001[Applause] all right everybody it's 6 o'clock if we could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge algi to the flag of the United stat of the United States of America to the stand Liber and justice for all okay has everybody had a chance to look at the agenda yes I move that we approve the agenda for February 25th I second the motion all in favor I I I okay we have an agenda on to item number three the superintendent report thank you board president welander other board directors student representative staff parents and community members uh I'll start off um last week I was at Evergreen Elementary and uh as all my my visits out um especially on Thursdays uh it was really nice to get into specifically some of the primary level classrooms in
002particular uh Mr Silva Miss Daniel and Mrs mathenge um it was really nice to see some amazing instruction going on on Evergreen I was super impressed I was talking to the principal candidate and um just some of the work uh for these teachers uh working with the students um they're on the carpet they're sitting there writing they're working on their word work their site words phonics um and really proud of it in fact uh Miss uh Miss Kennedy the principal was telling me about like some of the students are growing so much in their literacy skills they want to come to the after school program so I think that's um always any Educator's dream is to say I would like more um to learn more and do more um and so kids are really proud
003of it um a lot of good things going on Evergreen I've seen a lot of growth since I've been here in the district I'm very proud of the work that the staff at Evergreen are doing so I just wanted to take a special moment to recognize Evergreen because I know sometimes um some of the comments about that school are just not fair and one thing in education is is that reputations um don't keep up with with current events and so lots of change happening at Evergreen um I know sometimes the board comes along with me for some of the school visits and so let's make sure to get a time to go see some of the things that I saw so that you can see it as well and of course any parents uh our
004Guardians out there want to get a chance to go to Evergreen see really great instruction see their student grow um we always encourage you to visit any anytime to come in and see your student and um the things that they are receiving here in in the Shelton School District so thank you so much for that uh on a more sour note uh we've had a number of Windows taken out at uh Oakland Bay Junior High um over the last couple weekends and um I'm really just one just encouraging at any time for parents and Guardians to have conversations with their students about respecting public property our schools are funded by taxpayers we are very fortunate to have these beautiful facilities this one included I know OB might be a more dated school but it is
005still the school that um hundreds of students attend and it has a lot of history here um and I just want to just really take a moment to ask to have that conversation with them because it is really expensive the damage that was done to those windows is going to be in excess of $50,000 um and I don't think some people recognize like how expensive windows are um because they're just they're just special windows and you know replacing them and making sure they're insulated so there's no leakage which could create all sorts of other problems for us please do that if anybody knows who is actually involved in that situation please call the authorities we are working with the Shelton Police Department um very closely on this situation as of course we want to prevent
006that or any other future situations across um all of our schools um which we take a lot of pride in and um hope we can educate other youth around just how important it is to respect common property uh just on the budget um continue to work to have our savings and um are being really Thrifty we'll continue on those moves um we're already planning for the 25 26 school year uh the budgets went out to the schools uh last Friday um they'll work on the allocations and so then they have to um the principles along with their teacher leadership teams will have to make some decisions about some of the choices that they have um with the staff that they have uh about how they want to configure uh services for the students at their
007schools um so a lot of work there more to come it takes we have about another three weeks in that process we are trying to minimize the reductions in staff as much as possible that's our real goal really trying to maintain the staff that we have here we take a lot of pride in that um so um ultimately I think the reduction in force for certificated uh teachers will be minimal um unfortunately we are also um making cuts um for school leaders as well though to balance that budget so um tough decisions all around uh no one takes it lightly we understand these are people attached to positions and we will continue to provide uh support for those as they seek other employment and of course we think that there'll be some other we know
008there will be openings next year and hopefully there's a right fit it's kind of one of the things I just wanted to definitely highlight is that we will be hiring for the next school year even though we are having a reduction in force and so some people might not recognize all teachers don't do the same jobs um they are actually endorsed in specific areas whether that's somebody who's a science teacher at the high school or shop teacher is somebody that's not going to be usually very well suited to be a kindergarten teacher so those are just kind of my extreme example but um those are just the things that where where you endorse what can you teach in and so some areas we don't need specific staff this actually happens every year just this year
