uh specifically to building common expectations in um both the commons so the hallways as well as in the classrooms. Um they really are one of the models for this school district when they have all the staff on the same page. They've had to wrestle a little bit. Those staff had to wrestle to getting those commitments and I was there for some of that a couple years ago. Um but it looked really cool. It looked really nice. They had some
004student leaders walking around and helping other students and students address adults so respectfully there. Um very impressive and there it's just extends right in the classroom. Went in a number of classrooms and we saw vocabulary instruction all at the same time. and they're working hard this year, I know, on vocabulary, really trying to build up some background knowledge, but you do need to know the words uh both content and just um also just academic vocabulary as well. So, it was really neat to see that and the students working on that. They took a lot of pride and they were really well engaged. Uh my last comment just fall athletics, I think of grit and determination. Uh the football team came back almost to uh complete a win. Uh that's not the only game this year
005they've had some comebacks in as well. So in volleyball as well, you know, not every set or match is going to go always so well, but you get up, you go to the next set or the next match, and then you play the team that is in front of you. So um I just think that's should be a lot of pride for us in athletics here in the Shelton School District because you know, so what? maybe you get your butt kicked a little bit, but you know, it's about getting back up, learning from that situation, and applying it to the next time you have an opportunity to excel. So, uh, with that, I just want to say, uh, congratulations athletes. I know we had our junior high athletic teams here last week and they continued
006to, um, do a lot of winning. So, I I think there's a real bright future, uh, for athletics here in the Shelton School District. So, with that, turn it back to you. >> Thank you. All good stuff. On to item number four, community comments. Um, I don't have any, so unless there's an objective, I'm not going to read the script. Is there anybody online? Okay, great. Well, I wish we had community comments, but Okay. Uh, item number five, reports and recognition 5.01, uh, Mountain View Elementary School improvement plan. Thank you board and superintendent Jesse and our school board uh student representatives for having us here tonight. We're super excited to share what we're doing here at Mountain View Elementary. I also want to thank our students that are here and our families that are here
007to celebrate with us as well as our fourth grade um chair uh Miss Waters who uh is here to help coordinate and celebrate with us um all of the accomplishments that are happening. Now I got to find the remote. Sorry about that. Uh, so as you can see, um, so I'm Landre Ness, building principal, and my assistant principal is Sheila Nel Nelson. She could not be here tonight. And we have roughly a little bit over 500 students, and a little bit over 60 staff, and um, as you can see, we have close to 70% free and reduced lunch, about 30% students that have IEPs, and we have almost 1% that are identified as highly capable. And so we have a pretty diverse uh student population and programs that we offer here at Mountain View. Last
008year with regards to our goal that we had for SBA around third grade uh students meeting the SBA for ELA, uh the goal was to be 42%. Um in the 2024 school year, we had accomplished 50% and the goal was set then for 42. Unfortunately, we did not make the um 42% that was set and the outcome was 34.2%. And I will talk about our goal for next year. You can kind of see how it's shooting up to 57.7 and I'll talk a little bit about a little bit more about that here in a couple of seconds. Um our goal in with regards to chronic absenteeism. Um again, that's defined as 15 or more absences. And really we want to make certain that students are here and attending because that's how students learn and we
009know that if they have you know substantive absent absences then they they will have additional gaps in the learning and so we want to make certain that students are here and having an opportunity to be successful and learn what is going on in our classes. Um so last year the out the the goal was to get down to um 102 students. Again, you can see that there was a drop in regards to the number of students who had chronic absenteeism. Um, the goal was not met that was established, but it did decrease down to 161. So, let's talk about this upcoming school year. This is where I get super excited. Uh, so our goal for ELA is going to be uh a move from 34.2% 2%. Again, that was that um outcome from last year.
010And we are shooting for 57.7%. I know that looks that looks, you know, pretty high, you know, and I can see Mr. Jesse kind of looking at me and wondering, will we get that done? And the wonderful thing is is that this goal was established with all of our third grade teachers. We took a deep dive into our students. We looked at where they currently are currently are at with regards to their MAP testing with their dibbles, their FMPP outcomes and we also looked at the outcomes from last year on the U MAPS testing and we looked at okay can we move and the staff were able to look at that and see okay we can see that just a couple more interventions a couple more just adjustments we really do believe that we can
011move the students and so the staff identified students in their classes anywhere between you know seven to to 12 students uh that they will um get across to that that level three or level four level and you know we have names and we have the data and we are identifying those those little things that we can we can do to create that change. One of the first things is our sunrise scholars. So, at 7:45 in the morning, we have a group of students that are coming in and getting some support from our title teachers who are really diving into word work, words, you know, or words their way, excuse me, and um really working on uh comprehension, literacy, you know, work on that fluency, all those things that go into helping those students be successful
012on um and so that's really been a success. We have gone from the person that it are participating in our summer. So, it's super exciting. Instructions. And so, again, this is based on that assessment data. And so, our team meets um uh once a month uh to really dive into the data. they meet more often than that. But to really dive into the data and look at how students are improving in regards to their reading comprehension, um how they are improving in um the the level of books that they're reading. And so they're diving into that that data to then identify are the interventions working? What do we need to tweak? What do we need to just slightly adjust to really again make those intentional moves so they can be successful? And then the last
013piece, that goal setting with students and staff. Um, it's super exciting to walk into the classrooms and see that the kids are graphing their own growth in regards to their their literacy, the amount of of time that they're reading. And so they're graphing those pieces and seeing the improvement themselves. And just looking at that and and hearing how um from staff how the kids are just super excited about watching their own. And I had some pictures. probably could have used them here um to show that that growth. It's it's amazing. Um here's a picture of one of our third grade teachers, uh Mrs. Nelson, and you can see her um on the floor and they are doing their words their way right there. They're doing some sorting and really getting an understanding about the um
014the lesson that was taking place right there and demonstrating their knowledge of sounds and how they work into different words. for our attendance piece. Uh you can see that this is a whole student um goal. And so by June, we are looking to make certain that students um the 18 or less absences. It goes from 68% uh to 81%. So instead of talking about through a deficit model, which was the other slide, we're looking at it as more of that asset base, right? And so you can see that we are going to take that from 364 students who um are attending 90% or more of the school year to 424 students attending more of the school year. And that is again a huge jump. Um we are looking at the data um weekly in regards
015to the attendance. Our staff are calling home if students have two or more absences in a week. um we are going and um our specialists are they're focusing really on the third grade because that's also that focus for um our our literacy goal. And so they have um identified the students that we want to make certain are here maybe struggled a little bit in the previous years and to make certain that they are um here more and that they are being successful. Right? So, they're not just setting attendance goals, but they're also setting uh uh literacy goals with them and they too are measuring those and celebrating the students as they reach their goals. Um I believe they're setting those for each trimester and so that's super exciting. They're meeting weekly with the kiddos. Um
016when you move down to the last part about monthly celebrations of students with two or less absences each month and so we uh we are running a list and we are going to be doing otter pops for uh students who who accomplish this for like one month right and it resets each month however if you get two months we'll do an otter pop and a pencil and it doesn't have to be like September and October it could be September and December right and then if they get to three months it's going to continue to happen, right? They get the autopop, the pencil, and and we have some bracelets and some other items. And so, we're going to be really incentivizing going into the classrooms and doing that celebration. You might go, well, why not do
017a, you know, big assembly? Well, that's because right now that would be like 250 200 and I think it was actually 280 students who met that in September. We can't be able to recognize the kids in a meaningful way with that big of a group. So going into the classrooms and doing that celebration and then being able for other kids to be able to go, "Oh, how did you get that autoop? How did you get that pencil?" And then really build that. All right, done with the boring stuff. This is where the good stuff happens. We're going to have Mi uh Miss Waters come up along with our wonderful student uh representatives and they're going to share um their essays that they wrote for the VFW contest. And um these are just three of many
018students who all of our fourth grade participated. And we are also going to be having just a showcase if you want to come join us on um November 7th at 9:15. We have our Veterans Day assembly and we're going to have more students who are going to be reading at that assembly. We'll also have the Shelton ROC participating and we're going to be celebrating our veterans that are part of our school community. So, if you'd like to join us and if any of you are veterans, let us know. We'll make certain that you get recognized as well. So, Miss Waters, >> good evening. I'm really proud to be here. I teach fourth grade here at Mountain View. And anybody that knows me love knows that I love this community. I love this school and I
019wouldn't want to teach anywhere else. So, thank you for allowing me to do what I love to do. And thank you for my families for being here with their kiddos and I appreciate your guys' support, working in partnership. It's going to be a really great year and I'm really excited. First, we have Franco. You want to come on up? I have an amazing group of fourth graders this year. right here. >> Did you know that there are so many rules about the flag? There are so many different ways I respect the flag. We salute the flag and take our hats, helmets, and hoods off when we do the pledge of allegiance. In this essay, you will learn more about the flag. First, there is a special way to hold the flag. When we when somebody
020dies, we fold the flag and put put it on top of their coffin to show respect. We show so much respect to soldiers, too. We honor the soldiers because they risk their lives to fight. We show so many much respect to the flag. As a matter of fact, we are so lucky. We can say anything and do anything we want because it's a free country. We are so lucky to have a free country, but we still have to keep parks and streets clean. Just because it's a free country, we still have to keep it clean. There are so many ways, many ways we respect the flag. [applause] Tears of joy. Thank you, honey. Next, we have Paxton Nichols. I'm literally crying. Tears of joy. So proud of them. All right, Paxton, whenever you're ready. Did
021you know that it is disrespectful to wear any hat, hood, or helmet while doing the pledge of allegiance? There are many ways to respect the flag. Also, the US flag has been many places, including Mount Everest, the moon, someplace in Japan, and the North Pole, too. Flying the flag in different places shows respect and sometimes brings safety. In this essay, I will be talking about how I respect the flag and how it makes me feel. First, I stand for the pledge every single day and every for every single [music] grade in school and place my right hand over my heart and say 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, for liberty and justice for all. Another way
