I still took a drug screen. I did everything that was asked of me. I even brushed the coaching shirts from the years I coached for this community because I wanted to remind this board that I wasn't just some random applicant asking for an opportunity. I already earned that opportunity. I already served this community. What makes this even harder to understand is that Instead of allowing me to continue as coach, the team ended up with a coach who repeatedly made it known he didn't even want to be there. Meanwhile, I was actively trying to volunteer my time, energy, and commitment to those kids. That makes this decision feel even less about what's best for the students and more about selective enforcement. And what is even more concerning is that that there appears to be no real process. A decision that affects someone's reputation, involvement in community, and ability to volunteer with just be made closed doors with no meaningful opportunity to challenge it, explain circumstances or request a fair review.
>> And then the next portion that we really looked at was mental health. We all agreed and the survey showed the feedback that we got that was mental health was emerged as a top priority um across all stakeholder groups, staff, parents, students, community groups and um we can see the impact of that. On this slide it shows that 60% um of our students who are considered medically homebound um are due to anxiety or anxiety related conditions. Um, we also, as we were going through the data and looking at that, we also recognized a need for a transition process for students moving um, from residential or students getting um, pretty intensive support services back to school. So, trying to figure out how we can streamline that process and make sure that everyone is successful. Um, families, students, and staff all stressed that mental health supports were in their top three priorities according to survey feedback.
This CIF divisional title represents a significant milestone as it was the first ever in the program's existence and the first team CIF championship that Savannah has won since 1993. Round of applause. The team secured its first divisional championship with a divisive 4625 victory over Warren High School at Isuza Pacific University. Throughout the fiveame playoff tournament, Savannah High School outscored its opponents by an average of 11.8 points per game. Camila Kum Karuma was named was named honored as most valuable player for the coast league for her exceptional performance during the season as well as CIF player of the year for division 6 for outstanding play during the CIF run. The Delila Cruz was also honored as defensive player of the year for the coast for the coast league. Savannah also had Jazyro Madrid, Marley Valentine, and Kilawani Kalito achieve first team all league honors. The board proudly congratulates the players and coaching staff of the 2025 through 2026 Savannah High School girls basketball program.
I had the pleasure of attending Granite Hills High School's Little Shop of Horrors, celebrated our certificated employees of the year, visited Apple Valley High School students as they worked in the kitchen and even joined them this morning at the farmers market. I applauded students who participated in the talent show at Phoenix Academy. I celebrated Cinco de Mayo with Vanguard Prep and joined Granite Hills High School students as they cheered on Hesperia Unified School District's first performance of Shrek the Musical in their beautiful new facility. I would also like to thank each of you for continuing to show up. I know it's been a long year and I appreciate you continuing to support the important work we do here every month. I brought some cookies to share. At the back, feel free to help yourselves to a plate. Um and if you don't want all five cookies, feel free to share.
Thank you. I'll answer any questions if any of the board members have any questions or if you want to turn it over to the public if they have any questions. I'll answer those. But thank you for your time. >> Thank you very much Dr.
On a daily basis, we transport over 3,500 students in district with 78 buses and vans and contract for over a thousand students to be transported out of out of district through the educational service commission. We serve over 7,000 lunches and,200 breakfast daily and employ over 1,800 full-time employees. There are over 11,000 students on roll. There are 28 different sports, 54 teams, over 100 coaches, two athletic trainers with a part-timer with over 1,150 student athletes. Also, there are over 160 co-curricular activities and clubs throughout the district. The preliminary budget was approved on the March 19th board meeting, submitted to the county prior to March 27th, and approved by the county on April 8th. The budget was advertised in the paper on April 17th. The public hearing is tonight for the budget to be submitted to the county no later than May 14th. Now, I'll go over the main highlights of the budget.
And what's really cool that I find about Tolken is he was a linguist first. He was really into languages which he studied ancient languages, modern languages and then when he was young decided to create his own language which was Elvish. So this piece actually features a couple Elvish phrases out of his legendarium and they are mourn utilier which means darkness has come and mourn Alanteier which means darkness has fallen. And this piece, May it Be, is about staying true to your heart through hard and dark times. So here it is. May it be in, which will feature Haley Petrushe on vocals. [applause] Shines bright. >> [music] >> My Wonderful. [music] Our love [music] [music] may The shadows [singing] will fly. [singing] May it be a journey to [music] [singing] the day. And when the [music] light is overcome, you may rise [music] to bright. [music] And we [music] will [singing] fight [music] our [music] [music] alone.
Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Fierstein. Shannon Lewis. Same as before, whenever you're ready. Thank you. Good evening. Um I am a My name is Shannon Lewis. I'm a former GPS teacher, and I have a daughter at Patterson, where I'm also um on the PTSO board. And um I'm in a unique position because now I teach privately um through ESA. I teach homeschool families. And so, but I have a daughter in the public schools um in a in a district that I do really believe in, but I'm I'm kind of in the middle because while I deeply believe in public education and not necessarily homeschooling, I hear from the homeschool families and from many of my friends who are teachers and on the board of the PTSO um that a lot of the reason that they're leaving is that our voices are not heard. And that's that's why I left.
That is not transparency. That is not accountability. And it certainly does not feel fair because I know the only person because I know I'm not the only person connected to this community or school system with a past record. So if second chances of rehabilitation apply to some people, why not me? If the answer is policy, then show policy. discretion and explain why that discretion changed after years of approval and successful coaching. And if this decision was influenced by personal complaints, politics or pressure from certain individuals and the public deserves transparency about that too. I've spent years trying to positively impact kids in this community. I stepped up coach many people alone. Yet now being treated as though none of that matters despite years of proven service, no issues during my time coaching. I'm asking this board tonight for honesty, consistency, accountability, and really process for decisions like this because where I stand the standard being applied to me now is not the standard that was applied before.
Um, we see that parents and guardians said it um, second. Staff also reported a second. And then students, they worded it a little bit different, but help with stress and worries. That was one of their number one priorities. So, as you can see, this is something that I think we need to really spend a lot of time and the um, data shows that we need to spend a lot of time working into. And then while an overwhelming majority of parents, students, and staff agreed that students feel safe at school, there was a little bit of a discrepancy between staff, students, and then parents who agreed that students feel cared for and respected at school. So we need to investigate a little bit more. More work needs to be done to see why there is a difference of perception and to then go beyond that to identify those 7% of students who feel disconnected and create a partnership with a staff member, a resource to make sure that all of our students feel connected and that we um can communicate that to parents as well.
And we invite you all to um come in the middle for photo together and certificate. Thank you. Let's go. Bring I'm the presidention. Thank you guys for all the support. CONGRATULATIONS. >> It's a a big night for girls sports. Our next recognition Yes. OH. UH, WE'RE WELCOME THE Kennedy High School Girls Mascot Championship CIF. Welcome. You guys are welcome TO read this. >> Okay. >> A little bit should have read this first. Uh we proudly recognize the Kennedy High School girls basketball team for their outstanding achievement. The team captured the Golden West League championship and continued an impressive postseason run to become CIF Division 7 champions. This Yes. This CIF divisional title represents a significant smile milestone as it was the first such championship in school history for girls basketball. ANOTHER team secured its first divisional championship with a divisive 55 to28 victory over Lagona Hills at Zuza Pacific University.
You'll have to excuse me. I had a hard day. Had to help a friend move after he had to leave Apple Valley because he could not find a place to stay. He could barely walk. You might remember him. The same gentleman that got thrown from our board meeting last year. Painfully shuffling his feet as he received a police escort out. It took everything just to show up. And you never gave him the chance to talk. Do you know why he was here? Simply to ask a few questions. He wrote an email and then delivered a cure and correct asking AVUSD to explain. After no clarity was provided, he showed up and was thrown out and never given the opportunity to speak. I'd like to say that was the end of it, but it's simply not true. A year later flyers were distributed with his picture on it stating a possible recent threat.
Are there any questions? Okay, seeing the board questions, I will again say um Dr. Alello, thank you. Miss Henry, thank you very much. Um I know there's administrators, staff, a lot of people involved in pulling this off and I am very thankful to all of them um for really um putting together a budget that um that um uh we're comfortable to vote on later on, >> maybe 2% of technology. Okay. Um, we do have another uh section here for public comments on >> the screen that says yes. >> It's not the button you would think that the hard way. >> Operator >> back down to one. >> Operator. >> Is anyone from the comment to uh or anyone from the public wishing comment? >> Mito. I just have one question. >> Can you try my usually if you hold the button on top it should turn on >> better?
