I don't want to say that is the decision yet. We meet next month. um April 4th to really discuss that. United will be attending that meeting which will be nice. Um overall on our medical we are running relatively well. So we're hoping that um we'll see a little bit more relief from United. That's the goal. Um but right now we still are targeting the 20% increase. Um so we'll see. So x that is actually premium and w of that is actually to the uh claims fund but >> yeah so we're we're trying to I'm hopeful that when United comes out we'll hear a little bit more as to if we're going to end up right at the 20 but we are also are making up our uh claim fund balance as well that happened the prior year and that's going to be ongoing for quite some time.
I would also like to share that our faculty art show will be open for the next two Thursdays on March 12th and March 19th if you didn't get a chance to go visit from 3:45 until 5:30. I would also like to share that we will be hosting again a thing together during spring break from March 30th until April 2nd for our elementary students. If families are interested in participating, they can uh look for the flyer on Peach Jar or connect with their school site program leader. Thank you. >> Good evening. I too would like to echo congratulations to all of the nominees and our district um parent of the year. I'll also like to thank all the parents and staff that participated in our nutrition services um breakfast week with the pancakes. Um and then lastly want to congratulate our girls from uh Zuza High School for um coming up second in state for soccer.
>> Do do you get a discount if you prepay it? >> No. I mean, if you look at Olivia, it's like you guys will be making a payment. >> Yeah. On their accounts. Their accounts aren't paid for yet. >> No, not yet. We We've got what, one more payment to make them? >> Yeah. They invoice us three different times throughout the year. So, we have to meet them. >> Me, too. >> But here we have within our tax credits. um letting you know that currently as of when this was printed, we hadund almost $186,000 of cash sitting at the the county treasur's office. You scroll on down with Miss Jenna. So if you take out all the expenditures and everything else, um we spent 60 just over 68,000 out of that that fund this year. So there's still there's still quite a bit of tax credit money sitting in there.
Um, and the cost of these conferences and travel go up. So, to keep it at a price from something that was 10 years ago doesn't work and then we could say we're being good stewards. But I think being a good steward over is getting education. Now, somebody could say, well, do you go what do you do when you go to these conferences? Well, it used to be that you would come back and give a report that took all night for some people. Some people had PowerPoint slides and presentations. So, the board had went away from that. Um, now I think that if we're in education, we should be getting educated. We shouldn't come to the board meeting week after week and say is can we do that? Should we do this? I don't know what that is. Why? And that's what happens with this board.
But I think what I could really use your help with is as Jim mentioned, if the override doesn't pass, they've got a budget that's looking at um at uh is it a 1.55 Jim million dollar increase and and I think I have I gave you a scenario today that had the Ashlin public schools going up a million. >> You had it at a million, right? >> Yeah. And so there's a delta there. And I need to know from the boards, do you want to look at utilizing stabilization funds to or more stabilization more stabilization funds if the override fails to maybe pre prevent a cat a catastrophic decrease in staffing uh especially at the Ashlin public schools. Um and if you do want to use that, what's the appropriate amount? I have a million dollars plugged in there for the Ashlin public schools. I think Jim is looking at something a little bit more.
So again, we're going to try to keep comments to about three minutes. So go ahead. Welcome. >> Hello everyone. My name is Arfore and I'm the class president for the class of 2028. I want to speak about how last year's budget cuts have directly impacted students at Tanto and why restoring a biology teaching position is so important for our school community. For the past year, US students have seen several science courses disappear from the schedule, including AP Biology. These classes are not just electives. They are opportunities for us to explore interests, challenge ourselves academically, and to prepare us for college. Many students, including myself, are passionate about science. And when these courses are unavailable, it limits our ability to build strong academic foundations and discover the path we may want to pursue after graduation. Current staffing levels make it difficult for the school to offer a full range of science classes.
So, um, but we're really trending in the right direction now. Um, we're getting ahead of it. Uh, USI has been great. Um, and the committee has that we've formed has really helped get ahead of this. So, yeah.