009I know um in a tight budget some people are going to think that that some things are targeted but in reality um especially choices at the high school level where students make the choice about what kind of courses they would like to have um in the different content areas and especially um CTE uh that is just where some of the usually the reductions is where we um are displacing folks so again trying to minimize the number of Staff we're losing uh in particular I'm talking about certificated teachers so more to come with that so um and then that last I'd like to end on a positive note with Athletics um Abigail I didn't want to steal her Thunder but since she's not here I will say that we had um a number of students go
010to state so we had one swimmer medal two boy wrest two two boys on the wrestling team and three girls on the wrestling team so kudos to the wrestling having grown up in Iowa for part of my life and also one of the high schools I attended one State uh I love wrestling my body just was not situated for wrestling I was actually a basketball player so I know that was something that the wrers always let me know uh so congratulations to the students who placed a state I think that's awesome um great for you and great for the high climbers so with that thank you so much thank you very much and on to community comments as part of the regular school board meeting the board welcomes community members to make public comments in
011person Andor by phone as conditions allow please see the full script with call-in instructions and guidelines for Community comments displayed on the screen above first up is Andrew Wilford hello everyone I am Andrew Wilford been a while since I've been up here um I wanted to talk about policy 3230 that we had um had our first reading of the previous meeting uh first I want to acknowledge that just this afternoon I was given this stack of papers from some community members uh of the generation not really Adept with emails so they know how to print and sign paperwork so they handed these to me asking me to present them to you today uh about their opinions and objections I suppose of policy 3230 I haven't read through it it's not my place I'll hand them
012to you Matt afterwards when uh when I'm done uh with policy 3230 I think what everybody's really not liking is the confidential Health info uh section of that policy and I agree I I disagree with the state very heavily about their position on uh keeping parents away from their children in those in those positions that children want to try to hide from their parents and all those things they want to do and don't want to let the parents know about it parents need to be involved and I understand we as a school district are trying to abide by state law and I get it however in that very same meeting we had a policy removed um by some really simple logic that I I I tend to agree with we said we're going to remove
013this policy because it's already in state law so we really don't need a policy that Shadows exactly what state law says This Confidential Health info is effectively the same thing it's shadowing what state law says or at least attempting to with the parents rights initiative to pass I'm unclear whether it really follows state law now I'm not really sure how all that plays together now I really think the most effective way to to quell people's issue with this policy is removing that whole section entirely and just say we're going to follow state law we don't need a policy that reflects what state law is and if the state law changes then we got to change the policy every time let's just remove it um and so the other thing I want to talk about is
014the last two meetings we had policy changes or presentations from the district and no questions were asked at all by the board and that really breaks my heart we need you guys to ask questions and be inquisitive with what's going on here we can't just rubber stamp everything they present I really appreciated Carla when she was on the board and I told her several times because she asked questions and there were always things that I had rolling around in my head when there presentations going on and she would ask those questions and I would tell her afterwards thank you I had that question in my mind too we need that from you guys please be more inquisitive and ask tons of questions because here in a few months we're going to have a budget they're
015going to say here's our budget for next year we need you to approve it ask questions go through that line through line scrutinize the beans out of it make sure that we're going to spend well below what we know our income is going to be we got to get out of this financial debt you guys thanks Marilyn eron good evening um as the budget and financial status of the district are on tonight's agenda I want to take this opportunity to remind everyone of the superintendent duties outlined in RCW 28a 430 specifically subsection C sorry three which states the superintendent must keep accurate and detailed accounts of all receipts and expenditures of school money at each annual school meeting the superintendent must present a record book of board proceedings for public inspection and must make a
