2020-06-15-minutes.txt

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Puyallup School District
Regular Board Meeting
Zoom Video Conference
Monday, June 15, 2020
    1. Opening
A. Call to Order
President Kathy Yang called the meeting to order at 9:00 a.m. In addition to President Yang, also participating were Directors Turan Kayaoglu, Michael Keaton, Maddie Names and Joseph Romero and administrative designee, Dr. Vincent Pecchia.
  B. Pledge of Allegiance
President Yang led the Pledge of Allegiance.
  C. Modification of Agenda
None.
  2. Communications
A. District Highlights
Dr. Pecchia introduced Director of Instructional Leadership Nancy Strobel who will oversee our administrative intern program next year.  Strobel announced the 2020-21 Administrative Interns:
Juanita Hill – Woodland Elementary
Deanna Millett – Spinning Elementary 
Anne Mummert – Firgrove Elementary
Adriane Murray – Zeiger Elementary
Jim Ohlinger – Puyallup High School
Felita Poole – Puyallup Digital Learning
Angela Reed – Puyallup High School
Joseph Sharp – Stewart Elementary
Kelly Susee – Kalles Jr. High
Roland Sydney – Rogers High School
Julie Wilson - Puyallup Digital Learning just accepted a position in another district so won't be part of the program anymore)
Erlinda Iniguez - Wildwood Elementary
Dr. Pecchia said at this board meeting we have historically celebrated our retirees to recognize and honor them for their years of service. A great presentation has been put together by many staff members in our district and that is posted on our website along with pictures and some  nice messages from folks they worked with either presently or in the past. He encourages everyone to view the presentation on our website.

President Yang said it was always great to honor our retirees and it is unfortunate we can't do it in person this year, but she thanked Dr. Pecchia and his team for putting together the presentations.
  B. Public Comment
None.
  3. Consent Agenda
A. Board of Directors - Board Meeting Minutes (June 1, 2020)
B. Business Services - Vouchers
C. Business Services - Contracts
D. Business Services - Surplus
E. Business Services - Bid No. 20-B1932 FNS Dairy Products
F. Business Services - Bid No. 20-B1933 FNS Produce
G. Operations – Change Order #13 for Pope Elementary Remodel & Expansion, Project No. 17-01-16
H. Operations - Operations Department's Public Works Resolutions
I. Human Resources - Department Activity Memo
J. Consideration for Approval of Consent Agenda
  A motion was made to approve the consent agenda, as presented.
  Motion by Maddie D Names, second by Joseph Romero.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero, Kathy Yang
  4. Second Reading of Policies
A. Executive Administration - Second reading and consideration for approval of select policies: Policy 5201 - Drug-Free Schools, Community and Workplace; Policy 5202 - Federal Highway Administration Mandated Drug and Alcohol Testing Program; Policy 5210 - Nepotism; Policy 5281 - Disciplinary Action and Discharge; Policy 5404 - Paid Family Leave (PFML), Family and Medical Leave (FMLA), and Pregnancy Disability (Maternity) Leave (PDL); Dr. Vincent Pecchia, Administrative Designee
  Dr. Pecchia reviewed the recommended changes to each of the policies being considered. These were presented for first reading at the June 1 board meeting.
  A motion was made to approve Policy 5201 - Drug-Free Schools, Community and Workplace, Policy 5202 - Federal Highway Administration Mandated Drug and Alcohol Testing Program, and Policy 5210 - Nepotism, Policy 5281 - Disciplinary Action and Discharge, Policy 5404 - Paid Family Leave (PFML), Family and Medical Leave (FMLA), and Pregnancy Disability (Maternity) Leave (PDL), as presented.
  Motion by Maddie D Names, second by Turan Kayaoglu.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero, Kathy Yang
  5. Reports
A. Instructional Leadership - Reopening Schools; Dr. Vincent Pecchia, Assistant Superintendent Equity, Instructional Leadership, and Amanda Kraft, Executive Director Equity, Professional Learning
Dr. Pecchia presented a report on reopening schools for the 2020-21 school year and announced Amanda Kraft is here to answer any questions.

