2022-06-21-minutes.txt

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Puyallup School District
Regular Board Meeting
Ballou Junior High School and Livestreamed via Zoom
Tuesday, June 21, 2022
    1. Opening
A. Call to Order
President Joseph Romero called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. In addition to President Romero, in attendance were Directors David Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael Keaton and Maddie Names as well as Superintendent Dr. John Polm. 
  B. Pledge of Allegiance
President Romero led the Pledge of Allegiance.
  C. Approval of Agenda
Dr. Polm said there are no modifications or changes to the agenda and recommended its approval.
  A motion was made to approve the meeting agenda, as presented
  Motion by Michael D Keaton, second by Turan Kayaoglu.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  D. Superintendent's Report; Dr. John Polm, Superintendent
Dr. Polm welcomed everyone and said he knows many people are excited school is out. Some people may not be aware that the district implemented Kindergarten Academy as a strategy to support the transition to kindergarten for students who may not have access to preschool. This year we have 162 students attend representing every elementary school in the district. Prior to taking part in KA, 26 students scored below 10% on a pre-test. No students scored 100%. 40 students could write their first name, and 13 could count to 20. At the end of KA, no students scored below 20%, 28 students scored 100%, all 162 students could write their first name, and 129 students could count to 20. In addition to these skills, the students have become familiar with school sites, routines, and staff – helping them to be emotionally ready for school. He thanked Nancy Strobel and our staff for their work in helping these 162 children become ready for kindergarten in September.

Note on PSD Rights and Responsibilities - the presentation this evening is changed from what was uploaded to BoardDocs last week. We have received legal guidance to not lift the bicycle age restriction regarding elementary students at this time.

Reminder to the Board, staff, and Public - the July board meeting will be held virtually Friday, July 1 at 9:00 a.m. via Zoom only. We expect this to be a short meeting.

The district building located at 214 W. Main has a new name, selected our district cabinet team: PSD Family, Student and Staff Support Center
This building is the former home of Special Services (relocated to the Kessler Center) and now houses Director Michele Bledsoe and her team as well as TOSAs (Teachers On Special Assignment). Signage has been ordered.
  2. Communications
A. District Highlights; Sarah Gillispie, Executive Director of Communications and Public Engagement
District Highlights tonight is dedicated to honoring Puyallup School District employees who have retired from service this year. This month we acknowledge the service of 75 notable staff members and have the pleasure of congratulating 26 of those who are in person with us tonight.

To kick things off for us tonight, she said we are thrilled to have a student choral performance by the Norselanders, Puyallup High School’s vocal jazz ensemble, led by Choir Director Jason Brinker. Tonight they performed ‘Run to You.’ After the performance, Director Gillispie thanked them for their beautiful performance and for performing at the board meeting even after school had ended.

After two years of virtual celebrations, we are so happy to be back together to recognize their contributions in person. Before we began she explained the nuts and bolts. Retirees will be called to the front as a group to line up against the wall facing the audience. As each name was announced, they stepped forward while a summary of gratitude is read. After all summaries were read, retirees advanced to the front as a group so School Board Directors can give their individual congratulations.

She said we extend our gratitude and recognize the service of 75 employees retiring at the end of this school year. In total, they have contributed approximately 1,863 years of service to the district - 70% of whom have served in PSD for 20 years or more. The positive impact they have had on the lives of so many cannot be overstated. While they will be retiring from our school district, their legacy will carry on in the lives of those they have supported and inspired. She invited the retirees with us tonight to line up against the wall to acknowledge their service as she read individual statements of gratitude. Jack Widmann presented a statement of gratitude for Carol Stanford. Retirees attending in-person at the meeting were: 
  Joyce Alvarez - 29.84 years of service
Susannah Armstrong - 38.83 years of service
Ron Caron - 17.35 years of service
Brian Curtis - 23.84 years of service
Theresa Curtiss - 29.33 years of service
Gary Frentress - 17.55 years of service
Fred Greer - 42.83 years of service
Christi Horton - 35.84 years of service
Patricia Krawczyk - 19 years of service
Teresa Lockey - 35.84 years of service
Mary Ann Loucks - 35.84 years of service
Mary Mathiesen - 27.83 years of service
Stephanie Morton - 38.83 years of service
Karen Motley - 26.17 years of service
Kathryn Plevyak - 26.83 years of service
Cheryl Roy - 32.83 years of service
Patricia Siltala - 15.83 years of service
Susan Snoke - 33.17 years of service
Sylvia Snow - 13.14 years of service
Carol "CC" Stanford - 16.4 years of service
Susan Turner - 33.8 years of service
Andrew Viniarski - 17.84 years of service
Dorothy Wilgus - 23.83 years of service
Susan Williams - 31.72 years of service
Linnea Wright - 26.61 years of service

Sarah Gillispie congratulated all the retirees on behalf of the Puyallup School District. President Romero opened the floor to the board for an opportunity to address the retirees prior to the recess. 

