001All right, everybody. 6 o'clock. If we could stand for the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, with the agenda that you have in front of you, the only addition that I would add is after adjournment, we do have a short exempt session with no action. Uh, so we'll adjourn and then go to that. Are there any other additions? I would take a motion. I move. Oh, >> I can't hear you down here. >> Do you got it? >> All right. So, >> after we adjourn, we'll do a short exempt session with no action and we'll leave from there. We can do that. I just
002found out. Um, so if there's nothing else, I would take a motion for the agenda. So I move that we add the exemp session to the agenda and I move that we approve the agenda for this evening. >> I will second both of those. >> All in favor? >> I with that we'll move on to the superintendent report. Mr. Jesse. Thank you, board president Wheelander, other board directors, staff, and community member. Uh, a little limiting today. Um, I, uh, I guess I'll just start off. It was a great summer. Went to a number of events. Um, mostly centered around food. Uh, so, uh, my belt is a little bit tighter than I I want by the end of the summer. This is supposed to be the time that I'm supposed to lose weight, but that
003did not exactly happen. um had a really good time interacting. I know a number of uh staff uh also uh especially from district office were out at events this summer just really trying to get out there and connect. Um it's just a really good opportunity for us to share, you know, updates about the district, update information. You know, as many times I've gotten up here that, you know, uh we'd love to give factual information. So, there's always a lot of like questions folks have like, "Does this work?" I I had one this morning uh from a dad. Uh I've had many about the budget. I've had I mean, just a lot about transportation. Do we have enough bus drivers to all the way to like, "Hey, what's going on with the books or what's the
004expectations for kids?" So, we get a whole wide range. Um it has not been one particular topic. Uh but what I have overwhelmingly heard is a lot of positive things about the Shelton school district that that has been overwhelming this summer. Uh for sure. Um and people are really happy. I've got a lot of family members obviously we run into who are like, "Oh, I love sending my kid to OBJH and I love what's going on at the high school and the CT program and what my kids working on and um my kid loves to read like and so we just get a lot of good things. Um, and it's been great and uh sometimes there's some tougher questions that are absolutely great and it's even better when we're able to talk to them in
005person oneonone and so been really good. I want to thank all my staff who have been out there working hard, you know, over the summer to connect. Um, I just think it's kind of like the unthaw from COVID. I think finally other people are also branching out there. A special thank you to the Shelton Farmers Market because they've hosted us for a number of their best. So, we have a tent there and they've done a number of things to help out the district um including some supply drives. So, um those are always like to give uh a little shout out for those who have uh been partnering with us. Back to school festival was last Friday at Olympic Middle School. great event. Uh thank you so much uh directors Davidson and Wheelander, thank you for
006showing up. That was great. Um and uh it was very well attended, very also efficient. Sometimes that looked like we didn't have that many people, but we did just because it went a lot more quickly. Um these things called the computer and having the right spreadsheets and all the right enrollment. uh everything ready to go and our translation and interpretation services were right on so that we had the right documents in front of folks and also be able to explain things um to people. Backpacks were grabbed. We ran out of hot dogs. We always seem to run out of something. If it's not hot dogs, it's water or it's popsicles. Um plenty of folks out there. Luckily, a lot of people get fed. I saw a lot of smiles and I saw a number of
007kids that grabbed not just one hot dog, but two. So, I'm just I'm just letting you know if you if you double dip probably will eventually run out. Um, so I had a great time seeing a lot of kids, a lot of students I know uh especially going into my fifth year here with the school district. So, lots of familiar faces and sometimes I just can't recognize them because they've grown so so much even just over the summer. I'm like, think they look really familiar. Which school did you go to again? And so, um, that's uh really nice as well. I also we today we had jump start. So one of the things that we started a couple years ago was a a short transition for our incoming kindergarten um before school starts. So we
