[0:06] Good evening everybody.

[0:07] It's a little past six 30, and I'm gonna go ahead

[0:10] and open up the, uh, McMinnville School District Board

[0:14] of Directors work session for February 23rd.

[0:18] MSD will honor, empower,

[0:19] and prepare each individual to thrive and contribute.

[0:24] A couple things we're gonna work on this evening.

[0:27] We're gonna start off right away with, um, an interview

[0:31] of some budget committee applicants.

[0:33] We have three open positions.

[0:35] We had four individuals that, uh,

[0:37] filled out their applications

[0:39] and submitted them by the due date.

[0:42] And so we are gonna invite them up.

[0:46] Um, and what I'm gonna ask the board to do at,

[0:50] at your table, everybody has a, um, a sheet

[0:54] with a single question,

[0:55] and we're gonna ask you the same question left to right

[0:58] and we'll alternate kind of how we go through it,

[1:01] who's first and that kind of stuff.

[1:03] We've got five questions that, that we're gonna review,

[1:07] and then, um, we will dismiss you

[1:10] and the board will, uh, make a decision on who the, the,

[1:15] the finalists are for those positions, uh, at our next

[1:19] business meeting, which is March 9th, I think.

[1:27] So, um, that's when it'll be announced.

[1:29] And, and, uh, so for those that are applying there,

[1:33] you'll probably be notified the, the 10th,

[1:37] because we have a calendar to get to the budget committee.

[1:41] 'cause we will start doing that stuff in April.

[1:43] So, Okey doke.

[1:45] Right now we only have three

[1:47] of the candidates it looks like.

[1:49] So I'll invite it up, the ones that are here

[1:53] for the budget committee.

[1:55] And that is Jeffrey Clayton, Mary Dressel,

[2:00] Mackenzie Morehead,

[2:03] and Dan Shepherd, who I know is not here.

[2:05] Chair, can I ask a, a, you can procedural question,

[2:08] and maybe it's to director hall,

[2:09] but remember last year we had some confusion on the,

[2:13] the Zoom link if that was an option.

[2:14] Is that, was that made clear to these candidates? It was.

[2:18] Okay. Thank you. Thank you.

[2:21] Just, just, um, go ahead and sit down.

[2:25] Um, and, uh, to add to that, uh, Mr.

[2:29] Bza, I actually saw Dan Shepherd at the grocery store

[2:32] yesterday, and I said I'd see a Monday.

[2:34] Um, and he

[2:37] at least acknowledged, they all confirmed.

[2:40] So, um, I don't wanna disqualify somebody,

[2:43] but again, you guys are here on time,

[2:45] so we're gonna go ahead and get started.

[2:47] Um, uh, in front of you guys, would anybody, would any

[2:52] of the board members like to start

[2:54] with question one or I can

[2:59] Sure. If you like,

[3:00] uh,

[3:03] however, however you'd like.

[3:05] Sure. Okay.

[3:07] Hello, welcome. Thank you

[3:09] for your interest in the McMinnville

[3:11] School District Budget Committee.

[3:13] Um, this question looks familiar.

[3:15] Please tell us about yourself

[3:16] and why you're interested in serving

[3:18] as the McMinnville School District Budget Committee member.

[3:22] I guess I'll start. Uh, I'm McKenzie Morehead.

[3:24] Uh, I've lived in this community since, oh, go ahead.

[3:27] Oh, yeah. Check, check, check. No,

[3:31] Yeah, there's a little, there we

[3:33] go. You got it. Check, check,

[3:34] Check.

[3:35] Uh, my name's McKenzie Morehead.

[3:37] Uh, I grew up in, in basically Gam Hill County.

[3:40] I've been here since I was about six months old.

[3:42] Uh, went to elementary school at Washer until second grade,

[3:46] went to Adams, and then finished out my career at Patton

[3:50] Middle School and McMinville High School.

[3:52] Uh, and then obviously married, my wife, raised a family.

[3:57] Now all my kids are in the school district.

[3:59] Uh, and, uh,

[4:01] and then what we were looking for,

[4:03] why I wanted to be on the board.

[4:05] Uh, I'm always looking

[4:06] to expand my growth within the community.

[4:08] Um, I currently am the Vice President of Cruz McMinnville.

[4:12] Uh, to date, we've given back almost a hundred thousand

[4:15] dollars to STEM grants to teachers, uh,

[4:17] trade scholarship grants,

[4:19] and local non charitable, uh, on nonprofit giving as well.

[4:24] Uh, and so I'm just looking to add

[4:26] and grow my community, uh, in any way in shape form I can.

[4:30] So, there you go.

[4:33] Hi, I'm Mary Dressel,

[4:35] and I went through this, uh,

[4:38] McMinville school district schools graduated from Mackay.

[4:42] We have two, uh, eighth graders at Dunaway Middle School,

[4:46] and we have three graduates of McMinville High School.

[4:49] And then I, uh, retired from McMinville School

[4:53] District several years ago.

[4:55] And I would like the privilege again,

[4:58] of serving the community

[5:00] and serving the school district or students.

[5:04] Okay. I'll use this one, especially

[5:09] because I'm just getting over one of the, the three

[5:13] gnarly books going around.

[5:15] So I don't wanna don't want to infect the rest of our,

[5:18] you know, half of our potential budget committee here.

[5:21] Uh, I got here as soon as I could.

[5:25] Uh, this is close to the end of my 20th year living in Mac,

[5:31] uh, out of war kids.

[5:33] I've got three Mac High grads, four Patton alums,

[5:38] three memorial alums.

[5:40] Uh, we got here just in time for my oldest

[5:42] to go into Patton in sixth grade.

[5:45] So that was the only reason she missed Memorial.

[5:47] Um, and out of that, one of them, who was the one,

[5:52] all the rest of us had said, yeah, it was gonna be anybody.

[5:55] It was gonna be her. We do have

[5:56] one valedictorian in the bunch.

[5:58] So, uh, she's the pre-med one who talks, you know,

[6:02] stem languages that the rest of us,

[6:04] it's, it's just a martian.

[6:06] And, you know, God bless,

[6:09] because she's gonna be a tremendous

[6:10] doctor one of these days.

[6:12] Uh, and they're all doing great things.

[6:14] My three grown kids, my fourth is still at M High,

[6:17] uh, speech and debate.

[6:19] She's on the tech crew for drama.

[6:21] And all of those good things that we associate

[6:23] with the opportunities to go to a school that

[6:26] values everything, values the arts, values,

[6:29] athletics values, stem values, the liberal arts values,

[6:32] people, values, kids.

[6:35] Uh, this is an opportunity to give back.

[6:40] I've served on a variety of those PTAs over the years, uh,

[6:43] volunteered, uh, when I had chances, uh,

[6:47] especially the year my youngest,

[6:49] who's still at Mac High was in kindergarten.

[6:52] Uh, that was, that was some special opportunities that year.

[6:56] And, uh, in a variety of ways in the community.

[6:58] I'm currently on the Affordable Housing Commission, uh,

[7:01] and, uh, have served on

[7:04] a church board, a couple of other boards.

[7:06] Uh, and this is, this is a particular moment

[7:10] that a will probably come up in some

[7:12] of the more detailed questions, uh, in terms of taking care

[7:17] of what so many people have built over so much time

[7:21] and been able to give to so many iterations,

[7:24] so many generations of kids here.

[7:26] So,

[7:29] Thank you. And

[7:30] I don't believe you stated your name for the record.

[7:32] Oh, Thank you.

[7:35] Uh, yeah, that's the, that's the cold fog. Jeff Clayton.

[7:45] Hello. Thank you all for your interest

[7:47] to serve on our budget committee.

[7:49] This is really exciting. So thank for being here.

[7:52] Uh, the question I have for you is

[7:54] to please describe your experience

[7:56] with the McMinville School District,

[7:58] and you've each touched on that a little bit, so maybe

[8:00] say something different that you've experienced with us,

[8:04] and then what do you consider to be

[8:06] important issues facing our schools today?

[8:13] Same way? Yeah. Okay.

[8:15] Uh, so aside from the experiences of myself,

[8:20] I've obviously also got, uh, three children

[8:22] that are enrolled within the district now.

[8:24] Uh, they've all, well, my son will be graduating from,

[8:27] from washer this year,

[8:28] and he'll be going into middle school.

[8:30] Uh, but both of my girls are in high school currently.

[8:33] Uh, my oldest is the lead sound

[8:36] technician at the high school.

[8:37] Uh, and then my middle one has kind of done various things,

[8:41] rugby, uh, with Christine Bader over there.

[8:44] Uh, and then she's also taken on some leadership roles,

[8:47] and she's in STEM programs.

