None

Jeff Smith led us in the flag salute.

There was a quorum present.

Feeling and expressing thankful appreciation for benefits received.  

• WA State Patrol update letter handed to the board to review 
• Department of Ecology - receiving an award for one of the top Wastewater Treatment Plants in the state

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

1. PD Days*, POWER Week, Perseverance , Ownership, Work Ethic, Empathy and Respect
2. Back School Open House a Success!
3. Aimsweb testing has already started, Melisa Collins and Para’s are taking the lead
4. Kindergarten started this week, TK next week

Enrollment:

TK: 34 (P3 =4)     K: 58     1: 67     2: 52     3: 66(+1)     4: 55     5: 75                                Total:  407

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

>MTSS Conference in Wenatchee- Kim Hamilton represented FMS this summer

>ASB Officers Meeting- met on Tuesday, 8/11 to begin planning the school year - lots of energy!  

            >Planned a welcome to the students for back to school - soccer tournament in the works

>Open House/Ice Cream Social- great turnout by our community

>First Day of School- fantastic, positive energy 

>PTSG Meeting & Planning for Scottie Dash- Wednesday, 8/19

            >Scottie Dash Date Change- Friday, 10/2 (conflict w/ Fair)

>PBIS Rotations- Friday, 8/21 - focus on how we treat each other

>Chrome Book Distribution- Monday, 8/24

>Back to School Night- Wednesday, 9/9 6:00-8:00 pm

Enrollment:

            6th- 60              7th- 57              8th- 76(+1)              Total= 193

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

Goal/Action

Increasing student ownership/voice and verify school experiences

• Working with FHS Management team to develop a FHS student advisory group

Increasing academic press, specifically rigor, relevance and feedback   

• Hard scheduled walkthroughs at least 2 x per week

Increasing staff efficacy and trust

• Reviewed FHS Expectations in Staff Handbook 
• Scottie POWER PD

FHS Highlights

• 2026-27 is off to a super start!
• ASB Club Fair
• ASB Orientation a success

Enrollment:

9th = 62, 10th = 71, 11th = 51 , 12th = 72.   Total: 256

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

• MS athletic update (from Athletic Coordinator, Sierra McGarity) 92 athletes turned out; football = 35 (2 teams), softball = 36 (2 teams) and cross country = 21
• 8/13 attended the WIAA Fall AD Conference.
• HS coaches meeting was held on 8/18 to talk about goals and expectations and review the coaches handbook.  Mr. Ripke handed out documents for the board to review that he share at the coaches meeting regarding Core Principles of Good Coaching, Emergency Action Plan and the School Board Expectations for Athletes.
• 8/19 football started
• 8/24 all the other fall sports start.  Cheer, VB, XC, and Girls Soccer.
• 8/27 all Fall Sports Parent Meeting at 6 pm in the Blue Gym.
• Concerns with HS girls soccer program.  Only 9 HS players signed up in final forms.  Have met with five 8th graders who are interested in helping salvage our varsity soccer program.  That brings the team to 14 total - 11 play on the field.  Hoping the numbers hold. 

Enrollment:

• Football 41
• Boys XC 23
• Girls XC 12
• Volleyball 22
• Soccer 9 (five 8th graders interested and showed up to practice on Monday)
• Cheer 16

Numbers across the board are all down.  

Danielle asked if we have a standardized communication to MS 8th grade families to make sure we reach everyone regarding the possibility of HS opportunities.  Jim and Chad sent email to all 8th grade parents and athletes this week, and had messaging to students in school.  Mr. Ripke said it's our last resort to go to 8th grade for support, so often it is last minute before we know the actual HS turnout to see if we need 8th grade participation.  Discussion about how it would be helpful if we think the opportunities might come up to welcome them to any summer training with the HS, even if it's not certain what will happen during the HS season.  

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus & Enrollment:

Special Education

• Completing beginning of the year budgets and funding requirements for IDEA and State Special Education 
• NEW- CEIS (Coordinated Early Intervening Services) Funding Match. Applied 8/20
• Withdrawls/ transfer ins are changing enrollment daily
• 115 Students 

Multilingual Learners (MLL)

• TBIP Reporting completed for end-of-year and pre-application for this year.
• Gathering Home Language Surveys from new enrollments to update program information and identify students who need support.
• 4 + 2 more coming

McKinney Vento/ Foster Youth

• McKinney Vento intakes will be completed by Sept. 1 for new enrollment count.
• Connecting families to supplies and resources for back to school.
• Grant was re-approved for 26-27 school year approx. $18,000 (2nd out of 3 years)
• 11 anticipated McKinney Vento/1 foster

Title 1/ Learning Assistance Program (LAP)

MTSS

• Team of 13 attended MTSS summer conference and is eager to begin MTSS work again this year
• Summer Intervention for Title/ LAP students was a success! 
• Consolidated grant applicated near completion 
• End of Year LAP reports from 25-26 will be completed by Sept. 1
• AimsWeb Screening began 8/21 for K-8 students 
• Enrollment coming soon!