016statement of the financial condition of the district This Record book must always be open for public inspection I urge the board the superintendent and the District staff to uphold this transparency and make the records available for public inspection as the law requires I also have a question regarding the district's enrollment numbers the ospi uh consistently reports higher enrollment figures for the Shelton School District at the beginning of the school year from what I could view back to 2018 to the present than what is being reported by the district office in tonight's report I would appreciate some clar clarity on this discrepancy I would also like to remind the board of the important responsibilities outlined in board policy number 1340 which emphasizes the board's role in prioritizing student learning this policy outlines the core duty of
017the board to ensure that the district is held accountable for the academic successes of our students the goal of the district is to provide every student with the skills and opportunities they need to become responsible respectful Global Citizens this includes not only academic knowledge but also critical thinking and the tools needed to thrive in both their careers and personal lives this policy highlights four key goals that should be at the heart of the district's educational Mission ensuring students can read write and communicate effectively ensuring students have a deep understanding of core academic subjects like math social studies the Arts and health encouraging students to think analytically logically and creatively to solve real world problems and ensuring students understand the importance of work and how effort and decisions influence their career opportunities as a community member
018I urge the board to continue to review and support policies that will help achieve these goals the students of Shelton deserve an education that prepares them for success and that begins with the commit and actions of this board the most recent consistent grade level knowledge data from 23 to 24 school year is deeply concerning 32.9% in ela 19% in math and 28.8 in science these numbers indicate indicate a gap in our students academic performance and this pattern has been ongoing since at least 2014 given the state's goal of 90% of students performing at grade level our District's performance is far below expectations and and it is clear that we must take action Washington is one of the leading in the nation per student spending yet we rank 35th in National High School graduation rates and
01923rd in overall school system performance in 23 24 um Shelton School District receives almost $1 19,000 per student which is a significant investment so why are our scores low why are students not proficient thank you they deserve better and you need to do better Jess Bret good evening board um board members my name is Jessica and I'm here again this week to talk about communication and transparency within the district um about a week ago I overheard my student discussing something troubling that happened while she was at school and um that was child porn so a student at obj has sent out a picture of themselves to another student and now it's going around obj so my child was exposed to porn child porn and there was no communication not even something hey talk to your
020kids these things whether there it's the person doing it or the person viewing it they are with you for the rest of your life again like our students are with in the school day in and day out Monday through Friday from 7 to four I'm sure we can give them a little education on sending photos um and I'm real disappointed in the school not sending out hey talk to your students this is a problem uh these are minors this is an issue uh the concerned look on your face shows me that maybe you are not aware aware that this is happening which brings further concern as to why the administration because I did go to obj I did speak with two administrators they are aware they know it happened a month ago still going around
021that's a problem um so I'd like y'all to look into it thank you for your time appreciate it thank you okay on to item number five the report from the student representatives and tonight we have Allan hello yeah so I've got a uh not a lot to report but we do have quite a bit going on at Cedar high school first off we we have Beth has now left Cedar high school as of I think last Friday two Fridays ago uh on February 13th we had an assembly uh was sort of a Valentine's Day assembly we had games prizes and at the very end we had a little bit of uh celebration for Beth just to show her our appreciation and I think that really just goes to show that um the whole presentation idea
022was an idea by the leadership students not the staff although they were more than glad to support it so I think that really goes to show that at Cedar high school we really do view each other as a very close it almost family sort of community so yeah it's been it's been rough without Beth she was one of uh the only people that would have that would be able to go to almost each and every classroom helping students individually one on oneon-one but we do we do also think that it's a it's a good opportunity for students to learn how to sort of deal with that with that situation of not quite losing somebody that you love but being more separate than we used to be although with our campus change Beth will be nearby
023not only physically but in our hearts as well but on some uh happier news we do also have uh our ASB uh is starting to plan for Cedar school dance this year so we got some good things going with that we've also had uh our ambassadors have gone out to Pioneer now now first time we went turns out there was a bit of re a rescheduling issue we went back you know but the second time we went we were able to present to all of the eighth graders and we saw a lot of good engagement from the eighth grade class of pioneer they seem very interested to um aend cater High School some of them even after the after we were done with the presentation came up to some of us and me specifically and