[8:49] Uh, she's kind of my overachiever. She makes the dean list.

[8:52] She's a great little kid.

[8:53] Uh, she gives me a lot of grief, but,

[8:56] but at the end of the day, like she's, she's an overachiever

[8:58] and, uh, she's gonna go places.

[9:01] Uh, and what was the second half of the question there?

[9:05] The second half is, what do you consider

[9:06] to be important issues facing schools today?

[9:10] Uh, I think it's the same as it is everywhere.

[9:12] It's the, the massive budget shortfalls

[9:15] and like, where do you allocate that money, uh, so that it,

[9:19] that it feeds the needs of the most right.

[9:22] And that it cares for those kids, uh, most importantly.

[9:31] Um, so our middle daughter who's not Linfield University,

[9:35] where I currently work, uh, was part of the

[9:39] education pathway and also ProStart.

[9:42] And so we got to see and cheerleading we, um,

[9:45] and just to see her passion, uh, being supported

[9:50] by all of the staff throughout her education.

[9:53] When she decided to be an elementary education major,

[9:57] it was supported everywhere from kindergarten,

[10:01] middle school, high school.

[10:03] And those opportunities have given her growth in college,

[10:07] um, which is really neat to see each of them.

[10:09] And then one of our daughters actually works

[10:11] for Patton Middle School

[10:12] because she loves the school district so much.

[10:15] Um, and for the budget, uh, for the budget committee,

[10:20] it's the shortfalls.

[10:21] It's trying to maintain the quality of education

[10:25] that our kids have and stay within a budget

[10:29] and allocate the money as responsibly

[10:33] as possible in being part of that process

[10:35] to support our community

[10:43] To begin at the end for

[10:48] the other two candidates here.

[10:50] Yes, it is, it is exactly that.

[10:52] It is one of those moments where we sit down

[10:55] and say, okay, what,

[10:59] what do we most need to protect?

[11:01] And how do we go about doing that?

[11:04] What does that look like in each iteration

[11:07] in each of these cases?

[11:08] And how do we balance those things out, uh, as we try not to

[11:14] lose the ground that we've gained, which has been so much

[11:18] for all of these kids?

[11:19] Yes, all of all, including my grown kids all look back on

[11:25] their days from elementary school,

[11:27] but really on through, uh, we had all four of them.

[11:32] We have covered Mrs.

[11:34] Wilcox's entire career with the Patent Drama Program.

[11:38] Uh, my ex and I actually got a special trophy last year when

[11:42] our youngest graduated

[11:44] because we'd had my oldest there on stage crew

[11:48] when she started as a student teacher.

[11:50] And then my youngest

[11:52] who graduated Patton passed out last year.

[11:56] Uh, so we've been there for her entire career with

[11:59] that drama program model UN back in the days

[12:03] to mention when to mention Model UN

[12:05] and the halls of Mac High was just for students

[12:07] to shout ger at each other.

[12:09] And then on through all of the growth

[12:11] and iterations of, of the Model UN program, uh,

[12:16] and drama, all of those things.

[12:20] My, my second kid was swim team captain, senior year,

[12:25] uh, so athletics as well.

[12:27] I am still trying on that front as someone who was a, uh,

[12:31] pickup second row back in the days when you couldn't lift up

[12:35] the flankers and the fly halves on line out.

[12:37] Uh, so I was there because I was tall

[12:40] and I was an American who had good hands.

[12:42] This was junior year abroad in the UK when I started, uh,

[12:46] trying to convince my youngest.

[12:47] That should be a greatly half,

[12:49] but she doesn't like to run that much,

[12:50] so I'm working on her.

[12:52] Um, but yes, all of the, the just, uh,

[12:57] I something that sees and treats

[12:59] and engages the whole person for each of them,

[13:02] and has always found them, especially for my

[13:07] neurodivergent kids of their neurodivergent dad, uh,

[13:11] that they have been, you know, welcomed

[13:15] as themselves every moment

[13:17] they've been in the school system.

[13:18] And that's something worth fighting for. So

[13:24] Thank you. I'm gonna go ahead

[13:25] and, um, change the order up a little bit

[13:27] so some, someone else gets to be first.

[13:29] Sure. Um, Mary Ellen, I'll, this, I'll start with you

[13:32] and then move to Jeff.

[13:34] Correct. And then you can finish.

[13:38] Um, what strengths do you believe you could bring

[13:42] to the budget committee process if appointed

[13:44] to fill the current budget committee vacancy?

[13:48] And to repeat, we have three vacancies. So,

[13:52] Uh, currently I serve on our church board,

[13:55] and I've served on our preschool board as the finance person

[14:00] that paid the bills.

[14:02] And so I feel like working on a board

[14:04] and collaborating with others is one

[14:06] of the strengths that I have.

[14:08] And then also,

[14:10] I have worked in the business department at the school

[14:13] district, and the jobs that I had at the school district

[14:16] and at Linfield University are managing part

[14:21] of the budget and looking at it

[14:22] and understanding somebody else delegates it,

[14:24] but then to review it

[14:26] and, uh, catch anything I've done, I've been

[14:31] through several Title one, um, monitoring,

[14:36] and we did really good at, at tracking our money

[14:39] and where it was and re spending it

[14:43] responsibly when I was in the curriculum department.

[14:47] Oh, it's me. Okay.

[14:51] Uh, on to hit some similar notes, uh,

[14:55] service on several boards

[14:57] and committees, including the same board of the same church,

[15:01] uh, during an earlier fiscal crisis period

[15:06] after the oh eight recession.

[15:09] Uh, and looking at, at tight revenues

[15:12] and not being able to, having to figure out how

[15:15] to manage in the circumstances.

[15:18] Uh, past practical experience,

[15:21] I ran the U-S-D-A-C-A-C-F-P program

[15:24] for a private preschool years back.

[15:27] Uh, so saw some of the ground level paperwork dealing

[15:32] with grant funded

[15:34] and reimbursement funded programs, uh, managing

[15:39] for almost five years, uh, what was then the largest

[15:44] low barrier shelter in the county.

[15:46] Uh, we were entirely dependent on grant monies from both

[15:51] counties, states, some federal monies,

[15:53] comix from Y CCAP funds, uh, and went through two year

[15:57] and four year audits on that.

[15:59] I haven't read the 25 Federal Green Book,

[16:01] but I still probably have parts

[16:03] of the 24 knocking around my head.

[16:05] So I'm familiar with internal controls speak

[16:09] and financial language, uh, of that kind.

[16:13] So there's, there's a, there's a familiarity that

[16:16] that won't be, you know, Martian when we run into it.

[16:19] So,

[16:23] Uh, I believe the reason I'd be a good fit for it is

[16:26] because, uh, I'm actually the founder

[16:28] of three organizations in the last 11 years now.

[16:31] Uh, cruising Menville being my first one.

[16:34] Uh, another one is called Mary Hill Loops, LLC,

[16:37] which we run a race event,

[16:38] and I run a road up in Goldendale, Washington

[16:40] and get everybody to race a bunch

[16:42] of really fast cars up a hill.

[16:43] It's all a good time. Uh,

[16:45] and then I also started a small organization called Walnut

[16:48] City Rollers that I had to step away from last year.

[16:50] But, uh, we, we,

[16:52] that was actually the hardest one I had to deal with.

[16:54] Uh, so over the course of the two years that my wife

[16:58] and I helped start that organization, uh,

[17:00] and funded, uh, roughly nine free roller skate events

[17:05] for the community, for kids, families, whatever, uh,

[17:10] figuring out how to make a budget work when you're not

[17:12] charging anybody at the door for two years, uh, was,

[17:16] was a bit of a challenge.

[17:18] Uh, and you really had to find out where to, where

[17:20] to cut corners and, and

[17:22] where you didn't want to cut corners.

[17:23] Right? Safety's always important.

[17:25] Uh, you know, do you cut stuff outta concessions?

[17:28] You know, you don't need concessions

[17:29] as much as you need safety.

[17:31] So, uh, I'm, I'm not opposed to looking through things

[17:35] and seeing, you know, where the important things lie, uh,

[17:39] you know, and, and also taking advice from other people at

[17:43] the same time, uh, from the outside or inside

[17:45] or wherever is going on.

[17:47] Uh, but yeah, I, I think

[17:48] that's why I'd be a good fit for this as well.

[17:51] Excellent. Thank you everybody. Director Bison,

[17:57] Thank you all for being here.

[17:59] Um, we'll start with Mr. Clayton.

[18:01] Is there any other information the board should consider

[18:03] regarding your candidacy for this position?

[18:08] I don't know off the top of my head. Um,

[18:18] yeah, I, I have the, the advantage

[18:23] of having done a wide variety of things in my working life.

