SCSD Regular Board Meeting 5-20-2021

001Okay, we're recording. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the May 20th, 2021, regularly scheduled San Carlos School District Board Meeting. I will call the meeting to order at this time. And first, I will ask my fellow trustees, is there a... Well, sorry, first, I also need to mention that Trustee Casanego is not with us tonight, but also we are also one short, so we still have a quorum with three from here. So I will ask the fellow trustees, do we have a motion to approve the agenda or any changes? I move to approve the agenda as is. Thank you. Wendy? I will second. Thank you, Irene. All in favor of the agenda as is, please state by saying aye. Aye. Aye. If there are no opposition, that will carry 3-0. In that case, we'll move

002us to our special recognition. Michelle, a very special night to recognize our community partners, and I'll start with you to kick us off. Great. Thank you, Neil. Good evening, trustees and community. And I'm actually going to hand off the first recognition tonight to Hans Barber and to recognize his special ed team and our CDAC committee. So go ahead, Hans. All right. Thanks, Michelle. Appreciate that. Good evening, everybody. It's my pleasure to really introduce one of our integral parent education groups or parent engagement groups, I should say, CDAC, Special Education District Advisory Committee. And Brenda leads that group, and it's a robust group of parents that really give great input and have had some wonderful things to say about the district and given many a suggestion over the years. And so without further ado, we'll hand

003it over to Brenda to introduce our recognition tonight. Thank you, Brenda. Good evening, everyone. So I am so honored this evening to be able to introduce the members of CDAC that I have had the great pleasure of working with for the last two years. I cannot say enough about how dedicated this group is to ensuring that our community is educated and has access to information about specialized services that the district offers. And this past year has presented while it has presented us with a lot of challenges. This group has managed to add three parent education nights to their regular group activities. And in addition, we took on the challenge of a remote Ability Awareness Week, which is what they'll be highlighting tonight. So Tricia Labote and Judy Wu are the co-chairs of the committee. And

004also representing tonight are Kristi Wagner and Kate Finnegan, who are representatives from their schools. And I'm going to hand it over to Judy and Tricia, who are going to share highlights from Ability Awareness Week. Thank you, Brenda, for that warm welcome. And thank you, Board of Trustees, for having us give the opportunity to highlight a little bit about our Ability Awareness Week we had back in March. We have a little brief PowerPoint presentation we'd like to share. Do I have sharing abilities to share my screen? All right, here we go. Okay, let's see. Sorry, I'm getting there here. All right, here we go. All right, so we have a brief presentation here. Again, we were very excited to have our Ability Awareness Week this week, this back in March, not knowing how this was going

005to run. This was our first virtual Ability Awareness Week that we're very proud of and worked hard. And we're going to show you just some highlights of that. This is a brief introduction from Scott Green, aka Mr. Scott, who's our wonderful AP teacher. So I'm going to show you a quick clip and I'm hoping a thumbs up if you can't hear it, let me know. Go ahead and start that. Good morning. It's Mr. Green, aka Teacher Scott. I'm the Adapted PE Specialist for the district. And I want to welcome you to Ability Awareness Week. It starts today. And San Carlos is really unique in all the districts I've worked for. They spend a whole week focusing on abilities. And Ability Awareness Week promotes understanding, acceptance, and appreciation of individual abilities. We like to focus on

006what a person is and not what a person has. So for a moment, let's think of one of our most famous residents of the Bay Area, Stephen Curry. And he obviously has some amazing abilities in basketball and as a community leader. But I want you for a moment to imagine him on a hockey rink or maybe dressed up as a ballet dancer. He might do okay in those contexts, but those are not his strengths. And I also want you to imagine him possibly 40 years from now, a 70-year-old, an 80-year-old Stephen Curry. He's going to have different abilities. And for a moment, imagine your PE teachers, Mrs. Katina, Mrs. Core, Mrs. Gleason, Mr. Derek, Nazara. And imagine them young because they were athletes mostly. I'm going to go ahead and pause it there because I

007know we're short on time. But Scott did a 20-minute presentation all about inclusion around APE and just around ability awareness in general. So that's just kind of a quick highlight of Scott's video. And then move on here to some of our highlights of what we did that week. So here are district events and activities. These are kind of just a few what went very well during the week virtually. We started out with a spirit week. It was we had something for each day for the kids and staff. A couple of examples, we had hats on for inclusion so they can wear silly hats, sports hats, any kind of hats that they wanted. Then we kind of added something new, a kaleidoscope day. And the idea was to wear something tie-dye, bright colors, visualizing a kaleidoscope

008that has all these great colors, patterns, and shapes to make kind of a beautiful picture. So we thought that was a fun one. We also provided various video clips to the teachers and staff. And they were based around elementary level, which were some Sesame Street videos, highlighting again with inclusion and different abilities. We had for the middle and upper elementary and Ironman triathlon video, which was based around a child with Down syndrome doing the triathlon and finishing that. We included some talking and discussion points for each of the videos if the teachers wish to share some of that with their students. We had one of our, as Brenda mentioned, we had some Parrot Ed Nights, and we did one that week around speech therapy with some great language pathologists, Mariah Sampson and Diane Reganini. And

009that was very, the attendance was excellent. We were very pleased to have a big part of our community join that Parrot Ed Night. And then as you just saw that brief clip, we had Scott Green do a 20-minute presentation that was sent to the teachers and staff, and it was also presented by middle school PE teachers. And then we had La Garza and the middle school teachers as well, focused on all abilities around inclusion, so the kids were able to do some different activities, which were very cool. And then one other very short skit we're going to show, we collaborated with a San Carlos Children's Theater program, which we were very excited about. They had some of their students with different abilities as well put a little skit together that was shared throughout all the

010schools. And it encompassed, you know, elementary to upper or elementary and to middle school. So we're very excited to work with them. And here's a little skit that they provided for us. San Carlos Children's Theater presents a short play based on the book, Mixed, a Colorful Story by Erin Chen, directed by Caitlin Stewart. This is a story of acknowledging, accepting, and loving each other's differences and embracing each person's individuality, what makes them them. We hope it helps you think about your community and all the wonderful, different, and amazing people who are in it and how you can help make sure they feel welcome and loved. Once upon a time, there was a country called Colorville. There are three colors, red, yellow, and blue. They all lived in harmony. I'm red. I'm the loudest of them

011all. You'll expect a fight soon. I'm yellow. We are the bright shining stars who love to play. I am blue. We love to keep calm and relax. We're the best and you'll stink. If you're the best, how come we are the brightest? Whatever. They split into different towns, the geniuses, or yellows, the rowdy reds, the iceys. Ten years passed, yellows saw a very sad blue. We have been separated for over ten years now. Red lives in a grand neighborhood, yellow lives in a bright neighborhood, and I live in the city, the most progressive place in the country. As I walked through the park, I noticed this bright dot. She was perhaps the brightest dot in town. She made me feel so comfortable because she understood me more than the other blue dots did. I introduced

012myself to her. We started spending time together. Other colors stared at us. They went and yelled at my face to get out of their neighborhood. I fled. At my house, my parents gratefully accepted yellow as my friend. Slowly, the other blues and yellows got to know us, and we started mixing more. Some of the reds protested against us, but change is definitely coming. Five years later, blue and yellow mixed to create a surprise. Hey everyone, I have a new surprise. Her name is Green. Isn't she the cutest thing you ever saw? Ugh, why do you have to be so dramatic? Colors shouldn't mix. I'm Green. I'm intelligent and like keeping things calm. As they come together to see Green, new possibilities came along with it. Reds and blues began to make purple. Even new names

013were created. Soon, they all came together to make a complete rainbow. I am Purple. I am very independent and devoted to my family. Look at our new community. All colors, no matter who you are, what you look like, how you feel, all identities, everyone is all one. Be unique. Be yourself. The end. Okay, I will hand it over to Judy Wu now. She's going to talk about a couple of teacher testimonials. Hi everyone. Thank you, Tricia. Yes, I just wanted to highlight a couple of the teacher testimonials we had. One from Central Middle School teacher who had mentioned that they celebrated the Spirit Week, and in advisory they watched the videos and discussed and showed the play from the Children's Theater and had discussion questions. They had a slide on ability etiquette as well. We

014had a comment from the Tierra Linda Middle School teacher as well. This individual, this particular teacher, always makes a big deal out of the ability awareness week in the art electives. And at the Middle School in Mariposa. The art enrichment class watched videos about artists with different abilities from the well-known, international, and local. I also featured this in our digital daily draw sketchbook of the week. The students then used this to inspire their own artwork. We had class conversations about these amazing artists and shared their own student art too. So thank you so much for the teachers that contributed to our abilities awareness week and made it even more enriching. And thanks all the teachers and staff and P-Tech and the board and students for making the abilities awareness week a big success this year,

015despite such a challenging year. Thank you. All right. Thank you all for not only hosting this week. And I remember the first time I was introduced, I was just appointed a few years ago. And this was one of the first presentations and exposures I had to the district was ability awareness week with the big banners up and everyone participating in various activities. So I'm so pleased that we were able to continue this this year, even though it was a digital format and everyone pivoted and found unique ways to integrate. So thank you for all you're doing and please continue this great work as we move forward. And thank you, Michelle, for all your support as well. You're welcome. Trustees, any comments? Judy, Tricia, Brenda and team, I know there's like a bigger council of parents

016behind you, but really just tremendous work and the integration and the adoption by the teachers just really heartwarming. This is what we're all about. Thanks for making San Carlos the special place that it is. Thank you. Thanks, Irene. Thanks. I just want to add and say that it's such an integral part of our district now. And I just appreciate you all championing this and helping it to kind of grow, I think, each year and like that play that was just made and things that are just beautiful to see. So thank you so much. We appreciate it. Team I just want to thank everyone as well. You know what makes our district as was said, unique is this integration this dedication as well so you know we couldn't do without you, and we appreciate all the

017hard work you put into it. And, you know, thank you for being part of the district you know these are, it's difficult with a lot of work, but it's rewarding for all of us and it's part of our district so we appreciate you and thank you for everything. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you again Brenda for your leadership as well and coordinating to see that group and, and all the participation throughout the year. So thank you and next, we have a few other partners that we want to recognize tonight. You know, we are so, so dependent on our public private partnerships in this district and the San Carlos education foundation which was formed back in the 80s is led by our executive director Kathy Palmer Lohan, and a parent and volunteer Jennifer Rudy as the

018president this year. And over the past three years I've worked so closely with with Kathy, and I really value and honor her leadership and her dedication to the district. And just have appreciated the incredible efforts that she provides to to really fund all the things that help support our mission in our vision in this district around supporting the whole child. And Kathy Palmer Lohan has increased the amount of fundraising and the donation to the year each year that she's been here, I believe, and, and I think the key is how she works with our parent community and our staff, so that they can be creative and innovative every year and how they approach the fundraising efforts, how to engage the community, how to really welcome people into the district. And one of my favorite things

019is the kindergarten welcome orientations the week before school starts when we get to meet most of our kindergarten parents who are able to join us at a skef welcome kindergarten orientation to get to know the people in their own community. And then the events just go from there, whether it's that a dinner at town to bring people together celebrate, build community and also raise funds for the school district. And then we'll also be able to do the gala and other events such as the revel at the devil which we really missed this year, and hope we'll hopefully we'll have something like that come back in the future. But Kathy, I really rely on her as a real thinking partner when it comes to communication and engaging our community and staying connected, and also just really

020appreciate the work she does in order to provide that generous donation to the district every year. And so I really appreciate the work she does in order to provide counseling support, technology support, you know, other social and emotional wellness, lower class sizes and electives. And this year really focusing on helping support the distance learning needs and moving into the hybrid model as we were going through our amazing music program is just renowned in the Bay Area. So I'd like to take this time to thank Kathy Palmer Lohan as an executive director of SKEF and all that she does, and also President Jennifer Rudy for leading the parent volunteer board of SKEF. Kathy, do you want to say a couple of words. Actually I asked Jen if she could speak on our behalf tonight because we

021don't. I'm a staff person and I work at the, at the pleasure of my board and it's really those board volunteers who make so much of the things happen this year with the readathon and the creativity of Debbie Blucher and Stephanie Brill and other parents. So I've asked Jennifer to say a couple words. Thank you Kathy and thank you Dr. Harmer and trustees for inviting us here this evening into our CDAC parent community that was really special. Thank you for sharing your presentation. On behalf of our board, I would like to thank our other board members and our wonderful staff for being so nimble this year, much like every other sector we've had both challenges and tremendous opportunity during this very interesting year. And it has taught us a lot and most of what it

022has taught us is that we are capable, we are flexible and as a community we work best when we all work together and we certainly saw so many beautiful illustrations of that during this challenging year. As Kathy spoke about our virtual opportunity to have a readathon that we've never done before. That was amazing and many of you were able to attend our first virtual gala which was heartwarming, successful and really put wind in our sails for the end of this school year in preparation for a wonderful school year next year. So thank you very much to everyone who participated in that, including our amazing parent community, businesses, principals, teachers and our district staff who were part of putting that event together. We're going to be able to launch a brand new science curriculum because of