He first presented a recap of the background information. Due to the COVID global pandemic, the Washington State Governor closed schools on March 17, 2020. The Puyallup School District began their district wide school closure on March 16, 2020. Since March 19, 2020, the district has been providing continuous learning to students via Schoology, Zoom, and other digital platforms. The last day of school is June 19. It was originally June 16, but modified per requirements from the state.

Task Force commissioned by Dr. Pecchia includes district leaders, school administrators, Puyallup Education Association, parents, and Right At School representatives. They have added a paraeducator to the task force as well. The goals and objectives of this taskforce are focused around three instructional models to consider for reopening schools in September 2020. The first of the three instructional models is school as normal. This first instructional model will not be examined because we are experienced and equipped to role this model out without reservation. The last two instructional models do require in-depth planning. These models include:
Continuous Learning 2.0
Split or Rotating In-Person Schedules with Distance Learning, P-12
The main goal is to provide in-person instruction as best we can. The Reopening Schools Taskforce will…
Examine two non-traditional instructional models and identify needed resources for implementation
Design implementation plans for each of the two non-traditional instructional models
Develop common expectations for grade levels and content areas that address grading, attendance, weekly family communication, student schedules, feedback, frequency of class meetings, etc.
The work of the taskforce will align with guidance provided by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.
OSPI has said districts need to be ready with a 24-48 hour notice if the virus becomes an issue again or spreads rapidly so the task force is determining what a district program would need to look like and taking feedback into account to create a more robust program that is consistent across the district for all students and families.

They are diving deep into two nontraditional instructional models. Designing and planning when and if they are needed based on common expectations.  One thing we have heard from our families, community and teaching staff is the need for more common expectations and consistency across the district. We did our best to implement a distance model with very little notice (four days) and have learned a lot over the past few months, so we are planning for distance learning that is more robust and does provide that consistency so our students gain a similar experience across the district. The task force will meet for the next couple weeks. Subcommittees have also been meeting since last Wednesday and a lot of work has been done in a short amount of time. We have another whole group meeting this Wednesday and next Wednesday, again, with subcommittee work in between. The goal is for the reopening schools task force focused on the instructional models will have a recommendation for others to consider by the end of June.

At the June 26 board study Dr. Pecchia and members of the task force will provide an opportunity for the board to learn of the work the task force has done, ask questions and seek clarification. We don't anticipate having an action item for the board's consideration until later in the summer because the recommendation from the task force not only needs to get vetted through the board but it also needs to get vetted through HR and labor unions because there will be some impacts to work that has not traditionally been done.

President Yang asked on behalf of the community how do we find out who is on this task force? Dr. Pecchia said we have been working closely with our Communications Director Sarah Gillispie and that information will be published either today or tomorrow. She was finalizing everything and getting our landing page ready with information for our community, published on our district website.

Director Names said she loves hearing that consistency is a key component of all this because that is what is going to lessen the achievement gap for our students and keep them well-prepared. It might be too early to know, but what consistencies are you outlining, what will that look like? Have you been able to assess what didn't happen and what you are hoping to have happen? She thinks that is the best thing for our parent to hear going forward no matter what the model looks like.

Amanda Kraft said common things we'll focus on are our communication and how that is delivered from teachers, schools and the district office. Communication will look similar if not the same across all schools, in a common template and format, on a common day and routine. We have a small group working for elementary and secondary to look at the different modes. We are also looking at grading and feedback expectations across our K-12 system so commonalities will take place across the entire district so parents and students aren't feeling the pull of  differences among different teachers and classes. Those will be very similar, if not the same, across our entire district.

Content delivery will also be more similar than in past practice, giving teachers the autonomy to still be creative but in a structure that looks the same for families and parents. Our elementary teams are working on that right now with examples and schedules that we can build into whichever model we go with. Our secondary schools are also working on a content-delivery model so that it is also very similar between each school and each teacher.  Then interwoven to all of those we are looking at family engagement, professional learning for educators and community outreach. That is embedded within those three major themes. But regardless of where we are at in the fall, we'll see systems change that will create more equity for our students and a similar experience across all of our schools across the district.

Director Romero said we've all experienced this from a different angle, and with different levels of responsibility. Since this work is being done over the summer, he asked how much feedback are we going to get from students and teachers who have experienced this firsthand as we plan?