008have students come in for a couple half days to meet their teachers and other educators that we have at our three elementary sites. uh they it's really a awesome opportunity for the students to uh just learn structures and routines. How do I navigate? How do I get in line? Uh it's that's a really that's a really important thing. I know some pe a lot of people are listening who might be like huh like am I no actually like just getting in line and keeping space between themselves is a really key thing. Uh, and also how to use the bathroom, when to go to the bathroom, wash your hands, and sit down on the carpet. Like, those are big accomplishments in kindergarten, folks. All right, I got to some more. I got to work on my
009lines here. I like some of my best jokes and humor. So, but I um uh anyway, jump start. I want to thank the educators for doing that. Those are big deals for us because when school starts and those students who go through those couple days, already know how to quickly navigate school and we have no time to lose uh because we have 180 days with our students and we want to make sure that we can get things in mileage with them as best as possible. It's why I'm a huge proponent of early early learning. I love our ELC. So preschool is a really um important thing for us. Uh, one thing I've been teaming up with the YMCA and, uh, Mason County Economic Development Committee, uh, just yesterday, uh, Clinton Sherman, head of finance, and
010I met up with some folks. Uh, they got a we got a grant, $60,000 grant to explore early, uh, early learning, a preschool here in Mason County. So, some initials conversations, but if it was me and I could snap fingers, we would have a uh expanded early learn uh learning uh center for our families in Mason County uh because there is always a shortage of highquality preschool services. And so, a lot of working families need it and they need it at a rate or tuition that is truly affordable. I'm telling you, two kids in preschool is a mortgage payment. So, we really want to work on that. So, just exploring uh another positive things and um thank you Mason County EDC and Noimay for teaming along with us and envisioning some hopefully some more preschool
011opportunities here in Mason County. Last but not least, Cedar Choice uh Evergreen Campus. Really nice to see the sign outside of Cedar. It's really clear when you come around the corner. Um uh right there in the the main portable. So they have their uh campus there uh working with the staff already. Lots of energy and excitement about uh the ability to have Cedar Choice students work with Evergreen students and for uh Cedar and Choice to come together for some shared courses. Um just really lots of um ideas and also plans for this year that I think will really enhance the experiences for our students. We have a number of actually families outside of the Shelton catchment areas or our non- high schools. Uh even outside of there there are students seeking to go to Cedar
012and Choice. So that's where actually I continue to believe we will continue to see enrollment um at those two particular campuses as people are seeking kind of a smaller school experience. So with that I will conclude my comments. Lots to catch up from the summer. So just lots lots to say. Great. All good stuff. Um yeah. Okay. On to community comments. As part of the regular school board meeting, the board welcomes community members to make public comment in person and or by phone as conditions allow. Please see the full script with call-in instructions and guidelines for community comments displayed on the screen above. >> Nothing on the list. Anything online? Okay. On to item number five. Public hearing on proposed 2526 school district budget. Mr. Sherman, >> good evening. Um, today we're going to walk
013through what we uh, initially, well, in there's been no changes to what we talked about during the work session. I just want to walk through this again uh, for you guys to see it and see if any more questions and then you have a opportunity to vote at it at the end of the uh, agenda. Oh, get closer. >> A little closer to the mic. Great. I can I can lean. Um so just a quick reminder, we do operate more than general fund. That's what we've been talking about um the entire time I've been here. But we do have some other operating funds. The capital projects fund, debt service, transportation vehicle, and the ASB fund. Those all have expenditures in them and have revenues that come in. Those all balance really easily. Um here's a
014quick snapshot of those. These are all then approved by the board and then sent up to the state. And the aortionment level is the expenditure level that we are um the appropriation level is the expenditure level that's being approved tonight. Um no real changes here. The big uh news is that ending fund balance for the general fund will be a roughly a positive $1.6 million. That's not a different number than we talked about before in the past. This is a graph we've been looking at all year. This will be updated and reforcasted for next year. And that is all based off of enrollment uh and the revenue that comes in as we've talked about. Uh we're going to forecast 4,375 students coming in. That'll generate roughly $85 million. We plan to spend roughly 81. One
