001best Buenes. Gracias. And then we had several other teams with uh cross country, water polo, football, and there were so many uh wrap-ups. I don't know if we have the exact dates when their final games were or if they have already happened. Um but we know that they finished very very strong. Uh we also I just wanted to personally recognize um Sophia Rodriguez Pearson. She represented Slow High School at the Southern California Championships with a score of 77. She is one of the best. She is uh already committed to a school for golf. She is one of the strongest uh fall sports players at our school. She is genuinely one of the best golf players I have ever seen. Um our football also finished up its competitive year in the CIF quarterfinals. uh they fought
002so hard and all of their sportsmanship, they all worked so hard towards that and we're so proud of them. Uh looking forward to our winter sports, we had a winter sports meeting for the parents where the families just reviewed their expectations and made sure all students, athletes, and the parents were aligned for a safe and wellsupported season. Now, moving on to the arts, um we had our students, student artists and Mr. Roper's class, which is our digital design class, create some really impressive graphic design pieces to showcase. It's all just in a collage at the top of that slide there. We um our digital design pathway is what at slow high school and they're always working to showcase what talents they've learned in that class. We also had AP art history students presented present at
003this city council meeting about the potential slow museum of art expansion. Um that's Graham Taiigi, Phoebe Demerest, and Simon Gowler. They are taking AP Art history right now. And um anyone who knows them knows that they just are so passionate about it. And so we're so proud of them for representing uh Slow High and pushing for the arts to be furthered. And we also have our band program holding its annual holiday tree and wreath fundraiser, offering affordable prices and direct funding for the music education both for slow high school and Laguna Middle School. And then we also have our slow high school expressions newspaper uh the new trimester means all new uh student uh journalist and we are so proud of them and the articles that they are publishing and so we just wanted to
004tell you all to check them out because they work so hard on every piece that they publish. Moving on to our ASB updates. Two weeks ago ASB had a very very successful battle of the beads. Um, I don't remember who won, but you can see them because you can't see their neck in the top left corner because it is so covered by the beads. Um, it was a very successful uh battle and they all just had so much fun with it. Um, we also had a beautiful Dia de los Muertos aphrenda at the front of the school. Uh I believe this was mentioned over the last couple of school board meetings, but this is something that we're very proud of at Slow High School where uh one of our ASB representatives was able to set
005this up and make it uh available to the public of Slow High School. Uh and then ASB is also launching the annual Thanksgiving food drive to support the Elks Lodge in feeding local families. Um this is just an emphasis on service and community engagement that's going on throughout the rest of this week. And then we also have blood drive signups um going on throughout uh December. We uh had I believe two to three blood drives last year and all of them were very very successful. Um and yeah, we also have our holiday carols coming up and so um I assume in the next couple of board meetings there will likely be a video of all of ASB singing to one class period which is about 25 to 30 kids. So that'll be a lot of
006fun. And then in our other updates, we had our FFA opening its Midstate Fair livestock program to students. Um it offered hands-on agricultural training and summer events uh for school credit. This is our FFA program is again one of the strongest. Uh we are so proud of them at slow high school. They work so hard and it is truly a year-long event. I was talking to someone in FFA and she was saying we end one barbecue and then we immediately go into raising livestock and we go into something else and they just work so tirelessly and we are so proud of them. We also had our model UN program uh perform exceptionally at UC Berkeley's conference. It was the same weekend that math club went to their conference too. Uh we also brought home um
007eight of the best and outstanding delegate awards which is such a remarkable accomplishment because last time we only had one to two students winning awards. So um as we continue to improve, we are watching our uh our entire like Amada UN community improve as well. And then moving on to upcoming events, um we have our Thanksgiving break coming up and uh our fall sports award night and other awards night. But other than that, there is nothing else going on as of yet. We are just looking to um uh lot of empty space in between all the breaks and um we're so excited to see what comes out of our uh other winter sports and everything else going on at Soh High. Thank you. >> Thank you. And now we have Jocelyn Okmpo Mateo from Moral
008Bay High School. >> Hi everyone. Um, my name is Jocelyn and I am the ASB president over at Mororrow Bay High School and I'm very glad to be back here today to present about my school. Um, if I could just get confirmation that you can see the other TV cuz this one went turned off. >> Oh, it's working. Okay, that hopefully I know what you're doing, >> but we can't see it. >> You're okay. >> Okay. Um to start off uh we have our gratitude week this week. Um it is a time where uh different clubs around our campus are able to put on and host a different activity at either nutrition or lunch. So this week we have FFA that hosted on Monday. Today we had gratit um gratitude grams from our wellness club.
