In the office of Superintendent Wyeth Jesse, Shelton School District. Hello, sir. Good afternoon, Jeff.
We've got ourselves this past week our fifth or sixth open community forum. This was at Oakland Bay Junior High, home of the Timberwolves. And I thought it was a really good conversation to understand that age group, which you have a keen interest and background in.
Yeah, I love that's seventh and eighth grade. You know, they're 13, 14 year olds and they are, you know, right in the middle of identity formation. So there that is the age where they are trying things on size.
They are losing their identity attached to their parents. So that's why when you see rebellion, that's why when they do things that you're like, that makes no sense because you have to try those different characteristics on and they start mimicking a friend and you're like, but you would never have chosen that kind of friend literally six months ago. Sure.
Why are you doing this and why are you, you know, trying a whole bunch of things on? And it's not always, you know, negative behavior, but it's sometimes it can look weird and odd. And that's why I love that. What are some of the ways that you go through the personal development, professional development with the teachers and the counselors on this grade specifically? What are some of the.
What do you do? What do you train people? Train people to kind of get them to be like, listen, there's going to be frustrating times. They're pushing their boundaries. They're trying to figure this out.
Let's redirect and try to get them to look at it a different way or something. Yeah. You know, it's a lot like a lot of people, a lot of people make comments about, you know, we've talked about this before and about comments about kids' behaviors these days.
Like, where is the justice? Right. And I'm like, well, generations, different generations and things just become that's not the way to handle it. You're not going to get the mileage, you know.
And so whether, you know, that's the nice thing about here in education is, you know, we do follow the evidence. What is going to get results to decrease behavior? No one wants it. And it does have a place where you have to differentiate your approach for different for each kid.
You know, you do have to know each kid's story, strength and need. And then you have to have a systems approach so that kids have boundaries and adults know how to work in it. And then you do things also developmentally, right? Like for the age group.
So that's it does get complex. We've done a lot of sense making of it and for specifically that junior high level. You ever hear that phrase? You know, I I don't take them literally, but I do take them seriously.
Yeah. And you can't take them always literally. Right.
Like you're best off to not take them so literally. But you do have to take them seriously. Right.
Like, I don't like my friend over there. And they say something like really weird, like they still play Pokemon. Sure.
Like, well, I'm I don't think Pokemon's the problem here. But maybe you're having a difference of who you want to be friends with. And then you have to teach into what is a healthy friendship at that grade level and some things to try on.
Right. And so that give and take that reciprocity of exchanging information and listening at the same time is so critical at that grade level, because right. Let's just think of those other kids at OMS, right.
Olympic Middle School. And they're like fifth and sixth grade. Well, they are not so great at expressing always themselves.
And you're just a little bit more directive. And this is how we do it. You do have to stop and listen to that seventh and eighth grade group.
If you don't stop and you're trying to be telling what to do and right, you're in that identity formation and you're willing to try on some different things. And rebellion is part of that. Yeah.
Because you're no longer wanting to associate so much with adults, even though you might think of yourself sometimes as one, especially towards the end of eighth grade. That's why I'm saying that, Jeff, is that, you know, hey, you still have to take them seriously and you have to listen a little bit more and you have to offer advice in like very bite-sized chunks. They don't do all so well giving a long lecture or telling them how to do things that end in the high school only because they are social human beings.
They want to say they want to be heard. And they also want to be with their peers. So the longer you take them away from that avenue, that could also create some challenge.
You mentioned at the end of it that the school, Oklahoma Junior High specifically, was markedly different than when you first came on board a couple of five years ago as the superintendent here. What, again, for those who haven't listened to that, what are some of the things that you notice now that are changed and what where did that come from? You know, schools are interesting things, right? They all have their reputation. Your kids go to Olympia School District, right? Yeah.
I'm sure before your son walked into his elementary school, you heard things about that school. Right. I mean, I know you're very tapped into a lot of, you know, a lot of information.
I mean, this is your world, right? And you hear a lot of things and you talk to a lot of people here and there. And that applies everywhere. That's not a unique thing to Shelton or anywhere else.