023that event and we have just so much gratitude to this community. So thank you so much. We are in our Make It Happen in May challenge to push towards the end of the year to meet our fundraising goal in order to support next year and then July 1st we start planning to meet our goal for the 2022-2023 school year if you can believe that. So thank you again on behalf of our board and staff. We're so grateful for our community and we appreciate your partnership. Thank you, Jennifer. Next, I want to recognize our PTAC group. Not every district has a PTAC. We have a PTA coordinating council where representatives from our schools take turns as a district leadership committee to help support, coordinate and collaborate the PTA groups so that we have consistency, continuity, sharing

024of best practices, ideas and support and just a stronger PTA community as a result of having a PTA coordinating council. Emily McLuhan is in her second year as the PTAC president and she partnered with Hazel Stabinski this year who was her executive VP and they are really a dream team of leadership and PTA. They're both so dedicated, such smart leaders with a really great business sense but also great community relations and building community amongst all of our schools together. We have six PTAs that function across the district and work very closely together, meeting every month and coordinating support. So I want to thank Emily and Hazel for all that they've done this year. PTA really stepped up and did some special things to really help our community in crisis. PTA immediately stepped up with a

025way to provide groceries, gift cards and food support for families in need when the pandemic hit us really hard and we knew people were losing jobs and losing their ability to take care of their families in the same way. And Hazel was quite a leader in coordinating that effort and delivering hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars of groceries throughout this year and gift cards. That was just one way our PTA stepped up early in the pandemic and meanwhile used some of their fundraising efforts and budgets to support our principals in returning to school this year so that principals and teachers had what they needed and extra supplies and materials that were unique this year. To being in distance learning and making sure people had what they needed at home but also when we came back

026to school, they had yet another set of instructional materials and supplies when kids were coming back into the hybrid model. There were a lot of challenges and a lot of communication that we all managed together and I really relied on input from our PTA, our whole PTA coordinating council as well as our skef community as well. I just want to recognize and thank Emily and Hazel for your leadership this year. Would you like to say a few words? Sure. Thank you. Hi. Thank you so much for those kind words, Dr. Harmeier. On behalf of PTAC, I'd like to extend our sincere gratitude and thanks for everything you and the trustees have done in the last very difficult two years and we truly appreciate the partnership and collaboration and open communication. That you've offered us at

027every opportunity and then, you know, personally, I wish to thank all the PTA leaders in our district. It has been a very challenging couple of years and they have stepped up and been steadfast for their communities and done the best they can in difficult circumstances. So we do have a lot of PTA presidents that are rolling off and taking on new roles, but I really do appreciate their efforts over the last couple of years and I know they're all looking forward to being back on campus in the fall and really diving into building community and helping our schools get back together in the fall. So thank you for the recognition and thank you for all you've done. Thank you, Emily. Is Hazel here tonight? I am. Thank you, Hazel. Thank you for everything and I

028also want to recognize Hazel is graduating from San Carlos School District this year with her youngest moving on to Caramont. So we're going to be losing Hazel as one of our strong parent leaders and we know that Caramont will be very grateful to have her move into a leadership role and a support role as a parent in their community next. So thank you, Hazel. Thank you. Thank you. It's been a wonderful, I think it's 11 years and I will say that the groups that you're recognized evening are truly what make our community that's super special and I just feel privileged to have been a part of it and I see bright things in the future for our district as we all sort of emerge from the crisis and I wish everybody well as we move

029forward. Thanks again. Thank you, Hazel. Next, my final recognition tonight is for Karen Molinari, the executive director of Healthy Cities Tutoring. As you know, Healthy Cities Tutoring continued to support us even though we were unsure of our budget situation this year and we weren't quite sure where they were going to fit in and then the crisis came and we found a great opportunity through extra state funding to bring Healthy Cities back this year. And Karen did an amazing job of pivoting her program to a virtual tutoring service and her whole team member group trained on how to use Zoom, how to use Google Classroom and access that with students and how to coordinate this kind of support in a remote environment. And they continued to make every effort to serve the students that were recommended

030by teachers who needed that a little extra support. Karen shared some great stories with me that they learned a lot about how to help students differently and maybe even continue some virtual support in a blended model in the future. Now that we do have these tools and these opportunities and her volunteers not only were connected to the student like they have been before but even expanded their relationships with the families of the students because of the way they were connecting through Zoom. So Karen Molinari, thank you for all you're doing to continue the support and we look forward to having you supporting our students next year as we move forward and really will rely on this tutoring service to really support our learning recovery plans and our extended learning plans as we'll talk about a

031little bit later in the meeting. So Karen, would you like to say a few words? If Karen's here, I'm not sure if she's actually with us right now. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you a little bit of an echo, Karen, but you are here with us. Let me turn that. Is this better? No, it's still echoing. Okay, I'm going to sign out. All right, sounds like Karen might want to sign out and maybe join us back here again. So we'll give her a minute to do that. And I know another opportunity. Actually, Michelle, I'm on still. Can you hear me now? Yep, there you go. Go ahead. Thank you so much. Sorry for the computer issues. But thank you, Dr. Harmeier and members of the board. I really appreciate this recognition. Healthy

032Cities is so proud of our longtime partnership with the district actually entering into our 25th year this year supporting students who just need that little extra help through tutoring. We really exist because of the commitment and the dedication of the absolutely amazing community volunteers who step up and work in our schools and each week supporting a student. And of course, our amazing staff, many of whom are here tonight. They work tirelessly to match students, you know, with caring tutors. I'd like to acknowledge a few who we're saying goodbye to this year who are not going to be returning next year as they are retiring or relocating or moving on. And I just would appreciate everyone giving a special shout out. We have Saskia Turing, who's been with Healthy Cities for over 15 years, Cynthia Wiggin

033for 10 plus years, and Bridget Shum, who's one of our newest members. These three are going to be so greatly missed in our organization and our community. But I just hope that you'll join me in thanking them tonight for all of the work that they have put in and making our organization successful. Those three, along with our entire staff and our amazing board of directors and really over 400 community volunteers that show up every week to help our students are what make us successful. And, you know, I stand on all of their shoulders and just want to say thank you for the partnership. Thank you for the support. And we look forward to another 25 years. All right. Thank you so much, Karen and all of our volunteers at Healthy Cities Tutoring. Ben, I really

034am so appreciative of these partnerships and it takes strong leaders, visionary leaders and really dedicated leaders to keep all of these important organizations going. So thank you for your leadership, your dedication, and also just your partnership. I feel like I have really relied on all of you leaders that we just talked about as real listening partners and thinking partners, giving me critical feedback, heads up about what's happening and really helping me as a leader do a better job because of your real honesty and ability to communicate with me. So I want to thank you just for my role with you as well. Board members, do you have any comments? Wendy, would you like to go? Sure. I mean, I thank you, Dr. Hermeyer, for inviting all of these incredibly important partners tonight and to have

035this recognition and really appreciate seeing some of the snippets of what has happened this year and just reminding ourselves of how much we've accomplished this year. During such a challenging year, we've accomplished a lot. I mean, the food distribution, the ways that people just as a community came together to serve people's needs is really what makes us special. And I just wanted to just expand on the thanks and say for PTAC, there's a whole number of leaders at the sites and with the PTAC executive board. So I just want to say, you know, in addition to the incredible leadership of Emily and Hazel, who are always accessible, always responsive, like just really stepping up, but just want to recognize also that you have a great executive board. I'm just going to read a few names,

036Carrie Dietrich and Natalie Carbone, Amy Eide and Susan Raymond, and then each of the site leaders, the presidents out of all of our sites and the executive vice president. So thank you to all of those individuals as well. And congrats for an incredible year. I would just like to add that I think what makes this community so special, besides the incredible leadership and the contributions of these organizations, is the collaboration. What makes St. Carlos so special is that the PTAs and SCAP and Healthy Cities Tutoring are together, working together. People come because they hear about these amazing schools and then they meet the teachers. And, but then they realize that the community is, you all being recognized today are just kind of like some like really like examples of like the really, really special support

037that we have from our parents. I just want to say as a shout out, like, I spent a lot of hours with you all personally, you know, Emily, Hazel, Jen, Kathy in the PTAC room, and yeah, we couldn't, we couldn't all do our jobs without each other. Thanks for all the teamwork. I want to say that, you know, and what I always talked about is you move to St. Carlos, everyone says the same thing, you move to St. Carlos for the schools, but you know what that really means is you move to St. Carlos for the community that supports the schools. All of you are just the example of the community that supports the schools that believes in public education, that believes in its goal, its mission, and are here to support it any way

038you can, right? I think that's one of your prime examples in all three groups, from PTAC to SCAF, to Healthy Cities, and, you know, I think Karen had mentioned it well, a lot of people are tutors for 15 years, 20 years, 25 years. You're part of this community, and that's what makes us great, that's what makes us special. That's what keeps people coming here. So, you know, we couldn't thank you enough for all that you do, we couldn't thank you for all the time and effort you put in above and beyond your regular jobs, but more importantly, you're being part of our community as well. You make us look good is always what I like to say, so keep up the good work. So, but we're not the only ones as well. I know there's

039a bunch of public comment, Wendy, so I will turn it to you for some of the other comments. Okay, great. The first, we should invite Kate Finnegan, because she would like to share her comment. Are we able to find Kate and unmute her, Veronica? She's here, but we can maybe we'll come back to her. Okay. Okay, I will read a few then. And after this first one, then we can see if she is able to join. This is from Scott Gustafson. I think teacher Scott Green has done an amazing job keeping our children's morale and spirits high all year. He's made custom yoga videos for the kids on YouTube. He has found creative ways to include all the children in Zoom activities. Tommy really looks forward to APE every week. I can't say enough good

040things about what teacher Green has done in this wacky COVID-19 year. I also wanted to want to call out Mr. John, the parent educator. He has been with our kids all year and has provided Room 5 stability during staffing turnover. He should know his contribution is appreciated and noticed by Teresa and myself. Thank you, Scott. We see if Kate can join us. Do you see her, Dr. Harmeyer? I do see her. I'm just wondering if I've clicked my button that says ask to unmute, but I think it's going to have to be Alejandro and Veronica who have real control over things if they can help Kate. Yes, she should be able to unmute. She should be able to. So maybe she stepped away from the computer at this time. Maybe that's the case. This is

041from Tricia Levis. Hello, I'm a parent of a sixth grader with an IEP. I wanted to take this time to publicly thank Ms. Mane, my son's ELA teacher and case manager. I'm sorry if I pronounced that wrong. Ms. Mane? Rachael Mane. Mane. I was so worried on how he would adjust transitioning to a new school with many new teachers. Having multiple classes and teachers seemed like such a huge jump, especially for my son who needs some extra help. Lucky for us, Rachael jumped right in, initiated a tour of the campus for him, and to this day sends helpful information, updated schedules, answers all my questions, concerns very timely, and makes my son's at home and at school learning so much fun. He honestly tells us on the weekends, when will he be going back to

042school? He always says I love school. What more can we ask for? To Rachael and all his teachers at TAL, we thank you for all your hard work and dedication in a time of uncertainty and challenges. You rock. Thank you, Tricia Levis. Next is Christy Wegener. The special education teachers and staff have really gone above and beyond in so many ways this past year. We are so very thankful our daughter has such kind and supportive teachers who really work to ensure and she progresses academically. While it has been a difficult year for families and teachers alike, we feel very supported by the San Carlos School District special ed teachers and staff. Thank you for all you do. Next is Rachael Von Horn. Hello, my daughter has worked closely with Gina Kiyuna for the past two

043years. As I'm sure it's been for most families this past year has been especially difficult for our family. My daughter Maddie has struggled with online learning. She misses her friends and her social life at school, but throughout it all Gina has been a constant source of love and motivation. Maddie looks forward to her session with Gina. I know this is because Gina has always gone out of her way to let Maddie know that she believes in her. Gina isn't someone who is just doing her job. She goes above and beyond to really know and understand her students. Maddie thrives because of Gina's high expectations and belief in my daughter. Gina does not box a student in by their diagnosis. She gets to know them as individuals and uses their strengths and interests to make learning

044fun. We're so grateful for all that Gina has done for Maddie. The San Carlos School District written acres specifically is so lucky to have found her. I know this year of distance learning has been so successful because of Gina and her dedication to each and every student. Next is Alex Prieto. I just want to say what an asset and wealth of knowledge Brenda has been for us in CDAC. She came in and hit the ground running with amazing guidance and wisdom. She made the time for us, got things in front of all the right people and always in the most positive and honest way. Well, I'm very happy for her new endeavor. I'm definitely sad to see her go. So thank you, Brenda, for always listening. We will miss you. Another comment is from Joyce