022to respect the flag is to never let it touch the ground. Also, restores respect by honoring Veterans Day or and don't hang the flag upside down unless you're in serious danger. The flag makes me feel proud to and patriotic and thankful to live in America. Another thing we do for people who have served or died in the military, veterans, we fold a American flag 13 times in a specific way and give it to their family. In conclusion, the American flag is a sign of freedom that not all countries have. The flag also brings freedom and justice for all Americans. >> [applause] >> And next we have Eliza. So come on up, Eliza. Whenever you're ready. Fun fact, patriotic means you're proud of your country. November 11th is Veterans Day, and people will celebrate it by
023parades, patriotic music, music, and possibly fireworks. In this essay, you will learn read about how I respect the American flag and how it makes me feel. First, how I respect the flag is when the national anthem plays. I take off my hat, I stand up and put my hand over the my heart. Also, you can respect the flag by raising the flag higher than other flags or state flags and taking the American flag down at night unless there are lights. A common theory is that Betsy Ross made the first American flag, but that is not true because we don't have actual evidence if Betty made the flag. In addition to flags, the American flag has been has had over 19 different designs. Another thing is we also fold the flag in a triangle. It's to
024represent those whom have served in the wars long time ago because their hats were triangular shape shapes. If a flag gets ripped or torn, we don't throw it away. We instead burn it. We also respect the flag by not letting it touch the ground ever. Lastly, the American flag makes me feel patriotic and glad that I get to live in a land of freedom. In conclusion, Veterans Day is a special day where we get to respect those who have served or are still serving in the military. American flag represents freedom, purity, and justice. We are lucky to live in this country. That is why we respect the American flag and how it makes me feel. >> Nice job. I wish you could read. Um I wish we could have everybody read. The class did a
025really wonderful job. And fun fact, Eliza has fun facts for me every single day, [laughter] which are amazing. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Waters, and our wonderful students. You guys did amazing. I'm so proud of you. >> Are there any questions from the board? >> Go ahead, guys. >> Um, not so much a question, but just a It's really exciting to hear that there are teachers willing to be here at 7:45 and meet with those students to give that extra help. Um, it sounds like it's growing from when it started. Um, and I'm going to guess you're already seeing that improvement and that fruit from that investment. >> We are. We are. And um, they're getting ready to do um, an sort of a midpoint uh, assessment um, on how they are performing. and
026our staff are doing some interim uh SBA as well as interim MAPS testing and they're doing a really great job with regards to conferring with students on their books to see how they are moving up with their literacy and so we're really excited to see the the growth. >> Thank you for that. Yeah, >> thank you very much for the presentation and thank you to Franco Paxton and Eliza for getting up here and sharing with us your essay. That was really neat. Um, loved hearing about your respect for the flag and all of that. And Mrs. Waters, I know she's an amazing teacher. She and I went to high school together. So, it's always wonderful to see her um up here. It's, you know, some of those longtime friends that you have that are doing
027amazing things in this school. So, >> I love that. >> I do have a question. It's one of the things that comes up consistently when we're talking about these um school plans, and that is the attendance >> and what um I guess it it's it is concerning to me how the how big those numbers are. And is that something that has grown kind of postcoid? is that you know what can we do as a community to help um some of our families out that are facing issues with you know I don't know if this is more of health health situations for a child that they're not able to come to school or if there's some other situation and you know what if anything we can do to help support some of this. Yeah, I I
028would say that having um my husband is also an administration and so we compare data and I'm always looking at the school report cards and I would say that I definitely have seen a decrease or an increase in regards to um absenteeism since co without a doubt and but we are seeing it improve. We are it is happening and it's improving here you know in the Shelton school district which is great to see. Um, one of the things that, um, oftentimes the conversations that I have with families is, you know, you'll hear, oh, you know, we're going to just take a couple of mental health days, right? And that that's we get the need, right? However, when you start adding those pieces up, then you are going to hit those 20 days and we really
029want to, you know, have those days really be down to nine to be honest. And so what we did at um at conferences, we have an attendance tracker that basically shows the green, the yellow, and the red that takes you out to 18 days. And we had families sit down with our teachers and put the days that were gone. And um sometimes you hear, well, they're excused absences. Well, that that doesn't, you know, really matter. you know, an absence is an absence and it adds up and it does have an impact on on learning. And so they sat down and they were, you know, writing them out and it was kind of like, oh, my, you know, my my kid is almost to the yellow, you know, and and just you don't realize it when
030it's one day a month or two days a month, but it it starts to add up. And so just having that conversation and having that realization for families to be able to communicate and then take that attendance tracker and put it on the refrigerator, right? are you really sick? And then we had guidance on the back about, you know, what does it mean that you're sick? And then also what um what are the impacts on learning with regards to those absenteeisms. And so we had some little fun facts around those pieces. And so our hope is that that will help to um influence that that in you know desire to be at school and and increase our attendance. The other piece is obviously we want to make certain that our our classrooms are engaging, they're
031warm and welcoming. Um, and so that's the wonderful thing. I I do I I love serving Mountain View. So, thank you for having me be a part of of this school district and this building. Um, our staff are, you know, always in in the hallways welcoming the kids and and whatever that might be, a high five, an elbow, you know, just a warm, you know, hello. Sometimes that side hug. Um, that's a really important thing for kids to feel that they are valued and and they are seen and and loved, right? And so, um, all of those pieces go, you know, hand inand and then you also have things that sometimes just transportation of getting to school can be an impact, right? >> No, I I really appreciate that because I do think sometimes it's
032just an awareness of it. And then I do love the celebrations and the, you know, the built-in programs that you're doing to help encourage kids to want to be here at school. And if they're enjoying learning, um, and enjoying the environment, they're going, they're going to want to do that. So, I really appreciate that. and welcome. Um, it is nice to meet you since you are a new principal for us here in the school district. >> Yes, thank you. And on Tuesdays and Thursdays, we also have early morning choir, which also helps to get kids here. So, >> um, I know that, uh, wow, that's a lot. Uh, I know you're going to need to rely a lot on, uh, feedback from your staff as far as, you know, where where kids are going and
033and, uh, looking the, you know, you see that dip in scores kind of last year and now you've got this lofty um, goal, which is great. Uh, what feedback are you getting from staff already to kind of show that you're in that right, you know, you're in the zone and and you're heading that direction? >> Yeah. Uh so today um I was at every grade level's um planning and and we were talking about our data tracker. We have this massive data tracker for for folks to take a look at and and dive into entering their data. And so um it is about that that conferring um with regards to the kids and and seeing that they are getting put in those right fit books and and and seeing that growth. And so we were talking
034about, okay, so how are you connecting with the kids? When are you conferring? What's your schedule for those pieces? Um and so we did a, you know, a little bit of a conversation today about where do you where do you feel we are at? Are we are we starting to be on track? And and folks are feeling, you know, pretty solid. Um we're going to have a measurement here in the next couple of weeks. And so we're waiting for our SBA um interim um access to be able to to roster kids so we can take that that assessment. Um but so far people are saying yeah they're they're conferring with kids and they're seeing kids moving up. Um I know that the folks that are doing this the Sunrise Scholar um they're definitely seeing that
035growth for the kiddos. Um and and it isn't just about, you know, the ones that are in Sun uh the Sunrise Scholars, but it's also about the kids who might be even more that level one and you know, how can we um have those right interventions to get them to to the level two, right? And you know, if we're lucky and we do the right things, maybe to that level three. And so it's just that ongoing ongoing work and looking at our um that formative assessment and moving them. So I don't have a an immediate answer for you now. more anecdotal. Um, but our hope is um we're just waiting for that rostering and and getting them assessed for the the interim assessments. >> Thank you. Uh, does anybody have anybody else? I just uh
036really appreciate the uh collaboration with staff and teachers to set your um measurements of success together and then how that uh measurement uh is also with students to you know help bring everybody together to all see the success at the end of the year. And you know, um, the school improvement plans are one of my favorite parts of school board in the year because, you know, we get to celebrate at the end of the year, but then at kickoff again, it's like another celebration because we're seeing that growth as everybody is, you know, setting those milestones a little bit higher and higher. And we're just really excited to have you here this year. And thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Have a wonderful evening. Okay, next up will be 5.02, the
037Olympic Middle School's school improvement plan with Mary Johnson. >> Good evening, President Wedander, fellow board members, student representatives, and uh Superintendent Jesse. I want to thank you all for being here tonight. And like Mrs. Ness, I really want to thank our teacher uh Mrs. Green, who's here with many of her students and their families to dedicate time to come tonight and share some of their work with us as well. But first, let's talk about our school improvement plan. So, we're pretty similar to um Mountain View, for example. This year, we have 520 students. We saw a pretty big reduction. We had a lot of students leave us in sixth grade last year and very few come in. So, we went from 600 students last year to 523 this year. Uh we have 55 staff. We're
038about 71% free and reduced lunch. Uh our English language population is 31%. About 17% of our students have disabilities and we have about four almost 5% of students who qualify for highly capable programs. Looking at data from last year's school improvement plan, we had a goal in sixth grade um that 34% of our students would pass the ELA SBA last spring. And our outcome was that 31% of our students passed. So you'll see the year before we had 31 students and last year we had 31 students. 31% I apologize. Um, our second goal last year had to do with we were working really hard to reduce suspensions and expulsions. So when I came on board uh three years ago, we were averaging about 46 uh suspensions a year. So our goal last year was we
039wanted to reduce from 39 the year before to to we wanted to reach down to 39 and we actually uh reduced it to 24 suspensions last year. a lot of hard work on the part of our teachers by making our classrooms very engaging and welcoming spaces where our students wanted to be and also just really working hard to make sure that the classroom environment um was a it was a place that students wanted to be. They had a lot of voice and choice in what they were doing and um those relationships were so important that our students just rose to the occasion. That's where they wanted to be and they didn't want to be out of class or for that or matter they didn't want to be out of school. So this year our sixth
040grade goal is that we will see 36% of our students pass the ELA SBA this May. Um so that would be up from 31%. We have several goals that we are working on or I should say activities that we are working on to support this goal. So back in summer summit we spent some time with our staff selecting some strategies that we would use in all of our literacy classrooms. And these strategies aren't just literacy strategies for all of our students. They also happen to be students that we would or strategies we would use where they're multilingual students. So our staff agreed on that they would really work on turn-in talks with what we call no opt out. So a lot of times we see kids that are just like I don't want to share.
