Thank you to the School Board for approving 8th graders to play on the High School soccer team at the last meeting. We have 15 players and are at a 3-0 record.

Huge Shout Out to Christy Nauta in HR. Second week of school there was an issue that took a lot of extra time she didn't necessarily have to give. Christy handled the situation with grace and Ryan was very thankful for that. 

Ryan also mentioned Ms. Williams and Mr. Tannis and that the work they're doing with the AG program is just awesome. Mr. Grant's son loves the science and wood working classes, and is really loving that portion of his day. There are some great things going on with our CTE program. 

Chris Harris started as the new supervisor for the Medical Lake School District last month. He asked the building leads to help with the summer projects list this year. Each building had annual maintenance of their fire extinguishers. Sprinkler systems and pumps were replaced/repaired and tested. 

All the building custodians did a great job going through their buildings replacing things they could and made note of things needing to be done, making sure to note urgency, if any.

Next year, the list will be less generalized and more in depth. 

Dawn Eliassen was unable to speak to her report as she was out for the day. Dr. Headrick read the following notes to the Board.

There are 150 kids turning out for a sport this fall. Dr. Headrick noted those sports are; football, volleyball, girls soccer, and cross country. 

Girls soccer numbers are back up after last year. When Dawn wrote the notes, our team was 2-0, but are currently 3-0. 

We have enough swimmers to field a relay team this year with our Cheney Co-Op. The returning swimmers are super excited about that.

Coaches in the program have chosen five attributes to answer the question, "who are we?" They said Cardinals are respectful, discipline, motivated, coachable, and responsible. Each week they'll be awarding Cardinal Credit to recognize athletes for stand out displays of one of the traits. 

Big "thank you for Ryan Grant and Malenna," they've been amazing partners in the work and passionate about getting it going. Malenna keeps them on track with curriculum orders, it's been fun but challenging. Catherine Donnelly, from the Wellness Center, has experience as a home school parent, and Barry Warren from Michael Anderson is coming onboard to help. We currently have 18 students enrolled; 5 in first grade, 1 second grader, 2 third graders, 4 fifth graders, and 6 sixth graders. 

We receive emails daily from people interested in the program, even 2 originally choicing out to Cheney have come back to Medical Lake for our Home Connections program. 

Ryan said conversations with families have been really authentic. Families feel like they're being heard and appreciate the options presented to them when choosing their curriculum. We've made great contacts with homeschool co-ops on base and around town, letting them know we hear them and are here to support them. This is thanks in part to Dr. Headrick for opening the door to this option a few years back. Ryan went on to thank Malenna for all her work, she's a "rock star" with reaching out to families and getting things ordered. 

Next step is working on enrichment classes for our families during the week, with work first and at work. We also have some field trips planned for educational purposes and community building for families that want to connect with each other. We've connected with a program on base and invite them to come meet with our families and be part of our program.

We feel we are in a good place and will continue to grow. Mr. Haugen followed up with inviting the school board to attend field trips if they're interested.   

Following up with the sex trafficking requirement we discussed from the August board meeting. RCW 28A.320.168 requires school districts to engage students in instruction around sex trafficking at least once between 7th grade and graduation. 

Mr.  Haugen shared the guide from OSPI and noted that both Dr. Vincent at the High School and Mr. Buckley at the Middle School are working together to integrate it into current curriculum and classes. Students will have access to it this year through courses already offered. At the Middle School the staff will figure out how it will be integrated into human growth and development, which seems to be a natural place for that. There are opportunities to meet with families ahead of time so they're aware of instructions taking place. At the High School, it might be in the health class where it would create a natural connection to an already existing course. 

The guidance from OSPI is good, as you read through it, there's been a lot of thought of what is age appropriate and how much information is available to students and and at what point. 

Dr. Headrick began by talking about the facility planning committee two weeks ago where they talked about what are our options, what are our needs. They went through things with OAC Construction Management around big ticket items. There is a need for fire updates and roofing at Michael Anderson, a chiller at Hallett, and a boiler, potentially at both elementary schools, there is just a large laundry list.

