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>> good evening and welcome to the november meeting of the ferndale school board.

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thank you for joining us whether here in the live audience or online.

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the purpose of this and every other school board meeting is to conduct the business of the board.

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that business is to facilitate the mission of our district which is to prepare each student to thrive

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in an ever-changing world by providing a rigorous education that fosters academic growth,

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nurtures confidence, and encourages critical thinking. To faithfully execute that purpose,

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the board needs to hear and discuss a wide array of opinions on each issue.

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that process is best served when all involved focus on the issues rather than the personalities.

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a couple of quick housekeeping items before we get started.

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in the event of an emergency, the same door you came in is the exit. If you need the restrooms,

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they're out the door and up the ramp. I think that covers things.

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with that, we'll move forward on tonight's meeting and I'd ask that you would all please join us in a salute to the flag.

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>>

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>> next, we'll have our land acknowledgment.

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>> we, the ferndale school district, acknowledge we're residing on the traditional ancestral and unceded territory of the lummi people.

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the lummi people are the original inhabitants of washington's northernmost coast and southern british columbia.

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they live in villages throughout this territory and continue to have an ongoing relationship with these areas.

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since time immemorial, they have celebrated life on the waterways and on the traditional ancestral and unceded lands

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of their people to perpetuate their way of life. We honor their ancestors as we acknowledge the past, present,

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and future lummi people as the original inhabitants of this land.

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>> thank you, marcus. Next item on

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our agenda is the approval of the minutes from our october meeting.

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are there any changes or a motion to approve such?

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>> I move that we approve the minute as written.

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>> okay. It has been moved that we approve the minutes as presented.

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all those in favor signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> all opposed? The minutes have been approved.

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next, we will adopt our agenda.

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the chair will put forth that the district office and christie's team has asked that we remove item

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11.07 from the consent agenda which is policy 6114 on

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gifts because there are some revisions that need to be made to it before presenting it to the board.

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any other changes to the agenda?

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then the chair will entertain a motion to adopt the agenda with that change.

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>> I make a motion to adopt the agenda with removal of that item.

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>> okay. It has been moved to adopt the meeting agenda as presented with the removal of item 11.07.

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all those in favor signify by saying aye. >> aye.

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>> all opposed? The revised agenda has been adopted.

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with that, we will move on to item 4.01 which is bittersweet

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as we say goodbye to our director childs better known as steve.

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he commented and I appreciate. His goal has always been to have a short and efficient meeting.

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he said this one will probably be one of his shortest. With that, I'm going to turn it over to christie.

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>> I have a few things to say. I know our students have something to say as well

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and I would invite the executive team if they have anything. But the first time I met you was actually my interview when I was

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so nervous and I realize instantly that you were somebody that would understand me.

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I felt like I would understand you. I've told steve many times he reminds me a lot of

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my dad and that is the highest honor I can give to anybody. You have been an incredible support and what you have done for this district,

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you have created a legacy. You will forever be known for the work that you did in this district.

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I often say, what would steve say about this when it comes to facilities?

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you have quite the reputation amongst many especially our students so I want to give them a chance to say something.

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>> I was thinking long and hard of what I was going to say.

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my first introduction to you, it was when I first got appointed to the school board.

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I saw you during my interview. I was also very nervous. Then when I first got appointed, gabby,

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she was giving me the rundown and she was telling everybody on the board. She was just telling me everybody's names,

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what they do, and when she got to you, she was like,: oh, my gosh.

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you are going to love him. He is genuinely the sweetest,

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most caring person you'll ever meet." I have really come to see that myself.

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I'm someone who gets really emotional at goodbyes and stuff like this. You'll see that.

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but I just wanted to say that I'm really honored to have spent this time on the board with you.

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I can really see how much you care about all the students in our schools.

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I hope you know that I speak very highly of you when I talk to my friends about who is everybody

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on the school board and you are just somebody that I really strive to be like.

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you just really care about everybody and you just make sure that things are

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done the proper way and I couldn't have asked for better person to be on the board with me.

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I'm very honored to have spent this time with you and I just want you to know that we see this.

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we see your hard work and it was all worth it.

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a lot of the students at our school, they might not even know who you are or what you've done,

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but they feel the impacts of it and that's the most important thing. Thank you so much.

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>> following the pattern with christie and harleen,

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the first time I met you was actually at my interview too and I was also extremely nervous.

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but from the start; from the get go, you just seem like a person that really cares

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about students and you can see that with your personality and your demeanor.

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I respect that so I just and I've really

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appreciated the very few months that I've had to spend time on the school board with you.

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thank you for all the work that you've done. >> steve, on behalf of the school district,

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we have a little gift here. One of the gifts in here is a flashlight because you have helped us light the way.

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there are some cute little things made by kids. Those might be your favorites; necklaces and things.

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>> well, I have something to say. You also remind me of my dad because of your age. [laughter]

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>> that was not what I meant. >> that's exactly what christie said.

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I appreciate

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your leadership a lot. You were a person that I looked up when I first was appointed as

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a school board member and your respect towards other people's opinions and your ability to listen before talking.

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just the way that you handle yourself. You think before you speak.

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I did appreciate that a lot. You're going to leave definitely a legacy like christie said.

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we're just hoping that we can continue with that ability

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to think and to understand what is best for our kids in the school district.

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I appreciate that very much, steve. Thank you. >> thank you so much.

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>> this is hard. I want to say thank you for being a friend and a sounding board.

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if buildings need strong foundations, you are the foundation that was laid

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for I think the facility's maintenance going forward. I'm very glad you did that.

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that was a monumental thing. I am really going to miss you.

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>> all the things that have been said, I would just echo.

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it's like they're read from the card I wrote you. [laughter] thank you very much

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steve for your stable, reasonable leadership.

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you pulled me to the middle, and I appreciate that. I'll miss you.

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>> you're still welcome. >> steve, you don't remind me of my father so you're okay. [laughter]

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>> thank god for that.

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>> I do want to say how much I've appreciated having you on the board.

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you are a man of few words, but those words that you do speak are well-said,

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well needed to be said, and just the integrity that they come with,

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and your heart to do what's best for the students has really helped lead this board in the right direction.

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thank you. Appreciate it. >> you're still welcome. If I may take a moment.

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first and foremost, I need to recognize all the students of ferndale high school.

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I shouldn't say high school, but the whole ferndale community.

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the ground work has been laid for you kids and the tools are there.

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you just need to pick up the tools and use them.

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the warranty on those tools are lifetime.

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they'll last you a lifetime. You'll never have to replace them. It will help you be successful for the rest of your life.

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secondly, I'd like to thank the community.

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it's been a real honor to serve the ferndale community over the years.

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thank you for that opportunity. It's meant a lot in my life to serve those in the community.

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I'd also like to thank the administration. Thank you for your support.

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thank you for your hard work and all the things you do.

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you guys make this place work. I know you're innovative and you do all the right things to help

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support this community to make this district successful.

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I also want to take a moment to thank the staff including the classified staff. They're near and dear to me.

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but the teachers and the food service and the bus drivers and the custodians.

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excuse me if I leave anybody out, but everyone.

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you're the building blocks that support this foundation that is so important.

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that's what makes us all work. Thank you for the things you do.

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it's so important.

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I also want to look around this room and thank my constituents.

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I've made some friends here and it's been very meaningful. I will miss you.

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I have enjoyed your company.

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I've enjoyed collaborating with you and resolving issues.

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thank you so much each and everyone. To the students reps,

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I've always valued your opinions and your perspectives.

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it's meant a lot to me and it's taught me a lot.

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I've been removed from school for a lot of years and you've brought me back to

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understand what it's like in the life of what school's like these days.

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I appreciate that. Thank you for that perspective.

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I apologize if I've left anybody out.

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you all mean a lot to me. I will miss you.

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but in parting, I would like to say,

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please everyone, keep your eyes on the prize which is student outcomes.

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that's what we're here for. We're here for student outcomes so don't lose that perspective.

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we want to strive to continuous improvement.

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don't settle for status quo. The old ways are not necessarily the best ways.

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be open to new ideas and be innovative.

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keep an open mind and enjoy your successes.

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there will be failures, but you'll learn by those failures.

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I only wish the very best for all of you.

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I will miss you and thank you so much for tonight and all the previous nights.

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I certainly appreciate your support so thank you all very much. [applause]

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>> well, thank you, steve. Well said, as always.

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appreciate those words, and I appreciate the reminder for us to keep

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our eyes on the right focus because that's been your mainstay,

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so it was fitting. Thank you.

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>> with that comes the bittersweet part where we bid steve goodbye.

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you get to go home early tonight. >> I'll stick around.

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>> I will take my opportunity to bang

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the gavel for the last time for myself and check myself out,

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so that's coming real soon. [laughter] I will enjoy the shortest meaning I've had in four years.

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[laughter] well, thank you much for your service.

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we really appreciate it.

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with that, then brings us to swearing in our newest board member,

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and peggy, you can let me know. I did hear that you took the oath.

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I don't know if you want to take it here with us, or.

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well, I will then ask brian and peggy to join me over stage, I guess,

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and then we'll go through the process and have the transition.

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which way do you want? >> not the back to the audience.

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>> this way? Always got to listen to your communications director.

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if you two will please raise your right hands and repeat after me.

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>> I. >> state your name. >> brian lynch.

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>> do you solemnly swear that I will support. >> do you solemnly swear that I will support.

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>> do you solemnly swear that I will support. >> the constitution of the united states.

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>> the constitution of the united states. >> the constitution of the united states.

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>> and the constitution and laws of the state of washington. >> and the constitution and laws of the state of washington.

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>> and the constitution and laws of the state of washington. >> and that I will faithfully and impartially perform.

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>> and that I will faithfully and impartially perform. >> and I will faithfully and impartially perform.

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>> and discharge the duties of the office. >> and discharge the duties of the office.

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>> and discharge the duties of the office. >> of ferndale school district 502 director district.

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>> of ferndale school district, 502 director district 5. >> and the ferndale school district number 502 district director number 4.

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>> and the county of wycombe.

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>> and the county of wycombe. >> and the county of wycombe. >> state of washington,

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according to the laws. >> state of washington, according to the law. >> and the state of washington, according to the laws.

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>> and to the best of my ability. >> and to the best of liability. >> and to the best of liability.

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>> congratulations. Welcome back, peggy. [applause] welcome to the board, ryan.

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>> steve, I just wanted to say just a few things before you leave.

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I don't know if you knew where you would end up in the board.

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I served on the bond oversight committee. You stepped in and did a fantastic job of being the board liaison for that.

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a big passion of the board,

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I guess, was to basically try to have long-term facility planning.

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I think that you did a great job of taking that vision that we had and making it a reality.

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it wasn't there before. We just so happened to get the right board member

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that had experience in facility maintenance. I'm very thankful for it.

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I know that you said thank you a lot to us, and it's your turn to hear thank you from me and from the rest of that group.

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I really am appreciative of what you've done, and I do my best to try to keep that going forward,

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all the hard work you've done. Thank you. [applause]

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>> that brings us to item 5.01 on our agenda to receive public comment.

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public comment is a time when the board can hear from the community what is on their mind and is important to them,

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particularly as it relates to what is happening in the school district. We appreciate respectful,

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constructive criticism and welcome suggestions for solutions.

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public comment is not a time for discussion. It is a time for the board to listen.

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board members may interject to ask clarifying questions and/or may direct someone,

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most often the superintendent, to take future action related to the statements,

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but again, it is not a time for discussion. Our silence is not a signal of agreement or disagreement,

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but is meant to respectfully hear what you have to say. Public comment is not the only way that you can communicate with the board.

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those that are not comfortable speaking in front of a group are more than welcome to contact us via our email,

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phone numbers that contact information is available on the district website.

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there's also a generic way to communicate that information to us.

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those wishing to speak during public comment are asked to sign up on the sign-up sheet in the back of the room.

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each speaker is limited to three minutes, and their time will begin when they step to the podium and begin to address the board.

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any speaker whose comments extend past three minutes is welcome to give us

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the full extent of their comments or the remaining comments in writing,

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and we're happy to read those and take a look at those. Tonight, we have on our list,

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first person is amy o'neal.

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>> hi. I am speaking to you not in my formal role with the district. I'm a teacher.

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I'm also somebody who serves on five different boards. I just want to talk about what I saw on the last board meeting,

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and what I'm hoping is that what we water will grow. I'm going to focus on the positives that I saw.

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one of the things that I learned at one of my most recent board meetings it was just a good principle on being on a board.

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when you're on a board, you're an ambassador of the organization. Part of that means that you're a loving internal critic.

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that means you've got to hold people accountable, you've got to ask for improvements,

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but you've also got to do that in a way that is productive together.

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as board members, we all share a duty of care, of loyalty, of compliance, and a foresight.

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I want to talk mostly about the foresight. I want to say a specific thank you to directors machado and

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erickson for the foresight that I felt like you showed in the extended discussion about the hr report.

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I felt like both of you gave us all a sense of,

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I would love to tell you the story of what's happening in the ferndale school district. That's not to say my students don't always do that.

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you always do that. Just by your presence, you tell the story of the school district.

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I'm not leaving you out, but you two gave us the sense that you want to be ambassadors for the school district,

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that you see what our staff is doing, that you see the hours,

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the energy, beyond a sheet. Director machado, I loved what you said about if you focus too much on a sheet,

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you lose sight of that performance. You lose that flexibility that we have to have.

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the fact is, the foresight that we all have to have going into the next few years.

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what is on our horizon together is frankly,

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it's terrifying for a lot of our students, and I mean it's dangerous for a lot of our students.

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it's only by working absolutely together and having laser focus on our shared priorities that we're going to get anywhere.

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I just want to say thank you to both of you for having that focus on the actual priorities and the concerns that we have looming in front of us.

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thank you. Just like director childs, I would love to see us getting

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more efficient meetings because these used to be 45 minutes. Not kidding. It can be done.

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thank you. [laughter]

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>> thank you, amy, and I guess I have 15 minutes left, so I'll speak quickly. [laughter] next on our list is dom fam.

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>> good evening. My name is dom fam, and I identify as a fir resident.

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since march, I've spoken about how our education system is being driven

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by bloated federal and state bureaucracies that waste money and undermine local control.

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national spending is nearing $1 trillion a year.

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yet enrollment is falling, and student performance continues to decline.

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the system is failing our children while expanding its own power.

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in recent years, the us department of education has crossed far beyond simple inefficiency.

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it has become an institution willing to pressure, intimidate, and override parents.

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the fbi created threat tags to track parents speaking at school board meetings with about legitimate concerns,

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school safety, bathroom, and locker room policies, and sexualized material in classrooms.

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that is an abuse of federal authority. The department of education then rewrote title 9 to include

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gender identity and handed enforcement to the department of agriculture,

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which threatened to withhold school meal funding from districts that refused to accept this ideological shift.

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washington state has followed the same playbook. Ospi routinely uses funding threats to force districts into compliance.

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as reported by kpq news,

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ospi threatened to cut funding for the la center school district for resisting policies that may conflict with federal laws.

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ospi ordered the district not to share information about a student's gender identity without the student's consent.

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potentially conflicting with the parental rights provisions

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in the family education rights and privacy act. Ospi also required staff training using

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a screening tool intended to eliminate bias related to gender identity,

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which may conflict with the protection of pupil rights amendment requirements for

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parental involvement in policies affecting students' privacy.

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the tenth amendment makes clear that powers not given to

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the federal government belong to the state or to the people,

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and the people means the level of government closest to families,

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or counties, and our local school districts. For these reasons, I continue to support not only eliminating

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the us department of education but also removing the state from direct control of k through 12 education.

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decisions should be made here by the people who live here,

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not by distant agencies that answer to political agendas instead of parents. Thank you.

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>> thank you, dom.

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>> that is all of the people that are signed up for tonight.

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again, just because public comment is over doesn't mean that we don't want to hear what you have to say.

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please feel free to contact us again. Our contact information is available on the website,

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and we appreciate getting input from the community.

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with that, we'll move on to a special presentation tonight.