045Chang. In addition to Class 5 teacher and staff at TL, I also want to thank Brenda for her support throughout the past year. She was available to listen to parents and offered valuable advice and solutions during the challenging year. And we have another one. Judy and Gilbert Kwan. We would like to thank Hope Decker and Megan Vizier for always being available to help our sixth grader meet the challenges of this year. Hope, our son's study skills teacher and case manager, made study guides for him, helped our son prepare for quizzes and complete assignments. Even with all of this work, Hope was able to make it enjoyable. Thank you and Megan for your quick responses when answering our questions and concerns. Thanks also to Scott Green, the adaptive PE teacher who's been extremely supportive of our

046Abilities Awareness Week every year. He's an amazing resource for us and we feel very lucky to have him in our district. We would also like to shout out a big thank you to Brenda Bekecki. If it wasn't for her, we don't think our son would have been able to attend the fifth grade outdoor education program. Not only did he attend, he had an amazing experience. Thank you so much, Brenda, for thinking outside the box, always keeping your door open to our concerns, for all of your late night emails and for trying to find ways to help our school community. You will be missed. So I'd like to ask if Kate is available. Your turn. Otherwise, Neil, we don't have any other public comment on this agenda item. Okay, great. Well, thank you, everyone. And thank

047you, Wendy, for reading all those and all the great comments. And more important, thank you again for being part of our community and being part of our district. So I will move us on then from our spotlight on excellence to our Consent Agenda. As a reminder, Consent Agenda is items that we find routine in nature or don't require a lot of discussion. Trustees, is there an approval of the Consent Agenda? I move that we approve the Consent Agenda items 4A through 4J. I second. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you, Irene. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, the Consent Agenda will be approved 3-0, again with Trustee Casanego, not present tonight. All right, we'll then move on to our action items 5A, Michelle, for the approval appointment of the Mariposa

048Upper Elementary School Principal. All right, we have some other people to celebrate tonight, and I'm going to let Hans do this one, and I will do the next one. Go ahead, Hans. All right, thank you, Michelle. It's been an exciting process filling this position at Mariposa. Certainly, Alex Freel has done a fantastic job as principal there and will be missed, although she's moved out of the area. I know she's here tonight, and I would be remiss if we didn't take a moment to thank her for making Mariposa Mariposa, and along with the teachers, really making it a school instead of just a program or, you know, a grade level. It's a school now, and so that's exciting. And it's with great pride and excitement that we announce the next principal at Mariposa, and that person

049is here tonight. Her name is Teresa Fox, and she's going to give a little wave to everybody. I see her down there. She's currently the principal of the Virtual Academy in Menlo Park. She's been a coordinator of technology and innovation in Menlo Park for quite some time. She has more than 20 years of experience. She taught second through eighth grade, and was also a K-8 instructional coach. So she brings a really wide variety of experiences with her to our district, and she's just really passionate about engaging all students in deeper learning through inquiry, and she's a big PBL fan and design thinker. So we're excited to bring her on into that culture in our district and help to really, you know, make it even greater. She's a technology innovator, obviously, as we said, and she's

050really, you know, passionate about supporting teachers' professional growth and building strong family and school partnerships. And she happens to live in Menlo Park with her two sons and her husband, and, you know, at this point in time, Teresa, first of all, congratulations. We are extremely proud and excited to have you coming on, and we'll give you the floor at this moment in time. Before we do that, Hans, just procedurally, let's ask the board to approve the appointment. Kind of important. Kind of important. And then we'll move on to meet Teresa. Thank you. Board, I'll move to approve Teresa Fox, Item 5A, as the Mayor of Post-Operatory School Principal. I will second. Thank you, Irene. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, congratulations, Mrs. Fox, and welcome to the district. Thank you

051so much. Thank you, Hans, for that kind introduction. Thank you, Dr. Harmeier, and thank you, Board of Trustees. It is such a privilege to be here tonight with you. And after listening to all those accomplishments of your community partnerships, holy smokes, what an amazing community I am joining. I couldn't be more thrilled. And I am especially excited about my Mariposa community. I can't wait to get to know the families and students and staff. And I'm excited to work with Alex to make a smooth transition as well. But really excited to meet everyone and just thrilled to be joining your community. So thank you very much. Thank you, Teresa, and congratulations. And if I could just add one more thing, you know, one of the funnest parts of our there aren't very many fun parts to

052HR a lot of times. It's not very fun. But one of the funnest parts is when we get to bring on a new leader and hiring of teachers, et cetera. And we're in that season. And, you know, I just want to highlight when I read Teresa's letter of introduction, it was one of the best letters of introduction I've ever read. And it was completely personalized to San Carlos and why she wanted to be in San Carlos. And so it's just very exciting to have you on board, Teresa, and congratulations again. All right. Thank you, Hans. And welcome, Teresa. And Hans has arranged a little meet and greet with staff tomorrow morning at Mariposa. So thank you for making some time for us and to get started as soon as you can. So enjoy tomorrow morning.

053All right. All right. I'll move on in the 5B, which will be appointment of director of student services. That's you, right, Michelle? Yes, I'd like to take this one, Neil. We could start this one off by saying thank you to Brenda Bekecki, who's been serving as our director of student services for the past two years. She came in with a great level of experience from the county level, the high school level, and really contributed a lot of knowledge and expertise in our K-8 district. And she's moving on to take a position with a nonprofit agency and do some leadership work and another way to support people with special needs. And we wish her well in her retirement. And as we really thought about how we would replace Brenda, we really wanted to look inside and

054look at our own staff and who was ready to take on this responsibility, who was qualified and passionate about this role and would have the support and really respect from our own teachers and leaders. And I would like to recommend the appointment of Megan Vizier from moving from an assistant principal role at our middle schools right now to be the director of student services. So with that, I'll let you take some action and then I'll share a little bit more about Megan. Great, trustees. Is there a motion to approve Megan as the director of student services? I move to approve Megan Vizier as the new director of student services. I will second. Thank you, Irene. All in favor please say aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, Megan, I would say welcome to the district, but

055you're already here, so thank you for staying with us and continuing to grow in the district and we're really excited. Thank you, Neil. Let me tell you a little bit about Megan and then Megan can say a few words. For those of you who don't know Megan very well, she's made already a big impact in our district, so let me tell you a little more. She brings with her about 20 years of experience working with diverse learners and a passion for building relationships with students and families to the role of director of student services. Megan enjoys collaborating with school teams to develop and implement effective strategies so that all students can be successful at school. Currently, as we said, Megan serves as the assistant principal of both Central Middle School and Tierra Linda Middle School.

056She supports both of those communities and campuses, and as the assistant principal, she works to support students with unfinished learning through the development and implementation of multi-tiered systems of support for academic achievement and social emotional learning. Prior to Megan coming to this administrative role, she taught special education in a variety of settings, beginning in 2002 when she began her teaching career at a small non-public school. It was grade 7 through 12 in San Francisco. When that little school closed in 2008, Megan then created a learning center program at Ingrid B. Lacey Middle School in Pacifica. During her time in Pacifica, Megan introduced co-teaching and inclusion to the learning center program to increase academic achievement and social opportunities for her students. Mrs. Vizier joined the San Carlos School District in 2011 as an education specialist at

057Central Middle School, and between 2011 and 2018, she had experience in both learning center teacher and a co-teacher at both Arroyo and Central. In addition to that, her teaching duties, Megan has been a project-based learning coach, a mentor teacher for five education specialists, and the extended school year principal back in 2018. As you can see, she brings an amazing amount of experience and dedication to this role. Thank you, Megan, for accepting this appointment. Would you like to say a couple words? Yes, thank you so much, trustees, Dr. Herrmeyer and Hans for this opportunity. I'm just so honored that I was appointed for this position. And I just, I have to really thank Tom Domer, Kristen Uggren, Brenda Pachecki, and Mindy Shelton for their leadership and mentorship that have really helped prepare me for this role.

058So thank you so much. And Brenda has already been such a great support during this transition. One of the reasons I came to San Carlos is because this community and the teachers really embrace students with diverse needs, and I was just so impressed with the inclusive model for special education and the vision. And I actually did try to leave for a brief time and I came back to be the assistant principal because of that vision of inclusion and support for our students. So thank you again. Look forward to working with all of you and our amazing staff. All right, thank you, Megan, and thank you, trustees, for supporting this appointment and Megan is already meeting with the paras and the Ed specialists and, you know, preparing for extended school year this summer and, and being

059the assistant principal at Central and Tierra Linda. So I know she's going to need a little rest this summer, but we appreciate all the extra. You've gone above and beyond all year long, Megan, with all the demands that the pandemic has brought onto our middle school with unique demands in a year where we actually reduced support on our middle school campuses due to our budget challenges last year. So thank you for hanging in there and straddling those two schools and now taking on even more responsibility right at the end of the year when we're all so tired. But look, she looks energized and ready to go. So thank you so much, Megan. I just want to say congratulations, Megan, and it's very gratifying to kind of all the when we can see people grow their

060careers here within the district. So a shout out to all the leaders that participated in that. I will move us on then to 5C. Is this available to you, Hans, the approval of job description for a teacher on special assignment? Yes, it's to me. Thank you, Neil. As you probably I think most folks know at this point, we've had a curriculum coordinator for the last few years, and we have been struggling to keep that position. We had it at a 0.8, and then we moved it to a 0.6, and then now it's down to a 0.4, and it's been a struggle. And Sarah Orton has just been amazing for so many years in that role. She knows everyone, literally everyone, was really crucial to me and helping me learn the ropes kind of around the

061district and getting to know all of the players because she knows everyone. And, you know, she's decided that it's time for her to take a leave for a bit and give someone an opportunity. And in looking at, you know, the best way in which to sort of fill the position, I won't say fill her shoes, but to fill her position and the most sustainable model was to move it into a teacher on special assignment. For a variety of reasons, you know, Irene, you know, we talked about, you know, the ability to give folks an opportunity to step up and, you know, hopefully, you know, whether that's a teacher from within our district or outside, hopefully it's someone from within that steps up and into that role and has a chance to grow. And that's really

062what we want. And, you know, this also allows us at a teacher's salary allows us to have a full time position rather than it being part time. You know, and it will be crucial to supporting not only, you know, Ed services, but also supporting the principals and teachers on site. So, you know, in thinking about the best way in which to do this, we went through, you know, a few different iterations. You know, the drafts on the job description, what should be on what should not had a couple talks with Angela Norton in the union and, you know, really went back and forth to try to design the best possible position. So we're excited to recommend that. And hopefully we can can move forward in this way and have a sustainable effort in our curriculum

063and instruction department. These questions for Hans, I guess you just have one question is in this regards, you know, compared to the description we had before, is it kind of in between of where Sarah was and kind of how we can fill the gaps or what are your thoughts on maybe how I guess the question is if we have difficulty recruiting, where do we go from here? Yeah, it's pretty similar. The only difference is there's no supervisory, you know, pieces to the job. And, you know, there's a lot of oversight required on my part, which is fine. And so the administrative duties are not listed. And, you know, there is also more of a focus on support and really working with, we have a couple of other, you know, we have some we have Brooke

064Sibley and Sarah Doss, who are they're not really teachers on assignment, they're technically reading teachers, but working with them and really helping, you know, to further the professional development of the teachers and, you know, and also, like I said, the same time supporting all of our efforts and professional development. And, you know, curriculum and instruction requires a lot of a lot of back and forth between this position and me. So it's very similar, just no supervisory activities. Okay, trustees, there are no questions or motion to approve 5C job description. I move that we approve the job description in 5C. Thank you, Irene. I'll second Wendy, just because, you know, mix it up here a little. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, that will carry 3-0. Thank you,

065Hans, for that information, and hopefully best of luck with recruiting the position. We'll move on to the 5D approval of the school year calendar, Michelle. We're a little late in the season to be bringing the school year calendar. It's been difficult for all of us in the region to finalize some decisions about next year. We kind of have to wait, first of all, on Sequoia High School District. Once they adopt their calendar, all eight feeder districts then start to begin to align their calendars. It's kind of a complex process because then we're also looking at our own trimester timelines, our professional development days, local holidays. Once we have a draft, we actually negotiate with the SCTA, our teacher's association, and negotiate the calendar and the impact on the workday. We also then consult with CSEA.