[18:28] I've been preschool teacher, worked

[18:31] for civil rights law firm, run a small commercial kitchen,

[18:35] run a couple of nonprofits.

[18:37] Uh, one of the best educations I got in,

[18:42] in managing organizations is running a large shelter.

[18:47] Um, that,

[18:49] and also being a preschool teacher, uh, that, that,

[18:52] that serves, you know,

[18:54] that collaborative problem solving never, never defeated.

[18:58] Um, but

[19:00] otherwise, uh, not off the top of my head,

[19:05] I play a decent piano.

[19:06] That's about it.

[19:13] Something else to consider.

[19:20] I don't know if there's anything else.

[19:22] I am passionate and I care deeply about this community,

[19:26] but I think that's already been touched on.

[19:29] Um, I'm a mother, a current parent.

[19:33] I work in the community

[19:35] and, um, soon to be a grandparent in the community.

[19:38] So I am invested in now for McMinville School District

[19:43] and for future McMinville School District.

[19:49] Uh, so kind of echo what both of these, these, uh,

[19:52] participants said.

[19:53] Uh, my, my roots are deep here, very deep.

[19:57] I've been here my whole life.

[19:58] Uh, and I think it's, it's important to have people

[20:01] that have been here for a long time

[20:03] and do have roots within the community, uh,

[20:06] to help move it forward in the future.

[20:08] Right. Uh, my dad was actually the city planner here when I

[20:11] was just little, little guy, right?

[20:13] This was ages ago.

[20:14] Uh, but would've been back in, uh,

[20:16] it would've been what we moved here.

[20:18] So it would've been 77, roughly.

[20:19] My dad was a city planner, uh,

[20:21] and then was a city planner up in Newburgh after that.

[20:24] So, uh, yeah, I, I, I love this community.

[20:28] I love everything about it.

[20:30] Uh, yeah, that's why I'd be a good candidate. Thank

[20:32] You.

[20:36] And on behalf of both these candidates

[20:39] and in general, you know, everybody knows 'em, the folks

[20:43] who people can walk up to and know

[20:45] and trust on the street are good salespeople

[20:48] for whatever we end up needing to do here.

[20:51] So,

[20:54] Great. So I just

[20:55] wanna add my thanks.

[20:57] Um, and thank you for your applications.

[20:59] They were, um, thorough

[21:00] and thoughtful, um, as obviously you all are.

[21:04] And so we really appreciate your putting your

[21:06] hands up to serve.

[21:08] Um, I, I just get to ask the board,

[21:11] do we have any follow up questions?

[21:14] Well, I heard you all allude to budget shortfalls,

[21:17] and so I'm just, um, we're gonna, um,

[21:20] whoever's on the budget committee, we give you lots

[21:23] and lots of information that we need you to know.

[21:25] There's, uh, um, a steep learning curve,

[21:28] which is why we ask you to do this for multiple years.

[21:31] And it's not just you we're all considered part

[21:34] of the budget committee, and there are other, um, four other

[21:38] budget committee members that have already been on.

[21:41] Um, but I just am wondering

[21:43] where you already have information about budget shortfalls,

[21:47] um, if, how, how do you hear about school budgets

[21:53] to already have some information?

[21:55] Uh, my information wouldn't necessarily come from school,

[21:59] just from the nonprofit world, right?

[22:00] Because I work heavily within nonprofits within

[22:03] Yamhill County, and I know the lack of federal funding

[22:06] that's happening across the country.

[22:09] So I, I, I guess I can only assume

[22:11] that it's also happening at the school district, right?

[22:14] Uh, because state funding's also being cut from all these

[22:17] nonprofits that I work for as well.

[22:18] So, so I, I guess I am getting ahead of myself

[22:23] by assuming there's budget shortfalls,

[22:25] but with the way the, the state of the, the country

[22:29] that it's in, that we're in right now, we're at that point

[22:32] where there's, I mean, everybody's trying to cut corners

[22:35] and trying to make, make ends meet with as little

[22:37] as they can, but still have the best

[22:39] production at the end of the day.

[22:41] So there we go.

[22:44] I would just say that,

[22:47] I don't know whether it's a shortfall, but

[22:50] whenever you hear the state numbers come out,

[22:52] when you listen to the news.

[22:54] But I also know in my 30 years working

[22:56] with the school district, we had to be careful

[23:00] with our money, no matter if it was more the flush nineties

[23:05] or if it was the crash of 2008, we still had to be careful

[23:09] and mindful of, of

[23:11] where we put the money and where we budgeted.

[23:14] Yeah. Very much that.

[23:18] And also, on the flip side of that, if not

[23:23] dealing with shortfalls

[23:26] and in a direct immediate sense of, okay,

[23:29] we're looking at being in the red in certain ways

[23:31] for certain reasons at the present time, looking at

[23:36] how can we ensure

[23:39] that we might not face that kind

[23:42] of bottleneck going forward?

[23:43] If there were some other kinds of crises going on

[23:46] with state appropriations

[23:47] and things like that, what are the, what are the models

[23:52] for, for hard and fast obligations?

[23:56] Things to do with things like owning property

[23:58] and having contract obligations

[24:02] and various other things like that, physical plant,

[24:04] other things, and where potential revenues might come from,

[24:09] uh, in order to help safeguard the balance going forward now

[24:13] that we're in a much more uncertain situation,

[24:16] especially when it comes to federal monies.

[24:21] I have a question. Mm-hmm.

[24:22] So if you were appointed, what information would you expect

[24:26] to receive from our finance director, superintendent,

[24:29] or, uh, board members regarding the budget process?

[24:38] I, I'll jump on the grenade first.

[24:40] Um, and, uh, no, it's, I, I would say simply

[24:44] what is within, uh, the reasonable scope of,

[24:49] of our purview as the supervising committee for a, a

[24:53] normal, common or garden internal controls process.

[24:57] Um, nothing, nothing especially fancy.

[25:02] And there might be some individual case somewhere to do,

[25:06] especially probably either with a real property

[25:09] or with a contractual situation

[25:10] where something might be a matter of legal privilege.

[25:12] But otherwise, just the, the, the stuff that,

[25:16] that we're going to see the line items and the inputs

[25:19] and the outputs and how these things are drawn up,

[25:23] and what relationship the appropriations have so

[25:25] that they follow standard control procedures.

[25:28] So

[25:33] I would, I would assume it, I shouldn't assume,

[25:37] but, um, in the past when I've been on boards, you're,

[25:40] you have a certain amount of knowledge.

[25:43] You don't necessarily know the confidentials,

[25:46] and then it's, it's going through and,

[25:49] and putting your voice or working with others.

[25:51] If there's a question about where something should be,

[25:57] Uh, so this one's gonna be new for me

[25:59] because I'm used to dealing with like, profits

[26:01] and losses and businesses.

[26:03] Uh, so this is gonna be a different aspect for me.

[26:05] So, um, I'll be honest with you,

[26:08] I'm not sure exactly what I'm gonna look for.

[26:10] Uh, once we get this, all this ball ball rolling and,

[26:13] and we're trying to look at the future

[26:15] and what it's gonna look like in three years

[26:17] and, you know, what, what needs to maintain

[26:19] and what needs to go away.

[26:20] And so I really, I, I couldn't give you an honest answer of

[26:24] what I'm gonna look for, because this is

[26:26] not necessarily been in my wheelhouse.

[26:30] You be, Can I just

[26:35] follow up with my question?

[26:36] It wasn't, um, that you were wrong,

[26:38] that there's budget shortfalls.

[26:39] Um, and so news is a great source.

[26:45] We hear a lot about state funds,

[26:46] we hear a lot about federal funds, um,

[26:48] but also watching board meetings.

[26:50] You can go through the videos

[26:51] and fast forward to the finance report, um,

[26:55] and get caught up on where we have been

[26:57] for the last few months, just to do, um, some homework with

[27:00] that, to know specifically what's going on in this district.

[27:09] Well, I think that's gonna wrap things up.

[27:11] So, um, once again, I want to thank everybody

[27:14] for participating.

[27:16] All those that, that have come in

[27:18] and, um, for their interviews

[27:20] and submitted their applications, uh,

[27:22] what I'm gonna offer the board a a couple options here.

[27:26] Um, we, we are definitely gonna nominate the,

[27:29] for the openings in our March business meeting.

[27:32] Uh, a couple ways we can go about that. I understand that.

[27:37] Sorry. Yes.

[27:42] So, um, um, We'll,

[27:47] we'll go ahead and interview Dan, uh, as well,

[27:49] just in individually go through the questions,

[27:53] and then, um, we as a group can get back together

[27:56] and do a short deliberation session, if you wish,

[28:00] before the March business meeting.

