This means the money is legally designated for a specific purpose and cannot be simply moved to cover general expenses like salaries or operations. For example, while we were able to reduce the professional development budget by 20,000, the remaining funds are often tied to specific grants or mandates. As a public school district, we are bound by California Education Code. This legal framework prohibits several suggest suggested measures even if they would offer a path to saving money. We cannot require parents to pay for extended field trips though we can can and do ask for donations and conduct fundraisers. No student can be excluded for the lack of ability to pay. We cannot legally request parents to provide consumable classroom supplies as the district is obligated to provide all necessary supplies for a pre sorry for a free public education. Other decisions are made based on what is prudent for our students and our community particularly in a rural district.
Um, it was crazy busy. It was I think it was Monday and the subs teachers were calling in and she wasn't feeling good and I just want to give kudos to her going million miles a minute how fast and efficient she was covering her teachers and everything and Lisa you had that position. It was crazy. It was what people have to do that it was amazing and I did not appreciate having to be in this position that we got put in. Just FYI, >> that's what you get the big bucks for. Julia. >> Um, I'll just say that I appreciate all the people who showed up tonight and have the courage to come up to Philly and speak. I know that's not easy. Um, and I know we're being live streamed and recorded. Um, I just want to say for the record that we don't take these decisions lightly at all.
The idea of ending general education bus transportation, for example, while not legally required, would not be a prudent decision given our current challenge with chronic attendance issues and the negative impact it would have on our community relations. Our records show closer to 30% of our students rely on that transportation. We want to assure our staff that their ideas lead directly to action where possible. Educational technology. We agree that a survey of unused Chromebook software is warranted to ensure maximum efficiency. We conduct these surveys yearly and also analyze usage reports in Clever or within the program itself. If a tool has had minimal usage, we examine it and consult with the teachers who rely on it regarding its necessity. When we consider eliminating a resource, we actively look for free or cheaper alternatives to ensure teachers and students maintain access to a functional equivalent. We have already acted by reducing our supplies budget to reflect an ongoing effort to balance digital tools with interactive human- centered learning.
I know each board member has um carefully examined um and weighed all the pros and the cons and beyond the people that showed up tonight. I'm pretty sure all of our inboxes have been inundated um with lots of feedback from the community. So, this was not a whole representation of the feedback that we've received from the community. Um, but nonetheless, every single person that I've spoken to on the phone, that has text messaged me, who stopped me in my neighborhood when I'm trying to take a walk, um, and, uh, emailed, um, I appreciate the involvement and the feedback and, um, it's easy to criticize when you're on the outside, but when you're in the ring making these hard hard decisions, nobody quite understands how difficult that is. And like Mr. said, "No matter what way we voted, there was going to be half of the half the community is going to be upset, half the half the community is going to be happy." So, I felt like we were um in a lose-lose situation tonight.
Special education department. The district has reduced the special education department by two and a half employees and we are actively engaged in conversations about restructuring and addressing the use of substitutes for IEP meetings which is a key area of concern. I also want to address the reduction in the PE program. I understand there is a lot of uncertainty and emotion around this cut. Restructuring the PE program with two teachers is going to be difficult, but the district will work tirelessly to make it the best program possible and will do our best with equity as it relates to prep time for teachers. The district has consistently demonstrated its commitment to honoring our teachers time through measures such as reduced extra duty supervision and lunch periods exceeding legal mandates. These benefits were implemented to acknowledge your hard work and dedication. While we value providing this added time, current budget realities unfortunately ne necessitate a temporary pause on these p on this practice.
>> Jackie, >> I had the opportunity to come to um Anderson and judge the speaking competition that the FFA did. Um little faux paw I made though. I thought I was being invited just to judge the Anderson speaking competition and so I had my Anderson hat on. >> I'll represent. >> I know. But but as a judge I was like, "Oh, wait a minute. We're judging all school." So I had to quickly take off the hat. But I was so impressed. I think it was about three hours and I judged 15 kids doing the the section that I judged was impromptu. And so they had to come and choose from topics to talk about. And I was just so impressed. I mean, I have heart palpitations just doing this right now. And so to see these kids and to see what that SFA program did and what it brings out in the kids, it was just a joy, a joy to do.