066So this year, what we did early on, earlier in the years, we determined the first and last day of school early because we at least wanted to do our summer planning while we were working out the details of the calendar. Now we're at a point where SCTA has approved the calendar as posted, and we are still determining some details around the two professional development days when students are not on campus and how we will use those days. But otherwise, we are in agreement on all of our school holidays. So I'm asking for the board to approve our school calendar for 21-22. Any questions in regards to the school calendar for 21-22? Seeing none, is there a motion to approve then 5D the 21-22 school year calendar? I move to approve 5D the 2021-2022 school year

067calendar. Thank you, Wendy. I will second. Thank you, Irene. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, that will carry 3-0. Thank you, everyone, for their hard work on this as well and just kind of been a hard chess piece to move, I think, a lot of times with COVID and, you know, setting the high school district. So I appreciate everyone teaching staff and district office as well. So 5, our last action item is going to be then 5B, approval of the annual declaration of needs. Is this you, Hans, or is this Michelle? I can just take that. Six of one and a half dozen of the other, yeah. I know. So every year, our HR department needs to submit a declaration of need to the County Office of Education,

068and it indicates a projected or kind of possible need for applying for special credentials, waivers, PIPs and STIPs, you know, which are provisional credentials for those people who are not fully credentialed, but we want to hire and put them in the classroom. Sometimes this is a teacher that's moving from out of state and has a credential there, but they just don't have their California credential yet until they maybe take a course or two and complete that. Sometimes there are people who are just completing their teacher training program, and they have another component to do, so they don't quite have a credential yet. So there's a variety of reasons why we need to get County Office approval for teacher credentialing, so this just gives us that opportunity to do so. So this is routine in nature,

069but I want the board to be aware this is really important for us, especially as we have a hiring shortage in the areas of special education, math and science teachers. We are often providing special credentials for those teachers in those areas, as we may recruit a multiple subject teacher to move into special education, and while they're working on their degree credential, they need a special provisional credential. So those are the kind of reasons why we might give somebody a special credential. Trustee, any questions about our declaration need? One question I have, Michelle, is this larger, smaller, about the same as regular years, or how's it different at all? We really talked about this and we just kept it pretty much the same as last year, because there's been a high need every year for the

070past several years. So we have not exceeded our limit in the last couple of years, so we're kind of keeping our request at about the same level. I have no idea. I've never broken my limit on the declaration of need. I think the county just makes us be aware and try to plan ahead. I'm sure they would work with us if we needed to adjust that number. Okay, well in that case, if there's no more questions then I will move to approve 5E, our annual declaration of need. I second. Thank you, Wendy. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Carrying none, that will carry 3-0. We will move on then to our discussion action item. Trustees and just everyone at home, just so you know, this is all kind of followed

071together here. So, Michelle, have you kind of start us off and lead us through how they all play together and how it relates to returning back to campus. Thank you, Neil. I'll start off tonight and do just a brief update on our return to school progress. Then we'll move into talking about the one-time grants. And there are three agenda items, but they are all cohesively connected, so we'll spend most of the time on item B, the extended learning opportunity grant. And then that should cover all of those items together. And Hans will help me with these items as we go through. So first of all, the county office is still really affirming that we're all going to be able to return fully to school in the fall. There do not seem to be barriers that

072will hold any of our schools back in the county at all from returning fully. So that's really good news. And we want to continue to get that word out. As the masking conditions change, I think people need to be aware that June 15th is a magic number for California as Governor Newsom is going to kind of open up the state as long as the numbers continue to drop. And there will be some changes in masking protocols. That seems to be very confusing for a lot of people. But what we know about schools is we will be requiring masking all the way through the beginning of the school year next year, likely through December at the minimum. That's what we're told to kind of count on and plan now, primarily because our younger students are not

073necessarily going to be vaccinated, especially by the beginning of the year. They haven't even started the below 12 year olds yet. So just to continue the safety protocols, we'll be asking all staff and students to continue the masking protocol along with the other pillars. We will wash hands and hygiene. We'll likely still stay with stable groups, but we're not sure if those stable groups are just for the indoor environment and they can mix when they go to lunch and recess. We're uncertain about that. So we'll be waiting for county guidance and CDPH to guide the counties. So when those protocols are updated, then we will update our safety plan. So right now we are assuming that kids cannot mix. And so we have quite complex recess and lunch schedules. We're really wondering how we're going

074to manage some of our PE and elective strategies where normally different classes would mix in those environments. So we're trying to, we're staffing so that we have enough staff to keep kids separate, but we'll have to see the technical part of that master schedule probably is going to have to be completely reworked right before school starts again. So our middle school leaders are going to really need to probably invest more time in master scheduling again, which is the biggest impact and not knowing what the protocols are at this point. So the masking will continue our health and hygiene and our cleaning practices. We are going to be following these guidelines all the way through at least through December. The student vaccines, as you know, we've been putting out a lot of messaging about this. They're

075available for students, 12 and up, which are typically our middle school students sixth grade and above. So we are making these vaccine clinics known to our families. Thank you to Belmont Redwood Shores, Dan Deguara, the superintendent there coordinated with Safeway who's in his district and started a vaccine clinic at Ralston Middle School and invited us to be part of it. So I thank all of our parent volunteers, mostly through PTAC and SKEF for actually helping out yesterday. Yesterday was day one of their first vaccine clinic. May 26 will be the next day one, and then you know three weeks after the first shot you come back for your second shot. So I'm really pleased that we were able to offer a local option for our families. At the same time, we are sending communications out

076to our families that there's lots of vaccine clinics now all through San Mateo County. So if you want a vaccine, you can get it. You just might have to drive a little bit and coordinate, but it's on myturn.gov so that anyone can sign up now. The idea we're trying to get as many people vaccinated as possible before school starts next year, just to have just a more robust, you know, really prevention plan. We know that not all families are comfortable with vaccines, we're not pressuring them to do that or requiring anyone to do that at this point. It's not a state requirement. So we want to respect those who don't feel comfortable and are not going to be vaccinated. But for those who are, we're going to make sure to communicate that that option is

077available for them. The virtual program has been a big discussion, not only at our superintendents meetings, but at the state level. This year SB 98, Senate Bill 98, gave us all the opportunity to provide distance learning because of the pandemic. Now we were hoping we would still be able to provide a distance learning option for families who really wanted that for next year. But the politics around distance learning have created a situation where the legislature will not allow distance learning to continue. And I think, and this is my editorial comment, is they don't want districts to have a way to not come back. They don't want to open up that window where districts may not make the effort to come back fully. So they have taken it away completely from all of us to provide

078that virtual academy option. So it is what it is. Who knows, it might change later. But right now what we're being told is that legislature is just going to beef up or modify independent study so that for those people with true medical needs and cannot be on campus, some districts may opt to try to use a different strategy with independent study for those medically fragile families. However, in our case with independent study, there is no live instruction built in and it is not, it's an additional, it would be an additional cost to our district to have a teacher enrolled, or a student enrolled in a regular class and then have another teacher outside supporting them. So it is not something that we are considering continuing or even initiating as an independent study program. We did

079survey the families that were in the connections program this year and then also incoming parents who wanted to participate. We had about 50 families who wanted to be considered for a virtual program. So we've communicated now through my messaging that that is not an option, it's not available. And then I've also extended myself for conversations with people to help them navigate next year, talk about what their options might be, what strategies they can use and what other virtual options there might be in the community. So I'm asking parents if they have questions, they can talk to me, they can talk to Amber Farina, our enrollment specialist as well. So we're hoping that if people do opt to go to another program or outside of the district for next year that they will rejoin our district

080as soon as they're comfortable and ready, even if it's mid-year. And as I remind people, you may be in a home school or another program during the year and maybe mid-year, once vaccines are available to the younger kids and things you might feel more comfortable. If you live in our district you have a right to enroll in our school at any time. So I'm really helping to educate people about what their options are and what they can do and we want to welcome them back whenever they are ready, even if it's mid-year. Lastly, just a quick update on summer school program. Thanks to our teacher leaders who are taking over their kind of a leadership opportunity this summer to lead our summer school and extended school year programs. They are already interviewing teachers, selecting teachers,

081developing and designing the programs, coordinating transportation with Doug and the team. And so they are very busy already working on supporting our students through extended learning and we'll talk a little bit more about that. So thank you to our teachers who are not only providing leadership, but other teachers and paraprofessionals who are going to volunteer to work this summer in our extended and summer school programs. So those are general information updates about the return to school. Any questions or comments about that? Trustee, any questions, comments? Irene or Wendy? I just want to say thank you to kind of like all the principals kind of doing like the scheduling for next year and the bell schedules. I know it's complicated when some of the things are still kind of up in the air in terms of

082guidance from county and having to think through a couple of options. I know that we're finishing the year strong. I got to hear about like some really the great things that are happening on our school sites as you're doing kind of planning ahead for next year. No, I think everything has been clear. I mean, Dr. Hammer, just keep us apprised about what kind of questions you're getting from parents. I know my email box actually has been relatively quiet. I am not getting questions from community, and I am hearing that as the district has just been really clear in its communications out. Folks, tell me if it's different, but generally people write to me if they're not clear. Moves on then to 6B, approval of our extended learning opportunity grant plan. All right. And as we

083talked in our last meeting, we went into some detail about our one-time funding and how the state and federal dollars are going to help support a full return to school learning recovery and provide extra supports, not only for continuing with PPE and health and safety, but also other supports for learning for behavior for learning recovery and supports for students, staffs and families. What I would like to do today is I'll get ready to share my screen here. I have a little presentation to guide my conversation here. And there, if you want to look at the documents attached to this agenda item, there is a detailed learning opportunity grant plan, which is a document that summarizes what or goes into more depth as to what I'll be summarizing here. There's also a chart that shows how

084we're going to use the one-time funds in all three categories. I'll ask the board to approve our extended learning opportunity grant first after my presentation and discussion. Then we can quickly approve item C and D, which are pretty integrated and connected and won't require as much discussion. So we'll kind of have all the discussion about all the different grants during this presentation. So I'll share my screen. Okay. So what, again, just what I want to focus on in this presentation is I remind everybody what the grants are, how much they are, and how we can use them. What are the allowable expenses? Hans will go into some detail about the engagement process because it is so tied into our LCAP engagement process. And then I'll go through some of the expenditures that we are focusing

085on that made it into this plan and highlight some of those high priority areas and then have some discussion with the board. This is a slide that you saw at a previous meeting. The Expanded Learning Opportunity Grant, ELO, is a state grant. For us, it's about $1.7 million, and the whole idea is how can you provide more learning opportunities during the day, outside of the day, outside of the school, and really support the academic recovery of students who need support. It also includes training and professional development for staff. So this is the plan that is attached. You will see that these are the buckets where you can use those funds. So we took the expenditures that most matched this grant and inserted them into this grant. That was the grant for around $1.7 million. And

086as a reminder, 10% of that grant was required to be spent on paraprofessionals. So we made special note where paraprofessionals are included in the plan so that we can meet the requirement. The in-person instruction grant, remember, was provided to us because we got all of our kids back on campus in the hybrid model before April 1st. So that was the carrot that the state offered to all of us to get back on campus in person. And I want to thank our association again for renegotiating our MOU. As soon as we found out in January that this was a thing, we all came back and said, you know, we're going to come back anyway. And if we can come back a little sooner and take advantage of these funds, it'll be good for kids and good

087for district to get some reimbursement of some of the expenditures and also set us up for success next year. So again, thanks to our association for working collaboratively with us because we were back February 22nd, which was significantly earlier than most of the districts in the county. So again, this grant, we do not require board approval on these items like we do on the extended learning opportunity grant and plan. But I want approval from the board tonight because we want to build these into our budget and our expenditures for next year. So we're clustering a really an approval process for all three of these grants. What's nice about the in-person grant is it's pretty much use it any way you need to get kids on campus. That's the message. Anyway, anything that you need to

088do. So we've, we've got that well covered in our, in our plan. The last one is the, again, that was state. This was a state of California incentive grant. The elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund, ESSER funds. Remember we didn't get ESSER one funds last spring when many of our neighboring districts did. They got a million or more dollars because they had students with title one designation. We didn't qualify for title one. We don't have, we did not qualify because we don't have a high number of students in poverty in our San Carlos community. We did qualify for title one this year as we move into next year. So we were able to get a little bit of money. We still don't have a high percentage of poverty in the San Carlos region, but

089we did qualify. There were enough people through the census process. So we are happy to have some of those funds. And again, what these funds are, are, I would say are the most flexible that we can use any way a principal or district needs to help support students in learning recovery and support. The nice part about this fund is that we can spend it over a couple of years where the others we need to finish up with spending by the end of next summer. So I just wanted to do that review again, because we had to take into consideration all the input from our stakeholders and then make sure that that what we were using these funds for fit into one of these areas. So I'll have Hans just review again what our engagement process

090was. He talked about this last time, but just briefly review this piece again for us, Hans. Over a couple of years, how many years? Is it just two year period or more? One was two and one was three. ESSER funds kind of have this longer life. So I think Christine noted it on the top of that document, the attached document right under the title. So if you can take a look at that one, I think it's in there. All right, I'll be happy to go through the engagement a little bit. As we said, you know, two weeks ago the engagement process in our district is quite extensive. I'm proud to say that it's extensive. We really do take the time to listen, to collect information, and then really build a plan around that instead of

091having preconceived notions about what we might think is the right thing to do. So, you know, all of these committees that we've listed here, we've met with multiple times, many of them most recently met with PAC and DLAC just yesterday morning and have added another meeting with them coming up the week of June 1st. I want to say it's June 3rd or something along those lines. And, you know, we have a wide variety of input that we've consolidated into one document and really what we tried to do with that as we said last time was, you know, just making it real and really listening and looking for patterns. And in finding those patterns, we really found, you know, some things rose to the top. There's absolutely no question. And we were, you know, we debated