Highly Capable

• Working with teachers to discuss in-class enrichment for Highly Capable students
• 113 students 

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive.

Areas of Focus & Enrollment:

Flexible Learning Options: Freeman ConnectEd

• Applied and was approve for Multi-District Application. Students will enroll as a choice student now.
• New entity created for FCE middle school & high school
• Students were able to start working on the first day of school.
• Will have Brad Sprague visit us on October 1. He is a consultant with WALA to assist with compliance paperwork.
• 30 students

Career & Technical Education

• Spokane Valley CTE Directors have met to plan for this year.
• We have one student who completed Production & Manufacturing Institute with Wade Larson this summer.
• We will have a Certified CTE Director by August 2027.
• Food Prep is interested in submitting a proposal for students to assist with the catering for district events. 
• Our focus this year will be getting speakers into classrooms and students exposed to opportunities in industry.
• Enrollment coming soon!

District Assessment

• Nothing at this time

College & Career 

• FAFSA: Class of 2026 66.7%, highest number in 6 years.

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

1. Learning Health-e Pro
2. Served over 600 Ice Cream Open house
3. Submitted Annual Sponsor Application to OSPI: waiting to hear back

Enrollment:

1. Total Meals Served This week
   1. K8 B: 56; K8 L: 408
   2. 9-12 B: 12; 9-12 L: 95

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

• I am requesting to use $81,000 from the Transportation Vehicle Fund to pay for a non-conforming van for our motor pool.  It will transport at max one driver and up to nine passengers.  Any more than that the driver would have to have a CDL.  That’s why they call it a non-conforming van.  The tax and district options such as all-wheel drive would come out of the General Fund 9900 (transportation) account.
• Currently we have all our buses on the state depreciation schedule.  We wouldn’t have been able to do this if the years hadn’t changed from 13 to 15 years.  This is the first time since I’ve been here and looking back, we probably have never been in this position.  It’s a good place to be. 
• Our new gates are functional now.  There is one at the HWY 27 exit and one by the bus load/unload and one up by the upper parking lot entrance. 
• We ended up NOT going digital on our radio system.  We did a bunch of tests with the new digital repeater and each time we tested it, we lost distance and the quality I didn’t think was as good as analog.  During this test we did find that some of the equipment wasn’t working for the repeater.
• We are fine tuning our routes.  Not much is changing but we have a stop at a place we’ve never had in the 24 years I’ve been here.  It’s not a great place to take a bus but we are looking at options.  Stoughton on the other side of HWY 27. 
• We had 728 responses to our summer bus registration that Tawnya sent out.  This is the highest ever.  Regular bus registration is now open and available on the website. 
• Current routes 
  • 11 Regular Ed 
  • 1 SPED lift bus route
  • 1 T-K/K route
  • 1 McKenney-Vento route

2026-2027 FSD Commitments:

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools.
2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication.
3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus:

• Crosswalk lights have been updated and installed; one installed at the crosswalk at the high school.
• Tennis courts crack seal has been completed over the summer.
• Asphalt repairs and seal coating were completed around the district.
• High school shop air compressor has been updated and installed.

Safety:

• DOH office of drinking water came out and did our sanitary survey and all looked good.  This happens every 5 years.

2026-2027 FSD Commitments: 

1. Strengthen a cohesive TK-12 system by aligning our practices, expectations, and student experiences across all schools. 

2. Build a culture of belonging through strong relationships, collaboration, and respectful communication. 

3. Strengthen our TK-12 Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) to ensure every student receives the academic, behavioral, and social-emotional support they need to thrive. 

Areas of Focus: 

• Tech Plan Phase 1A | Completed - CRG Mapping & the RRFBs have been installed at the two district crosswalks. 

• Tech Plan Phase 1B | Completed – Replace District Chromebooks and upgrade/replace District Network Switching infrastructure 

• Waiting for the district storage appliance to complete the District DataCenter upgrades to closeout Phase 1B 

• Worked closely with Mr. Steinolfson to complete the School Violence Prevention Program (COPS SVPP) grant which provides up to $73 million in competitive federal funding to improve security at K-12 schools, maximum $500,000 per award. – waiting award announcement.

