Probably not. Some things is one west but the official address is one. One west. Okay. The next item is consider school amendment for Athens Virtual Academy. Yeah. So here um we would be looking to submit accreditation to add sixth grade. So, Athens Virtual Academy is currently 7 through 12. Um, many things we've learned in year one. Year one is that that secondary transition is also a natural transition there as well. And so, um, it's our staff has worked with students. Um, it makes sense for that to to at least be an option there and an opportunity there. and we would submit to the UE uh for accreditation uh there as well for adding sixth grade to admin virtual camp.
There's three windows, now there's two. Like, it could be a whole I mean, the way this is written in these other communities, Province Town, Shrewsbury, etc., is I'm an applicant. I file an application to get these approved. Yes. So, it doesn't read like whenever you have a construction permit, you must come back. It reads more like this is our decision. I'm I'm assuming this is our decision. This is what you're building. This applies. And then when you're building, you should we are trusting you to come to us and apply for these changes to be read our regulation, not our regulation, our rule, whatever it is, and follow it. That's part of the obligation of an applicant. Obviously, it's a whole other conversation if they don't follow through. But I I would not want to put a burden on every applicant to kind of prove that nothing has changed.
And I hope that's because of the fleet of vans because the original plan was for those to be self, you know, they were supposed to save us money or at least have us break even in transportation. And then there's also ESSER money that still exists um that hasn't been spent. And so we met with the superintendent. We heard about cuts and I guess there's this money. Why are we cutting things like strings for kids, which is $25,000 when there's all this money sitting here and cutting things that teachers need. I would say that in the past three years, I know things have been cut from our schools that this money could have paid for. I like to think of my tax money going to the children and the teachers in the classroom the year I pay it, not three, five years down the road. So, I guess I'm asking this this money has been sitting there for the last three years not being used and if it's a rainy day fund, the rain has come is what I'm saying.
Uh but I think even more so, you know, I need to spend a lot more time with Vin, Marlene, uh Emily, our principles, uh to take a a hard look at once that number is allocated to the board. What would be the most sensible recogni uh recommendation that I could make to you about where those reductions if any I say that ultra optimistically that it would be fully funded but uh if any reductions are necessary where those would come from. So there's still a lot of time there. The town council is slated to finalize their budget uh as of today anyway. I think this date is kind of up in the air. Monday, uh, or Tuesday, April 22nd. Tuesday, April 22nd. Thank you, Carol. Um, so that's the the budget update. Finally, school start times and redistricting update. Uh, with the this is for 2627.
And um this whole effort has really helped to increase compliance in our practices and making sure that we are providing students with the right courses and making sure that their IEPs um match what they're getting. Another thing that we've implemented is the alternative pathway to diploma. So this is a new California law and um it was actually developed by parents of students who fall into our moderate to severe category of students and they felt so passionately that they wanted to ensure that their students were getting the same access to curriculum and instruction that they lobbied and created this law that provides almost a a mirrored version of what our traditional diploma track students are getting. They have to earn 130 credits. They take math, English, history, and science. Uh they take VAPA courses, visual and performing arts courses, and they have a full scope and sequence of classes that is very reflective of what our traditional diploma track students earn.
I am thankful for their action and dedication beyond the schools and the offices we all work at. in appreciation of being there in a time of need. So tonight we recognize you for your commitment and excellence in everything you do. So thank you. So we're gonna have them go across in front of the board. Melissa, thank you. shake hands and we'll take pictures. Thank you. We might need to do You're good. [Music] [Applause] Okay, I'm going to make the board stay. I'm putting Pat on a computer. Um, and I'd like to have Amber Abney from Rancho Verie come up, Dana Beller, and Sher Nelson. Everybody always wants to stand behind me. Come on, you're the honores. We have invited them to our board meeting under the guise of being an outstanding representative of our district core values. And while they do just that every single day, tonight we are hoping to surprise them with a new title, San Bernardino County classified employee of the year.
You are both a beloved presence bringing joy to students and staff during classroom visits, sporting events, performances, and various community gatherings. So, we just want to express our thanks to you for always being there and for being the best sport ever. And you have never said no every time I call you up with one crazy plan after another and you've actually made them crazier and have never said no. So, thank you so much, Mark. We have one for you. I didn't realize this was happening, so I don't We got to get a picture, Mr. Jingo. Mr. Jingaro, please get a picture with uh Yeah, thank you. pictures we have for children. Just take some of the other one, two, three. Chewy. Chewy. Look at this. Chewy. In fairness, we did wake up Chewy from his nap. That's a good boy. Maggie said it's the first time he's been think.