Further conversations were held around what we will do for a wrestling room as well as the High School track. We recognize those costs exceed what we can bring in with our current capital projects levy. Our team also knows our current bond matures in 2028. From the Study and Survey Committee earlier, we know that Hallett is reaching its 30 year mark, which is a typical time (age-wise) for us to do to full renovations. There are needs in that building around additional classroom space, carpet and all those types of "refurbish items" and weather or not we end up with the opportunity to do State match. OAC Construction Management, that supports school districts is working closely with legislators in reworking the language around State match for construction support. That language will be going to the legislature most likely this year, most certainly next year, when we are in a biennium year, around creating a school construction system that is more equitable. That would help our need for balance where we have 1 school on base. Dr. Headrick introduced Cory Plager with DA Davidson who has worked with Mr. Moss to create a brief slide deck to lay out where our District is at and possible options available to us. 

Cory Plager put together a short presentation to set the stage upfront, and remind the Board where the District is currently sitting with tax rates with the bonds maturing, finally showing a couple options for consideration. Cory's slides included a captial projects levy option and a bond option. He said a levy is like a car loan, it is a great solution for small things, great for projects that aren't urgent, something that can be done over 4 -5 years. A bond is like a mortgage that you can stretch out over 20 - 30 years. This comparison was meant to give everyone a better understanding on their functions and how they'd work.

Last time Cory was at an MLSD Board Meeting, was October 2024, he came to discuss the impact of the fires. Currently we are seeing new construction above and beyond just repairing an existing home. People are doing more than their insurance covered, creating the second highest new construction on record for Medical Lake.  That current 3% growth has created a new level of tax rates going into 2026. Cory's slides projected costs for the EP&O levy, technology levy and bond per $1000 of assessed property value for the upcoming year, as well as scenarios for adding a second levy and/or replacing the bond and how to go about that with the least amount of increase for tax payers. 

The Board and District Administration will need to think about what it best for community but what also benefits the schools in the upcoming months. 

Dr. Williams-Gilbert said NAFIS was a great experience. They were able to speak with Cantwell's office and Murray's office about Impact Aid. Dr. Headrick created a one page letter that really highlighted all the things we are doing in Medical Lake. There was a lot of interest from Baumgartner's office about the work we were doing around our schools and felt it was a pretty positive trip. 

The biggest thing that was great, is our choice-out data, Michael Anderson has the lowest choice-out of all our schools, which is awesome. There is chatter that military families aren't choicing their students into military impacted schools, for us, that is not the case. 80-85% are choicing into their local schools vs. private schools. 

Leadership trainings were plentiful and great, it's good to meet with directors from across the country to hear how things are going for them and what they're doing in their districts.

Director Cooper noted that we are lucky with our legislators, most are pretty supportive of impact aid so it's nice to be able to talk to them knowing they will be talking about it in legislative meetings. 

Dr. Headrick felt they made good connections with the educational aide for Congressman Baumgartner's office. She said they had the opportunity to provide education for the new legislators coming on board, and about the general impact their decisions have on our district.

School Liaison Officer Steve McMullen was there and he noted that 53% of our student population is military connected. That means that 43% of all federally connected students across Spokane County are within our district, that's out of 13 districts. 

We budgeted conservatively for 1675 students to include 20 ALE families. Currently, we are sitting right about where we budgeted which is 22 students below where we started last year and 12 students below where we ended last year. It is essentially a decline, Carrie Fitch, our data analyst dug in, looking across years and across buildings to see where kids are going, and what are our choice-in numbers versus choice-out. We also wanted to see what is our "local" student population. We've noted that over the last few years, our kindergarten enrollment is down 15 from where we are traditionally.  

Dr. Headrick then took that information and asked AI to assist in creating an analysis, which is the document included in the board packet. The data shows we have had an increase of students choice-out from 2022 to current with 63 in 2022 to 104 this year. The question then became, "where did those students go?" The spread sheet shows schools where students have choiced to, which points to a significant number of families going to alternative learning programs. Dr. Headrick noted that these numbers do not include our intent-to-homeschool families, which is why the District needs to lean into our home connections, because this is what families are choosing this year. She said we need to catch up and realize this is what our families are choosing. We were excited that a few students who had choiced out to Cheney HomeWorks had come back for our Home Connections program.

Dr. Williams-Gilbert asked how many families this represents in regards to the total number of students vs "families." Dr. Headrick said she would have the number for her at the next board meeting. 

It was also noted, currently we have approximately 300 students who choice-in to our district from other districts. 

Some of the virtual programs families are choosing are well established, and have been around for several years which has built up their reputations. 

Dr. Headrick's updates were noted with the School Board's NAFIS report.