SCSD Regular Board Meeting 3-12-26

001Welcome to the March 12th meeting of the San Carlos Board of Trustees. I'm calling the meeting to order at 6 30 pm and I will note that trustee Boris Lipkin is absent. Please note that a recording is being made at the direction of the board and the recording may capture images and sound of those attending the meeting. And we will begin with approval of the agenda. Thank you. Second? Tracy? Second. Okay. All in favor? Aye. All right. And then before we proceed, I'm going to review a few guidelines to help the meeting run smoothly. During tonight's meeting, there is time for public comment on matters both on the agenda during the agenda item as well as not on the agenda towards the end of the meeting. Please wait to speak until the appropriate agenda item.

002We also ask that if you're raising concerns about students, please refrain from sharing any information that may expose the student's identity. This is a public recorded meeting and we are obligated to maintain student privacy. If you'd like to address the board and you're here in person, there are blue cards over there that you can fill out. If you are online, please use the raise to hand feature and each speaker will have three minutes to address the board from this change by the board. We appreciate and support stakeholder input at our meetings and have established these guidelines to make sure members of the public have a chance to express their thoughts and opinions and the board can protect its business effectively and efficiently. And now we will go to our spotlight on excellence which will feature

003Britain Acres and we're welcoming school principal Jude Noyes and wonderful students. Do you want to, I think Jen I was going to, yeah I just wanted, I'm just so pleased to introduce principal Jude Noyes and his Britain Acres Bruins. One brewing is showing up even now to give us a glimpse into all the amazing things happening at BA. Thank you. They're going to join me at the end. Do we have a microphone? We don't need one. We don't need one. Okay. As long as they stand on the mat. Okay. They get a little bit. They're going to stand in a row. Good evening President Kinahan, members of the board, Superintendent Prentice, Assistant Superintendent Barber, members of the cabinet, and members of our community. I'm Jude Noyes, principal of Britain Acres Elementary. Thank you for the

004opportunity to share a little bit about Britain Acres tonight. I feel incredibly fortunate to serve as principal of this school. Britain Acres is a place where learning and belonging truly do go hand in hand. Tonight we want to give you a glimpse of how our students are growing as curious learners, thoughtful problem solvers, and kind members of our community. And the best way to show that is to let our students help tell a story. Before we begin, I'd like to introduce the students joining me tonight. These students represent the curiosity, kindness, and leadership we see every day at Britain Acres. Students, would you like to introduce yourselves? Hi, I'm Mayamal. Hi, I'm Troy. Hi, I'm Will. Hi, I'm Maxine. Hi, my name is Chloe. Hi, I'm Tara. Hi, I'm Maddie. Hi, I'm Sheila. Hi, I'm

005Dia. Hi, I'm Ryan. Hi, I'm Amy. Thank you. We're really proud of our students at Britain Acres. Let's start with how our students are developing as curious problem solvers. At Britain Acres, we want students to feel comfortable trying things that are challenging. Learning doesn't always happen perfectly the first time. In fact, we talk a lot about productive struggle. Students are encouraged to try ideas, revise their thinking, and keep going when something is difficult. Across all grade levels, teachers design opportunities for students to collaborate, experiment, and solve problems together. Our students are going to share a little bit about what that looks like for them at school. Adrienne, Nara, and Abby, would you share what that looks like at BA? At the beginning of the year, I didn't think I was very good at writing, but

006my teachers and everyone around helped me and I got there. When I was learning the metric system, at first it seemed impossible, then I looked at them a lot of times and then I thought easier. When I started multiplication, it was hard, so I kept practicing and I never gave up. Here are a few examples of what that looks like in our classrooms. Students are designing, testing ideas, measuring, and revising their work. These kinds of experiences help our students build confidence and resilience. Charlie, Roxy, and Charlotte are going to share a little bit about what students learned during these kinds of challenges. When I started math and science, I didn't think I was back with us, but my teachers encouraged me and helped me this practice now I know. Instead, sometimes I can step faster

007or while I think. One of the things I love about BA is their return and look of her choice. As a youngest sibling, we get an opportunity to tell someone else. I enjoy seeing my friends and being a teacher. Another important part of the learner profile is helping students understand themselves as learners. Students reflect on their progress and set goals for their learning. Teachers provide feedback that helps students revise their work and continue improving. Over time, students begin to see their own growth and develop confidence in their abilities. Ryan and Tara are going to share how students reflect on their learning. Since coming to BA, my teachers were confident and calm about me writing big sentences about topics. It helped me write very well. We built confidence by navigating through even when hard blocks are

008along the way. We do this by taking the learning and feedback our teachers have given us and apply them. For example, I appreciate the feedback Mrs. Hawkins has given me on writing. It's helped me get better. These photos show students practicing skills, reflecting on their learning, and celebrating their progress. One of the things we love seeing is when students start to take ownership of their own learning and feel proud of their own growth. Belonging is something we intentionally build at Brickmakers. Students do their best when they feel safe, seen, and valued. We teach clear expectations, use restorative conversations when challenges happen, so students learn how to repair relationships. Our goal is helping students grow not just academically but also as kind and responsible members of our community. Ayanna, Charlotte, and Dia will share about how

009students practice kindness and belonging at Brickmakers. Empathy is something we actively teach and practice. Through books, discussions, and school-wide activities, students learn how to understand other people's feelings and cultures and are able to support and celebrate one another. When students feel that sense of belonging, it creates a positive learning environment for everyone. Nara, Tara, and Charlie, would you share what that looks like at VA? When a new student comes to VA, I'm always excited to meet them. For example, last week a boy named Yvonne came to my class and everyone was excited to meet him. Here at Brickmakers, being respectful, responsible, and safe are very important values. Students are celebrated by getting bareheads if they are caught doing these behaviors. We even have a Bruin of the Week celebration. Empathy means putting yourself in someone

010else's shoes. I imagine how they feel. I show them how much I care about being kind to them. Thank you. When students feel connected to their school community, we start to see the impact in many ways. Students are more engaged in their learning, classrooms feel positive and collaborative, and students feel comfortable participating and growing. Chloe, Abby, Ryan, and Nara will share a few things they notice about learning at Brickmakers. My favorite part of VA is the teachers. I was lucky enough to have the same teachers for two years, Ms. Muscat and Mr. Oslin, and then Mr. Zomp. Since they are so dedicated to their job and their students, it makes it fun to be in their class. I also like helping my past teachers before school starts, like sharpening pencils and putting away lunch curbs.

011At VA we do book parties, which is where third graders get their post-its. Last time I went to creepy trance. Learning is fun and burning. For example, every third grader picks a person from history, dresses up like them, and does a report on them. When I first came to VA this year, I was very shy, and then when I first came into the class, everyone was open and welcoming. Everyone started helping and talking to me. That's how I made a lot of friends. Thank you. These photos capture everyday moments of learning at Brickmakers. Students working together, exploring ideas, and supporting one another. Roxy Ayanna, Charlotte, can you tell us what learning sometimes looked like in your class? One of the things we work hard to create at Brickmakers is a school that is joyful, but

012also structured and supportive. Students know the expectations of how we learn and how we treat one another. Dio, Roxy, and Charlie, what are some ways we help make Brickmakers a positive school? Sometimes, frankly, we have arguments, and our teachers are really good at having the formal conversations, but they're helping you to understand each other's point of view, which helps in resolving our problems. At VA, we always try to get through what happens, but if someone does not have a friend to make a choice, we give it a press for our touch. The teachers are great in nature. They create awesome learning experience by supporting us when things are hard. They remind us that we can stay far okay as long as we learn. Thank you. These photos show some of the ways we build community

