001Okay, the recording started, yes. Okay, thank you. All right, I am calling this meeting to our order. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here for the June 4th, regularly scheduled meeting of the San Carlos School District Board of Education. It is 631, and I will note that Trustee Sarah Casanago is absent. Please note that a recording is being made at the direction of the board and the recording may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. Our first order of business is to approve the agenda. Are there any changes to the agenda? No changes to the agenda. I move that we approve the agenda. Thank you. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Great. Before we proceed, I'm going to review a few guidelines to help our meeting then smoothly. During tonight's meeting,
002there is time for the public to comment on matters both on the agenda during that specific agenda item, as well as not on the agenda toward the end of the meeting. Please wait to speak at the appropriate time. We ask that if you're raising any concerns about students to refrain from sharing any information that may expose of students' identity, this is a public recorded meeting and we are obligated to maintain student privacy. If you'd like to address the board here in person, we ask that you fill out a blue card. If you are online, please use the raised hand feature at the appropriate agenda item. According to board bylaw 9323, each speaker will have three minutes to address the board unless changed by the board. We appreciate and support stakeholder input at our meetings and
003have established these guidelines to make sure members of the public have a chance to express their thoughts and opinions and the board can conduct its business effectively and efficiently. And with that, we will move to our spotlight on excellence. Yes, I am proud to introduce my colleague Jennifer Long, who will celebrate the substitutes who are such an important part of the work in San Carlos School District. Thank you. Good evening. I'll go ahead and start tonight. We are here for the spotlight event for a couple of reasons. The first is a group of individuals whose contributions are absolutely essential to the success of our district, our substitute teachers. And our classified substitutes and retirees who have continued in the classroom and who have given so much of themselves to San Carlos School District. I hope
004many are on Zoom tonight as we celebrate them. When we think about what it takes for our schools to function each day, we often think about teachers, administrators, and staff who are present on our campuses. But behind the scenes, there is another group that quietly steps in whenever they are needed. They answer early morning calls, adjust their schedules at a moment's notice, and walk into classrooms ready to support students and staff wherever they are needed. Without our substitute teachers, we simply could not operate. They are more than substitutes. They are trusted members of our communities. They build relationships with students, support our teachers, and bring stability to classrooms during times of absence. They're an integral part of our district. In HR, Molly Diamond works closely with our substitutes to ensure every classroom is covered and
005every school is supported. It's pretty amazing, the rhythm to witness. When absence occurs, there is a seamless process that takes place because our substitutes know exactly what to do. Their reliability and commitment allow our schools to focus on what matters, our students. So to all our substitutes, thank you. Thank you for your flexibility, dedication, and for saying yes when our district needs you. Your work does not go unnoticed, and we are incredibly grateful for all that you do. So on to the second reason why we are here, where we have the privilege of recognizing someone who is especially dear to our district and community. Vicki has had, has long been a valued member of the San Carlos School District family and we're thrilled to celebrate her recent recognition as San Carlin of the Year. This
006is a tremendous honor and a testament to the impact she has made on countless students, families, colleagues, and community members over the years. For our district, this recognition is doubly special. Not only do we get to celebrate Vicki's contributions within our schools, but we also get to celebrate the broader impact she has made throughout the city of San Carlos. Her dedication, kindness, service, and commitment to others exemplify the very best of our community. Vicki, we are very proud of you and grateful for everything you have done and continue to do for our students in our district. At this time, we have a few speakers. We have two in this room who will get us started and we have another one of you. Would you like to come up? Hi, good evening. I'm Michelle Robinson and
007I'm Shelly Murphy. We have the pleasure of recognizing our amazing San Carlin of the Year, but more than that, as a very special person to us, Vicki Mueller. We've known for coming up to 27 years, so we love you. So, good evening. We first met Vicki in 1999. She took on her role of mentoring us early as our teaching careers and our teaching careers. From the very beginning, she welcomed us into every aspect of life in San Carlos, both in our schools and throughout our community. Even, as Phil mentioned this evening, our recruitment for our DC chaperones for several years had some fun times there with our spouses joining as well. So, you know, that is a trip you have to go on a chaperone. It's amazing. And Vicki spearheaded that with her husband Alan
008for many, many years. So, that alone, you deserve San Carlin of the Year back. Over the years, Vicki became much more than a mentor. She became family. She knows our spouses, our children, and the many milestones we have experienced along the way. Her impact on our lives extends far beyond the classroom. When you hear the name Vicki Mueller, you think of her. Well, Vicki certainly taught us curriculum and instructional practices, but she really taught us was how to connect with children. She showed us the importance of seeing every student building relationships and creating a sense of belonging. Her influence can be seen in countless classrooms throughout our district. Yet, as we all know, while many of us have learned from Vicki, there's only one. Her impact reaches far beyond those she mentioned. A colleague of
009ours, Chris Davidson, now a member of our SDSD staff and a former student, Vicki, shared these words. She is the best teacher I've ever had, and she will forever be my sixth grade teacher. She was the first teacher who motivated me to learn and made me feel like a part of the community. And that is true, because every time she's on our campus, he pushes it by the way, like, no, no, no, she is my teacher. And he takes her moment and sits and makes sure that he gets to share Vicki, too. So even after retirement, Vicki's commitment to students never wavered. She returned to the San Carlos School District as a substitute teacher, continuing to make a difference in the lives of children and supporting classrooms across the district. Recently, we asked some of
010our current students what they thought about having Mrs. Mueller in the classroom. Their responses perfectly captured who she is. She never gives up on students. She always finds good in you. She helps us see mistakes as learning experiences. She thinks of others before herself. One student even went home and told their parent, Mrs. Mueller is a treasure. And perhaps the best example of Vicki's dedication came just today. When asked if she planned to return next year, she smiled and answered me exactly as we expected. I can't stay away from the kids. True story in our staff room. She knows I was there. I mean it on my phone. We're like, what are we going to do? That simple statement captures the heart of who Vicki is. Her love for children, her commitment to education, her
011unwavering belief in every student has left a lasting mark on this district and all of us who have had the privilege of learning from her. Vicki, thank you for your mentorship, your friendship, your service and your love for the students of San Carlos. Your legacy will continue through the countless educators, families and children whose lives you have touched and for as long as the two of us can do this. For sure. We are grateful for you and we are honored to celebrate you tonight. We love you. Smile for her. At this time you can go live. Okay. Did you call on me? So I. Okay, now I can unmute myself. Vicki, you know you're my partner in crime and I have loved being with you as impact sub at TL for I don't know how
012many years now on Tuesday. And I thank you for helping me out this year at a royal and as Mrs. Murphy just attest it. They love you and I'm honored to be your friend and I want to congratulate you and thank you for letting me be part of your life. Congratulations. You have any other speaker. Okay, well thank you for the time, the spotlight. Thank you so much. Director long and thank you. So I see a few are on the zoom. So thank you to all of you for your service to the district. We really appreciate you. Our next item is our consent agenda, which contains items that are routine in nature and we take action on them in one vote. Any public comments on the consent. Okay, very motion. Thank you all in favor.