041And so they've spent a lot of work this fall helping the students understand that there are other ways to share and participate. They may not always be the ones that want to speak first, but we have a no opt- out policy. All students participate in turn and talks and engage in some way. And it's been wonderful. The students have done a great job of helping the students or the teachers decide what those might look like. So an example might be instead of sharing it out loud, they might write it on a sticky note. Instead of being the one to share, they might tell it to a friend. So uh expectation is everybody is sharing. We also really uh pushed explicit vocabulary instruction. And our last one was that we would use teacher um we would
042use a lot of sentence se stems and a lot of sentence frames. Um and this aligned perfectly with some work we did last summer. So we were able last year to use some of our OSSI grant money to pay our fifth grade multilingual teacher and a fifth grade ELA teacher and our sixth grade multilingual teacher and an ELA teacher. They worked over the summer to go through our unit plans um and embed some strategies already in there that would be could be considered a low scaffold, a medium scaffold or a high scaffold. So they created those and then actually Erin Rasmmanson went back and just plugged them right in. So they're everything from different levels of stems that students might need when they're trying to jot or write about their reading uh down to different
043types of graphic organizers that they might use. Um so that idea is that we give a scaffold and then we try to remove it as quickly as possible. The second one is that all of our students will receive daily vocabulary instruction. Uh so our ELA math and science teachers every week they select two to three vocabulary words that align with the curric with the unit that they are studying. Um and those six to eight words are taught and used in every single content classroom throughout the students day. So they don't just see it in science or they don't just see it in math or they don't see it in ELA. We've challenged them to make sure you can weave those words into every content conversation you're having. So the students are having multiple opportunities to
044see those words and use those words in a variety of different um settings. And then the third one is we're considering we're continuing with what we call our academy. So we have about 35 minutes a day where we do academy instruction. So, it's giving students a little bit more about what they need in reading. Um, so last year we most of our students received words their way instruction, but this year we saw a pretty good growth in our students. And so with our commitment to vocabulary instruction, our math and science teachers are teaching vocabulary during academy to students who are at level or above. And our students who still need some work around funological awareness and decoding, fluency, and accuracy are continuing to get words their way. And those are mainly taught by our ELA
045teachers and our integrated support teachers like our special education and multilingual teachers and pareducators. It's been really fun to do the vocabulary work when you go into these classrooms and see some of our science and math teachers using um they could use um an activity called um we taught them dcc as a technique to teach vocabulary um four square vocabulary. So, we dabbled in a few and said, "We're going to stay with with those right now." So, they're just in there. The kids are using the words, writing the words, reading on the words. And the teachers already within the first month of school said, "I cannot believe what they already know." Um, one of our teachers said, "I've spent so many years talking about mean and mode and never had my kids understand it, and
046now they can tell me that as well as what a denominator and a numerator is." So, um, it's been fun. And the teachers are also using some kind of like TPR. So they're using some strategies around how to teach students these words. So there's these little songs and dances they do with, you know, the denominator is on the bottom, the numerator. It's been really fun. And so they watch the kids walk into class and they're doing these little chants to remind themelves when they're doing fractions. Okay. Our second goal um this year is a little bit different. We are shifted from a more disciplinary because we've really done a great job. our teachers, like I said, and our students have really rose to the occasion. So, we are looking at chronic absenteeism as well. So,
047our goal is to be able to reduce our rate of chron chronic absenteeism from 47% to 43%. That might not seem a big like a big growth or a big jump, but it really is. So, the types of activities that we're doing in that area is our teachers make sure that if a child is absent, they are connecting with that student. they are making sure they get the instruction that they missed and the work that they missed so that no student feels like they're coming back after an absent with no idea what to do or with a large packet of work to be able to do because they were gone. So, we've kind of removed that barrier and said we're just going to meet with you whether it's one-on-one or in a different form and
048just make sure you feel caught up. The second thing is is that um at the team level, so our teachers teach on teams, they're looking at students. So, very similar to what Mountain View is doing, we have an attendance tracker. Um, our my assistant principal, Mr. Craft, who is here today, works super hard with our attendance secretary uh to make sure that we are tracking kids every week. Um, we're looking every week at where they are. Uh, so the attendance tracker, we just presented it or or reviewed it with our leadership team on Monday night and went through and looked at the students who are um well, chronically absent. absentee absent is 15 and which is about two absences a month and we have kids that are already at seven or eight. So what can
049we do? So at conferences they were able to have some really good conversations with parents. Um we have found that if we use percentages so it's like your child has missed 23% of the school year is so much more powerful than saying they've missed four days. Um and then just talking to them a lot about what the barriers are. So, um I would say elementary and and the middle school, uh the majority of absenteeism is really a family issue. Our students can't bring themselves to school if they miss the bus or something. And so, it really is about engaging the families to say, "We have to work together." Sure, we have the occasional student who doesn't want to get out of bed, those pre-teens. Uh but for the most part, it really is just it's
050just a barrier for the family. The parents have to work early. Um they're down to one car. Um we have had some buses out this year. So you know when they're out for an entire week that does um so we're trying to track attendance when it's a bus issue versus attendance when it's a family issue, a sickness or just or just nothing. And then again our MTSS team uh is works really really closely. So I think we have 33 students on our list right now that we are tracking every week um and reaching out. So, we uh one of the things we did proactive this year is we sent um an email to any student that had um that was already chronic absent chronically absent last year. We just forwarded a letter and said, "All
051right, this is a new year. We're going to be on this together." And then it's just a lot of communication um with families about what we can do. So, with all that, I am super excited to have with us today um some of our sixth grade students and uh Mrs. Green, Miss Green, who again is one of our ELA social studies. they have some story boards that they would like to share with you. It's one of um one of many exciting activities that our students do kind of as a as a project at the end of a unit. We're going to do our best to get through as many of as we can. We know you only have so much time. >> Okay. Good. Good evening. I'm really excited to introduce my students. They actually
052volunteered to be here tonight. So, I said, "Who would like to come to the board meeting with me?" And they all rose their hand. and I kind of was a little shocked cuz I don't like publicly speaking. So, good round of applause to them for being up here and their families for supporting them. [applause] Um, storyboards were introduced to my classroom actually from my little sister who attends Shelton High School. She is a senior this year and when I became an ELA teacher, she brought these to my attention and I thought what a wonderful thing to incorporate in our classroom. allows students to have choice in how they deliver what they've learned about their book while still assessing a lot of the high expectations we have around plot structure and comprehension vocabulary. So, we are
053going to start with L today and I'm going to be walking up to you so you can see the story board so you can see the details, the quote box, the drawings, the the attention to detail of their plot structures and just how much pride they put into it. At the end, the students will be coming up to you and inviting you um to our classroom because I don't think we'll be able to get through all of them. They're so excited though. They really want to share it with you. So, please reach out to Mrs. Johnson to schedule a time to come to the classroom and we'd love to have you. Okay, El. >> Hi, my name is L and I'm a sixth grader at Ms. We made story boards to show the key parts
054in our books. My story board is about a night divided. I picked this book because I'm a huge fan of historical fiction and history in general. The main character, Gerta, she learns that if you live among wolves, you have to act like a wolf. I know this because in the story it states, "I groaned. We went to school to study letters and numbers, then stayed at school as members of the pioneers and learned why freedom was overrated. My favorite part of this project has got to be making the about the author box. It was a great chance to learn about her hobbies, her and her future projects. This book helped me understand that you should never kiss the hands you wish to cut off and to be careful who you trust. Thank you for listening.