009We have flower grams from our outdoors club on Wednesday. Uh we have a gratitude photo booth on Thursday from our interact club. And we have a piñata gratitude chain from the Hispanic Heritage Club on Friday. So, it's very exciting. It's a really cool thing that students get to do right before they're off for Thanksgiving break. And then we also held our student recognition lunch today with staff members inviting students they feel exhibit great character and classroom success as a way to show students their thankfulness. And I had the honor of going to this um student recognition lunch as well. And um we had amazing barbecued uh burgers from our admin which was very lovely. Um some of our auto students attended the SEMA and AAP X shows in Las Vegas where they explored cutting edge
010automotive innovations, met industry professionals and learned about future career pathways in the automotive and aftermarket industries. We are very thank thankful for our teacher Mr. Whimmer for all the time and effort he puts in to supporting our students. And it was truly such a great and amazing experience for these kids to learn more about cars and maybe even future career paths. So, we're very thankful for that. And the annual MBHS Aggie Backer fundraiser was a huge success the weekend before last. Um, we only have a few more shows left on November and 21st and 22nd for our Morway High School's The Play That Goes Wrong. Um, we had four shows last weekend and I am uh the co-president for our drama club actually and so I'm a part of this production and it truly it's
011just so much fun whether you're on stage or watching it and I am just so thankful that this can be my senior show and I really recommend everyone comes to come see it. And I also attached a trailer so hopefully it works. Heat. Heat. Uh that video was made by senior Emerson Jackway who is also in the play. So, I would really recommend you guys come out to check it out. We have a show Friday at 700 p.m. and we have a matinea on Saturday at 2 p.m. and our closing show will be at 7 p.m. this Saturday. And now for sports. Last night, we held our winter sports parent meeting. Um, as well as wrestling, soccer, and basketball are all kicking off their seasons. With soccer, I know they just had their tryyous. I
012believe basketball just started their preseason, maybe. Correct me if I'm wrong. Um, and we also held the annual girls basketball alumni game on Saturday. Um, there were pirate players from the 1970s all the way up to the recent years. Former coach Gary Nurelli was in attendance and coached the alumni team. Um, for most of all of our fall sports, almost all teams have wrapped up. Football lost a hard-fought game at the number one ranked Liberty High School on Friday night in Maderna, MadiRaa. And our cross country teams continue their seasons with the Central Section CIF Championships this Thursday afternoon. And our CIF championship girls volleyball team is hoping to keep their state playoff run going. Tonight they play in the Southern Regional Final at home. And if they win, they will face off against the
013Northern Regional winner for the 2025 California State Championship in Los Angeles. This has been so exciting for our school and we could not be more proud of this group of girls. Um, our varsity team actually comprises of 11 seniors. So, this matters so much to them. And I had the honor of being at the CIF championship game and it was just so much fun and I loved seeing all the school spirit and seeing our community truly come together to support our school. It was just amazing to watch. upcoming. We have a lot going on these next few weeks. We have our our fall sports celebration night on Wednesday, December 3rd. Dance Fusion Art in Motion will have a lunch performance at lunch on December 4th. And we will be hosting our financial aid night for
014all seniors and their families on the evening on December 4th so they can receive um aid with FAFSA and KATA applications. Our winter choir concert is going to be at the Quest to College Pack on December 11th as well as our winter band concert will be on December 15th at the Calpaly Pack. ASB will be having our winter rally on the 10th of December as well as our annual holiday lane on December 11th which is where we have many different clubs come together at lunch. We have an extended lunch period and they put on their own little tables for with fun winter activities. And we have our winter formal dance put on by our sophomores in ASB on the evening of the 12th. And that is all for this this presentation. Thank you so much
015again for the opportunity to share. Okay. Thank you both um for these presentations and for joining us this evening. You as always are welcome to stay um participate in the meeting if you like but we can see that you have a lot going on so we will understand if you uh leave now with our thanks. Okay, next we have Delm Moore program highlights. We need our slide deck. I know Mandy's working on it. Um, thank you for having us. We're really happy to be here. Um, I will admit that I created the slides for this presentation, but I but the the kids know what we're doing. So I brought them in and said, "What would you say if we were presenting this and I typed what they said." So this is these are their words