013And agenda passes, and now we will be on to our information and discussion items. The purpose of these items is for information and discussion only no board action will be taken staff with that and then we will have time for certain questions. First is the draft of the local control accountability plan and budget overview for parents. That's me. Yes. Thank you, Sarah board. It's that year so tonight we're presenting you with a full draft of our 2026 27 local control accountability plan aka the L cap, including the budget overview for parents. As you know highlights teaching and learning and progress monitoring data for students have been presented throughout the school year making the L cap more of a culmination of work rather than an event. And I would like to thank all of you for
014engaging throughout the year and the work it makes our job at the end so much easier. On May 14, you probably recall I presented trends and input taken from our extensive engagement process. Explain these are only minor updates and tweaks made to the document to the strong results of students and parents and staff feedback. SMCOE is also San Mateo County Office of Ed has also completed their review the L cap and their input while not all that extensive was also already taken into account on the current track. I'd like to thank everybody who's given input a and an assistant with the data collection and writing process, including my partner writer this year Mindy Shelton so the first time I had. Besides my Ed services team I had Mindy working with me as a hand in
015hand throughout the process been great. And then, of course, my educational services team, our district and site leaders. And of course, always Dr. Francis Stanford-Iles work closely in terms of the writing as well. Following this item will be a public hearing that's required by statute. And then the item following that will be the full budget. So the budget overview for parents is a two page overview at the beginning of this document. It gives a very high level view of district expenditures. And if stakeholders looking for a more extensive look at what's planned for the budget, they should be looking at that item five. Happy to take any questions or any other suggestions you have. Hans, questions or comments for Mel Cap? Maybe I'll give a comment just because this is a very big document and
016I think it's worth highlighting just that all of these pieces do come to the board over time. And so the culmination is a little anticlimactic in that, you know, these are things that we're kind of constantly monitoring. So I don't have any questions at this stage. I just want to say thank you to Hans and Mindy and others who helped put this together because it is a huge amount of work. I was looking at it last night and looking for a question I could ask to kind of make it a little more interesting, but it feels pretty complete to me. So thank you for putting it together. I think you would appreciate it. I think this is the fourth one that I've been a part of. And I feel like every year that I've been
017on the board, the process for keeping us updated throughout the year is just getting stronger and stronger. So there's nothing surprising in this document when we get to this point in time. I do feel maybe it's just my own understanding is better, but I feel like the metrics are very clear to me now of what we're tracking and where we're trying to push the needle. So I really appreciate everyone whose efforts went into creating this. It is very true that your engagement matters a lot. Keep us on track throughout the year. Did you have a comment, Drake? Okay, so we are not taking action on this tonight, but we will now, I guess, move to the public hearing portion. So, well, I think we open it and then allow for public comment. Yes. Okay. We're
018going to open the hearing will be the opportunity. So this is the public's opportunity to be heard regarding the proposed 26-27 local control accountability plan and the budget overview for parents. For parents, I will gavel us into this hearing. Do we have anyone in the room? She can speak on the LCAP online. Now you can use the raise hand function. Seeing no public comment, I will gavel us out of that public hearing. Now we will move to the draft 26-27 proposed budget. Thank you so much. So thank you again for coming here and speaking about 26-27 proposed budget. I first want to start out by thanking Chris Escudo for all the hard work he does behind the scenes to get budget ready for presentations. So thank you, Chris, and all the hard work you've done
019even when you've been sick, so I appreciate that. So tonight's presentation of the 26-27 budget, I'll provide a brief highlight of the governor's May revise, provide an overview of the budget cycle, go over the assumptions that were used to build the budget, and present multi-year projections and balances in funds other than fund one. So the May revise. In May, the governor announced the statutory COLA, cost of living adjustment for the LCFF, local control funding formula, to be 2.87%, which is slightly up from the January update of 2.41%. He also added a 1.44% adder to the COLA to help fund the new proposed 14-week paid pregnancy disability lead mandate for all school districts. Just to provide some perspective, when the 25-26 budget was built, the projected statutory COLA for 26-27 was 3.02%, and now it's 2.87%.