055[applause] >> She has she has one more section to share with you and I can't let her skip it because it is the quote box and it's pretty powerful quotes. Um, as you can see I have my plot structure up here and then I have my two boxes about the author box and the quote box. I will now read some of the quotes. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity. This quote was said by Albert Einstein. A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people. This quote was said by John F. Kennedy in 1962. I learned that courage was not the absence of fear but the triumph over it. This quote was said by Nelson Mandala and
056a quote that I liked a lot um was sweet Gerta, how I've missed you. That quote was said by papa >> [applause] >> Okay, L or Belle is up next. Sorry, that was really loud. Belle is up next. Her story board is also very beautiful and she took this home every night and worked hard on it and also practiced her speech multiple times in front of the classroom, so she definitely deserves some recognition. >> Hi, my name is Annabelle Braz. I'm a sixth grader Olympic class. >> There you go. We made story boards that show the key parts of our stories and books. My story board is about the book Sally's Lammit. I chose this book because it's a Nightmare Before Christmas based book. Also because Miss Green taught me to read the back of
057the book to get ideas of what the book's about. The main idea of my book is Sally from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas Discovers Christmas Town instead of Jack Scolington. My favorite part of making the story board was being able to separate exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution, and learning how they each have a different section. From this project, I learned plot structure. I hope you enjoyed looking at our story boards. As you can see, I have my plot elements in each section, and I also added characters, settings, and unknown words. My favorite unknown word that I have read was nestled, placed, or stored inside inside the other. I also wrote a question box I have and one of my questions is what would happen if Sally discovered all the holidays. [applause] Next
058is up Cameron. He loves non-fiction. He's really into sports. So his is about LeBron James. >> Hi, my name is Cameron Hooer. I am in I am a sixth grader at Olympic Middle School. We made storyboards that show key parts of our stories. My story board is about rising stars LeBron James. I picked this story because it was a just right book and the backs seem interesting. My story is about LeBron James and his life story. The main idea is that to never give up and always keep going. My favorite part was reading the back and making the story board. So, basically everything couldn't pick. This project helped me understand it was okay to be scared or overwhelmed. Thank you for listening. I hope you like our storyboards. Thank you. [applause] So, this is my
059story board. I've got the plot elements. My favorite is probably the climax because it like everything changed for him. So yeah, [applause] >> I got all night. So >> if if they want to talk, I want to hear them. >> Um and next next up is Elias. He'll be our final one. Um and he is very excited to share his as well and put a lot of art on his story board. >> Okay. Hi, my name is Elias and I'm a sixth grader at Olympic Middle School. Uh, we made story boards that show the key parts of our story. My story is about the phantom toll booth. I picked the story because I use tools to find a good fit book, such as looking at the title, the back cover, and the first few pages
060in order to see if it's understandable. I think the main idea is the more you make mistakes, the more you can learn. The character, whose name is Milo, learns that making mistakes aren't bad. during opportunity to learn. My favorite part was the coloring and the drawing of the map, which I really enjoyed because it's a just a visual representation of Milo's journey. Thanks to this project, I learned how to plan and prepare the structure of my um plot. It helped me understand the structure better thanks to a more visual representation. And um there's two parts I wanted to show you which there's my favorite part where um Milo meets a character named Alec Bangs who floats and he sees through things. And then my quote box where the first one is Milo and there's a
061dog he meets named talk. He's a watch dog literally. And he Milo says, "I didn't know words could be so confusing." and talk replies only when you use a lot to say a little. And then there's two princesses rhyme and reason who in a story that um a character is explaining they say words and numbers are of equal value for in the cloak of knowledge one is warped and the other woof. It is no more important to count the sands than is to name the stars. Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed looking at my story board. >> [applause] >> And >> I'll just go ahead and pass these out since they have their beautiful story boards. >> Do we got time if anybody else wants to go? >> We I'd like to
062hear the rest of them. >> I'd like to hear from all of them. Okay, we're gonna do one more. This is Elliot Soul. She read her book about ground zero. Um, and I have to tell you, this story board is phenomenal. Her mom made sure it was finished on time so she could present it. I really want her to share because it's just amazing all the details that she put into it. >> Hi, my name is Alitel and I'm a sixth grader at Olympic Middle School. We made storyboards that show the key parts of our stories. My story board is about ground zero. I chose this book because it interested me when I first saw it and I read the summary and a couple of chapters. Also, it isn't too hard or too easy for
063me to read. My story is mainly about determination. I know this because in the back, it shows how both Brandon and Rashmina are determined to escape with their family safely. My favorite part of this project was reading ground zero and drawing pictures for my storyboard. I learned how to use my sticky notes to write events and important details. also how to write summaries with enough details. Thank you for listening. [applause] >> Nervous at all. >> That's it. >> Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. [applause] >> So exciting. And that's just a sample. We have other some other sixth grade classes. So, we really would love if you guys want to come in and to listen to some of the presentations. We'd absolutely love to have you. All right. Do you have any questions
064for me? >> Any questions? >> First, thank you students so much. That was exceptional. Thank you. Um, just appreciate everybody on staff up there at MS and all the work you're doing. As as you look at reducing suspensions, does that represent also an um decrease in behavioral challenges as well? because suspensions is kind of the far end of of that. Is that a something that's happened as well where behavior has increased or good behavior has increased or Yeah. was a correlation? >> Yeah, I would say overall absolutely it has it has greatly increased. We just um again at leadership on Monday night, we looked at our attendance data and at our overall discipline data and um no real surprises for Mike and I who are out there um you know daily working with students and
065supporting students, but it was a great opportunity for our teachers to really look at the types of situations that we are um experiencing and the students with which we are experiencing those. So to be really honest with you, right now the majority of our challenges are coming from our students who receive uh social emotional learning supports through special education. And uh we have an amazing team. They're working super hard. We brought on a couple new team members. Uh I think one thing that um both um and the bay have that's a challenge is that every year 50% of our students turn over and so it takes a while to get to know our students and what they need. Um, so we are definitely still seeing some challenging challenges in those areas, but as we're getting
066to know those students and refining their plans and working heavily on what we call contingency plans, we're starting to see definitely some improvement there. >> Conferences just happened, right? >> Yes. >> And is that a way to partner with parents on that just not just um absenteeism, but behavior at the same time? >> It is um definitely probably at what we call a tier one or a tier two level. I would say with a lot of our tier 2 and tier three students, it's not unusual to have parent conversations two to three times a week. We're really lucky. Our families are highly involved, very engaged, and to be honest with you, they're experiencing very similar challenges in their own home. So, the more we can partner with them and do a lot of the similar
067supports, then the more successful the student can be. >> Yes. I thought it was really great to hear how you're taking the units and building them with additional multi-tered supports for continuous improvement. Um, I also really liked how you're expanding your ELA tools to other subjects to keep building on the foundation everyone is working so hard to build for success. And um, I appreciated how you're exploring different communication strategies to engage families. So, thank you also for being here with us this year. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> And I'll jump in. Thank you for letting me pop in on your school this morning. Um, that was wonderful to be able to come in and to be able to go into Mrs. Green's actual classroom as well. Um, so it was really nice just to
068be able to be there in the school and see how things are functioning just on an average morning. And I have to say I was really impressed having had two children in those grades and of course going into that school it can be a lot of energy and a lot of stuff going on. But it was wonderful being able to pop in on one of your brand new teachers and then also the behavioral specialist that was in there and see them work in action and it was really impressive. Um just want to say that I really appreciated being able to come in and and walk through and do that. the students tonight. You guys really blew me away with your speaking skills. Really excellent to see that you wanted to come to a schoolboard meeting
069and I do love the fact that in our schoolboard meetings we can allow the practice and the experience of public speaking and you all did such a wonderful job. Love the story board. So much detail on those. Those were really amazing. And I think is it Belle? I think I saw you talking to the superintendent this morning too. If I got your name wrong, I apologize. But you were going on and on about all sorts of books that you love reading. And I can see it in all of your faces that you love the books that you chose and what you were reading and and being somebody that's here on a school board to help support students and their families in your learning journey. This is really wonderful to see. So, thank you so much.
070And thank you to the families for taking your time out to bring them here today to do this. It really is a highlight of the board meeting. And just to share something that was kind of funny because I was standing there with the superintendent and at this age >> many of them were asking him how tall he was and he just happens to be the best >> 67. >> So yes, [laughter] >> so it was that was happening all morning long. >> Well, it was super perfect too because a student that maybe had a not so positive interaction last time uh went up and said, "Now, how tall are you?" And and I mean it was this is what I just love. He's so personable. He was like 67. And it was just it was
071so wonderful. The kids just if you don't know about 67, >> let me tell you, it's a thing. >> It just another way to humanize uh what you guys do. And it was really exciting. >> So, thank you for doing that. And one more thing that before I forget too, just because I I have and had a very very painfully shy child and to hear that you are doing the you know where you're not letting somebody get out of a turn and talk but you're giving them the opportunity to do it in a way that's comfortable for them. Yeah. because my daughter's older now and she's really grown and developed and I think it's because of opportunities like that where it's not just that you have to get out and be that forward- facing person
072that maybe they're not comfortable being at that time and there's other steps that they can do to develop along the way. So, I really appreciated. >> Well, our teachers are just amazing and they want to see all of their students engage and they just took all the strategies they've seen and have worked with other kids. And I think that's one of the things I appreciate the most about our staff is they're outside the box thinkers. So, it's not a one-sizefits-all. It's more of what can we do and throw at them and what strategies can we try till we find the right one that sticks. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. So lastly, um the uh reduction in students from last year, uh is that going to be a is that a cadre issue or
073we're going to see an inverse wave kind of travel through the grades as we go or is there some other explanation or >> are you talking ELA or are you talking >> just in general your school size? >> Um you mean the school size? Yeah. Oh, I hope that we're back up again. I mean, we walk around some days like, "Wow, the halls seem kind of kind of eer, you know, it it took uh Eric Barkman, who was the principal that opened that building that teaches there. It took 20 years to get to 600 students and it was built for 600. So, I think we will continue to see a fluctuation. You know, every, you know, we just have grades that are big. That's just been a historical thing. So, I have yet to call
074those fourth grade teachers. I thought I'd give them at least till January to find out how many kids we're looking at leaving and coming in." >> Okay. And that's my question is is you know is it is it going to be just a wave that goes through? >> Yeah, I think it is definitely that we're not necessarily seeing if we have students leave we see have we see students coming. So we're not seeing a reduction because people are leaving um our building. >> Okay. Um I would love to see the meeting between all of the different uh people as they set up their vocabulary for the week. Um just yeah that'd be fun. Um otherwise, uh having the kids up, you know, it's it's super cool when you you know, you talk about you talk
075to adults all the time about their fear of public speaking and and we're seeing it over and over again and and um not just that they're able to speak, but you know, they're they're reading with so much fluency and all that and and they truly understand what they're saying. Um super cool stuff going on. So, thank you. >> Thank you guys so much. Have a good night. >> [applause] >> Okay. And now the budget update with Clinton Sherman. [clears throat] There's a let down. I'm only 63. That's a bummer. [laughter] Uh good evening. Um quickly I want to walk through a budget update. Um it's up there. Great. Um, we ended up closing the books uh this last week and we ended up with an ending fund balance of negative $1.8 million. And so this
076chart got updated a little bit. Um, what that really means is if you'll remember when we b adopted the budget last year, we had projected an ending fund balance of negative 2.2 million and that was very conservative. If some things didn't kind of fall our way, um, luckily they they did. And so what that what that does moving forward is kind of change the outlook for the rest of the year for a span of time. And so when you end with a negative fund balance, that's a little better position than we thought. Then we'll actually be around $2 million at the end of the year instead of 1.6, which is great. I mean, again, the goal is to get to positive as we move to a um a more sustainable financial stability for ourselves. And