013across our campus, from classroom meetings to assemblies. Students have opportunities to connect, lead, and feel part of something bigger than themselves. Tara, Dio, Adrienne, and Abby, what are some things that help build community at Brickmakers? We have weekly assemblies during the Pledge of Allegiance, celebrate birthdays, and add friends of the week for any new and upcoming event. One more thing about this is when you read a book, you share it with others. Every Monday morning, we bring our community together. We try to help support people who can't afford food. Thank you. At Brickmakers, learning and belonging are not competing priorities. They are inseparable. When students feel that they belong, they are more willing to take risks, ask questions, and challenge themselves as learners. We are incredibly proud of our students and grateful for the opportunity

014to support them every day. Students, would you like to close us out? Thank you for supporting Brickmakers. Now, considering the consent agenda, the consent agenda is going to be some items that are routine in nature and for which no board discussion is anticipated, and so we act upon them with a single vote. Is there any public comment on that? I get a motion to approve the consent agenda. All in favor? Aye. Great. Thank you. We are on to our information discussion items. These are items for information and discussion only. No forward action will be taken. Staff will present, and then there will be time to ask their fine questions. We begin with item 5A, measure age bond series B sale and refunding of prior bonds. Yes, and we'll start with Ralph and then our friend

015from QGENT, Jenny Marzano. Thank you so much. We're excited to bring you the update on the measure age bond funding and also the refunding of prior bonds. The sale happened on March 3rd. Here to provide an update is Jenny Marzano from QGENT. We're so lucky to have her supporting us in the district for so many years, for many years, as our financial advisor. Jenny is joining us via Zoom. All right. Hi, everyone. Good evening. Can you hear me okay? I can. Okay, great. Thank you for allowing me to zoom in tonight. Do you have the presentation or should I share it? Okay, perfect. So if you wouldn't mind flipping to the next slide. Okay, so as a backdrop, thank you, Ralph, for that introduction. This is an interest rate slide that shows you where interest

016rates have been all the way back to when the district passed the bond election in March of 2024. As you can see, the district sold Series A at a great time of like basically the best they could have. And then you see interest rates crept up significantly peaking in April of 2025 before coming back down mid-year of 2025. In about December of 2025, when the board met, you can see rates were still a bit higher than where we were for Series A. But if you look to the very far right, the district once again timed the market incredibly well, hitting basically the best part of the dip that you could have. As Ralph mentioned, the bonds were sold on March 3rd. So if you think back, the weekend prior is when the conflict in the

017Middle East kicked off. So we did see interest rates start to tick up on that Monday. We sold on Tuesday. So, you know, a crystal ball. Maybe we would have timed it just three days, four days earlier, but it's about as good as we could have timed the market. Since the sale on March 3rd, interest rates have come up about a quarter percent. So significant increase since we sold in only 10 days ago. So kudos to the district for the excellent timing again. Onto the next slide. As part of the bond issuance process, the district has to update the credit rating with Standard & Poor's. The district maintained its very strong credit rating of AA. We've highlighted a couple things that the report called out. The district's community was highlighted, of course, as the voter

018approved parcel tax and the local revenue from the foundation are big pluses to the eyes of the credit rating agencies. They also highlighted the very strong tax base and the district's very conservative budgeting practices. Moving on to the next slide. On this slide, we've shown in red what we estimated to the board in December. We estimated about 4.7% interest rate, about $163 million of debt service, and a 2.18 to 1 borrowing ratio. As you can see in green, all of the metrics for the actual issuance results were better than what we estimated. So love to see that. Actual interest rate of about 4.5%. Lower debt service by about $5 million and the borrowing ratio was about 2.12 to 1. On this slide and the next slide, apologize, it is a little difficult to read, but

019it is to highlight the different participants in the sales. So on this slide, this is the new money bonds. You can see it was largely separately managed accounts. So what that means is it's large accounts buying for individual buyers. And then on the next slide, you can see the refunding was supported heavily by bond funds. So that's usually mutual funds buying a large amount of bonds for their portfolio. And so just to give you an idea of who those participants were, some names of the investors are BlackRock, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, PIMCO, Morgan Stanley, Northwestern Mutual. So it was really the who's who of investors. We had over 30 accounts participate. And to give you a sense, I sold a financing two days later. Not as good a credit as San Carlos, but they had

020less than 10 accounts participate. So the San Carlos name and credit really brings in the best buyers for the district. Moving on to the refinancing. In December, the board saw estimates of about $1.6 million of savings for the 2015 refunding, sorry, the 2015 bonds that we would be refunding. And the actual result was about $2.3 million of savings or 7.9% on a present value basis. So we were very excited to see that increase in savings for taxpayers. And onto the next slide. This was the actually the ninth refinancing that the district completed. And so now the district has saved taxpayers over $15 million. And just want to clarify this. The district does not see any benefit itself to the general fund by completing these right refinancing things. All savings go back to taxpayers in the

021form of lower tax bills. So the district has really taken every opportunity they can to do whatever they can do to save taxpayer dollars. So that's it for my slides. Are there any questions about the bond sales? Thank you, Jenny. Yeah. Trustee's questions. Just want to say nice to see you, Jenny. Welcome back. You too. Thank you. It's great to be back. I'm actually really enjoying being back. I just wanted, I had one question, which is I wanted to confirm it looks like from this presentation, the earliest we might go out for series C is 2029. So that was our estimate. It's actually 2028 with the first tax in 2028-29. However, every summer we'll get new assessed valuation data. So just in a few months here, we'll get new data and we can see where

022interest rates are and see if there's a chance that the district may be able to access dollars sooner. I know that the program has a need if there is an ability to access dollars sooner. So we will continue to evaluate if accessing those dollars can be completed quicker. Thank you. That's helpful. And thank you to Kejan as our partner in this. I think this is the third refunding since I've been on the board. Just seeing our efforts to save taxpayers dollars and being really responsible in those refunding. I appreciate the partnership in getting us to that goal. Thank you. Thank you. Any public comments? Okay. Great. Then we will move on. Thank you, Jenny. Thank you, everyone. Thank you. All right. And now 5B, our teaching and learning update on early literacy. And I believe

023Hans, you're here. Yeah, I'll kick us off. Thank you very much, board. Tonight, we're pleased to present an update directly aligned to LCAP goal one regarding recent efforts in expanding foundational knowledge of early literacy for students and staff. Tonight, Director of Early Learning and Literacy, Leah Scholler, and Principal of Arundel Elementary, Kim Norgaard, will be highlighting the implementation of two recently adopted literacy pieces, University of Florida Literacy Institute, aka UFLY, Foundations Program and Multitudes, which is the program that we adopted to be our mandatory state screener. I'll hand it over to the two of you. Great. Thank you. Good evening. This will show you an overview of what we'll be addressing today. And these topics outline where we've come since the last time we met with you. We had an interactive study session last February

024where we learned about the reading room. And then in June, we adopted UFLY as our supplemental literacy curriculum, as well as Multitudes as our new reading difficulty screener. So knowing that this is the first year of full implementation for both of these adoptions, we know that that first year is always a process in and of itself. And tonight, we're going to be focusing on data that implies the first steps of program implementation. And so that is what we're going to address. And before we go into depth about these first steps, I'm going to hand it over to Kim Norgaard, and she's going to help jog our memory as to why these adoptions were presented in the first place and the purpose of them. So if you remember, not too long ago, there was lots of

025news and things and trends, both the nation and statewide, that were all about the focus of how science of the brain and kind of affect reading. And it's commonly now known as the science of reading or research-based reading programs. And so we wanted to learn more about how our brains learn to read. And so we became aware of all these things and thought, now understanding how foundational skills are super important for the students to become skilled and proficient readers. And so much of tonight's discussion will be focused on how San Carlos School District responded to these needs and our rising areas of skill-based foundational skills in the classroom. All right. And I have a video, I'm not sure if we're going to go to that, but if you take a look on the slide, that's