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tonight, we are honored to have senator sharon schumacher with us to share her insight on educational funding,

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and we'd invite her to come to the table and join the group, and to talk about her priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

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as I turn this portion of the meeting over to nancy, our board legislative, I'd like to recognize and thank her for the work she's done reaching out to all of

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our local legislators in hopes of all of them meeting with us.

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a special thanks to you, sharon, for agreeing to meet with us tonight.

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>> thank you so much. Senator schumacher, it is an honor to have you come in person.

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usually when I do a leg rep report, I'm talking about what's going on in the legislature,

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and this time we have you here in person. We are delighted to have you,

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and we are very much looking forward to this conversation.

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>> there we go. Thank you for having me here. I have to say that was a wonderful way to start a meeting,

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especially in these times where it seems like you turn on the tv and everyone's just yelling at each other.

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it's really nice to see that people are really coming together and getting teary-eyed.

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I'm the person that leaves a party before the goodbye start, so it was nice to see it,

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but I always hate it when it's about me.

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>> if you have anything that you wanted to address first,

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just give us a narrative of things that you're thinking about or would you prefer that we just ask some questions?

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>> I don't have to hold it? I can tell you about myself,

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and then I thought of this is more of a conversation. I got the questions you asked, and I'll probably answer them a little off the cuff,

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but I'm happy to have a conversation. I love schools.

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I've spent my life in school. I teach at western washington university. I'm an economics professor,

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and it's so much fun working with young people. They just give you so much joy,

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and I have hope for the future when I see them and my kids and my kids' friends,

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and the way they see the world is truly special. I serve as chair of the energy, environment,

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and technology committee, where we've been working on a number of policies. I joke that my job is to keep the lights on,

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but I really am concerned with keeping the lights on. We have some real struggles right now as we see big increases in demand for electricity.

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we're moving towards clean energy goals and it is a little difficult to build in washington state.

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we're trying to figure out that piece of how to balance affordability,

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with the need for data centers, with the need for protecting things like salmon and land and our environment.

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I also serve on the transportation committee and then the agricultural natural resources and parks committee.

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I don't serve on the education committee, but this last session,

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I heard from a number of districts that were really concerned about education funding,

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and I share that concern. A couple of us, there's not a whole lot of legislators with school-age children,

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but those of us who did see what was going on in schools really were yelling the alarm,

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and that includes all three of your legislators here in the 42nd.

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we're a very rare district where we all have school-age children. That doesn't usually happen in the legislature.

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we were able to put some more money into k-12, particularly special ed,

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I know it's not enough. I would agree. I saw some of the questions about,

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are we really funding basic education, and I think that we need to do better.

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this is going to be something we're probably not going to do it all at once, but we're going to keep taking bites of the apple,

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and so please do continue to encourage us to prioritize that because you get a bunch of legislators who hear about all different concerns,

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and it's worse than hurting cats. It makes cat-hurting look easy sometimes.

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>> the latest that I've heard from the legislature is that,

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our state has less money than they thought we did,

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so going into this next short session, it looks like we're not going to be seeing anything making up for

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last legislative session for education.

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do you have any thoughts on that? >> I'm always optimistic,

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so I'm not going to say don't expect much, but there's no money.

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but who knows? We might be able to pull something out. What I will say is to give some context.

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you see numbers are hard to understand and numbers over time, and when we're talking millions and millions of dollars,

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it's especially hard to understand. But the graph that I found most helpful was you look at

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state spending as a portion of washington state's income, and it's been about 5% since the 1970s.

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but because we rely so much on sales tax, is about 50% of our revenue,

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and what we have seen is that, people buy less and less stuff, and they get more and more services.

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when we keep the rates the same as a percentage of income, it's been decreasing over time.

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meanwhile, I know inflation, the msocs costs have really eaten away at school budgets.

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we've been trying to figure out how to solve those pieces, but I think it also is going to take more money.

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we've made some investments in things like early learning, which I think make your jobs easier.

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I think that's really important. I want to try and make sure that we continue to do that,

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but it's getting to be more difficult as we think about early learning, k-12, and then higher ed really

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was the one that took some of the most cuts this last session. Frankly, those are all the same kids.

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it's all the same groups of people that we want to see be successful,

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and they need all three of those pieces.

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>> with that, you mentioned as far as the younger kids,

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and one of the things that we've really, and christie's led the march on, is the tk,

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that early ed, and how the return on the investment seems to be really high,

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yet there are some within the legislature that are like, let's eliminate that.

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how do we get that message across to not only our own legislators,

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but others because, again, making everything that has been presented to

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us shows that earlier we have those interventions, the earlier we get those kids caught up,

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the less it costs us in the long run. >> totally. The research on this is astounding.

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it saves you money on having fewer kids go through special ed, but we also see lower incarceration rates,

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and it just breaks my heart that someone might be facing criminal consequences,

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and they'd only gotten a little bit more preschool when they were three. I don't think anybody thinks that's right.

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I'm a big believer in tk. I think it's awesome. I'm so proud that christie is from the same county as me and doing that work.

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I also understand that budget writers are a little frustrated as they see this program getting bigger and bigger,

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and they feel like they haven't been able to put their stamp on it and explicitly approve it.

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we've come to a compromise in this last legislative session where,

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correct me if I'm misremembering things, you get a legislative fog when you come home.

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but I think we allowed programs to stay that already had it,

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but they're trying to limit the expansion of it. That's okay for macomb county because we were an early leader,

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largely thanks to your leadership here. But I do think that it would be,

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I care about kids in yakima too. And so I think that that's something that we need to work

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together as a legislature to try and figure out some of these issues where we're seeing with the same rates, revenue declining.

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but just because of the structural changes in our economy.

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someone told me that if you were to put idaho's tax structure on washington state,

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we would have a budget surplus. The way that we do this matters,

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and so we need to think through this structural reform. We also have one of the more regressive tax systems,

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meaning that it falls more on working people than on the very wealthy. I'd like to try and work on that.

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it's a long project to try and fix that.

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>> I think in front of you, you have a sheet that looks like this,

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gaps in state funding, and you see that in

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the three categories that we were asking for last legislative session,

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special education, msoc, and transportation, over the past several years,

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we have had to pay over $24 million that didn't come from state funds.

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with that, anticipating this upcoming legislative session,

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I'm wondering what the state is thinking about more school districts falling into binding conditions and such,

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because the costs of these things are still going up,

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and our revenue is not anywhere near keeping up. The looming fear of binding conditions and worse is what a lot of districts are thinking.

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how can that be addressed at the legislature this coming year? >> it's going to be a really difficult budget session.

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I don't have easy answers for you. I wish I did, because we do them. But I do think that we need to be looking at our tax structure and

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figuring out how to not be so reliant on sales tax, how to look at other forms of revenue.

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we passed a capital gains tax a few years ago to partially fund k-12,

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but also some of that early learning. I think we need to continue to work on these pieces.

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this last year, to avoid really terrible cuts, we had a bunch of pass and increase.

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we expanded the sales tax, and nobody wanted to vote for that. Nobody was excited to vote for that.

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but I voted for it because I wanted to make sure I didn't want to leave anything on the table when it came to helping our schools.

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that was what my number 1 thought was. All those kids and all those three sectors of schools,

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how do we protect that funding, and how do we make sure we do the right thing for those kids?

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>> as we look at that and special education,

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you've mentioned is one of the big targets,

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and it's my understanding, and christie can probably correct me if I'm wrong,

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they changed some of the rates or such,

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but it really didn't help us because we weren't at those maximum, so we didn't end up with any more.

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but one of the things that we deal with, it's almost like it puts districts in competition with each other because you get

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certain students with more extensive ieps that require more funding,

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but you don't get more funding for them. Depending on the housing within your district,

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depending on the demographics, if you are a district that is heavy with more students

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that need special education or have specialized education plans,

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you have more costs, but you may not get any more money,

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and so you're almost glad, which is sad to say if they move to

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another district because then it's their responsibility. Because the dollars average out,

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and you're in this situation of because the state doesn't fund on a per-need basis,

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it funds more on numbers, how do we get the legislators to recognize that,

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and help it out, so again, districts can be not in competition with each other,

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but working together for the betterment of all kids? >> I think the more the districts work together,

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the easier our job becomes, and the less likely we are to make mistakes.

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last year, it was really compelling when people talked about the big three, which I believe are these three;

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the special education, the msocs, and the transportation. The more that you all are,

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if this is continuing to be the song, that's great. We've heard the first round,

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and so the second time you hear it, it's a little bit more powerful. I think continuing to pound on those three,

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and making sure that when you go together with the other districts, you have a coherent story.

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because when you don't have a coherent story, we mess it up. There's so many of us,

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we have such different districts, but the more that stakeholders can iron out the solutions,

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the easier it is for us and the more likely we are to listen and be able to get it right.

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I don't know if there's an easy answer to that. One of the issues I hear is that school districts have more information than we do,

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and so we want to set up a system of funding that is fair where the state is funding basic education,

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but you all know the particular needs of your schools, you all know the particular needs of your programs.

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coming up with a formula that may not perfectly fit your school, but is roughly right and gives you the flexibility to figure out what to do,

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I think that's probably the best fast degree approximation.

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but we need your help figuring that out. >> well, fortunately, we have a town hall that

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we're trying to organize like we did last year. We will definitely keep you in the loop on that.

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>> that's great. With the folks in blaine and melt baker? >> exactly. >> that was really powerful. In fact,

409
00:46:01,560 --> 00:46:05,160
I've let the folks know from the 40th that they should be copying it. >> very good. Just a story,

410
00:46:11,145 --> 00:46:11,145
I know that a lot of people go $19,000 per year to educate a child?

411
00:46:20,040 --> 00:46:21,300
they just think, well, that is way too much money.

412
00:46:25,215 --> 00:46:25,215
we actually have quite a few students.

413
00:46:29,340 --> 00:46:30,915
I won't put a number on it, but we have a few students that cost us $20,000 a month.

414
00:46:40,420 --> 00:46:40,420
>> and there's no differentiation in funding for those students.

415
00:46:45,245 --> 00:46:45,245
I'm wondering if there could be any legislature written that could help with

416
00:46:50,840 --> 00:46:50,840
these outliers that are really affecting the budget.

417
00:47:01,205 --> 00:47:01,205
what is that? I didn't bring my heir in the audit committee today.

418
00:47:09,860 --> 00:47:12,860
I saw on the books, how much it costs for several students to receive the special education that they need,

419
00:47:18,695 --> 00:47:18,695
and it over $100,000 this month for just a few of them.

420
00:47:26,825 --> 00:47:26,825
>> schools have to pick up so many other places where social safety net fails.

421
00:47:31,910 --> 00:47:34,280
I think that's one of the things we really realized in the pandemic. Was how much schools feed people and how much they

422
00:47:36,890 --> 00:47:39,530
step in when families can't pull it together, or don't have the means, or don't know how.

423
00:47:41,480 --> 00:47:41,480
I've learned so much from my teachers as someone who's got it relatively well.

424
00:47:46,700 --> 00:47:50,135
my teachers have been amazing at teaching me about my children. One of the programs that I think it's supposed to address this is the safety net program,

425
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:54,560
but sometimes that's hard because you get caught like I'm seeing christie smile.

426
00:47:59,300 --> 00:47:59,300
I think there has to be ways to make that work better.

427
00:48:05,060 --> 00:48:07,850
when you have a system that is there, it's usually best to try and make that system work better.

428
00:48:10,310 --> 00:48:14,300
so if you have ideas I'm open to it, I'm not on the education committee, so I'm probably not the best person to ask to make those changes,

429
00:48:17,870 --> 00:48:20,030
but I'd be willing to work with you and bring those ideas forward with people who are and who do know better.

430
00:48:23,000 --> 00:48:24,965
I can't remember either joe or alicia, one of them is on the education committee.

431
00:48:27,110 --> 00:48:30,700
>> I think alicia is. >> we laugh because the safety net has holes in it.

432
00:48:37,990 --> 00:48:40,190
that does make a big difference. And one of the constant things that we hear is that feedback of why does it cost so much?

433
00:48:48,260 --> 00:48:48,260
I can enroll my kid in a private school in way cheaper,

434
00:48:53,345 --> 00:48:53,345
and it gets tiring to explain that argument of private schools can be selective?

435
00:48:59,765 --> 00:49:01,685
they can take whoever they want, and the part that I was even surprised to learn,

436
00:49:05,960 --> 00:49:08,810
there are certain things that kids in private schools we have to fund as the public school district,

437
00:49:11,900 --> 00:49:14,375
and a lot of people don't realize that. It's getting that message.

438
00:49:16,430 --> 00:49:19,640
and so you talk in certainly from the conversations that we've had with our local legislators,

439
00:49:22,820 --> 00:49:24,785
you guys are supportive of education. How do we help you guys,

440
00:49:27,905 --> 00:49:30,920
how do we partner with you to get the message across? What information is helpful,

441
00:49:34,610 --> 00:49:34,610
and certainly the part that always amazes me is when the legislative session is going,

442
00:49:40,550 --> 00:49:40,550
it's like rapid fire and trying to keep up as I applaud nancy and her ability to do it.

443
00:49:46,475 --> 00:49:50,210
but how do we keep you guys abreast? How do we provide you with those answers? Because obviously, you're getting bills about everything.

444
00:49:53,690 --> 00:49:55,220
you can't know everything about everything. We have a semi-expertise in education.

445
00:49:58,655 --> 00:50:02,075
how do we make that available to you as a resource? >> let me know about proposals as they go forward. Keep me updated.

446
00:50:05,645 --> 00:50:08,930
that's really helpful to hear there was one year where I sit next to the chair, not anymore,

447
00:50:13,970 --> 00:50:13,970
but I used to sit next to the chair of the education committee in the caucus room,

448
00:50:18,365 --> 00:50:20,450
and mount baker school district sent me just a spreadsheet of where their costs were and where the school funding was.

449
00:50:24,485 --> 00:50:24,485
she was like, woa, because she lives in mercer island and that's different from

450
00:50:29,105 --> 00:50:29,105
a rural school district with different transportation problems and different populations,

451
00:50:34,220 --> 00:50:38,195
and not nearly as much, levy money coming in. So numbers are great, information is great.

452
00:50:41,960 --> 00:50:44,900
and when you see those proposals coming through, let me know if that works for ferndale or if there needs to be something adjusted.

453
00:50:48,500 --> 00:50:51,455
that's really useful information for me. Because if I don't know, I'm not always successful at getting what I want,

454
00:50:55,490 --> 00:50:57,080
it would be amazing if I were. But I definitely can't help if I don't know what I should be asking for, peggy.

455
00:51:02,020 --> 00:51:02,020
>> piggybacking off of what kevin and nancy said about special needs students,

456
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:10,280
the ones with extreme special needs. It seems as though institutions to address

457
00:51:14,150 --> 00:51:14,150
those needs in washington state have been vanishing.

458
00:51:19,390 --> 00:51:19,390
to the point where we're forced to send kids out of state for services,

459
00:51:24,410 --> 00:51:28,160
and even then lucky if we're able to find them. What is the legislature doing to address that problem,

460
00:51:33,020 --> 00:51:33,020
because it is a huge expense for an individual student to do that?

461
00:51:37,985 --> 00:51:40,790
>> what kind of, I might need some help here. So what institutions have you been using in washington state?

462
00:51:46,220 --> 00:51:46,220
>> well, I know that there are schools for the deaf and for the blind,

463
00:51:51,590 --> 00:51:51,590
that I'm aware of had funding cuts, residential facilities.

464
00:51:58,730 --> 00:51:58,730
actually, it would be better to have trina bring the because this is her area.

465
00:52:06,710 --> 00:52:06,710
>> so one of the things we've been working on a lot

466
00:52:11,375 --> 00:52:11,375
this year and last is residential placements for students based on behavior,

467
00:52:17,825 --> 00:52:21,335
a lot of the times and disabilities, and working with ospi for the approved sites

468
00:52:26,540 --> 00:52:26,540
that are within state and out of state for npas or non-public agencies.