Kraft explained we sent a survey out to families a week and a half ago and have received 4,000 comments, so we are theming those and sharing with committee and leadership. Some district directors have already reviewed and added their feedback through their shared documents, so they are taking that into consideration a great deal. Their perspective is really important in the work we do moving forward, which is where those three common themes came out, that is where we are seeing the pull in our community. She said teacher feedback is also really important and we have 60 members on task force. Something we have emphasized every single day since our first meeting is that feedback from your colleagues, your trusted advisors in your content areas is essential to moving the work forward. All documents from that task force have a shared link so even if our teammates were put on a content delivery sub-team, all of those group folders are available for the task force to view on a daily basis and provide feedback. Part of our task in each team is to go back and seek out opinions and advice from other administrators, other central office staff, other community members, paras, teachers, to ask what have we might not have considered, where can improvements be made. They are really encouraging a collaborative partnership with our PEA, our community members reaching out to parents and families they know on their teams. She believes we will get better as we refine the plans and seek advice, so they are definitely taking in perspectives from others not just on the task force.

Dr. Pecchia added in addition to this particular task force that is solely looking at the instructional model, our Chief Operations Officer Mario Casello is in the process of forming another reopening schools task force that is focused on health and safety, will he will be providing an update for the board later in June, and he will also share some preliminary info at our study session on June 26 as well. Their work is getting started a week later than the instructional task force, so they won't be ready full on to present on June 26 but the board will receive an update with some preliminary info to discuss.

Kraft publicly acknowledged the work of the task force. Our teachers are trying to close out the school year right now and still give their whole selves to their students and families, and the amount of work that our teams have been able to accomplish in less than a week has been, quite frankly, amazing.  With the collective efforts that our groups are putting together she feels confident that we will have solid plans going into September with all stakeholders invested in this work. She wants to put on record publicly thanking the members, some of whom are listening today, for their work and contributions because it will impact all our students and families positively.
  B. Business Services - Annual Audit Report; Laura Marcoe, Executive Director of Finance and Accountability
Dr. Pecchia introduced Laura Marcoe. Marcoe said our audit by the Washington State Auditor's Office, started in January and just finished at the end of May. Most of work since mid-March was completed remotely, so added an extra level of difficulty pulling all the documents and working remotely but they were able to get it done. This audit covers the September 1, 2018 to August 31, 2019 fiscal years, and there are two parts to an audit every year. There is the federal single audit part, which is an audit of the programs operating using federal funding, and then there is an accountability portion, covering compliance and internal controls with our board policies and laws, making sure we are safeguarding our public resources.

They always look at our financial statements and district sustainability, our four-year projections and make sure we are on track to be solvent in four years. For the federal portion, they looked this year on the child nutrition program and our special ed program. For the accountability piece, they looked at professional learning. The state actually gives us some money targeted for professional learning, so they make sure the activities we paid for were within the state guidelines.

They made sure we established a levy subfund, 2018-19 was the first year where the implementation of the levy subfund was supposed to happen, so they make sure we established the fund and reviewed our processes and procedures in identifying those expenditures and revenues. In the coming years they'll actually look at the types of things we are charging to the levy subfund, because remember that has to be for enrichment activities only, so supplemental to basic education.

They also looked at accounts payable, including disbursements and electronic payments. They looked at ASB activities, including sample junior high and high school sample fundraising activities.  They also looked at cash receipting and payroll disbursements this year.

At the end of the audit, even though it is completely normal to have some kinds of recommendation from the auditor's office for things we need to work on, they found no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses; we had a clean audit this year. Marcoe thanked every employee because there is so much that goes into this, everyone has to know the rules and follow them everyday, so she is really appreciative of all the work that our administrators, office managers, ASB activity coordinators, coaches, and so many people who work hard for this every year.

President Yang thanked her and said she is sure it was a challenge trying to do everything remotely.
  C. Business Services - April 2020 Financial Statements; Laura Marcoe, Executive Director of Finance and Accountability
Next, Marcoe presented a report on the April financial statements. As we talked about previously, spring property tax collections typically peak in April, however due to the county extending the due date to June 1st, we still haven't received the final numbers for June 1 collections. We are on track to receive what we normally would have received but we'll make that determination once we have the final numbers. During April we received $11.5 million in the general fund, $13.5 million in the Debt Service fund, and $348,000 to the capital projects fund related to our technology levy. 
  Originally when we began the year, we had budgeted a $13.5 million deficit. A budget really is a worst-case scenario so we are very conservative in our revenues, and we are also conservative in what we budget on the expenditure side. The goal has always been to mitigate that deficit as much as possible throughout the year. Several things have happened this year that have significantly decreased that projected deficit. We had some pretty significant enrollment above what our projection was so we received additional state revenue for those students. 
We were very conservative, although we did add some staff in the fall, we were very conservative in what we rolled out. 