026the reading rope that we had a study session regarding. And we also presented information on the reading rope to our leaders in San Carlos School District to help them understand how each one of those threads really are important to making sure the child really can or adult has reading comprehension in the end, because that's where you want to go. So you have the decoding, the blue foundational skills based around word recognition times language comprehension. We focused for many years, I've been with the district many years, and we've done a great amount of wonderful work on the red areas of the language comprehension. And then now we're bringing in a very strong focus on the foundational skills. And there is a video that kind of helps with them. There we go. Explaining, and we'll see, otherwise

027I will go into that. There we go. So if you take a look, each one of those threads are important, and without the whole rope can unravel. So we want to make sure that we have strong foundational skills. And if you look at the blue areas, that's the decoding, phonological awareness, and sight word recognition. And UFLY that we talked about earlier really focuses on that, and we have brought it into the K2 classrooms. And we'll kind of go on to the next slide. Go into a little bit of remembering the study session. We had two teachers from Rundle come, Ms. McCann and Ms. Taylor, and they shared some of the UFLY lessons with you. They also shared these foundational based learnings to other teachers across the district and inside their own classrooms. We also have

028literacy associates that train many teachers, modeled at our staff PDs, and also going into classrooms and helping them learn these lessons. And I'm super excited because now kindergarten, first and second grade classrooms are teaching these foundational skills four to five times a week with fidelity, and we are seeing great results. It's a very exciting time to see how well this program's working and how these lessons, even though they seem simple, but they'll go a long way. So some of the results that Ms. Norgaard is mentioning is the fact that we have all of our K through second grade teachers now trained in UFLY, understanding the components that come with the lessons, the language to use when teaching these lessons, and then the tools and resources to use in the classroom. Those were purchased for all

029of the classrooms as well this year. We had a professional development in August where our literacy associates did a training for everyone. For the past two years, it's been optional where teachers who are interested and want to learn more could come, and now that it's fully adopted, we then provide that training for all of our teachers. So implementation is happening, and the nice thing is we're now walking around with the principals. I'm taking them to classrooms. We're doing learning lots, which means that we are taking a look and seeing how UFLY is being implemented in each of the classrooms and with the lens of having the leadership team learn as well as the teachers in terms of what this UFLY approach is addressing in terms of phonemic awareness and phonics-based building of words and decoding.

030We also have in mind that for some of our educators, this is the first year of implementation, so it's expected that each classroom will be in a somewhat different place in terms of the deepness in which they go. Knowing that some teachers have more experience than others, it gives us an idea of where to go for next steps as well. While the principals are getting snapshots of what UFLY teaching and learning looks like, the next step is to bring in teachers to peer model and then observe in each other's classrooms. This is really the best way to continue the learning and inspiration for the teachers, getting ideas, the tips and tricks of how to make sure it's as meaningful as possible for the students. And then ongoing professional development will now need to be tiered,

031knowing that we've got more experienced early implementers that can continue to hone their practice and learn about more resources and tools, and then ensuring that any new teachers coming in get the basic foundational training and then everyone in between. So that'll be our work for the next year as well. We also want to create a process for that that's ongoing. Every year we get new teachers, what does that training look like for them? So they're starting off with a solid foundation with this program. This also includes our ed specialists and other teaching staff that can support the learning using the tools in this program. And so now we'll move on to our second adoption, which is multitudes. So Kim's going to give you a little reminder. Yes, so last year California signed into law that

032we all kindergarten through second grade students needed to be screened for reading difficulties. This includes dyslexia but also encompasses all the other ways that children might be having problems with early learning. So we tested many different screeners and we've been using a screener prior to this but not on every child all the way from K to second grade every year. So this has kind of honed in on some of the ways that we can make sure to collect data and provide support for those that need it. We landed on multitudes and it was a great choice because it has really been an easy way to screen students. Teachers have been thrilled going into classes the ease of giving this test. We thought it was going to be a kind of a scary, you know, when

033you start something new like that a scary lift but I think it's gone really smoothly. So multitudes if you take a look kind of assesses the students on different areas depending on their grade level, expressive vocabulary, rapid naming of objects, letter naming fluency. They have auditory short-term memory, visual-spatial processing, and each test depending on grade level is one-on-one with a teacher and the student taking maybe 20 minutes sometimes 10 minutes for the certain grades. And so the teachers would pull the children one-to-one and give them the assessments and we have a hundred percent of our students receiving the tests and even as the new students come in they get assessed with the tests. And then we have Leia wonderfully helping send all these results home to the parents. Yeah and that is another new component

034of this new screener where we get to really work with the parents on what we're seeing in terms of their child's reading development. And so it's helped us exercise ways of getting a bit more granular with the reading components and so multitudes and UFLY help give us the language to tie in with the reading row to drill down into more precise language. So we're just learning the best way to kind of create this common language and with our kindergartners who just completed this screener in January we were able to send home a letter that both shared the results of their screening but then also how to interpret what those results mean based on the different components you saw assessed for the screener. So what each part means, what does it mean for processing speed, how

035does that relate to your child developing reading, what can be practiced at home for that specific skill and then how we address that specific skill within the classroom both at a universal level and then more targeted when needed. So it seems that being able to explain it so explicitly has really helped with parent understanding and teachers had to do very little follow-up with parents after that because they were able to understand what these results meant and also understand that this is just one indicator of a child's reading development and we really want to emphasize that. And that goes partly into our next steps as well is really using the tools that we already have to help triangulate this data and help us decipher what it might mean in terms of more support for our students.

036So far the multitude assessment has not necessarily given us new learning about our students in reading but just gives us another metric to use when looking at the whole child and their reading development. And so as a team with our literacy associates and teachers we want to then both on the logistical side make sure that we get all of the teacher feedback to have an even more seamless screening process next year and also what we can interpret from this data and help it continue to develop those explicit foundational skills. So overall these two adoptions have helped us move forward in our literacy development. It seems that you know both nationally and statewide we're moving into areas where we now know how the brain works in terms of learning to read and now we're gathering all

037of these tools and data to help provide our teachers and make sure that they're equipped to make sure that all of our K through 2 students have a solid foundation so that as they move into third grade they can really confidently start reading to learn because they've already learned to read and have skills that will stick and help them apply it to bigger words and more complicated text. This effort in building capacity throughout P3 with that focus of the foundational bottom part here and how it weaves into the top part and the upper grades is going to be a lot of the work that we focus on next year. So next steps too is starting in 27-28 we'll be looking at a new ELA adoption and how that fits into everything we now know about

038the science of reading tying in those state standards right and really focus on that as our guide forward too. So let's clarify questions to you all perhaps. Thank you Leigh and Kim. Trustees questions? I have a question now what is the frequency of the assessments? Sorry if you have questions. So for this screener it's really just a once a year assessment. We assessed our first and second graders in October and then kindergartners we assessed in January and just giving them enough time to acclimate right and just get some learning under their belt. So it is just once a year for this particular screener. Well first congratulations on full implementation and training and also happy to hear that multitudes that it wasn't as big of a lift as you would have. So my question is on

039the multitudes. I think one of the reasons we selected it was because it also offered it in Spanish and I don't know other and then some other things maybe other languages too and so I guess when kids are that young there are a lot of kids who speak something else first. So how does that how how how did you were you able to screen kids with reading difficulties if they have speak another language besides English? So if they are not brand new to the the country and as we call newcomers and they've had you know some time in the school if they spoke Spanish we had a Spanish speaker deliver the test. So we had somebody do the Spanish test. That's the only other language right now that multitudes has but we would deliver the

040test to other language learners noting that you know that's their second language and most of them did really well if they've been here for a bit. So yeah it was great. I don't think I have any questions. I just appreciate the sort of reminder about the background and how this has all been kind of evolving conversation. I mean it sounds like sort of how we learn and teach reading because as long as we've been teaching it then that conversation you know evolution of how people think about it. I appreciate that we're you know part of that and not it's not like we've redone our entire reading program but we've identified where there are gaps. Adopted the tools to fill those. Thank you. Yes thank you for giving this this update in the midst of year