015thing of note here is that the state had made some changes to how you can spend MSOC dollars a couple years ago. And so I have to to let you know that we're getting 5.5.4 $4 million of basic ed for MSOC and we're spending 5.5 in these very strict categories. Just to let you know, we're not using those dollars allocated for MSOC in salaries. So, that's a disclosure. It's not required. Um, but this graph itself has not changed since we've been talking about it. We are still a peopleoriented business and that's where the majority of our dollars go. Um this will shift a bit as more and more as students come in and it looks but as of right now $85 million coming in 82 million $81 million going out with an any fund balance
016of 1.6 that is the general fund in a nutshell just really quickly the capital projects and those other operating funds have real strict um limits on what can be spent there. So the transportation vehicle fund can only buy buses. Debt service only services our debt. ASB is managed by the students and dictated it goes for uh those culture, athletic, recreational and social purposes and capital projects. There is just for for really small projects because we don't have any uh large constructions going on right now. And that is all I have. What questions do you have for me? >> Not so much question but just a a comment going through the study session. really appreciate the detail and the hard work that clearly went into this budget. Um, appreciate the forward forecasting and and a reminder
017I'm going to I guess I do have a question. Yeah. >> Um, on this track hopefully we'll be out of >> trouble couple years, two years down the road is what we're headed towards. >> Yeah. Yeah, I mean we talked about this in November and how diff and in January again is that um >> in the simplest form it's a numbers problem but to to fix this problem in one year would devastate all the educational programs and the good work that everyone's doing now. So to do it mindfully and respectfully of that of the reason we're all here is yeah it'll take a couple of years to to move through this process. So yeah so so next year will be $1.6 million. We're forecasting about $4 million fund bounce after that roughly and that'll all
018become more concrete as we as we get closer to it. >> That's great. And then looking at this the numbers that you used enrollment tried to stay very conservative because you want to air on that side. Is that correct? >> Yeah, the budget as a whole is conservative. What's not in this budget is the additional um OSSI dollars that are coming back in. We're getting another $150,000 of federal dollars coming back in. Those are not included in this budget because they were um we were made made aware of them too late in the budget process. Oh, sorry. >> Sorry, I stood up tall. Sorry. >> No, that's okay. Uh one one last question. Um transparency in the community wanting to follow along with the budget, see where we're at. People can keep up to date
019on that online and then you'll continue to report every >> Yes, that's exactly right. Monthly, I'll come and talk more about it. And if as always, if he has any questions, feel free to reach out, email me. um call. I'm happy to be with anybody who has questions. >> It's a complicated document, so happy to help. >> Yeah, I appreciated everything that you went over in the budget study session as well as keeping all of this online so that the public can see it. I know one of the things that I've been concerned about and and people in the public have too is our community businesses and making sure that we have communicated with them or have payment plans with them so that the people that we are doing business with, especially those here in
020our community. >> Yes, that is that is the focus. And I guess one of the things we talked about during the budget session is that our MSOC expenditures are higher, but they're higher on on purpose so we can get caught up with all these local vendors um and get out from under these outstanding invoices. It's exactly right. >> Thank you. It is still a little bit quiet like I keep >> Sure. That's my fault. >> Well, I Yeah, >> yeah, there there's definitely something weird with the sound tonight. >> Okay. All right. >> It's It's We haven't had a board meeting for a bit, so everything's a little rusty again. >> And there is some The air ducts in here are >> Yeah. >> very loud. >> Okay. >> The speakers back there are working.
021And so these I think we're working on so that it can hear better because the ace the way the air runs in here, it cuts off the noise that's back there. But when we do speak right into the mics, it is really helpful because that >> Yes, sir. >> Can I know I'm not the only one that has a magic mic over here? >> That's for sure. >> All right. Thank you. >> Anybody have any other questions? >> Yeah. Okay. Were there any questions in the public specifically about the budget hearing? Okay. Super. On to item number seven, the consent agenda. Has everybody had a chance to read all of that? >> I would take a motion. >> I move that we approve the consent agenda >> and I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor?