077so that increases the fund balance to 2.5%. Again, the the faroff goal that we're trying to reach is probably six million, 7 million. We know we're a ways from that, but this is part of a longer plan to get there. Um, that was really exciting. I was really nervous about it and we walked through it over and over again to make sure it was right. We partnered with the ESD for that. Uh, we have a meeting with OSPI around it, uh, next week, I think. Um, so that was great news. It was, uh, exciting to move forward. we are trying to have our um actual ending fund balance be closer to what we're projecting them. And so you'll see from us it'll be more conservative like this moving forward. An update on enrollment. Uh October's
078enrollment was 4 point uh 4232 students that included some running start numbers. We did budget for 4375. And again, even if we fall short of that number, we now have a greater cushion because we ended in a better position than we thought we would. And that's all I have for the quick budget update. What questions do you have for me? >> No questions, just a thank you. That's a lot of work and and appreciate the conservative and then ending better than we hoped. So, I apprec and I appreciate the the information every single week to keep that on the forefront. Appreciate that work, >> of course. And I imagine the ESD is happy to see that we're trending this direction as well too since they're over >> as well as OSPI. Yeah, they we we've
079>> been in long talks with them about how it's just a longer process than any of us really want it to be. But yeah, they're they're excited and again that goes back to the decisive action that was taken last winter. That was really hard to move through, but you we couldn't get to this position without those hard decisions, >> right? So, >> and I appreciate the communication that you're constantly having with both of those entities to keep us on track. I am curious since you're having those conversations with OSPI and >> just other how many other schools are experiencing this type of situation. I know that we we have a good agreement with them as we're working through this. Some schools are facing much bigger >> Yeah, I think it's I think it's 10 or
080I think it could be 10 or 11 now. Belleview just fell into binding conditions at the end of last year as well. Um, which I think is pretty indicative of what's happening in budgeting across the state if a if a district Belleview size with that sort of tax base is in this a similar boat. Um, yeah. >> Yeah. I mean I you know I'm not that cool so I hang out with other school administrators um who are lead and so I this last weekend I talked to um leaders for two other districts that are that are larger than us um but they are also facing some significant budget cuts both both of those two districts and so it it's still a ripple effect the compounding uh factors of inflation um and increases in pay that
081that is going to get you when the revenue goes down. There's there's you can't escape it and it does take time. It's a I think some people think it's just like a quick shift your budget, but you already have commitments well in advance and there you know you're years out and so it does take a couple years to get back to um in this environment. And um the last thing because I think this is key, the state is facing a shortfall in enrollment. So enrollment is also hitting other districts. So, not only are you having the feds and the state uh decreasing funding, you have inflation and then you have this last variable which is coming into play for the state in a lot of districts. Not every district, but is a decrease um in
082the students. There's just less bursts, less people are having kids. I don't think that's a surprise to most people, but it is starting to come into play where this last probably last couple uh cohorts of graduating, you'll start to see less less students um and even our students can notice that too. So, um it's just it's just something that's coming for well over a decade. you're gonna start experiencing a decrease in enrollment and that just makes uh forces district to have to contract um based on that. So I just want to put that out. >> Yeah. And and we've talked about this before. Um when revenue increases, your your expenses don't increase in a parallel, right? It takes a little bit to catch up. And the same is true when your revenue decreases. So as
083enrollment is declining across the state. We are a bigger ship. We do have those commitments early in the spring. So as your revenues are decreasing, you can't decrease expenses in a in a parallel move. It takes a little bit to catch up for it. And so that you will see that ripple throughout the whole state for sure. >> And that was the end of that one. >> Hold on. >> Okay. Go ahead. >> So um I I already lose a ton of sleep over the the money. Anyways, >> uh coming up here first of the month where every time I'm in there I asked >> um come the first of the month when when the federal government really starts running out of money. How much sleep should I be losing compared to the sleep I'm
084losing now? Right now, we're being told to act as if they'll figure it out and that we the so the big ones that are impacting that would impact schools that haven't had any discussion around is the meals program is a fedally funded meals program. Uh special education is large for every district across the country. um and the title programs and so far we haven't heard anything I haven't heard anything I I'll pass to wife too that has been telling us to act any differently than than to move as if those monies are coming >> if we do hear something um at this point it's healthy for everyone not to worry about it until it actually occurs and then we'll make strategic decisions based off that. >> It's my job to worry about it. >> It's
085the food right now. Um the food this next month in November um that is that is going to hit families snap uh and it's called different things in different states. So some people might not know it as that but that will hurt families and that's going to hurt us. I mean I think sometimes we think oh what about the district? Well, as you can hear from some of the stories, especially Mary Johnson, you know, like what's impacting attendance as Director Davidson asks. Well, if you don't have students having food at home, you know what that means? That means it's rough times. >> Yeah, >> that's a super stressor. Food insecurity is a real thing. >> So, it isn't it is going to have a ripple effect within just a couple weeks um if something's if
086something's not done. And there is some expectation is as SNAP if SNAP isn't funded then we would see meal participation increase during the day here at school and we're we're we're built for that. So >> okay thank you. >> Of course. >> And now the next thing. >> Sure. All right. We're going to walk through quite a bit of slides. It's kind of a truncated work session in reality. There'll be a lot of data. Um there's some kind of key takeaways at the end I want to identify at the beginning. Um, we want to talk about the difference between it being a new tax, which is not. It's a replacement tax. It's not a new tax. Want want to recognize that Shelton has a long history of passing levies in this community. It's actually actually
087when I was doing the research it and diving into the data from the county was really impressive actually. Um, I want to talk about McCclary a little bit. We'll see that in some of the graphs, how the mccclary decision reduced local control and kind of um, how that impacted us specifically. And then also how when you pass a levy, it obligates the state to give us some additional dollars, which really means we get to reclaim some of the taxes we pay to Olympia and bring those back into our local community. Um, I want to also want to clarify um how that if your personal properties assess valuation increases, that does not automatically mean we collect more money from you in taxes. That's not how the system is designed to work. We'll walk through a quick
088example of that kind of simplified version. Um, we will walk through a a familiar slide about how it's positively impacting all students across the system. Uh, and then talk about how the finances look and and what it looks like at the different rates and what it means for each taxpayer, for the average taxpayer, I guess. Great. So, I was ti this is 25 years in Shelton passing the levy in the in the in the 60s percentile and that is really impressive. Uh there's a small dip in 2020 and 23, but that happened everywhere. Uh and we still passed to them here, which is impressive because that that passing rate really dropped down to like 75% last time. It just really took a hit. So it's just really impressive. There's been a long history of the
089community investing in students to create and build better citizens for the community. And it's just really impressive. So I want to talk about that. Um what that meant was that over time since 2010 this is what the tax rates look like in levy collection. And so at the high point you'll see in 2017 that the taxpayers are supporting the students at $453 per thousand. And I don't know if I got a pointer in here. Yeah, I do. Great. Um and then you can't see it anyway. Okay. Doesn't matter. It's big enough on the graph. In 2018, McCleary happened and what that did was it did something called a levy swap and it reduced local control and said as you no longer can support your local community can no longer support your school at whatever dollar
090amount they want. You now are max at a $150. And that was such a burden for school districts that the next year they said okay now we were wrong. Now it can be 250. All right. So, we've been trying to really recoup those losses since 2019. It was a really difficult year for every school district across the state. Um, and really as a mechanism to save the state dollars and we'll get to that in a second. And so, this is what the tax rate has looked like and that collections look like over time. Currently, this year it's 2025, it's $2.20. Next year it'll be $2.25. Okay. So in dollar [clears throat] amounts those tax collections generated roughly $7 million before mccclary. You see that section in orange that's I think $4.3 million lost from local
091taxpayers to this school district. That was such a burden. Like I talked about they said, "Okay, fine.$ 250." That was still over $2 million loss from what we were normally trending as regular predictable tax contributions from your community investing in students in the Shelton School District. When they did that, they also created a school state tax that did not make up this difference. Nor nowhere near. We were at 450 went to a$150 and they gave us 81 cents. And that math does not math, right? Um All right. So, as part of passing a levy, we talked about this a couple times, you can get what's called local effort assistance, and it's really designed to provide schools in property poor districts, but it's not property poor. It's really commercial property poor. We we can't compete with
092Olympia and Everett with the amount of commercial property with the high assessed valuations they have of those big things. locally, Walmart is a big assessed valuation in our community. Um, Sierra Pacific is another big one. So, we we really just can't compete with those. And so, you'll see at the same time mccclary happened with that levy swap in 2018, we're collecting three million. It dropped to 2.6 million. That's because they changed the formula for local effort assistance. And so, we received less local taxpayer dollars and we received less money from the state. And they changed that formula. and I I don't want to bury the leadup to save money, right? That's just what happened. So, they changed that formula again during the last session. So in uh 20 uh 26 in the teal color, we'll
093receive over almost $3 million in LEA. And then next year, if the if we pass a levy again, what that obligates the state to do is pay us this LEA dollars, reclaim some taxes that we send to Olympia with our regular property taxes and sales tax. That brings it back to our local community. And you'll see it jumps up to three million and then tears back down. and and that again that tier down is planned in the formula by the state to overall start saving more money again. So the important part of this slide is that if we pass a a local levy here, we get millions of dollars from the state coming back to us into our community. All right. So there's a misconception that if your property values increase, we automatically collect more
094money. And so we're going to do just a quick simplified levy and walk through that really quickly. So, if the school levy was $1,000 and there were only four homes in the district, all at $425,000, everybody would pay $250 a year to support that tax commitment to the schools. If your property taxes increased by 20%, that doesn't automatically increase the amount you're paying because the local levy is still only $1,000. So, everyone still only pays the $250. That make sense? Great. The magic happens with new construction and 1% of our assessed valuation growth uh has been traded at as 1% of it has been new construction. And so if a new home comes into the market now that tax commitment is shared by more people. And so then the amount the individual is paying at
095home actually is lessened to $200 in this example. All right, great. Because we're going to get to some uh I got to make fun charts and colorful graphs. We'll get to some data tables that aren't as fun to look at. So I apologize in advance for those. So, we're getting to those next. >> I think we should bring this problem to MS's math because they were working on denominators if anybody was listening. I'm just I'm just putting >> so the end changes, right? >> Teacher and me, middle school teacher and me, >> right? So, that's what that looks like. And, um, you know, if a giant company came in to town, that shifts everything, right? Um, okay. So, where do those levy dollars go? And we talked a lot about this in broad terms. the
096basic education enhancements. It's all of the levy funds the gap that we do not receive from the state. And that gap has been growing as they've been trying to carve out ways to save the state money. Um so athletics and activities, those have never been covered by the state. Utilities, insurance, other material operating costs that aren't fully covered by the state, all those are made up by the levy. And so what that looks like in a little a little more detail, not exhaustive detail, is safety and security, nurses, mental health services, counselors, teachers, pareducators, curriculum. Curriculum is so expensive, only gotten more expensive. And the amount we get for it has grown just a slight bit every year. It's it's not keeping up. Nothing's keeping up. Um, with athletics and activities, all the athletics, arts,
097drama, music, I was shocked when I came in that first day and I walked through. We had a pool. I I It's just really impressive. All that stuff is made possible locally by the levy. Um, utilities, we talked about insurance, maintenance, custodial supplies, and all of the reductions that would happen if a levy fails are avoidable. These are all avoidable reductions as long as a levy passes. The things that we can't make any reductions to are utilities or insurance. Those things don't get cheaper. Uh, and also, we've talked about this before, too. It's a little complicated, but now the state has moved some dectures around and say we're fully funding special education. Well, the offset that we were funding from the levy, it's just a swap. So that offset is still a required cost somewhere.