041one of the implementation. I know we're all eager for data that hopefully shows that we are starting to change outcomes hopefully positively for our students but I know from my experience in non-profit program evaluations that you have to walk before you run and we're at the point of just making sure the implementation is being done the way we intended it to. That our inputs and outputs are working correctly and so I appreciate that too tonight and I look forward when we do get to that next step of evaluation data but thank you for getting us this far. No public comments so thank you and we will move to 5c our technology plan and that's something Yes. Is that okay? All right thank you. So this plan it provides a draft plan provides a framework for

042how technology will support teaching and learning as well as district operations through 2028. It was put together to memorialize all the work done over the past several years as the district went through some transitions with who led the technology department. In the last several years Hans took over this opportunity for for two years. A little over two years. Yeah we're being technical. We're technical. A little over two years. Then Peter Kazanis took this over for a couple of months and then Jennifer Gavrie took this over for over a year to leave right that's almost two years at least. Yeah about each three months. Yeah and now it's me so I'm overseeing the technology now. So the last time the board officially adopted a plan was 2018 and the revision for that plan began in 2019

043with a cadre of teachers and leaders looking at how to to review that improve that for that time. Progress was made during that time but COVID hit so the pandemic came in and the focus quickly shifted understandably right to how to deliver distance learning to students effectively and support teachers during that time as well making sure we have the appropriate technology and the infrastructure to support the distance learning. After that an outside consultant was brought in under Hans's time. Zoll Technologies the company that came in and they worked with the technology department on roles and responsibilities to make sure that that was an efficient operation there and then they also focused on cyber security and a refresh cycle for the devices so that work was was completed. We also incorporated best practices into this plan

044from other school districts and aligned the plan with the San Carlos school district priorities and the whole child's vision. Another important component was re-evaluating our device life cycle making sure we have the right inventory appropriate inventory accurate and replace and replacement planning to ensure we have predictable sustainable long-term budgeting. Cyber security and compliance requirements were reviewed to ensure the district continues to protect data and maintain secure systems with current practices. Tonight's presentation is intended to introduce a draft technology plan that pulls all the work together in one comprehensive document. I will provide an overview of the key priorities and initiatives this plan is not up for adoption tonight the goal is to present the plan for review gather feedback revise as needed and then bring back for adoption at a later date. My purpose is

045to provide an overview and then answer any clarifying questions and we're good on that we're good on that one forget this advance so the mission and vision of technology plan was designed to support the district's goals and learner profile and development of the whole child technology plays a vital role in education today and how lessons are being thoughtfully created to integrate the technology into meaningful in a meaningful way making students feel comfortable and not intimidated by the technology today it's also essential to ensure we have equitable access across the district the technology plan focuses on five key areas innovation learning equity and access digital citizenship professional learning and collaboration infrastructure and sustainability these focus areas reflect major categories where technology supports instruction and operations innovation and learning the first focus is on innovation and learning

046this includes project-based learning and the plan emphasizes giving students opportunities to engage in creative projects such as a stem fair the second focus is on equity and access the district maintains chromebooks from grades three to eight ensuring students can participate fully in digital learning we also provide home internet connectivity and chromebooks for students who may not have reliable access at home we also provide we also have a process for regulating updating devices and systems so they remain reliable for instruction you might think why just third grade the first refresh is to evaluate the second grade chromebooks and to see if that will be the first place that we replace a whole class set and that input is going to come after we bring this back to staff the focus area is digital citizenship and well-being

047citizens digital citizenship and well-being sorry this focus area ensures students are utilizing technology appropriately and are safe in the cyber environment the plan calls for instruction on digital citizenship digital i can't say that digital citizenship online safety privacy and cyber bullying prevention this currently is provided through our libraries with common sense media lessons board policies and district technology student and staff use of technology policies have all been updated to include guidance on the responsible and ethical use of artificial intelligence professional learning and collaboration technology is only effective educators are supported and are comfortable using it the plan includes ongoing professional development focused on digital instruction teachers and principals help share best practices and support collaboration across schools currently we have a trial period set up with magic school ai to incorporate this into the classroom

048it has tools to enhance student engagement through thoughtful lesson design and there's access to admin tools to help teachers become more efficient with their time teresa fox is is also leading the way with this with a pilot and has created content for her staff to demonstrate how useful it can be for the teachers infrastructure and sustainability this focus area focuses on systems that make everything work reliably and securely class link is the hub for many of our classroom education applications we currently have over 50 apps for teachers and for teaching and learning and a robust robust process in place for how the apps are added as the requests come in implementation of multi-factor authentication protects against stolen passwords phishing attacks and other cyber security threats it is vital to maintain a network infrastructure wireless systems

049and cyber security protections we also have a plan for device life cycle management and refresh cycles successive technology other technology plan will be measured in several ways we need to gauge how well technology is supported supporting students in learning the engagement process we can run reports to review login and engagement data which helps evaluate which apps are being utilized and which apps are not we can make informed decisions on where we can best utilize those resources and put our resources we need to ensure equitable access for all students we have a system in place to help students that don't have access at home by providing them chromebooks and hotspots when they don't have internet connectivity but we also should be promoting a responsible digital citizenship and student well-being currently this is achieved through the common

050sense media curriculum which i mentioned earlier and finally ensuring we maintain secure reliable systems is extremely important the plan maps out a refresh cycle for staff and student devices other technology like document cameras and apple tvs for projection in the classroom are replaced on an as-needed basis we were replacing these at a rate of one to two per year across the district they have proven to be reliable and are still relevant for classroom teaching the standard in the classroom are large t large format tv as i mentioned before apple tv is the mirroring system which the content goes from the computer to the screen document cameras are in most classrooms and chromebooks are available for all classrooms on a regular basis we have enough chromebooks around and chromebook carts that it hasn't been an issue

051where we have multiple teachers wanting to use the chromebooks we have enough to support that one of the key components of this plan is to establish a structured technology refresh cycle devices and infrastructure are placed on a predictable timeline to avoid large-scale one-time costs chromebooks are an eight to nine year average life cycle we have over 2600 chromebooks across the district and we have about 500 ipads in this staff devices are on a five-year replacement cycle and we just completed that cycle this year network equipment is replaced as needed usually about every eight to nine years based on our current inventory the district anticipates an average annual life cycle life cycle allocation of approximately 150 to 175 thousand dollars a year to stay current and make sure devices are are performing up to standards this

052is a high level overview of the district's technology environment the district maintains a four gigabyte internet connection through regularly reviews connectivity for reliability and speed our cyber security program aligns with the national institute of standards and technology cyber security framework nist for short uh incidence uh incident response planning and regular testing wireless networks support one-to-one classroom environments that doesn't mean we are a one-to-one device to student environment where they carry their devices with them this just means that every student in the classroom can have a device supported by that wireless network without lagging device management is centralized using mobile device management systems to ensure security and efficiency student safety systems include content filtering and monitoring tools like secure the next steps the next steps are gathered feedback from just to present this to staff and

053get their feedback from staff and students the plan will be revised based on that feedback and then we brought back here for final adoption thank you ralph thank you questions or comments no question aside from just a comment on that that's pretty good um like it's it's enterprise grade all the stuff that you have listed there so it's good to see that security and just having an incident response plan stuff is also part of that thank you question um for the stakeholder input will that just be internal to the district or will that involve parents community members we're going to start with the internal and then we can expand to that so there's some components obviously that you know we involve parents but as far as all of our sort of internal mechanism pieces yeah