So before I got here, I heard things about specifically OBJH, right? That's not... I heard something about each of the schools, to be honest. Yeah. And that particular age group always seems to bring a little extra spice to the table.
So here we are on the holidays. You're like, that's all like some pretty spicy, like, you know, dish that you got there. Eggnog, you know, like dial back on the nutmeg.
But I... I had that. And then, you know, with my professional eye, going to go see it and walking through. Yeah.
There was things that made me nervous that I like to have in place that I, you know, that I would want to see that are the things that junior high kids need. So let's go back, right, Jeff? Kids need a lot of structure, routine. You can't just let them run freely because they're trying things on and too much freedom.
That's hard to pull that rope back. And you also know that staff always have to be on the same page. Because they're smart.
They're wily. They're testing. Yeah.
And when you're not on the same page and you're trying to figure out how to work together and engage them and have those things with those students, you're going to you're going to want those things for them. And so, to their credit at OBGH, and they've had some new staff, but they also have a lot of people that have been there for a long time. They've recruited.
They've wanted it. Right. They've said, where, how are we supposed to operate together as a team? Where's the procedures for discipline? What is our focus for academics? How can we recraft some of the content so that kids can access it and make it engaging? They've had all those wonderings with with Marianne coming on board.
I think the previous principal set some things up. And I think in a good way for Marianne, the principal before Marianne and Marianne and her team and the staff have worked together in a way that has gotten to where it is today. She's already been there now almost for two full years because she came mid-year two years ago.
Yeah. And I, you know, you talk a little bit about the structures and the routines. And do you think that in a broad sense, the kids are roughly the same.
It's the structures that they see on the daily basis that have tightened up a little. That's exactly right. OK.
Levee time is upon us here. We are about, well, a little less than two months away from this, February 10th. The ballots will be out in mid January.
The break is on. People are going to have a chance to gather with their friends and family over the next two weeks and kind of probably start really thinking about this when it comes to the school district. We've talked a lot about the levy.
Where are you at in your anticipation for for what may happen here? And I know you are you can't advocate either way. But as you're out talking to people, what do you hear? Where where do you think where the tea leaves saying right now? Yeah. So these conversations have been going on since, you know, late spring all the way to today.
Today. Right. Like some events.
I have two community events tonight. One sponsored here in Shelton, the one by the district that choice. Oh, yeah.
7-12. So I'll be there for those. You know, I've talked to a lot of people from all over the community.
I'd say 95 percent of it have been the people I talk to are either really in support or have, you know, really positive reflection of what the district is doing. And with some kind of light hearted questions. And I'd say about 5 percent are like, I heard this thing or I feel this thing or I had this experience.
Tell me what you're doing about it. Right. And so those those I take all of it seriously and want to address, you know, whatever it is and give the right accurate information.
You know, and that's usually my hardest job is to combat false or information that's simply does not factual. Right. Sometimes embellished.
Yeah. Sometimes it's a it's a turn on the truth. Right.
Like and you're like, it's not exactly right. What are some of those things? I mean, what's what's kind of the main theme that someone will pull you aside and go, listen, I heard this. And you've heard this from multiple people that that maybe you can.
Yeah. My two topics are behavior and finances. Sure.
Right. And so, again, two topics that were going on before I got here. I mean, like, so you're like, all right, this is, you know, that and I understand why.
You know, now I've been here for five years. I have been learned up, as I like to say. And hey, I think people have finally caught on to like, oh, this is how the district does to handle and address behaviors.
And the babies are still going to come in when you work like a team and you're working on things and we can we've invested a ton of money into additional counselors, mental health therapists and training and especially training for specific staff who deal with kids with more significant or intensive behaviors, you know, and that is always ongoing. And so that has helped along with everybody working in the same on the same team to decrease all those behaviors. I can tell all those stories.
I've actually had some community members take me up on my offer to tour the schools. Good. And then I'm also able to explain some specific situations that they have.
It's usually can get very personal, Jeff. I won't repeat any kind of personal story, but is, hey, my family member experienced this situation. And then I'm like, you're right.