020The May revise also increases special education funding to $1,340 per ADA. For San Carlos, special education funding currently covers 38%, the total cost to educate a student with an IEP. This additional funding will bring that to about 46% for San Carlos. This will help slightly reduce the contribution from the general fund for special education expenses. The governor is still proposing a settle-up of $3.9 billion where he is underfunding the Prop 98 Guaranteed for 26-27 in the event the projected state revenues fall short of projections. The settle-up will be paid back to school districts in the future years, but there's no schedule of when this repayment will happen, and that will be up to the next governor. The May revise also recommends fully restoring the Learning Recovery Emergency Block Grant to its original amount. This is
021about $97,000 for San Carlos. The budget cycle is not a set it and forget it type of document. The planning for 26-27 budget actually started two years ago as part of the 24-25 multi-year projection. The budget in front of you for 26-27 is prepared on the 25-26 estimated actuals and the May revision information. The opportunities to update the budget come at a 45-day revision period, the first interim and second interim reporting periods, and a 45-day revision is only necessary when the final budget that's approved in June comes back with major changes that cause material differences to the budget that's presented to you today. For the multi-year projections, we are using conservative planning approach. Although the district is currently designated as a community-funded district for 25-26, the 26-27 proposed budget assumption assumes the district will return
022to LCFF status for 26-27. This is because the current community-funded status is driven by one-time supplemental property taxes for the new homesets in the county for this year, which the district will not receive in next year's allotment for distribution of supplemental property taxes. This will cause the district to flip back into LCFF status for 26-27. This will also disrupt the regular revenue stream and is one of the main reasons out-of-it reserves are so important. For 26-27, the budget is built using the statutory COLA of 2.87% with the 1.44% add-on. The out-year assumptions use 3.3% for 27-28, 3.09% for 28-29. The enrollment projections show increase through 27-28 before declining slightly in 28-29. And you can see there in the 28-29 year, it's a prior year because the funding model shows that you're funded on current year,
023prior year, or the average of the previous three years. So that's why in 28-29 you have a prior year funding model and the ADA remains consistent from 27-28. The other assumptions are not something that the district has control of, but you can see the STRS and the PERS rates and the unemployment rate. The unrestricted lottery and restricted lottery amounts are staying consistent over the years and the mandated block grant is going up slightly each year. With the established assumptions from the member devised total projected revenue for the district is about $56.5 million. It should be noted that the increase in total revenue is due mainly to the increase in the enrollment and ADA combined with the 2.87% COLA, which is about $520,000 for the district. The additional 1.44% add-on for paid pregnancy disability leave, which
024is about $475,000 for the district. The increase in SPED funding to $1,340 per ADA brings the district about $1.2 million. Total expenditures for 26-27 estimate to be about $55.7 million, which increases the ending fund balance to about $530,000 of about $530,000. Salary embedments make up over 80% of total expenditures, where services, contracts and other operating expenses make up about 16% of total expenditures for the district. With the recent cost saving measures, the district has actively engaged in these past couple years and with increased revenue projections for 26-27, we're able to plan to set aside about $3.8 million in the parcel tax uncertainty account. $1.7 million for the OPEB, that's the other post-employment benefits increases, and that's the Fund 20 for the district, so we're able to set aside $1.7 million in that account. The unrestricted
025fund balance is projected to be about $8.3 million for 26-27, and the restricted ending fund balance is projected to be about $2.4 million for 26-27. The multi-year projections for the district show that the district is able to meet its financial obligations over the next three years. It is important to note that the Fund 01 and 17 reserves declined from approximately 18% in 2026 to approximately 9.5% in 208-29. The main reason for this is the expiration of the $3 million parcel tax set to expire in 2028. The overall deficit for the district increases to $4.6 million in 208-29. Of course, if the parcel tax is successful in November, the district is in a much better financial situation, and it looks like the board made a good decision to postpone that until November based on the recent
026results earlier this week from a neighboring school district. We're not successful in passing the parcel tax. It should be noted that the district loses $3 million in parcel tax revenue in 2028, and that will force the district to transfer about $6 million from its reserve accounts in 29-30. That's year four on this multi-year projections. And another $8 million in 20-30-31 from its reserve accounts if the parcel tax revenue is not renewed and continues. So it's important to understand the impact of the parcel tax revenue and to be ready with a plan just in case. I am confident that the community will support the district in the November ballot. The General Fund receives most of the attention because it supports the district's structural and operational programs. These other funds are also important because they are used
027for specific purposes and are accounted for separately. The cafeteria fund is projected to continue operating as a self-sustaining program. This means the program is expected to cover its operating costs through federal and state meal reimbursements and other food service revenues without requiring an ongoing contribution from the General Fund. In addition, the district was recently awarded a $66,000 grant through the kitchen infrastructure and training program. These funds will be used to support kitchen equipment infrastructure and operational needs and training so the program continues to run smoothly and meet student service requirements. The building fund, Fund 21, is where the district tracks Measure H bond funds. These dollars are restricted for voter-approved facility projects and are separate from the General Fund. For the 26-27 school year, the fund reflects significantly planned Measure H project activity, including the
028major summer construction at the district sites. Because these are bond proceeds, the funds are not available for salaries, benefits, or other general operating costs. They are critical for addressing facility needs and protecting the district's long-term infrastructure. Overall, the other funds remain an important part of the district's financial picture. They allow us to track restricted revenues and expenditures separately, maintain transparency, and ensure funds are used for other intended purposes. I briefly mentioned the parcel tax earlier, but it is important to highlight the increased costs of teachers that are being funded by the parcel tax. We've had flat funding of $3 million since 2020, but the staffing costs have risen on average about 7% each year, creating a $1.5 million gap in funding. We also have several one-time state grants expiring over the next few years. As
029those funds expire, programs and costs supported by these funds will need to be evaluated, reduced, or shifted to other funding sources, including the General Fund, where appropriate. All costs are increasing across the board from vendor contracts, which average about 4-5% increases year over year. Our recent actuarial study has shown our liability for other post-employment benefits, that's our OPEB, will continue to increase by about 20% each year through 2030. Fund 20 was established to account for these district liabilities. The district will experience higher sub-costs, especially with the new mandate of the 14-week pay and pregnancy disability relief. To continue to overall budget pressures, even though state revenues are currently up, the political climate always has an effect on future revenues. Changes in federal law, tax law, and broader economic conditions could affect the California's personal income