054uh one of the things we know is that during covid there was rapid adoption of a lot of apps for instance and so now we're going through this process of vetting them because we didn't have the same level of you know knowledge and skills about what our best practice is and so i do see some involvement of making sure families understand because um some of the tools that we're currently using we might not use anymore i mean it's the same as like you plot right because once you adopt um a standard uh instructional tool there's other things that we might not use anymore because they're not consistent but we know that we need to build understanding of that and then obviously in the area of artificial intelligence as we start understanding better the different use

055cases etc we know for sure we plan to involve parents in education of what's out there and making sure that people know that even if we're not using them on our campuses that parents know the things they should be watching for with artificial intelligence so it's a long way of saying that it sort of depends on the the item whether or not we would engage families further in conversations about it and just part of the question comes from just you know awareness that we of where we live and the people who work in our community and that there's a lot of expertise that we could potentially take advantage of and i thinking about that in terms of digital citizenship curriculum too is this for the common sense media curriculum is that something we plan to

056integrate or is that already be done yes and no um it's been around for years it was actually built into the 2018 plan it was kind of getting off the ground at that point in time and then clearly both came along i think at this point we can confidently say that in grades um five through seven there's pretty extensive lessons that are happening that Jamie Baxter our teacher librarian is doing um as part of library time so they come in and they get that class or as part of um at cms for example it's part of a i'm an english an extra english course that kids have as part of their their electives wheel and she's pushing in and doing those lessons there which has been really great um it's harder to get into the

057p3s it really is and we're thinking about the best way by which to do that um i've been talking with leah too about you know what we think is the best way to to get this in teachers are aware of it i think it's difficult for them to say well where does this fit um and there's only we have a 50 percent Jamie and she's got other jobs she has to do too so we've really focused in on that kind of middle grade area where kids are their their interest in technology is really exploding and we want to make sure they understand how and when they should be using that especially in and out of school for that matter so yeah this is just thinking out loud not in any sort of direction but i

058wonder if this like parents in our community might be interested in getting involved in the curriculum not curriculum delivery but like coming into the classroom and talking to kids of different ages about you know if they if they work in this space so rather than you know trying to find additional stop time for dollars right like we do with the art in action right people are involved i don't i just feel like there might be potential yeah i like that idea i think it's something to think about thank you for that oh cap goal fire here we go yeah yeah um i had a question or just kind of came i remember that a few years ago there was a power outage at central which then took down servers and then the whole district was

059affected not just central um and i believe we addressed that i think it's like the factory now that will keep things going is that in the technology plan too yeah that's part of the infrastructure it's not spelled out in here but we do have that system in place where we have a backup on the service what's missing is that we never finish the generator that would do like long term but there are batteries that will last i think it's 12 to 24 hours we'll power the mdf that's what you're talking about the mdf is that central the central line comes there and it goes up to everybody else from there okay and so i know we have those large batteries but there was a generator plan that never kind of really got off okay so

060but is that still part of a plan or not i can't answer okay i don't i don't know that you all talked about it either in the interim that was something that when i was in there you know three three years ago we had talked about trying to get it was actually peter that was trying to get that at one something to think about yeah we're buying was that the same time that all the phones went down everything yeah and it did just affect central right next to all like districts yeah i don't know how long those batteries last i know we have about batteries that last certain time so that might be more you can be fine for you this is that we knew for sure that we wanted to have 10 to 12

061hours jen do you want to say more about that but i know that we wanted to make sure that there was time to communicate with everyone here's what's going on did you have any further in place now for communication purposes we have laptops that are charged and we have hotspots so in emergency we can we can fire up those devices and we can get communication out through that means at least in the at least yeah yeah but when if the whole district loses internet and telephone lines then does everyone have to go home or can you know still conduct it's not work okay only one thank you for bringing this forward and bring it towards a finish line as a non-techie i appreciate the focus areas they're really clear and i feel like you've put

062a lot of it into sort of layperson language so it's a lengthy plan it's fairly approachable and i look forward to hearing what the stakeholder feedback tell us thank you um public comment millions okay so we will go to our last this is our last yes our last um information discussion item 5d which are first read of several board policies who are you i am turning it over to amber farina and leah scholler thank you good evening or i'm here to have you review the um there are two new work policies that we're looking for you to the first read on and then some revisions up to the other six um regarding admissions and district residency inter-district open enrollments inter-district descendants before and after school programs preschool early childhood education and transitional kindergarten the two

063new policies that we're bringing for you to review are dcspa bp 51 16 on inter-district open enrollment and bp 51 48.2 for before and after school groups kind of brief overview of what they include show up you let's hear i can do admissions so admissions are basically just the requirements for families in residency um they kind of go together residency in 51 11 um just how you need to be able to justify not just to show your group of residency as a san carlo school district resident and the inter-district open enrollment is if you want to transfer between schools within the district as a resident and the inter-district attendance is if you want to transfer into a district or into a school from outside of our district catchment area the before and after school program

064plan is well they did for an after school board policy is about the extended learning opportunity plan which you improved three years ago um we will be doing a revision of that this year and bring that to you coming forward in the next few months and the bp on preschool early childhood and all that yeah so um just updating language um and adjusting to now universal transitional kindergarten so preschool is now focused on two through four-year-olds and universal tk is now open to all four-year-olds turning four before september 1st that's really just updating the age requirements um and also um our cspr california state preschool program making sure that all of that language aligns with um and code as well so tonight we just ask you for a first read we'll bring this back again

065yes yes yes did you want to invite the committee members i don't know that i have anything to i think if you all have questions need to answer them but there was nothing so difficult that i want to highlight thank you policy committee and staff for reviewing and keeping us updated on all of these many policies thank you veronica yeah so i do and i want to say that we'll bring these back and they'll be in the consent agenda and i think one of the things that we're trying to do in addition to updating our policies to match them to ed code is to also memorialize things we're already practicing if there is a policy um as a district that's just exploding in enrollment still uh making sure that we have policy to point to

066about why we're checking residency for instances just a wise practice makes sense yep thank you you too thank you you now we move to did i check public comment discussion and action we have several discussion action items that will end with a board vote part of the staff will present and briefly describe the decision that we are being asked to make and then we can have questions make comments and then take public comment you'll vote so we begin with ralph and approval of the second interim report thank you here i don't think that has digital citizenship in there and that's like i can't even say either it's a tongue twister i can't believe we're at second and i'm ready i want to start off by saying thank you to chris for all the work he

067does behind the scenes uh you know and making sure everything's in the right place as a district accountant basically and putting all this together make sure it flows so tonight i'll walk you through the key changes since first interim remind you about the strategies we use to manage expenditures as one-time funds are expiring provide an overview of the multi-year projections and the implications of the parcel tax expiring in 2028 at the end i will ask for your approval of the second interim report i think that's the last slide second interim second room is our final checkpoint before we have to close books at the end of the it includes actual spending through january 31st and projected ending fund balances the second interim report we're submitting today is a positive certification meaning we have the ability

068to meet our financial obligations for not only this year but the next two subsequent fiscal years our budget cycle overlaps from year to year the second interim covers july through january at the same time we're planning for a mid-year visit from our auditor at the end of this month and working on preparing the 26-27 budget which you will see in june this overlap is normal and part of the continuous cycle for school budgeting school district budget the strategies we implemented at the end of last year have continued through this year to address the current structural deficit we have in the current year this remains a short-term solution in order to address the structural deficit in the out years we need to continue to identify additional efficiencies and cost savings or we'll need to find a

069way to increase revenue which could be increasing average daily attendance apply for grants or we could they pass the partial tax with an increase this is the 25-26 second interim fund balance our combined ending fund balance is projected to decrease by about nine hundred thousand dollars this is about one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars more than what was projected at first interim this is an intentional move to preserve our reserves now we as we prepare for increasing future costs and the uncertainty of the partial tax these are the components of the ending fund balance we're projected to increase the partial tax uncertainty reserve to one million four hundred and ten thousand nine hundred forty seven by the end of this fiscal year we've added a prop 39 reserve in the event we are obligated to

