>> good evening and welcome. This regular business meeting of the edmond school district, board of directors,
is called to order, and I will do a roll call. Director gerard?
>> present. >> director kramer? >> present. >> director smith?
>> present. >> director chase? >> here. >> I'm director katims, so we are complete as a board tonight.
now, I will ask dr. Miner to do the land acknowledgment.
>> thank you, director katims. We acknowledge the and regional inhabitants of this place,
the [inaudible] people, and their successors, the two [inaudible] tribes,
who since time immemorial have taken care of, hunted, fished, and gathered on these lands.
we respect their sovereignty, their right to self-determination, and we honor their sacred spiritual connection with the land and water.
by acknowledging these homelands, we commit to working with tribal nations to further
the education aims they have identified in our classrooms and schools.
>> thank you. Now, if everybody, he'll rise and join me in the flag salute.
>>
>> next is approval of our agenda. Do I hear a motion and a second to approve our agenda as presented?
>> move to approve. >> I second. >> I've heard a motion to approve in a second. Is there any discussion?
hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All of those in favor of approving tonight's agenda as presented,
please indicate by saying, aye. >> aye. >> all those oppose, nay.
any abstentions? Tonight's agenda is approved as presented.
next, we have the superintendent's report. >> once a year, I like to test the theory that a picture is
worth 1,000 words and so we have a video. This was sent out to our families in the family newsletter,
but I just wanted to take a few minutes to watch it with the board, our first days of school.
[music]
thank you to curtis campbell, and amanda ralston, our communications team for going out,
taking pictures, as well as getting them from our principals to celebrate those first couple of days.
>> thank you. That was a great welcome to everybody to the new school year.
it's going to be a good one. Next on our agenda is approval of our minutes.
there are three sets of minutes that we're going to vote on as a group.
one is the minutes from the august 19, 2025 regular business meeting and one is the minutes from the august 25,
2025 first day of our special meeting of our board retreat,
and the other is the minutes from the august 26, 2025 special meeting, the second night of our board retreat.
do I hear a motion and a second to approve those three sets of minutes?
>> I move to approve them all on mass. >> I second?
>> I've heard a motion to approve in a second. Is there any discussion? >> just to note that I'd like to change the name of retreat to long meeting. [laughter]
>> [background] officially. Yes. Any other comments?
hearing none, I'll call for a vote. All those approving the three sets of meetings,
please indicate by saying, aye. >> aye. >> all of opposed say, nay.
any abstentions? The minutes from the august 19 regular business meeting, the august 25,
special meeting our board retreat, and august 26, a special meeting of our board retreat are approved.
next, we have public comments.
the guidelines regarding public comments are on the district website on each board meeting agenda,
and there's a copy on the table where everybody signs in to make a comment.
we ask that you limit your comment to three minutes, please. A timer will be running so that you can monitor your time.
please be sure to tell us,
[noise] that wasn't like, part of this.
[laughter] my time isn't up. [laughter] I still get.
[laughter] please be sure to tell us your name, your city of residence,
your relationship to the district, and the agenda item or school district topic that you're addressing tonight.
public comments are made from this front podium facing us and are directed to the board,
not to the audience.
first up is josiah olson or joe olson.
>> hi. My name is joe. I am a parent.
I have three children here in the edmond school district. I live in linwood. I think that was all the required items.
cool. I am here because I have
two students in the challenge program at terrace park and a kindergartner who's starting,
who is not yet in the challenge program, and we filled out a waiver to
allow her to attend that school with her siblings instead of her home school.
the busing policy previously was that transportation for students on a school waiver is not guaranteed.
parents are responsible for transporting them. But if there is room on the bus,
they can take the bus with their siblings. That's what my middle child did when his older sister was in kindergarten.
that policy just changed this spring, but a number of parents just became aware of it this week as school started.
it was changed to students on a waiver, get no transportation, no matter what.
the parents must transport them, and even if there's space on the bus.
this presents a hardship because now either our youngest needs to go to a home school,
or I need to spend an hour plus of my day going their home and their home at the beginning and end of the day.
when there is space on the bus, transportation provided our youngest student a route number and skyward.
there are other parents who were given a route number. There is a space. But due to this new policy,
we're basically told that seat needs to sit empty, and you need to get your kid to school.
