City Council - Regular Meeting

Okay. Well, it is Tuesday at 6 p.m. to order. For the record, join us online.

Roll call. Yeah. Okay. I'd like to initiate roll call for North Thirst public schools beginning with district one. Gretchen Melissa, Jeff Line, Sarah Tracy, Michelle Gibson, Esparans Dioro, District 4,

Ryan Seu, Maron Turner, Carolyn Cox, Nick Dunning, Uh, I'll read our land acknowledgement. Uh, we the city of Lacy are on the ancestral land of the tribal people of closer.

We the city of Lacy are on the tribal are on the ancestral land of the tribal people of Medicine Creek. Uh, including the Squaly Indian tribe and the Squaxon Island tribe. We acknowledge and remember those tribal members not recognized today uh who were absorbed or relocated into other tribes for survival. We recognize the ancestors and the the descent their descendants who are still here. We recognize and respect the tribal people of Medicine Creek as a traditional stewards of this land since time immemorial and their role in taking care of it today. And with that, uh can I get a motion to approve tonight's agenda? I move to approve tonight's agenda. Second.

Been moved and seconded to approve tonight's agenda. Um, is there any discussion or questions about tonight agenda before we go to a vote? Seeing none, all in favor, please say I. I. I. Are there any opposed? Seeing none, that motion passes unanimously. We have an agenda. And first on tonight's agenda is uh public comment. I don't see that anybody signed up for public comment. Is there anybody in in this chamber wishing to address this group? She does. Would you like to address this group? Please step up to the podium. Um, you'll have about three minutes. Just state your name and what city you're from.

I'm Courtney Marie Holtos. I'm from Tumbwater. I am the federal prosay plaintiff of workplace retaliation case 3 col25-05257-TMC. People told me you'll get in trouble as if truth itself were taboo. But laws exist to shield women like me. I saw shadows creeping over children innocent and unaware. And I raised my voice not for applause, not for recognition, but because silence in the face of danger is complicity in disguise. For a year alone, I I stood alone in the halls of federal court while the world scoffed, disbelieved, and whispered cruel doubts behind my back. I have written, argued, persisted. Each motion, each paper, each handwritten federal exhibit, a testament to endurance and to justice pursued fiercely by myselves. Officials plaster slogans on water bottles, sign petitions with polished hands, declare their love for children, for the vulnerable, for justice in glossy convenient statements. But when the work is real, when actions demands courage and cost, suddenly I'm too much and their moral applause vanishes. Not only did I speak, not only did I warn, I put it in black and white in a federal amended complaint, challenging the very policy that my former agency, Washington State Department of Corrections, follows by repeat repeatedly releasing violent sexual predators into the community. These predators are given housing multiple times under the idea of rehabilitation. This housing is paid into by taxpayers if I'm not mistaken. This begs a serious question. When does rehabilitation become enabling? How many more children and innocent people will

be hunted by predators who just can't ever seem to get better? I carried my truth into the courts where words are weight and justice can be demanded. And other people trembling at honesty, quaking at discomfort, do not get to disinish my story. Their fear does not bind me. Their hesitation does not sway me. I am steadfast. I am protected. I am still searching for answers. I act where others falter. I speak where others say silent and the weight of accountability rests solely upon the indifferent. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your comments tonight. Uh before we move on, I wanted to recognize um our students who are here with us and I apologize for not including you in the roll call. Very not nice thing to do because you guys are very important to us. You're our future. And so if we could start down here. My name is Jennifer Zang. I go to North Thirstston High School. I'm in 11th grade and I serve on the Lacy Youth Council and the Human Services Commission. Hi, I'm um Isabella Valerio. I'm a junior at Riveridge High School and I'm the deputy mayor of the Lacy Youth Council. My name is Henry Boy. I'm a junior at Northwestern High School and I'm serving on the superintendent's uh student advisory board.

Hello, my name is Colton Bowman. I'm a 12th grader at Envision Career Academy and I serve as the student adviser.

Thank you guys. Thanks guys for being here. Okay, let's get into our uh first agenda item here tonight. We have the youth DEIB summit panel report. Uh it looks like we have Annie Hicks, Isabella, uh Valero, Michaela Lassin, and Jennifer Jiang all presenting tonight. You guys ready? Initially we started planning in about December. We first met with the Olympia Youth Council and we introduced ourselves and got familiar. Afterwards we formed a subcommittee to continue planning and keep in touch between the two committees. Some of the planning that we did was to have a youth panel and a mental health workshop because we thought that those were important topics to bring into the youth and Isabella actually was on those panels. So I'll pass it off to her to explain more about those.

Um so we started the day off with a morning panel where we kind of discussed uh some youth concerns. a few of them being environmental concerns, tribal concerns, um juvenile justice, and mainly mental health concerns for youth. Um it was nice to present to a a pretty big audience and get a chance to express our thoughts and feelings. Um and then we went into our uh youth mental health workshop um about the afternoon where we had some um mental health professionals uh and specialists kind of participate in a a little bit of a discussion with our other councils, our Olympia youth council and our um Lacy Youth Council where we kind of um got some feedback from the youth and noticed that they uh are especially concerned with their friends and their peers mental health um their own mental health and family members. We kind of talked about um what to do when you witness a mental health crisis going on. Um we're there are resources to reach out to if you need help and I thought it was a pretty successful summit overall.

Okay. Anything from you guys? Okay. And this was your guys' first summit? Okay. And how long did you spend planning? Well, we started in about December and the event was on the Saturday, the first Saturday of this month. So throughout that time we met about every other week. Okay. So it sounds like you guys had a really successful uh summit. And um who is your your staff liazison staff leader? Is she is that person with us tonight? Yes, that would be Miss Siglin back there.

Good evening everyone. Deputy mayor. I was able to join the Lacy Youth Council with the Olympia Youth Council for the DEIB Summit as well as members from the Nisquali Youth Council which is the first time the city both Olympia and Lacy have had the opportunity to collaborate with the Nisquali Youth Council. So, it was a pretty extraordinary event and some pretty powerful discussions both in the morning panel and in the afternoon. Awesome. I know a few of the council members were here uh were at the DEIB summit and I know that because I saw them there. Uh council member Su, would you like to share a little bit about it?

Um yeah, I was there for both days and I thought the second day was really powerful to be able to get to hear the voices of the youth in our community and hearing what their needs are, what their worries are, and what their hopes are for the future. Um those are things that we need to make sure that we're keeping in mind as we are planning uh and developing the city in a way that's going to keep them in mind and keep them uh in our hearts as we grow you want to add anything. I was there um for both days but I regret I was not there for uh the youth panel and so I'm I'm unable to comment on that.