Reviewed Capital Projects Cash Flow

• Invoices being paid out for Safety, Security & Tech projects over summer
• Ending fiscal just under $190,000
• Earmarking additional projects coming up
• LGO bond paid off in June

General Fund Cash Flow

• August apportionment came out today - our revenue from the state
• Predicting that we'll end approximately $1,015,000, which is a 6.9% fund balance
• Levy amounts to be collected is only outstanding variable that could adjust these numbers

• First Amendment Auditor update - we have put new signs up at all buildings for public spaces as there are individuals going to school districts identifying themselves as First Amendment Auditors wearing go-pros to record your interaction while they are wearing full ski masks that make them unidentifiable - they are making public records requests in an extremely intimidating way and then post it online - Mrs. Phelan will manage interaction if/when they come to Freeman
• Mrs. Phelan is starting a Superintendent Student Advisory Team in grades 6-12 to meet with her once a month during their lunchtime to connect so she can hear their student voice - find out what their needs/interests are and what she can do to help their Freeman experience

• PTSG and Booster Club are doing great things and we are encouraging participation
• Our most recent Freeman Focus is out and was shared with the Board - we will be producing these a bit more frequently and want to highlight their levy dollars at work
• All-Staff Picture taken 8/17/26 and was shown to the Board - great feedback from the staff

Governor Ferguson's legislation proposal of no phones in schools policy in debate, wondering with two elementary students what that looks like at Freeman.  Mrs. Phelan chose to respond.  

HS - have it during passing times between classes and at lunch time

MS - no phone policy upon arrival

ES - no phone policy

Exceptions are 504/IEP plans, health needs (diabetic tracking), etc.  

The next board meeting will be on Monday, September 21, 2026 at 6:00 PM in the PRTC Conference Room.  The following meetings are scheduled for Monday, October 26, 2026 at 6:00 PM, and Monday, November 30, 2026 at 6:00 PM.  

Dave Teague is a maybe for the 10/26 meeting. 

Administration: None 

Classified Director: 

• Heidi Youseph – Director of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and Freeman ConnectEd (FCE)

Certified:               

• Sierra McGarity – Health & Fitness Teacher – additional 0.36 FTE One-Year Contract for 2026-2027
• Olivia Counts – Substitute Teacher
• Kirsten Schweiger – Substitute Teacher
• Morgan Odenthal – Substitute Teacher
• Sherrie Johnson – Substitute Teacher
• Tanner Schultes – Substitute Teacher
• Chelsea Howerton – Substitute Teacher
• Eve Chapman – Substitute Teacher – pending OSPI approval
• Jordan DeGon – Substitute Teacher – pending OSPI approval
• Hailee Mendez – Substitute Teacher – pending OSPI approval
• Anah Wulf – Substitute Teacher – pending OSPI approval
• Carolyn Schafer – Substitute Teacher – pending OSPI approval                                             

Classified:

• Kristie Parham – Bus Driver
• Sydney Beach – Paraeducator/Special Education 
• Rob Cayce – Substitute Paraeducator
• Donald Fairburn – Substitute Bus Driver, pending completion of driver training and testing
• Kristie Parham – Substitute Custodian

Contract: 

• Kelsie Carter – Occupational Therapist 
• Alexa Best – Occupational Therapist 

Extracurricular:    

• Keith Homfeldt – HS Head Girls Soccer Coach
• Amy Routon – HS Assistant Cross Country Coach 
• Jenna Williamson – MS Softball Coach

Resignations/Retirements:               

• Rob Cayce – Resignation – Paraeducator
• Eric Eden – Retirement – Bus Driver
• Morgan Eberle – Resignation – HS Assistant Track Coach
• Sierra McGarity – Resignation – resigning the remaining .36 FTE of her Para position
• James Javier – Resignation – MS Softball Coach

Extended Leave Requests:

• Garret Sawyer 
  • 9/28/26-10/16/26
  • 3/15/27 – 4/2/27
• Caleb Morton 
  • Approximately the month of February 2027 (4-5 weeks)

Mrs. Phelan explained the new category of Unpaid Extended Leave Requests to Personnel Action so the Board was aware of the impact for our staff and substitute expenses.  

Recording Secretary _______________________________________

Board Secretary ___________________________________________

Board Chair _______________________________________________