030tax revenues, which are especially sensitive to high-income earners and capital gains. Federal budget decisions will affect future federal revenues, and the final budget is expected to be adopted in June. There could be changes after legislation is sent to negotiate the governor's proposals. Specific to San Carlos is the movement in and out of community-funded status versus LCFF. This disrupts the flow of revenue and forces the district to carry higher reserves to ensure we can pay our bills each month. Our current monthly expenditures are just above $5 million a month. The purpose of the presentation last night was to provide an overview of the proposed 26-27 budget and answer any clarifying questions. Next steps would be the 26-27 LCFF budget adoption on June 11th, the state budget adoption later this month, a 45-budget update revision if needed
031based on that adoption of the state budget, and the 25-26 unaudited actuals will be presented. Thank you for the thorough walkthrough of the proposed budget. Trustees, questions for Ralph? Thanks for the presentation. I find it always helpful when you walk us through the different pieces, because I feel like each time I learn a little bit more, but I have a bunch of the structure. I guess I want to give you kind of my interpretation of what you just presented, and then I want to get your reaction to it. The way that I see it is it feels like we've got a little bit of a reprieve for this year's budget, where when we were having previous budget sessions a few months ago, we felt like we were going to be projecting deficits, and we're just
032squeaking across the line here. And so that's encouraging news for this kind of current moment. At the same time, I'm kind of looking at your three-year projection, and while I think we maybe don't have a qualified budget just yet three years out, it feels like that's the direction we're headed in if the parcel tax isn't extended. And so I guess A, is all of that correct in kind of the interpretation of what you presented, and then B, what are the things that we need to be starting to tee up as we're thinking about that three years out, kind of the things that will have to go away essentially if the parcel tax isn't renewed? Great question. So yes, your interpretation is correct. After the third year, you saw that in that third year, we lose
033that $3 million from the parcel tax expiring. That fourth year is really where we need to start to be worried because that's when the draw on reserves becomes significant. So yes, that interpretation is correct. What does the district need to do to plan for that? I'm not sure what would be cut, but we should start to think about not just the cost-saving measures that have been put in place already, but what we should continue to do as far as putting priorities together, as far as what's required, and then as far as where we can look for future cost savings down the road. And we have a lot of time. We planned this out as a five-year, multi-year projection. You only saw three years, but because the parcel tax ended in year three, it was important
034to go out five years to see what the impact could potentially be to start ramping up for that. Because if you're going to make those significant cuts, you have to have a plan, and you can't make those cuts all in one year. So that plan has to be over a couple of years and to ramp up for that and to make sure that everybody's aware and there's input and there's transparency in the process. I may just add to that. One of the things we started developing in partnership with our broader leadership team is a set of design principles or priorities to think about expenditures, because there are expenditures that we are obligated to, whether it's because of a grant. Everyone knows we need to have classroom teachers, and class size is a hard cap based
035on contractual and also ed code. So that would be an example of a place where it's a priority, and so of course it will always be at the top of the list. But then there's other places where we exceed what we're obligated to do. So for instance, our obligation for TK instruction is 180 minutes, but we exceed that considerably right now. So helping us look at all of those so that we know the things that aren't touchable, either because of ed code or because of contractual obligations or grants, we'll sometimes say it. And then what are the other places where we have some flexibility? And so even as we're doing some cost savings measures, making sure that we're positioned with a set of design principles that can help us look at those. I think can
036really help us position well for the future, but a five-year vision is important for a district like ours with the flipping, and then just keeping in mind the cash flow needs that can happen when we have those mid-year changes. Yeah, it feels like a good conversation to be starting to have and think through. So thank you for that, and thank you for the work to continue to contain costs. You know, we're just barely across that line. So I think that's all the good work from the staff and our team to make that happen. So thank you. I just had a question around related to the 14-week paid pregnancy and the estimate of 87 paid per employee, and then the adder of 1.44, like, or how much does that 1.44 help? I mean, I guess it's
037really hard to know how many people are going to be pregnant and taking leave, but like, could you give me a sense of what's... So the estimate is just that. It's an estimate. It might cost more, it might cost less. The main issue is where is that particular employee on the salary schedule, and then who we use to replace them, right? And part of our challenge in this way is that this is 14 weeks. This would be, we can't say it is, but it would be 14 weeks in addition to what folks already have access to. So it's 12 weeks of FMLA, and it's 10 weeks of California leave, and that would be 14 weeks on the front end of that that's fully paid, assuming that that person may qualify for a pregnancy disability. Okay,
038and so the variables are where they are on the salary schedule, and the other variable is where their replacement is on the salary schedule. You can see it's getting very complicated. If we take 10, 12, and 14, we get 36 weeks that a teacher could be out based on all of those different leaves, and we're clearly going to want to replace that person with the highest caliber person that we can, and we can't always find someone. So it's a moving target, but we estimate 87 in a formulaic way. We have five to seven of these a year, generally, and we've had years where we've had two, we've had years where we've had 10, but somewhere in the neighborhood of five to seven. So if we take seven of those, it pretty much eats up the
039entire amount that we would get just for this year. Okay, and it could be a little higher, right? It just depends on where the person is. When we're estimating, we could probably do seven to eight, at which point that money would be depleted, and it's not necessarily on billing per se. We don't, and it's premature a little bit to talk about this, but there's a lot of advocacy around it for great reasons. It's a fantastic benefit for women that they currently don't have. And so, you know, we have to honor that, and at the same time, it does come with additional costs. So, you know, it's a wonderful thing, and it presents another variable for us to plan. So we are tracking it separately, so to create another resource so we can track the revenue
040coming in for that and the expenditures going out, because there's no data to date to show what this would cost, right, and what it will cost. But having to start from scratch, we can track it separately and then collect data and then budget accordingly in the future years based on that data and the revenue coming in and the expenditures coming out of that specific resource. As others were asking questions, I've been jotting down some of my own. So my first thoughts were similar along the lines with Boris that if the parcel tax is roughly three million, and I'm looking out in 2829, our deficit or the difference between our revenue and our expenditures is about five million. There's still a gap there, and if we are able to renew and increase a little bit the
041parcel tax, will it be enough to address that difference or do we need to be continuing to look for cost savings, regardless of the outcome of the parcel tax. Yeah, I think that it would be wise to continue to look for cost savings, because you're right, there is an adder for the parcel tax in November for passes, right, it bumps it up to 489 per parcel of the passes and that right now there's about a 1.5 million gap as to what originally funded so that brings us close to closing that gap. But the average cost of the teachers in that program were increasing by about 7% each year, and the parcel tax language shows a CPI increase, a Bay Area CPI increase, which is averaged about 3% over the last 10 years. So you can