Director Keaton congratulated the group and said there is a lot of years out there of service and he thanked each of them for their service to the district and the students. He said just imagine the impact you've had on so many students and so many things over the years because we can't run the district without each and every one of them. These are some big shoes that are tough to fill, but now it is time to enjoy some time, and don't put off the things that you want to do. He congratulated them on their retirement and said he is looking forward to shaking their hands.
  Director Kayaoglu said It's wonderful to be here and be humbled by all the work that you just put in to ensure that our students are getting the best education that we can provide. He thanked them and said he appreciates them, and to enjoy retirement.

Director Berg thanked them as well and said he knows from watching Ms. Loucks at Meeker with his sons, his oldest son graduated from college last weekend, was in Ms. Loucks' class. His middle son is a college student who's also spent time with Ms. Loucks and watched Ms. Loucks at countless pep assemblies doing things that he is sure each of you up there has done, but that nobody else would believe had they not witnessed it. But he knows the commitment that each of you has demonstrated to your students. He greatly appreciates that commitment and it has made all the difference in the world to so many of them. Thank you.

Director Names said it's always a lot of pressure when you didn't get to go first and say something unique, but as a proud parent of this district and seeing such an immense amount of support staff that's here tonight who are retiring she anticipates we have some really large gaps to fill in the coming years, as we look to fill those shoes again. She imagines you have mentored and left behind a legacy that we will definitely feel for a while. She wishes them all the best and an incredible next chapter. She thanked them for this immense amount of service between all of them to the Puyallup School District, and said it is very appreciated

President Romero said he tries to come up with something unique and said they have been the keepers of knowledge and the stewards of wisdom and sharers of education and experience. You are the bridges to our generations. He said he is much obliged for your service to us, obviously, 1,000+ years of service represented over the 75 retirees. He reminisced with his business partner, who is over two decades his senior, as they talked about a teacher we shared at our Alma Mater, Thomas Jefferson High School. This is not a roast, but he gets to pinpoint his eighth grade US History teacher Brian Curtis, who, as was telling Director Names, he has a certificate of Most Outstanding Student in US History from him from eighth grade. He said those memories don't fade fast, and it was a sensation for him to find out he was the assistant principal as his son entered kindergarten at Brouillet Elementary, so he bridged our generations and he has passed on so much knowledge over the years. We can't thank you enough for the tens, and possibly hundreds of thousands of lives you've helped change over the many years of service, so thank you.

Retirees proceeded to the front to receive congratulations from the school board directors. Each retiree also received a rose and commemorative pin.
  B. Recess
At 7:00 p.m. President Romero called for a short recess for refreshments and photos.
President Romero reconvened the meeting at 7:12 p.m.
  C. Public Comment
Jim Allen - hopes the building substitute position will return next year and suggested if not enough in the budget for all schools, it is most needed in elementary schools
Kim Hopkins - expressed disappointment that Flag Day wasn't recognized in the district June 14
  3. Consent Agenda
A. Board of Directors - Board Meeting Minutes (June 6, 2022)
B. Board of Directors - Special Board Meeting - Executive Session Minutes (June 6, 2022)
C. Business Services - Bid No. 22-B1961 FNS Drop Ship Items
D. Business Services - Vouchers
E. Business Services - Contracts
F. Business Services - Surplus
G. Operations - Operations Department's Public Works Resolutions
H. Operations – Change Order #12 for Kessler Center Construction, Project No. 68-02-18
I. Human Resources - Consideration for Approval of Ratified PECAAA CBA
J. Human Resources - Consideration for Approval of Ratified Puyallup School Food Service Association CBA
K. Human Resources - Department Activity Memo
L. Consideration for Approval of Consent Agenda
  A motion was made to approve the consent agenda, as presented.
  Motion by Michael D Keaton, second by David B Berg.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  4. Action
A. Equity and Instructional Leadership - Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook Revisions for 2022 - 2023; Dr. Vincent Pecchia, Assistant Superintendent of Equity and Instructional Leadership
Dr. Pecchia reminded the board that this action item is a second read of the annual revisions to the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook that was initially presented at the last school board meeting on June 6.

In alignment with current School Board Policy 3241, Student Discipline, the Superintendent, or designee will annually develop handbooks pertaining to student rights, conduct, and discipline, and make the handbooks available to all students, their parents, and staff.

Since our district already has an established Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, changes in laws, policies, social trends, and best practices in school discipline require that the district annually review and revise the handbook.