[28:03] Or we could actually come in

[28:05] and just nominate one position at a time that way,

[28:09] and break it down, however you guys would prefer to do it.

[28:12] Um, since we have, uh, four people for three positions,

[28:16] we could do it multitude of different ways.

[28:18] Uh, whatever your preference is, let us know.

[28:20] But certainly before, as far as the board goes, before, um,

[28:25] Uh, Before the March meeting,

[28:27] and we'll get it set up that way.

[28:29] So I'll ha I'll ask you three to step down,

[28:31] and we'll have Dan come up

[28:32] and we'll go through some questions really quickly, Dan.

[28:35] And, um,

[28:38] Yeah.

[28:41] Thank you. Thank you. Thanks,

[28:45] Dan Shepherd.

[28:46] Yes. What up?

[28:53] I don't know how proceeding go,

[28:55] but I am sorry that I'm late.

[28:58] I didn't know if it was one at a time or whatever,

[29:01] but, um, I'm here.

[29:03] Okay. Sorry.

[29:05] Do you wanna go through the same order?

[29:07] Okay. Thank you

[29:09] for your interest in serving on the McMinville

[29:11] School District Budget Committee.

[29:13] Can you please tell us about yourself

[29:14] and why you're interested in serving

[29:16] as the McMinville School District Budget Committee member?

[29:19] Sure. Thank you. Um, uh, Dan Shepherd.

[29:23] Uh, I retired from, excuse me, uh,

[29:25] McMinville School District.

[29:27] Um, I served as a principal, as a student service

[29:33] director, um,

[29:34] and as a, uh, behavior coordinator, um,

[29:37] from 2007 to 2000, um, 21.

[29:43] And so, um, within those timeframes, um,

[29:48] especially when it came down to the recession of 2008,

[29:52] 2009, um, my focus

[29:56] for the district, uh, was to be frugal, uh,

[30:01] but also to be serving the students to the best

[30:04] of our capabilities.

[30:06] And, um, looking at best practices

[30:09] and how we can, uh, most likely, um, reduce, um,

[30:15] you know, certain funds in certain areas,

[30:17] but also to maintain those critical purposes.

[30:22] And so, um, as a budget committee position came open,

[30:27] um, I know that, um, one of the things

[30:30] that I've been following is that, um,

[30:34] the enrollment process, um,

[30:37] or in, in the numbers have been down significantly, um,

[30:42] even prior to me being here, um, as a,

[30:47] um, uh, director.

[30:50] And so with that, um, it just made me start to think about

[30:55] situations where, what I can do, um, any,

[31:00] um, insights that I may have, um,

[31:04] based upon some of the experiences I've had with, uh,

[31:08] major recessions

[31:09] and significant budget drops, um,

[31:14] how I can help support the district in making sure that

[31:19] students can still be served.

[31:21] Um, and looking at, um, specifically programs

[31:26] and observing programs, their functionality, um, uh,

[31:31] and funding and so forth.

[31:32] Not just programs, but funding in terms of how, um,

[31:37] we can continue those things

[31:39] or looking at, um, having to be creative, um,

[31:44] and being able to offer that, um, uh,

[31:49] support and, um, insight

[31:53] to the district, um, to help them, uh,

[31:57] make better decisions, uh, or,

[32:00] or great decisions, not even better,

[32:02] but about how we move forward, uh, in the state forward.

[32:09] I, hi, Dan. Hi.

[32:12] I get the next question. Okay.

[32:14] Um, so you've touched on some of this already,

[32:17] so you'll wanna prob you'll elaborate, I'm sure.

[32:20] So describe your experience

[32:21] with the McMinville School District,

[32:22] and you've told us a bit of that.

[32:24] And then what do you consider

[32:26] to be important issues facing schools today?

[32:30] Sure. Um, well, again, again, previous experiences, uh,

[32:35] being in the district as, um, a leader in the, um,

[32:41] district administration office or cabinet, I should say.

[32:45] Um, and being able to understand, uh,

[32:49] how finances work

[32:51] and what we need to do to make cuts and so forth.

[32:53] So understanding really the balances as to what we have

[32:58] to do, uh, financially,

[33:00] but also trying to make sure that we continue

[33:05] to provide the same amount of support

[33:07] and services to students as well as the staff.

[33:11] Um, I think, um, moving forward,

[33:17] um, I think it's prudent to

[33:22] look at, um, where things are going.

[33:26] I know that, um, enrollment in schools is really, uh,

[33:32] part of the huge, uh, amount of monies

[33:36] that we may be able to get in terms of general, uh,

[33:41] uh, finances.

[33:43] But in terms of general funds, we have to look at, you know,

[33:46] other kinds of funds, IDEA funds,

[33:48] we look at other grants and so forth.

[33:51] Um, and if one is dropping in terms

[33:56] of funding in which that could be general funding due

[34:00] to enrollment, looking at what are other funds that we are,

[34:04] um, able to access in, uh, progress to, in order

[34:08] to keep things the best we can in terms of, uh,

[34:13] the students, uh, and the community that we serve.

[34:16] So, uh, for me, it's always being creative, um, hoping

[34:21] to offer a creative mind, uh, in terms of how we can, uh,

[34:26] best overcome these, uh, deficiencies, which may come.

[34:30] Um, and if they don't, that's great. We, we never know.

[34:33] But, um, uh, we always have to be prepared.

[34:37] The other thing is, I understand that, you know,

[34:40] as the district prepares to expand with, uh, new bond levies

[34:45] and so forth in the next coming years, um, how do we help

[34:50] the community understand what it is our purpose is

[34:54] and that we are here to serve students, um,

[34:58] and that it may, you know, regardless increase,

[35:03] you know, taxes or whatever the case may be in the future,

[35:08] um, but that we're doing the best things for the, uh,

[35:12] students in the community, in, in the educational, uh,

[35:16] services that we provide.

[35:20] Okay. Dan, I've got the next question for you. Sure.

[35:22] What strength do you believe you could bring

[35:25] to the budget committee process if appointed

[35:28] to fill the current budget committee vacancy?

[35:32] How to do something with nothing is, is, is, is, uh,

[35:37] uh, uh, yeah.

[35:41] Um, there was a situation, um,

[35:45] in the recession in where I was, uh, my department, uh,

[35:50] IDA, uh, special ed was faced with

[35:54] dramatic comeback, uh, drawbacks

[35:57] and, uh, in general funding as well.

[35:59] It wasn't just with IDA

[36:02] and so, um, it was a time for, uh,

[36:07] we, we wanted growth,

[36:09] but it was a time that the funding wasn't there.

[36:13] And so my offer to the district is to

[36:17] look always creatively as to how can we continue

[36:22] services supports to all students, not just students of,

[36:26] you know, IDEA or special education

[36:29] or disability needs in, in,

[36:31] that was my foundation back then.

[36:34] But, um, as I continue to work various districts

[36:38] nowadays, I look at what is that we can do to continue

[36:43] to these supports, um,

[36:47] and, uh, in a frugal way, um,

[36:50] but making sure that they maintain.

[36:52] So I, I think I have, um, an opportunity

[36:57] to provide to the district some creative means

[37:01] to help in those decision making situations where,

[37:06] um, you know, we, we can hopefully go forward.

[37:10] Um, I've, I, I, I will let you know that I'm a consultant,

[37:14] um, and I work with various districts, uh,

[37:18] throughout the, uh, valley.

[37:20] Um, but I'm always telling them, Hey, um,

[37:26] let's look for the bang for your buck.

[37:28] I mean, it's not about me.

[37:30] It's about what, what's gonna happen in the future.

[37:34] Um, I'm not always gonna be here.

[37:36] Um, you know, you don't wanna rely on me.

[37:39] Um, those kinds of things.

[37:40] I'm putting myself out of a job, um, per se.

[37:44] But the other piece of it is I'm always thinking about

[37:48] how do you have the funding

[37:50] and how are you gonna make this go forward?

[37:53] So when you bring about new programs, when you think about,

[37:57] um, innovations and, um, strategies and techniques

[38:01] and education, um, those come with a cost.

[38:06] Um, and when the cost and,

[38:08] and if we're not able to, um,

[38:12] provide those costs, what is it that we have to do?

[38:16] Um, and so that's where I feel like creatively,

[38:21] uh, we put our minds together

[38:23] and we can look at, uh, various other options, um,

[38:27] that will produce the same effect,

[38:29] but also, um, keep our, uh,

[38:34] strength in our budgets, you know, moving forward.

[38:38] Thank you. Sure. Thank you.

[38:42] Um, Mr. Shepherd, um,

[38:44] is there any other information the board should consider

[38:46] regarding your cany for this position?

[38:51] Uh, I think you all know me.