We've also gone through a major reorganization, some projects are on hold. Then the pandemic shut our operations down for quite a bit. During the shutdown we are not spending money on several things, for example we had almost a half year of classified and certificated sub costs we are not spending, we have a lot of supplies and services we didn't need to purchase, some curriculum adoptions are postponed for another year, as well as some of our state grants, like LAP and CTE, programs that are not spending as much. That raises our fund balance because those dollars aren't spent, but since those dollars can only be spent in those programs, they will be carried over to next year and spent in those programs.

While we are anticipating our deficit to be much less than we originally predicted, there are still a lot of unknowns for this year. We do potentially have CARES Act and FEMA funds we may be receiving. As Mandy and Vince just talked about, we are planning on a continuous learning plan that has expenditures related to it as well. We have been operating a food service program since March, and we will continue a scaled back version of that this summer. We haven't had a food service program in the summer for several years, and we don't expect that program to break even; we typically historically when we did provide it, it operated at a loss. There are still a lot of unknowns coming our way but any savings that we have this year is good. We are going to need that over the next few years. The state is forecasting about a $7 to 7.5 billion shortfall over the next three years, and K-12 education is 51% of the state's budget, so we'd be crazy to think we are not going to feel the effects of that over the next few years, so anything we can do to save money now to help mitigate or offset those losses in the future is great.

The Transportation Vehicle Fund received and paid for three additional 84-passenger Thomas Built buses. That is the last of the buses we have had on order all year. The Transportation Vehicle, Capital Projects, and Debt Service funds are all operating as expected at this time of year. 

President Yang said Marcoe mentioned that the projected $13.5 million deficit is probably going to be less, but we won't know what that is? Marcoe said at this time in the year we are still waiting on our tax revenue, a pretty significant amount, and as the task force finishes their work and we know what some of our expenditures are going to be, there are so many unknowns right now, but we did want to prepare the board that we have had some savings. We have also worked diligently to be very conservative to mitigate that $13 million deficit as much as we can throughout the year.
  6. Action
A. Student Services - Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook; Char Krause, Director of Student Services and School Safety 2020-2021
Dr. Pecchia said we have two action items this morning for the board. The first report is the second reading of the student handbook, and he introduced Char Krause. Krause said there have been no changes to the presentation or the handbook since the First Reading and her report on June 1, 2020. She reviewed the information from her last report including disproportionality of student discipline. She said this is not an exhaustive list, but some of the contributing factors we would want to consider when looking at our data are whether or not there is a Special Program within a building, individual students with behavior challenges and multiple offenses, human errors in data entry, inconsistent data entry (which we try to mitigate through training), building systems and staff capacity. This is ongoing work.  We try to have systems in place to consistently interpret the handbook, enter the data, and we need to be continually helping build our own collective capacity to manage student behavior in a way that doesn't perpetuate disproportionality, that keeps students engaged in class, and keeps everyone safe and able to participate in the learning. Krause reminded the board of plans for dealing with disproportionality.  She said we need to be involving everyone in the conversation: parents, community, staff, students. We need to be collaborating and communicating together.  We need to be analyzing our district-level data on a regular basis, talking about it and asking really hard questions. With anything, we need to set measurable goals based on data so we can see if we are on the right trajectory to making the changes we seek. We need to make sure we are implementing targeted interventions with tiers of behavior support, continue with our investment in social emotional learning instruction. We need to identify resources within our own community that can support our students, our staff, our families.  Professional development needs to be reflective of our needs and our goals, and most definitely, our values. We need to continue to work on decreasing student exclusion time whenever possible and safe to do so, and determine alternatives to class and school exclusion. 