Okay. Uh I wasn't there for both days. because I was there for one day uh and I and I was only there for 2 hours. But um it seemed like a very well put together um event and we're all very proud of you guys for for making this happen, getting the space, putting the panels together, um making room for the community to hear you. Uh and I I guess what I would like to say to you guys is um don't stop there, okay? Just first of all, plan to do it again. hand the torch off to the next to the next uh council that you guys have so that this ball doesn't get dropped because we really do need to hear from you guys on a regular basis. This can't be a one-off. Okay. Does anybody else have anything further on this one? Seeing none, we're going to move on to our next agenda item. Um and this is our fifth grade activity night. Uh Sean Dodson, our assistant superintendent of operations. I think I think Sean and Jen are going to be Sean and I think Sean and Jen are going to be Sean and Jen are going to be presenting together and it looks like they have the next four items. So, we'll try to keep uh keep them delineated as best we can.

Yeah, I was going to um if I could, Deputy Mayor, I was going to make sure and connect the agenda item to which slide we're doing. That'll help with the city clerk's motion. Thank you. Wonderful. Well, um I think the first slide is related to our fifth grade activity night or one of them. Uh we'll see how we are here. Let's see if we move forward. Yep.

Oh, there we are. Okay. So, uh, you may recall, uh, board members and city council members that last spring during a community conversation, we had discussions around, uh, a variety of topics, but one of those discussions really related to, um, how we support children in our community in building healthy social relationships, making healthy choices. And we, one of the outcomes of that discussion was recognizing that while we have some great activity nights that are held uh uh led here by Lacy Parks and Recreation that provide uh some great experiences for our middle school students that our fifth grade students would also benefit from similar types of activity experiences. So over the last year, we've been involved in a planning process to really get to launching and starting up a pro uh having some fifth grade activity nights. And um I'm happy to say that this Friday night will be our first one. And and from that we'll learn and and and from what we've gone through, we'll learn how to expand that experience. But uh this Friday night from 6:30 to 8:30 at the uh Boys and Girls Club, Scala Kayla Celeste Club, which is on Tracy Lane over by our our service center on off of Carpenter. Uh we'll have uh up to 200 students. Right now we have over 140 registered, but there's a couple more days. So, uh um we'll it'll house up to 200 students this activity night and Boys and Girls Club's been a super important partner and Lacy Parks and Recreation's been a helpful partner. Um while we're so we've been planning over the past year alto together um the the activity night we're planning we had started off thinking well we may need to charge a fee for this because there's costs associated with operating it. But as we've gone along we've decided let's see if we can do this at no cost to students. uh we think trying to build that where that's not a barrier. Um thanks to the support of Boys and Girls Club, they've been able to seek some sponsorships for food and and we're going to try it. We don't

know if it's something we can sustain, but we said if we start there, we'll see how it goes and figure our path forward from there. But uh because at their Tracy Street Club, they're equipped to provide a variety of fun experiences and activities for students, we thought, let's try it in that facility. Um, and that also saves us having to come up with what are activities we might bring in because they've really got that built into their into their club. Um, at the same time as this is developed, uh, our district staff have set up from 7 to 8 at the district office for parents who are interested. Now, we'll see how many parents want to go on Friday night for a parent education opportunity. Uh but we're we have uh we're going to have a couple of our middle school counselors there to talk about middle school transition with parents and supporting their uh their students as they transition from fifth graders to middle schoolers. So we're trying a couple of things with this and then uh we intend to get back together, debrief, see what we learn from the experience and and then figure out how we can take that forward and build something sustainable. So uh it's been a great collaboration. Super thankful for Boys and Girls Club. super thankful for the knowledge and experience of Lacy Parks and Recreation and uh and our district staff that have that have jumped in and and gotten excited about how do we make this happen for the first time and then uh and and springboard that experience into future opportunities. So,

and I will add we are looking for a few more volunteers. So, if anybody's looking for something to do, we've had a lot of really great support people stepping up. If anybody's interested, let us know. Yep. I'll be there at the front desk ready for ready to help anyone who wants to be and and so so um 200 200 spaces are are we are we looking at that as kind of a situation where okay this is our jumping off point and if we reach that number um what do we what do we need to do if

Yeah. So when we started we thought what we don't know we talked about what is our turnout for the middle school nights and of course those are three grades and we said well let's try this at one the Tracy Street Club um 200 is kind of the capacity of what we feel like we can comfortably accommodate there on a nice night which it should be generally um and and have some indoor and outdoor activities. If we find the demand was substantially more than that, then you know our discussion was do we need to schedule a couple of those nights and give kids different opportunities to go? Do we need to talk about a different facility? Uh at this point, what we're seeing is it it's initially looking like the size of the event might align fairly closely with the demand. And uh that'll be another learning point at the end to see how it matches up.

And then this is pushed out through school. Um you guys have your your your software. I my kids have gone from from high school and junior high. I don't remember the name of your your software that you use for grades and all that. We use one called parent square and yes it's gone out through that and uh and and that's students are able to register right on there and um and we'll get feedback on this experience. It's kind of a first trial and and uh and then are we pushing that out to through city channels? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, please jump in. So, are the parents that that are being invited to the district office, is that just the kids that are going to the event or is that just like everybody?

It's available to to anyone, but uh what we've done is kind of partnered it with that event because it gives them a place to if they drop the kids and come over. Um some people may decide that's a way to have a Friday evening out for a little while and I totally understand that as a parent as well. So,

thank you. This sounds like a really great way to create some wonderful memories for fifth graders. Uh, I'm excited about it. And I know this is your first time, but can you talk about anything that surprised you the most as you were planning? you know, in the planning process, I think one of the things that um I guess I shouldn't shouldn't have surprised me because I planned a number of student events, but when you suddenly take something that we've had as a middle school model and translate that down to fifth grade, everything from thinking through what are the activities that they're going to be engaged by, how do we distribute students at the event, how do we um it it's it's a it's been a lot of process in the first attempt, but what I've the the the positive surprise guys. It's not a surprise to me. We have such great partners in this district and the the I felt so supported by Boys and Girls Club, by Lacy Parks and Recreation, and it's it's felt like a super collaborative experience and I I just that that is that makes me confident we can sustain something in the future.

Yeah, I think the venue is going to be a really good one. I was there for their um they had a new tech lab that opened with podcast booths and and all that kind of fun stuff like that upstairs. uh had no grand opening like two weeks ago. Uh I I guess and I don't know if there's any other venues like that locally. No, it's kind of a unique venue and I I think the only challenge we're working through is it's kind of at the end of a of a street and so we're not sure. We might have some traffic issues with people dropping off picking up. So we're working through the the how to make that an orderly process, but I think the the facility is fantastic for this type of event. And we don't really have another facility that would do that for this age group.

No, I think it is unique in that and that's why we're hopeful the size matches the demand. Okay. It would be a great outcome. Is this open to all fifth graders or is it kind of targeted towards like the theater schools to the different middle schools like elementaryaries going into Kamachin or the other one? We discussed whether to try to do that through tracks or hold it at one of the middle schools. We decided this time we were going to open it to all fifth graders uh and and see how that operates and um I so far it looks good but we could also have a huge run of of people deciding to register in the last three days before. So

I I just want to say thank you for your collaboration on a community conversation that we had last year and finding that our fifth grades fifth grade students really needed a positive opportunity in the community. um this is the first step and I'm really excited to see what the feedback is and and how we go from here. So, thank you for that effort.