this is not only a hardship for the parents who are in this situation,
it's equity issue because the parents who have the ability to take
an hour out of their day and transport their younger siblings are the ones with those means and resources,
and the ones who can't do that, will need to say, I'm going to have to pull my older kids from
the challenge program so they can all go to their home school, and they can all take that same transportation.
to me, this seems like an easy win to say, hey, and the policy on transporting the kids specifically says,
school buses will not alter routes to transport children to school other than which they've been assigned,
which is totally fair, saying, hey, if we don't have the room, we won't take them.
but to me, saying, hey, we have an empty seat, and we still won't take them,
when the resources already allocated and being used, it seems an easy win to me to say,
we're going to go back to the old policy if we have the space. We'll take them. Thank you.
>> next up is heather glud.
>> good evening, members of the board, and thank you for the opportunity to speak.
my name is heather glud, and I live in linwood, and I'm the parent of a child in the hi-cap program at terrace park elementary,
who's in his fourth year, and a kindergartner. I'm here to also address transportation of challenged siblings this year.
first, I want to express my gratitude that siblings were allowed to transfer to terrace park this year.
if that had not been possible, my family would have been forced into two separate pickups and drop offs every day,
which would have added 75 minutes to my daily transportation duties
or required paying $625 a month for the write at school program,
just to cover those 75 minutes of additional care that my younger child would need at
the local school until my bust child transportation arrived.
that burden to parents, especially working parents or single parents like myself is unsustainable,
both in terms of time and funds. However, the new transportation policy that excludes
siblings who transferred this year from riding the bus with their brother or sister, even when the bus route already exists and has room has caused problems for our family.
meanwhile, siblings who transferred in prior years are still permitted to ride,
and students whose older siblings have graduated on to middle school and no longer have any challenge student in the program are allowed to ride those buses.
this uneven application raises serious fairness concerns. Families this year are singled out while others benefit from exceptions.
the impact is especially harsh for families commuting from the farthest corners of the district,
which includes some of our more socioeconomically diverse populations.
for them, being forced to provide transportation can mean daily commutes of 90 minutes or more every single day.
it's an impossible strain. Just sending siblings to the neighborhood school is not a real solution.
varying school start times and transportation needs make it impossible for many parents to cover two different drop offs.
in some cases, this will force parents to withdraw their child from the highly capable program,
not because of academics, but because of transportation logistics. Adding to the urgency is how this policy change was communicated.
when transfers were approved in the spring, it was not clear that the rules had changed to exclude
siblings from transportation even when seats were available.
families could not have anticipated this interpretation, because it is so illogical,
it makes no sense to interpret it this way. We've also been told in the past that because this is a standard form, obviously,
it applies when you can't transport and add additional routes, it does not apply in this case as long as seats are available.
if we had understood it at the time, we could have addressed this policy back in the spring and had
these conversation when there was additional time to have a fair and transparent process.
instead, we're now scrambling in september to cope with the decision we didn't know was coming.
[noise] thank you for your time and your continued commitment to supporting students all across our district.
>> thank you. Next is sarah dilling.
>> hello. My name is sarah dilling. I am a taxpayer in mount lake terrace,
because my children no longer go here because they're both at college. Thank you.
I've been watching in the last couple of meetings, have seen speakers speaking about
title 9 and so I just wanted to do a little history lesson. In 1972, the educational amendments to
update title 7 of the civil rights act of 1964 were passed, and they are called title 9.
in june 1975, in volume 34 of the cfr in section 106.
how it was going to happen got put into law. Since 1975, the federal government issues guidance.
the original statute made no explicit mention of sports. It says, in the beginning,
no person in the united states shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in,
be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
now, a brief timeline for transgender issues. Obama issued some guidance,
bathroom use, which seems odd for a president to have to do, but okay.
in 2018, the health and human services had a rollback of that policy.
in august of 2020, a federal court found that discrimination on
the basis of gender identity was prohibited under title 9. Then, in march of 8th of 2021,
biden issued an executive order, 14021. June 16, 2021, the department of education had a notice of interpretation.
in 2024, the admin school district had a policy update. In january 5th of 2025,
a federal judge rolled back that 2021 interpretation. In february of 2025,
the admin school district had a policy rollback. In february of 2025,
trump issued an executive order of 14201. We haven't had the department of education notice nor the subsequent years and years of
court challenges to determine how we should respond to this piece of the whiplash back and forth.