[38:57] Um, and so I, I think with that, I say that, um,

[39:02] I do have a passion for McMinnville school district.

[39:05] I do have, uh, a child

[39:07] who is still in the educational system.

[39:10] Um, and, uh,

[39:13] but even though, um, without, you know,

[39:17] he's gonna graduate, you know, in a year.

[39:20] But with that said, um,

[39:26] my focus is on the community

[39:29] and what is best for our families, what is best

[39:32] for our community and the education.

[39:35] I keep a strong focus on that.

[39:37] Even though I retired from, uh, the district, you know,

[39:42] four years ago, um, it's still important to me.

[39:46] Um, regardless of, uh, my, you know,

[39:51] having children in, in this district, I look at the,

[39:55] the students that, um, you know, I served

[40:00] as a principal

[40:01] or I, I look at the students at, um, you know, um,

[40:07] that I knew as a director.

[40:09] And I look upon them and I look at the senior list

[40:13] and I'm looking at the progress that they made.

[40:17] Um, and to me, that inspires me to,

[40:20] to be a part of the community.

[40:22] I was happy to be part of it at that time when I was, uh,

[40:25] working for the district, but there's also a part of me

[40:28] that feels like, you know, it doesn't have to end there.

[40:32] It could be for those people who I haven't met, um,

[40:36] that I can help, uh, you know,

[40:38] support the district in making those efforts known to, uh,

[40:43] make their education better and more supportive.

[40:45] So, um, I think that's important,

[40:49] I think, for the board to know.

[40:54] Thank you. Sure.

[40:55] Thanks that you've, um, thanks for everything

[40:57] that you've already done for this community

[40:59] and for your willingness to serve again. Yeah.

[41:01] Um, I, I'm so sorry I'm late.

[41:03] No, that's okay. So I just get

[41:05] to ask the board if anybody has any follow up questions.

[41:13] It doesn't look like you have any follow up, Dan,

[41:15] so you've covered what we're looking for.

[41:17] Thank you. And I think, uh, if you caught

[41:19] what I was mentioning last time,

[41:21] we will take action on these at our March,

[41:24] uh, uh, business meeting.

[41:26] And quite likely, uh, those

[41:28] that are selected will be notified quickly

[41:30] because the budget season starts in late April.

[41:34] And, uh, there will be some training, some one-on-one stuff

[41:37] to happen kind of in a, in a work session

[41:40] before we really get super, super deep on all the topics.

[41:43] But I want to thank you for your interest.

[41:45] It is, it is great for the board to see

[41:48] that there's interest in doing some of this additional work.

[41:51] So anyway. Alright. Thanks for coming.

[41:54] Thank you,

[41:59] Mrs.

[42:00] Ley. You are up.

[42:07] Hello? Okay, now does everybody get to see this? Is this?

[42:13] Yeah. Oh, there it is. Ta-da. Oh, it's blank.

[42:18] Cool. I'm blank.

[42:19] Uh, I have no desire to be on a budget committee.

[42:23] Um, please do not consider me for a budget committee.

[42:25] Thank you very much. Um, so, um, I was asked

[42:30] by the previous superintendent to present, um,

[42:34] what I've been doing with the Smithsonian

[42:35] to the board when I got back from, um, my trip

[42:38] to Washington DC And I know there have been a lot

[42:41] of things going on, especially at my school right now.

[42:45] Um, but I thought I would like to keep the, um,

[42:49] I guess structure and schedule that we had, you know,

[42:52] keep things kind of, kind of normal

[42:55] and, um, present to you some

[42:56] of the fun stuff that we've been doing.

[42:59] And, um, it was interesting

[43:01] 'cause it's also kind of a little overshadowed

[43:03] by my students

[43:04] who are doing the NASA challenge and things like that.

[43:07] So there's a lot of things happening at Patton.

[43:10] Um, and it's amazing

[43:12] 'cause it all started, um, in 2016, I was looking

[43:15] for an Earth Day lesson for my students,

[43:20] ran into this thing called the World's largest lesson.

[43:23] And that led to the United Nations global Goals

[43:26] for Sustainability.

[43:28] That led to, um, I actually wrote about that when, um,

[43:32] I was nominated for Teacher of the Year,

[43:34] and that was part of my application.

[43:35] And, um, as you know, I,

[43:37] a couple years ago was regional teacher of the year.

[43:40] Then I was invited to apply to be a teacher ambassador

[43:44] with the Smithsonian Science Education Center.

[43:47] I am one of the 12 in the original cohort,

[43:50] um, from across the country.

[43:53] And, um, right now they're on the third cohort,

[43:55] and I'm still the only one from the Pacific Northwest.

[43:58] So, um, I got this opportunity to go

[44:01] to the national convening, um,

[44:03] first time they ever did this in Washington DC

[44:05] and I don't think I'm on here quite a bit.

[44:08] And so I was, uh, put together a little bit

[44:10] of a presentation, um, to tell you about, first off,

[44:13] what it is that I'm part of and what I'm doing

[44:16] and where I hope to go from there.

[44:18] And, um, as an ambassador, I guess, you know, sharing is

[44:22] what I'm supposed to be doing.

[44:23] So I'd like to go ahead and, and share.

[44:25] Now, does this go, oh, the arrow keys. Okay.

[44:29] It's not my, it's not in my classroom.

[44:32] So, um, so what I'm part of, it's, it's a lot of words.

[44:36] It's a word salad, but, um, it's network

[44:39] for emergent socio scientific thinking.

[44:41] And I like to think of it as, um,

[44:44] two heads are greater than one

[44:46] and that we're not learning in a vacuum.

[44:49] Okay. Um, the things

[44:51] that we're teaching students aren't just math,

[44:54] aren't just science, aren't just language arts,

[44:56] social studies, that they're all interconnected.

[44:59] And if we give students that interconnectedness,

[45:02] they understand where this learning is

[45:08] making a cohesive, um, boy, sorry, my brain's going here.

[45:14] It, it helps them realize

[45:15] where their place is in the real world

[45:17] and how what they're learning is

[45:18] connected with the real world.

[45:20] Instead of going just to social studies class

[45:22] and then picking up and going to science class,

[45:23] how are those two things actually connected?

[45:26] And then with the clout of the Smithsonian behind it, um,

[45:31] we are working to put out STEM related, um,

[45:35] subject matter about that.

[45:36] So, um, the nest starts out, um,

[45:39] with basically the trunk of this.

[45:40] We, we actually did go nest with N-E-S-S-T.

[45:45] 'cause, you know, it's as corny as it can be

[45:47] and it's fun anyway, but we have advisory committees, um,

[45:51] and then we have educational researchers, academics, um,

[45:55] they actually have a STEM lab over there.

[45:57] And then it's all put together at Smithsonian

[46:00] and then branched out to teacher ambassadors, youth

[46:03] and scientists.

[46:04] Um, the scientist ambassadors are new this year.

[46:07] We just, uh, met them this year.

[46:09] And so this is kind of the fun graphic that they came up

[46:12] with at our, um, convening.

[46:14] Um, but the whole point is to engage youth, make

[46:19] free and accessible, um, resources to anyone.

[46:24] Okay. There is no charge for this curriculum anywhere.

[46:27] And then also to have a learning community for those of us

[46:30] who are teachers who are teaching STEM and science

[46:33] and social studies, and then doing scholarship

[46:36] and research, um, underneath that.

[46:39] So I'm part of this, I'm actually in that picture somewhere.

[46:42] This is the Keck Center.

[46:43] Um, I might have geeked out going

[46:46] to these places in dc I'd never been to the East coast.

[46:48] So this was also, I, I spent a little bit of my own money

[46:52] and stayed an extra day because I was like, I'm here.

[46:54] I have got to geek out. Um,

[46:56] but these are educators from around the world.

[46:59] Um, we have a group from South America,

[47:02] and now we're gonna also have a group from Asia.

[47:04] Um, I was meeting people from, um,

[47:07] student ambassadors from DePaul.

[47:09] I actually sat next to at dinner

[47:12] the curriculum outreach director

[47:14] of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

[47:18] I might have fangirled a little bit too much in a

[47:20] little, I freaked him out a little bit.

[47:22] But, um, you know, so the, the, the amazing power

[47:25] of these people that, that we have,

[47:27] when we get together from all these different viewpoints,

[47:30] um, it just also shows us how much smaller the world is.

[47:34] You know, we're, we're a small district.

[47:36] I mean, I, I graduated from here.

[47:37] I, you know, I, I I know that we're a small district

[47:40] and we sometimes we look at the fact that, you know,

[47:42] we don't have the muddy to do this.

[47:43] We're not a don't have this big stem charter magnet

[47:46] school or all these other things.