042see it's still going to have a gap as we move on because if teacher salaries and benefits continue to increase by 7% and we're only getting 3% increase, we're still going to realize a gap. So cost saving measures still need to be put in place to make sure we can close that gap in years 3, 4, and 5. If I may, there's also as a reminder, we've had budget study sessions that the state statutory COLA doesn't necessarily relate to the cost of living. That's not the end. So, you know, we have real costs that are going up, just so that everyone knows we are running pretty lean class sizes are are at, you know, starting to get to limits. But because of rising costs on things we don't really control and the lack of a
043stable cost of living adjustment in the LCFF, and then our flipping status, it's pretty rough to get to too much ahead to, we haven't been able to do that. Well, I appreciate hearing that we've developed these design principles that sounds like the right approach to have some objective way to look at where we're spending our money and if we need to make reductions keeping us as far away from the student day to day experience we possibly can. I also I'm just curious, what is the metric that gets looked at to determine if you have a qualified budget, is it the ending fund balance, isn't that deficit between revenue and expenditures combination. The first thing I look at is are you able to maintain the required 3% reserve for economic concern, that's the first thing to
044look at if you're not able to do that they're going to be a qualified budget. If you're able to do that then they look at are your assumptions, they look at the assumptions you're making, are they accurate your projections they review your enrollment projections or ADA projections and they make sure that those are accurate. But if you continue with the deficit spending model with no plan to address it that's another reason that they may qualify. And this is self certification so the district would look at its budget and determine whether it can meet its financial obligations or not first, and then the county just confirms that, or if they feel the district has made a wrong assumption, they will correct that assumption and say we're qualified if we, they don't believe we're making the right
045decision on the projections of our budget. Any other. Okay, so we're going to move into the public hearing which will be the opportunity for public comment on this item. Okay, so education code requires school districts public public hearing solicit comments from the public regarding the budget before final budget adoption so this will be the public's opportunity to be heard regarding the proposed budget for next year. I will gavel us in. Are there any people in the room who wish to speak on the budget online. Okay, well you were very thorough Thank you for answering all of our questions and this will come for us at our next meeting for review and approval as well. Okay, so I will gavel us out that hearing. And then we have another public hearing. Is someone going to explain
046this or I could just read what this is that this is the hearing regarding our restatement of reserves. Oh, this is, yeah, this is just, I can speak that great, this is an annual requirement to hold a public hearing on how the district is accounting for its ending fund balance and so that document in the agenda shows all of the areas the district is, you know, assigning the ending balance for reserves. All right, I will now gavel us into this public hearing. This is the public's opportunity to comment on our restatement of reserves. cards online. Okay, then I shall gavel us out. And then we have a public hearing on our education protection account. So the education protection account, this is the revenue generated from Prop 98 for Prop 98 from Proposition 30 and 55
047that attacks on high income earners. It is required that school districts use the amount generated for instructional purposes, San Carlos designates these funds for teachers salaries and document that's attached is what shows that. All right, I will gavel us into this hearing. Will blue cards on this item. Okay. Okay. So now we will move on from budget to update to several board policies. This is a first reads will not be taking action tonight. Okay, thank you. And Jennifer, and within the system Tracy, the policy committee did meet and reviewed the policies that you see before you. The first one I'll talk about which is response to immigration enforcement BP 1445. It's a policy that adopts the Attorney General's model policy, and essentially our practice with should we be visited by immigration officers. Previously, it was
048limited to students and now it includes staff and students, anything you'd add to that Megan. Yes, yeah, so it will replace our existing policy right now, because as I said the old one which was 5145 referred primarily to students but this one is inclusive than staff as well. Again, it kind of codifies our practices. Tracy, did you want to add anything to this at all. About this one. This is one. It has also be triggering some updates to additional. More policies. Otherwise, yeah. Thank you. Yeah, it does online parent notification rights. We already do that again but Tracy's right there might maybe some following policies on this. And I still think student records is in there, right, because it's because the student records policy reflects those changes as well. Tracy or Megan. No, it's really
049just to get our policies in alignment with the assembly bill for 95 which was passed fairly recently at the end of 2025 so now we have a model policies that are reflecting that assembly bill. So it's just kind of a shift removing our previous board policy, updating it. I think one of the keys of this first policy is that it's also expanding to students family members so that our staff can disclose an immigration status of say a parent or someone related to the student as well. I'll let you take the next one. Okay. All right, and I'm going to talk about word policy by 131.7 weapons and dangerous instruments. So this is a little bit of a shift really to make sure that our staff are trained to be in alignment with a learning law
050enforcement, if any student has a, anything that's perceived to be a weapon, even an imitation weapon or dangerous object on campus. There was some discussion there, there's a policy about pepper spray and we all agreed that we shouldn't have pepper spray on our campuses, it's a label for kids under 16 anyway. So we were in alignment that we did not want to allow pepper spray on our campuses. Well, yeah, so there was a fair amount of discussion around there's like an optional section where you can get permission to bring the firearm or imitation firearm for like educational purposes. And, you know, there's, but we decided we're going to keep it out. We don't want that right. For a lot of reasons that I just wanted to explain why there's like cross out of a red
051to petition so that was sort of a CVS, CSBA and put in and read but we learned it was optional so check it out, you know, feel any reason to end on campus. The policy committee did consider this a couple of times and did some exploration of what do other districts do and just landed on a conservative policy and so we'll follow with some ARs on that. The other two are board bylaws. One has to do with meeting notices, but it also has a little piece in here about prohibiting the majority of board discussion on social media so certainly worth looking at. But it also includes some information about remote meetings, which is also in 9320. It does. Some of these things are already our practices so as far as I didn't find Tracy isn't
052it true that we didn't find anything really different from how we're practicing already on the remote meetings and attendance, but it was really this. The information about social media that we wanted to point out. And then conditions under which we could move to remote which again reflects current practice. The final thing on here is the policy that's deleted as a result of the new one BP 1445. And I guess that the thing, the reason why we're deleting one and adding in one rather than revising and it's just like when based on the leading number and tell us whether it's a student policy versus a larger more encompassing and since it is income to students, it's no longer 5000. Thank you. Great. So, if there are no questions or concerns or remission suggested, it will come
053back on consent. Any questions or comments on these. I just I'm appreciating the table very much. Thank you for adding starting to add in this table that summarizes and really clearly why are we doing this. It's so helpful because our policy group continues to crank out revisions Thank you for your time, committee members so I'm finding it much easier to track. What we're considering. Yeah. Is there any public comment. I did not see anybody. That will move us to our discussion and action items. Thank you, Megan. So our first one is six a approval of appointment as special education director. Well, folks, I'm very excited about this we had a really rigorous and thorough process a really great pool of folks that put in to join us. And after completing that progress that process rather.