As a reminder, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is the designated agency to update the Washington Administrative Codes addressing student discipline. The focus continues to be on closing the opportunity gap for all students and decreasing the disproportionality in exclusionary discipline.

The process of reviewing and revising the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook involves convening a committee of staff and parents, a legal review by district council, and a report of proposed revisions to the Board of Directors for their consideration to adopt.

The proposed revisions to highlight for the board are as follows:

Section I: Introduction
Minor grammatical changes as reflected in the submitted handbook found in BoardDocs

Section II: Student Discipline Terms and Procedures
Minor grammatical changes
Defined “optimum learning atmosphere”
Added links to Policy 3241, Student Discipline that includes discipline matrix, continuum of responses, and regulation language

Section III: Student Conduct Expectations and Rules
Under Bicycles and Other Transportation, we added back age restriction language per legal counsel review. Last Friday the board received proposed drafts for 3243R and 3243F, the student driving and bicycle safety regulation and form, as part of their weekly update but those will not be changing now if the board approves these revisions to the Rights and Responsibilities Handbook.
Under Dress and Appearance, language that allows students to wear a “head covering” was added if the head covering does not cover the face or is not worn in combination with a health-related mask.
The term “head covering” instead of hat or hoodie is a change from the initial report on June 6 and was recommended by our legal counsel during their review of recommended revisions. Examples of “head covering” is provided as part of the revision in the handbook.

Under Harassment, Intimidation, or Bullying, we clarified that these behaviors could take many forms including the use of hate speech such as racial, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic slurs, slang, jokes, etc.

Dr. Pecchia said that concludes the second read of proposed revisions to the Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook for 2022-2023 and at this time, the Equity and Instructional Leadership Department asks the board of directors to consider approving the revisions as presented.

President Romero opened the floor for questions or comments before the action. There were none.
  A motion was made to approve the 2022-23 Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, as presented.
  Motion by Michael D Keaton, second by Maddie D Names.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  B. Equity and Instructional Leadership - Comprehensive School Counseling Program Transition Plan; Almai Malit, Executive Director of Equity, Student Success, and Strategic Engagement
At the last board meeting on June 6, Almai Malit reminded the board she was joined by some of our counselors when she reported on the proposed Comprehensive School Counseling Program Transition Plan that was necessitated by the passing of Substitute Senate Bill 5030. She is happy to be back tonight for the second read and recommendation for a board action on the transition plan.

As presented at the last board meeting, Substitute Senate Bill 5030 was passed during the legislative session and came into effect July 25, 2021. The bill has two provisions: 1. It requires districts to develop and implement a comprehensive school counseling program, referred to from here on out as CSCP, for all schools within the district, that addresses students’ social/emotional, academic, and career development in alignment with the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model; and 2. It directs the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to develop and distribute policy and guidance on the written plan.

She also shared previously that the positive anticipated impact of this law is the perfect timing to have our counselors’ roles be reviewed in a way that is supportive and in alignment to another concurrent change that is happening in the state’s expectation of how we will qualify students for Special Education services in the category qualification called Specific Learning Disability. With OSPI recognizing that the CSCP we will create is a live document that would involve iterative process, only the transition plan is expected to be approved and adopted by the school board and then submitted to OSPI before the end of the school year. The transition plan should include system changes in the next two years. School year 2023-2024 and beyond is the expected timeline for full implementation. The board can choose to adjust the Transition Plan as the 5030 workgroup discovers the need to adjust based on data such as use-of-time data during the transition and study year.

The 5030 work group will continue drafting the CSCP in the next two years with 2022-2023 being the transition and study year. You have received the actual proposed Transition Plan as a supplemental document where each of these four required components are laid out in this manner---each component is defined, with the identified actions, partners, and timeline.
Use of Standards: A comprehensive school counseling program uses state and nationally recognized counselor frameworks and is systemically aligned to state learning standards.
Use of Data: A comprehensive school counseling program provides a process for identifying student needs through a multilevel school data review and analysis that includes, at a minimum, use-of-time data, program results data, and data regarding communication with administrators, parents, students, and stakeholders.
Use of Time: School counselors or other educational staff assigned to implement CSCPs must allocate at least 80% of their work time to providing direct and indirect services to benefit students, as aligned with national school counseling standards.
Use of Personnel: School counselors or other educational staff assigned to implement CSCPs must allocate at least 80% of their work time to providing direct and indirect services to benefit students, as aligned with national school counseling standards.

