Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
A 30-minute executive session was held to discuss potential litigation.
Superintendent Winter reported on weather, transportation, and staffing issues, along with contingency plans for an anticipated COVID serge in mid-January.
The Board will need to redistrict the director districts following the 2020 census. Director Berg suggested reducing the number of director districts to three, roughly corresponding to the middle school boundaries, and have two directors at-large elected from anywhere in the school district. This would expand the pool of candidates for each position and provide for more competitive races. The board took no action on the issue.
There was a discussion of the consent agenda after the consent agenda was adopted. Normally debate takes place before the vote, since the purpose of the debate is to sway votes. If the only purpose of one's comments are to make a public statement, that is best done with a letter to the editor or publishing remarks on the internet.
The discussion also addressed the board's auditing committee, which is addressed elsewhere on this website.
Director Wilson's proposal regarding repurposing the planned workshop on January 15th was discussed and the Board decided to continue with training the Aspen Group on the 15th and devote the Board meeting on the 19th to discuss various topics. Director Berg expressed concern that Director Wilson's 6-page proposal had not been made available to the public before the meeting, so that they were left in the dark during much of the discussion.
Public comment included the topics of providing for teacher self-help during stressful times, vaccination of students, and the Facilities Long-range Planning Advisory Committee.
Plans for the January 26th public meeting were discussed and will be finalized at the next meeting. The discussion on agenda planning that was postponed from the previous meeting. Director Berg's motion was defeated, with Directors Berg and Daily being the only yes votes.
This was a special 5-hour training workshop by The Aspen Group. While Directors Daily and Berg have participated in previous training by the Aspen Group, Directors Wilson, Pickard and Espy joined the Board in December and have had less exposure to the Coherent Governance (R) model. (Director Pickard did attend the October 8, 2021 workshop with the Aspen Group.
This was a special meeting with most of the time devoted planning the January 26th meeting and a more informal discussion of various topics selected by the individual Board members. The format for the January 26th meeting was approved as shown below for that meeting.
The only other business item on the agenda was consideration of bids and a contract for the pool renovations. No public comment had been planned for this meeting. During the approval of the agenda, Director Daily moved to postpone the consideration of the pool contract until after there was a time for more public comment, particularly at the January 26th meeting, which would put the pool contract on the agenda for the February 2nd meeting. Director Berg pointed out that the pool renovations had been discussed for many months and there had been many opportunities for public comment, adding that if the Board, after hearing the information presented at this meeting, felt that more information was needed before making a decision, the matter could then be postponed. The motion to postpone failed 1-4. The pool renovation contract was approved as a cost of $7,750,500, plus tax. (The school district has to pay sales tax on the materials that go into the pool renovations.) Director Daily subsequently appealed to Kitsap County Superior Court the Board decision to award the contract.
The remainder of the meeting was an informal discussion. Each director, student representative, and the superintendent, had up to fifteen minutes to present their topic for discussion. The health of students, particularly social and emotional health was one topic, balanced school year was another topic, as was the final adoption of governing policies for the Board after the previous Saturday's workshop.
The Board felt that the informal discussion was helpful and should be repeated, with March as one suggestion.
A town hall style school board meeting is planned for more informal discussion with the public. It will be held on Zoom due to the COVID surge. The format and guidelines were determined at the January 19th meeting as follows:
Title: South Kitsap School Board - Community Town Hall
Date/Time/Place: January 26th (6pm to 8pm) via Zoom
Purpose: Engage with our valued South Kitsap community in a thoughtful Question and Answer session with your SK School Board. We want to hear from a broad range of community members from students and teachers to parents and voters. Our goal is to share ideas and insights with each other and our SK community at large.
Guidelines:
1. Each community member can ask the board questions and get a response from board members for each question asked.
2. The total question/answer time for each questioner will be limited to 5 minutes (total) in order to maximum participation opportunities.
3. Attendees will signal that they have a question by (virtually) raising their hand on zoom and will be choses at random by the moderator.
4, Participants should focus on questions/answers with the Directors, Superintendent, and Student Representatives rather than on making speeches/statements.
5. All participants should treat each other with respect, be forthright in their questions and answers, and not talk over one another.
This meeting ran over three hours but took care of a lot of business.