Director Kayaoglu said he hears all the things we are doing but he would like to speak about issues of racism on black and brown students and take that very seriously. He feels the things she just mentioned are good, they are useful, but we should acknowledge that there are issues of systemic and structural racism throughout American society and the educational institutions are 
part of systemic and structural racism, and he thinks we should be able to openly and honestly discuss these issues and tackle it head on.  For example, are we going to review some of our policies with an eye on issues of racism, and try to bring an anti-racist perspective to challenge some of the biases? Looking at the sentiments we are hearing from different parts of society, some of our brown students and parents, staff and teachers do not feel they are part of these conversations or they are not necessarily heard to the extent that they are feeling excluded or sometimes victimized in our society. He appreciates the attempt but would like to see more of an attempt.

Krause thanked him for his comments and said we are ready to lean in to this conversation, take it further and do more. She said she appreciates his words and she agrees with him. We will keep fighting the good fight here and take it to the next level.

Director Romero asked for the policy numbers pertaining to the student handbook.  Krause replied Policies 3200 and 3241 are the policies that speak to the handbook and student discipline.
  A motion was made to approve the 2020-21 Student Rights & Responsibilities Handbook, as presented.
  Motion by Joseph Romero, second by Michael D Keaton.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero, Kathy Yang

B. Operations - School-Based Health Clinic Follow-Up; Mario Casello, Chief Operations Officer
Dr. Pecchia introduced Mario Casello, to present an update for the modifications needed. He reminded the board that a lot of conversations over the last year regarding our possibilities of the SBHC at our three comprehensive high schools and Walker High School.  As a reminder, there was a committee assembled of Glenn Malone, Char Krause, members of the operations department including himself, and members of the Woodcreek/MultiCare team regarding what this implementation could be like as a partnership between the two organizations.
  We toured all high school facilities to look at space and possibilities and the more we got into it we realized ERHS would be a great starting point for us with the Woodcreek Team, their staffing capabilities and the last amount of modifications needed. There was a lot of conversation about trying to start this at all four sites, but in collaboration with them, the decision came down to starting off in small steps and starting at ERHS. In our first visit the original estimate was about $30,000 to meet the needs of Woodcreek's and MultiCare's team.
He presented slides demonstrating changes to the scope of the work.  The original plan was going to be putting up partition walls, creating three exam rooms, cutting a hole in the wall to connect to a conference room which would be a reception area for clinic, but the Woodcreek team said they need those walls to go to the ceiling for confidentiality and privacy, and the 3/4 walls wouldn't meet their needs. Originally when we talked about those exam rooms, they were in a row, 5 x 8 feet, now felt they need to be a little bigger, so there would be two next to each other and one in the corner. When we looked and talked about that, they now felt like they would need a sink specifically in the exam room, and those big changes, to the walls, larger exam rooms and need for a sink in exam room, changed the scope of work significantly. Cost also rose significantly. Now we are looking at HVAC modifications, rerouting duct work, lighting modifications, electrical and power requirements, put in plumbing and sinks, and the project will require relocating cabinetry for third exam room.

The cost estimate is now closer to 6 figure, anywhere between $100,000 and $150,000. Casello brought that to Dr. Pecchia's and the board's attention, as this is a significant change and could be a game changer. He facilitated another walk through on June 11, with Gary Frentress, Char Krause, James Hudson and Woodcreek team physicians. In rediscussing all this and understanding this scope of work, they revisited what it is that still meet their needs and provide services to students and families. He explained to them that this cost has risen significantly and to start off we need to reevaluate.

One new opportunity is in the Students Services area at ERHS is now being utilized in a different way, so they went back to that student services area by the counseling office, and there are three offices that are private with their own doors that would be perfect exam rooms, one needing some work. He talked to principal Richard lasso to make sure things would be changing when they move forward as they are trying to make sure we were setting this program up for success.  So instead of starting in September 2020 with behavior health services as well as medical services he suggested they start off small and provide behavioral services and see how much interest we really get here, how many families and students will take advantage of this opportunity. When we started the JBLM medical services at RHS, there wasn't as many folks taking advantage of that and we wanted to make sure if we invested this time and money into the program we would have families taking advantage of it.