092what, as Michelle said, which which one of these is the best to use. And given that the ELO grant has, you know, certain areas, we really tried to be. And thanks for that Michelle is a good segue. We really, we tried to be very mindful of, you know, obviously this is all part of our LCAP process. It's not as if this is, we didn't want to isolate. Right. It's not like it's separate. It's all part of it. In fact, goal one of our LCAP will be, as we've discussed before, board. It'll be about the one time money so it'll be about a one year grant, it'll be about what are we doing to recover next year. That is that will be our first LCAP goal. And thinking about the yellow grant and these other short

093term grants. It's really about, you know, we say biggest impact for the dollar of course layman's terms and biggest bang for our buck right is what we want. And we also we have to think about feasibility what's realistic for our school district what what's going to work for us what experiences have we had in the past that we know are going to be lead to successful outcomes. We don't want to bite off more than we can chew to use another analogy and trying to start a whole program when we only have one year's worth of funding for it. We also, as I said, you know, really that input was to try to find the patterns. And then we're trying to represent what the pattern said, and what we heard from people in listening. I think

094we, you know, really, we haven't struggled we've spent a lot of time on. There's no question to make sure that we have the right actions and the right input moving forward so very pleased with what we've come up with. All right, thanks Hans. And I think it's important that I really feel when we look at what is in our plan it includes what the majority of the stakeholders wanted as their top priority I really feel like we were able to capture capture the majority of things, not everything made it into our plan but the all the highest priorities really did. I, again, attached, you'll see a detailed breakout of all of the different things that we're going to fund but what I did here is I highlighted some of the, I'd say the highest priorities

095and want to summarize them for you here. The return to full time in person learning was what our surveys and our parents and everyone talked about, absolutely make sure we can come from come back full time with the proper PPE appropriate class sizes, so it doesn't create a barrier for us to not come back and try our best to have a full elective MP program. And we were, we are able to accomplish that because of these funds and the input and based on the input. We also want to continue using the technology devices and the new instructional technology that we've learned. And as we've heard in earlier presentations, you know our teachers have had essentially a year and a half of professional development. That's what it feels like for all of us and we don't

096want to go back to the way it used to be we want to keep moving forward and enhance our blended learning approaches and be able to provide our students access to the not only the devices but the technology tools moving forward so we want to continue to invest in some of those things. Most importantly, we have to look at the academic supports for our identified students. So the plan asks you to do extended learning which means learning outside of the regular school day, and also other supports during the school day. So this is how we're going to approach our intervention support. We are going to design a summer school program for this year and next year. We have not had summer school in years and years in this district. I can't find anyone who remembers

097ever having one but we've had extended school year for students with special needs. So we are going to now have both programs running for for both groups of students. And we are really excited about providing that support. Our principals and teachers are actually calling and inviting specific identified students based on data to these programs. And so we're in process now of solidifying our rosters for the summer. We are going to use some paraprofessional help and literacy specialists to push in and pull out in the K-5 area as we've done in the past, but a little bit more enhanced this time. We're expanding that support for fourth and fifth, not just K-3, and we're going to have two things happening. I talk about the multi-tiered systems of support and that's the pyramid we talk about. Level

098one support is where all teachers are providing good first instruction and they're differentiating for their kids who need a little more challenge or a little more support. All that happens day to day in every classroom. That's what all kids get. Some kids then need a little bit more and they're targeted based on data and where they are and they're getting extra support, often from literacy specialists. So that's a level two level of support. And then level three often comes from Ed specialists and IEPs and special education programs. So we have tiered levels of support. So what I want to point out here is that we want to provide some para educators in the classrooms of K-5 so that they can support the class while the teacher is supporting very targeted small group differentiated instruction. So

099what we're doing is providing support for that first layer, that good level one instruction to help teachers with that small group instruction, class managing the class, helping students who are not at the small group table and that para educator partnering with the teacher. And we all know that the teacher is the most expert person to deliver instruction. So we want them at the small group table, but in order to keep the class productively engaged in learning, it's nice to have that para professional to partner with so they can keep the rest of the class engaged. That's a strategy that might not be really comfortable for a lot of teachers or some teachers, but we want to provide extra professional development and the support so that they can integrate that practice into their classroom if they're

100not already doing that. Excuse me. And then the literacy specialists are the people we've had in the past to actually do some pullout targeted literacy support and so that offers that level two level of support. So by doing the small group, we will have math and language arts intervention provided by our teachers with para support and our literacy specialists helping in level two. So that's a an important distinction between those two kinds of support. We also want to provide similar kind of support but it looks very different sometimes in fourth through eighth grade, because of master schedule development so we want to add additional to our fourth and eighth grade schools so that our master schedules can build enough sections to integrate some intervention classes or RTI response to intervention classes. We also want to

101make sure that our class sizes, instead of packing our classes to the max, which you know we would do in a really tough budget year, we want to keep them on the lower side of our average, so that classes are a little bit smaller more individual attention to kids and also so that we can make sure that we have the spacing that is being recommended right now which is the three foot spacing for students in their classrooms next year. The third part of having enough staffing in those fourth through eighth grade is to ensure that we have equitable elective offerings, especially for students who need intervention or special services. In our middle schools they've done a wonderful job of creating some zero period classes, so that a student who might need to take an extra

102academic class during the day can still take an elective because of the zero period offering, and we will be able to continue that opportunity because of this grant and just how we're going to make sure we have plenty of staffing in the fourth through eight. They're still working on details about what will PE look like what which electives and how that works. But we're intending to have the full elective offerings, like we did before, before COVID, but we have a lot of details to work out and that's kind of the next step in planning after now we've done our core program planning. We also want to provide that professional development opportunities in English language arts, math, science and English learner support, and we're going to be doing this by giving principals site grants, so they

103can really personalize the professional development that their specific teachers need so that it's real personalized. We will also, to help support our teachers and our principals increase the number of permanent substitutes. Permanent substitutes differ from day to day, whereas a permanent has committed to working every day of the school year, almost like a regular employee, but they have some flexibility. So they get paid that the daily substitute rate but we also offer them some health and welfare benefits to incentivize them to be a committed substitute in our district. We currently have one, and that's been the case in our district we're going to increase that to four. We also looked at really the health and wellness, the health and mental wellness of our students and really asked for input about what are the additional resources

104we need to consider for next year. As you know, we already as a district have a model mental health program and counseling program in our district. We really are kind of the model that the county's other districts look at as a model program. So we have a robust program with nurses serving different roles, our counselors, we have a lead mental health counselor, we have one life intern and associates that are helping us all of that's part of the Sequoia health care grant, and also supported by skep, our foundation grant. So in addition to having that program in place, our principals really wanted to make sure we returned back to our previous counselor staffing levels, pre COVID because we were a little bit short of our regular counselors this year and enhanced our intern and mental

105health support so we're going to go back and increase back to four counselors. And then also the needs that we are seeing right now and have surfaced are really students needing some support with behavior. We have kids who just, especially as they transitioned back in this last couple of months, really needed some support with just functioning on the school campus. And as we look at them coming back after a long summer of not being in school again, really needing to identify students give short term intervention support where a behavior tech works with the teacher, the student comes up when the principal comes up with a plan, supports them and then hopefully then can ease their way out and extinguish any of the behaviors that we're interfering with learning and provide success. So that's what a

106behavior tech does. That's what's different from a paraprofessional who supports the academic learning behavior techs help students with their behaviors so that they can access learning. So that is where the priority is going is adding some of those staff members to the two that we've already hired in the past couple of years. We also heard very loud and clearly from our, not only our administrators, but our middle school teachers that it was very difficult to have just one assistant principal this year between the two middle schools. As a reminder, we reduced this position due to budget constraints for this year. And though we were in distance learning people think that it might have been quote easier. It was not, it was not easier and you can ask Megan Vizier, our new director of student services,

107how, how, how trying it was to support two schools and that was out without having the demands of being on the sites all full time. So the, it truly is a need to have another middle school assistant principal next year, as we implement new programs that are represented in these budgets and support students and assistant principals help kids. That's what it comes down to. They help teachers, but they really help kids. They're the ones really day to day working with students and helping them with their success. We also recognize that our middle school administrators have are going to have additional work to do to implement the new programs the master schedules. So we want to offer them extra work days as they get prepared for the new school year next year. As we asked every

108group and looked at surveys, after coming back to school fully on campuses, I think number two that happened pretty consistently was please bring back our library technicians. And it's not just because they miss the enjoyment of going to the library, our library technicians represent a lot of different supports and programs that I think everyone needs to realize. We reduced them because of our budget challenges at the end of last year and then did not bring them back during the COVID year. We did miss them, but if we don't have them next year, we're going to miss out on other opportunities that some of these grant items are dependent upon. So we want to be able to bring back our library technicians at all six libraries so that not only students can access books and have

109real books in their hands and for reading fluency and joy. But it also enhances our academic program. Our library technicians really supply our teachers with with core curriculum related text and materials to support the teaching of units of study and just the curriculum supports. Also, there's a strong ask that we enhance our diversity, equity and inclusion types of books in our library and in our classrooms. And this is where PTAs are going to be able to step up and help like they have in the past as far as purchasing more books and resources, but we need the library text to actually vet the books, order them, catalog them, get them into and manage those resources. We really can't move forward with this kind of work without the library text. And also, I think it's important

110to remember we are going to bring Healthy Cities tutoring back next year. We do fund that through a different avenue, not the one time grant here. That'll be through our supplemental funds. But a big part of how Healthy Cities functions is they use our school libraries. As a reminder, Healthy City tutors need to be supervised by at least one other adult. So for student safety. And so they need a place to tutor their kids one on one. And so we ask Karen Molinari to group the tutors when possible. And they use the library primarily after school. They're there usually until five o'clock. They also come at lunchtime. And they do some tutoring at lunchtime in different times. And they come during the school day when certain other spaces are available. So we really know that

111we're going to rely on Healthy Cities tutoring as an important part of our extended learning. And we need our libraries functioning in order for this to happen. So we are recommending to bring our libraries back. And also, as kind of a safety net, the ESSER federal funds that we talked about, we can kind of use those over the next couple of years. So we looked at reserving some of those funds in year two, which is not next year, but the following year, to contribute to our library and literacy programs as well. If those funds are needed in those areas, if our base fund is not enough or if our SCEF grant is not enough, we want to ensure that we have a two year plan for this special program, the library program. In our discussions,

112there were lots and lots of things that came onto the list. The majority of the requests made it into our budget. There were some additional things that we did not prioritize yet at this time, either for implementation or feasibility or for budget reasons. But Christina, Christine Gong just told me today through a text, I think we're getting more money. So what's happening is with the surplus monies that are available to the state, they may be increasing these grants a little bit. So there may be some more decisions to be made if we get more funding for these one times funds. We won't know that until the June budget is approved, which will happen after school is out for us. So that's when we come back in the fall and make adjustments during first interim to

113adjust expenditures, add or subtract or just move around how we're using some of those funds. So we will see how things go. I think it's important to note some of the things on the budget plan that you'll see on the attachment is, for example, COVID testing. We put money in for that, but we don't know if we're going to have to do COVID testing here or just have a COVID testing plan where we send people to their health care provider if they're symptomatic or have an exposure. So we have to set aside money in case they mandate us to do testing on site. We don't know if that's going to happen, but we're going to be prepared. So again, that's an example of maybe at first interim or second interim, we can shift those funds

114to another use if it's not needed for that particular line item. So when we look at next year's budget around this time, and Christine and Hans and Dr. Frentress are bringing the draft budgets, they will be updating the board. How are we doing with these budgets? Both the first and second interim, any adjustments need to be approved by the board. And then as we're looking at next year budget development, what's left? And then what can be carried over and how will we use those carryover funds? And that's where you might have that opportunity to use the ESSER funds in a way, for example, library or literacy, or maybe there's more devices that need to be purchased or you want to run another program of some kind. So this is not a conversation that's done tonight.