The Board, by a majority vote, ratified Board President Wilson's signing of a Joint Letter of Civility and Respect, while noting that when the Board President signs public statements as "Board President", the approval of the Board is implied and therefore that should not be done without prior approval of the Board.
There was a report to the Board on teaching Arts in the schools. Technical corrections of prior Organizational Expectation policies were approved, such as replacing the word "assure to "ensure" wherever it occurred.
Revised Board/Superintendent Relationship Policies were approved. Approval of revised Governance Culture policies was postponed until the next meeting so that essential provisions of the old policies that were omitted from the new policies can be approved as "Bylaws", as recommended by the Aspen Group.
The Superintendent's interpretations and proposed indicators of compliance for Operational Expectations Policies OE-6, OE-7, OE9, and OE-12 were approved. The Superintendent will supply evidence of compliance with the policies at later meetings, based on the indicators of compliance approved.
There was public comment on the topics of the town-hall style meeting of January 26, Black History month, public comment policies, funding of capital projects, and masking.
Reports were presented to the Board on Physical Education and the process for adoption of the Sexual Education curriculum.
Revised Board Bylaws and Governance Culture policies were considered for adoption and the discussion will continue at the March 2, 2022 meeting. Each Board member was asked to submit his/her suggestions for revisions to be discused at the next meeting. Click here for these comments.
This was not a regular meeting of the Board, but it was officially noticed that a quorum of the Board would be meeting for photographs at 3:30 p.m. The time was arranged so that all Board members and student representatives could be present.
Four days after filing another legal action against the Board, Director Daily choose not to participate in a group photograph with the Board.
[No minutes or video]
The entire School Board met with the Facilities Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee. The Committee presented its work and thoughts for the future needs in the District. No decisions were made and the Board as a whole did not give any specific guidance for the Committee. The committee is not bound by suggestions or recommendations from any individual Board members.
The Board will later need to discuss these issues and provide specific guidance for the committee. [See March 10 below.] The 4-year capital levy approved by the voters in 2018 will expire this year. If any bond or capital levy for 2023 collection is planned, it will need to be on the ballot no later than November, 2022. That would require Board action by July of 2022.
There was a discussion regarding the partial lifting the State's mask mandate and the impacts in the schools. Masks will be voluntary in the schools effective Monday morning, March 14th. Additional guidance is expected from the Kitsap County Health and other agencies regarding other COVID protocols.
In response to Director Daily's inquiry about when the Board will be returning tin in-person meetings, Director Wilson said that it would be on the next regular meeting agenda.
There was to be a continuation of the discussion on adoption of proposed Governance Culture Policies and Board Bylaws, but this was postponed to the March 16th meeting and made a special order to be addressed just after the adoption of the agenda. Click here for an extended discussion of these documents.
Consideration of the Superintendent's report on Operational Expectation 7, asset protection, was also postponed to the Martch 16th meeting.
The Board heard reports on testing results and on the Career and Technical Education programs (CTE).
The collective bargaining agreement with SEIU, representing bus drivers, tradesmen, facilities helpers, custodians, food service workers, technology workers, etc. was approved.
This was a scheduled meeting with the State Auditor's Office regarding the upcoming audit of the District at which all of the members of the Board attended.
The full Board met with the Facility Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee to review the results of the Thought Exchange Survey and for the Board to provide guidance to the Committee. The discussion included priorities for repair or replacement of facilities and the various options of bonds or capital levies for future years.
A second high school was not in the plans for the near future, but could be a need in future decades. The committee will later develop fuller recommendations for the Board.
There was a continuation of the discussion on adoption of proposed Governance Culture Policies and Board Bylaws postponed from the March 2nd meeting Click here for an extended discussion of these documents and their disposition. These were originally proposed in November of 2021. For this meeting, they were on the agenda as a special order to come just after the adoption of the agenda. (Under the rules, RONR 41:41, when a matter is set as a special order, it takes priority on the agenda for that specific time and that priority can only be changed with a two-thirds vote.)
The proposed bylaws were re-designated to be CG 10-14. Paragraphs 4, 5 & 8 of GC-2 were deleted. GC-5 on Board Committees was deleted from consideration and will be addressed separately at a later meeting. The remaining package was adopted as amended on a vote of 4-1, with Director Daily voting no.
For all current Governance Culture Policies with those adopted at this meeting, click here.