469
00:52:32,630 --> 00:52:32,630
while ospi has been helpful with those connections and approvals,

470
00:52:39,080 --> 00:52:39,080
the in state list is very small.

471
00:52:43,205 --> 00:52:46,100
of any programs available. As peggy mentioned, the out-of-state options are also

472
00:52:50,480 --> 00:52:50,480
difficult to navigate and find the right match for students.

473
00:52:55,655 --> 00:52:55,655
and a lot of those costs that go into the work to identify the school,

474
00:53:02,480 --> 00:53:04,580
make sure it meets the state requirements, and also as a match for the students are non.

475
00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:07,640
they don't qualify for the safety net application,

476
00:53:13,370 --> 00:53:15,740
and as mentioned before, the safety net system is not a guarantee or an entitlement,

477
00:53:20,030 --> 00:53:23,690
it's a application that we can apply for, and the reimbursement, if you will,

478
00:53:27,305 --> 00:53:27,305
is dependent on several factors and not guaranteed.

479
00:53:31,900 --> 00:53:34,145
>> and if I could add to that, whenever we have to send somebody out of state like that,

480
00:53:36,830 --> 00:53:36,830
it's money that leaves the state and doesn't support workers here in this state.

481
00:53:43,595 --> 00:53:47,120
>> that's a great point. I'll talk to someone on education about this. I don't know a ton about this area,

482
00:53:48,560 --> 00:53:48,560
but some of the things about my job, I get to learn new things.

483
00:53:54,190 --> 00:53:57,860
>> I think one of the things that whether it's to the level that we're putting forward here of needing residential placement,

484
00:54:04,280 --> 00:54:07,370
or I think what we're finding in schools and ferndale, is not unique to this,

485
00:54:09,050 --> 00:54:12,950
but just increasing student needs that go beyond what schools are typically accustomed to or used to.

486
00:54:17,135 --> 00:54:17,135
it's taxing on our teachers,

487
00:54:21,350 --> 00:54:24,965
or supporting our families as well as one another. All in efforts to support students who a lot of times,

488
00:54:28,505 --> 00:54:31,430
we aren't sure what to do in order to provide them the services that they so greatly need.

489
00:54:35,045 --> 00:54:37,640
and so the costs are a big piece of that, but just also the systems and the infrastructures to support

490
00:54:41,930 --> 00:54:41,930
needs that schools haven't typically been set up to provide.

491
00:54:51,010 --> 00:54:51,010
>> to piggyback off of what she just said, trina.

492
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:56,120
to me, I see that education has had to

493
00:55:01,490 --> 00:55:01,490
take on so many more things than what we were designed to take on.

494
00:55:06,890 --> 00:55:06,890
it would be wonderful if we could really focus on academics, reading,

495
00:55:11,690 --> 00:55:14,920
writing, math, science, and then all the bells and whistles of music and arts and that thing.

496
00:55:18,520 --> 00:55:18,520
but we've been asked to do so much more than that.

497
00:55:23,950 --> 00:55:27,770
and it's breaking the bank, and it's really difficult on teachers

498
00:55:31,340 --> 00:55:31,340
and staff to have to deal with these things as well.

499
00:55:36,280 --> 00:55:36,280
I wonder, how can we avoid this mission creep?

500
00:55:40,850 --> 00:55:40,850
how can we go back to the things that we were designed and intended to do?

501
00:55:48,140 --> 00:55:51,425
how can the legislature help us with that? >> do you mean emotional issues or behavioral [overlapping].

502
00:55:57,680 --> 00:55:59,165
>> that is a huge piece of it. Yes. Behavioral problems have skyrocketed in the past five,

503
00:56:06,440 --> 00:56:09,875
10 years? And especially recently. >> I don't know what the answer to that is to be honest.

504
00:56:12,485 --> 00:56:14,660
I don't know if there should be separate institutions that it feels like those students need an education too.

505
00:56:18,215 --> 00:56:18,215
maybe what it's doing is making sure that we have the right people in schools

506
00:56:22,700 --> 00:56:22,700
that know how to help and know how to work and can work alongside teachers.

507
00:56:27,950 --> 00:56:31,150
trina looks like she has ideas so let me. >> I just want us to be really careful that we're

508
00:56:34,100 --> 00:56:36,860
not talking about not serving our students. We're talking about having the resources to

509
00:56:39,320 --> 00:56:42,290
serve our students well and in new ways that are emerging and it really does come down to the funding of we are,

510
00:56:49,445 --> 00:56:49,445
like nancy said being asked as a school system to do so much with wrap around support

511
00:56:55,925 --> 00:56:55,925
and really pay attention to so many needs that go beyond the academics,

512
00:57:03,095 --> 00:57:05,405
and we're willing to do that, but the system wasn't set up or funded in a way to do that.

513
00:57:09,830 --> 00:57:09,830
when we look at inclusive practices and keeping our students in

514
00:57:14,720 --> 00:57:14,720
their neighborhood schools and serving them with their peers when they have disabilities.

515
00:57:19,310 --> 00:57:21,110
those are things we want to do, but they often require more staff,

516
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:23,960
specialized staff additional resources beyond what we're funded or so.

517
00:57:30,050 --> 00:57:34,010
>> and when I ask people questions about this, they usually tell me that you are the right people to be doing this in these neighborhoods.

518
00:57:37,450 --> 00:57:40,660
you guys know kids more than anyone does, or at least all the different kids.

519
00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:45,730
I know my own kids, but I don't know everyone else's kids. And so I do think that schools,

520
00:57:48,675 --> 00:57:52,130
you have been tasked with this. You're probably better at it, but we should better support you in doing so.

521
00:57:56,500 --> 00:57:58,640
>> I know last year, I saw a bill that eliminated redundancies in certain

522
00:58:02,300 --> 00:58:02,300
between certain agencies to reduce the costs.

523
00:58:06,935 --> 00:58:06,935
have there been any programs identified going forward for this year

524
00:58:11,510 --> 00:58:11,510
that could be cut back without causing people to really suffer?

525
00:58:18,140 --> 00:58:18,140
>> we did a lot of that this last year.

526
00:58:22,870 --> 00:58:25,445
I think to a certain extent, everyone should be able to look at their budget and look at redundancies.

527
00:58:29,090 --> 00:58:32,060
that's probably good activity to be having every few years. I know we've been looking at it with western,

528
00:58:33,830 --> 00:58:33,830
and we consolidated some administrative pieces,

529
00:58:38,630 --> 00:58:41,105
and that was probably a good thing to do. I don't know where we are in terms of how much further we can go.

530
00:58:46,400 --> 00:58:50,060
we eliminated some newer programs; we're probably going to have to be looking at older programs and wondering if they're really serving people.

531
00:58:53,300 --> 00:58:55,775
but if you look at our budget, mostly it's a little bit less than 50% k through 12.

532
00:59:00,785 --> 00:59:03,110
when you put in early learning and higher ed, that's a big portion of it.

533
00:59:04,790 --> 00:59:07,640
people joke that and then we have medicaid, social safety net, criminal justice.

534
00:59:10,610 --> 00:59:13,190
that is most of our budget. If you have ideas on things that we can cut,

535
00:59:17,210 --> 00:59:19,745
I'm all yours, but I don't know where those are.

536
00:59:25,060 --> 00:59:28,430
>> and certainly cutting and making the budget efficient is one of the things that I have heard

537
00:59:31,520 --> 00:59:31,520
for all the 15 years I've been on the board is our favorite term of unfunded mandates.

538
00:59:38,585 --> 00:59:38,585
here, schools, you guys need to do this and it's going to cost you,

539
00:59:42,665 --> 00:59:45,935
well, you figure out where to get the money from. That we often joke,

540
00:59:49,025 --> 00:59:49,025
and I'm sure the legislatures are not in the back room plotting these things,

541
00:59:53,420 --> 00:59:55,760
but sometimes we feel like they are, because they come up with these rules and things that we need to report this,

542
00:59:59,810 --> 01:00:01,280
or we need to do this, we need to have this particular place or procedure in place.

543
01:00:07,040 --> 01:00:10,160
those things all cost money, but they don't give us any money to do it. We're supposed to still do it with the dollars plus the added on.

544
01:00:13,295 --> 01:00:13,295
that's I guess where it gets frustrated and where we need to work together to

545
01:00:19,130 --> 01:00:19,130
help the mcly decision came about in the legislature's wave,

546
01:00:25,430 --> 01:00:26,630
well, we'll take in more money, but we're going to limit your local abilities to generate money.

547
01:00:30,905 --> 01:00:32,855
and those local things, it was interesting to hear the perspective coming out of osbi

548
01:00:37,295 --> 01:00:37,295
that our interpretation of levies is there for enrichments,

549
01:00:42,230 --> 01:00:45,530
for the arts, for things that the community wants to make it special. Osbi's definition was, well,

550
01:00:47,750 --> 01:00:50,075
for anything we don't fund. That was felt like literally a slap in the face.

551
01:00:55,540 --> 01:00:55,540
as you say, the people that sit behind me,

552
01:01:00,200 --> 01:01:02,825
the people that are out there, the people that are watching the teachers, the para educators, all those in the district,

553
01:01:07,535 --> 01:01:09,995
they know their job and they're doing it well, and they're having to do it with less and less money.

554
01:01:13,340 --> 01:01:17,195
and they do, because they care so much about the kids, we need to figure out how to help support

555
01:01:20,120 --> 01:01:23,525
them and to provide those funds that they need, and not keep adding extra requirements on them.

556
01:01:29,255 --> 01:01:31,790
and those are going to vary from district to district as far as what is the most redundant.

557
01:01:34,445 --> 01:01:38,180
I think the craziest thing I heard, and don't know if you know about it, but our apportionment,

558
01:01:41,705 --> 01:01:43,685
our money for june, because of what had gone on with within the legislator,

559
01:01:48,290 --> 01:01:50,675
money hadn't been appropriated for it. We were told, well,

560
01:01:52,925 --> 01:01:55,460
we'll pay you for that in july. I asked christie said, what do we tell puget power?

561
01:01:59,615 --> 01:02:02,915
we're not going to pay you this month, we're going to pay you next month. No big deal. You don't care. Teachers, you'll get your salary next month.

562
01:02:09,750 --> 01:02:12,940
>> that's not the way we should be operating. If education is a paramount duty of the state,

563
01:02:16,465 --> 01:02:20,005
if it is a priority of the legislature, it just doesn't seem like the actions are speaking the same as what the words are.

564
01:02:26,710 --> 01:02:29,635
>> I think the legislature needs to make some hard choices. I don't disagree with you on that.

565
01:02:30,985 --> 01:02:34,735
I do think that we have not always been the most reliable partner. It's a hard job. You have a hard job. I have a hard job.

566
01:02:38,890 --> 01:02:42,715
we all have hard jobs. [laughter] peggy. >> well, speaking to your own area of renewable energy projects,

567
01:02:52,090 --> 01:02:52,090
there has been an effort to move public transportation,

568
01:02:59,050 --> 01:02:59,050
schools, toward electric buses and more efficient lighting and all that stuff.

569
01:03:07,345 --> 01:03:07,345
to what extent can you relieve some of the mandates,

570
01:03:14,350 --> 01:03:14,350
if you will, on energy requirements for schools to relieve some of the burden?

571
01:03:22,330 --> 01:03:25,570
>> I don't think we've required people get electric buses, but we did create a grant program and I rode some in toppenish.

572
01:03:30,370 --> 01:03:32,890
it's going to be different everywhere depending on how far you have to go and what your system is.

573
01:03:35,050 --> 01:03:37,270
but it was saving the school district money. They said that the bus was a little bit more expensive,

574
01:03:39,430 --> 01:03:39,430
but they save so much more money by not having to buy diesel all the time.

575
01:03:43,840 --> 01:03:43,840
that's the way that I think we need to be on the clean energy front.

576
01:03:48,355 --> 01:03:48,355
right now, solar with storage is cheaper than gas.

577
01:03:52,930 --> 01:03:56,260
we should be using what's cheaper where we can. Sometimes it doesn't make sense, sometimes you need more backup than what gas has.

578
01:04:00,220 --> 01:04:03,475
I think we passed a clean buildings law, I think in 2019,

579
01:04:05,500 --> 01:04:07,675
and then this last year, school districts are finding, geez,

580
01:04:09,790 --> 01:04:12,505
we need to do something here and getting a little bit nervous. We made some amendments to it

581
01:04:14,515 --> 01:04:14,515
this last year to give school districts a little bit more time to figure it out,

582
01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:18,520
to allow for alternative pathways of compliance.

583
01:04:22,540 --> 01:04:22,540
but the idea is that it is supposed to help districts save money.

584
01:04:27,085 --> 01:04:29,500
that one of the ideas is benchmarking, which means you're going to report what

585
01:04:31,240 --> 01:04:33,400
your energy use is for each building and you're going to learn about that energy use and learn ways that you can reduce the cost.

586
01:04:37,510 --> 01:04:41,200
we've seen in other areas where building managers do that, they're able to lower their energy costs.

587
01:04:44,580 --> 01:04:44,580
our facilities managers are amazing and they do really hard work.

588
01:04:49,015 --> 01:04:51,355
but sometimes that's the 18th thing on their list and we want to bring it up at least to the top.

589
01:04:54,070 --> 01:04:55,885
it just gets a really good look at, like looking at what happens if we switch with more energy efficient light bulbs,

590
01:04:59,620 --> 01:05:02,665
what happens if we think about hvac systems? There's some programs also.

591
01:05:04,570 --> 01:05:06,190
there's grant programs. I think one of the roles of the state government should

592
01:05:10,390 --> 01:05:10,390
be experimenting with new technologies and trying to de-risk them for the general public.

593
01:05:15,910 --> 01:05:15,910
we've been trying to create programs where school districts can put solar panels,

594
01:05:20,425 --> 01:05:23,380
energy storage on schools. Meridian school district has been looking at this at irene reither,

595
01:05:28,945 --> 01:05:31,705
and they've been trying to figure out those pieces. We're trying to make this an easy thing to comply with,

596
01:05:34,540 --> 01:05:36,790
not like a punishment, not an extra cost, but let us be your partner in figuring out how to

597
01:05:39,610 --> 01:05:43,500
save energy costs and deliver better value to your students. >> I guess one of my questions is, then,

598
01:05:46,375 --> 01:05:49,180
since everything seems to be underfunded, is there enough money for grants for those kinds of projects?

599
01:05:53,155 --> 01:05:55,735
>> this is the crazy thing about olympias. We have a bucket for everything.

600
01:05:57,730 --> 01:06:00,820
this money goes to that person and this money goes to that person. When I first came to olympia,

601
01:06:02,455 --> 01:06:04,690
I was like, why are we doing this? Nobody budgets their own life that way,

602
01:06:06,640 --> 01:06:10,000
where you just have a budget for dinner and a budget for pillows, but that's how governments work,

603
01:06:12,610 --> 01:06:14,395
and that's probably how your budgets work too. You have facilities money and you have books money.

604
01:06:17,560 --> 01:06:19,705
you have all these different budgets. The money for some of these grant programs

605
01:06:21,880 --> 01:06:23,770
has come from the climate commitment act dollars, where the idea is that these are monies raised

606
01:06:26,680 --> 01:06:26,680
to fund green energy projects and to do some of that experimentation,

607
01:06:30,790 --> 01:06:32,710
which should save school districts money over time. It's a way to get money into school districts too.

608
01:06:39,780 --> 01:06:39,780
>> well, I have heard rumors of a legislative bill that is being crafted right now,

609
01:06:47,305 --> 01:06:47,305
requiring public school districts to maintain an 8.5% fund balance.

610
01:06:55,525 --> 01:06:58,690
have you heard anything about that? >> no, I haven't heard anything. >> well, if that is true and it does come across your desk,

611
01:07:02,410 --> 01:07:06,400
I hope that you will not vote in favor of it because we try to maintain a 4% fund balance here,

612
01:07:11,395 --> 01:07:11,395
and we would love to have an 8% fund balance,

613
01:07:15,400 --> 01:07:15,400
but to have that mandated would be extremely

614
01:07:19,870 --> 01:07:19,870
problematic because that's not where we are at this time.