[47:47] We have these amazing pathways, which

[47:50] I love 'cause my kids graduated there.

[47:52] But that I have just as much, um,

[47:56] reason to be there

[47:58] as these people from these big huge schools

[48:00] or these big, huge corporations that what I'm doing as

[48:03] as powerful as what they're doing.

[48:06] And that was what this, this whole convening did.

[48:09] Um, yeah, I, I even microphone.

[48:12] I got to be in the front of the microphone

[48:13] and we had a poster session

[48:15] and, you know, met people from around the world.

[48:18] Um, but lastly what I really wanna talk about is the fact

[48:22] that these are free curricular things that we are doing,

[48:27] and therefore, the global goals for sustainability

[48:29] for getting kids out there, um,

[48:32] and realizing that they too have a say in the future.

[48:38] Okay. Um, when we did this NASA challenge, I was like, okay,

[48:42] kids, you know, hey, you guys wanna do this.

[48:44] And they actually put out better work

[48:48] and teamwork and productivity

[48:50] and just putting together these projects better than I ever

[48:53] could imagine a group of middle schoolers could do.

[48:55] Because it was real. Okay.

[48:59] We have these lessons all of the time where it's like, oh,

[49:01] pretend Sally's got six watermelon.

[49:03] Why does Sally have six watermelon? I don't know.

[49:05] Why does Ali six watermelon?

[49:07] But these kids wanna make a difference in the world.

[49:10] And these, um, global goals, um,

[49:13] actually help them and guide them.

[49:15] Um, my advanced classes actually use this in design

[49:18] and engineering solution for the global goals,

[49:21] but the curriculum that's out there,

[49:23] and I've helped field test several

[49:24] of these different curriculums, these give students

[49:30] the ability to take control of their learning

[49:35] and to go out in the community

[49:37] and see what they actually can do

[49:40] because they feel helpless Sometimes.

[49:41] We're teaching 'em all these things, oh, no, climate change

[49:45] and, you know, the, the economy's bad and all of this,

[49:48] but they don't see what they can do.

[49:50] And even at this age, um, you know, they can, they can take,

[49:54] they can question, but they do it in

[49:59] their community.

[50:01] What can they do to make their community a better place?

[50:04] Then they discover things about their community.

[50:06] They're, they're doing critical thinking

[50:08] and then they're asked to act.

[50:12] And it doesn't have to be a big thing.

[50:13] Something though that they can do.

[50:15] They can go out and, um, figure out ways

[50:18] that people can recycle in the community.

[50:20] They can look at. Um, one

[50:22] of the things they were looking at at school this time is

[50:25] composting in our cafeteria.

[50:28] You know, everything goes down into the, um, garbage cans

[50:31] or a bigger, uh, project.

[50:33] Like right now, one of the teams, um,

[50:36] in my advanced class is looking at getting clean water

[50:39] to communities along with sanitation.

[50:41] They're looking at putting it in, um, cargo containers

[50:44] and dropping off cargo containers that are self-contained,

[50:47] that have water filtration.

[50:49] They have sanitary systems

[50:50] and a hydroponic system to grow food.

[50:52] So these kids really

[50:57] look at helping others.

[50:58] And I think this is something that, um,

[51:00] is really powerful for the future.

[51:03] And it's what I'm really pleased to be involved in.

[51:06] Um, so right now, um, they've,

[51:09] we've reached about 8.1 million students.

[51:12] We've got about 70,000 educators in 118 different countries.

[51:16] And, uh, yeah.

[51:18] Um, there's so much more I could say,

[51:20] but again, I don't think we have all day,

[51:22] and I could babble on this forever

[51:25] because it's a passion for me.

[51:27] But, um, I'm just really happy with the opportunities

[51:32] that you guys, you know, as a board have given me

[51:34] by allowing me to go to this convening.

[51:36] 'cause I know there's the thing I'm going outside

[51:37] of the state for, um, you know,

[51:40] conferences and other things.

[51:42] And I also really wanted to thank you guys for allowing me

[51:45] to have this opportunity to grow as a teacher

[51:48] and as an, as a teacher educator and personally.

[51:52] Um, I never thought I'd reach this level.

[51:54] I never, I'd be working with the Smithsonian, you know,

[51:56] here I am, just little STEM teacher at Patton Middle School

[52:00] and I'm working with people around the world right now

[52:02] and it's just so powerful and I wanted to share.

[52:06] So,

[52:10] yeah. Are there any

[52:13] Questions Or,

[52:17] This is so cool.

[52:19] Thank you. Thank you so much, um, for sharing all

[52:23] of this and for representing our district

[52:25] and obviously representing our region so well.

[52:29] Um, so I guess first of all, if there's, um,

[52:33] any point at which some of these things are, you know,

[52:35] you're bringing them to life in your classroom,

[52:37] please let us know.

[52:38] 'cause I for one would sure love to pop in.

[52:41] I definitely, I definitely will.

[52:42] Um, my students, um, this year will present their projects.

[52:46] Um, I think you've seen some of the presentations

[52:48] of some of my students' projects.

[52:50] Um, and when we do that, we'll put out an invite

[52:52] for people to come in.

[52:54] And it also makes them put a little more effort into their

[52:56] presentation when they know others will be there.

[52:58] Totally.

[53:00] Um, and then just the other thought,

[53:02] I was just curious about the youth ambassador arm

[53:05] of the program, and is that something that we can try to

[53:08] Yes. Um,

[53:09] actually I have, um, the thing is,

[53:11] being a middle school teacher, their cutoff is 14.

[53:14] And so a lot of my students aren't quite there yet.

[53:17] Um, I do have a couple of students that I have been talking

[53:22] to about applying when the next application comes around in,

[53:25] in the fall because, um, there's a couple

[53:27] of my students right now that I think would be really,

[53:29] really good youth ambassadors.

[53:30] Um, the youth ambassadors I met during this were astounding.

[53:34] I mean, amazing. It makes you,

[53:36] it really gives you hope for the future.

[53:38] It really does. These kids really care.

[53:41] And then, uh, just my final question is,

[53:44] obviously this has been such a powerful experience for,

[53:46] and you've found the materials

[53:47] so compelling for your students too.

[53:49] And so then how do we share those throughout the

[53:51] District? That's the,

[53:52] that's the next, the next step is, um, I know

[53:57] that especially our sciences are very constrained, um,

[54:02] to a specific curriculum,

[54:03] to the testing and, and all of that.

[54:05] And I get that. And that's where I, you know,

[54:07] I always get kind of joke that I get paid to play.

[54:11] I get paid to be able to do

[54:13] all these additional things for the, for students.

[54:16] Um, right now I've been using a couple

[54:17] of them in my natural resources class, so, um,

[54:21] I know Emily Wilcox also does some,

[54:23] uh, global goals work too.

[54:24] And, you know, just the opportunity to maybe at one of the,

[54:28] um, ed camps

[54:29] or one of the other things, you know, share out with other

[54:33] educators, um, what's available.

[54:35] You know, it's kind of like spreading, spreading the word.

[54:37] 'cause this is free and, um, education, you know,

[54:41] free curriculum for everybody.

[54:42] And it's created well by me too.

[54:45] 'cause I'm on one of the, the

[54:46] co-creation, I'm on the water one.

[54:48] Um, it's gonna come out at the end of the year.

[54:50] Um, but it's created by teachers, by scientists, by,

[54:54] you know, um, educators at the Smithsonian.

[54:57] And, um, it's all by a grant too.

[55:00] So we actually got to work during the shutdown.

[55:02] So, um, yeah, I'd like to spread it. That's why I'm here.

[55:06] Um, I spent two years as a part of this group,

[55:09] and now it's time to, to share that

[55:11] and share the amazing stuff. Thank you.

[55:14] I was gonna add that, um, first of all, thank you

[55:17] for being such an excellent ambassador from

[55:19] our district and our region.

[55:21] This is really exciting.

[55:22] And Director Bader stole one of my questions about

[55:25] how you're gonna share this information in our district.

[55:28] Um, but my other question would be, are there opportunities

[55:31] for, to do exchanges?

[55:33] So you mentioned that you geeked out a dinner

[55:36] because you sat next to the person in charge

[55:38] of the IHI Egyptian Museum.

[55:40] So are there, is there part any part of this program

[55:43] that would allow an exchange, uh,

[55:46] or funded through the grant? Mm-hmm.

[55:48] Um, yes. And actually that's another thing that I'm,

[55:50] I'm working on, um, the Latin American teachers.

[55:53] And the problem is, yes, I took French in high school

[55:55] and not Spanish.

[55:57] So there's the language barrier.

[55:59] But, um, right now there is, um, an educator in, um,

[56:03] Ecuador that I've been talking to

[56:05] because he's putting together a, what we call a story map.