024asked us questions about Cedar high school and what it was like there and I'm really proud of our ambassador and what we were able to present to those students well good job to the ambassadors it's good to hear that you got kids out there that are asking about programs and and looking forward to moving up into high school so good job thanks 5.02 the budget status report Mr Sherman uh good evening board of directors um I want to walk through um give me one second I have a slide for you some data in your board packet I thought I would showcase if I only have three minutes I guess I could figure okay um I apologize for the graininess of the slide um this is in your board packet I think you might have seen
025it before it is is a chart that tracks the um FTE by month and has a trend that all that the the black line or the Gray Line with the triangles is the five-year average of whatever enrollment has done from month to month um the thick black line shows you what's happening currently uh you will see that we um lost around 18 around 20 kids from January to February uh we have um kind of proactively pulled about half those kids back into our system uh through different programs and options that the we offer which is really promising and we're trying to um promotee those out for those folks who are looking for those parents are looking for different options or choices for them for their students um I'll bring this to you every month the
026the enrollment is what funds everything and so this is a a first glance slide of it and we'll have more graphs around enrollment and budget as we as we move throughout the rest of the year uh any questions on this graph or enrollment in general okay great and I've seen it before okay I apolog is again for the graininess of it go ahead sir can you can you just go ahead and speak to how FTE gets calculated differently oh sure um in simpler terms so an FTE is what's called a full-time equivalent so we think of our kids in um in terms of headcount in reality right I have three kids I the headcount of those kids is three um but at each school if a student at um Shelton High School is doing running
027start they might only be partially on campus and partially somewhere else and so they that full-time equivalency is calculated and to generate how many how many um generates one FTE of a kid so two halftime students at Shelton High generate one FTE it's kind of the simplest way to do it and that is how what it's like throughout the rest of the system if like personally our daughter only goes to school uh in elementary she was off for an hour so it wasn't a full FTE even though she's a full headcount so she's in the classroom with those students as a with those teachers as part of her class load but the FTE is what we're funded on from the state so all the calculations that I'll talk about and as we move into budget
028season here and go through budget workshops it's all around FTE because we're not funded by the number of kids in headcount we have we're funded in our number of students for their FTE that we receive so it's a little more Nuance than just the number of kids in a certain building great can I ask the question then is that different is it calculated differently for US versus what OSI is looking at or I mean I've always understood the FTE thing New Market takes that away running start takes that away right you know there's all sorts of things that's that divide that but is there a reason why it may look different on osi's website could be a timing issue I'll actually get with that parent afterwards to see where they're seeing the numbers um the
029Ft we seeing here is the um enrollment by student and then all the different programs create FTE as well like the CTE programs have FTE open doors like you're talking about gravity all those are rolled in and calculated into this number here and it's by month um and it's just a little trickier because if you average these numbers out it's not our annual average as calculated by OPI these are like real in time real time numbers as they're moving through okay thank you yeah I got to figure out this blurriness I apologize I was hoping to read through it um this I wanted to create as a summary for additional transparency uh of the budget status reports in the board packet and as required the budget test reports are required to be presented monthly but
030they're kind of difficult to read there's a lot going on in there and so we tried to create this onepage PDF as a summary of those um and just as a quick recap uh on the far right is The Debt Service fund and the dollars that come into those are from taxpayers voting yes for the bonds that we've done and construction projects and so those taxes dollars come into the debt service fund and it's those funds are only used to service that debt and pay down that debt over time uh most Bond issuances are 25 or 30 years so there's a debt schedule for that that's done by the counties collecting taxes over time and US issuing the payments um for the T VF that's the transission vehicle fund those dollars are generated by our