615
01:07:24,655 --> 01:07:27,700
>> I'll see if I can track down that rumor and get back to you. >> thank you. Look into ospi on that one.

616
01:07:36,830 --> 01:07:36,830
>> what other questions, rumors, recipes?

617
01:07:42,035 --> 01:07:42,035
>> I think I'm sitting here listening and board,

618
01:07:46,420 --> 01:07:48,610
you've come so far. This is so exciting. [laughter] we've learned a lot together.

619
01:07:50,815 --> 01:07:53,800
I have to say a lot of the things that I consistently, and you and I've talked about this,

620
01:07:54,940 --> 01:07:57,130
so I just want to make it public that we talk about funding are the reactionary things in our state.

621
01:08:01,045 --> 01:08:04,060
if we continue to focus there, it breaks my heart to see what's happening to early childhood.

622
01:08:07,435 --> 01:08:09,685
every year, we have to fight for tk, and then ecap is on the line.

623
01:08:12,265 --> 01:08:15,640
what we're seeing here in ferndale is when I got here, only about 32% of our students who could afford private for pay.

624
01:08:22,045 --> 01:08:22,045
trina and kelly and their team,

625
01:08:26,490 --> 01:08:26,490
in partnership with the esd, tk,

626
01:08:31,465 --> 01:08:35,395
special education funding, they have braided funds magically, where all of our students,

627
01:08:36,730 --> 01:08:39,520
except for a very small selected group, have an inclusive opportunity.

628
01:08:41,575 --> 01:08:44,650
when we talk about the behaviors that nancy talked about, or we talk about these things that are reactionary,

629
01:08:48,235 --> 01:08:48,235
we're going to exasperate the problem if we eliminate that type of service.

630
01:08:55,410 --> 01:08:55,410
I would challenge the legislators to continue to invest states that have

631
01:09:00,520 --> 01:09:00,520
strong vibrant early learning infrastructures

632
01:09:04,600 --> 01:09:04,600
are not seeing the same levels that we are seeing here in washington.

633
01:09:09,385 --> 01:09:11,170
we're going to have to build more jails. We're going to have to have more residential facilities.

634
01:09:13,855 --> 01:09:13,855
the amount of parent education that goes into early learning programs.

635
01:09:18,250 --> 01:09:20,320
parents are our first teacher, and in this state,

636
01:09:22,315 --> 01:09:24,880
unless you qualify for a program, you do not get free parent education.

637
01:09:27,820 --> 01:09:31,435
it comes at a cost to the family and our families cannot afford it. I implore us to think about the proactive things that we know work.

638
01:09:37,330 --> 01:09:40,300
that have proven to work year-after-year, because over time, we're going to pay less.

639
01:09:42,685 --> 01:09:45,370
the research has shown, I've shared the data with you, we're seeing it here in ferndale,

640
01:09:47,335 --> 01:09:49,195
the number of our students. Our job is to get kids to graduation,

641
01:09:51,745 --> 01:09:55,360
and we know children have a higher chance of graduation and going on to higher ed if they've had a strong foundation.

642
01:09:59,500 --> 01:10:03,430
I would ask that in that debate, because it's easy to focus on what we have to do,

643
01:10:07,075 --> 01:10:09,990
but we have to think ahead too. >> it was hard, some of the cuts to early learning this last session. It was really sad.

644
01:10:15,190 --> 01:10:18,580
we tried to prioritize slowing down expansions programs. We had all these grand designs.

645
01:10:19,870 --> 01:10:21,790
the money didn't come in as we thought, so we tried not to cut off slots and programs that were already working,

646
01:10:25,930 --> 01:10:27,520
but slow down expansions. But even that's hard. That means that you're not getting those kids that need the help.

647
01:10:30,925 --> 01:10:30,925
>> a hundred percent. I think when you study other countries,

648
01:10:35,110 --> 01:10:37,510
higher ed needs more students. We've developed some partnerships here with btc and western where we have direct admit.

649
01:10:42,265 --> 01:10:45,205
we have students who are taking college in the high school. They're starting to think about college earlier,

650
01:10:47,665 --> 01:10:47,665
which is allowing us to protect funds for our younger students.

651
01:10:52,225 --> 01:10:52,225
it troubles me that that continues to be such a debate

652
01:10:56,740 --> 01:10:56,740
when it's very clear that that is the path forward for many children.

653
01:11:01,465 --> 01:11:04,840
>> but what is the debate? Is it on early learning or?

654
01:11:06,475 --> 01:11:09,700
>> on the early learning. I think there's lots of people in the later high school college realm that could be partnering differently that are not?

655
01:11:15,605 --> 01:11:17,895
they could take a lesson from the cross-sector work happening in early childhood education.

656
01:11:21,030 --> 01:11:24,675
we would save money on one end that could be invested on the other. >> they're all the same kids.

657
01:11:30,930 --> 01:11:30,930
>> you did really good debating that well. We're proud of you.

658
01:11:37,530 --> 01:11:37,530
>> are there any other questions for senator shewmake?

659
01:11:47,870 --> 01:11:50,325
>> peggy is looking at me like, you always have a question.

660
01:11:52,700 --> 01:11:52,700
really, kevin asked the question.

661
01:11:57,580 --> 01:12:00,810
I just want to land it a little bit more maybe. Through my day job,

662
01:12:03,490 --> 01:12:03,490
I know the avenues to reach you and the legislators as a school board member,

663
01:12:13,585 --> 01:12:13,585
and my colleagues are the ones that talk to you.

664
01:12:17,860 --> 01:12:19,720
I talk to the agencies more. But as a school board,

665
01:12:22,120 --> 01:12:22,120
I have found it a little bit difficult to get that information to you that you

666
01:12:27,000 --> 01:12:27,000
need when we are seeing things that threaten the viability of the things that we do here.

667
01:12:32,820 --> 01:12:32,820
you just mentioned that providing you with the information is good.

668
01:12:38,110 --> 01:12:39,250
but I'm just thinking, what are some good ways or avenues that we can have open,

669
01:12:43,195 --> 01:12:46,750
that we can be senator shewmake, this is the information that we have.

670
01:12:48,730 --> 01:12:50,005
this is what we see, and this comes from the ferndale school district.

671
01:12:53,770 --> 01:12:53,770
but we can get in front of you in time that we can avoid

672
01:13:00,910 --> 01:13:04,330
certain things that can progress in a way that once they are too advance it's just so hard to get back.

673
01:13:08,575 --> 01:13:11,860
>> email works. I check my email a lot during a session. I'm not as great checking it when I'm outside a session.

674
01:13:14,365 --> 01:13:16,705
sometimes those get lost. I always tell my students when I'm not in the middle of teaching,

675
01:13:20,725 --> 01:13:22,765
sometimes you have to e mail me more than once, and I appreciate it.

676
01:13:25,015 --> 01:13:26,950
I don't want to drop the emails. We're part time legislators. I have an outside job.

677
01:13:29,575 --> 01:13:29,575
I got kids. Someone's in an improv show in a few weeks.

678
01:13:34,165 --> 01:13:34,165
all of the things. I am really sorry if I drop an email.

679
01:13:39,760 --> 01:13:43,540
but I responded to your emails, nancy. >> you are the best. >> good. [laughter]

680
01:13:45,790 --> 01:13:47,610
>> you're here. >> [laughter] sometimes I need to step away.

681
01:13:49,930 --> 01:13:52,270
I don't know if you all are dealing with your phone addictions, but sometimes I need to step away for a few weeks.

682
01:13:54,490 --> 01:13:54,490
[laughter] but if you don't have my email,

683
01:13:59,845 --> 01:14:03,205
I know christie and nancy do, and I really do appreciate that. A clear email saying,

684
01:14:04,930 --> 01:14:06,835
this is what's going on. This is what is good for ferndale.

685
01:14:09,130 --> 01:14:12,940
this is what is not good for ferndale. That is actionable information, and I always appreciate it.

686
01:14:15,540 --> 01:14:15,540
it's even better when you guys can speak with one voice. That's the best.

687
01:14:19,795 --> 01:14:19,795
>> well, please do expect an invitation to come to our town hall.

688
01:14:24,640 --> 01:14:28,000
we'll give you details as it gels and it gets closer, especially the time and date,

689
01:14:29,965 --> 01:14:29,965
and I do believe it will be held here in ferndale high school at the pac.

690
01:14:35,545 --> 01:14:35,545
I'll definitely be in touch with you as that happens.

691
01:14:40,195 --> 01:14:43,370
>> that sounds great. Awesome. Well, thank you all. >> well, thank you very much,

692
01:14:44,605 --> 01:14:47,995
senator shewmake for coming, spending your time with us, answering these questions, and especially for listening.

693
01:14:51,460 --> 01:14:51,460
much appreciated, and we wish you all the best in this upcoming legislative session.

694
01:14:57,400 --> 01:15:01,195
you will hear from us often. >> that sounds great. I look forward to it. Thank you all for having me.

695
01:15:02,620 --> 01:15:06,100
this is such a nice group of folks working together. I love it. Awesome. Good evening.

696
01:15:09,430 --> 01:15:10,960
>> thank you so much. [applause]

697
01:15:18,580 --> 01:15:21,190
>> well, again, let me echo nancy's words. Thank you, senator shewmake, for being here.

698
01:15:23,440 --> 01:15:27,355
we appreciate you being available to us, and we will keep telling you or letting you

699
01:15:31,180 --> 01:15:31,180
know what's on our mind as it comes to education.

700
01:15:35,770 --> 01:15:39,655
certainly, if you run into any situations where you need input, reach out to us, we're happy to answer those emails as well.

701
01:15:46,980 --> 01:15:50,800
let me get back to my regular agenda. That brings us on to superintendent sharing,

702
01:15:53,350 --> 01:15:55,690
and so I will turn it over to christie. >> thank you very much.

703
01:15:58,270 --> 01:16:01,980
I'm going to get some notes here. Go ahead. Selina, can go to the next slide.

704
01:16:06,235 --> 01:16:09,400
just if you were not aware, right now we have parent teacher conferences going on and

705
01:16:13,165 --> 01:16:13,165
I as a teacher loved that time to connect with parents.

706
01:16:18,250 --> 01:16:21,250
I also know it's challenging. There's early release every day,

707
01:16:23,320 --> 01:16:23,320
so it does cause some childcare issues or different pieces.

708
01:16:29,260 --> 01:16:32,860
but overall, it's just an excellent time for parents and teachers to come together and talk about children.

709
01:16:37,710 --> 01:16:37,710
we cannot do our job without the partnership of the families.

710
01:16:41,860 --> 01:16:41,860
I appreciate all the time that our staff is putting into these.

711
01:16:46,000 --> 01:16:47,395
it's a lift. It is definitely a lift for them to prepare for every single one,

712
01:16:51,430 --> 01:16:54,100
and I just want to acknowledge that on behalf of my staff and thank them for all that they do.

713
01:17:00,150 --> 01:17:03,520
you may have seen, and so I just want to talk about it. We have two committees coming up.

714
01:17:05,650 --> 01:17:07,930
we have the highly capable committee, and I want to thank peggy has offered to

715
01:17:11,860 --> 01:17:11,860
represent the board and sit and listen and be a liaison for that.

716
01:17:17,560 --> 01:17:19,750
don, christiana, kelly, and trina are going to be helping lead that work.

717
01:17:22,480 --> 01:17:26,440
then we have the bell time committee. I've been mentioning since I got here, it came up in my entry data that people are asking about,

718
01:17:31,960 --> 01:17:31,960
why do our students who get up so much earlier start school so much later?

719
01:17:37,330 --> 01:17:37,330
I had a principal and we were laughing because he had a student come to school,

720
01:17:42,685 --> 01:17:45,880
an elementary age student come to school at 9:00, and the child had been up for over five hours already,

721
01:17:48,400 --> 01:17:48,400
so was ready for the end of the day within an hour of school starting.

722
01:17:52,810 --> 01:17:55,285
high schoolers too, there's a lot of science around high school brains and how that works.

723
01:17:59,020 --> 01:18:02,620
really, there is no decision around bell times, but we as a committee are going to be looking at the research,

724
01:18:05,935 --> 01:18:05,935
talking about any recommendations that we may have about switching the bell times.

725
01:18:11,080 --> 01:18:11,080
I believe both nancy and brian have shown interest in representing the board in some way,

726
01:18:16,270 --> 01:18:18,040
so I think they'll work that out. You'll get some insight to that.

727
01:18:20,605 --> 01:18:20,605
then both committees will create a proposal to bring to you.

728
01:18:26,890 --> 01:18:29,905
these are advisories, that means they advise, but the ultimate decision for any of the work has to go through the board.

729
01:18:33,595 --> 01:18:36,190
you will be getting those updates from me along the way and then there'll be a presentation at some point.

730
01:18:39,355 --> 01:18:39,355
stay tuned. Rave and I will be leading the bell time committee.

731
01:18:45,780 --> 01:18:45,780
we just had our time together in washington.

732
01:18:50,680 --> 01:18:52,915
one of the things that came up with that is the commitment of the board to have a retreat.

733
01:18:55,960 --> 01:18:59,485
I thought, while I have you as a captive audience, could we throw out some dates or times?

734
01:19:07,410 --> 01:19:10,495
I don't know if you were thinking an evening. I would recommend a saturday.

735
01:19:14,970 --> 01:19:18,745
why I say a saturday is because at the end of the day, lots of things can happen during a day,

736
01:19:20,470 --> 01:19:22,870
and so to do an evening time can be challenging because we just get started and then we can't go,

737
01:19:26,200 --> 01:19:28,135
but if we could put a full day in. Some recommendations that I would ask you to look at are february 7th,

738
01:19:34,450 --> 01:19:34,450
the 14th, the 21st, or the 28th.

739
01:19:42,560 --> 01:19:42,560
>> anybody, do any of those work?

740
01:19:46,605 --> 01:19:46,605
>> I think we might have home issues if we do it on february 14th.

741
01:19:52,170 --> 01:19:55,050
just thinking. Trying to stay out of trouble. >> take that one off the table.

742
01:19:57,825 --> 01:20:00,900
we're down to the 7th, 21st, 28th. >> for me, we're going to have conflicts with the musical being on the 21st and 28th.

743
01:20:06,900 --> 01:20:10,700
>> does the february 7th work for people? >> it's session, but we can make it work.

744
01:20:16,365 --> 01:20:19,245
I was hoping to shoot for the 28th, closer to the end, but we have the musical.

745
01:20:23,850 --> 01:20:27,680
>> can we consider dates in january? >> we can. Chris, are you looking at my calendar in january?

746
01:20:33,080 --> 01:20:36,570
what does my january calendar look like, chris? [laughter]

747
01:20:51,540 --> 01:20:51,540
>> saturday the 10th is open,the 17t,

748
01:21:04,650 --> 01:21:04,650
the 24th, or the 31st.

749
01:21:09,140 --> 01:21:11,385
>> looking at january, are any of those off the table?

750
01:21:13,620 --> 01:21:13,620
>> all of those look good to me.

751
01:21:18,260 --> 01:21:21,270
>> I prefer the 10th or the 17th, but I can make the 24th work too.

752
01:21:24,450 --> 01:21:24,450
>> I am working on the 10th and the 17th. There you go. Sorry.

753
01:21:29,055 --> 01:21:31,980
>> how about the 24th? >> looks good to me. >> that looks good to me.

754
01:21:33,435 --> 01:21:35,295
>> I'll take it. >> [noise] we have a winner. Board retreat on the 24th,

755
01:21:39,915 --> 01:21:43,020
and I will work with the board chair. I know that you'll be talking about that later,

756
01:21:45,555 --> 01:21:45,555
and then we'll figure out location and times and get that information out to you.

757
01:21:49,905 --> 01:21:52,110
but if you'll put a hold on your calendars or I'll actually ask chris to send everyone a hold.

758
01:21:58,550 --> 01:21:58,550
I want to break about two of our staff members.