If we do this phased in approach starting in that Student Services area downstairs, we'll have some data to show how many families will take advantage. Then if we have all this interest, we can implement the medical services portion of this in perhaps November or December, come back as a team, design the exam rooms the way they needed, take walls to ceiling, etc. We would have a portable that we could temporarily move the physicians and the team to, while we prepared that space. If the board wanted to consider this phased approach, start behavioral approach, spend $5,000 to $10,000 on minimal revisions, other than that, no other financial money to put forward to get that going, as we do not need a bathroom, sink and the privacy piece would be taken care of with those offices in that area. He deferred to Char Krause to talk about return on investment and some of those pieces that are embedded in the MOU we talked about on June 11.

Krause agreed and said scaling back a bit, starting small, building out; we'd still have two dedicated behavioral health practitioners dedicated to serve PSD students. Woodcreek MultiCare has said they are eager to implement Telehealth behavioral services K-12. What that means is say a student at Aylen Jr. high was receiving behavioral health services, that student could, in a private space in their building on a computer, connect with the behavioral health clinician, who is working from either their clinic office at ERHS or their Woodcreek office. Students from other schools could still connect and receive services so that is a bonus for us to serve students throughout the district. Just the opportunity to have a dedicated behavioral health service for PSD students is a really wonderful thing, and we can do this, as Mario said, with minimal cost because we already have an acceptable space at ERHS.

Krause explained what this means for the MOU that is being developed is the scope of work initially will be much less complex, but there still is a need to have an MOU developed to protect the district to ensure our relationship with MultiCare and the program is reflective of what the Washington Schools Risk Management Pool (WSRMP) would like to see and all of the legal language is in place. Mark O'Donnell has committed to having that MOU in place by Friday so it can go to MultiCare for their review. We will not need some of the medical services language so will remove that if the board decides to go forward with this model, set aside and reserved should we move forward at a later date. We are working with the risk pool and the attorneys to develop a model agreement, the gold standard, for what we will see in terms of future expansion and partnerships. This is a growing trend across the state and nation and we want Puyallup to have the best agreement possible to set everyone up for success.

Casello said this action item is for the board to consider this new phased approached, utilizing the facility at ERHS downstairs in the Student Service area, and if that is the case, our team would start immediately looking to purchase and install partition wall and get a reception area all set up.

Director Keaton thanked everyone for the flexibility going through this, with the large jump in costs and the difficulty in getting additional funds, you have addressed the real priority that they've had which is mental health and providing it districtwide, whether it is Telehealth for the majority right now and put this in place and ensuring we can actually have the clientele to make it worthwhile to make these modifications in the future is a nice-stepped approach and he really appreciates the changes.

Director Kayaoglu said he is also mindful of the cost and appreciates the stepped approach, thinking about the cost and all the financial issues that we are dealing with and will deal with in the future, are there other alternatives we are exploring, for perhaps fundraising or grants, since this is a capital projects one-time investment, he wondered if there are some dollars or grants that we can pursue and he asked if they have explored these options.

Krause said she wants to answer this question in two ways. The first part is we have not activity sought after grant funds to fund this project, however, both Dr. Malone and she sit on the Kids' Mental Health Pierce County workgroup and they also have been in conversations with the Pierce County Council around funding to support mental health services partnerships. Through those opportunities to dialogue with the Pierce County Council, Connie Ladenburg sits on one of the committees, and just to listen to the conversation, they didn't become aware of any specific grant or dollars that the school district would be eligible to go after for this particular project, but we could keep investigating as we move forward.
  Director Romero said he agrees with Director Keaton, he appreciates the flexibility and thinks it is important that we lean in to whatever support we can provide our students going into this coming school year. He likes the new approach because it allows us to maintain the vestibule idea, entering in through main office, so kids who aren't from the campus will need to access through the main office.  The cost association, it costs $100,000 to move a portable that may not be used, and it would cost us potentially the same or whatever the case is to provide these services. He appreciates the research and the partnership with Woodcreek to continue to alter this along the way so we are flexible for our students and the district.