In conclusion, every single one of your ideas was considered. Many are already being acted upon while others are constrained by legal obligations or the reality of restricted funding. We are dedicated to maintaining a high quality education while balancing our budget and this requires making complex decisions that go beyond simply finding things to cut. We value our staff and their input and we will continue to collaborate as we navigate this challenging fiscal environment together. >> All right. Thank you, Michelle and Mr. President. I just wanted to ask first of all thank you Mr. town addressing, but I I wanted to talk about if I may without doing this during my board comments because I think it's important concerning uh reducing uh student absent. Do you mind if I just share something I've shared in the past that's relevant to this? I'll be very brief, if I may.
So, thank you for extending that invitation. Um, I'm always as a board member wanting to be involved. I just don't always um know, but thank you for reaching out. >> I also second that I love being involved. So, if there's anything you ever need a board member to come and just be present or I would love to. I It really is an honor and I' I've really enjoyed getting to know some of the schools and I'd like to visit the ones that I haven't yet and um kudos to you with the FFA program and you doing a great job. So, thank you. >> So, I agree it was very difficult. Uh, I've known Greg Grandell for 30 years without him. Uh, so it was I felt it was in the best interest of the district and I have to vote that way because that's what I'm here to represent the district, not just one person.
Can can you just include it in your board of comments? >> Well, I have something else. We'll talk about all of them. Yeah. Well, okay. >> That's okay. Well, yeah, because otherwise it's like we don't have it on the agenda. >> Okay. >> So, you can go ahead. Oh, thank you. I wanted to address something that I brought up before after attending the annual education conference which was uh before last uh concerning the uh everyday counts campaign which stands county implemented and they're extremely large county but what they did they is I asked them to give me the communication and marketing plan and I've given that plan to Mrs. Townsend. And I know that um this is quite extensive and a lot of work for one person to do and I wanted to make a suggestion. Um possibly uh our education support specialist could perhaps look into this because there are a lot of computergenerated notices that go to uh the families to increase attendance.
Um also wanted to suggest that perhaps and if that won't work uh perhaps one school per month could uh using their creativity uh focus on a particular uh project to bring attention to to raising attendance. So something that the whole school can engage in. Maybe wearing a particular color that says, you know, um in in this particular marketing plan, we had t-shirts made. You know, we don't have funding for that, but something that will get them focused on the importance of being at school every day. So I brought this up in past meetings and as I said, Mrs. Townson has this. So perhaps we could be able to implement that and raise our attendance. Thank you. I get to M. Okay. I have to look at my phone for that. Uh and I talked to Mrs. Townsen about this as well as uh Madera Sheriff's uh he's the assistant sheriff in Madera.
And what he does is um is a presentation to parents on internet safety. He said he would come to Bohurst. Uh he does a presentation that's about 45 to 50 minutes long. And I wanted to let everybody know that yesterday, February 10th, marks safer internet day. And I think this is extremely important. And for reasons I'll try to be as brief as I possibly can. Um there's some statistics internet safety risks by the numbers that all of our children are uh encountering with their phones. Uh our children are being exposed, all of us are being exposed to 5 billion people around the world with little to no safeguards. Um parents are handing their children a phone and basically there's no no safeguards. So um by the numbers, I'll just read this as quickly as I can. One in three teens have chosen digital quote unquote companions over human relationships.
70% of children aged 7 to 18 have accidentally encountered online pornography. Nearly half of teens aed 13 to 17 have been harassed or bullied online. The last one I'll talk about right here is one in 17 minors have personally experienced sex tortion. So when my children uh were first given a phone and this was over 15 years ago, didn't know anything about what we're experiencing today with social media could have saved my family and my children significant amount of pain and exposure to predators and really a lot of evil. And so uh Mrs. Townsen is agreed she would look into connecting with Sheriff Glenn to see how we can bring this to our community. Thank you very much. That's all I have. >> I am low. I am frustrated with education. I feel very sad um for the decision that had to be made tonight.