070return the three hundred and five thousand dollars that they are requesting from that program we are still awaiting a decision on the appeal that we submitted and we're going through that process to submit documentation to not have to return those funds because we expended dollars and we want to make sure that they are meeting the guidelines of that program our total fund balance is seven point eight million dollars these are the multi-year factors that are put together by school services of california as a guide for school districts this is created from the governor's budget proposal in january the only change here from first interim is the projected statutory cola in 26 through 28 in 2026 and 27 the statutory cola went from three point two percent to two point four one percent in 27 28

071the statutory the 27 28 the statutory cola went from three point four two percent to three point oh six percent and this was in the time from june enacted budget to now and that's a trend that we see year over year enacted budget has out year projections of a statutory cola at one level and then as we get january and may revise we've seen those percentages drop multi-year projections the multi-year projection shows continuous pressure on the budget due to rising costs and the expiration of one-time funds this projection illustrates the district's structural deficit and the need for continued cost containment strategies the second interim multi-year projection shows we are in a slightly better position as a result of cost savings and strategy throughout the year but we are still projecting a draw on reserves of

072one point two million dollars in 26 27 and another two point six million dollars in 27 28 for 28 and 29 the draw on reserves is projected to be about six point eight million dollars if the parcel tax is not renewed in 2028 this illustrates the importance of reviewing the parcel tax sooner rather than later and a renewal with an increase would help reduce the structural deficit starting in 27 28 if we're able to successfully renew the part of the tax in 2026 summary of our other funds the fund balance in these funds remain relatively unchanged from first interim with the exception of fund 17 we're adding an additional two hundred and fifty thousand dollars there to prepare for the two textbook adoptions ela and math and that process will will begin next year and

073i believe it'll be a two year to three year process before it's fully completed so that brings our total of one point eight million dollars which is committed in fund 17 for textbook adoptions of the next couple years and then we have 150,000 set aside for technology refresh in one 17 our key challenges for the budget are pretty much the same as they were first interim for internal challenges we are experiencing one expiring one-time grants and we are seeing the pressure of supporting costly tk program where these students have the lowest average daily attendance some of the external budget considerations and challenges flipping in and out of community fund status affects our revenue stream and cash flow we started the year as a an lcff district status and then flipped into community funding status as

074a p1 reporting we are now expected to flip back to local control funding formula at p2 this is the main reason we need to maintain a healthy reserve to ensure we have enough cash on a monthly basis to meet our obligations we pay at about five million dollars monthly in expenses and with the inconsistent revenue stream uh it's it makes it difficult to maintain an appropriate cash flow we will be made whole in july from the revenue disruptions so we'll need to make sure we have assistance from the same county boss of zed in june as a result of the june deferrals will happen in 2526 so there's going to be june deferrals in 2526 which would normally we would have been made whole for our state aid allotment in june that's up in the

075air with this with the deferrals from the state so the county is going to step in and make sure we have enough cash to finish the year and then will be made whole in july when the deferrals come in so in conclusion the district remains in a positive certification we still have a structural deficit in the out years of about 1.4 million dollars that will need to be addressed restricted fund balance is being used to mitigate the deficit in the short term and we need to continue to monitor our average daily attendance and our spending and any state or federal budget changes as we develop our budget for 26-27 but with that i'll take any questions thank you any questions on this quick question about the in the 20 says in the 28-29 year without

076the parcel tax renewal that pull from reserve goes up a lot is are we meeting that number at all through the enterprise the savings from the enterprise program is that part of how we get that yeah the reserves from that as long as our our program stays strong and we're still profitable in that program in the next couple of years so we have to make sure that that stays consistent to ensure we have that cash flow yeah we've i think it's important to note that the economic challenges that some communities are experiencing that we haven't yet but remembering that preschool enrollment could be impacted by those pressures so we're just paying attention our enrollment continues to be strong but we do need to be careful regards how we think about those reserves okay um any

077public comment then i need a motion to approve the second interim report motion to approve second all in favor all right now 6b approval of transportation plan jen yeah um i'm thrilled to be here this evening to highlight the transportation department and to also seek your approval for the plan that is mandatory for us to receive some funding so um i hope tonight you enjoy this preview of the it's just such a great department to be a part of and i'm very excited to be tonight to highlight some of our partners because we have fabulous people working in this department so the purpose is to provide information and then simply so you may or may not know that the transportation department requires the interaction with at least six agencies at the state and national federal

078level so these are the agencies that govern school home to school transportation regardless of the size of your operation and you still require to complete everything with all of the agencies as if you were operating a very large operation and so with our three buses we interact with all agencies and have accounts with each one of them to make sure that we have inspected buses we have a terminal inspection even though our terminal is just literally a desk and we have even a little routine of inspections from that are required every 45 days that we have to certify that we've conducted we have training that we must engage in our bus driver has to have 10 hours of training we must certify that we have to have random checks for any kind of substance abuse

079and monitoring for substance so there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes and so i just thought i would highlight all of that because a two woman team does the whole thing so part of the home to school transportation reimbursement is you know making sure that each district that provides this type of service that you are you know following the regulations and you have a consistent approach and a plan and while the plan doesn't change from year to year because part of the expression but the wheels on the bus go round and round and they just keep going and it's the same not a lot of things change with school transportation so i know you were excited to see what's new this year but actually pretty consistent and probably next year you will

080see a similar plan so and it allows us to but i did want to highlight some of the things that you know you that are part of our department that aren't maybe as visible that how much revenue that we have and 60 of our costs are reimbursed by the cde so that's great and we're responsible for 40 through the general fund and so you can see over the fiscal years how the expenditures have changed and so i'll give you a little bit of an explanation about that detail next slide on this slide you can see that the transportation expenditures include field trips long the tuesday transfer program the special education transportation culture education mckinney bento and summer school and so in the year the first year we were monitoring the budget where i was a

081part of this department we could see that the expenditures were around 400 000 and then with a consistent effort from denise and from ralph from chris to identify any expenditures that would be able to be moved to this restricted fund they made those efforts to do so and so while that seems as if we're spending more and more money the actuality of that is that we actually were very responsible to look and see are there any costs in our budget that are being you know could be checked to this restricted fund which of course we always want to spend that money in the most political way so this is my favorite part of the presentation paris cita is an excellent bus driver if you have ever been behind her bus or had the pleasure of

082seeing her doing one of her stops she's consistently joyful as she drives the bus with a smile she always will wait to you if you're away well i mean if she knows you obviously but she began her career as a van driver and completed her training to be a bus driver under the leadership of dove johnson who was a driver and director of fml t who served our school district for over 40 years so we continue to be supported by dunn's expertise as he provides 10 hours of staff development for training for terracita so he still makes sure we're doing things correctly because he's very vigilant about that you can see that she has a very special relationship with all of her riders it just always even remembers the one she has driven for a

083long time her i don't have a picture of it here but her office is decorated with everything but she's extremely motivated and into her work and so if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting her or interacting with her i really recommend you do take the time and to further recommend her or to further augment my comments i'm a total stranger called the district one day after following her bus for 30 minutes i don't understand how that happened but he couldn't stop talking about how wonderful and professional this bus driver was and we asked well are you sure it was one of our buses oh yes and he told everything about the license plate he had a so we know it was terracita and we just i really was i couldn't wait to tell her

084that this had happened and so even unsolicited praise from total stranger happens us our departments we're grateful to terracita and i just wanted to share that we also have another arm of partnership with first student and first student drives our voluntary tinsley program they drive um they are located in san carlos just down the road from us actually i've been to their yard they're very professional i know all of their uh drivers and people personally and when i pick up the phone we all know each other's voices um we're very connected and a partnership that even when one of our buses a weed whacker inadvertently got a rock that went through one of the windows as the driver was leaving to go on a field trip and that was terracita and they drove a bus