022>> I. >> Okay. Item number eight, uh, discussion and action items 8.01. 01 proposed revised policy number 4220 complaints concerning staff or programs by Tabitha Whiting. >> Good evening board. Can you hear me? Okay. Yes. Um so the policy and procedures that you have in front of you are a new um set of policies and procedures. Um, and the district decided that we wanted to really formalize a process for the community to voice concerns um, and get questions answered. And we reviewed a lot of different districts policies and procedures and really found that um, what I put in front of you is in alignment with what a lot of other districts are doing and also really in alignment with our current process. So, as a district, we believe the best way to address concerns and
023complaints is almost always at the lowest level with the person that's overseeing that program um or the person that was involved in that complaint. Um so, you'll see that in kind of the uh first step here, which is please go have a conversation with that person. Um I have found that most things are a result of a miscommunication or a misunderstanding. And then this goes on to formalize a little bit more of okay, I tried that and I still haven't had my concerns addressed. Um, what next? And so this gives people an opportunity that we've created a form to kind of make that process easier that they can submit to that individual's if it's a person, their supervisor or if it's a specific program um to the person that's in charge of that. And then
024again, if they're not satisfied with that, it can go to the third level, which is really at the district administration level, um, where we would take a look at that um, and do an investigation if that was appropriate. Um, and then also respond to the individual that had the concern in a formal written way so that um, it was clear what we investigated and what we found um, to address their concern or complaint. This is a first reading, so um, you're not approving anything today. Um, but I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the policy and procedures. >> There are any questions? >> Yeah, just a quick question. Um, this looks great. Is there anything that prompted putting this into policy or um is this proactive, reactive? What what prompted this? >> Yeah,
025this was really um to codify what we're already doing. Uh we want to make sure that if people have concerns that there is a clear process for them. um it's important um that they feel valued and heard and we believe that this gives them an avenue to do that. >> I guess the one question that I would have is just uh kind of in the interest of transparency uh if there is a um complaint about administrative staff, superintendent, board member, uh how is that going to be handled or where would that be in this? >> Sure. I think a lot of those would actually be handled through other policies and procedures that have formal processes that one would go through. Um, in the chance that there was a a really high level complaint, something like
026illegal in nature, um, the board would work with the your attorney, the district's attorney, um, to address the appropriate way to handle that. >> Yeah. So, this doesn't preclude other rights that people have. You can still have filings with the Office of Civil Rights, with OSPI, and also um as Tabitha was mentioning um around a a legal proceeding, a legal filing um with that. Um but there are a whole bunch of other processes that we have laid out. We've gone over curriculum, for example. I want to make a complaint on that. That has its own process outside of this complaint because there's a lot of specifics. Harassment, intimidation, bullying also has its thing. I also have a disciplinary one. Like, so I'm just trying to give some examples to that are very specific because they
027have a lot of things tied to those particular complaints on those particular issues. >> And this doesn't prevent someone from sending a concern to the school board. What this does is allows the school board to say, "Thank you. Here's the policy and procedure to have your complaint addressed." >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Fantastic job. >> Thank you, Becky. All right. Um, that was the first reading, so that's all we're doing with it. >> Thank you. >> We'll see you in a couple weeks. Okay. 8.02 proposed revised policy number 2413, equiv equivalency credit opportunities by Miss Chelsea Briggy. >> Good evening, members of the board, Superintendent Jesse. This is a second reading for policy 2413. So, this encompasses all of our equivalency credit opportunities that we have. Um, nothing has changed since the last
028reading. So, I will open it up if there were any additional questions. >> Any questions after the last one? Then I would take a motion. >> I motion to approve proposed revised policy number 2413, equivalency credit opportunities. >> I'll second. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I I >> All right. You got a policy. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh 8.03 proposed resolution 257 adopting the 20 uh 202526 school district budget. Uh I would take a motion on that. I move that we approve the proposed resolution number 257 adopting the 202526 school district budget. >> I second the motion. >> Okay. With that, is there any discussion? >> All right. All in favor? >> I >> We have a budget. Item number nine, board member comments. We'll start on the far end. Director
029Dale. >> Yeah, just a couple quick comments. I wanted to say thank you to Superintendent Jesse and his team for being out there in the community so much this uh this summer. You guys have been lots of places and lots of opportunity to talk to people. You've been using our local media uh routinely to get communication out and really appreciate that effort. I know it's a whole team and people who maybe don't always do that jumping in there answering questions. So, appreciate you guys doing that. Um, and then of course all the teachers going back to school this week, all the prep, all the classroom, all the time in there getting ready. We appreciate you. This is what we're here to do. So, thank you. >> Director Trump staff for all your hard work. It's
030much appreciated. We see you. Director Gilmore. Yep. >> I'm just looking forward to kicking off another school year and welcoming back all the teachers and thanking all the staff who have been diligently working all summer to bring back the teachers and um I'm just really looking forward to this year and keeping those uh literacy rates up on the rise. >> Director Davidson. >> Yeah, it's nice to be back in here. It actually felt like a pretty big break that we got this time for some reason, even though there's still a lot going on. Um, I do want to thank, you know, Robert, you and your team for keeping all of the schools looking great over the summer. I drive past them all the time and, you know, really appreciate the work that you and your
031team do. And thank you all over there for all of the preparation that you've done. The budget study session was excellent. That was really good to get us prepared and gave us an opportunity to ask a lot of questions. Really appreciate how open you are being and willing to take questions at any time from anyone um about the budget because that is such a serious issue and I think that it sounds like we've got some really good solid plans around that. So that feels good. The summer summit was one of my highlights from last week. I was so glad that that was mentioned. I went to that on Tuesday morning and stayed there for about an hour. There was a real positive energy that you could just sense and feel while you were in there.