Absolutely. Thank you. I guess I just would like to add thank you not only for thinking about the fifth graders but also providing the support for parents because I think that transition from elementary school to middle school is a real critical time and so providing support for parents as well um is a really valuable resource for our community. Okay.

You know, speaking of feedback, how do you plan to collect it? Yeah, that's a that's a good question. As you ask that, I realize we've been so focused on the logistics of the event that I don't know if we've built a feedback structure yet. So, we'll certainly have uh our notes from a afterwards and I'll be taking notes along the way on what worked and what didn't. I think we'll ask our volunteers to do so. Um, but it would be nice to have a student feedback opportunity and maybe a parent feedback opportunity. So, we'll we'll think about what might be the the best avenue to do that and am I asking them too close to the mark to get it? But if nothing else, maybe maybe it's comment cards that we can collect at the event and then build from that for future. Uh I can tell you another partnership we've already seen. uh Thirstston County Public Health and Social Services has some funds related to vaping prevention and I've talked with the person who's managing those funds and while it didn't fit into this, we've talked about how might they be able to support us in the future and and how would you how would you bring something into that without suddenly taking it from being a fun social event to we're going to talk about vaping right now, but uh but we want to find those ways to to engage students in in in some of those topics that you start to grapple with as you get to the Yeah, it'd be great to get feedback from the kids themselves and what their experience of it was.

Yeah, if there's maybe you could have roving student reporters or something. I don't know. But so that's a takeaway for us from this. So you'll think about what would it look like, you know, what's the best way for us to get that student feedback. So I guess my question is how do they check in? So maybe you can utilize that as a way to survey them.

Yeah. Uh, so when they get to the front door, fortunately, we district hosted it. So, I've gotten the initial lists of those who have registered, we'll have a check-in at the door, and as students come in, we'll check them off. I've been able to already take their information, check back with the schools about anyone who has a life-threatening health condition or anything. So, we're prepared for that uh at the event. And um and so, we'll have students check in and check out at a at the front desk, which is they're already set up because of the nature of the club. It's kind of a nice another feature of being at the Boys and Girls Club. Well, I think we're all grateful that um you know, you guys are doing something for a group that really doesn't have a whole lot going on um in terms of, you know, night activity and or being able to just get I I'm just glad you're getting them out of the house and off the phones to be honest with you, right? Even if it's only for two hours, I don't care. Uh and I'm just I'm I'm really hopeful that that it continues to grow and that we see more of these uh than just one in a quarter or by, you know, twice a year or something like that. So, so thank you for getting this started. Thank you for getting it rolling and continued success.

Thank you. It's okay with you, Deputy Mayor. We'll move on to the next. Oops. Back. Okay. So, we got Raj next. Oh. Um, so this one is in relationship to um item 6D on your agenda. Okay.

Yeah. So, um the Rajan Has Activity Center had been under construction. you may remember uh for those who've been around a while was a Bal's fitness and then has been a district facility for some years and uh has gone through a big renovation here recently. So you're seeing a picture from uh from Slater Kenny toward the building right now uh as it looks uh as it looks well the leaves aren't on the trees yet so that's a couple of months ago but essentially as it looks today other than it's greener in that spot right now. Uh and we had on February 3rd the ribbon cutting for that event. Uh thank you to those who were able to join us for it. And you see uh Raj Mhas there doing the honors of cutting the ribbon at the facility named in his honor and uh very we had a nice turnout and a and actually a nice day considering it was early February. So uh so it was a wonderful event. A lot of people joined us. Uh the facility now houses Ignite Family Academy, which is our par uh homeschool parent partnership program. That's on the second floor of the facility. Um the North Thirstston Public Schools Family and Youth Resource Center, which is a great facility. If you get the chance to see, I'll have a photo of it here. Uh our student records and archives, South Reading Foundation is there. And then uh we also have some office space there that provides for some of our partners uh who provide valuable support for our students and community uh some space there as well. And uh you can see here this is a picture up in the Ignite Family Academy kind of the common area. There are classrooms all around this but it's really designed to to promote um the the community that comes with a homeschool parent partnership and and and an important part of that is for parents connecting with each other and and learning and building community as well. Uh and and you see uh the principal there uh Kim Hollinger providing a little bit of an orientation to their space.

Did you just say homeschool parent partnership? Yes. Yeah. So this the the Ignite Family Academy. Oh, but it's I'll see if I can go backwards.

There we go. I can go backwards. All right. Uh Ignite Family Academy is for families that choose to homeschool their children. Um but what it does is it provides both a community for the parents. It provides curriculum for families. It provides school support and it also provides classes that you may not be able to provide when you're teaching and when you when you're homeschooling your students. Those things where it may be helpful to have um like as a as a parent there's certain classes I might not feel as comfortable teaching my kids and might feel like I could use someone who's an expert in that area. That's part of that community or electives where the social experience is important. So, Ignite Family Academy provides all of that for their for uh for students in our area. So, it's a it's a really cool program. It's very thoughtful.

Yeah. Um, so that's the second floor of the facility. And then on you see they have a playground out back for our Ignite students as well as what you're seeing here where all the coats are there. That is the family and youth resource center. That's just looking one direction. Uh, but it provides um a variety of supports for families in the district who may need it. And if a student needs uh needs a coat or needs shoes or needs other clothing, they can arrange a time to come in and essentially shop at the family at the resource center and get those things that they might need. It may be that they need cleaning supplies for the home or other things. And we've had a lot of generous donors in the community that have brought forward uh uh donations that help us provide uh those those resources to families who need them. And

and this next segment here refers to uh item 6E on your agenda.

And that would be the leaf center. So we we had a ribbon cutting and we had a groundbreaking this spring. And the groundbreaking uh occurred on what was it was on right into March. Mar Monday, March 30th. Again, another sunny day. We've been re we've really lucked out on the outdoor events this year. And I think the highlight of it for those who were there, uh, we had a preschooler who actually they arranged they had one of their back loaders actually fill it with dirt. That little big back loader. Now the student wasn't sitting in it at the time. It was over roped off, but they took that back loader and he lo filled it with dirt and the student then was able to get in it, drive it over in front and participate in the in in the groundbreaking, which was so cool to see.