also, currently, the adams county sheriff is attempting
to comply with federal guidance on immigration in violation of washington laws.
the washington ag is currently seeking an injunction against the adams county sheriff for violating washington laws.
in short, I don't think that we should change our policy just now because things keep changing.
they keep moving back and forth. I think that for our sports teams,
it's best to stay in compliance with wiaa policies, and then washington laws and policies,
and then federal laws and policies. I think we should focus on graduation rates rather
than culture war distractions. Thank you.
>> thank you. Jess grant is next.
>> good segue. Thank you for that topical introduction.
my name is jess grant high. I live in north edmonds,
and I am here tonight to urge you to repeal policy 3211,
the gender inclusive schools policy. This policy harms the girls in our district in so many ways,
and it exposes the district to legal liability for physical injuries sustained as a result of this ill conceived policy.
tomorrow, I'll send you a link to the website on the independent women's law center,
a nonprofit nonpartisan 501c3, who recently published a 68 page report entitled competition,
title 9, male athletes, and the threat to women's sports.
>> tonight, I want to highlight the safety issues posed by a policy that allows boys to compete against girls,
and stress how this puts everyone, both athlete and district board members,
at physical or legal risk. Peyton mcnabb, as an ambassador for the women's law center here,
in her own words, is the reason she now fights for fairness in women's sports.
at september 1, 2022, I suffered permanent physical and neurological injuries
sustained during a high school volleyball game in my junior year.
a male athlete who identified as a female on the opposing team spiked the ball into my head,
and I was knocked unconscious for over 30 seconds. A medical evaluation revealed that the ball's impact had caused a concussion,
brain bleeding, and severe head and neck injuries. I continue to suffer vision problems,
memory loss, and partial paralysis. This incident ended my aspirations of playing
college sports and ignited my advocacy for the protection of women's sports.
I hope that policymakers who were in a position to make athletic decisions will read
the independent women's report and prioritize fairness and safety for all female athletes.
now, you might think, but this hardly ever happens. You'd be surprised.
if you go to the website one.org, you'll find a spreadsheet containing the names of
several thousand female athletes displaced by male pretenders.
you can also visit echetd.org to find another spreadsheet
containing the names of males who've deprived females of their rightful athletic honors.
to quote the harvard university biologist, carol hooven.
"the essence of sports categories is exclusion. If you're 20 years old,
you are excluded from participating in the senior category because of your natural advantages".
the female category is no different. Thank you for your time.
>> thank you. Next is vanita francisco.
>> good evening. Vanita francisco, city of mount la terrace,
and a parent to a student at mount la terrace high school. I have three things that I'd like to mention to you today.
two, if I run out of time. They were all in today's family newsletter from the district.
and so I have multiple hats that I wear, so league of women voters badge.
we are celebrating constitution day here in the edmond school district building on september 16.
so please join your neighbors and friends for a special celebration of us constitution day.
the league of women voters of snohomish county and edmond school district are hosting
a community reading of the us constitution and bill of rights at 6:00 p.m. Right here in this building.
the event honors the 238th anniversary of the signing of the constitution,
and constitution sorry, citizenship day, which is recognized annually on september 17.
munity members will take turns reading these historic documents, offering everyone an opportunity to reflect on the rights and freedoms they guarantee.
in addition to the readings, the league of women voters will provide free pocket copies,
sized copies of the constitution, and share information on ways that you can support democracy.
so we hope you'll come with your families. Next up is city of mount leeris diversity, equity inclusion commission.
so the city of mount leeris, in partnership with edmonds school district, is excited to join together for welcoming week on september 20 on september 20.
we are hosting welcoming week and annual campaign where communities across the country host events,
educational seminars, and celebrations to honor our neighbors and of all backgrounds highlight the importance of
inclusive places in achieving collective prosperity. These events reaffirm our values of building welcoming communities where every person,
including refugees and immigrants can fully contribute and have their voices heard.
so we encourage you to come and participate and see all the community resources that are available to everyone in our community.
and there is time, so last but not least, wearing my pta council hat.