To refresh your memory of some terms that are used throughout the CSCP, let me share the definition of the following terms:
Direct Services are in-person interactions between CSCP staff and students that help students improve achievement, attendance, and discipline. For example: instruction, appraisal, advisement, and counseling.
Indirect Services are provided on behalf of students to enhance student achievement and promote equity and access for all students. For example: collaboration, consultation, student advocacy, and referral.
Program Planning and Support includes the 20% of time used to plan and prepare, which includes activities such as analyzing data, goal setting, lesson planning, developing an annual calendar, and the annual administrative conference.
Work Time is the portion of an employee’s contracted hours for which they are contracted to implement the CSCP.

As shared at the previous board meeting, this slide gives you an at-a-glance view of our implementation timeline where you’ll note that in the school year 2020-2021, we began conversation and collaboration with our counselors around the review and realignment of their roles and responsibilities. This collaboration included proactively providing the necessary training in what is to come with the high likelihood of SSB 5030 passing, which it did:
Between July to December 2021, while waiting for OSPI to provide guidance on the 5030 implementation, we continued our conversation and collaboration with our counselors and PEA which resulted in a memorandum of understanding or MOU. Such collaboration included putting together a joint PEA-PSD 5030 Implementation Advisory and Work Group comprised of 7 PEA members, specifically counselors, and 7 district and school administrators. The work group was co-facilitated by PEA President Robert “Bob” Horton and her.
As soon as OSPI’s guidance was communicated, our collaboration via the established work group began meeting. We met twice a month for two hours between January through June, with additional preparation and follow-up work outside of those work sessions.

The fourth panel of the timeline brings us to the first read of the proposed transition plan at the last board meeting on June 6, and tonight she is back to recommend to the board to take action on the proposed transition plan. She explained the last two panels of the timeline just show that the next two school years are transition and full implementation years respectively.

She asked if there were any questions prior to her bringing the recommendation to the board for action.

Director Berg asked if the advisory that is working with OSPI on recommendations as we begin this implementation process, could that be part of that be additional funding recommendations or requests, things to to ask OSPI for?  Director Malit said their advisory group is actually just advising our district. He said he thought there was also some statewide review of feedback given to OSPI. She replied there were some throughout the process on what it could look like, which allowed them to actually develop the guidance, but not necessarily any of the districts advising them, as we transition into the next two years. However, having said that, we can definitely, just like anything else, let them know of the demands of implementations such as this work. Director Berg said he has been fortunate to be a part of some statewide committees, some of which made recommendations that pointed out that to do the things that were being asked required funding, and sometimes those received attention and sometimes they didn't receive any attention whatsoever, but it's important that we do point out to OSPI and to our legislators the additional factors that go into implementing the changes that they're asking us to do, because he knows that we don't exactly have a pool of counselors just waiting to be hired to fill in all these roles, so there's a lot of additional work and a lot of change to come that he is not entirely sure all of our legislators got right.
  Director Malit said our study year will allow us to gather more data that we can then report to the board through Superintendent Polm, and she knows Dr. Polm is in a network of superintendents that also advocate for school districts.
  Director Keaton said he is not surprised to see unfunded mandate, but as you do the transition year it will be important to keep a focus on current things that our counselors provide that the new transition plan might fall on the table. So, in other words, what are they doing right now as there's only so much time in the day. Director Malit agreed.
  President Romero said as the directors have mentioned the unfunded mandate, we want to ensure that our board has the ability to advocate with our State Legislature regarding the prototypical school model, Obviously, as a district, we already fund many of those gaps, and this looks like another one that he thinks will be funding with ESSER funds to begin with, and then we won't have them after next year.
  Director Names that said, she thinks it is important work and we need to see where it takes us, and starting the process, and using the guidance that at least has been given, and the vetting that has been done, and that's important, so she is just eager to see where it goes and how far we get, and hopefully the farther down the path we go, the more it will be seen that it does need to be funded, and we do need to take care of our students in this capacity in a way that doesn't just say, "Yes, it's important," but "Yes, it's important and we want to fund it," so thank you. She thanked her for all the work she has done. Malit replied it is a team effort.
  President Romero also said they do appreciate the work of the group and the partnership with Bob Horton and the PEA to move this forward Yeah, at that point If there's no further discussion directors he opened this to action.
  A motion was made to approve the Comprehensive School Counseling Program Transition Plan, as presented.
  Motion by Maddie D Names, second by Turan Kayaoglu.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  Director Malit thanked the board and said our counselors thank them as well.
  C. Equity and Instructional Leadership - Core Instructional Materials for High School Mathematics; Dr. Heather McMullen, Director of Equity and Instructional Leadership, Math and Science
Dr. McMullen said she is here again tonight representing the high school mathematics adoption committee and presented the high school mathematics advanced courses curriculum adoption proposal as an action item. She introduced Priscilla Milam as a secondary math coach to answer any questions.