Yeah. Um and uh and that site already now looks very different. So you're seeing now they've been clearing the ground and getting ready to build quickly. And I think uh it's amazing to see how quickly they can start moving dirt when you don't have any buildings in the way and when we're not also trying to operate a school on the site full-time. So, uh, so they are really, uh, if if you go down Marvin Road behind, uh, Nquali Middle School, you'll see a whole lot going on over there all the time. Um, but the basic of it, uh, as a reminder is this facility will be u basic will have 18 classrooms. So, you're seeing three wings there. Uh, the the wing toward the front, I I should have brought a laser pointer. the wing to wing that's closest to um Marvin Road there will have uh six classrooms. The one in the middle of the facility will have eight classrooms and the one at the far end will have four classrooms in it. There'll be uh at the front of it, a front office area. There'll be a large um multi-purpose room, I would say I describe or multi-activity space that can be divided down into three spaces or opened up into one large about 2700 foot um meeting space where you can have larger events as well as a space at the other end that is designed as a library and and we're uh working on how that facility will be used as we open up the space now. And um it will serve up to 600 students with indoor classrooms, outdoor uh activity spaces. Each of the classrooms has a bathroom. They're built with like two classrooms with a bathroom between them, which gives students access close access in a preschool. That's important. Uh and then outside of each classroom is kind of an outdoor play space that's fenced in that allows them to have accessible outdoor play from their classroom. And in the front

of the building, what you'll see is a a community playground out in the front of the facility as well. You're looking kind of toward Marvin Way right now and and toward it from the far end of the building. So, um it's the it's a fantastic design. We're really excited about it. This is going to be a wonderful facility. We continue to uh look into and explore and discuss partnerships with all of our community partners that have been involved in involved in the planning around how we might use the space to support families beyond just having classes there around having community activities around um operating whether it's classes or other things that can benefit our our young children and families, wellness clinics. Uh and and we'll keep looking for funds there. You know, the vision for this project is bigger than what we're building right now. We want to continue to look for those opportunities that might come whether it's through grants or other things that can allow us to expand that facility to meet its full potential. Uh but where we are right now is really an exciting start and it is set to open in fall of 2027.

So September from here within a year you'll see that building up and uh and by not this summer but next summer uh we'll be moving in.

Okay. So, just for those who are on our boards that are new, this has been a multi-year project that we've had deep conversations with the city, with the YMCA, with the Timberland Library. Um, I'm really hopeful that those partnerships will come round again. Um, or we will be able to find partnerships that really benefit our community in order to support the preschool desert that we have. um foundational learning happens in those preschool years. And the more education we provide for our students and our families on their way through the K12 system, the more successful they'll be. Um and the benchmarks of what the measurements are in preschool lead to students on track on at third grade, which lead to students on track for graduation, which just benefits our community tenfold. Um, so like what are the feeder? Okay. So, so near this facility there's there's probably what three or four elementary schools.

Mhm. Two or three. Three or four. And in those elementary schools we have kindergarteners or transitional transitional. Okay. So, so K. And so, so does that number outweigh what this facility holds?

Yeah. So, we have several schools that house early learning centers and and preschool, unlike our elementary schools where you have a defined set of boundaries that that feed a particular elementary school, with preschool, it's a little more fluid than that. Uh, but our three early learning centers serve different regions of the district right now. And our intent is not to go away from those. Our goal is expansion of early learning. So, we'll continue to have early learning centers serving uh in regions of the district. Uh but this is going to add to that. So we might have a few programs that move in our more crowded schools. Say like Meadows Elementary has an early learning center and it is very full right now. So it would make sense potentially to move a couple of classrooms and create some space for their uh for their kindergarten to fifth grade program. But ultimately our intent is both to provide some district programs that will expand preschool services to kids who don't have them right now. as as was mentioned. I mean, we're considered an early learning desert in some ways because we just don't have enough to to to meet the demand in our community, as well as looking at with community partners, whether that's ECAP or Head Start or other programs that might provide early learning services through different funding sources, how we can partner with them to bring in early learning because uh in Washington state, early learning is kind of cobbled together through a variety of different funding sources and and forms. And so we've had to get creative, but we I will say this is a running theme. We have some great partnerships in our community. We've found partnerships with Bezos Academy, with uh Childcare Action Council, with ESD providing head starts and uh with the Nisquali tribe, and a whole variety of partners, uh Boys and Girls Club, YMCA, the city. Um and and we find a way when it's needed. And I and I'm seeing that while we're still putting it together, I'm confident we can do that as a team.

So, it's anticipated that this could reach capacity in year one. You know, I don't know if we'll be at capacity in that building in year one that would that it will probably grow into it. And I'd be a little afraid if we were at capacity in year one primarily because they tell me we need more classrooms quick. So hopefully we'll have some capacity for growth as we go because I keep hearing like words like desert and stuff like that and I'm just like oh man. But

I'll add from the partnership perspective that after school time um that you know we meet monthly with school district staff and sometimes even more than that lately. Um and so we've already talked about ways that we can um be in the building with Lacy Parks programs. So even though we're not able to bring capital improvements to the project at this time um we can still partner in the building for youth programs. So, we're really excited about that. Awesome. Youth, don't uh be shy. You guys can You're part of the conversation. I had a quick question regarding the preschools that are around, the private preschools that are around the area. Do you plan to partner with them as well? Because sometimes they're at capacity. Um I didn't know if that was

Yeah, it's a fair question. I haven't had, to be fair, I haven't had uh significant conversations with our private child care providers and preschool providers around this project specifically. Um, but there's I think there's value and certainly anyone that wanted to have discussion, I'd be open to that with them. I have a a a good friend who operates a a private child care and preschool in another local community and they partner with their school district around some programs. So, there's definitely opportunities and I've seen that happen. So I I think that might be an area of untapped exploration.

Are meals offered there? Meals offered or served? Yeah, it depends on the preschool program how that's done. So ECAP has some programs that are say half day and they have programs that are full day. They usually serve meals through their programs. So um and and depending on with our programs that are half day, they might have a snack or or one meal there and a whole day program might have breakfast and lunch. So it depending on the type of preschool in each classroom. This will be equipped with a full commercial kitchen and our food service is prepared to provide for the the meal needs of the students depending on the programs that we have in each classroom.

Thank you. And will this be open year round or is it just for the regular school year?

You know that are most of the preschool programs operate on a school year basis. Um now I think the the sky's is kind of the limit on figuring out how it can operate I think for a variety of activities. We know those don't happen just on a school year basis. So the the the facilities that are designed for that as we think about child care, early learning, um I give you for example the Bezos Academy that's operating at 7 Oaks is a year- round program and that's how they have funding through their foundation that allows them to provide that yearround. So if we f have programs that have that kind of a schedule, we have the flexibility to operate that way. When we do, of course, we always have to figure out how do we do those that routine maintenance and other things. That's a little different schedule in those cases, but we'll be uh ready to match what the programming need is.

And is this offered like free to people who are registered or is there like a cost associated with it like barrier for families?

Yeah, so that once again uh goes back to the the nature of preschool funding in in Washington state. So that is also program dependent. So for ECAP programs, for example, there's an income eligibility requirement. Uh but if you meet that income eligibility requirement, there's no cost for that program. Similar with uh with Head Start programs. Um for our students who are served, say who with special needs, um there's some state funding that helps us with funding that program. For some of our developmental preschools, there is a there is a cost to families uh for typically developing peers. And so it depends on the program and the funding source that's coming from. Okay. Yeah.

Thank you. Well, we all know that this has been um a heavy lift over multiple years uh and you guys have done a really good job of pivoting through chaos um to get us to this point right here where we are today. So congratulations and good job. And and I'll send that thanks because I inherited it from someone who had done a lot of great work in getting it ready to go. So I get to just help keep moving it forward. So you want to move on to uh Lacy Parks and Aquatics.