759
01:22:03,510 --> 01:22:05,070
one of them is in the audience, and so I'll just go ahead and embarrass her.

760
01:22:12,290 --> 01:22:16,110
think about how many teachers are in washington state, and then they have a few awards that happen.

761
01:22:19,575 --> 01:22:22,920
we have two music educators of the year. We have ms. Schlichting,

762
01:22:24,345 --> 01:22:24,345
who was honored as the san juan music education association music educator of the year,

763
01:22:30,570 --> 01:22:33,075
and ms. Bianco, who is sitting in the stands, is being inducted into the washington music educator hall of fame.

764
01:22:38,265 --> 01:22:40,890
that is a huge honor. [applause] that will be happening in yakima.

765
01:22:44,475 --> 01:22:44,475
and we are known for our music program,

766
01:22:48,570 --> 01:22:50,115
and this is why because we have excellent people bringing music to our students every single day.

767
01:22:53,655 --> 01:22:56,400
I just wanted to acknowledge them. Congratulations. [applause] then you all,

768
01:23:04,530 --> 01:23:04,530
for your work with the cell phone were recognized this past weekend,

769
01:23:09,570 --> 01:23:12,435
and I think the public should know because it was really a community effort with the cell phone policy and the work around that,

770
01:23:16,815 --> 01:23:19,530
and I am getting so many comments. Harleen, your video,

771
01:23:21,495 --> 01:23:24,585
it just makes me smile every single time, that video, but the key and why ferndale,

772
01:23:27,345 --> 01:23:27,345
I truly believe there are two factors why we stood out,

773
01:23:31,440 --> 01:23:34,035
because lots of districts have a cell phone policy. It worked because the board took a very strong stance and

774
01:23:37,950 --> 01:23:37,950
they were very clear on what was going to happen.

775
01:23:42,105 --> 01:23:45,465
that gave it a lot of significance, and the implementation was led by our students for our students,

776
01:23:49,635 --> 01:23:51,675
and that is huge. I want to give a shout out to our students because they

777
01:23:54,330 --> 01:23:56,550
really often are the best teachers. [applause] congratulations on your board of distinction for that work.

778
01:24:04,220 --> 01:24:07,335
then we had two presentations, and I'm going to talk about one,

779
01:24:08,775 --> 01:24:11,850
and then I'm going to let our students talk about the other. We had the cell phone presentation,

780
01:24:14,850 --> 01:24:16,950
it was a packed room. A lot of people were asking and literally,

781
01:24:21,395 --> 01:24:25,220
we have had so many people reach out and wanting the video, wanting the policies, wanting the work from the high school,

782
01:24:28,955 --> 01:24:31,355
wanting to zoom to talk about it. I'm excited for that work and to support districts across the state.

783
01:24:35,735 --> 01:24:35,735
then we also had our students who led, and I don't know.

784
01:24:41,210 --> 01:24:43,745
I've been going to wssda, now, this was my fourth time. I've never seen a fully student-led presentation.

785
01:24:48,795 --> 01:24:48,795
it's usually done in partnership with superintendents or directors,

786
01:24:53,085 --> 01:24:55,890
and this was all about you two. Take it, kids. You want to talk about it?

787
01:25:04,430 --> 01:25:04,430
>> the whole presentation took a lot of hard work,

788
01:25:08,460 --> 01:25:11,205
and marcus is going attest to that, so many late night meetings. >> a lot of late night meetings.

789
01:25:12,525 --> 01:25:12,525
>> now with o carper kids, but that morning,

790
01:25:16,785 --> 01:25:16,785
I was writing my notes on these cards during the general session.

791
01:25:22,770 --> 01:25:25,335
it took a lot of hard work, but finally, we were able to present it and thankfully,

792
01:25:27,600 --> 01:25:29,100
it went really well. We presented it on our esd [inaudible] retreat

793
01:25:33,030 --> 01:25:33,030
that gabby and I and then maggie and alina.

794
01:25:37,095 --> 01:25:37,095
there are two oak harbor reps for the school board,

795
01:25:41,295 --> 01:25:43,980
and we hosted a retreat with a bunch of students while we were there and I think there were

796
01:25:46,710 --> 01:25:46,710
about 40 student representatives from their school boards in our esd,

797
01:25:54,960 --> 01:25:57,030
I guess, in attendance, and we just built connections and went over what it means to be a student rep.

798
01:26:04,440 --> 01:26:06,090
I'm pretty sure last year, we presented the mission statement,

799
01:26:09,000 --> 01:26:11,865
but yeah, we create a mission statement while we were there. During our presentation, we just went over how that came to be,

800
01:26:16,125 --> 01:26:19,890
how other schools can replicate it, how other schools can make their own, and the planning process behind it.

801
01:26:24,620 --> 01:26:26,715
>> from what I've heard, it was an amazing experience for everybody because actually I wasn't there,

802
01:26:30,660 --> 01:26:30,660
but harleen was telling me all about it and the presentation went really amazing.

803
01:26:36,360 --> 01:26:39,015
>> you'll be doing it again this year. >> yes, we will. It's going to be bigger, more students.

804
01:26:44,640 --> 01:26:46,185
we're going to try to get more involvement, but 40 students last year for our first year was really good.

805
01:26:50,385 --> 01:26:50,385
>> it was the very first student-led student rep regional meeting

806
01:26:56,070 --> 01:26:57,780
in the state of washington. Now, every other esd is trying to pattern after.

807
01:27:01,575 --> 01:27:04,500
>> I think it's because students don't even know what esd is. [laughter] I'm sorry.

808
01:27:06,540 --> 01:27:09,105
one of the first questions I asked when I was presenting was, raise your hand if you know what your own esd is and the schools in it.

809
01:27:14,325 --> 01:27:17,190
I'm telling you, only the adults in the room rose their hands because no student knows what that is.

810
01:27:20,235 --> 01:27:22,665
but we just have so many resources. You guys are such incredible resources.

811
01:27:26,540 --> 01:27:26,540
I feel it was really important for us to tell other students and directors and

812
01:27:32,160 --> 01:27:32,160
superintendents about the impact that we can have and how we can elevate student voice.

813
01:27:38,370 --> 01:27:38,370
>> if I can share something real quick about you two is that your delivery,

814
01:27:43,425 --> 01:27:46,425
your energy is impressive. I wish I would have been that eloquent when I was your age.

815
01:27:50,415 --> 01:27:53,100
I hardly could put two words together. Now my kids say that all I do is lecture,

816
01:27:55,020 --> 01:27:58,785
but really, it's very impressive what you did. The energy, people were paying attention.

817
01:28:00,900 --> 01:28:02,655
there was a q&a at the end. We came in and you were taking those questions like it was food.

818
01:28:07,470 --> 01:28:11,085
you were just eating them all up and it's very impressive what you do. We're so fortunate to have you here and to be able to be leaders for our student body,

819
01:28:18,185 --> 01:28:20,045
the whole school district. I really appreciate you both. Good job.

820
01:28:22,490 --> 01:28:25,655
>> thank you. >> if I can chime in too. It was amazing and exciting.

821
01:28:28,245 --> 01:28:31,830
it was a proud daddy moment to see you guys, our kids, up there.

822
01:28:33,870 --> 01:28:36,150
you guys rocked it. There's just no other way to say it.

823
01:28:38,720 --> 01:28:42,465
you did ferndale proud, so thank you. >> thank you. [applause]

824
01:28:49,740 --> 01:28:52,760
>> is there any other updates you want to give? >> I hold a note sheet right now, but last month,

825
01:28:57,180 --> 01:28:57,180
we went to horizon for a part of our student outreach program,

826
01:29:02,055 --> 01:29:06,000
and I don't have a cute little visual this time. I was probably supposed to send in photos of the brainstorm thing, but you know what,

827
01:29:09,705 --> 01:29:11,430
it'll be for next month's meeting, so don't worry you guys. It's fine.

828
01:29:14,270 --> 01:29:16,700
but I'll just relay all the information. I know marcus is probably going to add on to.

829
01:29:18,635 --> 01:29:18,635
but we did a brainstorm activity with the horizon students.

830
01:29:23,465 --> 01:29:25,805
we had two white boards, we split the group. We did some ice breakers and stuff,

831
01:29:28,260 --> 01:29:30,795
and we just brainstormed on, what's your stuff do they want to see more and what's not working and what is working?

832
01:29:35,460 --> 01:29:38,550
I'm telling you, the kids in that room, it's crazy because they have so many good ideas.

833
01:29:41,700 --> 01:29:45,330
they were just ready to let out all the ideas. Marcus can attest to this.

834
01:29:47,070 --> 01:29:49,320
>> I remember being middle school and I do not remember being that aware of what was going on around me.

835
01:29:51,885 --> 01:29:55,200
it was very impressive how many ideas, and how many thoughts, and how comfortable they were to share their ideas with us.

836
01:29:59,970 --> 01:30:02,025
>> in middle school, no, I cannot have done that.

837
01:30:04,485 --> 01:30:07,050
marcus and I were really impressed and they were just such a fun group to hang out with. They were awesome.

838
01:30:10,785 --> 01:30:10,785
basically, what they said for what is working is guys,

839
01:30:16,305 --> 01:30:17,745
the cell phone policy. I'm telling you, middle schoolers, back in middle school,

840
01:30:21,750 --> 01:30:25,740
you would not have caught me saying all that, but they admitted. They were like, it's actually working,

841
01:30:27,555 --> 01:30:29,640
and they were really happy because they were saying that they're actually able to talk to their friends,

842
01:30:32,310 --> 01:30:33,810
and now the problem is, how do their teachers get them to shut up and be

843
01:30:36,390 --> 01:30:39,855
quiet [laughter] because they are just talking too much in class. That level of connection and just seeing them do

844
01:30:42,960 --> 01:30:45,390
that and talking about how awesome it was, I was like, we got to tell the board this because the impacts are rippling. It is crazy.

845
01:30:50,895 --> 01:30:50,895
it was really awesome to see that.

846
01:30:56,750 --> 01:30:59,070
they were talking about school, sports, stuff like that all great ,we all know that.

847
01:31:01,830 --> 01:31:04,920
now, it's time to get into stuff that they want to change, maybe things they want a little more of.

848
01:31:07,635 --> 01:31:07,635
something that we've seen a little string in all of our visits,

849
01:31:12,450 --> 01:31:16,245
which we've our second one or something like that. >> yeah, this is our second one. >> second one. Maybe third one.

850
01:31:18,975 --> 01:31:22,140
I don't know. Next month, we have a law, so don't worry you guys. But they want more connections with the other kids in our district.

851
01:31:26,910 --> 01:31:29,190
ever since the cell phone policy, connection, connection, connection.

852
01:31:31,440 --> 01:31:31,440
they want to meet with kids from the high school,

853
01:31:35,850 --> 01:31:38,610
they want to work with kids who are in the elementary schools, which, great for them,

854
01:31:40,170 --> 01:31:43,700
because they have an elementary school right next to them. I think marcus and I will definitely be trying to find ways that we as

855
01:31:48,510 --> 01:31:51,270
student reps can come up with activities and things where they can connect with students outside of their own school.

856
01:31:54,375 --> 01:31:54,375
because it's really easy to be like ferndale high school,

857
01:32:00,195 --> 01:32:03,945
custer cougars, and cascadia gryphons, but we are one district.

858
01:32:06,135 --> 01:32:08,340
it's important to stay aligned and connected to each other because we're all going to end up going

859
01:32:10,500 --> 01:32:10,500
to one high school and we are all connected in so many ways.

860
01:32:14,520 --> 01:32:17,370
we're all alike in so many ways. I think that finding ways to connect them

861
01:32:21,060 --> 01:32:21,060
while they're still in middle school or elementary school would be really awesome.

862
01:32:25,710 --> 01:32:29,040
then also more stuff on paper. We took away one screen.

863
01:32:31,365 --> 01:32:32,805
we took away the phones, but I think another problem that we're seeing is the computers.

864
01:32:38,370 --> 01:32:41,610
don't get me wrong. I love my computer. My chromebook, I use it for a lot of stuff at

865
01:32:44,370 --> 01:32:47,490
school and I do think it's a really important tool. Kids really do use it as that, tools,

866
01:32:49,620 --> 01:32:53,370
because it's not like I can pull up instagram on here or something like that, so it is a tool.

867
01:32:54,870 --> 01:32:54,870
but I think it's really easy sometimes to lean into

868
01:32:59,805 --> 01:32:59,805
the new stuff and the tech and just feel like that's the only way.

869
01:33:05,160 --> 01:33:08,820
a lot of those students were like, in every class that I go to, I am doing an assignment on the computer.

870
01:33:11,520 --> 01:33:13,425
that's where all the stuff is now. It's on your computer, going into canvas,

871
01:33:15,825 --> 01:33:17,220
pull this up, onedrive, word, and I think that in some places that's awesome.

872
01:33:21,360 --> 01:33:24,495
when I'm writing an essay for class, I'm going to need my computer. But I think that paper and pen,

873
01:33:28,200 --> 01:33:30,210
that is just such an important skill. We cannot lose that.

874
01:33:32,400 --> 01:33:32,400
I think it's really important that we listen to those kids and are like,

875
01:33:36,570 --> 01:33:38,580
they're in middle school and they're saying that they do not want to be on their screen right now.

876
01:33:41,145 --> 01:33:43,260
more paper is what they said. They want their teachers to do

877
01:33:46,200 --> 01:33:49,515
more stuff on the paper and all their assignments and stuff. I think it's a great tool.

878
01:33:51,045 --> 01:33:51,045
it really does alleviate distraction. We will find a way.

879
01:33:55,215 --> 01:33:56,640
>> I'd also like to add, I think we could also find a balance in between paper and

880
01:34:00,210 --> 01:34:04,170
the computer because I do feel like recently, just because of the world that we live in,

881
01:34:06,900 --> 01:34:06,900
we do rely on our devices quite a lot and the kids,

882
01:34:13,020 --> 01:34:13,020
what they told us is that the computer isn't the problem.

883
01:34:17,295 --> 01:34:20,160
it's just the fact that we're on it so much. It's not really the fact that it's there,

884
01:34:22,485 --> 01:34:22,485
it's more so that we're on it so much and then we go home and they're on our phones.

885
01:34:28,215 --> 01:34:30,930
it's just a lot of screen time. >> I think that's all they said.

886
01:34:35,655 --> 01:34:39,585
do you want to add on before I finish with my sharing? >> I think harleen is doing a great job.

887
01:34:41,550 --> 01:34:43,320
[laughter] >> marcus, when we switch, you can just add on more.

888
01:34:47,070 --> 01:34:49,575
that's all we really got from horizon. It was a really awesome visit. Really fun.

889
01:34:52,575 --> 01:34:55,140
>> can I ask question or two? >> yeah.

890
01:34:57,410 --> 01:35:00,180
>> with connecting with more kids, did they mean age level peers like middle school to middle school,

891
01:35:04,965 --> 01:35:04,965
or are they thinking cross grade where they might go to

892
01:35:09,360 --> 01:35:09,360
the nearby elementary school and do some helping or something like that? Was that clear?

893
01:35:16,125 --> 01:35:16,125
>> I think that what they emphasized was not just even going to

894
01:35:20,160 --> 01:35:20,160
the high school because when we talked to the elementary school was at central,

895
01:35:24,510 --> 01:35:27,030
they also communicated they wanted to experience more and do more activities with older kids,

896
01:35:30,900 --> 01:35:33,480
just because they're the younger ones. But they were talking about going to the elementary schools and connecting with kids that are younger than them,

897
01:35:36,735 --> 01:35:40,125
and then going to the high school and connecting with kids that are older than them. It goes both ways and from what we've heard,

898
01:35:44,115 --> 01:35:44,115
it goes from them wanting to mentor younger kids and then be mentored by the older kids.

899
01:35:50,715 --> 01:35:53,835
>> love that. I have one more question. The more on paper,

900
01:35:56,580 --> 01:36:00,015
instead of just on the computer for assignments, I just want to say, I love that.