Our committee identified the following considerations when reviewing potential new curriculum: Key shifts in pedagogy, digital access for students and staff to curriculum, assessments, and supports, curriculum that meets and supports AP & Pre-AP College Board Requirements, and textbook publication dates.

In October 2021, we began the process of curriculum adoption as outlined in Board Policy 2020. The team audited current PSD curricular materials for advanced math classes. Precalculus and Calculus materials were adopted in 2007 – 15 years ago. The age of the products meant that digital access was not available for staff or students and that textbooks were out of print. Members of the committee participated either on the core team for the full process or joined the review team in the spring. The Instructional Materials committee recently approved the process the adoption team used to review and select the proposed materials.

Following the audit of advanced math materials, the team reviewed top-rated advanced math materials. The publisher and textbooks that stood out were: The Cengage Precalculus with Limits 5th edition, published in 2022 and the Cengage Calculus 12th edition, published in 2023. These are the textbooks we selected to move forward in the adoption process for Precalculus and AP Calculus classes.

These textbooks were chosen for the following reasons: they support and increases learning from the Precalculus level and on up, and provide pre-learning for AP Statistics and AP Calculus. The Precalculus "With Limits" covers more topics than the typical precalculus textbook. Both have problems with clear examples, and CalcChat supports will be very valuable for advanced math students. When completing the required Bias Review, the committee found real world examples that connect to current context, problems are gender neutral and situated with the student as the subject, online tools & translations make the curriculum more accessible.

The team also found there were a limited number of images and limited representation in both textbooks. A deeper review of eight other advanced math textbooks, from various vendors, found that images and representation was limited in all of them, clearly a trend with college level math books in the high school.

Our team notified the Cengage vendor with a request to add representation and images to these textbooks. This request turned into a partnership with the vendor. PSD math teachers will provide input this summer to the Cengage digital content team and Cengage has made a commitment to include additional biographies and images throughout the digital platform, not only for Puyallup students, but for students across the nation. We are very proud of our efforts and stance in Puyallup to value accessibility and representation for our students and now these efforts will lead to more representative content for many students across the country.

Included in the Cengage contract are hard copies and digital access to student editions, teacher editions and tutorials, access to CalcChat free tutoring and professional learning for staff throughout the life of the contract. Purchasing these advanced textbooks along with the Big Ideas Math textbooks, as approved by the board last month, allows us to save almost $80,000. The total cost for these two products is $102,303 for six years or $17,050 per year - costing roughly $32 per student per year. She asked what questions does the board have for them?

Director Keaton asked for confirmation that the one we're getting is the one that the link they received is for? Dr. McMullen replied yes, the most recent access that Beth sent out to you. 
  Director Berg said he had the opportunity this past weekend to be at a college graduation ceremony for a college of science and math, and the number of young women who are receiving their degrees almost matched the number of men receiving their degrees, and it was impressive to see. He also had the opportunity to speak with a young woman who had received her master's degree, and when we talked about how she got into math in the first place, she said actually her dad had taken her to see some engineering students to learn what the engineering students were doing. She said that she had no interest whatsoever in what the engineering students were doing but she liked the math thing and wish that there was an opportunity for people like her to do the math thing, and that's when her dad said, well, there is, she had just never seen that before. So we think of it sometimes, as this is a minor thing to have a picture of that, but it's not a minor thing. It is very important for students to be able to see themselves in these roles. She's an outstanding master student who is now going to be studying for a Ph.D. and it it happened because somebody actually told her that you might not have seen it before but you can belong there, and you can do these things. So thanks for standing up for that. He also added that as he was reviewing the text today, looking at the outlines of how things were being presented, he really appreciates the way that things are being presented, and as he was finishing, his middle son, who's also a physics major so lots of math of his own, offered to review the math part for him because he figured that was probably over his head. He thanked him for his interest, but told him he might be able to handle it for now. But thanks again for your work, and thanks for speaking up for all of those students. Dr. McMullen thanked him for sharing that story.
  Director Names said she wants to take a minute to plug our math and science department. She said math is not her wheelhouse nor has it ever been in her wheelhouse, but somehow it is her daughter's wheelhouse, and she has had incredible female teachers in both departments who have really helped her rise to the potential that she's capable of and that's exciting. She said there is some work that we are doing now as we transition but she is also proud of the Puyallup School District because we've been doing this work to some degree. She is curious, though, to hear Priscilla Milam's thoughts about what we have and where we are going. Priscilla Milam replied that we don't currently have districtwide common curriculum for precalculus and calculus. Much of what we currently have, because we didn't have digital access last year, was created and disseminated amongst teachers, so she thinks one of the best things having a new curriculum with digital access will do for our students is it will level the playing field so it won't matter whether you're at Rogers or PHS or Emerald Ridge, you will see the same high-quality curriculum that you can access, not just in a two-dimensional form (like on a page) but you can actually see on a screen. Those biographies that Dr. McMullen discussed are so important. We don't see a lot of non-European representation of mathematics but there should be, because there's a lot of it and as much as she does totally appreciate when there is an equal gender representation, she knows that our students of color did not see themselves in our current textbooks, and that needs to change. She added she is so proud of Amy Query, who was the teacher that drove us to really push on the publishers to make a change. In her words, we have an opportunity to do it differently and we should. She doesn't teach calculus herself so she can't give a lot of details about the topics in the textbooks, but she knows that all of our calculus teachers were very much behind this adoption. Rachal Peart was sad that she couldn't be here, but she had a family emergency. She asked if there were any other questions.
  President Romero said he is an alum of Mu Alpha Theta Nationals math competition, two years running with his high school, as they placed fifth and third. So, for him, math is cool and that's a stigma that is important for us to change in and around the operation of math. He said he knows that each one of our high school supports a robotics club now, including at Walker, which is amazing through their CTE teacher, and you can't have robotics and coding without math, and those things are so vital and important, so he really appreciates the work put forth on this.
  A motion was made to approve the adoption of Cengage as Precalculus and Calculus instructional materials, starting with the 2022-2023 school year, as presented.
  Motion by Michael D Keaton, second by Maddie D Names.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  D. Business Services - Resolution No. 163 2021-22 Capital Levy; Laura Marcoe, Assistant Superintendent of Business & Support Services
Laura Marcoe said the district has a lot of capital projects – over 400 districtwide – that need critical repairs, improvements and upgrades. This levy package that she is presenting is designed to address many of these projects, with a major focus on safety and security. We’ll also address technology upgrades to ensure we are current with the technology demands of our world today, and it also includes building and site improvements to ensure safe and conducive learning spaces, both indoors and outdoors.