Yes. Um so this is the rest of this presentation is in reference to 6C on your agenda and I would u like to ask Sue Failash to join us at the table. I think there's one spot left down there. Um Sue is our recreation manager and um not only want to give her her her and her staff kudos while we're here um but also she's going to help us with the talk about the aquatics portion of our presentation. So wanted to highlight some of the spring and summer events that are coming up and like I just said um Sue oversees the recreation staff uh in our department and they do a fabulous job along with community partners in pulling off these events. Um so we have the Lacy Spring Fun Fair coming up this weekend at St. Martins University. It's on Saturday and Sunday. We're looking forward to that. Um, and then this summer we have our movies in the park series, our Lacy and Tune concert series. Uh, we have a children's entertainment series, and we have our big 3rd of July event that takes place at Rainer Vista Park every year. So, we're very excited for those events coming up. Um, I wanted to take a moment to, um, highlight some upcoming projects both this year and next. Um, you've heard me talk about the Great Cuyo Park phase 1A. We're very excited that it's going to be opening here soon. Um hopefully in the next couple of months as we finish our final punch list items. Um but this phase develops uh 139 of the total 537 um acres of the park and green space uh in the area. Um we're super excited about this uh because we have a shortage of parks north of I5. And so this is a a big milestone for us. Um it it'll provide incredible access to trails and open space um that we heard from the community during our not only our comprehensive planning uh for the whole department but also this uh this park and open space uh planning process specifically that folks wanted access um to these spaces and particularly trails. So this park will have three miles of trails through the forest and connections to the playground, picnic

shelter and parking lot. Um we have a nature themed playground. We have a large shelter which um is going to be very conducive to school groups that come out. So there'll be a spot for kiddos to eat lunch if the if the school group comes out. There will be opportunities eventually for outdoor education as well. So it kind of ties with the school board. I wanted to bring that up. Um and there'll be some open space there. Also an 18hole disc golf course that'll be coming soon after um through a partnership with the South Sound um South Pound Disc Golf Association. Um there's an aerial view of the park um that was taken recently. And so what's really exciting and yet I don't have a pointer either, but um this like I said it's 537 acres total the 139 is the you don't even see all of it there because it goes into the trees with the disc golf course. But um over on the east side next to Carpenter, Carpenter is the main road there that goes through the park's property. Um but over on the east side you see a grass space that leads into the trees. that's where a future dog park could go. Um, off leash dog park. And then there's also, if you see the main loop over there on the west side or the left there, um, off of that loop, there is a need and a want from the community for some adventure trails. Um, with some maybe little obstacles for kiddos that bring their bikes out there. Um, fitness loop is another thing that we've heard from the community. Um, and then they're off to the I guess it's it's further west, but um, kind of see you can see the parking lot. If you go up from there, the space there that looks kind of like a meadow, that's where a future crosscountry course could go and that would be a great partnership with the school district. Um, they have an interest in wanting to do that uh, in the future and well, they want to now, but future future improvements depend on funding obviously. Um, but just this is kind of a fun shot here of the aerial view so you can kind of imagine what it'll be in the future as well.

Did you Did you say a pump track? Is that what you were? Um, no. So, um, the pump track notion is more in like for Meridian Park area. Conversations around that, but it's like an adventure track. So, um, imagine like oversized cones and like obstacles for, um, kind of the younger kids to bring their bikes out there and be able to ride in a safe space. Oh, okay. I think you have a picture of it in one of the magazines that you showed me. The the magazines that I continually bring you back from tracks in there. Yes. Yes.

Um, but the pump track is also a really fun thing. Um, and that's the that's the kind of the track that goes around in a circle and and it's called the pump track because you can actually go without pedaling around the whole thing if you pump the handlebars correctly. You're welcome. I don't have a picture of that in this particular slideshow. So, and I think the nearest one is in Tino. Yeah,

um, so here's a picture of the yard, uh, the large shelter. So, this will be a great place for families and community groups to gather. Um there's a picture of the playground in this slide as well. It's a nature themed which was selected by the community and so um yeah hopefully we'll have a date here soon for Greg Q Park but um we'll be sure and reach out and let you know when that h once that happens. Um also coming up so we're going through tremendous amount of planning efforts right now for some improvements. This is the regional athletic complex improvements. Uh and that will be construction in 2027 and um the improvements will be converting soccer field number two to synthetic turf and adding lights which will mean extended use for the community and for groups. I'm looking at Jeff because he's a soccer guy. Um yeah, so really extending that that use time. Um there currently is a grass field. Uh, field two is grass and field one is turf currently, but we'll have two turf fields, synthetic turf side by side. We'll have additional seating, you can see in the yellow there. Um, we'll have some fencing upgrades. And then we will be also making some upgrades to the baseball complex, which aren't pictured here, but we'll be making some um, hardscape improvements there, and potentially some Wi-Fi upgrades and installation um, depending on how the pricing comes in. Will the seating be covered so parents don't have to sit in the sun or rain?

Well, um in this phase the seating unfortunately will not be covered. Um that would be a great addition in a later phase. So um but this project is a priority because of the funding that was available through the public facility district extension and so that's why this project has gotten prioritized. Um, and this is the PFD funding is part of how the current rack is currently um, the current, sorry, the current rack site was funded by that. Um, and is partially funded. It's a it's a part of the pie that makes up the funding that is the regional athletic complex. Jen, when I was out there, did I see bench with like quarter moon shelter? Yep.

Yeah. Those are covered seats for the players. Oh, right. And so, um, yeah, those are currently located there on the west side, but those will move over to the east side. And soon based on a partnership with South Pound Community College, uh, their soccer teams were out there, and that was something that they were wanting.

This way, sorry. Um, and so that was a great partnership that they were coming out and doing their matches. And so it was in exchange for some field use time. They provided those and once their field use was over, we remained we um kept the we had the opportunity to keep those for future use. Yeah. And so I I saw them out there. I was surprised to see them. Um and and I thought they were great. I didn't know that they were, you know, strictly for players, but it makes sense because they're sitting right there on the the boundary line. Um they but they they look kind of expensive. Yeah, they are.

Um, another Sorry, one more question on that. Um, for the proposed um lights number eight on the far side of field two. Um, any idea how much light that will then provide for the field up above as well? Um, so the the uh the lighting is not intended for the field up above. Yeah. A little bit of carryover, but not a whole lot, but but we will have two fully lit fields. Yes. Yeah. Be sweet.

Thanks. Thanks for the great questions. Um, another project we're working on for the planning effort this year that will be constructed next year is Rainer Vista Park Improvements. And so we are adding four pickleball courts. Um and we're really excited about this um because there has been such a need in the community. And we're also excited about that one of them will be a larger court to accommodate wheelchair um users who use a wheelchair.