[56:08] So a map of different, um, people.

[56:11] That's the other thing too, is a lot of stories, a lot of,

[56:14] you know, people's stories matter, um, of places

[56:17] where there's water available in schools, you know, schools

[56:20] that don't have sanitation,

[56:21] schools that don't have drinking water.

[56:23] And he was putting together a map there.

[56:24] And I'm hoping to link up his students with my students,

[56:29] um, and work that way.

[56:31] Um, there's a robotics coach down in Argentina,

[56:34] and we managed through Google Translate to find out that we,

[56:38] um, actually both coached robotics at one time or another.

[56:41] And, um, and that I really need to go down

[56:44] and have barbecue down there.

[56:45] That's the other one that came out of that.

[56:47] Um, but you know, I'm, I'm on Instagram with him

[56:49] and then the new cohort of teacher ambassadors.

[56:53] There's a teacher in Louisiana

[56:55] who teaches exactly the same stuff I do.

[56:57] I mean, the same sixth grade stem, the seventh eighth mix,

[57:01] you know, um, and things.

[57:02] And so we might work on a project

[57:03] or two together, so there's plenty of opportunities

[57:06] and that's what this whole network is for.

[57:08] Yeah.

[57:10] Okay. Do you plan to continue to be ambassador

[57:13] for several years

[57:14] and do you know if there's more opportunities, um,

[57:17] for conventions like this in the future?

[57:20] Um, we want to get together again.

[57:21] We keep, um, that was the fun part,

[57:23] is like we all got to geek together.

[57:24] It's like we're all so passionate in our areas,

[57:27] in our STEM areas and things,

[57:29] but there are language arts teachers,

[57:31] there were social studies teachers there, I mean,

[57:32] but we're just all passionate about sustainability

[57:34] and community-based teaching.

[57:37] And, um, when our time was up, we were, we were,

[57:40] for two years there were about six of us that said,

[57:43] Nope, you can't get rid of us.

[57:45] And so we're continuing on, um,

[57:47] and working with the next cohort and things.

[57:50] So no, they can't get rid of me.

[57:52] Um, I'm gonna be doing a research paper with them

[57:55] and then, um, this co-creation of the curriculum,

[57:58] which I have a lot of fun with.

[58:00] So yeah, I'm hoping to continue

[58:02] 'cause I'm like, this has been such an amazing

[58:04] experience, I don't wanna give it up.

[58:07] Yeah.

[58:09] And Just thank you

[58:11] for being here on such a challenging Monday, um,

[58:14] with your school and sharing your passion.

[58:16] Thank you. Thanks.

[58:19] Any other questions? Well, thank thanks again

[58:23] for letting me geek out about the stuff that I love

[58:26] and also for continuing to, um,

[58:31] empower this district.

[58:33] You know, I mean, I, I grew up here, um, went through here,

[58:36] my kids went through here,

[58:38] and I'm just really happy that I have the opportunity

[58:40] to teach the things

[58:42] that I'm very passionate about for our students. So

[58:44] Thank you. We, we sincerely

[58:45] appreciate you sharing this,

[58:47] uh, caper with us.

[58:49] It looks like it's, looks like it's a lot of fun

[58:50] and very worthwhile, so thanks.

[58:52] Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.

[58:58] My emotional support, coffee and go home

[59:05] Director hall and Mr.

[59:07] Bledsoe.

[59:16] Good evening, chair Vollmer members of the board, uh,

[59:18] superintendent Farah, director Hall di uh, for the record.

[59:23] And to my right here is our auditor,

[59:25] David Bledsoe from Polly Rogers evening.

[59:29] Good evening everyone. Uh,

[59:30] apologies if I'd cough a little bit here.

[59:32] I, uh, had the flu last week

[59:33] and I'm still coming down from that fun experience, um,

[59:36] here this evening to present the results

[59:39] of the fiscal year ended 20 fives audit.

[59:42] Uh, as a reminder to the board,

[59:43] I think I've had the pleasure of presenting to all

[59:45] of you in the past, but, uh,

[59:47] the audit we are presenting is not a

[59:50] result of anything you did wrong.

[59:51] But a matter of statute, every school district

[59:53] and in Oregon gets an annual financial audit done.

[59:57] Um, uh, that being said,

[59:59] this one does reflect the fiscal oriented June 30th, 2025.

[1:00:03] So the information that Jason's been supplying you as

[1:00:06] of late as far as budget to actuals go

[1:00:08] for your next fiscal year is gonna be much more current than

[1:00:11] the numbers we're talking about now.

[1:00:13] Uh, happy to report at the Culmination audit.

[1:00:15] We don't have any large findings for you.

[1:00:17] Those are no significant deficiencies

[1:00:19] or material weaknesses as a result

[1:00:21] of the application of our audit.

[1:00:23] That is to say you got a clean audit, uh,

[1:00:25] you received an unmodified opinion,

[1:00:26] which is the one you want.

[1:00:28] That means your books were prepared in accordance

[1:00:30] with all the very fun nebulous accounting rules.

[1:00:34] Uh, speaking of those this year, uh,

[1:00:36] we did implement two additional, uh, GASB pronouncements.

[1:00:40] That's the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.

[1:00:42] They write the numbered, uh, rules that, uh,

[1:00:45] make up the rule book that we present the numbers with.

[1:00:49] Uh, this year we implemented standard 101, uh, this year

[1:00:54] as well as assessed for impact 102 102 didn't do anything

[1:00:58] for you, so I won't get on too much about it.

[1:01:01] Uh, 101 kind of changed the scope of, uh,

[1:01:04] compensated absences.

[1:01:06] Long story short, it expanded the breadth of numbers

[1:01:09] that you report as a,

[1:01:11] what we call a government wide only item.

[1:01:14] That is to say you're not spending any more money at a

[1:01:17] budget level than you were last year or the year before.

[1:01:20] It just changes what portion of a liability we present

[1:01:25] as a due within the next year, mostly related to,

[1:01:28] um, sick time.

[1:01:30] So previously most school districts did not report, uh,

[1:01:34] accrued liabilities related to sick time.

[1:01:36] It was only vacation for your administrative class largely.

[1:01:40] Um, now that has changed according to the new rules

[1:01:43] to capture a bit more information.

[1:01:45] As a result of that, we did show a small

[1:01:47] adjustment to the beginning number.

[1:01:49] So the change across the period reflects

[1:01:51] under the new standard rule.

[1:01:53] Uh, coming up next year, we have two more numbered GS Bs.

[1:01:56] That'll be pretty fun. Uh, we have, uh, statements, uh, 103

[1:02:01] and 104, 103.

[1:02:03] You'll see a couple impacts to, uh, Jason will have to, um,

[1:02:07] dust off the template that we've been using for some time

[1:02:09] for the management's discussion

[1:02:11] and analysis portion of the financial statements.

[1:02:13] That information gets updated a bit,

[1:02:15] a bit of an evolution there.

[1:02:17] We also change the structure of some of the reporting

[1:02:19] of your budget actuals

[1:02:20] that are usually in the rear of the report.

[1:02:22] Uh, statement 104 kind of changes

[1:02:25] how we report capital assets.

[1:02:27] Uh, the district is a successful filer with the GFOA

[1:02:30] for their act for award program.

[1:02:32] Uh, this numbered statement 104 better aligns to

[1:02:35] what they're wanting to see as far as how GDI 87 96.

[1:02:40] Those are the leases and the subscriptions I've talked about

[1:02:43] before, how those all kind of fold together,

[1:02:45] it become capital assets even though they're not quite

[1:02:48] as substantive as like a building we're sitting in.

[1:02:51] Um, but yeah, happy

[1:02:52] to answer any questions the board may have

[1:02:53] about the results of our audit.

[1:02:54] Again, happy to report clean audit again this year.

[1:02:57] Um, no large findings.

[1:03:01] Uh, Jason, is it really as fun as he says

[1:03:05] It is? Yes.

[1:03:07] Uh, Yeah. Why don't you dig into it. It is,

[1:03:11] Yeah, once we get a dust off the, the,

[1:03:13] the technical stuff, that's, that's the fun part.

[1:03:14] It's the, the, uh, thousands of pages of documentation

[1:03:18] and, uh, checklist we fill out

[1:03:19] for disclosures that aren't quite as fun.

[1:03:21] And you have to do the implementations.

[1:03:22] That's, uh, one of my favorite parts

[1:03:24] of the year is actually getting able to engage with the, uh,

[1:03:27] the nitty gritty for a bit there.

[1:03:32] Do you, are there any other questions

[1:03:34] or comments from the board on this, uh,

[1:03:37] topic Mr. Hall would like to add to it or,

[1:03:40] I mean, it was only like, what, 112 pages long?