So I would recommend approval for submitting that amendment that's just filling right any discussion motion so move all in favor. All right. Thank you. Moving on to personnel. All right. Yeah, I would u recommend the board accept resignations A through C. Um we'll talk about that Brian Bartlett come back and um was our middle school part-time band director, which was a perfect fit. We kind of hoped to get a couple years out to help continue to grow our band program. Brian did a great job. I Bryant has been even in his letter talked about that the amount of time he you know he's no longer a young man. So the amount of time he found himself wanting to put in afterwards made him kind of think well this probably is like a probably will work for us in some manner but he thinks that being a part-time band director or a full-time band director at CMS we're having to work through that one.
I think we have to have some trust, if you will. At least this is how the other communities. No, there are other communities that do that but are doing it more like you must come each time. Yeah, they they they have a um like a stat basically giving a status what changed. I think from documentation point of view every time you're filing drawings for permit and you have bulletins where you have changes you are creating by default bulletin list which can come to us which doesn't come to us right now. Exactly. has been changing 3 ft away, 5 ft away. It is a holistic approach. So it's like giving a copy if you will to planning board. But the I think the intent here is if a project lifestyle is four years from schematics to construction and occupying who is I don't think we want to do policing.
That's where I'm at. Mayor, yeah, please. So, I need to take we need to take the circuit breaker off the table because that's statutoily required as to what it is that we're allowed to carry over. Okay. And that's what it is that we adhere to. Deal. regarding the the prior year that goes to again I'm going to say the practices that have been in place here even when we haven't been here the two times previously previous and even when Liz Gilman was the business manager when Liz Gilman went over to the city side was if indeed there was surplus available in the local budget come end of the year the practice is and I in the May meeting of May 2024 the mayor asked the question of me as to what is the order in which we spend our funds and I answered we spend the local first to try and conserve and save what it is that's available.
And I want to be really clear about that that we're not looking at changing start times for 2526. Uh the demolition and and closure of a couple of buildings and and construction of a new building that's geographically pretty far from where other buildings are at the moment will certainly require uh not just redistricting but tweaking the start times for each school. And I have to credit uh Emily Taylor who spent a lot of time taking a look at what are the different options. And I I've said to her, you know, we want every option on the table, every option. And we will methodically work through those options to determine uh logistically are these options feasible? Uh financially, what are the implications? things like um and and we met last earlier this week with uh Doug well not Doug Levens but from folks from the Y Lisa and uh Luther Miller our transportation coordinator director has been very involved with this.
They use a modified curriculum, so it's accommodated to meet their educational needs and abilities. and we are the first district in Orange County to completely implement the alt pathway to diploma sequence and we're actually through one of our amazing program specialists working with other districts to help them with their implementation of it. So that's been a a big push for our moderate to severe classes this year. All of our special programs have implemented that this year. Another thing that we've been working on um and has been a focus for the past few years is our master schedule building process. And I feel so honored to work in a district that really values all students and means it when it says all students because what we've done is we actually build the master schedule for students with disabilities at all of our sites first. It's the first part of the schedule that's built and that helps to ensure that all of our students have access to the courses they need.
All [Applause] three Here's the stats. And I did this because Dustin sat with me and said, "Tene, the math to this is just incredible." And I'm like, "Of course Dustin's going to bring up the math." So, here's the stats. 33 school districts, nine categories for school districts to nominate and send forward their district winners. We had eight categories submitted as our winners in the trades categories chose not to move on to the county competition this year. Our first team to participate this this year is our first time to participate for nominations for an ABUSD classified employee of the year. We had a celebration and now we have three county recipients. You heard me say it. 33 school districts. All could submit up to nine categories and these three were selected for the county and will be moving on to the state. [Applause] Sherry's gonna be really tired in the morning because she's our transportation router dispatcher and she like gets there gets up at like 3:30 with Kim and they're over at the office making sure kids get on routes.