I will say that the 17th annual mad monster dash is happening.
so please sign up for the 5k on saturday, october 4, which will be at in mount lake terrace, as well,
the lake ballinger area and park. So I hope to see you around before the next meeting or after that. Thanks.
>> thank you. Next on the agenda is our consent agenda.
this is the group of regular routine items that we can vote on and discuss together,
or separate if we wanted to choose to separate them. Tonight's agenda has four items.
to have to do with personnel and staff. One is an agreement with the rotary, which is wonderful.
it's through cte, and it's our students in carpentry who,
for something like 51 years, have built a single-family home for somebody, which is wonderful.
and the fourth one has to do with surplusing equipment.
do I hear a motion in a second to approve the consent agenda for tonight as presented?
>> I'll move to approve the consent agenda.
>> second. >> I've heard a motion to approve in a second. Is there any discussion?
>> I had a couple of things I wanted to comment on. I want to thank the negotiators for
the district and for the union for being able to come to a agreement on this three-year contract.
quickly, fairly quickly. I know it's hard work,
preparing for that and executing that negotiation,
and they were able to have a tentative agreement by the end of june, I believe.
and so we're happy to be able to ratify that tonight.
and I also want to say again that the cte the carpentry.
I have one of my former students from hilltop that was in the carpenter program last year,
and it's just what a great thing to do to partner first,
the partnership, build that partnership with the rotary, and to have practical learning that's
going to benefit our community as well is just tremendous.
>> thank you. >> I just want to comment that the rotary program really is wonderful.
my son participated in that, and it's still in connection with a number of the other students in that program.
>> very cool. >> really thrilled. >> very cool. Anything else? Hearing nothing else.
I'll call for a vote. All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda as presented.
please indicate by saying aye. >> aye. >> all those opposed. Any abstentions.
and tonight's consent agenda is approved as presented. The next section is our unfinished business.
we have item 10.1, a second reading with request for approval of new board policy 69,60.
>> so do I hear a motion in a second to approve. Excuse me, the new board policy 69,60,
which is regarding school attendance areas and boundary changes.
>> move to approve. >> I'll second. >> I've heard a motion to approve in a second.
is there any discussion? I believe this is basically the same as what we saw in the first reading,
with one minor change. That's correct. Hearing no further discussion. I'll call for a vote.
all those in favor of approving the new board policy 69,60 regarding school attendance areas and boundary changes,
please indicate by saying aye. >> aye. >> all those opposed. Any abstentions.
and the new board policy 69 60 for school attendance areas and boundary changes is approved.
>> we have two items of new business this evening. The first is a first reading.
no action requested at this time to review proposed changes to board policy 2110.
>> is there any discussion on board? Excuse me.
proposed changes to board policy 2110, which is about the transitional bilingual instructional program.
>> I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the idea that this is
an asset to the students to be able to be biliterate and bilingual,
and that we should foster that ability and encourage it.
>> I think most of the changes have to do with excuse me, explicitly,
including as I lose my voice,
the dual language program, which the classes I have visited have been wonderfully exciting to talk to those kids.
in fact, I'm starting to take beginning spanish, so I can talk to them as well in spanish.
any other comments or questions? >> you just need to go sit in the kindergarten class and immersion for a while.
>> I learned a lot in the last. >> I know. It's drill. The instructors are amazing.
>> I don't hearing no changes, we'll bring that forward to you for your consideration at the next meeting for
a second reading and proposed action. The next one is 11.2, first reading,
no action to review proposed changes to board policy 2020.
just a little bit of background on this one that senate bill 54,
62 required that by august 1, school district board of directors across the state,
amend their policies or procedures, go governing curriculum adoptions to align with the wada model policies.
>> is there discussion on board policy 2020 on course design,
selection, and adoption of instructional materials?
I would like to say, I am not happy about the fact that the legislature
is telling us what our policy should say in terms of our curriculum,
our instruction, our design, our scope and sequence, basically.
and talk about being removed from the classroom and trying to legislate what's going on in the classroom,
what's happened to our local control over those things?
I've posed some questions to doctor miner, and she's going to be doing a little bit of research
to get a sense of what we might do to make sure that everything that is important to our district is not lost here,
but that we somehow protect our domain,
which it should be our domain as to what we do in the district in terms of curriculum and instructional design.
so I just wanted to make my little speech. >> and the only other policy I'm aware of,
in which we are required by law to adopt the wada-recommended policy, intimidation and bullying.
and that came about some time ago, and that was the first of this,
where we have to adopt the wada policy.