098So what that would mean is that if we failed the levy, it's over $10 million. And so the cuts have to come again mostly from staffing because that's what these programs are. We're a people business. That's what makes the difference in kids' lives. So, want to walk through that. All right. So, now we're going to go through three different scenarios that you guys can um think through as options as we move through for move towards a February levy. There are probably an infinite number of options, but these are the three main scenarios that districts are looking through uh at. So, this first one is we're collecting $ 8.2 million next year. What does it look like if we keep the amount the same? And so of course as assessed valuation increases, keeping the amount the
099same drives the tax rate down. It's just an inverse relationship. That's what happens. The problem with keeping the amount the same is that no other costs are saying the same and they haven't been saying the same. And so if we talk if you think back to that slide about how we were collecting roughly 7 million in 2015 and then dropped down like we've not caught up with where we should be already like the 2015 number of 7.125 would be like $9 million in today's dollars and so we're kind of a little behind already. So this but but it's an option that districts are evaluating is scenario one. The other thing I want to walk through in this slide is the assessed valuation growth is kind of in the middle of the slide. It starts off
100at 12.3% and it goes down to 3.79 uh for next year. I also want to thank the county. They gave me preliminary assessed valuation numbers. They don't they don't have to do that. I was really grateful so I can make some of these calculations. I should probably put an asterk there because they of course are subject to change. So our last um handful of years from 2018 to 2026 our assess evaluation growth is more than 9%. And so some districts are saying great our trend is 9% we're going to project out a 9% growth. That is too aggressive for me. And so all of these models are built off 5% which feels much more conservative much more realistic. And so all um with all these calculations it's based off assessed valuation growing at 5%. All
101right. Um I guess just real quick uh we have years we have assessed valuation that TAV is timber assessed valuation which I'll be honest is new to me. I come from an aid desert climate so we didn't get any timber valuation assessed valuation. So it was nice to see. And then the total AV and then the growth rate what the A uh EPO levy had been and what that tax rate had been. So even in 2018 it was $46. The other thing important is we also have a bond tax rate, right? There's more than just one local tax. In 20 I think 2017 the the voters approved a bond and that tax rate is also being driven down. And so we'll talk about what that means for the levy as well uh in a couple
102slides. Scenario two is the most common um kind of strategy and that's keeping the rate the same. And the idea around that is creating predictability for our taxpayers. So the rate next year will be $225. If you keep that rate the same, that generates 8.6 million, 9 million, 9 and a.5 millionish, but the rate stays at 225. So it creates a a predictable level for our taxpayers. And the final one is what does it look like if you go to the new levy maximum? So in 2017, we were at $453. Now it can only be $250 50. What does that look like? So that generates nine and a half million, 10 million, and 10 and a half million. And that's just the amounts that generated based on the different tax rates. So those are type
103of the the three main scenarios that districts are looking at. Keeping the amount the same, uh keeping the rate the same, and maxing the rate. The research research has shown that maxing the rate doesn't have a big difference. It's just a lot more about the messaging. Um I'm not advocating either way. Hey, I'm trying to provide as much data as possible so you guys can make an informed decision. So, that's a lot of data on a lot of slides. I tried to pull it all together a little more succinctly and then pull out that state match of what we're supposed to be getting projected to get over the next three years and what it means for the average valued home in the Shelton school district, which is a little less than $400,000, about $400,000. So,
104again, this is not a new tax. So, option scenario one is $72 per month, but that's not new. people are paying some similar to that already. A scenario two, which is keeping the rate the same, is $75 a month uh for the average home. And if you maximize the levy, it'd be $83 a month. Question. Okay, great. Sure. I got one more slide. Uh because we brought this up earlier. the bond rate is being driven down over time. And so that that actually impacts the overall tax rate that folks are paying. And so the actual increase over the three-year levy is not the same as if you um if you didn't have those rates dropping. And so comparing scenario one, two, and three to what people will be paying next year, scenario one would be
105a$155 less a month. Scenario two, which is keeping the rate the same, would over the life of the levy would be $9 more a month. And scenario three, which is maximizing the levy, would be less than $17 a month. So, that was a kind of a tricky Oh, and the folks at home have a different slide because I couldn't get it to DRI in time. And the reason it changed is because I did it wrong. And I com I compared scenario two to scenario one, scenario one to scenario two, scenarios three, scenario two. Super complicated, didn't make any sense. So, I scrapped that at like 5:30 and made this slide. Uh, so I apologize for the folks at home. Okay, that was a lot of data relatively quickly. Normally, it would be a work session.
106It'd be a lot slower, I think. Um, so the key takeaways from all this are these. This is not a new tax. There's a long history here in Shelton of having a replacement levy, just kind of maintaining a tax throughout time to invest in our students and our community. McCclary reduce that local control, but we can recapture some of the dollars we send to Olympia and bring them back into our community when we pass a levy. An increase in your assessed valuation of your home does not automatically mean we collect more money and that these levy funds, most importantly, they positively impact every student across every school in our system. Uh, and then the math of it is that maximizing the levy is less than $17 a month. So, it's a lot. The the three
107ones I bolded are in my mind the most important things. It's not a new tax. Let's get some of that tax money that we pay to Olympia anyway by passing the if we pass the levy. And it it really impacts every student. And such it's such a high dollar amount. I know I've said the word catastrophic maybe so many times it's not it's losing its meaning but losing more than $10 million in disregard any size is just catastrophic. It's it's really hard to move back come back from. So with all of that I think I'm at this section where I ask what questions do you have for me? >> Thank you. I know this a lot of data but maybe it's because I've stared at it a lot for the last few days. It makes
108a lot of sense. So thank you. And I would encourage anybody who's listening online or watching post meeting, this will be available and to >> not [clears throat] only will we post this online, but my email address is on there if anyone wants to talk more details what this looks like. I am happy to get into the weeds with anybody who wants to do it >> because I think it's easy to misunderstand how levies and bonds and all that. You did a great job walking through those. >> Um, I'm going to ask something you said a couple of times. If we don't pass a levy, not only do we not get the tax money, but we also lose the three >> million dollars in local effort assistance from the state. Right. Yeah. >> So, you
109don't get your local money, you don't get the state money. >> That's right. >> Combined. >> They kind of do kind of kind of a matching program and you and when you would need it the most, you don't get any of it all. So, that's just how the system works. >> And looking at the numbers for the three scenarios, >> yeah, >> if we stick with the one, number one, >> we're on trajectory hopefully to be out of binding in a couple of years. If we were to change those, I think it's 2.5 million more for scenario one or for scenario two and about 5.5 for scenario three if I'm doing math approximately right. >> Yeah. >> Does that get us back on track at a expedited rate? >> Um, so >> that makes sense.