054We were able to hire really highly qualified and experienced special education leader with over 20 years of experience with diverse learning behavioral and social emotional needs of students. We are extremely pleased tonight to put forth. Dr. May Mulholland for your approval tonight. Questions, comments on this item. Thank you for the hiring team. Quickly on this. So I guess we would now need a motion to make the approval. All in favor. Aye. passes. All right, mate, would you like to come up and say a few words. Good evening, everybody. Thank you so much. I'm super thrilled to be joining the San Carlos school district team. Hopefully already planned with Assistant Superintendent Barber Megan to start meeting people next week and looking forward to getting out to sites and spending time with children. Getting to know staff
055and parents and community and just really sincerely want to thank you for this opportunity. I feel I may not get to meet too many people before the summer break. So I'm looking forward to meeting everyone when they come back really relaxed. And then the final thing I'd say I feel it's really auspicious that Ralph is sharing about the special education increase in funding this evening. As I get to meet you for the first time. So I'm looking forward to many more positive interactions with you at the San Carlos community. Thank you so much. Thank you and welcome. And now we will move to 6B, which is the approval of an agreement with Davy Tree Expert for tree pruning and maintenance at several school sites. Yes, thank you. So we recently conducted a bid process, RFP
056process, and we were excited to have an engagement with several bidders. In the end, we had a job walk that attracted about five potential bidders. And so we spent many hours going over the scope work with them and we received two responsible bids. And so Davy Tree Expert is the same company who also performed this work last year and through the same process, through an RFP process. And there's one correction that the financial fund that we're going to use is fund one. And so that's just going to be corrected on the board agenda item. So it's a routine annual tree maintenance. Any questions or comments? Remind me what fund was. Fund one is, we just went over all this. General fund. Too many funds tonight. Okay. Okay, any public comment on this item? Okay, I
057need a motion. I move approval for Davy Tree Expert for project 26-0521 from fund one. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. That passes. And our last action item is a resolution related to budgetary increase and transfers at year end. Yes. So thank you. I'll present. This is an annual resolution that is brought forth for your approval, which pre-approves any budgetary transfers necessary to close the books for 25-26. Any questions for Ralph? Okay. Public comment. Not online. Okay. Is there a motion to approve this resolution? All in favor? Aye. That passes. And now we will go to any future agenda events. Yes, I look forward to hearing from Trustee Kinahan and Trustee Park about the promotion ceremonies. We will be spotlighting them next Thursday night. And I'm hoping that you can share a few comments
058so we can look forward to that. Also, we will approve the LCAP with any luck and our budget. And then there are some contracts that will be brought forth. That's what we have planned. That's to make anyone nervous. Yeah, you should. I'm not ready. Okay. You will be. Okay. Okay. And now we will move to public comment. This is the portion of our meeting set aside for comments from the public about matters that are not on the agenda, but within the district matter jurisdiction of the board. Under our bylaws, comments are limited to three minutes. Please be aware that through provisions from the Brown Act, we are prohibited in engaging in a discussion with you or with each other regarding a non-agenda item. This is to ensure procedural fairness for all members of the community.
059We can only discuss an issue if it has been publicly noticed on an agenda in advance. Engaging in a spontaneous discussion or even responding would be unfair to others who might have wished to comment that were unaware the item was being addressed tonight. So for those reasons, we will not be responding to comments made on non-agenda items. But please know we are listening and taking note and appreciate what you have to say. We will be happy to keep members of the public posted if the item you're speaking about will be on a future agenda. And so now we will go to folks in the room. I have one blue card. This is from Gary Barth, speaking about the Arendelle school trees and removal. And if you don't mind that, would you mind so we can
060hear you? And our clerk will be keeping time and maybe three minutes. Just give a little wave. I'll give a one minute warning and then I'm going to say I don't think prepared. But so basically, I'm here just to talk a little bit and voice my concern about the rollout of the expansion, specifically at Arendelle school. I represent some of the neighbors directly adjacent to the property, and we were not told anything about any of this. The construction project, which is, you know, not it's pretty substantial. It's going to be year long. That's going to affect everything in the traffic. And, you know, it's something we're going to have to deal with the noise and all that. So it's one of those things where I just wanted to say, you know, that could have been
061dealt with better. My main concern was initially the trees and how many of the trees were actually going to be removed. Sounds like not as many as I thought. And unfortunately, because I didn't have any information, of course, your mind goes immediately to the worst case scenario. The one issue that I do have, though, is, you know, I attended the school meeting and the court construction gentleman basically outlined a plan that included my trees. Removal of my trees, which I don't, you know, I'm not going to give that approval at all. But not only that, but I also want to make sure that I have oversight into the sort of the trimming because we're talking about heritage trees that are 35 feet tall. And if they turn right up to the property line, which many
062of those trees are actually on the property line, they will damage them. So I want to make sure that that doesn't happen as well. So just wanted to get that on the record and make sure that that's understood. I want to work with everybody here. I'm not trying to stop progress. We understand that the kids need, you know, more classrooms and everything. And some of the trees are going to have to be removed in order to make that happen. We're OK with that. But at the same time, we didn't know anything about this. So that communication, that line of communication could have been a lot better. So maybe in the future, you know, take that into account. So that's pretty much it. Thank you. Any raised hands online? We'll see. Great. Then we will go
063to employee group comments. So please join us. Good evening. Thank you for honoring our retirees at the retirement and recruitment picnic, which was just yesterday. Thank you to Boris Lepkin and Tracy Park for attending and for Hans, Hans Barber, Jennifer Prentis and all of the district office staff, including Ralph. So many people got together to make it a really special event, which celebrates our wonderful teachers and our classified staff. Our principals get up and speak about them. They are able to give speeches. And in my bargaining, it was Jill Seven, Carol Scannell and Gigi Banfield who worked at Central for many, many years. And I just think the event is really good for our retirees. But it's also good for our younger teachers to see that this is how we treat our teachers and our