And so that's um you can see that bigger court there. Um we're also adding outfield safety netting on the softball baseball field that is yeah between the pickle ball courts and the softball. and that will um you know of course be safer, but in addition it'll allow us to run programs at the same time, which is a huge need. Um so we've had to close softball fields for pickleball tournaments and um pickle ball courts for softball tournaments. So this will be a great addition. We're also adding two ping pong or table tennis um tables and so these will be our first outdoor tables and also the first in Thirstston County. So excited about that. That was um based on community feedback. Okay. And now we're going to kind of turn our attention to our partnership with North Public Schools.

Okay. Do we have any other Oh, I'm sorry. Question. No, you're fine. Uh any other questions on on the things that we've already passed by? Um I I I did want to say that parks um first of all, you guys don't get enough credit. Um you guys, you know, for for a city of 60,000 people with I guess we have 29 park properties or is it 28? I keep We have we have 35 park properties actually. Um 26 of those are open. It'll be 27 once Greg Park opens that are parks that are open for 27 developed properties for 60,000 people.

Um that's it's kind of impressive. And um it it seems as if we we keep trying to make improvements, trying to make sure that, you know, there's plenty of space for anybody and everybody who wants to visit a Lacy Park. Um creating new space in Northeast Lacy. Uh and the amount of programs that you guys put on every year is just absolutely phenomenal. It's ridiculous. And so I I know you guys don't get enough credit. The way that you've grown the 3rd of July um over the last five years. Um I think last year, can you can you tell us the number of people that showed up last year? We we actually clocked in about 40,000 people. 40,000? Yeah. It was higher than what we originally had thought we'd been attracting

in a city of 60 data. So, okay.

Our community events are, you know, I was I was at an ELTAC meeting um I think it was less than two weeks ago. Um and uh the number of of overnight stays um has more than doubled. uh the attendance at these events um is is off the charts. We haven't seen these numbers before. And so um and and a lot of that is because of the facilities that you develop, fight for, make sure happening, and all the different things. So I I I know there's many years where I didn't really um say much about the parks and wreck program. Um but, you know, let me make up for that now because you guys do a really good job.

Oh, thank you. Really appreciate that. If I could uh chime in as an enduser, as somebody whose kids have worked in the park system, I echo that. I always tell people when they they get frustrated because there's not enough. I go, we are blessed to have the green space that we have and I don't think people realize it, especially when you think of our surrounding communities. Um it takes a lot of effort, takes a lot of time to put that together. So, no, thank you. um on many levels. I know it's a lot to do in a lot of pieces and I just to echo that it's very much appreciated. So, thank you for what you do. Yeah.

Thank you. Thank you for thinking of our dogs. Absolutely. Hope to get there someday. And rogue softballs. Yes.

I've had a couple close calls. And two, one thing I I meant to mention and particularly with the Rainer Vista Park project is that um you know our staff works really hard to bring in funding as well. So that one is um made possible by um you know close to $500,000 from the recreation and conservation office and um we got $25,000 from the Thirstston County Pickleball um association and then 5,000 from Park Foundation at Thirstston County too. So it it just helps us to be able to to do things like this um when we you know funding is very tight with

I can just add on to that just creating these these amenities in the community these quality of life takes these partnership like the the school and and and the city of Lacy but also all of our service clubs our community members there's a lot of volunteers out in our community and we just had a uh an advisory board um kind of um summit say the community type conversation and it was really impressive to hear all the the representatives of advisory boards and talk about that commitment and giving back to the community and we wouldn't be able to provide these services if it wasn't for the strength of those people within the community and doing that work and and the work around this table. So yeah, just want to acknowledge that and appreciate it and appreciate the the parks department's efforts and and trying to meet the needs of our community.

All right, now we will turn our attention to kind of our joint use agreement and partnership with Northston Public Schools. I mean, so much of what we do would not be possible without school district facilities and a really strong relationship and partnership. So, we super appreciate that um every day. And um so the uh Northston public schools and the city of Lacy has operated under a joint use agreement since 1972. It's been a been a minute here. Um and over the years, the agreement has expanded to include um scheduling and operation of the North Public Schools pools. And we're going to talk a little more about aquatics um here in a minute. Um but the city not only programs the pools but also helps facilitate the use of local swim teams and other community user groups as well. Um and then the part our partnership also includes facility use of gyms and classrooms. So under the agreement the um city gets first priority um scheduling for youth programs and this is essential for youth sports programs, day camps um and summer lunch program just to name a few. And in addition, the city utilizes Northland Public Schools buses for camp uh summer camp field trips. And um we also are able to advertise to Northston Public Schools families through um this agreement as well. So again, we super appreciate because we we all are serving the same families, the same kids. And so um it just makes sense that we would do this. Another um key component of the agreement is field scheduling. And so city staff work closely with district staff and sports user groups to coordinate facility schedules and maximize community access. So it makes it's it's not every single field that's included in that scheduling, but it really does make a one-stop shop for user groups. I know I keep looking at Jeff because worked with him for years in another capacity. But yeah, this partnership, you know, is super um important um as we would not the city would not be able to provide these programs um and services that we are able to without this long-standing agreement. Um, so we're going to, like I

said, focus on the aquatics component here tonight, um, due to kind of some up upcoming changes. And I'm going to, um, turn it over to Sue for this section. Um, like Jen had mentioned, we would not be able to do the aquatics program without the North Thirsten Public Schools. We operate them in the after their school day hours or after swim teams. So obviously the school district has the first priority of use in everything we do and we have a really strong working relationship with Sean and his team um not only on the maintenance side but just on the scheduling side to make sure that everybody's needs are being met and everything is being handled. One of the things we do is our aquatics staff does he has gone out and got his lifeguard training certificate. So not just a training but instructor trainer. He's able to train all of our staff inhouse, which is makes it affordable and makes it easier. So, when you have kids coming in that are interested, we can get them in. And then we run them through a lifeguard training course to get their skills up and then run them through some swim lessons so that they're up and ready to go for when our programs are starting. We offer swim lessons. He offered over 1500 this last year. Um, our whole goal is to make as many youth water safe as possible. We expanded this year to include we had brought back the parent taught classes, teen and adult swim lessons and they were all extremely successful. We do those all mainly through the summer. We do offer lessons on weekends and with when it's not in the school district school swim team season, we do it during the week, but our primary time is during the summer when obviously everybody's out. We can have a lot of daytime classes. We also offer Aqua Fitness. There was over 4,700 hours of Aquafit classes within the pools this last year. We also do pool rentals, not only local swim teams, the like TOSC, which is a local swim club.

We have had birthday parties. We are renting out to underwater hockey on Friday nights, the different fire departments. It's it's a growing thing, I guess. Um Lacy Fire Department as well as Olympia Fire Department do use the utilize the district pools for their training, their water training classes that they need to do for themselves. Um as well as a lot of Boy Scouts troops. The other part that we do as well is not only for our day camp, but for Tom Waters and Olympias, we've opened up public swim open swim during the summer for their day camp. So they bring their day camps. We have we staff it. they have an open swim an opportunity to do something during the week for their camps. Um, we opened up open swim back. We decided to try something new this year. You can either purchase it individually or you can buy an annual pass. So far, we sold 21 for 2026. So, people are definitely interested in getting in and getting use and having access to the facilities.