085over to rescue me now i mean they just do above and beyond to make sure that we are even though such a small operation we do feel like we have a larger operation kind of behind us so it really helps us we have been trying to recruit bus drivers for um for a very long time since our vacancies have been um there we we have just reposted and posted again now a second round we received no qualified applicants for this position and the requirements to drive a bus even whether to drive a child school have changed so that previously you might have been able to use a van we are no longer able to do that we have to have a class b with a school authorized license to go um to transport and be

086compliant with those agencies i mentioned earlier so um we definitely have a need for recruiting but in the meantime we are working with for students to fill those gaps so you may be wondering how many students ride are in our program and so we do have over the local route is what i call of the students who ride maybe because they have an iep that indicates a need for that they might be experiencing a challenge with their housing some of those reasons maybe there's an attendance issue that we're trying to support a period of issues in the family where they need a temporary solution to transportation we provide that too with our local routes and so over time you can see it's kind of it seems to be at its lowest that we've had it

087in a while and so the trinsley program as well this is hard for us to engage we ask them to respond with a survey and we make sure we have lists and sometimes they are that many students ride every day but sometimes students are driven by their families and it's really hard to know but this is the number of students who sign up for the bus and it's we we plan for this number of students every day so that would be students in tk through eighth grade that are coming on those buses um i hope you enjoyed tonight's presentation and that you learned a little bit about our department because i know that it is one of those behind the scenes kind of a thing and i did want to just highlight a few elements

088of the transportation plan just so that you know what's inside of it the best way to really understand is the table of contents as simple as that is it just allows you to understand there's a policy for every one of these requirements and we do have a detailed list of what we would what we do for each one of these things which is required so i hope you take a moment to just kind of review it as it's pretty similar to last year's and if it's your first time reading it i hope you enjoy that thank you very much thank you yes any comments or questions the transportation plans it's a thrilling presentation i was on smic well all thanks to tiracy yeah i think there's thank you for putting some personal faces on that

089um i did have one question you mentioned that we've been more conscientious in moving expenses into this restricted um funding source is there a cap on how much we can get reimbursed from cd e that's a very good question that i don't know the answer to all i've ever seen is that it's 60 percent of your costs and so i believe during the auditing process they would say well what costs are you attributing to this account if i'm wrong correct me but and then that way the audit keeps it clean so then the state is really just like no it's like shaking is that do you know something about this thank you all right any public comments no thank you to terracita for her conscientious driving of our students would someone like to i'll make

090a motion to approve the technical or sorry the technology for the transportation no second all in favor aye passes and thank you jen and now we have items c through f which are all related to proposed restructuring and so and let ones lead us through this i will try to be as entertaining as jane can argue but i'm not sure all of these um yeah our first item is item 6c which is uh we're asking for your approval of the executive director of student services and special projects job description which would be effective starting july 1st 26 um as you know we have ongoing processes to improve services align responsibilities and identify efficiencies and cost savings when we can we are recommending a restructure of student services and special education related to that restructure that

091we're recommending are three elements the first is the elimination of an administrative position that's currently on the books as special education program specialists and we would convert that to a teacher on special assignment that is currently filled with with alley and glacius in that hole as teacher on special assignment actually we recommend restructuring the director of enterprise and community relations position to the executive director of student services and special projects that's this item and then the third piece to the restructure is a recommendation of the director of student services position to uh become special education director um as part of this restructured position the executive director would lead student services department including oversight of all related programs as listed on the job description and overseeing enterprise programs and communications i'm going to take any questions

092speaking then i will take a motion motion to approve second all in favor i i that happens and then d and that would be me i am recommending that the board approve the appointment of amber farina as the executive director of student services and special projects board is already familiar with amber's expertise and areas of communication her entrepreneurial leadership in our enterprise programs and the thoughtful approach she brings to enrollment management but what you're less aware of is the depth of her background and expertise in student support services including her professional training credentials and social work counseling and student advocacy so i'd like to take a moment just to share those with you amber holds a master's degree in social work a master's degree in education and administration and supervision and a bachelor of science

093in social science behavioral science and health as well as administrative services and pupil personnel services credentials her professional career began in social services where she worked as a pediatric social worker a child protective services social worker a community services social worker and a coordinator of after school programs she moved to new york city where she served as an education analyst with the new york city department of education after returning to the bay area she spent 13 years with the san monteo foster city school district as the coordinator of community services and later as the public information officer before joining us here in san carlos she brings a unique combination of student-centered expertise strategic communication skills and operational leadership that makes her exceptionally well suited for this role supporting our students families and schools so with

094your approval i'd like to appoint her to that position comments enjoyed learning more about your background so we would like to entertain enthusiastically with approval so all in favor all right thank you and i'd like to give amber a moment to address the board oh again everyone i had to pull the resume i have hooked up in six years i'm just like oh my goodness i don't remember what's even on there but i just wanted to thank you board and superintendent for your trust and support i'm honored to step into the role of executive director of student sources and special projects and while you may know my current work we don't realize that my foundational career started in social work and supporting children and families has always been at the heart of what i really

095enjoy doing so i'm excited to return to that work and i'm more direct and hands-on lane i look forward to partnering closely with our outstanding student services team and school leaders and district staff and ensure that every student has the support they need to thrive every day i want to thank them in advance for their partnership and i really know i'll rely on them as i transition to the full san carlos is a very special community and i'm just really grateful and have a wish to continue serving our students and families and uh looking forward to the opportunity and excited to get to work thank you 6e that's shorter and sweeter but hopefully is entertaining um as part of the restructuring that i mentioned in item 6e we are also asking for your approval of

096the special education director job description which will be effective as of july 1st 2026 uh the narrowing the narrowing of scope of this position will allow for the director to focus on oversight and direct service to the special education department and related services okay i have been remiss in checking for public comment thank you need a motion to approve okay those in favor aye thank you and it's back to me um so again i'd like to tell you a little bit about megan uh you know her work currently as a director of student services what you may not know is she began in san carlos as a special education teacher in 2011 um she has served since then as a middle school assistant principal at both tl and cms and as our director of student

097services um she did her undergrad work at uc davis she has a master of arts in special education from san francisco state university a master of arts in educational administration from concordia university in irvine she has deep knowledge experience and skills in special education this was recently demonstrated in a board study session where she highlighted our continuous improvement monitoring special education um megan is an ardent student advocate with the deep belief that all students can learn at high levels and i ask the board's approval for her for this appointment comment of the comments great i'll move to the previous name is ye for the special education director second all in favor aye all right thank you thank you and i'd like to invite megan to say a few words well thank you trustees and superintendent

098frintress uh for the trust you placed in me with this appointment i'm truly grateful uh to continue to serve our district as the director of special education supporting students with disabilities and ensuring they receive the services opportunities and sense of belonging they work i care deeply about um during my 14 years in scsd i've had the privilege of working alongside incredibly dedicated educators specialists and families who advocate every day for students with diverse needs i'm continually inspired by their commitment compassion and expertise in this role i look forward to continuing the important work of strengthening our programs supporting our staff and partnering with families thanks again for this opportunity and i look forward to partnering amber in a different way next year so thank you again i really appreciate it thank you thank you megan

099that's part we bring to the special education work um okay that includes our action items so now seven a any future agenda items well there's quite a bit having to do with the l cap and l cap engagement you'll also hear the result of the healthy kids surveys um and uh you'll also get to see a lot on measure h now that we have sold some bonds i know that jen has lots of work to eat up that the uh facilities committee will be looking at and then it will come to the board and then you'll also get updates on developer fees here i think spring we have i know it'll be busy all right and now um we move on to public comments this is an opportunity for members of the public to comment