When kids are in first and second grade, they try and a whole bunch of behaviors. Sometimes that is hitting. Right.
And we want to make sure that they're not practicing that we get right on it. You may not see always the consequence for the other kid. And those are things that, you know, I've been dealing with my entire careers.
You don't always see what happens to the others. But they were came right back. I'm like, yeah, but they were doing work in the office for the rest of the day or, you know, and we followed up on that or this particular case is actually I know that was actually a lot of times it's about bullying, bullying, love people, love to use that word.
I'm like, but they were friends for the last five years. Chances are that's almost by the way, not a bullying situation. That's a friendship issue.
Right. And so those are like all those things we go. I get right into.
It's really good. And people are really work with me to do some sense making. Right.
Because, you know, I it's about us together having a shared understanding of what's going on for kids here about their social, emotional learning, their development of pro social skills, their development to be citizens. We want to grow citizens. And I've had a lot of people.
I love the business community here. There's some my favorite crowd. I'm like, you want us to tackle these issues around behavior.
Right. And not just simply suspend them because you wouldn't want to have to hire an employee that had some really bad behavior. But I mean, you don't ever have to deal with that, do you? Yeah.
Right. Yeah. Too much.
You know, like that does happen, you know, and that is our job. Honestly, I do believe that, Jeff. It's messy at times.
It's not always clear. Kids do get natural consequences. We do suspend, especially for, you know, like severe behavior.
But I'm not going to suspend them when somebody, you know, like a middle schooler was to tell somebody to screw off. I'm like, we got to learn to work with that. And that kid's telling us something.
Behavior is a form of communication. What's going on for that kid? Like I said, story, strength and need. I met a young gentleman this morning.
I was at SHS. Ninth grader. I know that kid's story, strength and need.
If you, if Jeff, if I told you that kid's story, strength and need, you'd go, yeah, I'd be probably coming to school really angry, too. Right. These are kids that don't have food.
They have a really bad background, sometimes drug and alcohol. It's part of the story in the household. This particular gentleman has all of them, all of the above and has developmental disabilities.
Right. And so what would you like me to do with that? Sure. We're going to deal with it because that's our job.
We're public education. What I've heard this from just a few people around the town that they are contemplating voting no. Sure.
Because of something the school board has done or or you in particular. Sure. And this is a tough.
You know, this is a tough question for sure. But what do you say to those folks about that? I actually don't think it's a tough question. I think it's a fair question.
Right. Like, hey, I don't want to vote. I don't I don't like him or I don't like what they they stand for.
And that's interesting because there there's a lot of different viewpoints on a whole variety of issues. That's not a surprise to any listener. Right.
Right. And so wherever your stance is, whether that you think we should teach the Bible and here in the schools, which I've heard from other people, to hey, I don't like what you're doing. I think, you know, you've discriminated against kids that are LGBTQ.
I think I got all of both spectrums. I mean, I people don't see that. I get it all sides.
It's a very politicized environment out there. We try to be, you know, a nonpartisan organization. We're not here to support anyone.
I got to follow the state laws. Some people don't like those. That's generally not unlike almost feels like ninety nine percent of it.
I don't like the decision you made because the board or I or both of us decided to follow what the state is requiring us to do. There's a ton of laws, Jeff. There's so many rules and regulations that we have to do.
It's it is a frustration on my part. Right. Because we're in the middle of a community.
You know, that's what school districts are. You have to follow those rules. And sometimes we're the ones that are seen as the ones that made them, even though in reality we're not.
And so what I say on this laddie is you're voting about the kids and the services are for them. You're not voting about why Jesse or the school board. You're voting literally for resources and supports.
That money goes straight to services for kids. And irregardless if I'm here or not. And the next superintendent or the next school board are also people that don't have to follow the same rules.
I mean, it's I mean, you only have to. I just invite anybody go go look at my other district somewhere else. You know, look up a little dude, a little dig into the paper and what's going on.
Same thing. You know, it's the same same hot topics politicizing them. But I do have to also end because this is one thing, you know, irregardless of the issue, kids are still learning here.