115This is going to be an ongoing conversation about using the resources we received for this learning recovery year and making sure students, staff and families are most supported. All right, so what questions and thoughts from our trustees? Just to make sure I didn't see any, but Wendy, do you have any public comment on this item or any items that I missed at this point in time? But I didn't see any. I just wanted to refresh to make sure. No, none have come in on this. And I just I'm just showing you in the public. These are the attachments that you can see the one time grants. So what we have is an alphabetized list of the items, the expenditure, the grade level that they will support. And then where that expenditure is best organized, you

116know, for the purposes of the grants, you can see there's some other things that were prioritized and are discussed. And they're kind of sitting aside here as to be considered if more funds come or if we want to reallocate funds. Trustees, any questions for clarifying points or questions for Dr. Harbar? I don't think I have any questions. Irene, any questions? I don't have clarifying questions. I'm I am interested in Neil, Wendy, if there are kind of questions or thoughts you have. I have comments, but I wanted to hear your thoughts first. The one question I have for Dr. Harbar is the budget sheet you just showed. There was some items on the bottom. Were those items that were discussed amongst the leadership team in the LCAP process in order, you know, that kind of the

117give and take to hit the priorities we wanted? Or what exactly are those when you say we want potentially to maybe bring these as additional items? Those were all items that were kind of in the mix. There was a huge list. And so we really went through and we did a little activity with the principals to force rank. I learned this a lot during our budget stabilization plan. Nobody wanted to necessarily have to pick something. We said you must choose. And you know what I found out? It's a lot easier to force rank when you get new things than when you have to cut. And we really appreciate the thoughtfulness that our principals put into all of these items. And we really wanted to push people's thinking about what is the most important? What can

118we hold off on? There may be some benefits on pausing on a couple of these items just for other reasons as well, but they're identified as needs. And so they were equally considered. But we prioritized the things that we thought had the highest priority that surfaced in our stakeholder meetings. And we don't want to lose sight of those other things. So I guess that's why I included it just as a kind of a trigger of something to think about. If I'm understanding priority from the meetings and Hans, you can correct me if I'm wrong, its priorities were come back full time with no barriers and then bringing back some of the librarians and the supports through literacy as well. That sounded like the kind of the top two priorities I heard. Am I getting that

119correct? Yeah, no doubt. You know, I think especially on the parent survey, you know, nail on the head was come back safely, obviously, but come back full time, please. And then with every group, regardless, the two L's were next, library literacy were next amongst all groups. So yeah, it came up and I think it came up in every single group as something that and usually it was one of the first two items that was brought up. And then just saying it's the last question I have for either of you is, was there any facility needs that arose? Not major facility. You know, we have some bathrooms that we're renting from Aeroposa right now because we just needed some extra restroom options. We've already gone through and added new ventilation in all of our restrooms. We

120did that before we even came back. We also added air purifiers to all of our classrooms and offices. We did put more money in for more of those things in case needs arose. So you'll see ventilation and air purification just in case there's maybe a new requirement or a new option, but otherwise no major facilities. We were really worried that we wouldn't have enough room for the classrooms, especially at the middle school with all the spacing requirements. And we were tentatively ready to use Mustang Hall, kind of divide that up into four spaces to create four classroom spaces. But the way things are looking, we don't need to do that and we'll be able to utilize that for our typical activities. So it's still very tight. You know, Tierra Linda is growing a little bit

121and where Central is shrinking a little bit as far as population goes. So they're very, very tight still at Tierra Linda with no wiggle room at all. Mariposa is now, you know, growing their bubble is hit Mariposa. So they also are completely full as far as classroom space. So I think we're just making it. And in a way, you know, the decline of enrollment that we've had over the last couple of years has in a way helped us, you know, manage having enough room for everybody with the needs that we have right now. Well, those are the only clarifying questions I had. Irene, you said you had some comments or thoughts? Yeah, I had some comments. I think, first of all, I wanted kind of our whole community to know and I mean our staff

122and educator community as well as our parent community that, you know, I definitely improved on mental health. It's been a tough year and I wanted to make sure that we were in really good shape. And I definitely felt like I got the insurance from both Michelle and Hans via the principles that our existing model was strong, which I was pleased about. And from my own personal family experience, I'm feeling that way. But that was definitely an area of concern, which I was reassured about. I also wanted to say that for kind of like our educators or professional educators, I'm glad that these additional grants are allowing us to have kind of like smaller class sizes and additional staffing as we kind of enter back for next year. I think that hopefully feels like it's really

123kind of doing right by our kids and giving folks support. I also wanted to say that I think I see our role in all of this, the board's role is really to kind of ensure that we've had a rigorous process that was followed. And so, Hans, I want to thank you for spearheading that really comprehensive LCAP process of talking to everybody. The board's job is not to micromanage or to second guess, but really to kind of ensure that a process is followed, as well as to just be very educated about the needs and the inputs from our stakeholders, right? I mean, our job is to understand at a deep level the inputs. So I feel confident that a process was followed. And I hope that, you know, we've talked a lot this spring about the

124need to kind of build trust among all parties. And so I hope you all feel the trust and the respect we have for educators, right? I see my fellow board members like Wendy spending a lot of extra time meeting with the principals, along with me every week to deeply understand the unique needs of every site. Neil, I appreciate the time you've spent in meeting with the climate committee, the teachers climate committee to try to get to know folks. And so I hope these small steps are making people feel heard and better understood. And Michelle and Hans, I want to thank you for all the extra time that you spent with us this week. I know it was a lot. But I know it gave me a deeper understanding of this with the time to kind

125of like really sleep on it. And that was really great. I thought the themes are really clear. So I just want to thank everybody for making sure the board really understands our community's needs. Thank you, Irene. Neil, did you want to make any comments? Go ahead, Wendy. I'll go after you. Thanks. Just plus one to what Irene said about the process. Thank you for ensuring it was so comprehensive and also for facilitating the ability for Irene and I as board trustees to hear from the site leaders to understand what had risen to the top as far as priorities. So we're understanding what's been working well, what you want to continue doing going into the new school year based on learning from this year. So this one page that you gave us of showing all three

126grants and sort of what those priorities are, extremely helpful. We've talked about this. What I'd like to just highlight is I feel really confident. The two themes for me are, you know, we've been talking about when thinking about reopening and coming back fully in the fall is the learning recovery piece and sort of reimagining education. And I think that we have, you know, thought deeply about all of those and this budget and the plan for using the grants really reflects great strategies for both of those things. And when I, you know, the learning recovery, Dr. Harmeier, as you explained, like just pushing in more of the specialists to really provide support to teachers, to support personalizing sort of individualized or small group kind of instruction that's going to be needed. It's really great to hear

127that we have some resources to do that. And the reimagining education, I just want to say, you know, we highlighted it tonight about, you know, the use of technology and that everyone has learned so much this year about how to use it wisely and how you can integrate it into your classroom in the future. And so we have a line item in here for, you know, devices, maybe we might need some more to make this sustainable in the classroom, say for second grade or whatnot. So I just encourage us to, you know, this isn't only about like the recovery piece, but it's also about, you know, how can we support teachers and teaching and learning and doing things somewhat differently, you know, this year. And really excited and celebrating the emphasis on the libraries and

128bringing that back strongly and seeing that I liked how you, you know, highlighted, you know, the ability for those library and technicians to help us with, you know, seeking new resources around diversity, equity, inclusion. So there's so many things that we can do to, you know, just come back stronger. So thank you for this really comprehensive strategy. You know, Wendy, I'm just going to add a little bit that you brought up. I think it's important to know our library technicians, you know, they're going to be working differently in the future. We have a need for them to help us manage the resources of media, not just library, library and media. And, you know, we're starting to kick off our first time ever one to one device program next year for third through eighth graders. Well,

129that's going to require us, we need someone to help manage that resource, right? That is like checking out a textbook or another book or another item. And so when we look at our staff, we are all working in a different way now, and we are going to be integrating these new tools and technologies. And we're going to develop new systems around that too. And we have a lot of work to do this summer, just to implement the things we're talking about and getting all of these programs up and running and the devices set up and the new ed tech tools ready. I feel like as an operational team, as a district team, even our principals, we're not going to have a big rest and we are not planning on that. We'll take little breaks and

130we'll catch our breath and some of us more than others. But there's a lot of work to do this summer to launch this new year. And when you get big one-time monies like this $3 million we're getting, that takes a lot of administrative and operational support to do things you haven't done before and add on higher new people on board, train, you know, purchase and all of those things. So this does represent a very fast timeline. I feel very good that we're way ahead. When we developed our plan, we also did a lot of behind the scenes planning and kind of getting geared up, ready, assuming some approvals tonight. But we had to get some jump starts on things. And we're really excited that we feel, because of our pre-planning, we're positioned really well to

131not only finish this year, but be ready for next year. I just want to say it is a big lift. So thank you. I mean, I understand how what that means about managing these resources. It's a big lift. Yeah, so this is fundamentally good news. These are, I just have to remind people that for the most, these are kind of like one-time monies, right? And so that means next school year is great. But that does not mean that we're home free. And as a matter of fact, it's quite the opposite situation. So I hope that everybody listening into this call still knows that the state is still under... So as a matter of fact, what I'm going to read is from Ed Source. And so there is this article which you all can look at

132on Ed Source. The title is, What Did He Get Right? Reactions to Governor Newsom's K-12 Budget. So there's a whole bunch of folks from like teachers union leaders to like the folks who really know school finance really well to like the PTA leaders who are kid advocates. And this is I'm quoting John Gray, School Services of California. While the governor is proposing an additional 1% increase in the LCFF above the statutory COLA, school districts are facing a fiscal brick wall in the coming few years when funding protections from declining enrollment go away and pension obligations are set to spike. Okay, so we're going to be happy about this like one-time funding. But just remember that we are still feeling a lot of fiscal challenges for the following year. And so we'll problem solve that together.

133Okay. I mean, thank you for bringing that up. And I think in our superintendent's meeting, what we're talking about is how do we manage expectations? Because we're going to feel really good next year. And our teachers need the support. Our kids need it. It's going to feel like, oh, finally, because we've been going through such a crisis for three years with reduction of staffing and resources. And then we have to manage expectations. And on June 3rd, our next meeting, when Christine does our budget update from the maybe vise, we're also going to have an enrollment update. And we are kind of targeted for 2,800, which is a lot less, but we're really close now to 2,700. You know, as we're really, really bouncing right now and kind of concerned about that. So we have to

134make sure that we can stay physically solvent always for three years in a row. And so when we come to you on June 3rd, we will look at budget assumptions that are related to how one-time funding, this one-time stuff that you're approving tonight, and then how will that impact us in year two and three? And so this all does fit in. And I really appreciate you surfacing this and reminding our community that one time it needs a big help. But we have more work to do when it comes to right sizing our district and operations and staffing and compared to the number of students that we'll be serving. Yeah, just one final thought I guess I would have would just be, you know, to bring everyone's attention as well as just, you know, look at

135the amount of support that's needed to run our schools, just to do the jobs that we're required to do to teach our kids, right? I think that's what always these discussions highlight for me is that it takes a lot. So, you know, when the community thinks about all the things that are needed and sometimes comparing and contrasting to other people, you know, a lot of what we're bringing back are supports just for teachers and behavior and mental health just to do the daily job, which is difficult enough to begin with. So, you know, to Irene's point as well as it makes it that much harder when these money are one time and not ongoing to think that three million dollars just kind of gets us back to the levels we were at before. It's just

136difficult and it's the difficult part of the board is you have to do exactly what Dr. Harmeier and Hans did here and is that listen to the community and, you know, make sure the needs are what they said and then also putting the process to address the needs going forward, but also, you know, always keep an eye on the future. So I applaud you both for accomplishing that here. We'll continue to monitor it as we go forward and we hopefully that all the supports that we need for our students will continue in the future. So, you know, I hope the governor learns that this is how you support public education and continues to find ways to support it as well. So thank you both for that. Any other last comments, Irene or Wendy? We need

137to approve these. So is there a motion to approve 6B, the Extended Learning Opportunity Grant Plan? I move approval of 6B, approval of the Extended Learning Opportunity Grant Plan. Second. All right. Thank you both. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, that will carry 3-0. Move us to 6C, approval of the In-Person Instruction Grant Plan. I will move that for approval. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Irene. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition? Hearing none, 6C will be approved. And finally, 6D, approval of the ESSER Budget Plan. Is there a motion to approve 6D? I move to approve 6D, ESSER 2 and ESSER 3 Budget Plan. Thank you, Wendy. I will second. All in favor, please state by saying aye. Aye. Any opposition?