Ready? Yeah. Quick question. Yes. What schools have pools? North Thirsten High School, Riveridge High School, and Timberline High School. Any other questions on those? Have you had any requests for swimming lessons for older adults? Yeah, that's where we brought back the adult lessons. That's under adult.

Yeah. Um, so they were able to get those going. And we have a couple of our older staff that really enjoy teaching those. So I'm hoping to see those grow because there's so much water in this area that whether you're a youth or an adult, everybody needs to learn. Everybody needs to know how to swim. All right. Um the next kind of the big topic on the table is the potential of the closure of the uh Evergreen State College pool. For those of you that are not familiar with that, the Olympia School District, the Tom Water backtrack a little bit. The Tom Water School District utilized the North Thirst public schools with us from the beginning of our use agreement with the district. They went to Olympia for a year because we were having some scheduling. We were having a hard time getting the schedule that they had to have for their coach that they had at that time. We just couldn't meet the needs because of the North Thirstston School District's teams. They So, they moved over to Evergreen and Olympia School District has always practiced out at Evergreen State College for their boys and girls swim seasons, the high schools. With that closure, they have been in communication with us about potentially using the North Public Schools. We've had some prelim preliminary conversations. Nothing has set. There's been some conversations with the coaches. Um, it would have an impact on our programs. We'd have to there would be a cutback during especially the fall for swim lessons and aquaerobics, but it wouldn't be as big of an impact after November. It would be like September to November because the girls seasons, every team, every school has a girls team. They don't all have boys teams. So, Tumb Water doesn't have any boys swimming. So the impact is not as big for November to February for the boys season, but there would be still be an impact. Um, plus because it would be in there, so it'll be harder to get any of their other outside groups in. It's we will still

have room for TOSC. We are working with those. We have set up a meeting. We are going to meet with the North Thirstston School District, with their athletic directors next week. um everything is just preliminary but trying to see if there's a way that we can help manage that so that they don't lose their programs in the community as well. So, and Sue, do you mind the acronym TOSC? There's no Olympia swim club. That is the local swim team, the youth swim team. The just in case kids, not high school young. Sorry. Is there no water polo as well or is it just swim teams?

Just swim teams. It doesn't have any water polo. So, um I'm glad you brought this up because this was going to be my elephant in the room question, uh after your presentation was over, uh because I was I was really trying to just kind of get my my mind around like what kind with with that pool closing out at Evergreen and Tumb Water not really having any. Olympia has one pool or they have none. They have zero pools. So, it's all going to be here. So, and that and that's that was my main question was like what what kind of pressure is that going to put on the system? It sounds as if we're going to prioritize student and and team swims first. Uh and then

Yeah. Well, the North Thurman pools teams will have priority. They have are are the number one priority in this and then we would try to we'd be working with them in the other pools to try to fit it in after their practices. The hardest part is trying to get meat schedules intact because when they're when they're home then you can't have somebody else in there and so you're trying to make it there there's a lot of moving pieces and a lot that some of the concerns that's been brought up by the school district is the wear and tear on the facility. Some of those things would have to be addressed and that's why we were just doing some preliminary. They were you know they brought up to us. They've also reached out in the past and then have gone back to Evergreen. So, we were kind of on the fence just kind of waiting to see what was going to happen and we'll know more once we meet with the school district and really talk about, you know, how this could work or, you know, if it would or wouldn't just, you know, how we can we how can we try to facilitate it for these folks for these kids?

Okay. Is there any way that the coaches of the various swimming programs could coordinate and perhaps have multiple teams at one time? Yeah. And we haven't well not we wouldn't want to put the North Thirsten and the with them together. Um we've tried having them real back to back and

there's a lot of this is my space and it's hard. So one of the things is if when we were looking at schedules is having a half an hour in between so that one team would have an opportunity to get out before another team came into the facility. um where it would be accessible is you've got two teams at both Tumwater and Olympian Capital. You know, their their girls will probably have to practice together as well as the other would practice together. Um we just split it. We'd get them into bigger pool like Riveridge that has six lanes. So, they would have be able to have three lanes and three lanes or something along those lines. We that's part of the conversations.

Good. Thank you. Do we know when the their the evergreen will when the decision will be made or we've given them a cut we gave them I don't remember the exact date um whether or not they were 100% in to try to make this work here coming up soon because we have to do our programming as well and we have to do we're trying to get the schedules with all of the different teams and that's why we've got a meeting set up next week to kind of talk through it. I think Evergreen if it's closing should supposed to be closing here this I believe this month. So I know there is a big push to keep it open. So that's it's we're just kind of waiting.

So when you say waiting to hear from someone just to clarify you're talking about Olympia School District. We haven't. Yeah, we we've reached out and they have not they've they made the initial approach and we said, you know, these are some things that we would have to work through and now we're waiting for them to say, yeah, we really are 100% interested or not. So, we are taking the next step just in case. Um, and we'll hopefully be able to accommodate those folks. It'll be it it'll be it'll be tight, don't get me wrong. It's not a perfect thing, but I don't think any of the coaches, whether it be North Thirstston's coaches as well, want to see any of these programs fall through or fail because it just makes it harder for their athletes to compete.

So, it it sounds like one more pool in the area wouldn't just help Lacy, would help all of us. Everybody wants Lacy, Olympia, Twater, and it doesn't really matter where the pool is. We just need more It it's hard. I mean, North is has a I know there's a lot of expense with it, but is a really nice luxury for these students to be able to have access to that that nobody else has access to. So, do we know what the increased uh maintenance costs will be when it comes to this just increased use by everyone or is that still

that's something we're looking at? No, I think you know pools themselves I mean they they they require significant care and and they there are things that wear and tear. You know we have right now we're having just the like having some inspections done of some of the pieces there to make sure that they're all in good order and um determining if there's anything that's going to need to be replaced going forward. Certainly if we were going to see additional swim team use is wanting to make sure that everything we have is ready to handle that um handle that use and to be safe through it. So I think that's the discussion we want to have with everyone. Make sure that um you know we don't commit to more than we can sustain. But I think you know we can work together on it.

And one of the things that I think has been great about this partnership is there are times when we've as a city have helped purchase lane lines, help purchase lane reels, and stepped in when we needed to to help make sure that we can maintain the use and it can be safe and we can have access for everybody. Will this increased use decrease the amount of like open swim times like where it would be open to the public like a public pool? Um I don't think it'll decrease just the open swim part because we don't have a whole lot of that right now. We have one on the we have a time frame on the weekends that that would still probably be able to use. It's more of the evenings and the Saturday mornings that are going to be affected, okay,

by the scheduling. It'll be a great balancing act as it already is.