And that's the most important reason I'm here is about the students. And there are always going to be tough, tough calls. Right.
Not everybody loves what other people do in their own family about parenting. Right. I'm sure you've got some differences about somebody.
You're like, you parent like that? I mean, right. We're having to be the school district so that we have to be that that entity that makes decisions. Sometimes popular, not popular.
But I say this is about the kids, the services for them. If you would like to continue for that, these kids for the last many decades have benefited from a levy. I think this is about paying forward.
And these kids are learning. That is why we've had some tremendous outcomes. First in the state for early literacy growth, decreasing in suspensions, increase in ninth grade on track, increasing graduation rate.
You know, those are those are amazing things that are outcomes for kids that was not going on because of the hard work that this community has invested into the schools. If someone does have one of those issues and they're they're contemplating this, the outlet for that, if in my mind, is to speak up to the school board. Right.
Because they're kind of the ones that adopt the different things that come through in addition to following the laws and stuff. But then also they're the ones that have and most recently renewed your contract here. So it's not like that they're the ones that those people specifically should come and talk to.
Is that is that accurate or not? I think we just make sure I understand what you're saying. Right. You're saying instead of an issue.
Yeah. Instead of if you have an issue, instead of. With the school board or Wyatt Jesse, as opposed to taking it out on a boat.
That's what I'm trying to say. All right. Is that just.
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Come meet with me.
OK. I do. I mean, school boards are kind of a frustrating thing.
Right. Because you get to get on a mic and you're like, what am I going to hear? Because anyway, people do reach out or staff, you know, especially on, you know, again, most of those situations are very specific and there's always a story behind something else. And so I want to make sure that we're able to exchange that information.
And so if they have it, reach out to me. I also, Jeff, a majority of time, it's back at the school site. It's an issue where they haven't fully met with the staff at the school, with the issues that they have.
And I, I try to move that back to there because they have the locus of control. Yeah. Really at the school site.
I'm really here to follow the laws. I mean, I, I follow the rules and I'm also, you know, that I'm supposed to are in our do our strategic plan. Yeah.
I wish, I wish our accounting and finance systems were better. When I got here, it took time to fix it. Now they're getting fixed and we're in this school year in the positive paying off our local vendors, which have been going on for well over a decade.
And so, hey, the frustrations there, the accountability does lie here. My job is to fix and improve things. And if it's not, then I would say that this is not.
You're right. I wouldn't want to be here either. But and again, I'll go back to the results for the kids and the things that we're improving on.
It's been great. And that's why I always love to say in my life, you know, come, come walk the hallways. Let's go see the real products that the kids are doing.
You see the performances at the school board meetings. Yeah. I mean, like amazing, amazing things are really going on.
You mentioned the next superintendent, the next school board. I think you've told me before that the average is kind of three to five years of super is at a school. Yeah.
And then moves on. So you're kind of at that point. But you did get renewed.
So you'll be here for a little while longer. What are the if if folks still continue to choose to vote no in this levy? What are the long term impacts past your time here that that that you're starting that I guess you have to use these thought experiments. You have to kind of play this out a little bit.
What what are some of those long term impacts on this upcoming vote? Sure. And let's just frame this right here. We're asking the voters to vote for general education services that are enhancements.
Right. So this is about what kids can get for a basic education that are enhancements. It does impact everything.
I think most people who listen. This is about voting around. Do I want, you know, nurses, librarians, counselors? And I mean, I'm not talking about one.
I'm talking about the whole the whole model. Sure. Right.
Like, this is all the supports that come with it. The para educators. I mean, additional services, athletics, activities, fixing things around that campuses, keeping lawns green.
If you want to run a sports thing, a camp over the. We don't have the water. I mean, like all of it.
I mean, like you just. So those things are the things that are on the ballot. And to me, it is frustrating that it takes this much work to try to support what I think is, again, part of basic ed.
You know, that's my opinion. Personal opinion. I think a lot of people still hold that.
And so when you say, like, what's going to happen? That's what's going to happen. Is that going to be? Yeah, sure. I'll be the person out there.