On the revenue side, the budget we're presenting calls for a 6% tax levy increase or $9 million from the current budget year into 2627 school year. There is a state aid increase of 6.3 million or 6%. And while this may seem like a significant increase in state aid, I'll go uh into further later in the presentation the dramatic increase to the charter school tuition budget line. The budget calls for a withdrawal of capital reserve for three projects. Also withdrawal from maintenance reserve of 2.5 million. And lastly on the revenue side would be extraordinary aid of 3.5 million, semi or the special education Medicaid initiative of 305,000 and miscellaneous revenues of 1.25 25 million which consists of interest, facility rentals, fines, insurance dividends, uh prior year refunds, etc. On the appropriation side, the budget does maintain all program and staff with a supply reduction of 10% across all department areas.
>> [music] [music] [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Before [clears throat] our final uh selection, I want to pressure and get ready to go. I want to do all our thank yous. Um I want to thank Mr. Brock Mizlin, who is our co uh fine arts coordinator for being here this evening. our one of our assistant principles, Miss uh Jared. Um Dr. Bogus for being here this evening.
That's the main frustration of many teachers. It's not pay, it's not student behavior, although those things are there. It's that we are not listened to, our voice is not heard. And for us to have spoken out and given our opinion in what is working for us and then to have that overridden by somebody who's not even here um to address this matter, but we are all here is extremely frustrating. And while I believe in public education, for me this would be the last straw where I would likely take my daughter out now of the district, where I would even consider leaving Gilbert now because it is so frustrating to not be heard and to not um it it just feels like a slap in the face. And to be on the side of the teachers and working with teachers um that isn't just me talking.
Thank you. >> So Brandon, first of all, I want to thank you for coming to the board meeting this evening to provide that feedback. While we will not as a board be responding to your statement, we will take it under advisement. So I appreciate that. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Is anyone else present who would like to speak to an item on the agenda or not on the agenda. So, now we'll move down to new business. Um, hold on. Sorry, skipped a page. We got some old business that we're going to move down to. We have some new policies that we need to um approve. >> Yes. Asking for approval of this set of NEA policies. >> We'll entertain a motion. Sorry, add the guidelines a little bit. Okay. Um, we'll entertain a motion to approve the policies as presented.
Um so then parent feedback showed that increased student support services that was the most important outcome um that they that they pointed out for us to look at in the next three to five years. So as you can see um not only developing that but also figuring out how we're going to effectively communicate that is an important goal for us. And then absenteeism. The best way for us to ensure well-being of our students is that they're at school where we can help them and have these supports and these services. The 2021 2022 data showed that JCSC was one of the 10 highest school corporations for chronic absenteeism. The 2026 data shows great improvement. Um we are down to the 25th highest in the state, but obviously still not where we want to be. Um schools will continue along with the JCSC attendance committee to work with community resources and partners um to improve attendance rates daily.
Throughout the five-game playoff tournament, Kennedy High School outscored its opponents by an average of 21.6 points per game. Taiah Paul was honored as player of the year for her exceptional performance during the season. The board proudly congratulates the players and coaching staff of the 2026 Kenny High School girls basketball program. CONGRATULATIONS. OKAY, >> EXACTLY. Just going to pride them up there. Yeah. >> Um, >> are you do are you doing it all together or one by one? >> Just we'll do it as one group. >> Okay. Let me read through this and then Okay. >> All right. Our next recognition is our regional and state honor musicians. Tonight we're incredibly proud to recognize our regional and all state honor musicians. These students have demonstrated extraordinary dedication to their craft and their achievements reflect the highest standards of excellence within our district. To earn these honors, each student had to independently obtain audition materials, undergo rigorous preparation, and successfully audition for their respective groups.
But the truth is after that board meeting, he never came back. Somehow, someone created an alternate reality prompting a valued employee to express great fear. He was a private citizen, a disabled man. Today, I call to account whoever did this. Can you imagine what happens to anyone else who might try to speak up? Rest assured, people talking about a problem is never the problem. We must talk or it can never be resolved. That's why it's important to keep the conversation going. This district has allocated $100 million of additional spending, according to fact-finding and our 2026 second interim report. In 4 years, Hesperia Unified built a state-of-the-art performing arts community building. Victor Elementary offered a significant incentive for teachers to become reading specialists. And Victor Union High School District lowered class sizes significantly while increasing teacher pay. But ABUSD increased spending so much on management, we now have to shortchange staff, fill classrooms to the brim, and riff classified to their bare bones.