School Board Meeting March 11, 2020 pt#2

Is it a central thing where she calls into.

Director Mack are you there.

Give her just one more second.

Thank you for your patience.

Erin.

Okay it says she says that she's on.

So she can't hear anything.

Are we on mute.

Director Mack are you there.

Is the thing muted the white button.

Director Mack are you there.

Or just use my phone or something.

Director Mack are you there.

Thank you Ms. Bennett for your patience and heroism.

Director Mack we are actually on item number three because we couldn't hear you.

So we are starting on number three on your agenda.

Thank you.

Sorry.

And the first two passed 6 to 0. So we're moving on to item number three.

I move that the school board amend school board policy number 2 4 1 5 high school graduation requirements and school board policy number 2 4 2 0 high school grade and credit marking policy is attached to the board action report.

I second the motion.

This came through C&I on February 11th for approval and Chief DeBacker back to you.

Thank you very much.

This bar we again haven't made no changes to it since it was introduced two weeks ago.

Just a refresher on this bar.

This is our response to House Bill 15 99 which changed the way that high school graduation and credits are determined.

So there are four changes that were within this.

I will go over those four because this is a little bit more of a complex bar than the others.

The first change would be the credit waiver.

House Bill 1599 authorizes a board of education to determine if there can be two credits that can be waived for students who are short of the 24 credits.

Those would have to be in the elective areas it cannot be in any of the core or foundational areas.

We believe we are recommending that the board does approve this.

We believe this is an equity issue.

As you know our current juniors will be required to meet the 24 credits next year and we anticipate that we'll have some students that are short of that.

Some of that is due to simply the high school structure and the high school schedule that we have in many of our high schools with only a six period day.

So that is the first change within House Bill 1599. The second one the second issue within this has to do with high school credits that are earned during middle school time.

Currently it is when a student takes a high school course in middle school if they want to put on to their high school transcript they must request that that be done.

In House Bill 1599 it is automatically posted to a student's transcript once they go to high school.

So it's more of a you have to opt out rather than opt in.

We believe this is an equity issue again and that some students may not have known that they needed to ask for that to be put on their transcript.

The third item within this particular bar has to do with expanding options for recovery credits under the current law state assessments taking the state assessments and passing those is required for graduation under House Bill 1599 it delinked the state assessments in math and English language arts from graduation requirements.

So we are proposing that the other pathways that are available in order to graduate be allowed to count for those recovery credits.

And then finally is the one around this is where we got the most questions during introduction has to do with grade replacement.

If somebody wants to take a course over again and have that credit be put onto their transcript as to where that could come from.

To be very clear and I was not as clear as I should have been in two weeks ago.

This is not related to House Bill 1599 but it is related to changes that we would be making around how you put credits onto a transcript and we believe this is the right time to bring it forward.

Thank you Chief DeBacker.

Director Harris.

We've gotten a certain amount of traffic and questions regarding online learning and can you go over that a little more in detail because I believe there may be some misperceptions out there.

Do you have a specific question.

Online learning.

The Office of Superintendent Public Instruction maintains a list of approved online courses is that correct.

Correct.

And are we adopting those courses by reference.

We did that last year or the board did that last year when they changed 2024. So in in that what action that was taken last year Yes we are saying that if a student wants to take an online course it must be from an approved provider and OSPI has that approved list.

And we have adopted that approved list.

Is that correct.

Thank you.

Thanks Director Harris.

Other directors comments questions concerns.

OK.

Seeing none Ms. Bennett roll call.

Director Hampson.

Director Harris aye Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

OK.

Item number four.

I move that the school board approve resolution 2019 — slash 20 — 25 providing for the issuance and sale of refunding bonds of the district in the aggregate principal amount not to exceed 20 million eight hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding general obligations bonds.

Providing for the redemption of the outstanding bonds to be refunded appointing a placement agency and authorizing the superintendent and or chief financial officer of the district to approve interest rate maturity dates and principal maturities for the bonds under the terms and conditions set forth in the resolution provided the present value of the net savings to the district are not less than 4 percent of the bonds being refunded.

Second the motion.

And this came through A&F on February 10th for approval.

JoLynn — Chief Berge take it away.

Good evening.

There's no changes.

This is a straight refunding of the remaining of our bonds.

Interest rates are still moving in the direction that would be helpful to the district.

That's great.

Are there any questions or comments from board directors.

Director Harris.

Here's one.

When are we finally going to have this place paid off.

I think that still still will be around the year 2026 but we're creeping up on it rapidly.

Thank you.

Thank you for that context.

Director Mack.

Yes.

My one quick question to elevate the fact maybe it was stated in introduction but refinancing will likely Do we have a dollar amount.

I'm sorry if I don't have that in front of me and haven't been thorough in reading it.

I'm wondering how much the likely saving of funds for the district the refinancing will be.

Director Mack this is JoLynn Berge.

It's about one hundred fifty one thousand dollars a year for the life of the bond.

We estimate it to be just over a million dollars that we'd be saving in interest over the remaining years and that would be interest savings to the capital fund.

And Director Mack if you look at the last sentence of the motion the minimum net present value or present value of the savings cannot be less than 4 percent.

So that's.

Okay great.

Thank you.

Thanks for the clarification and highlighting that.

Thank you Director Mack and thank you Director Hampson.

Okay.

No further questions or comments.

Ms. Bennett roll call please.

Director Harris.

Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director DeWolf aye.

This motion is passed unanimously.

OK.

Item number five.

I move that the school board approve the recommended transportation service standards including Appendix A and Appendix B that are attached to the board action report for the 20 2020 to 21 school year and authorize the superintendent to implement the standards with minor modifications as needed.

Thank you Director Harris.

And this came through Ops on February 6th for consideration and it has been updated since introduction so I'll hand it over to Chief Podesta.

Thank you Fred Podesta chief operations officer.

We this is an annual process where the district publishes standards that describe transportation eligibility that can either reflect service changes boundary changes new schools coming online enrollment changes that we are not making any underlying changes to the overall standards we are recognizing the movement of schools temporary locations and boundary changes.

We've been working with Director Mack who pointed out that a we still have not quite expressed our intent on the supplemental service for Licton Springs because since the school is. relocating to Webster that we have some grandfathering provisions which are reflected in the document but also the new transportation service area will encompass the geo zone and that language is not there.

So we will make that change.

The BAR authorizes the superintendent to make modern minor modifications as needed.

So I think I would recommend adopting the board action as it is and we will make that last change and I think we're good to go.

And are there questions or comments from directors.

Director Mack.

Yeah.

Thank you Mr. Podesta for highlighting that somewhat minor issue with the way that the language is written.

The intent around the Licton Springs geo zone was to maintain provision of transportation and acceptance into that school for many of the students that attend the school now and into the future for equity reasons.

And so I appreciate that we still have to get the language perfect on that but that that can be adjusted.

It's relatively minor.

So thank you for highlighting that and for all the hard work on all of this.

Are there any questions or any other questions or comments from directors.

Thank you Director Mack seeing none.

Ms. Bennett roll call please.

Director Hersey aye Director Mack aye Director Rankin aye Director Rivera-Smith aye Director Hampson aye Director Harris aye Director DeWolf aye this motion is passed unanimously.

Thank you very much.

Now there being no further business to come before the board the regular board meeting is now adjourned at 6 0 3 p.m.

Thank you very much.