100on items not on the agenda uh we are unable to engage in discussion on these items due to the brown act but we do appreciate public comment if you are in the room please bring your card otherwise if you're online raise a hand let's see okay um then we will move to employee group comments we'll begin with dan good evening um uh first of all in all my years i don't think i've ever really thanked the transportation department and um they are awesome and uh we appreciate that they safely transport our precious cargo our students and uh we also appreciate when they take us on field trips um we the second grade at britannickers just all went to the marine science institute and the bus drivers are very professional and on time and you feel

101like you're safely being transplanted uh transported to where you're going and coming back so we appreciate them teachers have been hard at work doing report cards this takes many hours of work at school and on the weekends too so um i don't know any teacher that doesn't work over time to prepare uh report cards so we hope that everyone appreciates the work that we put into doing those we've been having our family music sharing events in our elementary schools these are wonderful events where uh parents join our classrooms and uh for our music class and they get to participate alongside their their student um we um we appreciate our union appreciates that the parents that donate or those that are able to donate to the san carlos education foundation which funds uh music music in

102san carlos so we appreciate that as well uh congratulations uh to tiara linda and central for being named california distinguished schools this is a testament to our excellent teachers principals and staff um and i've asked the board to consider passing a resolution in support of prop 56 the extension which if that doesn't get on the ballot and pass uh we would our district would lose about four million dollars annually so more uh happy news financially so um i've asked um our superintendent to ask you to consider making a resolution in support of that initiative thank you thank you dan and now uh camela camela let me know she can't make it just a bit ago she's single parenting today so okay all right then we will move to board member comments yeah i can go

103okay um so we had our monthly etac uh meaning was this week or last week i think it was this last week yeah yeah very recently for march and um we uh members of the superintendent's advisory committee um spoke and we also um shared our board comments about uh the decision to wait until the matter based on polling results we have and also recognizing that the deficit is real and we can't wait to 2028 um they were seeking volunteers to join in helping organize to build community support should the board pass a resolution for the november parcel tax measure um and i think overall um the good part was they expressed a lot of confidence that together we can build community support and hopefully get this done um you know in addition to the existing

104partial tax um and i think they just wanted to inspire confidence in the board for us to pass the resolution at the right time and then they can you know collectively we can hit the ground running and follow to make sure we can make this i can go and uh uh the end of february uh we hosted the two plus two meeting switched from the city hosting to um school district hosting and they there was also a change in the makeup of the two plus two it is now sarah mcdowell who was has been on the committee for a while but you know we are part of that and um similarly the district provided ability to the city on the budget situation and also the uh similarly the results from the polling and superintendent advisory

105committee on not putting the ballot on june and putting it on november um and then the city provided an update on their measure they're going to be putting on for the november ballot as well so like a 25 sales tax measure and i guess the other thing that was kind of shared was that there are consultants that helped them with thinking through their measures said that there should be no issue that both the city and the school district are putting measures on the ballot at the same time that they're not in competition it's not a choice between the two measures and that you know as long as we go out there and talk about thinking about local governance and you know ensuring that we have local revenue to make our city and district better that

106there should be any issue about picking one thing over the other we can both get but we can get voters to vote yes on both of those things so um i think that was great i feel like we were all on the same page in the in this room talking about how we all need extra funds to help these things forward uh the other thing that they also have started to do which will help our school district is they're creating this weekly newsletter called the work zone weekly um in which they are going to there's going to be as you can tell lots of construction happening around the city roads getting repaved curbs all of that stuff is happening and on top of that there's things PG&E are doing um so they're they've compiled it

107all they're going to if you subscribe to this weekly newsletter you'll get updates on zones that are being affected and then the newsletters the school newsletters will also be featuring sort of the things that will might be it might impact like the areas right around the school so i don't know sarah do you is there anything else that happened to us too that you want it it was a very informative hour i learned a lot about city public works and appreciate all that they're juggling and i felt like it was there was some concrete asks and information that was shared so i i found that very helpful and next the other thing that happened in this past week was ropes this is possibly going to be good work last week and that was always that's

108always fun i think there was a lot of participation and both in terms of the actual ropes contestants participants as well as the judges and also the support staff that was there to help with the technology we needed a lot of help with technology in our room and just appreciate all the extra effort that went in to make this such a success um i also was a ropes judge thank you for reminding me last week it's um an amazing thing to be a part of and just wanted to highlight a few of the projects that i judged just because i think it shows it's just a it's really great that our students have the opportunity to pursue these kind of interests you know as part of what they do at school so there was a

109fourth grader who learned to cook with his dad and wrote a cookbook there were two your seventh graders who ranked all of the u.s presidents from best to worst on a large number of criteria and they could probably tell you more about any u.s president than 99 percent of americans and then an eighth grader who does needle felting as a way to process his emotions and deal with when he has feelings of anger which he was very open about so it's just a really amazing example of the the awesome kids that we have in our district and gave me some hope for the future um and then for something else i was going to say and it was gone defer to you and then if i think of it okay okay um i just wanted

110to share about a couple of events that i've had the opportunity to attend uh so last week we all seem to be things are rushing forward last week it was last week um you and i went to a chamber samateo county luncheon where they honored superintendent nancy mcgee for her retirement as samateo county superintendent of schools and i wrote down a quote that she said during her speech um every day that she worked in education she understood that her purpose even on the hardest days was dedicated to the welfare of children and i had the honor of working alongside nancy during the pandemic at the county office event and i really saw that commitment to children in action um and it's a good reminder i know we talk a lot about here about our unity

111of purpose and staying student student centered but she's really a leader that embodied that approach um and fun fact the county board of supervisors named march 10th nancy mcgee day so that would be an annual thing was that just this year i don't know how it works forever and ever but and so i just wanted to also use my time to thank her for her over 31 years of service in providing high quality innovative and equitable education for children yes i did something today so embarrassing that i heard that thing um but i went to adrian's um music class at b.a which dan mentioned it's the opportunity for parents to come in and it's just such a fun uh experience to listen to them sing and play the recorder and really appreciate skeff and everyone

112who donates to skeff that makes that possible um and then i wanted to highlight one other event i wanted to thank director scholler for inviting me to the hedgehogs preschool classroom at heather where they had um children from the lead classroom pushing in for music and story time and it was just lovely how what a team effort of all the adults in the room the woman leading the music and stories was so engaging and really just had them all in the palm of her hand so thank you i really enjoyed being able to sing and dance with the little ones and then the last thing i wanted to mention is that i'm looking forward to two events on march 18th white oaks heritage day and the b.a multicultural festival i'll be attending those um as

113well as san carlos and their primitive and contextual be our guest so busy times but all great stuff is it for me well there are a lot of things going on and there are a lot of things i could talk about but i want to take a moment to recognize teachers students staff and families of the central and hero linda middle school uh for being uh recognized as california distinguished schools for closing the achievement gap this honor reflects the collective inputs of all educators in our district all leaders and staff in all of our schools and validates our theory of action that a sense of belonging strong relationships and community creates the optimum learning environment for standards-based teaching and learning the hard work of teaching and learning happens in our schools alongside fun events that

114elevate the unique cultures in our community like the recent lunar new year events there's pie day there's spirit weeks garden visits pop-up jazz band concerts you name it our students enjoy coming to school and this allows them to learn and thrive congrats to our middle schools for earning this distinction there were only six of the middle school and high schools in san Mateo county that earned this and they were two of the six i assume we'll have a another recognition oh there are there's going to be so many rentals we're just going to recognize till the cows come home uh yeah it's it was fun to hear that the pta's are already coordinating a party for all of the staffs from those two schools um there will be some events on site where we'll invite

115dignitaries um to come and speak and yeah we will definitely bring them in front of the board to celebrate it's it's really something to have both of your middle schools and it's for closing the achievement gap which you know for a district so committed to equity um it's really nice to see both of them earn it for that category which is very very hard to get thank you great well we do not have a closed session tonight so with that i'm going to adjourn us at 8 28 good job you were