Tahoma School Board Regular Meeting, Dec 20, 2022 – Housing Committee Update, Tech Upgrades
TSD School Board Regular Meeting, Dec 20, 2022, 6:30pm
There were several items on the agenda for this meeting. Four board members were present, with only Michael Wiggins not in attendance. I’ve summarized the main agenda items, including the Housing Committee Update, but skipped some of the smaller topics. You can watch the full video of the meeting here.
5.01 Annual Reorganization of the School Board
The board voted on new positions, most with one year terms, as follows:
President: Pete Miller
Vice President: Malia Hollowell
Legislative Representative: Matt Carreon
Finance Representative: Pete Miller
Teaching and Learning Representative: Michael Wiggins
5.02 Finance Department Update
Update on the finance department’s work toward fulfilling the goals outlined in Tahoma CARES, presented by TSD Chief Accountant, Bill Hernandez, along with Becky Gillmor, Erin Boyken, and Erica Wegner. The full presentation can be viewed here.
- High Expectations: They achieved their primary goals of a clean audit and ensuring every staff member and vendor is paid on time. Plans for implementation of e-signatures in EOY 2022-23, development of Excel macros to automate some processes, and migration to electronic document retention.
- Equity: They are reviewing and updating as needed one board policy/procedure each month, have improved communication with other staff and departments, and implemented more online payment options for schools. A future goal is to improve financial equity between schools.
- Climate and Culture: Working on producing a welcome packet for new employees, quarterly tips and tricks, and surveys for district staff and vendors to collect feedback.
- Partnership: They have implemented cross-training across the department, along with the assignment of backups. The first survey will be going out in January, and they hope it will be useful in formulating future partnership plans with other district departments.
- Wellness: They have begun to use a group text for finance personnel, a white board with information on who is in office, working remotely, or out, and have engaged in off-hour activities for team building.
- Hernandez ended the presentation by thanking those presenting, and giving accolades to Finance Director Lori Cloud for her “guidance and wisdom” in helping with much of this work.
Board feedback: Malia Hollowell praised the department for their continued success in receiving clean audits, as a “beautiful example” of team work and collaboration. She asked about where they’re getting their ideas. Hernandez responded by saying that they all come from different business backgrounds, including his former employer Costco.
Matt Carreon asked if there were other growth areas beyond further IT use. Hernandez responded that though they do have many IT plans, which should make their work more efficient and less tedious at times, they also plan to “pick the brains of those with institutional knowledge” and document their experiences so that knowledge is not lost.
5.03 Housing Committee Update
This was the long-awaited update from the Housing Committee, which was formed four years ago. Due to the pandemic some of their larger work had to be postponed, but they have reconvened and brought some future options to the board. Committee members present included Annette Whittlesey, Jerry Gaston, Shawn Seeley, Zack Midles, Chris Feist, Kyle Hood, as well as the architect Heather Hocklander. The full presentation and slides can be viewed here.
Heather Hocklander, the architect working with the group, said her first task was to quickly rule out ideas that were not going to be feasible, for various reasons. Those were building second stories onto two of the existing elementary schools, which would have been disruptive to the learning environment, and building on top of the TES play field, which is a septic drainfield.
Moving on, they determined several other possibilities. These were presented by various members of the committee:
- Lake Wilderness Elementary School: There are multiple spaces at the school that were purposefully left unbuilt, with future capacity needs in mind. Three of those are in areas of high use for the school, but three others are feasible for new classrooms. Some of the concerns raised in committee meetings were capacity in the gym and other common areas. They determined that there would be space to build a second small gym, or other flex space.
- District Office/Preschool: Two options for the district office were presented. One was a full renovation to better reflect the needs of the district. The way people work has changed significantly in the past few years. The other option would be to move the district office into the historical Transportation building and convert the current district offices into a preschool. This would result in a smaller district office, which may be all that’s needed anyway. The new preschool would have space for seven classrooms, play areas, spaces for staff and student use, and would benefit by being located next to Rock Creek Elementary school. (No further discussion about adding a preschool to our district was had at this meeting, and I am not clear if this includes Transitional Kindergarten.)
- High School Addition: They have determined that there is space to add an entire three story section to the high school. This would be placed at the southwest part of the building, on the side of the athletic fields. This addition would include 18 new classrooms, new bathrooms, and a new stairwell. The total square footage would depend on what type of classroom space would be needed. The physical space available could accommodate the larger option of science classrooms at 11,000 sq feet per floor.