President Yang echoed that sentiment, thanked them for the phased in approach. She believes it will work well and we'll gather more data as we go and see what our needs are before investing a big chunk of money so she really appreciates the team being creative and being flexible.
  A motion was made to move forward with this phased approach, beginning with behavioral health services first, and moving forward with work on partition wall and reception area, to prepare space at Emerald Ridge High School, as presented.
  Motion by Michael D Keaton, second by Joseph Romero.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero, Kathy Yang
  7. Board Comments
A. Individual Board Member Comments
Director Romero said there were so many things addressed in this agenda. He really appreciates all of the work that so many of you are putting into this, not just administrators but teachers, community members, families, going into the reopening of schools, there are so many layers to it and we are starting out and he appreciates how rigorous that work is going to look through June so the board has a lot to consider. It was his first time to participate in the graduation ceremonies and it was amazing.  He thanked staff, administrators and families  who participated to make this special for the kids. It was so important and a joy to be a part of. He said he is on the same page as Director Kayaoglu regarding making sure we take a look at our policies with the lens of equity, systemic racism and our implicit bias. There are too many hot topics in this agenda to address them all, but he thinks it is important as we continue to see the diversification of our district, and of our community as a whole, so he appreciates him bringing that up. He thanked everyone for the work they do and said he is so excited to be a part of it. 

Director Keaton said one of the best part of having this meeting in person is to be able to talk about the retirees and thank them for their work and contributions to the district. Even though we cannot meet in person he thanked all retirees for the positive contributions they've made to the students. He'd also like to echo Director Romero's comments about graduation.  We were supposed to have it on Saturday and he was scheduled for the 9:00 a.m. session where he definitely would have gotten rained on, but he would have been fine with that in order to do "normal" graduation, but he is very thankful for the extra efforts that so made to come up with an alternative graduation ceremony that would be special for each of the students. He participated in that.  The one thing that was nicer than the standard graduation is you got to see the individual families and reactions on their faces when they saw their graduate up close, walk across the stage and have their name read. He appreciates all the work done in that area. His daughter is now moving on, and he is wearing his PLU Dad shirt today, to support her and the things she went through, but she had a wonderful experience. She has her finals for Pierce College this week, and she had a wonderful experience going through the PSD.

Director Kayaoglu welcomed the administrative interns for our district. He looks forward to all the great things they will do and develop their leadership skills and take our K-12 system to the next level as our next generation of educational leaders.

Director Names said all directors had great comments and she reiterates all the same sentiments. She thanked Mario Casello, Laura Marcoe, Amanda Kraft and Char Krause for all the work they've done and she knows they have a lot of work to unpack in front of you. The summer probably won't feel like a summer for staff so she wants to say kudos to what you will be accomplishing. Again, graduations were amazing, families were happy and excited, and whether it was sunny or raining they were just grateful to be there.  All of our high schools did a fabulous job making an incredible situation for them. She had posted about some of the things missing from graduation but there were a lot of things were still present, like recognizing character and leadership, they got to walk and they got to celebrate, and it was really incredible to be part of a unique graduation this year. She is looking forward to what will happen next with all the things we talked about today on the agenda; lots of deep conversations will be happening.

Dr. Pecchia apologized to administrative intern Erlinda Iniguez who was initially left off the list during highlights. 
  President Yang thanked everyone and said she knows the past three months have been kind of crazy. She can't believe it has just been three months; she feels like it has been a very long time. With the abrupt closure of our schools, she knows everyone has been working really hard. She was speaking to a teacher who said he had been working 12-14 hours a day, every day, for seven days a week to try to switch to that distance learning model. The dedication she sees in all our staff is incredible. She knows it has been hard on families, some more than others, and she understands they feel like they are not getting the education they need for their students. She understands it has been very hard, but she is amazed at the work everyone has put in. The PHS graduation she participated in was wonderful under the circumstances.  She had so many families as they went through say, "thank you so much for putting this together." You could tell the staff was so happy to be there for students, the energy was great. It took a lot of work, so appreciates everyone who did that. She also talked about the work we are doing in this district on equity, and we have been the past few years but current events have an urgency to it, which we take as an opportunity to really push forward with that. Everyone in our district who is so committed to it, she knows Vince and Amanda are truly passionate about this. We are ready to dig in deep and really reexamine our district and say what we are doing and not doing right. So she is very excited going forward about what we will see; the changes that will happen and the programs that we'll see. She thanked everyone and said she knows everyone needs a break. She wished everyone a great summer. There is still a lot of work to be done, and she appreciates all the work.
  8. Closing
A. Adjournment
President Yang adjourned the regular board meeting at 10:16 a.m. 
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Dr. John Polm, Superintendent                                       Ms. Kathy Yang, Board President