As we do not receive adequate state funding to address the scope of projects that are needed, we must rely on our taxpayers through a capital levy to generate the funding. This levy is for a total of $125 million, collected over six years at approximately $20.8 million per year. The net increase to our total tax rate is about .55 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.

She displayed the updated graphic of critical capital project needs that would be addressed by this levy. As you can see, about 43% is dedicated to keeping our schools and facilities safe and secure including constructing secure vestibules at each elementary that doesn’t currently have one, major improvements to traffic flow to alleviate the backups and safety concerns during pick-up and drop-off times, and upgrades to our emergency response notification systems like fire and intruder alarm systems, and installing lockdown alert strobes in large areas of some schools where regular notification systems aren’t easily heard.

The technology improvements include upgraded classroom technology, student and staff computers, and internet access improvements. We also need to address our aging buildings with some roof repairs and replacements, interior and exterior improvements like painting and replacing floors.

We’ll also be addressing some site and outdoor learning space improvements through paving projects, elementary playground and field improvements, and junior high all-weather tracks to ensure our outdoor spaces are accessible for all students and minimize the risk of injury.

There’s a lot to do to continue providing or enhance the safety and conduciveness of our learning environments for our students and staff. We’ll be working diligently over the next few months to inform our community about these critical needs and how the projects will impact each of our schools.

She said in a moment, she'll ask for board consideration of a resolution to approve this capital levy for the November 8, 2022 election date. But before that, she asked if there were any questions.