The Board Student Representative policy (now GC-14) will reviewed, together with the application process, at the next Board meeting. The goal is to select one or two student representatives to begin the next term on July 1, 2022.
There was an extensive presentation on the Special Education program.
No one signed up for public comment. There were 27 viewers on the Zoom meeting.
There was a discussion of the Board returning to in-person meetings. The Board defeated Director Daily's motion to return to in-person meetings by a vote of 1 to 4. For more information on the topic or in-person or remote meetings, click here.
The Board Student Representatives policy and application process was discussed and applications will be accepted until May 13, 2022 for next year's representative(s). See application packet here.
The report from the Facility Long-Range Planning Advisory Committee was presented and will be discussed at greater length at a special work/study meeting on April 27, 2022. Click here for the report.
The consent agendas were adopted without debate, as specified in the Board's Governance Culture Policies. Director Daily objected and raised a point of order, stating that it was illegal to not allow debate from an elected board member. The chair ruled that his point was not well taken and explained that the restriction was an adopted Board policy and not an application of Robert's Rules of Order. (The Board Policy does, in fact, allow two members to have any item removed from the consent agenda for discussion and a separate vote, as was done with one other agenda item at that same meeting. Director Daily did not request that the other items be removed from the non-debatable consent agendas.)
The Board voted to return to in-person meetings, effective April 27, 2022. The meetings will still be streamed to the public.
This was a special work/study meeting to discuss the report from the Facility Long-Range Citizen Advisory Committee presented at the April, 20, ;2022 meeting. Click here for the report.
There was a consensus to devote half of the next few board meetings to the physical facilities plans and to invite public input into the process. No other business addressed and there was no public comment taken at the meeting.
Port Orchard Mayor Rob Pataasuu reported on the Community Event Center, and additional projects the city is planning, followed by a report on expected city population growth.
During the approval of the agenda, Director Daily stated that he had questions on three items on the consent agenda, but he did not request that they be removed from the consent agenda and considered separately. President Wilson reminded him questions should have been submitted in advance and that the consent agenda will be considered without debate according to the Board policy. (See video of the meeting at 4:10 to 5:40.) In voting against the consent agenda, Director Daily asked that the remarks that he had prepared but was not permitted to read be appended to the minutes as public documents. Director Berg stated that the Board should decide whether or not to append the remarks to the minutes. Director Daily insisted that they be appended to the minutes and a vote was not required. Director Berg moved to have Director Daily's prepared remarks appended to the minutes; Directors Wilson, Pickard, and Espy voted against the motion and the motion failed. (See video of the meeting at 2:08:08 to 2:12:45.)
Minutes are intended to be a record of what was done at the meeting, not what was said. Board minutes do not normally include what was said in debate. (See RONR 48:2.) (See also Parliamentary Tips regarding the content of minutes.)
The Board policy states that the consent agenda agenda is undebatable unless two members ask to remove it from the consent agenda for separate consideration. (GC-12, p. 5, Agenda Planning, part 4.) Director Daily's argument was that if he intended to read the remarks at the meeting but was prevented by the Board from doing so because of its policy, his remarks should be entered in the minutes as if they were read at the meeting. He objected to Director Berg's motion to append his remarks to the minutes because he insisted that they should be included in the minutes as if he had been allowed to read them. (However, even if he had read them, they would be on the recording but would not be included in the minutes because the minutes do not include actual remarks in debate.)
Director Daily said, "You can't have a consent when someone is dissenting." (at 2:08:044). Because the term consent agenda includes the word consent, it does not follow that it must be adopted by unanimous consent or unanimously. Items on a consent agenda are approved by a majority vote, and a unanimous vote is not required. (See RONR 41:32.) (See also Parliamentary Tips regarding comments during voting and the meaning of consent is a consent agenda.)
There was a report on the Language programs. The Board approved the superintendent's interpretation and indicators of compliance for Operational Expectation 4 - Personnel Administration.
The Board approved the minutes of the May 4, 2022 meeting of the Instructional Materials Committee and approved the recommendations of the committee in that report. This included partial approval of the curriculum on health education.
Eight people presented Public Comments to the Board.
The last hour of the meeting was be devoted to a continued discussion of long-range facility planning. There was a consensus that the focus should be on one high school with additional Explorer and Discovery programs. The regular Board meeting on June 15 will be devoted to a public forum on physical facilities plans.