138Hearing none, that will prove 3-0. So I thank you, Dr. Harmar and Hans. Please let us know as well, kind of to Irene's point, as things change or as more information comes in, please keep us updated or if requirements change as well. I think what we've learned through this process is being quick to act is better than waiting around. In that case, I'll move us then to 6E, approval of Board Meeting Calendar. I'll start this and then I'll have Dr. Harmar give her perspective. Dr. Harmar and I have been having some discussions for a couple weeks now in terms of trying to make, I think, board meetings a little bit more productive, but giving staff the time to present, to give us fully detailed presentations as well. As well as trying to find more time

139for us to meet as a board in a study session, as I think, Wendy, you've been part of one or two of them, but I know Irene and I have been. Study sessions allow us to get a little bit more in depth, also talk more freely and openly with our community, anyone who wants to attend, now that we can kind of work, we're going to start working ourselves back to in-person meetings. So, you know, with those in mind, this is just a draft tonight, so none of it's for necessarily approval, but it's to start the discussion as we move along. Here it's to reduce the meetings, I think regular meetings, down to one a month that is set once a month and then start to include in more meetings around big items, LCAPs, study sessions,

140things like that as well. So I had Dr. Harmar kind of speak with Hans and to talk a little bit about her thoughts on where they could plug and play here or what can be done. So this is kind of the first draft that she came up with in their discussions to kind of make it a little bit easier to make our meetings a little bit more focused and we can have a discussion about where we can add in or send it back and bring it back. So nothing has to be done tonight, but it is at least to start the discussion as a group and publicly on kind of the best ways to go forward. So, Dr. Harmar, I'll give it to you to kind of give your opinion and thoughts on it and

141then we'll have a discussion and ask any questions. Still muted, but I think Veronica, you got to unmute Dr. Harmar. Okay, I could do it. I just wasn't able to unmute and share at the same time. Too many things all at once. So I just glanced, I just gave a quick share so people could see the agenda. Hans and Hans and I met with Christine and Veronica and what we what we did is we looked at what would we want as that as a key meeting times next year when we want a full robust meeting at key points in the year where we need to have a fully developed meeting with all the different options for actions and information. And then when could we really go in depth because our board needs time to really

142study some items and we were so overwhelmed with crisis management this year that we really didn't have a chance to have those kinds of in depth conversations about things like either teaching and learning or budget things that are coming up and we want to provide those opportunities. So whether we have fewer meetings that we can really target for more in depth presentations and information for the board in addition to maybe times where it's really a study session where we want a lot of dialogue and maybe even invite some community and staff to have more free flow discussion. So when you see this meeting what we said is let's try to have a regular full robust meeting about once a month. And then let's plug in some times where we really think there should be some

143depth in depth that conversation around first and second interim budget. And also around LCAP development and if you look at April there's even a suggestion for really taking a full April day to truly look at budget because by the time April comes in the year we have a pretty good idea of our enrollment and our staffing needs and we should really talk about those budget priorities as they relate to some of our skeft funds for example or decisions for the following year to make sure that we're building in not just assumptions but thoughtful decisions as we're developing the budget and it's hard to do when we're already exhausted and it's seven o'clock at night. And I think this borrowing ideas from other districts especially as Lisa Cesario has been helping us out this year with

144our engagement process. She is something that she did with her board is just really having that one day kind of study session. So these are as a draft of dates, things line up that match some compliance dates, but also we look at report cards trimesters our own holidays, you know where impact of staff would be so each day was thought out with really kind of operational things in mind. So what I would suggest is to have all of you look at this and I did share this with Dr. Frentris yesterday and had the same discussion during our transition meeting so she could start thinking about this too. So maybe what we could do is have any other discussion or thoughts on this tonight or even over the next couple of weeks send us your ideas

145and thoughts and then maybe on June 3rd when we come back we can just approve a calendar. And once we do approve it, then our team will start working on our at-a-glance calendar for next year to start to really build our agendas, which is a working document that we always have attached here for future agenda items. So that's kind of the thought behind it and I think improve the quality of our meetings and also avoid some burnout of our board and our staff as well. Trustees, Irene? I just also want to remark that this is a practice by some of our neighboring districts. I was just looking at both Menlo Park and Hillsboro, like me, you know, once a month. So thank you for just kind of pulling our heads up and looking around us.

146I think our time and our energy are just vital resources and I know how much time you have to spend all the staff getting ready. So I welcome the idea of like considering this as a move and then just being able to have more time to go more in-depth when needed. And I obviously just want what Dr. Frentis thinks and we can kind of always adjust as needed in August. Any thoughts? Yeah, I mean, this was brought up to us before tonight, but, you know, appreciate you putting together a calendar. I think I really do like the idea of having study sessions as a different means for really going in-depth and dialoguing with other stakeholders. And you've slotted budget study sessions, but it doesn't mean that we couldn't have like a DEI study session or,

147you know, a study session on some other topics that we really might need to go deep on or say we're having a parcel tax measure, you know, and you want to have a study session around these things. I think by doing our regular meetings more on a monthly basis, it would allow us a little bit more bandwidth to do that and avoid burnout. So and like Irene said, I mean, the time involved. I mean, look, I appreciate that, you know, for our community, for our public, you know, people want to stay informed and be informed. But I would like to commend, you know, everyone. I think our communication overall has just increased exponentially this year, both, you know, through the number of meetings we've had and, you know, email and whatnot. So I just want

148to say like, I don't think this will take away, you know, that ability to, you know, communicate to the community like what's happening, what's going on, keeping people informed. I think that was my first reaction is like, wow, would that would that sort of stifle, you know, some of our communication. But I think I think we're we've just been doing an incredible job this year of communicating. And I don't think this will be a detriment to that. So thanks for the proposal and willing to look at finalizing some dates and moving forward. So I just have, I think, one comment, Dr. Harmar and Hans to work on. What I'd like to see us do is maybe we don't do it tonight, but I'd like to bring it back because the board has always expressed a

149pretty big interest in teaching and learning. It's kind of along the same lines with things we've talked about tonight with just understanding the process and how the stakeholders were involved and getting feedback to, you know, understand the process and make sure what we're hearing is the same that's coming out of the data we're collecting or anything else. So I'd like to see us kind of really hone in some study sessions with around teaching and learning, whether that be the LCAP, whether that be curriculum adoption. You know, Hans, I'd like to see us do that kind of like the same things that Wendy and Irene have talked about is finding us an opportunity as a board to engage more with site leaders to engage more sites, if that's the case, to really understand their needs. It's

150far more difficult at a regular board meeting, but a study session allows you to do it far more openly and freely as well. So I'd like to see if we can actually pencil those in before we approve this for next year. It seems it's a little budget heavy. I get why that's there, just given what we're staring at. But at the same point in time, I think it's a pretty big focus of this board to make sure that we're always focused on teaching and learning. Any opportunity we can get, if we can add in a date to be more engaged with our stakeholders, I would like to see us at least try to propose that and see if we can get those in now as well. And as well along Wendy's lines, just maybe a

151one, you know, finding that month, I know it's usually the beginning in August, September, October, where there's not as much going on, we ramp up. But if we can have just kind of an open date for session to engage in something, whether that is diversity, equity, inclusion, whether that is facilities planning, anything like that, I think would just be good for the board to have it on their calendar. And I also think what it gives us this opportunity to do is to create a different cadence as well. And so we can find time to add in. So, trustees, if you're okay with that, can we have them come back? We don't have to do anything tonight, but we have plenty more time to do this. But if, you know, you also can weigh in as

152you think more later on, but I'd like to see them come back with some of those suggestions as well. So I guess first, actually, first question is Dr. Harmar and Hans, is that doable? Is that going to be okay? Is that something you think is a good idea? Yeah, I think it is. And it's nice to put things down as a regular calendar and adopt a calendar because you really are preserving your dates and your time. And also, just as a reminder, you can always call a special meeting with three days notice and you can always have those, you know, all of a sudden we need more time. And it does, like Wendy said, by having the regular meetings, you know, once a month, it frees up that other time. So you do have that

153opportunity for even now putting in a different kind of study session or at least the flexibility of needing a special meeting. So I think that's just fine. And I think if you guys could email us individually, not to the group, you know, email me, Veronica, Hans, any ideas, suggestions or specifics. I would like to really know some of your thinking around going around teaching and learning and what you would like to know more about to really give staff a better idea is like, what is it the board that would like to really study and focus on? I know Hans and Dr. Frentress will focus on things around the LCAP and I'm sure they have already topics that they're thinking about. But there may be something that the board is really needing more learning on that

154maybe isn't to drive something but to understand. So you need to let us know what it is that you would like us to start thinking about and setting aside time if there's something specific. And if it's not specific, that's okay, too. But if there is, let us know. Here's an idea. I'm not wedded to it. I'm just like throwing it out. But you know, and actually at other school districts, the boards schedule like meeting visits to the schools, right? Like here we've always done it informal and I'm happy to keep that up practice because sometimes it's nice just to sit down with the principal and just like have a chat and I love that. Those are actually always been my highlights of how I spend my time here. But if we're going down to one

155board meeting a month, I'm super open to saying maybe the second meeting is at Whiteoaks and then another month it's at Tierra Linda and we do visits at schools, right? I mean, I think getting closer to teaching and learning is just being really close to our school sites, to our teachers and to our principals and walking the campus together. And that's actually a practice at some other school districts. Like it's an agendized meeting. There's a norm that as many of the board members like show up as possible and then they visit the schools. So that's like one school district. Another school district would be like, well, maybe like each board member like adopts like, you know, two schools and like they're their main contact. I think that's just worth discussing how our staff would like

156to engage with us. My time is here. My time is your time. I think that's great, Irene. I think there are opportunities for that. So we will present some ideas and options. And again, there's likely going to be a time in July where the board has another retreat time where you are setting some goals and envisioning and things for next year. But we'll have these discussions this year, bring something back. And I think just adding this to the conversation about how will board engage with teachers on site? How can they have more in-depth conversations through study sessions? And then as we brought up in the in a former conversation, maybe how do board members engage with our community partners, you know, with SKEF and PTA? I think there's opportunities to really look at all of

157those things kind of holistically. So we're balancing time, but not overburdening our calendars at the same time. But I think there's great opportunities right now with reducing down to one meeting a month and redistributing our time in these other ways. So we'll work on that for you. Can I just make one more comment? I mean, I appreciate you said to email you separately about some suggestions. And I would I would just like to say, you know, having this only seen this the first time tonight, you know, just like to ask in in light of what you just said about, you know, I mean, we're trying to utilize our time more wisely and not necessarily create more meetings for ourselves. But I would like to ask that if we've scheduled these study sessions, but you've put

158budget for all of them. And so maybe we substitute that we don't add another study session. Maybe it's substituting because we've got April, March, April and May all study sessions focused on budget. So I just like that to be open for consideration. Thanks. Is that I think fairly clear? We'll bring it back next meeting or the meeting after we'll keep talking about it and checking online or checking offline, excuse me, and go from there. So thank you both for working on that and continue to work on it as well. All right. We will move on then to seven a future agenda items. We just identified board meeting calendar trustees. Anything else to bring back, especially that Michelle's limited number of meetings that she has left, although she's not counting. I did want to mention something.

159And Irene, if you could chime in and help me. We I've mentioned this before about the transition with Mindy Hill and her position as wellness coordinator that there, you know, she's been managing a whole area of work that around environment and we have a new grant on resilient schoolyards. So I'm just wondering how we can as a board agendize that. So maybe we could have a report out from her to the board before she might transition out. I don't know what's the best sort of vehicle for that. Maybe she has a separate meeting with Dr. about that work. But I think it is something that Irene had worked previously with Mindy Hill on this and and just hearing about all of the momentum that's been built in our district. I really want to ensure that

160there is some sustainability within our district to support this both at the district level and at the site level. And as a board trustee, I'd even like to explore whether we might need a subcommittee to help manage not manage but give input into what work will be done this coming year with this grant that we have. So I'm wondering how we could get that onto the agenda. I think it's just, at this point in time, it's all part of the facilities master plan. And as the divine process goes, so, you know, we can, as she transitions out, probably the easiest thing to do would be have her have a discussion with Hans, Dr. French, Michelle to engage and you can with her and then from there we can have, you know, like you said, a

161more bigger discussion about facilities to come back and see how they all interplay. Does that sound like a good plan, Dr. Yes, and I can understand, Wendy, you're wanting to make sure that we have something in place moving forward. Mindy is going to leave a big hole when she leaves and we are still in the midst of hiring for that position. It's been a very difficult position for us to fill. So we will definitely talk about transitioning. I don't know if it's necessarily a board agenda item right now. So let me talk with Hans and Mindy and see where we are, but know that there is a strong desire on the part of our principles to keep it going. So the good sign is we all feel that way and this is important to many

162of us, but we do need someone to take the lead on that and what does that look like and how does the wellness coordinator fit in to that as well. Definitely, let's just keep it on top of mind, Wendy and Hans and I will continue to report through the board memo. And then if it's going to be a board, a larger board discussion, we can talk about that. But I don't really foresee necessarily that happening in June. I really think it's more internal working and transitioning and then maybe bringing it back to the board as an update and report in September. Once we get the school year started, it's important, but it's not our highest priority to get school started right now. I think we have so many competing interests. So I think the timing

163of it, I just don't really feel there's an urgency in June or July. Let's get school started in August so we can get our people in place and get working. And then let's maybe that's just my first thought right now is to kind of look toward where are we by August, late August, September after school starts. Does that sound OK? Irene, do you want to say something? I think that timing, Wendy, is fine for me in terms of hearing back like in the fall. But Hans, I just and the principals, because I know you are excited about this. We just wanted to say that you have our, you know, hearty support, you know, sponsorship with Mindy leaving, who's been kind of a rock. We're just here to kind of provide you with that additional kind