President Romero asked her to clarify the changes to this proposal compared to the last levy so everyone understands what the specific changes are. Marcoe explained after we just narrowly didn't pass the one in February, we sent a survey out to our community and we had 970+ responses, and from that and other feedback we have received, we removed two pretty major projects that were included in the original levy package, which was some work to consolidate the two satellites that we have for transportation, and to do some remodeling or replacement of our maintenance shop. The amount that was dedicated to those two projects was shifted over to additional technology and safety work in this levy package.
  Dr. Polm added that Mario Casello is not here this evening but he thinks he would want to emphasize that another change with regard to the safety and security was ensuring that there were safety vestibules in all of the elementary schools which previously wasn't the case because there's a few that have some very challenging design elements to them. So based on feedback we received not only through the survey but also from the board and from our different parent and staff groups that we've met with, that was some of the changes that were made. We are being very responsive to the input and making sure we didn't just put the same proposal forward that was put forward in February.
  Director Names thanked the business office for its paramount responsibility to taxpayers that they continue to make up possible for us to look at this, but she also knows that if we move forward and the community votes on this, it will have absolute integrity in zooming the projects that we have lined up to do and that work is just incredible. She has had the experience of witnessing it for the last six years, the transparency of how it's all done and handled by you and your department, and that for her alone is really the one piece that allows her to say yes when we do decide to vote. She is already saying now she is voting yes if we put this forward and decide to vote. So with that being said, the safety aspect definitely has hit home to this nation time and time again, and if there is anything that is of most importance, it is that. You have vetted this out to put that upfront and foremost so she is thankful for that.
  President Romero said it is really important for us to recognize the fact that, as we watch our economy do what it's doing, not only inflationary costs, but rising costs for construction, will become a continued challenge as this deferred maintenance and potential improvements continue to move down the field. National averages year over year on construction costs are up 35% and he knows that (proposed) $125 million does have contingency considerations to ensure that we are responsible and we can actually deliver on the items that we intend to, but it is real important for our taxpayers and our voting public to understand that as we continue to defer this, those costs could inflate significantly so he just wanted to point that out, of course, for the board on some of those statistics. Otherwise, if there is no other discussion, he will open this item up for action.
  Director Kayaoglu said he appreciates the thoughtful engagement with the public collecting feedback and informing them, and he know that the superintendent and district leadership met with the PTAs as well. He thinks that was valuable, and we should continue to keep our connections and our engagement with the public.
  A motion was made to approve Resolution No. 163 2021-22 Capital Levy, as presented.
  Motion by Turan Kayaoglu, second by David B Berg.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  E. Business Services - Resolution No. 204 2021-22 State Bond Guarantee Program and Resolution No. 205 2021-22 Refunding Delegation; Laura Marcoe, Assistant Superintendent of Business & Support Services
Over the past several weeks we have been evaluating the feasibility of refunding our 2012A series bonds. Current municipal bond rates are still advantageous, although they have been moving, but the market continues to be volatile. At this time, we are projecting an estimated savings to taxpayers of about $2.4 million.

Resolutions - In order to move forward with the bond refunding, we have two resolutions that we will be asking the board to consider in just a few moments.

The first resolution authorizes the district to participate in the State Bond Guarantee program. We participated in this as well in the last bond refunding. This program pledges the full faith and credit of the state to guarantee the principal and interest payments on our bond debt. It also allows us to use the state’s Aaa credit rating to sell the bonds, which most likely will result in better rates and greater savings for the taxpayers.

The second resolution authorizes the district to proceed with refunding the bonds, and delegates the authority to both the superintendent and herself to accept the final terms of the sale and execute the bond purchase agreements.

Next Steps - In July, we will work with Moody’s to confirm our Aa2 credit rating. We recently found out that we most likely won’t need another formal conference with them – just a quick review to see if anything materially has changed with our financial situation. 

The bond sale is scheduled for late August, if the market remains favorable and we are able to provide significant savings to our taxpayers. We will also update the board on the final results at the end of August. The closing date for the bond sale is scheduled for early September. There were no questions.
  President Romero commented it is important for us to act quickly, because, as we see, the fed rate is changing and that has a correlative effect on what happens with the interest rates.