There was only one person addressing the Board during Public Comment.
The Board approved the superintendent's interpretation and proposed indicators of compliance for Operational Expectations OE-3, Treatment of Community Stakeholders; Director Daily abstained.
The Board approved the Superintendent's Consent Agenda with Director Daily voting against it. He repeated his objections from the previous meeting about not being able to approve a consent agenda if one member dissented. (See remarks for previous meeting.) The Board approved a contract with Kitsap Mental Health Services which was pulled off the Consent Agenda for separate consideration at the request of Director Daily. Director Daily voted no.
The Board Consent Agenda was approved with Director Daily abstaining.
The Board postponed consideration of school meal price increased, with Director Daily abstaining.
The Board approved amendments to Governance Culture Policy GP-12 - Meetings drafted by Director Wilson with one amendment proposed by Director Berg to retain the sentence "The board as a whole has the final decision in determining the appropriateness of all such rulings" after the statement on the Board President's duty to terminate inappropriate Public Comments. Director Berg's motion to postpone final action on the policy amendments to the next meeting in order to make additional revisions was turned down by the Board. Director Berg voted no on the revisions. For the revised policy as amended, click here.
The board was scheduled to review applications for School Board Student Representative positions for next year. No applications had been received and the application deadline was extended to May 30th, with Director Daily abstaining.
The last hour of the meeting was devoted to reviewing capital projects planning, specifically the middle schools.
Director Daily moved to have all items on the Consent Agenda's put on the regular agenda for full discussion. His motion failed. Director Daily voted against the adoption of the agenda and on the two consent agendas. (Under Board policy, items on the consent agenda are considered in gross with one vote and no debate, unless two Board members wish to remove an item from the consent agenda for separate consideration.)
Two individuals addressed the Board with oral Public Comment.
Superintendent Winter spoke of school safety issues, summer school and the proposed middle school tracts.
After a lengthy discussion continued from the previous meeting, the Board approved increases in the prices for school meals. Directors Wilson, Espy, and Pickard voted yes, Director Daily voted no, and Director Berg abstained. The latter preferred to have the superintendent set fees rather than the Board.
Contracts for Burley Glenwood site improvements and SKHS Culinary Lab renovations were approved.
A revised policy 3143 regarding Notification and Dissemination of Information about Juvenile Offenses and Threats of Violence had a first reading.
Board extended the application deadline for School Board Student Representative to September 30, 2022. Only one application had been received and the Board chose to wait for more applicant before taking final action.
The format for the June 15, 2022 meeting with a public forum was discussed at length.
The board held an executive session to evaluate the Superintendent. Director Daily, who had unsuccessfully moved to have the evaluation done in the public meeting, did not attend the executive session.
This was a special board meeting held at the Cedar Heights Middle School.
Three individuals addressed the Board during public comment, one on school security, specifically at Cedar Heights MS, and the other two on Special Education and working with parents.
Jesse Lacross-Lambert and Kai Wilson were recognized for their service as school board student representatives over the past year.
Superintendent Winter's contract was extended another year, to end in 2025. Director Daily abstained. He also voted no on the Superintendent's Consent Agenda and abstained on the Board Consent Agenda.
The meting lasted only forty minutes and was followed by a public forum on the District's physical facilities needs and plans from 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Under Public Comment, there were no comments to the Board from the public.
Superintendent Winter reported on summer school and donations to the District. Exact enrollment figures for September 2022 are yet unknown, and the budget being developed reflects less enrollment before COVID.
As usual, Director Daily voted against the items on the consent agenda, which included authorization for payroll and other expenditures, as well as changes in employee assignments. If the adoption of the items on the consent agenda had required a unanimous vote, as repeatedly requested by Director Daily, the District would not have paid any employees or bills for the past two years and the system would have folded because of Director Daily's negatiave votes on these matters.
The Board approved a revision to District Policy 3143 on District notification of juvenile offenders, but declined to approve other policy revisions, based on the governance policy that such decisions are up to the Superintendent, and in the future, the Superintendent need only notify the Board of changes without seeking approval from the Board for the changes.
The Board reviewed the previous June 15th town-hall type forum on physicaly facilities and planned another such meeting for August 24th.
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