064classified staff, all equally important. And it's just a really great tradition. So I appreciate that. And this time of year is kind of bittersweet for teachers and students and lots of interesting behaviors kind of come up. All kinds of dramatic emotions for kids, mostly sometimes teachers too. But it's also a sweet time where we get to kind of talk about our memories for the year. I had three of my old, four of my old students from Sequoia come back to visit. So I announced. And so it was great to see them as 17 and 18 year olds and hear about where they're going in college. And to watch my kids interact with them was really sweet. And they're able to look at the composites on the wall of all the pictures. So anyway, and this
065might be one of my last meetings as the president of the San Carlos Teachers Association after 10 years. So thank you. Thank you. And then is Kamala. Her children were graduating. Ah, that's important. Yes. Congratulations Kamala, your children. We will see you at our next meeting. That's very exciting. All right. So we will now go to board member comments. It has been a busy time since our last meeting. Who would like to start? I think for me, thank you for all the updates. Spring to see that build through the year and then see them come together in a non-surprising way. So a lot of work has been done here. And at the end, I guess we're almost there. There's a lot going on. Thank you for everyone for that. I'm excited tomorrow to go to
066field day. So that's going to be, I think. And I feel like I went to the other lecture, but I'm not recollecting now. But it's always exciting to be at a piece and see everything in action as well. Coffee cups was the other one. There's a lot through the year. So just excited. It's a fun time of the year because you get to meet a lot of people and thank them and kind of see the action. It's my life. So I'm excited for that. I have like 10 things. Maybe you guys could cross off a few. Maybe. Do you have 10 items? I wasn't going to do any of that. I wasn't going to talk about any of that. You should talk about it. I'm not going to talk about all the events. I'll talk
067about just two or two things. So I was able to go to Heather yesterday and watch their third grade production, which included both the Three Piggy Opera, which is a musical, and then the true story of the three little pigs told from the perspective of the big bad wolf. He does not like that moniker because, you know, which was very interesting to me that the idea of exposing kids to like a story told from someone else's perspective could be totally different from how you traditionally are aware of the story. So I loved it, the very catchy pieces. And I also loved that it was just so inclusive. It involved like every single member of the third grade class, either in the chorus, playing the piano, narrating, acting, singing. And they were also able to include
068people from the mild to mild learning center, as well as the mild to severe learning center. Like everybody was involved, and so that was just fantastic. So I really appreciate Heather, third grade teachers, for inviting us to that production. I highly recommend it. Five stars. And the other thing I wanted to talk about was I love that we spotlighted the substitutes today. And I think, you know, traditionally we thought about substitutes as like when someone's sick, like whether it's a teacher or whatever. But I think the part that wasn't mentioned today that I wanted to make sure we were aware of is that substitutes also allow like teachers to be able to attend IEPs, go to work on their report cards or go to professional development opportunities. Or, you know, attend their kids like graduation
069or wedding. So it just really enhanced, like having substitutes really enhances the ability for the teachers to also, you know, become better people and be more satisfied in their jobs. So I think that's a part that maybe like as a parent we might not necessarily realize that that is the role of substitute. And I also shout out to Molly Simon for all the work she does to place all the substitutes into those positions. And I also want to mention Zeke, we were in the car in front of Vicki during hometown days. And oh my gosh, like the reception she would get behind us, it was like we were not in the best position. Everyone would just like see her and be like, Mrs. Mueller, we love you. It was all across the board with people
070who were much older, like the hometown days parade announcer, who was like, she was my teacher, as well as like teens who were on the side of the thing saying, Mrs. Mueller, Mrs. Mueller. So they know her just simply as a sub, right. And so you can have a real, make a real big difference in that role as well. And I won't mention the other things. I just want to also say thank you to Dan Lanier for being a CTA president for 10 years and for leading that group so successfully and working with the school district. With all that time, thank you for your service. And I will not mention anything else. Well, I'll go next. I was playing just to give Dan a big shout out because he has worked incredibly hard and you
071know, I hope you enjoy getting your Thursdays back. I don't know what you're going to do after 10 years. I can't imagine. But the other day, I think I was rushing to pick up my kids, you know, Friday afternoon. It was, you know, 540, 545. I'm the last parent slightly guiltily running to get the kids. And I see Dan walking the other way. And I'm, you know, shocked to see him there at that time. And I asked, you know, he was editing bylaws for SCTA. And so, you know, this role has, I'm sure, required just endless hours. And so certainly I appreciate that you've been a great partner to the board and the effort that you've put in to lead the group. And you have very big shoes to fill. And so thank you, Dan,
072for everything you've done. All right. I have whittled mine down to three things. So first, I wanted to acknowledge our outstanding musical programs and the support that we received through the San Carlos Education Foundation and our donors to make those possible. They were really on display in the last few weeks between the concert in Burton Park, children marching and playing in the parade. And then we've had bands and orchestras performing. And I was able to go to the central orchestra concert and really felt the caliber of musicality was very high this year. I was especially impressed with the sixth graders. I felt like they're the best round of sixth graders I've heard up there. We had a student composer. They played his piece, the eighth grade, played an original piece. I mean, just phenomenal. So
073thank you to staff donors for, again, making those programs available in our schools. And then I wanted to thank all of our school teams for the celebrations of learning. I know it is a busy time of year to pull off an event to open, get your rooms ready and have hundreds of parents parading through on top of everything else at the end of the year. And I also wanted to thank our custodial and maintenance teams for helping to beautify our campuses in the lead up to those events. And then I wanted to just touch again on some of the Measure H activities. That's where a lot of my time has been spent the last two, it's only been a week. So we did have the community meetings on May 28th and I was able to