And I also want to join the parade of congratulations to our parents who were recognized uh this evening uh and to all the parents that make a Suza Unified School District uh great for their participation and their contributions. And then secondly, I would also like to announce that we had a record number of classified employees sign up for the uh 2026 2027 summer saver. Um this uh shattered the previous record set two years ago and we have 134 classified employees that have elected to participate. Uh it's an amazing number of classified employees that have elected to contribute a combined amount of $271,000 over the 2627 school year for the summer saver program. So, uh, congratulations to them and congratulations to the district for continuing to participate in this, uh, classified summer saver program. >> Okay, thank you. Thank you all for all your reports. Moving on to item 10.1, approval of the consent calendar.
And I was talking with Miss Rico the other day about, you know, tax credits are still coming in, but they're coming in slower than than they have been in previous years. Even Even within civics. Civics is where you're seeing it the most, where it's it's not really coming in like it has in the past. We need to make that last stitch effort pitch to our parents and stuff too. >> It's hard. You got to have the I mean they have to have the extra even though they know they're going to get it back. They just have that it's that putting in a savings account but not saving mentality. And also the thing about it though is is that I have a there is a parent who does tax credits every quarter and she does it for their for her students athletics you know so it's you know $40 here >> you know $75 here and by the time you know the year's up she's made almost her her $200 worth of tax credit so it's not something that people have to do up all at once.
We have board members who always don't know but they don't want to go get educated. >> And I think that that's unfortunate. Now, if you're a wy old board member who has who knows some stuff, and I'm not being funny when I say that, who knows some stuff. I understand you might not want to go as often, but I think we should continue to get continuing education like any um educational per anybody that's in the educational field. That's my take on why I think we should be at least allotted a little more money because and we should go get seek education even if it's not um if you don't want to go to triple I don't go to triple I if you don't want to go to national don't go to national but you should be getting educated and not just by the superintendent or other board members because that's not their job and they're they they're not the experts.
Do you want me to try to make up that delta? What What would you like me to do? >> Can I speak to that a little bit, Michael? Can you Am I on? Can you hear me? Um, you guys have done an excellent job convincing us that we need an override. Obviously, um, we all agreed to that and that's a wonderful thing that we're all on the same page and now we're trying to figure out how to get into the mind of the voter. we have to convince them, you know, what they stand to lose. And as you said, we're I think there's still a little bit of a a difference between what's been proposed, uh, what the two budget scenarios that you've asked us to, um, agree to and to the kinds of things that we're talking about at our meetings as sort of the bare minimum that we feel like we can ask from our um, school community.
With fewer teachers available, scheduling becomes more restrictive. Fewer electives can run, causing us students to have fewer opportunities to explore advanced course work. Looking ahead to next year, we know that students need will need to continue to grow. Without additional staffing, even more course options would be reduced, further limiting the educational opportunities available to us. Adding another biology teacher would make sure make a substantial and meaningful difference. It would allow the school to restore important courses like AP biology and other science electives while also creating more flexibility in the schedule. This would greatly expand student pathways, giving us more chances to explore our interests and strengthen our preparation for our future. Most importantly, adding this position will help protect the quality of Toronto science program while ensuring that the school can meet growing academic and support needs of its students. We, the Tahanto students, are motivated, curious, and eager to learn.
>> Any questions? >> Um, we meet at seven. Yep. So, >> uh, the April 4th, we always meet the first Thursday of the month. Thank you. >> Monday and Jonathan, but I'll try to skim over. Um, as you all know, conference week is coming up and that's one of the busiest times for our PTOs because they are always up by for our staff, which is awesome. Um, and high school was not done to PTO, but there's usually parents that tries to collect some money from the community. So, if you see any of those are on Facebook and you want to donate, please do so. Um, Cherry Book right now, they're planning your scholastic book fair, which will be conference week the 16th through the 19th. Um, they are looking for volunteers, so please visit their website. Um, also looking for meal support for parents prek, first and second grade.