032Um it was nice to see different teachers that I've known. I've it's striking me because I have a senior this year. I started on the school board when my oldest was a first grader and my youngest was a kindergartener. And my youngest, one of her teachers was in there and I was able to give her a big hug and tell her how much she has meant to my daughter because my daughter talks about her all the time. And you really get a sense for that that just how much teachers have meant to all of us in our lives. I'm sure every single one of us can think of one or two, if you're lucky, more than that, um, who have really touched your lives. and seeing that room full of educators wanting to get their
033professional development um was awesome. And then I will also say that going to the back to school celebration, I went to that on Friday and and there were a lot of people there and it sounds like there were a lot of people there that stood in line to get in there. But that was another opportunity because there were booths for each school and I had a chance again to have teachers come up to me and tell me that they really appreciated the education that was given to them. They felt like the school district listened to some of the things that they were really wanting to get some training on and and that occurred. So that was as a schoolboard member and a mom with kids in the school district, that was wonderful to hear. And
034it was just great to see kids faces excited, grabbing different backpacks, walking through the school hall being excited for school and the community services that were there. Timberland was there, Mason Health was there, um the farmers market was there. There were, you know, just different things that families could get connected to as well. So just the community partnerships that are represented there was really awesome to see and and I I loved that. So um I did remind you all about the board self assessment. So thank you for getting on top of that. I'm going to keep reminding you until that's done. It's a something that the school board does each year. We do a self assessment that is administered through WADDA and then we're able to look back on that and see some of the
035places that we would like to uh work on as well. Um, I also want to wish everybody just a the best school year that they can have. I know school starts next Wednesday. I know that there's a lot of um really giving community members out there because I know there's a group tonight that's getting things prepared for senior sunrise. That's just a senior class booster club and they're working hard to make things special for seniors this year. And it's really amazing how our community does come together for events like that. So, I'm actually feeling very positive about this next school year, even though it's bittersweet having a senior. So, all these things are are hitting a little harder than normal. >> All right, I'll finish this up. Um, super excited about reading scores and and
036our trajectory and where we are in the world. Um, we are uh setting standards and that is awesome. uh showed up to the back to school festival on uh Friday. Ended up or yeah, Friday ended up walking around the back of the school because the mob out front uh I wasn't exactly sure where to go. Um it was all happy mob, don't get me wrong. Uh once inside, uh everybody wanted to to say, "Hey, uh you know, thanks for all the programs. Things that are are going great. Everybody has a a far more positive um uh getting ready to go than I've ever seen before. Uh it was super duper neat. Um jump start. Uh I remember back to when I was getting ready to go to kindergarten and uh I do remember that. Um
037don't laugh. So um anyway, I remember what a big deal it was to be able to go to school. you know, I had some older kids in the neighborhood and and they all went and it looked fun and and all of this stuff and uh so giving these kids that little extra bump to to get them ready and get them out there. Um that's that's awesome and it's something we need to keep doing. Affordable preschool is huge. Uh we are not in ledge session yet. So there is no reason for your legislators to not answer their phones, emails, mail, and other things. If you want to see fully funded preschool and ultimately fully funded public education in this state, as you should, it is time now to contact contact your local legislators. Um this is
038a a big deal. The earlier kids start learning, uh the smarter they get. it just it makes sense to me. So there um as we come into next week starting up with school, uh remember to drive safely. Um make sure that you're giving school buses plenty of room. Make sure that you're not passing any school buses with the flashing red lights and the pedestrian always has the rightway. With that, I would take a motion to adjurnn with a reminder that we are going to go to a short exempt session about 10 minutes uh with no action taken. >> I'll have a motion to adjurnn. >> I'll second that. >> All in favor? I. All righty.