901
01:36:02,550 --> 01:36:02,550
the research shows that kids need to know how to do this.

902
01:36:07,020 --> 01:36:07,020
I know they love to be able to sign their names.

903
01:36:12,245 --> 01:36:15,215
beautiful signatures. >> no, because every time I look at whenever on your notebooks and stuff,

904
01:36:20,415 --> 01:36:22,605
your signature is just so wonderful and I'm like, why does my signature not look like that?

905
01:36:24,735 --> 01:36:26,940
how does she get her n like that? >> I could teach you [overlapping].

906
01:36:29,340 --> 01:36:29,340
>> because I myself can't do all the writing like that.

907
01:36:33,720 --> 01:36:35,025
in my spanish class, that is the one class I think that I have that no computers, nothing.

908
01:36:40,170 --> 01:36:42,360
I think the only time we had our computers out in our spanish class was when we were signing up for

909
01:36:45,195 --> 01:36:45,195
our dual enrollment because it's a utu credit for being in spanish five. Really awesome.

910
01:36:50,775 --> 01:36:53,355
but that's the only time we've been on computers, but we have written essays in that class.

911
01:36:55,365 --> 01:36:55,365
I'm telling you that my hand is cramping by the end because I am first off,

912
01:36:59,640 --> 01:37:02,970
my brain power right now, I'm looking at all my spanish words, and I'm trying to write and it's a lot because normally,

913
01:37:06,030 --> 01:37:07,890
I always do everything on the computer. But I think it's a really important skill.

914
01:37:10,485 --> 01:37:10,485
as much as we love our computers and marcus said that we need our balance,

915
01:37:14,685 --> 01:37:14,685
we need to have some more paper stuff too.

916
01:37:25,880 --> 01:37:25,880
>> does that affect our msocs material supplies and operating costs?

917
01:37:31,440 --> 01:37:35,310
no. We got lots of paper that we can use and there's the paper. >> it's about choices because I can donate paper I got. Lots of paper.

918
01:37:44,810 --> 01:37:47,640
>> from the wada conference, I got to tell you guys, I had a great time this year.

919
01:37:50,430 --> 01:37:53,520
this I mean, out of the two years that I've gone now, I got to tell you this was the best.

920
01:37:54,780 --> 01:37:56,445
I had a lot of fun. Marcus, I know he's going to talk about it too,

921
01:37:58,890 --> 01:38:02,805
but we just had a great time. I have met so many students.

922
01:38:04,260 --> 01:38:07,680
I've made so many connections, so many friends from all these other school districts. We learned so much about how other school districts operate and how their own boards are.

923
01:38:12,540 --> 01:38:14,415
we were bragging about you guys. We have an awesome school board.

924
01:38:17,060 --> 01:38:19,440
it was just really awesome to hear from all these other schools and the friends that we made,

925
01:38:22,755 --> 01:38:24,240
it was really awesome. We are planning some retreats and inviting some students over.

926
01:38:28,485 --> 01:38:31,425
it's going to be really fun to learn about how they operate, because a lot of schools, they are very different from us.

927
01:38:35,990 --> 01:38:38,310
they've got a lot more schools, they have different worries,

928
01:38:40,350 --> 01:38:41,955
they have different values. It was really awesome to see how they operate.

929
01:38:45,510 --> 01:38:48,420
the presentation on the cell phone policy, I was a part of that. It was really awesome to see

930
01:38:51,045 --> 01:38:54,570
how many people were interested in bringing that back to their own schools. I thought we did a great job, you guys.

931
01:38:56,550 --> 01:38:56,550
it was very awesome because also one of the reps from seattle public schools,

932
01:39:02,925 --> 01:39:02,925
which I'm pretty sure that is the biggest district in our entire state.

933
01:39:08,805 --> 01:39:08,805
which there's only three reps. One of them came up to me afterwards,

934
01:39:14,220 --> 01:39:15,660
me and marcus and she was like, are you guys available on wednesday to call because

935
01:39:19,095 --> 01:39:19,095
they themselves are trying to implement this and she wanted marcus's and I opinion.

936
01:39:23,325 --> 01:39:26,910
we were like, my gosh, are you being serious right now because we did not think that we were going to have this effect on other people.

937
01:39:29,670 --> 01:39:33,450
we will keep you guys in the loop about what's going on with that. Then we learned a lot from our bridging the gap pre conference stuff.

938
01:39:39,075 --> 01:39:39,075
there's a lot of fun information that we will be giving out to you guys soon.

939
01:39:43,545 --> 01:39:46,560
but one of the biggest takeaways for me at least with the whole student outreach program and bridging the gap,

940
01:39:49,695 --> 01:39:52,365
is what do you guys want to hear? Because so far, the first few months is that

941
01:39:55,260 --> 01:39:55,260
introductory getting information, brainstorming with students.

942
01:39:59,685 --> 01:39:59,685
but I just want to know what are some specific information you guys want from students?

943
01:40:04,935 --> 01:40:08,085
because that's one of the biggest things we learned from bridging the gap, our pre conference thing that marcus and I attended

944
01:40:10,380 --> 01:40:14,070
was a lot of the directors and superintendents who are there. They kept saying, we love to hear from students,

945
01:40:17,040 --> 01:40:20,355
a lot of stuff like that, which I know you guys all love to hear from us. It makes me feel very honored that I can do this.

946
01:40:24,555 --> 01:40:28,335
but I just want to know what specific stuff do you guys want to hear? Do you want me to create a form?

947
01:40:30,240 --> 01:40:31,650
would that be easier? Do you guys just want to email me or do you want me to email you guys and prompt you?

948
01:40:35,715 --> 01:40:38,580
I don't know. What way would work best for you guys? >> I have one idea. You could work with

949
01:40:40,680 --> 01:40:44,160
selina and then you could create a form that you could send out and then capture the different ideas and then maybe bring those back

950
01:40:47,445 --> 01:40:47,445
and share out what the themes were? Would that work?

951
01:40:52,820 --> 01:40:52,820
>> perfect, guys. Marcus and I we will write this down.

952
01:40:56,850 --> 01:41:00,840
>> actually after thanksgiving, I'll have selina reach out and maybe we can come down the high school and meet with you and help.

953
01:41:03,210 --> 01:41:06,285
>> I think it's interesting that you brought up the paper thing because I also have a friend who's a substitute teacher,

954
01:41:11,430 --> 01:41:13,590
and she mentioned that she thought I needed to have more paperwork particularly with math.

955
01:41:16,275 --> 01:41:16,275
I thought well, that's interesting that at least one teacher thinks that.

956
01:41:23,630 --> 01:41:23,630
>> students agree.

957
01:41:28,040 --> 01:41:31,185
>> just piggybacking off of what harleen said, that the wada conference for me was very impactful.

958
01:41:34,845 --> 01:41:34,845
I feel like I learned so much and I met so many new people and have

959
01:41:40,380 --> 01:41:40,380
so many new connections that probably going to impact my future.

960
01:41:47,070 --> 01:41:49,005
the conference was really amazing, all the breakout room sessions and

961
01:41:52,650 --> 01:41:52,650
all the events that harleen and I attended were just really amazing.

962
01:41:58,610 --> 01:42:01,170
>> can I ask a question? Every year at wada,

963
01:42:02,865 --> 01:42:06,450
it seems like they have student musical groups. How does that happen?

964
01:42:08,505 --> 01:42:11,955
how do they go about deciding who gets to come because we have wonderful musicians in our district.

965
01:42:15,780 --> 01:42:18,765
we have wonderful musicians and I'm just thinking. >> that would be a great question for wada. I don't know.

966
01:42:22,110 --> 01:42:22,110
>> I don't know the particulars as far as exactly how it's done,

967
01:42:27,990 --> 01:42:27,990
but there's nothing more exciting than seeing your students there.

968
01:42:33,195 --> 01:42:36,015
a few years back, steve menefee came down with the drum line and my youngest was part of it,

969
01:42:42,390 --> 01:42:46,100
and that was really cool. It was fun to have it.

970
01:42:48,390 --> 01:42:51,120
they've had, just broadening out. They've had drama presentations where people have performed parts of plays.

971
01:42:55,965 --> 01:42:58,410
they've had the music, the artwork, they've done all kinds of things.

972
01:43:00,660 --> 01:43:02,250
so there's a myriad of things, and that's always one of the best parts of the whole conference.

973
01:43:05,205 --> 01:43:05,205
they should do a concert or evening performance.

974
01:43:12,300 --> 01:43:12,300
it would be cool.

975
01:43:20,780 --> 01:43:22,905
anything else? There are any other questions?

976
01:43:25,170 --> 01:43:27,500
>> thank you. >> thank you, christie. Thank you students.

977
01:43:31,230 --> 01:43:33,795
keeping up with our updates, we'll now move to the budget and our favorite budgetarian, harleen.

978
01:43:39,900 --> 01:43:39,900
[overlapping]

979
01:43:45,652 --> 01:43:45,652
[laughter].

980
01:43:50,580 --> 01:43:50,580
>> thank you. This is our budget finance update for this month.

981
01:43:55,725 --> 01:43:58,650
tonight, I'm going to talk about our annual financial statements that just got completed, the f-196.

982
01:44:01,545 --> 01:44:05,040
I'll do a summary of all of our funds and then do a little bit more in depth on the general fund since that's where all the action happens,

983
01:44:09,975 --> 01:44:13,395
and then talk about our current fund balance. This is one of the first pages of the f-196,

984
01:44:17,415 --> 01:44:20,795
and the f-196 is about 80 pages long. It's pretty dry and boring.

985
01:44:23,510 --> 01:44:23,510
but I pick this page because this summarizes all five of our funds.

986
01:44:28,100 --> 01:44:31,385
like I said, I'll go a little bit more in depth with the general fund, but just wanted to point out asb fund ended with a fund balance of 823,000.

987
01:44:38,265 --> 01:44:39,825
the debt service fund, which is what we used to pay our bonds,

988
01:44:44,490 --> 01:44:44,490
ended with a $4.5 million fund balance.

989
01:44:49,110 --> 01:44:49,110
our capital projects fund ended with $3.7 million in fund balance,

990
01:44:55,140 --> 01:44:58,800
and it's for major projects, buildings, land, major renovations is all that fund can be used for.

991
01:45:04,050 --> 01:45:06,420
the transportation vehicle fund, which is just for school buses,

992
01:45:08,655 --> 01:45:08,655
ended with $1.7 million in fund balance.

993
01:45:13,620 --> 01:45:16,950
any questions about the other four funds, not the general fund?

994
01:45:21,560 --> 01:45:21,560
I aligned this presentation with our citizens budget,

995
01:45:28,560 --> 01:45:30,375
group things the same way. If you wanted to look at the citizens budget and compare where this is actual,

996
01:45:34,965 --> 01:45:37,800
where we actually ended the year, you could. This is our revenue by source.

997
01:45:40,315 --> 01:45:40,315
you can see we got $12.6 million in levy,

998
01:45:45,115 --> 01:45:47,010
in '24, '25, the local non levy, the 682,000,

999
01:45:50,370 --> 01:45:52,050
that is local funds, that's everything from some food service revenue to

1000
01:45:56,100 --> 01:45:56,100
just other local donations, smaller grants.

1001
01:46:02,720 --> 01:46:05,415
there's just miscellaneous things in there. It's our smallest funding source.

1002
01:46:07,500 --> 01:46:07,500
state basic ed was 48.6 million,

1003
01:46:11,970 --> 01:46:14,700
state special, which includes our special education as well as all of our state funded grants,

1004
01:46:17,970 --> 01:46:17,970
such as lap, highly capable,

1005
01:46:25,010 --> 01:46:25,010
that was 20.4 million.

1006
01:46:29,130 --> 01:46:32,715
we received 6.6 million in federal funds, and then we received other funds in the amount of 934,000.

1007
01:46:40,100 --> 01:46:44,040
I'm going to go through expenditures three different ways, again, aligning with our citizens budget.

1008
01:46:46,050 --> 01:46:48,090
the first one is by major program, so we group things together.

1009
01:46:50,055 --> 01:46:52,065
these next three slides, all of it is $89 million is what we spent last year,

1010
01:46:55,230 --> 01:46:59,130
but it just shows it in different ways. Major programs. The first one is basic education.

1011
01:47:00,945 --> 01:47:00,945
that's where we spend the bulk of our money, $59.6 million.

1012
01:47:05,265 --> 01:47:05,265
special education is $14.8 million.

1013
01:47:10,070 --> 01:47:10,070
we spent $3 million in federal programs other

1014
01:47:14,640 --> 01:47:18,525
than the special education allocation that we get from the fed, because that's up above in the special education.

1015
01:47:21,900 --> 01:47:25,470
state categorical programs includes all of the state funded grants that we receive, 9.1 million,

1016
01:47:29,670 --> 01:47:29,670
and then other services from other entities,

1017
01:47:35,370 --> 01:47:38,700
is 2.5 million is what we spent in those. The next way we're looking at it is by major activity.

1018
01:47:42,675 --> 01:47:45,330
teaching activity, $53.5 million, that's 60% of our expenditures.

1019
01:47:47,925 --> 01:47:47,925
teaching support, that is all those supports our paraeducators,

1020
01:47:52,515 --> 01:47:52,515
and other supports that go into the classroom, $10.4 million.

1021
01:47:56,835 --> 01:47:56,835
operations is all the things that happen the building, maintenance workers,

1022
01:48:01,590 --> 01:48:01,590
custodial, everything else that is operations, not teaching.

1023
01:48:07,065 --> 01:48:10,065
in the buildings, is 14.7 million. Administration is the district administrators as well

1024
01:48:14,130 --> 01:48:14,130
as the staff at the district office, 5.3 million,

1025
01:48:18,600 --> 01:48:22,560
and principals is 5.1 million and that includes not only the principals, but also the administrative assistants that work in the principals offices.

1026
01:48:29,180 --> 01:48:32,820
the last way we're going to look at it is by object code, these are state mandated ways that we group things.

1027
01:48:36,375 --> 01:48:40,200
certificated salaries is 39.3 million, classified salaries, 17.2 million, employee benefits,

1028
01:48:44,730 --> 01:48:47,910
19 million, general supplies, that could be anything from paper to fuel is 4 million,

1029
01:48:52,995 --> 01:48:56,310
purchase services includes anything that we contract out. It's not an employee cost,

1030
01:48:58,290 --> 01:48:58,290
but somebody else comes in and does some service. That's $9 million.

1031
01:49:04,215 --> 01:49:04,215
travel is very small, just over 100,000.

1032
01:49:08,745 --> 01:49:08,745
capital outlay that's major equipment purchases 419,000.

1033
01:49:16,490 --> 01:49:19,455
as far as looking at our budget. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, peggy.

1034
01:49:23,930 --> 01:49:23,930
>> I was just wondering in the previous,

1035
01:49:28,395 --> 01:49:28,395
where does insurance premiums land in all of that purchase services?

1036
01:49:34,185 --> 01:49:37,395
>> it would be in purchase services. >> thank you. >> that's a big chunk of purchase services, actually.

1037
01:49:41,930 --> 01:49:44,415
then our budget versus actual. In our budget, we always estimate our revenues to be

1038
01:49:49,650 --> 01:49:51,210
lower than what we might get and our expenditures to be higher just to be conservative with the budget.

1039
01:49:55,410 --> 01:49:55,410
we were thinking we get about $91.1 million and we got 89.7.

1040
01:50:01,815 --> 01:50:01,815
like I said, we budget in capacity for revenues so we don't know.

1041
01:50:06,570 --> 01:50:10,200
that $91 million included about $3 million dollar in revenues that we thought we might get.

1042
01:50:14,430 --> 01:50:16,995
it looks like we got about half of that. That's really great.

1043
01:50:18,840 --> 01:50:18,840
expenditures, we budgeted 91.4 million and our actual expenditures were 89.2 million.

1044
01:50:26,985 --> 01:50:30,795
we were $2.1 million under budget in our expenditures. Then we thought our ending fund balance would be about

1045
01:50:33,840 --> 01:50:33,840
5.5 million and we actually ended at 6.7 million.