Any other questions? Uh, no. Do we have access during the summer or is it No, we have we have access to all three pools in the summer. Uh, for all the times it's not down for maintenance. They do have scheduled maintenance times when we have not been able to have access. And when they were doing River Ridge as a whole, those the pools that pool was down for that length of time, too. And the district has always been really great at communicating with us and we just schedule around it and when things open back up, then we get really excited and start programming it again. Yeah, I was just making sure that we had access during the summer. Everyone wants to go out swimming and Yes. No, we definitely would have access in the summer.

Okay. Okay. Well, it looks like we've we've um I I just want to take a minute to open up the floor because uh we have a few minutes. Um and and if if there's anything you guys want to discuss, you you guys are in the as well. Um we can we can bring up anything we like in this space. Um don't everybody all talk at once. I just I want to say thank you to you for your work um and the partnership with the district. I can't imagine that what that looks like balancing all those. So, thank you. Uh yeah,

uh thank you. I don't know that we gave enough air time to our young people. I haven't heard from ours. So, if you want to chime in, chime in. I did I know we've way gone way past all of the agenda items, but um I was present for the uh DEIB summit on and you guys uh you're amazing. Um I love hearing the different ways the youth presented the their their talking points and how that also tied into what some of the adults had to say in the room. if you remember um uh the presentation from uh the gentleman before your summit. So um wanted to thank you for that and uh wanted to ask uh Jennifer about if if you could talk a little if you could just highlight some of the um unusual um sports that happen at the rack because we hear about pickle ball, we hear about soccer. What are some Yeah. Uh, we have ultimate and good thing Sue is here because she's closer to the schedule, but the ones that come to mind for me are um ultimate frisbee, we had Celtic rugby, which I hadn't heard of that style before.

Yes, Celtic rugby, we've had women's rugby, we have lacrosse, we had a sport that came out and it was called, it's quibbage and it's a variation of the Harry Potter and they used that. It was kind of neat. We do ultimate frisbee out there. We haven't recently, but we have had dog shows out there. We had the Collies did they brought their deals and did one of their annual shows out in the facility and that was really fun to watch. So, those are some of the kind of different ones that we've got going now. We've got flag football is out there as well. We've got obviously soccer and the usual baseball, softball users. So,

and I just wanted to add one more. Thank you for that. Uh uh when people say uh just and only to pool maintenance uh coming from that world uh it's um it's bigger than what even you're hearing here the uh what's required to maintain and keep a pool from going down in the first place and once it's down uh the challenges that follow that. So um thank you. Um, I understand your pain.

Do people play raetball anymore? I still play. Oh, please, Henry. Okay, so I have two questions about the new park. Um, did you guys when did you guys say it was going to open for the public? Uh, well, we are hoping within the next couple of months. We we're on the final punch list items. Oh, sweet. Construction. I I'm really excited for that. It's right next to It's right next to my house. So, um my second question is did you say it was a three mile loop or for the trail house?

Three So, there's three miles of trails total. And so, there is a quarter mile of paved that's right around the picnic shelter and like the main playground area. And then um if you go out into the woods and then there's uh the disc golf course and then there's some trails that go off the main there's like a main 10- foot wide trail that does a loop and then there's some six foot wide um dirt trail or soft surface we'll say and then there's some that are four feet and so um there's kind of these tributaries of trails that go so it's about three miles total with all of those combined. I'm really excited for that. Yeah. Good. Me too. Thank you. Cool.

Um I'd like to go back with my question to the LEAF program. So I heard you said briefly about the sped classes. Um I'm wondering if there's going to be a designated area and is there going to be like the moving from sped classes and elementary schools to the LEAF program?

Yeah. So what what we're talking about there, students with special needs, our preschool programs are integrated preschools, so they aren't separated from it. So they'll have typically developing students and students with special needs together in a classroom. So uh that's the classes that'll be there. It wouldn't take anything from our K5 or kindergarten to fifth grade programs, but preschoolers uh really benefit with special needs from being in the classrooms with typically developing peers. And that really help we see that they learn faster and grow more with that in that environment. And so, uh, that's how preschools are designed. Thank you.

Is that it for tonight? Uh, Council Member Cox. Well, I just wanted to say that um I appreciate the some painful choices that you all have just had to make on budget and that Lacy also faces some painful choices uh in the coming year here with our 27 budget. And so I I just would hope that as we both go forward having to be really careful, conscientious about bottom line, that we can have each other's backs here and and kind of communicate with each other about where the pain points are and see whether one or the other of us could help, you know, through some of those things because it's it's going to be a challenge. And so, thank you all for your courage and um hopefully things will be looking up soon.

And have we have we set a date for our next meeting? Uh we have not yet. No, it' be sometime in the in the fall. Okay. Typically, we'll do that right after this meeting. We'll start casting out days. Troy and I and our offices will work together to set that and then start looking for agenda items. All right. Okay. Well, with that, um believe Oh, do we have some please? Um I had a question kind of for like school board whoever can answer this question for me but um in our youth summit um one of the concerns was like the resources for youth mental health and um I heard recently about some of the budget cuts to the specialists. Was there any um feedback about how that would impact our youth in a in a measurement?

Yes. So we will maintain um our mental health specialists at each one of our high schools. So that will remain in place. And then we're going to work really closely with community partners that provide mental health resources for students um to get them connected so they can sometimes come in and serve students in our school setting or if family wishes they can they can uh get those services outside. But we're going to work really hard to rebuild those bridges. Uh North has been fortunate. We are the only district in the area that does have mental health professionals in our schools. We're going to be able to maintain some, but not as much as as we um have in the past. and candidly wish to going forward. Um, in in alignment with with Carolyn's comments about tough decisions, this was one of the tough decisions we had to make, but we're committed to to finding to serving those students differently than what we've been able to do in the past. Great question. Thank you.

Thank you. Um, I just want to know more about what activities are going to be offered at the Leaf Center since you said that they'd be offered like throughout the calendar year, not just during the school year and like what activities would be there for younger children.

I'm going to have to leave you with a bit of a cliffhanger there because it's because while it's under construction, we're still in those discussions. So what we envision though is really supports for young children and their families. And so the the the goal of that, of course, we have, you know, we are fortunate in our secondary pro schools to have a whole lot of activities for our older students, but as we've talked about, even getting down to our fifth graders, we're just building activities. But this is really designed to be supports primarily, not maybe exclusively, but primarily for those really young children, that three to five range in in the families of those that it's a unique stage of development. And so it might be having clinics in that are helping with uh well child checks that might do some things or or or education activities for young families uh that sort of thing. And we're working on those discussions now and as we open it I think we'll be probably like the fifth grade activity night experimenting with some things and seeing how it goes and then growing from it. So

thank you.

Certainly open to program ideas if you would like to share. Okay. Well, uh it looks like we've reached the end of our agenda. Um thank you guys for being here, especially the youth coming in tonight. Um this is just an example of um how to start, keep, and maintain the relationship. All relationships need tweaking throughout the relationships, and that's going to be something that you're going to have to do for the rest of your life. So, get used to it now. Uh, and with that, um, unless there's something further from the group, um, I will call this meeting adjourning. And as always, you keep it classy, Lacy.