074attend the one at a Rundle. I think Jennifer is going to share more about some of the themes and what bubbled up in those meetings. But some of my reflections are I think we can always learn and do better in terms of our communications and I know we have been adding more information to our Measure H. There's a projects updates page and so thank you for getting up the slide decks that we shared at those meetings. And I think that's a great tool to continue to add detail for our community, but we will learn from this. And I think the door knockers was also a new experience for us in terms of using that as a way to communicate with the community and again more to learn there. And also people, I'm getting a sense
075in the community that people don't understand how TK has impacted our district in terms of needing more and better facilities for our youngest learners. So I think that's a narrative that we need to continue sharing with the community. But we did following that we did do our ceremonial groundbreaking so these are not actual beginning of any real construction but I felt like those went very well we had other elected officials in attendance. Thank you to Pranita Venkatesh, our mayor for attending one of those. Ray Mueller, our county supervisor was able to attend to them and then my new buddy John Dugan from the city council went to all four so he gets a gold star. And it was really fun showing off our schools to him. He was really impressed with every school, the little
076songs that the kids sang. So those were lovely events. Again, another thing that our staff took on here at the end of the year so thank you to everyone who made those events possible. And that's really it for me. I just thank you again to all of our staff for keeping the momentum going. One more week. We're almost there. We see you, we value you and couldn't do this without you so thank you. That's it for board member comments. Thank you. I like Tracy I have 10 things I won't talk about all 10 things, but I did want to do a twist on celebrations of learning. I was so touched visiting the classrooms and seeing children talk to their parents about the work they've done. And I was absolutely blown away by the evidence of
077teaching. This is a celebration of teaching as much as anything. And such a cute story with Boris where his daughter was looking at her work from August, and needing to do an edit on it because she has grown so much she knew where comments were missing. But really you can see that in every classroom, and just seeing students lead those dialogues with their parents was really sweet. I got to be at two elementaries and one upper elementary and then middle school and today was able to tell Jay Richards that one of my favorite sites was a dad in a corner in the hall outside his classroom with his students work, and he was reading it closely and then taking pictures of things and it just was it just shows you how many people we have
078impact on because sometimes dads don't get to see the students work I know that's true for mom certainly of sons. So I really love that we do celebration of learning. I also want to highlight for second retirement recruitment staff barbecue. I think it's really a heartwarming event where everybody joins in together and does so much work not me at all I just show up and it was, it was really nice and just seeing people like Dan was there with his team, just sitting together enjoying taking photos laughing together. And it's just such a nice bookend to another great year. And then finally I want to talk a little bit about the measure H projects and the celebrations of the four P threes, and I think we have a little artifact of that. It's true that
079we had community meetings and it's true that we've tried to communicate broadly about our projects. But if I can, if I can look back at when I was younger person and how there was one central location where you could watch either a news station, or hear a radio station or read one newspaper, where there would be all the things that are happening in community, we don't have that anymore. We have so many different ways to communicate but then it can end up being fragmented, because if someone isn't on a certain social media channel. If for some reason we don't have them on our mailing list that inadvertently we could leave people out and communicating about things but it's not that we're not trying. And in the community meetings we did hear some themes about that
080some you know frustration that even though somebody may have voted for measure H, and they may have known that we have increased enrollment that we need more spaces. They didn't necessarily know what's on the other side of their fence, and so it is a thing that we need to sort of noodle on how how can we do that and make sure that everyone gets to know what we're doing. And so that was one theme. We also heard people wondering about things like traffic how will traffic be affected while this is going on, we were able to address many of those. There were questions about those space where children can play while we're doing this. And thankfully principles could be there on site and explain well here's how well structure play so that even though we
081have smaller space everyone gets opportunities to be out there. Obviously there is concern about trees. If you're at Heather you'd like to have some trees. If you're a rundle you don't want to lose a single one because it's such a beautiful shade cover. So I feel like it's something that we're working pretty hard to address. And we are pushing out an FAQ that will give everyone more information about this. What I love about these photos is it's just such a reminder of the young learners we have because another universal theme was people who are present we're glad to hear that we're replacing what Jen fondly refers to as relocatables and I call trailers with, you know, with classrooms that are learning environments that are more appropriate to these darling young learners that for some reason
082I can't show the photos. And so having those four year old to be out there and sing songs and celebrate that we will have those spaces for them was really really good event. And my absolute promise to do all I can to make sure that we do better next time and communicating with our public about everything that we're doing. But I'll let you just enjoy a few of these images of Jen showing that it doesn't matter what you're wearing you can still break rocks out in the field. And, and somebody was telling me how cute it was that the kids were just the kids that were seated were just still delighted that they were watching other kids dig in the dirt. So yeah, it was a really really great event. So those are my comments.
083And we're very well behaved. Well diggers are really interesting to kids so if you see a digger, it's pretty amazing. Yeah. And also to Jen and her team in the world's busiest time to pull off of an event like that. And I was at a Randall and there were lots of parents who were really super excited. And parents who have you know babies at home. Oh my gosh, I might get to have my child in one of these classrooms. It's so nice. So that was exciting. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, so the board is now going to go into the session to discuss items 13 A, B, and C. Is there any public comment on closed session items? All right, we will now adjourn to closed session. Thank you everyone. The board is now leaving
084closed session and reconvening into open session pursuant to California government code section 54957.1. No reportable action was taken on closed session items 13 A, B, and C. We are now adjourned.