164of like enthusiasm in kind of like the following fall and winter, right? Because now we kind of like got to find like the new set of stewards and leader for this. Yeah, well, ironically, I had a meeting with Mindy today, and this is one of the topics we talked about. And we actually talked about doing what Michelle said, which was let's get together with the two of us, Michelle and Jennifer, and see what we can kind of mold as we move forward. And it is partially Irene about finding that new steward and who that might be. And, you know, so we're certainly aware, and it's definitely a topic on Mindy's, you know, list and mine as well. So I think our plan to get together, the four of us and have that transition conversation is

165probably the first best thing. And then we'll figure out what the next best thing is from there. It sounds like overall, we can still have a discussion about this. At some point in time, just maybe not within these next couple meetings, right? That sounds like what we can still have to do. Yes, for sure. I don't see it happening in June, I agree with Michelle, but certainly, you know, August, September, for sure. Great. Thank you. Thank you both. Anything else? Windy, any more public comments on either we missed something on agendas, agendized items or non-agendized items? Yes, we do have two people that would like to share on sort of 8A non-agenda items. Great. Let's go from there. OK, so Marcy Correa, please. Hello. Can you guys hear me? Yeah. All right. Hello. My name

166is Marcy Correa, and I have been a teacher in the district for the last 21 years and a parent in the district for the last 13. I live here. I work here. My kids go to school here. And I care very much about the children of San Carlos and our school district. Because I am so invested in our San Carlos schools, I take my own personal time to serve on many committees, volunteer to help wherever I can, and attend all of the school board meetings. I am a site rep. I served on the superintendent interview panel. I volunteered for the budget advisory committee. I sat on the return to school committee and more. I'm very aware of the intricacies and challenges of our district. I listen to all of the reports that are shared at

167these meetings. I know about our budget. I also heard loud and clear what the superintendent search consultants found when they interviewed and surveyed all the stakeholders. San Carlos has amazing teachers, the parents, kids, community members, and everyone agrees. Bill, the consultant, went out of his way to make sure that he highlighted how loved, supported, and appreciated the teachers are when he spoke to you. He said that in all of his time working with dozens of districts, he had never come across a place that so valued their teachers. And he told you that he wanted to be sure you understood how special and loved the teachers of San Carlos were. That was what you heard from the guy who you paid to advise you. This was no surprise to me, as I shared with you in

168my teacher appreciation letter last week, our last meeting. It has been an amazingly tough year, and the teachers in this town have blown me away with how fantastically they have handled it. I believe that all of my children's teachers are absolute superstars. Now let's talk about what's going on. I supported the last parcel tax, as I have with all of its predecessors. I had the lawn signs, I worked the phone banks, and I've written the tax checks. I asked everyone I knew to support it as well. I told them that the parcel tax would be used to attract and retain quality teachers. That was the promise you made the voters. We passed that parcel tax. The voters of San Carlos supported our schools, and the funds are in the account. But somehow the district is

169not following through with the promise of putting it to what it was promised for, to attract and retain teachers. In fact, the district has added an impasse with its negotiations with the teachers, and it's making morale really low. We're losing good people because of it. You, the board, have the ability to end this impasse. You can do what's fair and right, and what you promised the voters you would do, and use the funds you acquired to end that impasse. The teachers are only asking for a modest 2.5% raise. We taxpayers did not give you that hard-earned money to build up the reserve. We can't afford to lose more teachers. We won't attract quality new teachers when they can make more money at neighboring similarly funded districts. It's simple, really. Do what you promised the voters

170you would do. Attract and retain quality teachers. End the impasse. Work with the teachers. Agree to the small raise request. And be thankful that we teachers are so reasonable and satisfied with that when much more is what is deserved. Thank you. Who's next, Wendy? Thank you, Marcy. Angela Naughton asked to make a comment. Thank you, Wendy, and thank you, Veronica and Alejandro. I actually was thinking, my notes and comments are not quite as organized as Marcy's tonight. But I was thinking over and over, how do I approach this? And I really just want to build on what Marcy said, is that our ask for a 2.5% raise is very reasonable. And it saddens me, it angers me, it frustrates me that at this point in the school year, I am having to take another day

171out of my classroom to go to impasse. One of the things I did as I was preparing for this meeting tonight was looking at neighboring districts. And as the chair of negotiations, I truly understand the intricacies of how we are funded differently than some of our other districts. One thing that a lot of people don't understand is we are not basic aid. We don't have unlimited property taxes. But when I look at districts that are funded in a similar manner, they receive funding from the government and they receive funding on average daily attendance. One of those is actually our very neighboring district of Belmont. They pay 7 to 10% more at this time, in addition to the fact that their salary schedule only goes to 75 units. What a lot of people on here, a

172lot of us on here are teachers, and so we're aware of it. But one thing I think that community is not aware of is that in order to move up the pay scale, ironically, teachers have to pay, right? So for me to move up the pay scale for only $2,300, I have to pay usually more than $2,300 for those continuing education units. We are one of the only districts that requires 90 units post-baccalaureate. And ironically, a few years ago, I'm at 100 units and I participated in a program that offered me another 10 units. And when I said to people that I was doing that program, well, why are you doing that? You're already at enough units. You're already at the top. I did it because I wanted to, the same as many of my

173colleagues do as well. And so, as I said, my comments are not super organized, but our ask of two and a half percent is reasonable. It is a small drop in the bucket at a time when I'm hearing we want to retain and hire and retain teachers. One of the things that you do as part of your approval of agenda items is to include the personnel report, which is a routine matter. What people don't realize is that routine matter covers the loss of teachers in the areas of the math, science, special education, areas that we are constantly going to be looking for new people to fill those positions. And if I'm a new teacher and I'm already at the bottom of the pay scale and I'm looking at my neighboring district of Belmont versus San

174Carlos, I'm going to go with what is going to give me the money that allows me to live a semi-comfortable life in the Bay Area. Please, we are asking that we not take another day of everybody's time for two and a half percent. Thank you. That's all the public comment. Thank you, Marcius. Thank you, Angela. In that case, we will move on to employee group comments. Dan. So good evening. I'm Dan Lanier, president of the San Carlos Teachers Association. Thank you to Brenda Bekecki for your service to our students, their families and their teachers, us. We wish you all the best. And then congratulations to Megan Vizier on your appointment to the director of student services. Welcome and congratulations to Teresa Fox as our new Mariposa principal. And then thank you to the board and

175Dr. Harmeier for restoring our beloved librarians. We've been fighting for this and we know that you didn't want to cut them in the first place. So we appreciate that. But we want to really thank you for using that money to restore librarians who we value at our middle schools, at our four fives and at our K-3s. The teachers, school counselors and school nurses of the San Carlos Teachers Association have a very reasonable ask of this board. A two and a half percent raise retro to July of 2020. We could leave the San Carlos School District and be paid twenty thousand dollars to forty thousand dollars more. We stay because we're loyal and dedicated to our students, our colleagues, our schools and this special community. Last year, we helped pass the parcel tax, which promised to

176increase our salaries to attract and retain quality teachers. We believe that our dedication and our amazing teaching should be recognized with this small two and a half percent increase in our salary. We do not want to leave this community in search of higher salaries. We have seven teachers leaving right now this year, at least seven. It will probably be ten by June. That's a huge amount of people. Those are also people at the top of the salary scale. And they'll be replaced by people much lower on the salary scale, which is another way that the district saves money. We respectfully ask for a two and a half percent increase in our salaries and a small increase in our health and welfare benefits. Thank you, Dan. I saw Lisa on here. Lisa to you, Lisa. Okay,

177I have a problem with this every time. Good evening, everybody. Thank you very much. My name is Lisa Sarah Julie. I'm the CSEA president. And I want to take this moment to recognize that this week is Classified School Employees Week. It's a time to honor the classified staff in our district that work so hard every day, typically behind the scenes. Classified employees in our district include the approximately 41 paras who every day greet their students getting off the bus or out of their cars with an excited smile to help them transition into the classroom, assist them throughout the school day to help understand the lessons and support the classroom teacher, and walk them back to the bus or car at the end of the day so they have a friendly waving face home, friendly face

178waving them home. Our four behavior technicians and one occupational therapist who serve the entire district guiding students and helping them learn to work and adjust and communicate during situations that may be difficult for them. Our eight school secretaries who help the students and their parents navigate the school world while supporting their school principal, teachers, volunteers, partners, all while maintaining a calm and friendly demeanor. The smiling lunch servers who make sure every child who wants a meal gets one. The custodians, both night and day, who make sure the rooms and campuses overall are clean and well maintained while modeling a supportive attitude for the children and who work all summer to be sure the campus is sparkling and welcoming when staff and parents return. The three maintenance department staff who make sure the buildings are maintained

179and safe for the students and families and maintain the landscaping for all of the campuses so the face of the schools are presentable and welcoming. The three district bus drivers who help get our students to and from school safely every day and always with a smile by doing such things as shout outs to the students over the bus radios to make the kids feel special. The one HR assistant who calls for subs every morning and helps coordinate job postings, interviews and employee onboarding. The HR assistant is often the first impression of the district to new employees and does this with us with a warm smile. Our literacy instructional aid who supports teachers and helping students learn the necessary lessons to help them succeed. The one accounts payable clerk who helps make sure all the bills

180are paid and orders are placed so that teachers and staff and students have the supplies needed for daily success. The one special ed secretary and one special ed assistant to make sure the special education department is compliant with mandated timelines and applicable laws while supporting the special ed director and special ed staff. The four classified members of the district wide tech team. These people make sure student tech equipment including laptops and iPads are operational and updated and safe for students and staff across the district. The school librarians who are always willing to help teachers and students find what they are looking for to supplement a lesson or provide a space for students to gather and feel safe and comfortable. So they are not with us this year. I'm excited to welcome them back when they

181return in the fall. And last but not least, the one payroll benefits clerk who makes sure everyone in the district is paid correctly every month. And if you don't know who he is, that means he's doing a great job. I wanted to give this brief list of all these amazing people who do so many things every day to make San Carlos School District a wonderful place to work. Thank you. Thank you, Lisa. We will move on then to board member comments. Wendy, Irene, to you first. Any? No? I'll just say thank you to Lisa for highlighting every individual of the classified staff that deserve to be honored and recognized. So Lisa, thank you very much for doing that. And for your great leadership, really glad to be working with you and know that you're at

182the helm and really advocating for all the great work that the classified staff do. So thank you for highlighting all the individuals. And I just wanted to say that, you know, as far as our district and where we're at with the state budget, just know that I will be advocating on our district's behalf with our state senator and with our assembly member, both Josh Becker and Kevin Mullen, because we cannot continue to just rely on the only levers that we have, which is our parcel tax and our SCAF, you know, our San Carlos Education Foundation. There has to be a shift in funding for public education. So I just want you to know that on the side, on top of the engagement we're trying to do, you know, to listen to all the stakeholders, we're

183also trying to advocate on behalf of our district. And it really is important to me that teachers are rewarded for their hard effort. And I want you to know that more than anything, that's what I want to see happen. So just for us, just to clarify the point of just the thin line between what we can negotiate and what we can't. So just want to remind you. Just saying that I want to continue being an advocate for the district. Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Neil, for that reminder. Board members have all these clunky restrictions around what we can and cannot say that sometimes make it seems unnatural, like we're not actually addressing what's top of mind for people. Well, I think maybe it might be safe territory for me just though to kind of like comment

184on librarians, right, because that was part of the one time monies that were spent. I just want to say, don't give too much credit to the board. We absolutely it's never a matter of like do we respect or value or get the value of librarians or for that matter, any other person or function. We got one time money, and that really allowed us to kind of restore the program. So I really thank our state and federal governments for investing in public education. And that's why I'm here to serve to support everybody here. Great. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you, Irene. I do not have any comments tonight. So, Michelle, see you for the last word. I just want to thank all our staff, especially in the district office for putting together this one time budget plan.

185I think you guys have to realize how much work went into that Lisa's this audio also helped us with this quite a bit. I'm just really pleased that we're able to really get excited about next year and come back fully and feel refreshed and renewed and be able to serve our students and our families and I think the best way possible. So, and thank you again to all of our partners that we recognize at the beginning of the meeting. And as a reminder, next meeting June 3, we're going to celebrate our retirees, so we will have a special spotlight which takes a little longer. So we'll we might talk about maybe starting the meeting at six, just because of the length of time but Neil you and I can talk about that a little bit

186to see how we want to accommodate that because we do have a lot of retirees this year and this is happening across the state. So we want to make sure that we have plenty of time to honor our staff. Great. Thank you, Michelle. What at this time, I will do Wendy Is there any public comment on closed session. Thank you, I will trust ease let's give ourselves 10 minutes, and then we'll have a closed session we'll just be brief. I'll send out a zoom link now just so you have it, and then we will come back here, everyone who takes off thanks for joining us, have a great weekend, and we will see you soon. 10 minutes right. 925. Okay. Great. Thank you. We will return us back from closed session at this time there

187is nothing to report out of closed session. Therefore, I will join us to June 3 or next week's schedule meeting. All right. Thank you very much, Ron. Good. Thank you, Alejandro. You're the best. Thanks for staying with us. Good night. Thank you guys. Good night. Thank you.