110>> Battling back from a negative fund balance. We've talked a lot about how it's a multi-year process. when we were forecasting and building that plan, it was probably more around scenario two because that is kind of the best practice to keep the tax rate level >> um over time to create that predictability. If you did scenario one, >> it would make it take longer. It's not that scenario two would be faster. It's that scenario one would actually be longer than we've initially planned. >> Then could we say scenario three would be faster? >> Scenario three would be faster. I'm just thinking we're running lean, had to lay people off running at minimums. >> Scenario three, you'd be >> expedite the process of maybe getting us out of that. >> Yeah. Um so we're supposed to
111have a um a fund balance that is non-restricted. We've talked a lot about that. Most of the um since Wyatt's been here, the fund balance has been restricted, which means that they're grant dollars that are specific. All those dollars are named and they can only be used for a specific purpose. And you're really supposed to have an unrestricted fund balance that allows you to kind of do anything with those dollars. And our unrestricted fund balance should probably be $6 million, $7 million. And that is a bit a ways away. Um, so going to scenario three would I don't want to say expedite, but it would make it move quicker. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Am I right in remembering that if the levy was to not pass, it is one in four teachers, we wouldn't
112be able to fund anymore. >> So when Clinton pulled up the slide of the dollar, if you want to go back to that slide, I think that slide demonstrates what happens right there. um is when you look at that utilities, the reason we highlight the utilities, we have to pay those utility bills no matter what. So there's no there is no real savings on that 70%. You have to go back into your fund general fund and find dollars to continue to pay for your water, your insurance, right? Your and the power. So you're going to have to pay towards those anyway. So you're just even taking more monies from that general fund and have to go to that. And the part that comes in is that you continuously those everybody's salaries got this like you
113know like 10 to $20,000 it comes attaches to their salary is being paid out of the levy because the state is un is their average for a teacher is $77,000 they're giving us even though the average teacher is 95,000. So when you overall so that is all positions. So then you have to prioritize you're always going to prioritize the classroom teacher because you have to by law have to have that then it becomes a real challenge is prioritization of which positions that come after that and um very little would be left of positions after classroom teachers. Um, and so a lot of other things would never we would not be able to afford. If you, as we like to say, if you thought 2 million was a lot, 10 million, you can understand what that
114what that becomes. You can think of the scale of that. >> And the tricky thing is, you know, um, we talked about this before. I think um K brought it up with Yelm now charging $1,300 for their sports because you can't afford to offer sports. But families want sports. So if you can't figure a way to offer it, then they pull their kids from your district and go to a district that has sports, which then reduces your FTE, which reduces your revenue, and it just becomes this cascading failures down the system. It's just a real It's just vital. And that's just the athletic piece. I mean, there's way more areas. Everything you could think of is touched by the levy. Well, and that's what I want to bring up again, too, because I think that
115this is something that having I've now been on the school board for 10 years, and it's still a education to fully understand all of this stuff. But I think that what um some of community members don't understand is that we the school district gets paid on a protottypical model that is not the amount that is actually in place to educate the students in your school. You don't get enough funding for custodians. You don't get nurses. You don't get enough funding for teachers. And so all of that does come out of whether or not your community passes a levy. Some communities have chosen not to vote for their levies. I know people from Yelm that were talking about that happened to see them for athletics because their daughter plays volleyball, too. And yes, they they said
116they lost all of their clubs, all ASB. They have to transport their students if they're wanting to do athletics to any of those things. they they can only have a certain amount of athletics that the community is willing to support or get funding for. And it that was really eyeopening and I know that there were conversations with intelligent people that I know of in Yelm and they were saying, "Well, I didn't vote for it because we have a brand new school in Yelm. It's a beautiful building." Well, that was a bond. That's not your levy that continues >> with the other part of it. So there is it's hard to sometimes fully understand the impact of these things. >> And it still makes me upset seeing because I was on the school board. I was
117new to it when our community did pass the levy and the bond and then they took that levy funding away from us. And I kept thinking, well, how can they do that? Our community said yes. They they voted yes on this amount >> and they're like, well, that's what's happening now. So they're taking that back. I am happy to see that they've changed the calculation >> so that it I mean whatever amount is going to be helpful but it is really imperative that that our community they have historically passed levies because our community has invested in students and if we don't pass it we don't get that levy equalization. >> Yeah that is exactly right. And so we talk about like it's a multiaceted issue. And so there isn't state funding for the transportation for
118athletic after school programs. The only funding for the yellow buses everyone sees are to get kids from their house to the schools and back during the day. Anything beyond that is levy funded. >> Yeah. Coaching, all of that. >> Yeah. All that. All that stuff. Exactly. >> And I know that our school district has benefited from other school districts that have not passed a levy. And we have had teachers, athletic staff, athletic directors come and join our school district when their the communities that they worked in. >> Our head of nutrition came from Yale. Our athletics came from Centria. >> Yes. Um those are >> and I was recently in Centriia at a volleyball game and they were thanking everyone in the crowd at that volleyball game for passing their levy. Yeah because it because
119it does directly benefit their students and their community. >> Um couple things. Uh, first of all, awesome job explaining all of this in terms that the three youth down at the end of the table are all nodding their head and they they're you you've got this down to they get it. >> Great. They're super smart. That was >> and the other thing that I want to say is and honestly I I hope I'm speaking to every kid in the school district one way or the other out there. >> This is for you. So, you need to understand this also and talk to your parents about it. This is big- time conversations for for everybody out there. This, you know, yes, adults are going to ultimately pay this, but this is for kids. End of story.
120It's not for adults. It's for the future of the town, the county, but it's for the kids and and everything that they're going to do from here on out. And so when you guys go home to your parents, you know, explain this. Um, if anybody has any questions, get a hold of Mr. Sherman. >> Um, Clinton enjoys explaining this on a level that is actually a little scary. >> Um, that's true. >> But he will talk ad nauseium um until you understand. And this is good stuff. And I >> I also promise I'll make it reasonably entertaining. >> Y >> I also want to say that think that's a great point. Um, if you grew up in the Shelton school district, you benefited from the community passing levies because this history, this town is a
121long, way longer than 25 years I grabbed of passing levies. So, if you grew up here, they've always passed a levy for you. >> Can I can I echo or ask a question here? Um, >> people had frustration last year with budget cuts and how we got there. If that's still a sticking point, you're inviting those questions as well. How did we get here? >> What are we doing? All of those questions, you're saying give them to you, right? >> Any questions and even some any weird rum like whatever rumors, whatever you're hearing that feels weird or you want some clarity around, we are happy to provide those context and answer those questions 100%. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Of course. >> I got nothing else. >> Great. >> Thank you very much. >> All
122right. student reports. We're gonna start with Cedar. Allan, what do you got? >> Yeah. So, uh I don't know if it was possible, but I think there might be a picture coming up over over on the screen. I'll give it a few. Yeah, there we go. There we go. There it is. So, yeah. So, as I've announced at the last schoolboard meeting, uh tomorrow is the Cedar High School haunted house/bake sale. The theme is flesh and wire. Depending on how old you are will scare you a lot or a little bit. Um, it's going to be from 5 to 8:30 p.m. over at the old Mountain View gym right in front of this building and it's going to it's going to be a great time. I've been helping setting up set set it up uh
123right before this meeting. I was actually setting up directly after school. Started setting up until this meeting started. So, so I'm a little tired and yeah, it's going to be a great time. We're going to have some baked goods. Uh, this is all being put on by seniors and we've been getting a lot of help from the school group, uh, Friends of Cedar. It's a nonprofit organization that was formed at Cedar High School by teachers and community members who are interested in giving us a little bit more support. So yeah, the bake sale is specifically to raise funds for us seniors so we can do other fun stuff, more events like this for the community as well as fun things for ourselves. You know, a little bit of 50/50 in there. And apart from that,
124other than it's going to be, you know, best haunted house you've ever been to, apart from that, um, we also had a senior field trip today to Evergreen and that was through the Shelton Promise. So, all of our seniors got to go got to go to Evergreen and learn more about it. Unfortunately, I wasn't there because I was taking the SAT today. So the so Cedar students have started the process of taking the SAT, signing up for it. And to go along with that, this week we're having spirit week and on Friday people are uh students are welcome to wear their costumes. Teachers as well, they're also welcome to wear their costumes. We also had our conferences last week and I'm glad to say that the senior class had a 100% attendance rate for their
125conferences. every single one. And for the haunted house, we've gotten a lot of we got a lot of help from Brunie on Sunday. He came here to help us out, uh, help us set up, brought some supplies for us, and we had a great time. As well as Beth, who has been helping the seniors a lot lately, and ASB has started a pumpkin carving contest between all the grades. So, here's the hoping that the seniors win that. >> Naa, >> I will start kind of where everybody's like been expecting. So, I'll start with homecoming. We had our homecoming game the week before last week on Friday, which went really well for our team. Um, congrats to Cedar Wy and Mason Guard for winning homecoming king and queen as well as Miss Eileen Permit who we
126crowned as our honorary queen for homecoming because she shows up to every single sporting event. She was an alumni or she was a teacher actually at Shelton High School a few years back and she's been at every sporting event. We just wanted to recognize her for her commitment to Shelton High School and our Hoku dance went pretty decent. And I know that our leadership talked about it recently and we think there is some room for improvement, but there always is. We have our Halloween game this Friday, which you'll never guess it, but the theme is Halloween. Um, our spirit week went really well. A lot of teachers even really enjoyed it, which sometimes it's a little difficult to get our teachers involved in some things, but this year the involvement has been exponentially better than
127other years. And then some high notes of this week especially. We had our FFA leave for nationals at Indianapolis. They left today actually. And we had our own SHS student who was [snorts] a state delegate to go to nationals and he was actually taken completely for free. It's Lane Stony and he is the president of our chapter office and our district office and our state chose him to go and he was the only child picked from Washington to go to nationals. So he went completely for free. They're putting him up in a hotel. All that stuff is really awesome. Bowling had their first meeting. So our winter sports are starting to kick off. Basketball triyouts and other winter sports are fast approaching. We have a Veterans Day assembly that's coming up on Wednesday the 12th.
128So, if any of you guys are veterans or if you just want to come and obviously show respect to our veterans in the community and we're going to highlight some of our teachers and staff who are veterans. We have our honor society induction coming up here pretty soon. We've sent out letters to all of our juniors who have qualified to be in our honor society. So, that's really exciting. I know I'm excited. I get to light the leadership candle. So, that'll be pretty neat. And I also wanted to thank all of our teachers and staff that helped out with conferences. It was a really long week and I know I was there on Wednesday. I stayed to help out because we do climber crew at my school and so I stayed and helped out with
129it and that was a long night for me and I was only there for one one night and so I just wanted to thank all of our staff and our teachers for that because that was really hard and [snorts] leadership saw that too. So we're writing all of our staff thank you notes this week and it's totally like on our free will like we came up with it and we're all doing it. So, no one's being forced to write a thank you note. So, it's really nice. And we have props to our fall sports for an amazing season. I know our football team had a rough season last year, but this year the the games even doesn't like not even like winning and losing like just the spirit at our school has been so much
130better. Like you don't see people walking around like dogging on our football team anymore. Like people are genuinely proud of our sports this year and it just changes the whole environment at our school. We have our Shelton DECA which I mean I'm the president of it so I have to mention it but we are going to our first conference this November and we're taking 38 students which is actually a really big record because it's like a public speaking and business conference so it gets so many people out of their comfort zone and it's mostly freshmen that are going which is really impressive because it's really hard to get freshmen to want to do these kinds of things. And then we had our trunk or treat that we were gonna have this Friday. It's actually changed.