Marcoe said the first resolution we are asking the board to consider is Resolution No. 204 2021-22 for the State Bond Guarantee Program. Each resolution should be considered separately for action.
  A motion was made to approve Resolution No. 204 2021-22 State Bond Guarantee Program, as presented.
  Motion by Maddie D Names, second by Michael D Keaton.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  Marcoe said the second resolution we are asking the board to consider is Resolution 205 2021-22 for refunding delegation.
  A motion was made to approve Resolution No. 205 2021-22 Refunding Delegation, as presented.
  Motion by Michael D Keaton, second by Maddie D Names.
Final Resolution: Motion Carries
Yea: David B Berg, Turan Kayaoglu, Michael D Keaton, Maddie D Names, Joseph Romero
  5. Board Comments
A. Individual Board Member Comments
Director Names congratulated our students on a phenomenal year, digging deep, working hard and to our graduating seniors she said it was a phenomenal graduation day. The sun was out, and smiling on all of them and all those families, and that was just glorious to see. After two long years. So thank you to our staff, who carried them to get them to the finish line, and all the work that they did in between those preschoolers, kindergarteners, and all the way on up so she is just really proud of the stellar year.
  Director Berg said as we saw tonight in the recognition of our retiring staff the number of stories that explain just how clearly they impacted so many students over so many years and, you know, and he was practically brought to tears himself talking about the impact that Ms. Loucks on his own sons. Never doubt the impact that our educators and are staff members have on our students and their families. They are members of our community. The number of times that he has seen our teachers, staff and support staff, the the people that keep things running behind the scenes, go above and beyond the call of duty is more than he could ever begin to explain. He is so grateful for all they have given to our schools. And to all the people that will need to step up and fill their shoes, good luck, he knows that you can do it, and thank you also for that work. Again to our students, thank you for sticking with it over a very challenging couple of years. Never doubt that you can do difficult things - you've proven it and you will continue to do it. He is looking forward to seeing all the great things our Puyallup students continue to accomplish as they move out into the world, and having seen some of our graduates and spoken to graduates who are now college graduates or college students and listening to them talk about how their Puyallup education prepared them, it is definitely things to be proud of here. So again thank you all for your work. He is looking forward to an exciting next year, knowing that we need to continue to work with so many different members of our community to make sure that their voices are heard, that they feel welcomed, they feel included. We saw again tonight when talking about the levy proposals that we do listen to feedback, we seek your feedback, we want to hear from you and it's important that your voice is heard, and it's important that we continue to work with you to make sure that everybody that needs to be heard gets a chance to speak. We can't make everybody happy all the time but we can certainly do our best to hear from them, so thank you.
  Director Kayaoglu said he feels proud to be part of this district, and being part of the Board of Directors, he appreciates the work with his colleagues and just seeing that how in one year his kids, Mai and Rumi, enjoyed school, learned a lot and established friendships - it just was an amazing experience.  When he thinks about their experience most immediately he thinks of their teachers, because their teachers make the whole difference. In this board meeting, too, we just saw everyone from Mr. Allen to our retired teachers and just everyone in between, we provide the specification we can, because we are recruiting, hiring, and supporting the best teachers that we can and just need to continue to do that.  He said he participated in the Rogers' graduation - he was the one in purple in the sea of the blue, with his University of Washington outfit. That was on Saturday, and on Monday he attended the University of Washington Tacoma graduation, and as the chair of faculty assembly, he led part of the ceremony and asked everyone to stand up for the National Anthem. And then he also read the land acknowledgement. While he did that back to back, he didn't see discrepancy or contradiction. They still just stand for the National Anthem, and we do the land acknowledgement. Then he noticed that not everyone stood for the Nation Anthem; some students use their conscience, they sit down or just didn't stand up and he saw American strength.  We appreciate freedom of speech, and people act with their conscience. Most will stand up, some will say they are against it and are not going to stand up, but that's our strength in a way that singing National Anthem and he is doing the land acknowledgment is also our strength, as in the beginning of this ceremony, we do the Pledge of Allegiance and turn to our flag. He takes pride in that. Growing up in Middle East, it wasn't necessarily his favorite flag to think about then and he thought about the American flag as a sign or symbol of imperialism and oppression and he didn't appreciate the American constitution that much. He came here and met with the people, he learned better and now he take prides in saluting the flag and in the Pledge of Allegiance. He took the pledge to uphold the Constitution when he became a new American, but also knows that doesn't necessarily mean that we will think in the same way, but at the same time he thinks about the American flag or the Constitution back in my own country, his first country versus his new adopted country, in the process there is lots of learning. Likewise, he didn't appreciate much about LGBTQ community or the Pride flag. He thinks probably he was as homophobic as many of us growing up in a traditional conservative society. Now he knows better, and he appreciates it. He sees that and celebrates. He doesn't see that celebrating one as denying of the other. In fact, it just kind of makes it stronger the way that we just see the dignity in each other and appreciate each other, and say, "You belong here and I see who you are, and I welcome you on this table as who you are." Bring not just your labor but your creativity, and with your vision for this society is what makes America great, and he appreciates that in the beginning of the meetings we turn to the flag, but at the same time, this district issued the statement to acknowledge LGBTQ month and Pride month. He wants to acknowledge that that's the strength and that's what makes him proud to be part of this district, to be proud of this community and to be proud to live in this country, and he is looking forward to that.
  Director Keaton said he is going to steal a line from every junior high and high school yearbook: "HAGS!" or "Have a great summer!"
  President Romero said his wife would never openly admit it but he think she's jealous of the school district, because the school district gets much more pictures of me than anyone else, including her and my kids. It was an honor to be a part of graduation at three ceremonies, and congratulate over 350 kids, and shake their hands and it was amazing. At the end of the day we don't always realize it, but everything that we do in this district is to be able to hand that diploma over to those kids, and it seems like a lot and not a lot at the same time. but when you add it all up, it's probably more than we ever want to think about, and more than the public will ever really know happens to ensure that those footsteps are something that we do our best to deliver on a promise. So it is the summer solstice, so very seldom do we get to have the longest sunny day of the year on a school board meeting evening so just like Director Keaton said, and he does echo the thoughts and sentiments of the other directors but he'll dismiss this event so that our community and the people here can continue to enjoy hopefully another hour and a half of sunshine.
  6. Executive Session (if needed)
None.
  7. Closing
Adjournment
President Romero adjourned the meeting at 8:09 p.m.
          _______________________________________         _____________________________________
Dr. John Polm, Superintendent                                    Mr. Joseph Romero, Board President