1046
01:50:38,535 --> 01:50:38,535
we were $1.2 million higher than budget.

1047
01:50:45,140 --> 01:50:48,975
now, we'll talk about our fund balance. We ended the '24/ '25 school year.

1048
01:50:54,735 --> 01:50:58,710
our revenues exceeded our expenditures by $796,000. We added that to our fund balance,

1049
01:51:00,780 --> 01:51:02,760
and that's the first time that we've added to fund balance and not taken from it since 2021.

1050
01:51:07,130 --> 01:51:07,130
our ending fund balance is 6.8 million,

1051
01:51:11,625 --> 01:51:11,625
but we are continuing to be really frugal and just really monitor it all the time.

1052
01:51:20,210 --> 01:51:20,210
on the next slide, you'll see, I'll just go to that.

1053
01:51:25,245 --> 01:51:25,245
we have a big uptick in october when we collect our property taxes,

1054
01:51:32,790 --> 01:51:36,420
and then it really declines over the next six months until april, when we have our second tax collection of the school year.

1055
01:51:40,250 --> 01:51:40,250
you can see the trend. It's the same trend that we have every year.

1056
01:51:45,120 --> 01:51:45,120
it was a good month,

1057
01:51:50,160 --> 01:51:50,160
but we just need to continue to be diligent and watch it.

1058
01:51:56,960 --> 01:51:56,960
any questions about any of that?

1059
01:52:04,040 --> 01:52:06,645
>> I just like that big jump. It was a big jump.

1060
01:52:08,820 --> 01:52:08,820
should last longer.

1061
01:52:17,830 --> 01:52:21,730
>> any other questions for holly? As always holly, thank you for making the budget understandable for all of us,

1062
01:52:27,275 --> 01:52:27,275
and keeping those numbers organized.

1063
01:52:31,540 --> 01:52:35,300
that brings us to the audit committee. >> not much to report. I always feel really silly sitting

1064
01:52:38,210 --> 01:52:40,760
here saying this because it's like nancy, and I went in. We looked at both runs of checks.

1065
01:52:43,745 --> 01:52:46,730
we didn't find anything alarming, which is what you want to hear.

1066
01:52:51,040 --> 01:52:54,980
that was an interesting thing looking at today. For ticket sales, there's a processing fee,

1067
01:52:58,175 --> 01:53:00,770
and then there's an invoice fee, and then what was the other fee on top of that?

1068
01:53:04,580 --> 01:53:04,580
it's like another bill for getting a bill.

1069
01:53:12,970 --> 01:53:12,970
so all the little things they add up.

1070
01:53:17,285 --> 01:53:17,285
>> they sure do. Thank you for yet another boring,

1071
01:53:21,665 --> 01:53:25,160
uneventful, dull audit committee report. Aim to keep in company.

1072
01:53:27,375 --> 01:53:29,560
the day you say, 'well, I've got a lot of exciting things to say' is the day I'm going to be scared,

1073
01:53:32,845 --> 01:53:35,710
we will hope it doesn't happen. Moving on to item 9.01.

1074
01:53:38,950 --> 01:53:38,950
this is the review of indicators for operational oe three,

1075
01:53:47,525 --> 01:53:47,525
our staff hiring treatment evaluation and compensation report or policy in our report.

1076
01:53:54,650 --> 01:53:56,570
last month, we acted upon our first operational expectation report generated

1077
01:53:59,030 --> 01:54:02,030
since we revised and consolidated our board policies. The report utilized the new indicators that the superintendent

1078
01:54:05,030 --> 01:54:08,450
had put forth and the board had reviewed and approved. As we found with our previous policies and indicators,

1079
01:54:11,240 --> 01:54:15,080
sometimes monitoring reports bring out deficiencies in the indicators or show that some changes need to be

1080
01:54:17,390 --> 01:54:20,300
made to the indicators to strengthen these reports. Our process has been to receive a monitoring report at one meeting,

1081
01:54:24,875 --> 01:54:27,950
discuss and act on it at the next and critique the indicators at the third to determine if revisions would be beneficial.

1082
01:54:31,265 --> 01:54:35,120
tonight, we will continue that process as we review the indicators, not the content of operational expectations three policy,

1083
01:54:40,970 --> 01:54:40,970
addressing staff hiring, treatment, evaluation, and compensation.

1084
01:54:48,220 --> 01:54:48,220
any comments, any critiques or suggestions to christie in regards

1085
01:54:57,140 --> 01:54:59,015
to how we can strengthen the report by potentially changing indicators or are there things that

1086
01:55:02,060 --> 01:55:02,060
were not meant in the report that we would like to see?

1087
01:55:10,810 --> 01:55:14,720
>> I don't think there's anything there about retention. It seems to me that that's a really important indicator of how happy

1088
01:55:18,470 --> 01:55:18,470
your staff is with their work space.

1089
01:55:22,850 --> 01:55:22,850
I think that would be a useful thing to have.

1090
01:55:27,305 --> 01:55:29,900
>> I can take that back to the team. I'd like to have a conversation with hr.

1091
01:55:31,835 --> 01:55:31,835
yes, I do agree with that and there's lots of reasons people leave.

1092
01:55:36,095 --> 01:55:36,095
it could be complicated, so I will review that with the team.

1093
01:55:45,910 --> 01:55:49,625
>> good suggestion. Are there others? >> I'm just going through and reading the comments on it to refresh my memory.

1094
01:56:03,400 --> 01:56:06,905
data showing whether complaints, about any of these factors have increased or

1095
01:56:10,460 --> 01:56:14,105
decreased would be useful just to see a trend. That was on let's see, 3.1,

1096
01:56:21,560 --> 01:56:23,600
where it says 'the district maintains up to date personnel rules and procedures that are documented readily accessible through

1097
01:56:27,440 --> 01:56:30,620
training and communication to all employees and reviewed regularly for alignment with legal and ethical standards.'

1098
01:56:34,935 --> 01:56:37,660
I guess the only thing I wrote about that was if there was data showing whether complaints about

1099
01:56:42,670 --> 01:56:46,150
any of those factors was more or less would be useful to show if the rules and procedures are working.

1100
01:56:50,430 --> 01:56:52,850
>> I will write that one down. It wouldn't necessarily change the indicator,

1101
01:56:55,370 --> 01:56:55,370
but it may be how we share the information moving forward.

1102
01:57:11,080 --> 01:57:11,080
>> to bring up the sore spot from last month job descriptions.

1103
01:57:18,395 --> 01:57:18,395
I appreciate the fact that you guys are working on that.

1104
01:57:22,640 --> 01:57:25,790
I had no idea that things were not all in one place, because historically they have not all been in one place.

1105
01:57:29,750 --> 01:57:29,750
I would like to put it out there that that was one of the sources of problems,

1106
01:57:34,655 --> 01:57:37,625
that we were coming at it from two different angles. I thought we had more information than we did.

1107
01:57:40,780 --> 01:57:44,510
>> they're building it. They're building a system. >> that's good to know. But just so people know,

1108
01:57:48,395 --> 01:57:51,260
I thought that we had it because we have a policy that actually says that we should have it.

1109
01:57:54,230 --> 01:57:57,140
>> we do have job descriptions. I think it's also important to note that,

1110
01:58:01,085 --> 01:58:01,085
if a job was hired and we haven't needed to rehire it for ten years,

1111
01:58:09,305 --> 01:58:12,875
we wouldn't want to use the job description that was originally written. There`s sometimes too, it's a refinement of job descriptions.

1112
01:58:17,330 --> 01:58:19,760
once they're built, they don't stay stagnant. Because time changes, one,

1113
01:58:23,240 --> 01:58:26,165
the ability to use technology might change. When I got here,

1114
01:58:28,130 --> 01:58:28,130
we didn't have anything in there about employees being bilingual,

1115
01:58:32,960 --> 01:58:35,360
that being a strength. These are things that we continue to evolve.

1116
01:58:38,525 --> 01:58:41,915
but again, cara will always be happy to meet with you. >> on a related note,

1117
01:58:43,760 --> 01:58:43,760
organizational chart, org charts.

1118
01:58:48,730 --> 01:58:52,180
that would be helpful. >> anytime we can show that to you,

1119
01:58:54,710 --> 01:58:58,060
they continue to shrink. I've shared them in the past with you,

1120
01:59:00,590 --> 01:59:03,590
but they change every year depending on the jobs. So, we can continue to refine that.

1121
01:59:13,630 --> 01:59:13,630
>> other thoughts or suggestions?

1122
01:59:27,100 --> 01:59:29,885
not seeing any others. We'll leave that to christie and her team to come back with

1123
01:59:33,305 --> 01:59:37,220
suggestions or ideas and move forward. >> if other things come to mind in between,

1124
01:59:41,150 --> 01:59:42,410
can we email those? I realize it's better to have it here so that people know we're thinking it.

1125
01:59:47,285 --> 01:59:50,750
>> one thing is some of the things we may not. If you look at the policy.

1126
01:59:52,940 --> 01:59:56,600
if you look at the superintendent will and the superintendent may not, that is the board's part.

1127
01:59:58,175 --> 02:00:01,355
I'd be really interested, did you capture that part? Then the team and I take that and we interpret what we believe that means.

1128
02:00:06,245 --> 02:00:07,880
just sharing these pieces, but what I don't want to have happen is it getting so big.

1129
02:00:12,095 --> 02:00:15,935
I want it to be the most important information. This is super helpful here and some of the things may not

1130
02:00:19,970 --> 02:00:23,660
show up in this monitoring report because they're nice to knows. But having an organizational chart, for example, yes,

1131
02:00:27,830 --> 02:00:29,555
that is super important and nice to know, but it may not change the outcome of what the superintendent will do,

1132
02:00:33,170 --> 02:00:35,015
and the superintendent may not. Always email, it just may not show up in the policy if that makes sense.

1133
02:00:47,770 --> 02:00:47,770
>> then that brings us on to items 10 and 11 of our meeting.

1134
02:00:54,470 --> 02:00:57,785
the superintendent and board consent agendas. For those that have been here before,

1135
02:00:59,270 --> 02:00:59,270
you've heard me say these are a group of routine items that the board is allowed to pass

1136
02:01:03,860 --> 02:01:03,860
with one motion as opposed to voting on each item individually.

1137
02:01:08,870 --> 02:01:08,870
these are typically a bunch of routine items that have come before the board.

1138
02:01:13,145 --> 02:01:13,145
typically renewals of contracts and such and general routine business.

1139
02:01:18,800 --> 02:01:22,460
on tonight's consent agenda, we have four policies. As a reminder policy with minor changes driven by changes in law that don't

1140
02:01:27,230 --> 02:01:27,230
impact the intent of the policy are typically introduced and adopted on the same night.

1141
02:01:31,970 --> 02:01:35,540
this is the case with policy 622. The only change to this policy are changes that increase

1142
02:01:39,020 --> 02:01:42,740
the acquisition related thresholds for inflation. The other three policies 1,111,

1143
02:01:47,630 --> 02:01:49,550
the oath of office, 42 60, the use of school facilities, and 6250.

1144
02:01:52,685 --> 02:01:52,685
cellular telephones have more extensive changes and are being introduced this month,

1145
02:01:58,070 --> 02:01:58,070
so the public and the board have time to consider them before acting on them next month.

1146
02:02:02,660 --> 02:02:05,135
as always, we encourage the public to review these policies and share any thoughts you have

1147
02:02:07,940 --> 02:02:09,740
about them with the board prior to the next meeting or during public comment time at the next meeting.

1148
02:02:13,160 --> 02:02:13,160
so we can take your thoughts into consideration when acting on these policies.

1149
02:02:18,010 --> 02:02:18,010
with that, the chair will entertain

1150
02:02:22,130 --> 02:02:22,130
a motion or any questions or discussions on the consent agendas.

1151
02:02:35,580 --> 02:02:35,580
>> motion that we approve both the consent agendas.

1152
02:02:42,970 --> 02:02:42,970
>> it has been moved that we approve both the superintendent and board consent agendas.

1153
02:02:49,625 --> 02:02:52,770
all those in favor signify by saying aye. All opposed? The consent agendas have been passed.

1154
02:02:59,595 --> 02:03:03,560
we're in the home stretch. I haven't made amy's desired 45 minutes, but I think I'm doing good.

1155
02:03:10,210 --> 02:03:10,210
per policy 1210, tonight is when the board

1156
02:03:14,495 --> 02:03:18,125
elects our president and vice president to serve for the coming year. We will start by electing our 2026 board president and then our vice president.

1157
02:03:22,580 --> 02:03:25,250
per our discussion last month, the current president will oversee the elections and finish out

1158
02:03:29,330 --> 02:03:31,430
tonight's meeting and the newly elected president and vice president will assume their roles at our next meeting.

1159
02:03:34,160 --> 02:03:37,240
any questions? >> yes. I just want to make sure on the procedure.

1160
02:03:43,355 --> 02:03:43,355
nominations, people make nominations until you determine everybody stop nominating?

1161
02:03:50,030 --> 02:03:50,030
people can make statements nominated?

1162
02:03:55,040 --> 02:03:57,980
>> we will open the floor for nominations. Nominations can be made and or people can volunteer to serve in roles.

1163
02:04:02,510 --> 02:04:06,155
once we've exhausted the nominations, then the nominations will be closed.

1164
02:04:08,150 --> 02:04:11,705
if people want to make any statements, they'll have time to do that. Then per the policy,

1165
02:04:13,235 --> 02:04:13,235
we will have a roll call vote.

1166
02:04:19,960 --> 02:04:23,060
>> are we just starting with president first? >> we'll start with president and then we will do vice president.

1167
02:04:27,770 --> 02:04:27,770
the other elected role on the board,

1168
02:04:32,030 --> 02:04:32,030
the ledger rep is done in june of even years,

1169
02:04:37,010 --> 02:04:39,590
if I'm doing that correctly. I didn't write that one down,

1170
02:04:41,645 --> 02:04:41,645
doing that one from memory. Any other questions?

1171
02:04:45,935 --> 02:04:48,245
>> may I make a nomination? >> at this time, the floor is open for nominations for president.

1172
02:04:52,130 --> 02:04:52,130
>> I nominate dr. Kevin erickson for president.

1173
02:05:00,970 --> 02:05:00,970
>> are there any other nominations?

1174
02:05:08,890 --> 02:05:12,260
it used to be when we did this at the wada meeting, and you guys never experienced that.

1175
02:05:14,240 --> 02:05:16,340
the official policy was you had to ask, are there any other nominations three times?

1176
02:05:19,540 --> 02:05:22,775
the third time, it seemed repetitive. One more time, are there any other nominations?

1177
02:05:28,390 --> 02:05:28,390
then the nominations for president are myself.

1178
02:05:36,400 --> 02:05:39,230
I had on here, are they willing to serve? I would say yes,

1179
02:05:40,430 --> 02:05:42,635
and I thank you for your support. We will go ahead and do the roll call.

1180
02:05:45,470 --> 02:05:47,315
brian, we'll start with you. Who would you like to vote for for president? I know it's really weird.

1181
02:05:51,185 --> 02:05:51,905
>> kevin. >> thank you. Antonio?

1182
02:05:56,650 --> 02:05:56,650
>> dr. Erickson. Other. I'm just kidding, just kidding.

1183
02:06:02,720 --> 02:06:04,940
>> I appreciate that. That's good. >> of course. No that was a joke.

1184
02:06:07,025 --> 02:06:10,760
I highly support dr. Erickson. >> peggy?

1185
02:06:12,845 --> 02:06:15,065
>> kevin. >> nancy?

1186
02:06:17,000 --> 02:06:19,475
>> director erickson. >> I got more names than I can keep track of.

1187
02:06:22,970 --> 02:06:25,760
I will vote for myself, why not? It seems to be the going theme.

1188
02:06:28,100 --> 02:06:31,610
I'm happy to announce that kevin has been elected to serve as the board president for the next year.

1189
02:06:34,640 --> 02:06:36,770
again, I thank you for you guys' support, and I will continue to try and do you proud.