131We're just gonna hand out candy at the football game. I know that you guys are wondering about that. So, I want to let you know we had soccer senior night which is really amazing. I know our soccer team has worked really hard this year. I know volleyball did they already they tomorrow? Yeah. Okay. Tomorrow is volleyball senior night and football had theirs way earlier in the season, but senior nights have gone really well. And then also on my last little note, we have tons of college visits this week at our career center which Cedar and Choice are both invited to have their students come to those. We had Witworth today which is really nice. I spoke to her. She's very informative. And UduBub will be there tomorrow and Evergreen will be here on Monday. And
132there's some more colleges than that, but those are just the ones that I have on top of my head. But yeah, that's all. >> Okay. Doublegill. >> I'm Abby from Choice. And this month we had our assembly for PBIS, an award assembly for good grades. We had spirit week this week. On Friday we're having um our like competition who can have the best Halloween costumes. Um middle school has been working on their fire project. They have made an art gallery thing. They have been working on their spooky science project. Open Doors have been decorating the halls and new floors in their classroom. The students did their GED. One person got a one 51 on their math GED. The path pathways have been working on their skills in the community. >> Thank you. All good stuff.
133All right, let's move on to item number six, the consent agenda. Has everybody had a chance to look at that? >> I would take a motion. >> I motion that we adopt the agend consent agenda. >> I second the motion. >> All righty. All in favor? >> I Okay, then. Item number seven, discussion and action items be 7.01, the proposed revised policy number 2195, the academic acceleration, Adrien Minry. >> Good evening, uh, board president, other esteemed board members, Superintendent Jesse, and student board or student representatives. Um I'm here tonight to uh present an update to policy 219 a proposed update to policy 2195 about academic acceleration. So um this poly policy has required some looking out for some time. Um there were updates to uh state law through the legislation and then WASDA updated their
134model policy. So, uh, we took a look at ours and modeled the proposed updates after the WASDA policy and then that required some looking at some other policy and procedure to make sure where there were where potentially there was overlap. Um, so we did end up then needing to look at the procedure. the policy was fully up to date for 2190 but the procedure then for 2190 and then some forms needed to be updated um in relation to 2195. So in the um in the model policy and in state law it's really around academic acceleration for uh high school in particular. Uh some of the key changes in languages or in language were that rather than just encouraging students to in uh enroll in a more challenging course rather to put mechanisms in place to
135ensure that those systems were taking place more automatically so that for example if a student passed the SBA and ELA that they would be enrolled. Um and then also that there would be opportunities for the advanced coursework and uh dual uh credit uh so for college credit. So for example that um passing an AP class at a certain level or taking a college in the classroom type of courses allowed for those credit opportunities for students. So, um, we did have language in our procedure around grades K through eight that actually is not addressed in legislation and is not in the WADA policy. And so, we took that language out. And then, um, you have those in front of you and updated, like I said, the procedures to make sure that those then followed the policy.
136So, opening it up. This is the first read of this policy update um to see if there's any questions from the board. [snorts] >> I didn't have any questions. I'm I'm looking at it again. It It seems pretty straightforward and and then axing out the the old information. >> Yeah. everything that that I've seen in it, it just seems to be updates to state law and such. So, >> I think that's what we were trying to do. So, [laughter] >> right. >> Okay. >> Well, I'll be back for the second read in two weeks. So, thank you. >> See you then. >> Okay. With that, we'll move on to board member comments. We'll start at the end with Mr. Dale. Yeah, thank you. Um, they're not here, but thank you parents and students that came
137out here. That is really one of the highlights of board meetings right now to get to hear from the different schools and students and to see all of the good things that are happening in our community. Um, thank you to all of the teachers and staff last week. I know it was conference week and I am married to a teacher and I know that conference week is a very long week. So, I appreciate all that effort that went into this last week. Um, thank you school representatives. You guys are doing a great job. Love hearing that. And and I would just I know we just talked about it for a long time. Encourage anybody with the budget and with this levy, if you have questions, reach out to a board member, reach out to anybody
138at the district level. Please ask your questions. Um, we don't know all the answers necessarily, but we'll make sure you get those answered. Thank you. >> Yes. I'd also like to thank all the families and brave students that came out here to talk today. Um, all the teachers and staff and families and volunteers who make conference week possible. I know every time we go to Bordeaux, it's such a great experience. and there's the option to purchase books and get new information and really grateful for all the positivity we see as the uh school years just flying by. And just reiterate, we've gone through all these school improvement plans that those absentees can add up really fast as we're getting into cold and flu season. And thank you Miss Davidson >> actually have a lot of
139things. Um, but yes, and thank you three for your student reports. I love hearing about what's going on in your school and Alan. I even saw a video of you on social media talking about the haunted house and I really was disappointed because the volleyball senior night is tomorrow night. So, I apologize. I would love to see all this effort that you're putting in over there. So, I'm I'm sorry to miss that. And Nvea, it was nice to see you. I was there for the conference conferences and Naa is amazing. She was right there in the front helping direct people, giving them maps. Um my husband and I met up there and conferences started at a specific time and it was literally like standing like a long line of parents standing outside waiting to come
140in. They had translation services for anybody that needed it. It was that crowd dissipated once people once they opened the doors and and you got a chance to go in and do that. But it was it was a lot of effort and work. So yeah, thank you very much to our teachers and staff for everything that they did for conferences. As a parent and as a board member, the conferences that I got a chance to to talk to a number of different teachers and wanted to share some of the feedback that I got um about our cell phone policy. It's been surprisingly positive all of it. Um what I'm hearing is teachers telling me they're able to get through more content in their classrooms. There's more focus. The students are talking more to each other
141and they were like sometimes that disruption is is you know it's a welcome disruption to see that. So um it was really nice to hear that um during the conferences and to get that direct feedback. Um, I also went to the senior night that was going on and the one of the assistant principles, Jordan, uh, put that on. It was really great information that was on, uh, really any pathway that a student might choose to take after high school. So whether that was military, college, career, technical, job, um, they had a number of different resources and it was also very well attended by parents. So that was really nice to see. It was very valuable information. I think that there's just so much that gets thrown at at you and I know there's other parents
142here that have seniors and it's just such a bittersweet year where you're hearing all this information and everything is like exciting but bittersweet at the same time. So, I appreciate them organizing that and and getting us all the information. Um, on a fun note, I went to the homecoming football game. The the uh students are always wonderful in the stands. There is a lot of spirit this year. The band sounds amazing. The cheerleaders are great. The dance team did well. The football team won the game. The the cheerleaders did a fundraiser for the first time. I think they've been trying to do this several years where they asked alumni to purchase a sweatshirt with their year on it. I did. I was a cheerleader for Shelton High School and I wondered if I would be
143the oldest one there and I was. [snorts] >> [laughter] >> So older than even the coach. She said she wasn't born my year. I graduated in 92. So that was kind of fun to represent [laughter] and be out on the field um and probably thoroughly embarrass my daughters who were up in the stands, but it was it was a lot of fun and it was a good fundraiser that they did. Um the other thing I did want to mention and it it made me think of this even with the Levy conversation. uh for one of the volleyball games, the Mason County Christian School brought a a group of their kids that participates. They've got a volleyball program for I think their fifth and eighth graders. And then there's a number of those students that come
144and play on the high school team. Even if they're not going to the high school, if they're doing, you know, their education in a variety of different ways because I've gotten to know a number of the parents and they're they had a huge section cheering on our our volleyball girls. They were all wearing their red volleyball jerseys. They It was It was really really wonderful to see that. And I do appreciate that, you know, whatever the sport is because I know that there's a lot of kids in our community that don't go to any of the high schools, but they want the athletic opportunities and those are there and available for all of the students that are here in our community. So, I just I really wanted to thank those kids for coming to that
145game and and they were they were great. They brought a lot of cheer to that. So, um, I will be at another volleyball game tomorrow night. It's it's still going on, but yes, it's it's exciting. We're getting to the point where fall sports are kind of wrapping up and now there will be a lot of other things, but it's all it's all good. And really appreciated the the improvement plans tonight and and just the students that got a chance to come up and and present to us. I love that part. That's it for me. >> All right. [clears throat] Not a ton left. Um, one thing I do want to shout out to uh Gretchen Meca or Melissa, our CTE director was uh the outstanding administrator of the year by the Washington Association of Career
146and Technical Administrators. So, good job there. Um, I will definitely be buying some pumpkin sugar cookies. I assume they'll be there at the thing. Uh, it's been a lot of fun to watch sports this year. uh football. It was also at the homecoming. Um Director Davidson did an awesome job. She does still have moves and it was a win-win if she did embarrass her kids. Um kind of bring it down a little bit with everything going on in the world. Um with all the good things that are going on here, we do uh we are going to run out of food at, you know, SNAP and a couple other programs like that. So if you have the chance, you have something extra on your pantry, um get it into the food banks. uh hungry kids
147don't learn so good. So, um anything that you can do to help. I know that on social media there was a call out by the u school nurses uh for uh toiletries and those sorts of things if you can get them in. They're not taking clothing right now because of of lack of uh room for storage, but um anything anything helps. So, with that, uh, I'm pretty much done. Uh, I would take a motion for an adjournment. >> I have a motion we adjourn. >> I second the motion. >> All in favor? >> I >> All right. 1956. We're out of here.