[Applause] Thank you. Is there anyone else who'd like to approach the table and speak with us? Long time no see. Well, today I was going to say I stand before you, but looks like I'm sitting to talk about something that affects all of us. And I'm going to say it again. Our schools, our students, the future of our community. We are at a critical point where we must decide whether to invest in the success of our children or allow our schools to struggle with rising costs and increasing demands. This is why I'm only asking for a 4% increase. We could go to adequacy for 44 million. But I'm being very generous. 4% increase in the school budget is not just necessary. It is essential. Remember, it is crucial to accommodate rising operational costs, essential educational programs, and unfortunately the uncertainty of Washington DC. We need to ensure that schools can maintain financial stability while continuing to provide highquality education.
um is that for somebody who's young and ready to go. So he thought if he hadn't spent 8 years away from it, he still could still do it. But times change. So he it was great. I do think he I've heard numerous compliments on how well the middle school band sounded. So we're working through that kind of replace him. Um and then consider resignation. Also D there for Michelle Ricardo for so I recommend you take A through D. All right. All right. I move approval. Second. All in favor? I one recommendation. All right. Super excited to recommend one. I will call her one of our own even now. Yeah, we let her be educated somewhere else. But um I'm assuming Jenny's comments here also probably helped us recruit. Um so definitely recommend Sydney Beach to be a host elementary teacher who Mr. Burton is now working on her for coaching.
So I think it needs to be a document that is kind of additions to our conditions which says if the major changes here are the possible list when do they come back what point what is our approval time frame because you can't obviously have um construction lined up and waiting for a board to approve and then back and forth and design changes. So I think it's a very involved process. I I think there's some point between 20% and 100% where things do get locked into place, right? And I think it's more and it doesn't become a fire of construction usually, right? So that they're so that they're coming when they think that they have things pretty much locked in place. That's when they come back and said, "Hey, we made these changes, you know, and um and I think it it it would be something like um you know, as we put in the that the approval should not be unreasonably withheld, right?
So to say that the quote unquote money is quote unquote just sitting there belittles the practice of what it is that we are doing. We are doing sound fiscal practices that I'm hearing the mayor and Mr. Nbercow saying they are doing on the city side as well. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. we are statutoily allowed to do what it is that we are doing. Now to go to the discussion as to what is it quote being used. The reason why we had the balance as we did at the beginning of FY25 was because of the ESSER funding and because of the fact that one of the outcomes of ESSER was to as we all know to address the learning loss and things that came to light in school districts out of the pandemic that weren't being addressed even before the pandemic. But an outset of it was that they wanted school districts to then therefore use the ESSER funding to help build up their reserves to have available to them when the ESSER funding goes away.
Marlene's been very involved and we think about things like well if high school starts late who will cover afterare uh at the elementary grades if they start early because many of their staff are are high school students. And so we're working through a lot of these things logistically. What are the sports implications? What are child care implications before and after care? And so it's important for us to uh do our diligence so that anything we do present publicly has been pretty well vetted and uh we hope to do that later late in the spring, early summer uh before we start taking a real look at what start times might look like. Uh so that's it for my report. Questions for the superintendent, Mr. Gri? Yeah. Um, as far as start times for the high school, um, what is the duration that the time shift would need to occur?
priority is given to co-eing pairs to make sure they have common conference periods that the schedule is built in a way so that students aren't accidentally scheduled out of having options for electives and things like that. And it really has changed the whole process of how we serve our kids. If we look at the master schedule as the way that we provide equity to students, we have really placed our students with disabilities front and center by changing our process of master schedule development. We also have really been focusing on increasing student voice, which across the board we have in this district, but we have been really focusing on helping our students with disabilities to have their voices heard in course selection. Making sure that they have access to the CTE pathways to the electives that speak to them and are motivating for them. And that includes our moderate to severe students.
Um, and I didn't say this but Amber is one of our LVNs and um I love it and Dana is our um from our IT department. And so I love it. all the signs. You guys, this is what is magical. They were nominated by their peers. And so, there's a video getting ready to be played. And what we know is that they will be recognized at the end of May. And we are going to do everything in our power to get down to the county celebration um right before the HDPA graduation. We're going to make it to both And before we show the videos, I would like to thank Kristen Dri, director of human resources, who put the process together, coordinated our district event, and has been the cheerleader to get our winners into the county process. I would also like to thank Granite Hills High School teacher Rudy Sig Sigura and his video production students who created some of the videos and of course our own Zoe Widner who would a public information officer who created some of the other videos as well.