Can I have a motion? >> Motion to approve. Motion by board member Audian. Do I have a second? >> Second by board member Greer. Any discussion? Student members u preferential vote. >> Uh yes. >> Thank you. Colleagues, please place your vote. Motion passes. Four present and one absent. Moving on to item 12.1. Presentation of programs in partnership with Citrus College. Dr. come to the podium please and thank you for waiting all this time and it's >> best night to be able to uh wait and get to hear all those wonderful stories and yeah >> to share uh got to share those stories with my citrus colleagues. So I'm going to um start by going ahead and bringing Dr. Schultz up and I'll let him go ahead and intro and get us started. >> Thank you Dr. Contras and good evening board by press board vice president Rodriguez Pena bless you.
that should be sold. >> Yeah. On the tax credit thing, we went to the state of um Serita district a month ago >> and they have a nice little pamphlet because the SHs fan is going to go play in the 250th celebration. So, they have a nice little flyer and card with a QR code and you could summarize it. You could hit it right there. I mean, I think our we I'm just trying to say we probably should think about refurbishing our brochure, whatever you want, pamphlet >> to use that one or get some ideas from >> and we use we do use ours and we take it to Rotary. We take it everywhere we go. I have to >> in my purse. So we are wherever we go we're all talking tax credit >> for thank you. So next is the motion for >> financial report.
So when all this came up, >> that's it. >> When all this came up, we talked about because of the overage, we talked and we established 4500 for professional development. So in my opinion, anything within July 1st to June 30th, our fiscal year, that's what it is. Wherever we go, when we go down to triple eye, whether it's in Chicago or not, we're still spending on hotels or parking or food. So it's all lumped into that. I've I'll be honest, I'm going into my eighth year and I've always known that that number means it triple has never been separated since I've been here. >> It's always been included in that if you're going to go, you normally have triple I and maybe one other conference. >> Now since co prices are more so it's edgy to go to that second one, but could it change a little?
um because we've already reduced by 13 or 14 positions before anything's even happened and there's really not much left to go and we really would be in the worst case scenario where we were talking about potentially level funded, we would be decimated. And one of my concerns about that, obviously that's just a horrible thing in and of itself, right? The morale is is bad at school. People have already been told they're not getting their jobs back. and um you know and I just want to make sure that we're all moving in the same direction. You know, when I was listening to your your meeting the other night um and we've talked a lot about how we're all in this together, but a lot of the proposals for some of the money coming in for the 750, for example, like a lot I wrote them down.
By investing in other biology teacher, the district will be investing directly in our education, our opportunities, and our future. Thank you for your time and considering the needs of talk to students. LOOKS LIKE MR. DY, teacher at Tahanto. submit that for extra credit on your argument and persuasion unit that we're doing right now. It was fantastic. Um, my name is Peter Dy. I'm the ELA department chair here at Tonto. Um, I'm just here to advocate for uh the teacher positions. I echo everything Arab just said. That was fantastic. And I am here specifically to advocate for the reading specialist position. Um, there has been a growing gap uh between our students who are performing well and student. And that gap is getting larger year by year. Um, in years past, going back to 20134, no, probably 2013, we used to have two ELA blocks a day in middle school.
Also visit the website to help out. Um, and they're working on planning for their annual children's fair, which I know is a really big deal. It's at the end of May, but it's takes a lot of hands to make that work. So, uh, they have an Amazon wish list up right now that like people to contribute to. Um, and also volunteers, obviously. Uh, CIS, they went to the Wolfpack game. They said they have 410 participants that went to the game. Um, and the sixth graders played the Star Spangled Banner. We had 10 kids in the high five tunnel and door got to ride the Zambzone which was quite big deal. They're doing their third annual personality focus with Sharon. >> Um and those are on March 14th at the community center. They have 38 families signed up right now. I think they still have a few spaces left.
Um good evening members of the board of education, superintendent Ortega, members of cabinet and guests. Um we're really pleased to be here to share a a brief update on the wonderful partnership between Citrus College and the Isuza Unified School District. I'd also like to acknowledge and thank my colleague, our executive director of strategic marketing, communications, and public affairs, Miss Lisa McFaren, who's with us. All right. And thank you for the assistance with the slides as well. >> Okay. When I get to come home, it's always odd to introduce myself when I think I've been here almost 40 years, so I should have known everybody, but I'm Anthony Contrarus. Um, on my multiple hats, I'm the administrator principal at the Isuza Adult Education Center here. Um, I'm also the vice president of Citrus College Community District board. and I'm also an alumni of Citrus College. So, it it gives me great pleasure to to be able to be here and be in this position to be able to share with you guys this evening what's going on.