031depreciation schedule from the buses we have a bus fleet they're on a depreciation schedule that generates dollars from the state for help us buy new buses that fund only is allowed to buy buses just a couple more real quick uh capital projects is when we build a building all the expenses are managed out of that fund or if we have giant like a chiller replacement or a roof replacement those come out of the capital projects fund um ASB is the one in pink that is the student body those are um generated by Student Activities and they are dictated by student choices in different uh ASB officers throughout each building I'm sure we have some here the far left one is the main operating fund of the district is called the general fund that's the one
032we talk about um all the time uh here where we ended in a negative in a deficit and we're moving to a positive in Bound fund balance at the end of the year um again as we talked about last month we're a little over a negative million this month um again that's different than cash we still have cash in the bank but our fund balance which accounts for other liabilities for the full year is generated at at 1.4 in the negative what we haven't recognized in this yet are some of the cuts that we've made that initial reduction en force in January that's not reflected here yet that won't actually happen until March in the system so the accounting systems um we'll recognize that in March as the easiest way to say I don't want
033to get two in the Weeds on it's probably Rel ly boring um but we'll recognize those savings as we move forward um again we are committed to a positive fund balance at the end of this year and currently we're at negative but that is expected as we forecast that out we've been working with OPI and our estd um to kind of double check our forecast and ask for any other ideas or ways to save money we are negotiating with vendors um kind of turn over every Rock to make sure that we're having kind of efficient smooth operations that are more streamlined any questions two quick questions um number one if somebody's watching online is this available on our website to go look at yes yeah and there's a board packet information all the board packet
034information is uh in a PDF form so the yeah if you're online you can go W go look at this and see it clearly as what I'm oh yes definitely and if you have questions about it because it is kind of difficult to read um not just visually current which I apologize for um but feel free to reach out and call me or send me an email I'm happy to I've done that for almost 20 years talking to folks about what it looks like great and then the one to kind of watch as we head towards the end of this year to end positively is that First Column and yes and so what will happen is at the end just like what happened at the end of last year um we'll update you with this
035every month in August and then we'll close the books there's some ending journal entries that occur and the books get closed in November that finalizes this green column and and it'll be around no uh that mid November October is that we'll we'll have that green column and the positive is what we're committed to great thank you okay great questions any other questions um I just want to also mention too because I know I participated recently individually as well as you did with the state auditor yes um so that process is going on as usual like it does every year I think I've been the person that they've they do that initial interview of the superintendent and the Budget Finance and someone from the school board so I did participate in that and that will also
036be going on simultaneously as the state audit always does each year yes of these funds yeah we're audited each year um we're also doing there's a financial audit a federal audit and accountability audit all those are happening from the state audit office as we speak those on the works yeah great Point okay anything else all right and then just to reiterate what uh uh James said uh this is online um it's much clearer online and it's actually pretty easy to read so thank you very much for that appreciate it Becky did you have any questions out there um not yet but thanks for asking okay thank you on to item number six the consent agenda as everybody had a chance to look through all that I propose to approve this evening's consent agenda could I
037ask a question about that first yes ma'am go ahead so I so I thought the second reading for that policy from last meeting was going to be on that and did I miss something something I don't know about or yeah that policy was removed from the agenda it was T it was tabled for now okay thank you for clarifying you bet I'll second okay all in favor of approving the consent agenda I I okay uh moving right on down to the legislative updates with laen good evening everybody um I'm just going to do a quick update on the big three um for our special education bills uh we've been tracking Senate Bill 5263 and House Bill 1310 both of these have executive sessions this week uh one in the Senate Ways and Means Committee and
038the other in the house committee for Appropriations they um will get um they have their executive sessions so the decision on whether the bill will move forward and switch houses um will be made this week so uh on those um also on people transportation both Senate Bill 51 187 and House Bill 1579 which I'm listing off numbers which I hate but um I've talked about them recently so these are also both um those are both in committee but I didn't see any scheduling for executive sessions and the bills for materials supplies and operational costs our third our third big item uh Senate bill 5192 and House Bill 1338 um the those are also in executive sessions on the 27th this week so I encourage everybody to log in listen um you can sign in as