- New Elementary School: There is space available near Summit Trail Middle School for a new elementary school. (Author note: This land is already owned by the district and has septic and water access exemptions by the county.)
- Maple View Middle School: Moving some of the tech currently stored at the school would free up capacity. I wasn’t clear if that capacity would be intended for office or student use. (Author note: This is the site of the backup servers used by the district.)
After questions from the school board it was stated that there are no cost figures to present yet, as these are all still options and not formal recommendations. A student board rep, Emma Schlutt, commented that she enjoyed the presentation and all of the different solutions that the committee came up with. She thanked the committee for all of the effort they put into this.
5.04 Action: Approve Supplemental Chromebooks for State Assessments
Technology Operations Supervisor, Trevor Davidson, presented this topic. Costs have increased significantly recently so he rushed to get this to the board as quickly as possible. The tech levy funds are still adequate to fund this purchase. (Author note: Board approval is required for all expenditures above a certain cost, regardless of whether they have already been budgeted.)
This year, 2600 Chromebooks aged out of Google support and the district replaced 2000 of them for student use. Now the district needs to replace that final 600 in order to accommodate state testing in the spring. Student-owned devices brought from home can’t be used for state testing.
The board approved this action 4-0.
5.06 Action: Approve MVMS/STMS/SLES Intercom System Upgrades
Also presented by Trevor Davidson, this is the last stage required for full district unification of the intercom systems, and was included in the tech levy which was passed in 2020. This is a needed safety and security upgrade. This system replacement also includes replacing some broken clocks and speakers at MVMS, from back when it was still the high school. The vendor is the same one that has worked with the district on the other parts of the system, and had already provided preliminary estimates on this remaining portion. Total cost ~$298k.
The board approved this action by 4-0.
5.07 Action: Approve Digital Signing and Workflow
This final presentation from Trevor Davidson was about switching away from paper to e-signatures. This is an investment in “the future of how we operate on a digital footprint” as a district. After meeting with several administrative staff members of the district and finalizing their needs for such a product, Davidson looked at all of the available platforms and determined the one that would best serve the district’s needs while also being a reasonable cost. That platform is offered by a company called Informed K12.
The initial implementation of this system will focus on internal documents used within the district first, and should take 2-4 months. The current use of paper forms – one example mentioned was the “Services Rendered” form – creates piles on top of finance office employees’ desks. This should greatly reduce or eliminate that paper waste and create a more efficient process.
Once implemented internally, these forms can also be used by families. Superintendent Mike Hanson emphasized, as a result of a question from board director Haley Pendergraft, that access to necessary forms for families is a top consideration and should not be negatively impacted by this change. The forms will be available on the district website, but families will still have paper forms easily accessible to them. Davidson also responded by saying, “Paper will not go away.”
Besides the environmental and cost savings of reduced paper usage, the forms also have built-in translation features. This presents an important equity improvement, especially for families.
The cost for the first year of the system will be $52,000, and the annual fee will be $36,000. This is within the budget line item in the tech levy.
The board approved this action by 4-0.
5.08-5.12 Policy and Procedure Updates
Several policy and procedure updates were presented as a “first read” to the board, mostly due to small changes recommended by WSSDA or as a result of legislative changes. On the issue of Pesticide Notification, Supervisor of Operations Sean Kelly presented. The operations team avoids pesticide use whenever possible, and when they do need to use them (twice yearly, in the spring and summer) they take several precautions. Staff wears PPE, flags and signs are placed, and pesticides are not used within at least 48 hours of any students being present. In emergency situations, like bees that present a danger, areas are cordoned off. Director Pendergraft praised the department for their endeavors to protect the student population as well as themselves from these chemicals.
5.13 Finance and Enrollment Report
The Finance and Enrollment Report revealed that the district is currently about $3 million over budget this year, largely as a result of the loss of LEA funding and enrollment being under expected levels. LEA funds supplement districts with lower property values, for their lower levy revenue. This is the first time our district has not qualified for LEA, due to our increasing property values, which has resulted in a $1.8 million loss. They are working with other districts to encourage the state legislature to file a “hold harmless” bill for this year. (Author note: My understanding is this is because the levies can only be for a total amount stated when voters approve them. Even though property values have increased, the district can’t recoup that $1.8 million without having voters approve new levies.)
After this the regular consent and personnel reports were passed unanimously by the board, and the meeting was adjourned at 8:22pm.
This meeting summary was written by Jennifer Askew and provided to the Tahoma Values website. Do you have an article you would like to publish on our site? Please contact Tahoma Values at TahomaValues@gmail.com