Probably. I mean, I'll be the one out inside the schools. My job would not longer be able to improve things.
I would just we would just be trying to survive and maintain because 10 million out of an 85 million dollar budget is all about staffing. You would lose over 100 staff. And that's an impact to this economy as well.
Yeah. And then I think finally here on this. With this district in its binding conditions continuing, how quickly do changes would changes happen? Does the school year full out and that you see the changes in the start of the 26, 27 school year? Or I mean, you probably still have to start making plans.
But what would happen? You're saying at the boat, if the levee didn't get voted. Yeah. Is that what you're asking? Yeah.
And then do you do you have like a cushion to do the second one the next time around in November or however that works? Or is it because of the current situation? I love this question. And it's got a little bit of detail. So I'll try to make this as clear as possible.
Any district can run twice in one calendar year. OK. For a levee.
OK. So for this levee, if it doesn't get voted in the first time, like you said, you can rerun. You can rerun.
Again, there's a, you know, there's another one you can run the next month or you can run in the fall. So, for example, North Mason did that. They didn't run the next month when they didn't pass theirs last February.
They decided to run again in the this last November. Yeah. And they didn't pass it.
So they had what is called a double levee failure. If you have a double levee failure, that means you don't have, you're not going to collect any levee monies that next calendar year. So come January, they will not be receiving those monies from their levee for their budget.
So they, the reason why they already had to make cuts last spring, knowing that they weren't going to run for it because we're on our cycle is August is the end of the fiscal. So if you know in August and you don't have those monies, you have to make those cuts in anticipation that you're not going to have those monies because you can't go, well, maybe they'll vote for it. And so we don't have to.
We don't. We can hedge a little bit here. You can't hedge in our.
We're a fixed. Again, I keep saying we're a fixed income kind of place. We don't can't go back out and generate more revenue.
I'm not that I turn around and charge kids for, you know, books or whatever. Right. So you know, the school board would be the ones that made the choice of the levy doesn't go, you know, doesn't pass when they would want to run again.
You have to file like within a handful of days for the next month if you want to do it. If you don't elect to do that again and you want to run later on in August or in the fall, you know, late summer or fall, you're automatically riffing a bunch of people. I mean, like, again, we're back to well over 100 people to tell them they don't have a contract the next year.
And so that's where, to your point, it gets disruptive very quickly. OK. Chaotic.
Lot of emotions run high. And that would be huge, huge. There's a lot of different reasons why people wait to run for one or not.
It depends on your community or whatever. To me, I'm like pass it the first time and we don't have to worry about it. And we're going to move on and keep operating and doing really good things for kids.
Well, it's the break is upon us. And again, people will be having these conversations. And like you've mentioned, opportunities to tour the schools, see the good things that are going in there.
I was in a school, I was in Bordeaux last week or two weeks ago in a first grade class. And they were reading and mathing and counting. And it was it was pretty impressive.
To hear everyone reading and they had their books that they were going through and the kind of what I would consider for somewhat challenging words for first graders. The teacher did a great job and it was awesome. I was in today.
I saw so many things. I was in a lot of schools today. But I was at the MET building over there at SHS.
So, you know, it was really cool because you just see truly them working as, you know, engineers in that technology. Yeah. Where they were doing 3D CAD.
So they'd make all these designs and then the 3D printers printing it after they do these approved designs. I saw some crazy cool stuff. They're working.
Then they're going to work in teams coming up in the water laser. I'm not using probably the right term. The regular laser.
And really cool things they'll do as they advance into working in teams on really complex projects, including requests from the community. So it's just a we have a lot of really good things planned for the future. So many good stories.
Whether that's right there preschool at our early learning center all the way obviously to their senior year in high school. Kids are just crushing it. It's it's a different district and it's really is for the positive.
And I think I think a lot of people in this community see that and know that. And our job is to continue to communicate all the things we're doing and show them what kids are capable of doing. Well, have a good break and we'll be back at the in January to start these up again as we move into the second half of the school year.
Looking forward to it. Thank you. Happy New Year and happy holidays.