I know that I voted for it. um because it is something that needs to be done. I know that there are a many many ways that we could cut the budget, but in the end, um it was important to me to uh preserve the two PE teachers that we had as um I felt very um strongly about the mental health um component that physical education provides. ides um the support the amazing jobs that our PE teachers have done as um cited by the young gentleman Mr. Krowy tonight and um I know it doesn't feel good to the teachers that this had to happen and I just wanted to share that it doesn't feel good to me to have had to to make this decision. Um, and I don't there's no words I can say that is going to make it feel better. I think that it's just it's going to suck.
And um I appreciate whatever trust you still um have in me to try and keep this district fiscally responsible. Thank you. Um, I want to thank all of you for everybody's hard work in our district. I think everybody contributes to our kids' education and we see it. Um, I did want to tell you everybody who wrote a letter, we read them. We can't respond. We have one um spokesperson for the board who's the president. Um, but I can guarantee you we've read every single letter that we've received. Um, we not only received them from the teachers, but we did receive them from other support staff as well. Um, I, you know, tonight I had to abstain. I I we talked a lot about this and I just after the last meeting, we got a lot of this uh information from everybody and I felt like I was grasping at straws tonight like, well, maybe we didn't make the right decision.
You know, I do feel like we tried. I mean, we really did go into it doing our homework and, you know, and and doing the best we could. Like I said, our goal is to keep the district, you know, fiscally solvent and um you so it it's hard and so we're doing the best we can. I also want to say that I have volunteered at Mass the last couple weeks. It is amazing program. I'm very excited about the kids that um I've helped. They're A's. I can't only do A. Um I will not do the lift. But anyway, uh it does remind me and I've said this to all of my teacher friends like I don't know how you do it. I had four kids and they had to take two away and I still had a hard time. Two kids teaching us. It's just I my hat is really off to you guys.
Like I don't know how you teach kids to do stuff. like it is hard and we see that and we value it, you know. So anyway, thank you um for coming tonight and um you know we're hopeful that maybe things will change and we can restructure things um but we really are trying to take all points you know um and we have you know plans hopefully maybe with more counseling for kids and disrupting classes and whatnot. And anyway, we will continue to fight the fight and do what we can. And I will probably I'll have to um join the legislative uh action committee this year, too. So, anyway, thank you for being here. These last few weeks have been the most difficult of my tenure as a BLSD school board member. It has been a test of how our district functions under pressure and solves difficult problems.
With that in mind, I have a few items for consideration. To Superintendent Townsend, I say that listening to the staff is important and I believe you try, but equally important is communicating the outcomes of what you've heard. Why a suggestion may or may not work. This will close the loop, create pathways for understanding, and build trust. recognize that your board supports you and appreciates you. To the board, including myself, I say take the time to learn deeply about the issues before us. Ask questions, dive into data. And when we are here, if you believe strongly about something, stand in your truth, and fight for what you believe in. We all have a voice, and the more we exercise that voice, the better decisions we will make. To the staff, I would ask that you assume good intent from both the superintendent and from the board.
An us versus them mentality benefits no one. Over these last three years, I have seen attempts at improving behavior through the PBIS program, counseling, SEAL, and SBMS, improvement of your working conditions through the removal of your yard duties, and offering better compensation to try and give you what you deserve compared to neighboring districts. I know that the PE program will not be as robust as it had been and prep time will be reduced or lost, but we protected certificated jobs and low class sizes despite declining enrollment and that should show some good faith. Given the ups and downs of funding, nothing will ever be perfect when it comes to education. But I do believe that Superintendent Townsen is trying to work toward the goals the board has set before her and do right by the system. We want to see our students rise above the challenges and succeed.
We want to provide support for our students and teachers despite budget reductions. We want to see our attendance rates and test scores rise. My hope is that moving forward, we can work collaboratively, communicate openly, and trust one another. Thank you. Okay. All right. So, future agenda items. Um, I think we have uh the board policy that Stephen wrote um for us regarding uh pull that up. Member at large. Yeah, the member at large. Thank you. and their responsibilities for um for monitoring the calendar, making sure that board members are aware of what uh happenings are going on in the district so we make sure that we are not missing things and someone is representing us at a different >> professional development, >> right? Yeah. >> Correct. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, that's a future agenda item. Um and also the mission statement. Mission and vision.