>> and that seems almost more understandable than this,
and that's really based in a great deal of law, whereas this is really a great deal of policy,
school district policy and procedures.
and we'll see what happens before the next time.
look at us. We are on board member comments.
moving right along. Doctor director gerard.
>> well, I wanted to say that I was at the fara and 44th in linwood on saturday.
so I saw dr. Sally guzman staffing our little tent booth,
and we had a bus there as well. So I talked to that bus driver who's driven for our district for 33 years.
very impressive. And she was being very welcoming, and lots of little kids were
interested in climbing on the school bus. And sitting in her seat.
the only time they get to do that. Looking forward to this coming week,
or next week, I'll be visiting lindale elementary. I got met the principal, mr. Nwnn,
at the fair, and so he invited me to visit.
so I'm going to take him up on that offer next week. And then I will also be on the pitch with
the mont lake terrace and madodale high school girls' soccer teams. So I'm looking forward to that game next week as well.
>> thank you, director kramer. >> hi, I just want to give a huge shout-out of
thanks and appreciation to all the classroom teachers out there, particularly the kindergarten teachers.
they're the ones that welcome our youngest among us. And my wife is now teaching kindergarten as well,
and she came back utterly exhausted. But excited, too, excited.
and as I begin my first year in education,
I want to shout out to all those teachers of
a certain age like myself who still have a passion for what we do.
so thank you to all of those teachers out there, and hope your first week,
first full week back is a great one. Thank you.
>> thank you. Director smith. >> first, I want to thank the parents who brought to
our attention a potential issue with our bus policy. I will ask dr. Myer for some more details,
figure out what's going on there. If it is really something as simple as just an empty seat that we can put a kid on,
that's something as a district that we probably ought to do. So I'll make sure to follow up on that.
you have been heard. And then I also wanted to a little self-congratulatory,
but I wanted to give a little shout-out to the mount terrace class of 2004.
vince dimiro sent out an e mail earlier this week, and I did not realize that we have a journalist
basically in residence there who also came from my class, samantha pack,
who works with the hawkeye students, and I just think that that's pretty cool that it says something about the teachers
who were there at that time that we've got now two individuals from the class of four,
myself and her, who are giving back to the district in very meaningful ways.
so that's partially a shadow to us, but also to all the teachers who were there in 2004,
who shepherded us and taught us the importance of giving back to our community.
>> thank you. Director chase.
>> thank you very much. I just on this first week of school,
I just want to express my gratitude to all the teachers, staff, families that make our school district a
welcoming place for all of our students and families to belong.
I'm just really looking forward to a great year, and I will pass the mike.
>> I want to thank the board for the long meeting,
as it's been renamed our board retreat. And so the community knows.
what we did is we spent a lot of very important focused time looking at the district strategic plan,
doing a lot of planning in terms of study sessions for next year,
what we want to focus on, our board norms and protocols,
and a number of other important things. And I just want to thank my board colleagues.
we don't always agree on everything, but we listen to each other, and we always stay focused on students and what really matters.
so I really appreciate that. Long meeting, even though it was hard.
and the only other thing I was going to say is, I'm going to be one of the people,
along with dr. Minor, reading the constitution next tuesday here in the board room.
so come on down and get your own pocket version of the constitution.
and thanks to the league of women voters into vanita, you organize a lot of important things.
>> doctor miner. >> well, I want to build on what howe,
director kramer has shared with us. We have so many.
I have the opportunity to visit about half the schools on the first day, but someone from our team gets out to every single school.
and just to see everybody from para educators to our bus drivers,
to our administrators, to our teachers, making students feel welcome and greeting them at the school.
I don't think everyone understands what
a monumental undertaking is to get school started and rolling.
and at a middle school, when you think about the fact that half your students are new every year, currently.
there's new routines every year. I'm very pleased with how relatively smoothly everything went,
and deep gratitude to all the people who made that happen.
and looking forward to a wonderful year, as well as constitution day.
>> and with that, this regular business meeting at the edmund school district board of directors is adjourned.