[1:03:42] It was quite long this year we added, uh,

[1:03:44] So Think we added a couple pages,

[1:03:47] I think. Just a few. Yeah. Yeah.

[1:03:48] So, um,

[1:03:49] but yeah, happy to, um, uh, follow up with an email

[1:03:52] and just kind of point out where we implemented GSB 1 0 1

[1:03:55] within the financial statements.

[1:03:57] Um, so you can see kind of

[1:03:58] where those compensated absences will show up on our, uh,

[1:04:02] financials within pages one through five

[1:04:04] and then also in the notes, um, so that way you can kind

[1:04:07] of just see what that looks like and help flows.

[1:04:09] Um, but yeah, other than that,

[1:04:11] I don't have much else to add, so

[1:04:15] I just appreciate that there's men

[1:04:17] and women in the world who can do your kind of work

[1:04:19] and quote line items.

[1:04:22] Oh, yeah. Tell us what it's all about. That's really

[1:04:25] Impressive. That is

[1:04:26] the, uh, I do enjoy that part

[1:04:27] of the job. The, uh, clearly

[1:04:28] Because you quoted them to us.

[1:04:30] Yeah.

[1:04:36] It doesn't appear there's any other questions.

[1:04:38] So I'd like to thank you both for your efforts

[1:04:40] and energies on the, the audit.

[1:04:43] And, uh, do we take action on the approval of the audit?

[1:04:46] No, we, we don't. It just has to be the Yeah, just

[1:04:49] Informational, just presented. Okay.

[1:04:50] All right. Very good. Thanks everybody.

[1:04:52] Uh, thank, thank you the board this evening.

[1:04:54] Hopefully everyone has a good rest of your night.

[1:04:56] Thank You. Thank you.

[1:05:03] Okay. As, uh, as we, as we wrap up this work session, uh,

[1:05:06] we're left with director's comments.

[1:05:08] Um, uh, Christine, would you like

[1:05:11] to start off if you have any?

[1:05:13] Uh, sure. Um, uh, first I just had a thought.

[1:05:18] I attended the culture fair at the high school last week,

[1:05:21] um, which was really lovely,

[1:05:23] and I got to hear some

[1:05:24] of our exchange students, um, present.

[1:05:27] Uh, and, um,

[1:05:28] and so it just made me wonder,

[1:05:30] I I don't know if we've had exchange students come in front

[1:05:33] of the board, but if that would be of interest, um,

[1:05:36] to the board, I, I think it would be great to kind

[1:05:38] of host them and just have them share

[1:05:40] and hear their insights, whether it's a work session

[1:05:42] or, um, something.

[1:05:46] I think they came as part of one of the clubs

[1:05:50] about a year ago, so I agree though.

[1:05:53] It would be nice to hear from them again,

[1:05:54] but I think it was part of one

[1:05:56] of the cultural exchange clubs

[1:05:57] or something from the high school.

[1:05:59] Yeah, I remember the German, the German class came, maybe

[1:06:02] that what I'm thinking, and, but not,

[1:06:04] but got this sort of amazing wealth of, you know, kids from,

[1:06:08] um, from all over the world here.

[1:06:10] I think it'd be really nice to hear from them. Okay.

[1:06:12] So that was just one thought.

[1:06:14] Um, and then, uh, just obviously we've, uh,

[1:06:17] experienced a tremendous loss, um, in our community.

[1:06:21] So I just, um,

[1:06:27] don't have a lot of words, uh, except to say that as always,

[1:06:31] I'm really inspired by how this community is showing up

[1:06:34] and, um, taking care of each other.

[1:06:36] That's all.

[1:06:39] Director Bazan, I don't have much.

[1:06:44] Um, I got to attend the, um, district wrestling, uh,

[1:06:49] match this last weekend.

[1:06:51] Um, it was, um, really good, uh,

[1:06:56] to see the student athletes, the parents.

[1:06:59] Uh, the turnout was great.

[1:07:00] Uh, and McMinville had some, some nice success, um,

[1:07:04] which was nice for some individual, uh,

[1:07:07] participants going on

[1:07:08] to the state tournament next weekend, I believe.

[1:07:11] Um, also got to a, uh, uh,

[1:07:15] basketball game, and that was nice too.

[1:07:17] So, um, that's all

[1:07:21] Director Anderson.

[1:07:24] Um, I would just share that I, um,

[1:07:27] heard from two community members today.

[1:07:29] So I was at community at, uh, survival Swim

[1:07:32] with students from Buell this morning.

[1:07:34] And, um, two community members separately wanted

[1:07:38] to acknowledge one, how well behaved the students were

[1:07:42] and how, um, polite they were

[1:07:44] to leave their belongings at the pool in the outside cubbies

[1:07:47] and not occupy the full dressing room.

[1:07:51] And, uh, and then another community member wanted

[1:07:54] to compliment the fact that, uh, we're still able

[1:07:57] to do the program and that it was a, a well intentioned,

[1:08:02] really good use of the, uh, city's resource of the pool

[1:08:06] to support that program for our students.

[1:08:08] So I wanted

[1:08:09] to share those two community members observations, um,

[1:08:13] with everybody and, uh, particularly the staff at sebu,

[1:08:17] if you're listening in so you can hear

[1:08:18] how they thought the kids did a great job

[1:08:20] being well-behaved today.

[1:08:22] And, um, and just to echo my condolences to, um,

[1:08:26] our family at, uh, Patton, um,

[1:08:29] as they mourn the loss of their child,

[1:08:37] Um, congratulations, director Hall on another clean audit.

[1:08:40] Um, we're used to it,

[1:08:42] but it's a lot of work to get to that point, um,

[1:08:45] to keep everything organized the way

[1:08:48] that you do throughout the year.

[1:08:50] So thank you for that. And, um, thank you

[1:08:53] for the budget committee applicants that we had.

[1:08:56] Um, it's a no small thing to step up, uh, and come up front

[1:09:01] and also to be willing to serve, um,

[1:09:04] for these meetings for a couple years.

[1:09:06] So thank you for volunteering to do that.

[1:09:10] And I'm also just heartbroken for the patent community

[1:09:14] for the Motley family,

[1:09:15] and so my condolences to them as well.

[1:09:22] Uh, I'm gonna share that, uh, that, that thought as well.

[1:09:25] It's, it's, it's just tough

[1:09:29] and I want to thank the district for all

[1:09:32] and all of their partners community wise that have, uh,

[1:09:35] been there in the buildings, in the grade levels, uh,

[1:09:40] in the other buildings, just to be supportive of the staff

[1:09:42] and the students to try to work through this difficult time.

[1:09:48] I think that takes all people, uh, all hands on deck

[1:09:53] and, um, thank you for all of, uh, the administrators

[1:09:57] that spent their days doing other things than probably the

[1:10:00] work that they had as assigned to them.

[1:10:02] So, uh, anything to support the kids I think is excellent.

[1:10:06] Um, I had another, just a quick comment.

[1:10:08] Um, and I know you've heard me talk about the

[1:10:11] Survival Swim a bit.

[1:10:13] Luanne was there this morning.

[1:10:14] I was there this morning with the students and,

[1:10:16] and I think some of the discussions

[1:10:18] that have been had about this openly in the last several

[1:10:21] years has really helped at least get the word out to much

[1:10:25] of our community because the, the most

[1:10:28] of the schools this year have a more than ample amount

[1:10:32] of volunteers to help with that program,

[1:10:34] rather than calling anybody that they can to try

[1:10:38] to help out.

[1:10:39] You know, 70 to 90 kids in a small,

[1:10:42] small pool is hard enough,

[1:10:44] but if you only have a handful of

[1:10:45] volunteers, it's pretty crazy.

[1:10:47] And there were, um, 15

[1:10:49] or 16 this morning,

[1:10:51] which made it really, really, really good.

[1:10:53] And again, uh, so my, my, um, hats off to the folks at ell,

[1:10:57] but all the, all of the schools that are participating in

[1:11:00] that have, have, have talked about the outreach

[1:11:03] that they're getting and the amount of, uh, volunteers

[1:11:06] that they're getting from within their parent group

[1:11:09] is, is continuing to grow.

[1:11:10] So I think that's excellent.

[1:11:12] Um, at this point, I'm gonna go ahead

[1:11:14] and, uh, close the meeting and we're gonna empty the room

[1:11:17] and we are going to continue in an exec session.

[1:11:20] So I'm gonna go ahead and end the meeting at 7 44

[1:11:25] for about a five minute break.

[1:11:27] And then we'll start up the, uh, uh,

[1:11:30] executive session, uh, shortly.

[1:11:33] We are adjourned.

February 23, 2026 Board Work Session

Transcript