1190
02:06:39,910 --> 02:06:39,910
at this time, I will go ahead and open the floor for nominations for vice president.

1191
02:06:47,530 --> 02:06:50,360
>> I nominate oh, I'm sorry. >> no go for it.

1192
02:06:52,265 --> 02:06:52,265
>> I nominate peggy uppiano.

1193
02:06:57,730 --> 02:07:00,065
>> other nominations? >> I would like to nominate antonio machado.

1194
02:07:06,940 --> 02:07:06,940
>> are there any other nominations?

1195
02:07:12,760 --> 02:07:14,630
>> not mine. >> I hear it, but well,

1196
02:07:19,820 --> 02:07:21,920
just pretend it isn't there? One last time, are there any other nominations?

1197
02:07:29,390 --> 02:07:33,040
>> then we will go ahead and have our roll call vote. >> do you want them to say anything?

1198
02:07:34,475 --> 02:07:37,330
>> sorry. Thank you. Peggy I'll let you start.

1199
02:07:39,740 --> 02:07:39,740
>> I'm wanting to run for vice president again because I'm available and reliable.

1200
02:07:46,715 --> 02:07:46,715
I have shown up for every meeting and I have filled in when needed.

1201
02:07:51,295 --> 02:07:51,295
also, I've made an effort in the past to make sure that it's inclusive

1202
02:07:56,895 --> 02:07:56,895
and invite people in to other board directors in to

1203
02:08:02,160 --> 02:08:04,320
have an opportunity to sit in on the agenda planning meetings by swapping myself out because I think it's

1204
02:08:08,520 --> 02:08:08,520
necessary for us all as co equals to have an equal balance of information.

1205
02:08:17,240 --> 02:08:20,580
>> thank you. Antonio. >> yeah, I would be very happy to participate as a vice president here,

1206
02:08:28,560 --> 02:08:31,740
just because I think that relationships are very important. And it's very important when we have things to work on,

1207
02:08:38,400 --> 02:08:38,400
that we have an ability to connect and

1208
02:08:43,290 --> 02:08:43,290
an ability to listen and understand and then really

1209
02:08:48,420 --> 02:08:48,420
try to to apply the knowledge that we have as a board

1210
02:08:53,640 --> 02:08:56,580
and help the president make a decision on things and focus when it comes to what's best for the kids.

1211
02:09:00,165 --> 02:09:00,165
so I would take this opportunity as seriously as I can and with an ability to

1212
02:09:10,200 --> 02:09:10,200
put more focus the items that we need to work on and

1213
02:09:15,510 --> 02:09:18,120
specifically with the engagement that we need to build not only with the school district kids,

1214
02:09:22,320 --> 02:09:22,320
but with stakeholders and the community in general.

1215
02:09:27,740 --> 02:09:27,740
>> thank you. Our nominees for vice president are peggy and antonio,

1216
02:09:34,680 --> 02:09:38,130
and I'm assuming based on their comments that they're both willing to serve in the role of vice president.

1217
02:09:41,805 --> 02:09:43,905
we'll start with our roll call vote. We'll start again with brian.

1218
02:09:47,450 --> 02:09:47,450
>> antonio.

1219
02:09:52,130 --> 02:09:54,580
>> peggy. >> peggy.

1220
02:09:59,270 --> 02:10:02,235
>> antonio. >> antonio. >> nancy. >> peggy.

1221
02:10:08,300 --> 02:10:08,300
>> that leaves me in a precarious position. I saw it common.

1222
02:10:16,855 --> 02:10:20,570
I'm going to vote for antonio. I'm happy to announce that antonio has been

1223
02:10:24,270 --> 02:10:27,150
elected to serve as our board vice president for the coming year. So thank you for all of you for your willingness and service.

1224
02:10:32,900 --> 02:10:32,900
>> congratulations.

1225
02:10:40,760 --> 02:10:43,185
>> mike. >> mike. >> if both the president and vice president are on who fills in.

1226
02:10:51,260 --> 02:10:51,260
>> we will hopefully not have that situation arise, but if it does,

1227
02:10:56,790 --> 02:10:56,790
then we would have to have a board consensus or determine how

1228
02:11:01,140 --> 02:11:04,425
to because we'd still be able to have a meeting if all other three others are there because we'd have quorum.

1229
02:11:08,385 --> 02:11:10,830
but hopefully that won't be the case. >> I'm thinking that we will very closely.

1230
02:11:14,850 --> 02:11:14,850
work together so that we're not both out at the same time.

1231
02:11:18,990 --> 02:11:18,990
>> as I actually looked ahead in the two things that took me out this last year.

1232
02:11:26,850 --> 02:11:30,750
I shouldn't have any things, so hopefully I won't have any absences, but I'll coordinate with antonio if I foresee anything that way. Any other questions?

1233
02:11:39,800 --> 02:11:39,800
>> kevin, do you need to put a motion forward to accept the nominations.

1234
02:11:49,070 --> 02:11:52,965
>> I don't know if we need to where we've had the vote. But I could stand to be corrected.

1235
02:11:58,140 --> 02:12:00,945
>> it looks like we've done that in the past. >> just had a motion. >> motion to accept you two as the new officers.

1236
02:12:03,780 --> 02:12:03,780
>> I'm happy to do that.

1237
02:12:08,060 --> 02:12:08,060
>> the board or the chair will put forth the motion to vote that we

1238
02:12:14,910 --> 02:12:18,540
accept kevin as our board president and antonio for our board vice president for the coming year.

1239
02:12:21,915 --> 02:12:25,095
so all those in favor signify by saying aye. >> aye.

1240
02:12:26,325 --> 02:12:29,150
>> all opposed. >> then it's official. Thank you, chris.

1241
02:12:34,100 --> 02:12:34,100
>> now I will go ahead and move us to item 13.01,

1242
02:12:40,920 --> 02:12:42,270
which is board sharing, and I'll go ahead and start with antonio.

1243
02:12:49,190 --> 02:12:49,190
>> I would just like to say thank you for to steve again and recognize the hard work.

1244
02:12:58,845 --> 02:12:58,845
there's some long hours when we study these things and also

1245
02:13:05,280 --> 02:13:05,280
travel and there's a lot of service for the kids that goes unnoticed,

1246
02:13:12,915 --> 02:13:15,225
but that we do. Steve served very well,

1247
02:13:17,310 --> 02:13:19,665
and also welcome to brian. Brian, I'm very excited for you to be here.

1248
02:13:22,320 --> 02:13:22,320
I really, I consider you a friend,

1249
02:13:27,000 --> 02:13:30,675
but at the same time, I know how dedicated you are to the school district. People know you in the school district.

1250
02:13:32,970 --> 02:13:36,165
you're not unfamiliar face, and you definitely have more swag than probably even eric trip, I think.

1251
02:13:43,200 --> 02:13:43,200
[laughter] everything you wear has an f a big f on your chest,

1252
02:13:49,845 --> 02:13:49,845
and it's just a messaging that fs in fern do,

1253
02:13:54,675 --> 02:13:56,985
not as anything else. You love for the school district shows,

1254
02:14:00,450 --> 02:14:00,450
and I'm so happy to have you and looking forward to serving with you.

1255
02:14:07,760 --> 02:14:07,760
>> brian, will let you lead off with your swag, I guess.

1256
02:14:12,030 --> 02:14:14,355
>> I'm new here. I wasn't real sure here at the beginning,

1257
02:14:18,930 --> 02:14:20,370
how much to participate, but I will say at the wada conference, everyone was great.

1258
02:14:25,790 --> 02:14:25,790
I felt like I knew people right away and I've known people for years in the group.

1259
02:14:33,960 --> 02:14:36,330
I was a fantastic experience, and I'm definitely looking forward to more of this,

1260
02:14:39,030 --> 02:14:39,030
and I'm excited about the retreat will be sooner than later. I'll be great.

1261
02:14:45,740 --> 02:14:48,350
>> peggy. >> I would also like to say welcome, brian.

1262
02:14:51,960 --> 02:14:54,285
I'm really going to miss steve. I feel like we were thrown in the trenches together.

1263
02:14:57,900 --> 02:15:01,830
very first meeting was horrific for lack of a better word, and he served as a very good sounding board,

1264
02:15:06,360 --> 02:15:06,360
as I said, over the time that we served together.

1265
02:15:10,410 --> 02:15:10,410
I'm going to miss that. I also want to thank antonio on his victory.

1266
02:15:17,715 --> 02:15:17,715
I do hope you will make an effort to be inclusive of other board members in sharing

1267
02:15:22,230 --> 02:15:22,230
information and keeping us all in an inner circle and not excluded.

1268
02:15:29,360 --> 02:15:29,360
I think the wada conference was wonderful.

1269
02:15:33,675 --> 02:15:37,260
there were a whole lot of- there was a whole lot of information that came out of it that I was unaware of before it was a really,

1270
02:15:40,830 --> 02:15:43,770
I think, money well spent. I know it was expensive, but it was,

1271
02:15:45,300 --> 02:15:45,300
this one was fantastic in terms of the amount of information. I came away with.

1272
02:15:52,050 --> 02:15:54,960
I hope that if you guys gathered information because you went to different sessions that you will share it with the rest of us.

1273
02:15:57,900 --> 02:15:57,900
I attended a session from ospi that was quite good.

1274
02:16:02,970 --> 02:16:02,970
one in particular from issaquah school district on

1275
02:16:07,230 --> 02:16:07,230
school improvement plans that was phenomenal and I hope that

1276
02:16:11,970 --> 02:16:11,970
maybe we can take some of the information from them and put it to

1277
02:16:16,290 --> 02:16:18,570
use rather than reinvent the wheel because they said they spent over a decade working on it.

1278
02:16:21,585 --> 02:16:25,530
they worked all the kinks out of it and they have a product that looks nice and easy to follow

1279
02:16:28,800 --> 02:16:28,800
and I think it would benefit us to have a good look at what is doing.

1280
02:16:32,970 --> 02:16:32,970
on that note, I'll pass it to nancy.

1281
02:16:37,340 --> 02:16:37,340
>> I just want to add welcome to brian.

1282
02:16:42,165 --> 02:16:44,760
you're in for a fun ride. Let me tell you you're going to learn so much so quickly and learn about the district.

1283
02:16:50,940 --> 02:16:54,690
welcome. It's wonderful to have you on the team. I'll miss steve too,

1284
02:16:57,270 --> 02:16:57,270
but I am excited about it feels like a new board when you get even one person on it.

1285
02:17:05,625 --> 02:17:05,625
it also feels good not to be the newbie to feel like,

1286
02:17:10,740 --> 02:17:14,445
I've got two years under my belt now. I know that's not very much, but it's more than a newbie.

1287
02:17:17,990 --> 02:17:17,990
come to any of us with questions and if you just need to know how to do stuff,

1288
02:17:23,985 --> 02:17:25,290
all of us, I'm sure, are very willing to help you with that.

1289
02:17:28,695 --> 02:17:32,160
I just want to echo peggy's remarks. This was an incredible wada experience.

1290
02:17:35,505 --> 02:17:38,895
I felt like our time was well spent. And I feel like I learned so much.

1291
02:17:41,430 --> 02:17:44,055
I too hope that during our retreat, we'll be able to share the things that we learned and picked up.

1292
02:17:47,070 --> 02:17:47,070
on each of the different breakout sessions that we went to.

1293
02:17:52,005 --> 02:17:52,005
congratulations also to kevin and to antonio for being our president and vice president.

1294
02:18:00,255 --> 02:18:00,255
I think we're off to a really good start for this new year.

1295
02:18:09,050 --> 02:18:09,050
>> thank you all. I'm feeling in the thanksgiving mood at this point.

1296
02:18:15,345 --> 02:18:15,345
first, I want to welcome as everyone else, brian, to the team.

1297
02:18:20,280 --> 02:18:20,280
I want to assure you that brian is not afraid to ask questions.

1298
02:18:24,540 --> 02:18:24,540
I've been getting [inaudible] on his questions to christie and the team

1299
02:18:29,025 --> 02:18:29,025
and he will be asking a lot and good questions.

1300
02:18:33,885 --> 02:18:36,795
he brings a good perspective to there that we haven't had. As much as I'll miss steve,

1301
02:18:38,565 --> 02:18:41,160
I think that brian is going to be a good replacement, so we're going to be a strong team.

1302
02:18:43,200 --> 02:18:43,200
I certainly want to thank everybody for their making

1303
02:18:47,760 --> 02:18:47,760
wada priority being there for the great conversations that we were able to have,

1304
02:18:52,650 --> 02:18:52,650
I think that that has set us up for a good starting point moving

1305
02:18:57,300 --> 02:18:59,160
forward as a new team and look forward to the great things that we're going to accomplish.

1306
02:19:02,325 --> 02:19:04,530
certainly, peggy, I think, having time at our retreat to share some of the things we learned and look at

1307
02:19:07,470 --> 02:19:10,485
some of the things that are there and what can we emulate, what can we learn from is going to be important.

1308
02:19:13,425 --> 02:19:13,425
I also want to just shout out again to the students for the awesome job that they did.

1309
02:19:19,125 --> 02:19:21,525
like I said, it was a proud daddy moment. You could have been my own kids and I wouldn't have

1310
02:19:24,540 --> 02:19:24,540
felt prouder it was thank you for doing the district well.

1311
02:19:29,910 --> 02:19:29,910
with that, I will wrap things up,

1312
02:19:34,350 --> 02:19:35,850
but one thing I did do, again, I was feeling in the thanksgiving mood,

1313
02:19:38,625 --> 02:19:38,625
and I mentioned this to the board on behalf of the board.

1314
02:19:44,190 --> 02:19:47,625
I wrote thank you notes to the great support system that we have. These people sitting behind me to the sides of them,

1315
02:19:52,980 --> 02:19:56,310
and this great lady sitting next to me, really do the work of the board.

1316
02:20:00,075 --> 02:20:00,075
tell them what we want done and they figure out how to do it and they figure out how to

1317
02:20:04,770 --> 02:20:04,770
do it with a budget that keeps shrinking in relatively speaking.

1318
02:20:10,620 --> 02:20:10,620
the number goes up, but with balance for inflation,

1319
02:20:14,640 --> 02:20:17,205
it's not any better than it had been. I just wanted to publicly thank them and I'm going to walk away from-

1320
02:20:59,390 --> 02:20:59,390
>> absolutely. [background]

1321
02:21:12,450 --> 02:21:12,450
>> amazed at how much came to mind about all the people that I was

1322
02:21:17,160 --> 02:21:17,160
writing about and just how good it made me feel about the people that I work with.

1323
02:21:22,455 --> 02:21:26,130
thank you. With that, I will go ahead and move us on to item 14.01,

1324
02:21:30,945 --> 02:21:30,945
which is our school board evaluation of the meeting, and peggy.

1325
02:21:41,840 --> 02:21:41,840
that is true. I'm just reading the script.

1326
02:21:49,640 --> 02:21:49,640
I think in the essence of thanksgiving,

1327
02:21:53,805 --> 02:21:55,245
I think we did a great job, and I'm going to call it good at that. Thank you.

1328
02:21:58,770 --> 02:22:02,520
>> thank you, kevin. >> with that being said, one last thing before adjourn,

1329
02:22:04,665 --> 02:22:08,250
I would like to clarify just for those that are looking for something exciting to do during the holiday season of december.

1330
02:22:12,420 --> 02:22:15,495
that our next business meeting is on december 16, it's not on the 30th.

1331
02:22:17,580 --> 02:22:20,910
we always have it early because school being closed. Mark that on your calendar.

1332
02:22:22,515 --> 02:22:25,080
don't want to miss it. You don't want to show up here on the 30th and be disappointed that you missed another great exciting meeting.

1333
02:22:28,470 --> 02:22:28,470
I'd also like to wish everyone a very happy thanksgiving.

1334
02:22:32,655 --> 02:22:32,655
amy, I promise to try and keep the meetings shorter in the coming year.

1335
02:22:37,170 --> 02:22:37,170
thank you all for coming and this meeting is adjourned.