039Pro or con depending on your feelings but I hope everyone votes Pro for money um and then uh the fiscal committee cut off is on the 28th which is why these are kind of last minute exing out and on March 18th the new State uh forecast will be released and after that point we'll start to see more budget discussions the uh Governor's budget will come out after that and um there just be a lot more information after March 18th on the future so thank you everybody okay thank you moving on to board member comments we'll start on the end with Mr Dale yeah just two quick things um congratulations to all the students and all the sports out there this weekend this last week it seems like Shelton was everywhere and all over social media
040of seeing lots of proud parents not just the ones that went to State and and got medals but everybody involved in districts congratulations to everybody um second it feels like this last week lots of questions about policy and one of the things I'm learning as as a newest person on the board so much of the policy is echoing the laws set at the state level and so so many of these questions you may have if you're passionate one side or the other is a state level question to work with your representative what you vote for November matters and so on the board we're we're really working to stay within those state laws as required but your voice is really set at that legislative level so so keep advocating for what you're looking for director Gilmore
041thank you I was also going to discuss how our policies that we have in the district are modeling the wasda policy guidelines which reflect our state guidelines uh this last week the state superintendent reell did put out a 14 minute you know YouTube video and um sent out letters to the school districts to discuss that you know there is the belief that school districts or the not belief um the standard that school districts will be continuing to follow our state rules and our policies and guidance on um everything so uh there was that and thank you for your emails um and thank you for being here with us tonight director Davidson yeah thank you for coming to the meeting tonight um I too want to say congratulations to all the athletes that were out there
042it is always exciting to see all of that I know many of them and the coaches who put their heart and soul into um into getting them to that level and it's amazing to see that much success for our Shelton athletes I also want to say it's been wonderful to see some of the pictures online this week about our elementary age kids going up and getting swim lessons at the pool I I happen to always love that it's I did it my kids have done that I'm I think it's um I think that's a great program and I'm happy happy to see that kids are still enjoying that especially with all of the water that we have around here I do also want to reiterate I've got high school age students so I definitely um
043want to remind people that I believe that Evergreen uh promise information is this Thursday as well as information on running Start programs I think that's all at the same time on Thursday but I believe it's being held at Ms not at the high school so um I know I'll have to double check that it's at 6 p.m. it's on the website so don't take my word for it 100% I do know it's Thursday night but there's a lot of good information for kids that are um in high school for the different programs running start and then also looking ahead for college for this year's graduates and next year's so just a reminder about that thank you uh again I know it sounds like we're beating a dead horse but uh God we got more people
044going to State now than we've had in decades uh also want a big shout out to dance uh got their best score of the Season uh njrc uh knocked it out of the park with all of their routines uh they did very well and um we had a guy uh not just uh medal at State swimming but we do now have a new school record in 100 meter butterfly uh that record stood for 30 something years without doing yeah without doing quick math um to Echo everybody else uh can I say something please oh Becky I'm sorry I forgot you're there I will let you go as soon as I'm done I promise I understand when you can't see I know it's fine well your name I want to tell people about the sunbuck program
045that helps with food for kids during the summer uh there's a link on the Shelton School District website that could PR provide you more information uh I see it's already up um Olympic Middle School congratulations to all the students uh who received the Golden Eagle Award and also congratulations to the uh National the kids with our FFA class uh attended the National FFA week September 17th through 22nd so pretty exciting stuff thank you to the community for comments Lauren again for the great legislative update um and that's all I have thanks thank you Becky sorry I forgot you were there my apologies no no no no I get it um so uh just to finish up uh again we we did actually end up tabling a a policy because there are so many legislative changes
046that go along with it uh and we do tie a lot of our policies to that uh again uh reach out to your representatives griffy uh griffy coer and mchan um I had a very nice chat with uh uh Mr McKuen the other day um they are working through an awful lot of this stuff um and there are actually laws that contradict themselves which makes it even harder for us to have policy with that uh there isn't a need for an executive session so I would take uh a motion to adjourn I motion to adjourn I'll second all in favor I I I all right we're done at uh 639 thank you