016even though they're reading them because you know we're here and there's a lot of people. Um but I thought it was really interesting some of the word choices that they came up with and I noticed a theme and I wonder if you guys will notice a theme and some of the things that they were um had observed were important about what the things that we are doing. So, I'm going to introduce There we go. Okay. Deep breath. Okay. There is a stool back here. So, I'm going to be standing close by to manage the stool a little so we don't have any um tipping or tripping. Okay, great. Um so, I'm not trying to be hovery. I'm just here in case to be the stability. Okay. So, I want to start by introducing our student
017council and thanking our fourth grade teacher, Jeffrey Morgan, for leading student council. Um, the students in the third, fourth, and fifth grade classes voted for their representatives and um they support us as a school and I invited them to come and speak tonight. So, we have student council representatives um and student senate representative um to present to you tonight. So, they're gonna introduce themselves and I'm gonna start with Janelle. >> My name is Janelle and I'm in fifth grade. >> My name is Hobie Pond and I'm in fifth grade. >> Hi, my name is Noah and I'm in fourth grade. >> Hi, my name is Enzo and I'm in fourth grade. Hi, my name is Lyanna and I'm in fifth grade. >> We have new schoolwide expectations. P for positive mindset. These are like our
018school student rules. P for positive mindset. O for all for kindness, D for dependable, and S for safe. Following these rules helps staff and students be successful and keep students safe. >> How are students acknowledged for showing pods expectations? Pod slips. Teachers and staff hand these out to kids who have pods behavior. Dot to dot dolphin. When students get pod slips, they bring them into the classroom and put them in a tub and then the class counts them on Friday. The class adds the that number to the dot to dot each week. Pods. Once you fill up a dolphin, kids, take the dolphin to the office to trade for a P, O, D, or S. Then bring the letter back and glue it to the class poster. Once your class gets pods, the class ends
019a celebration like a little extrais or a short trip to Delmare Park. Once the whole school gets pods in every classroom, we get a whole school celebration. Last week, we got to eat lunch on the field while with playing music. >> Make your pick Monday. On Mondays, there's a question at the lunch area, and students get to vote which they prefer, A or B. The votes get counted and graphed by kids, and the graph gets shown on Fridays. The goal is to get out of our comfort zones and ask our friends what they chose, so we get to know each other better and build connections. Delmare cross age buddies. Once a month, classes come together on Friday morning to meet with their class buddies. Buddies is where the older kids meet with the younger kids.
020I like how we get to help the younger kids and how they get to see what fourth and fifth grade will be like when they grow up. The goal of Buddies is to get out of our comfort zone, interact with new people, and build a school community. Our upper grades can do a millionword reading challenge in Battle of the Books. To participate to Yeah. to part to to participate in both of these students read and take AR quizzes. What is good about this is that you can challenge yourself and read more. Also, if you read Battle of the Books, kids can read books they might not choose and that can help them get out of their comfort zones. PTA has a lot of events to help us have fun and to raise money for our
021school. The events include The events include bingo three times a year, restaurant fundraisers with pizza port and dog side drive up barbecue, the spooky spectacular, the book fair during conference week, the silent auction for the parents, and the spring fun run. My favorite is the spring fun run because you can challenge yourself and run more laps than you did last year. >> We have some things that aren't just academics. Fifth grade sports like basketball and girls soccer right now. Dungeons and Dungeons and Dragon Club. Drama club after school on Mondays. Lunchtime soccer. Spanish in action starting in Thursday after school. We have field trips and assemblies. We have art every week with our art teacher. K through 5 has music. Our PTA pays for kinder, third grade to have music. And fourth and fifth have
022weekly music with Mrs. Rainer. Fifth grade has event. My favorite is soccer because it is fun. >> Okay, I get a turn. Um, we are so lucky to have been chosen by the education foundation to be the first um innovation hub on the coast. And what the foundation provides is somebody to partner with our teachers to brainstorm um possibilities for hands-on and deeper learning in our in the curriculum that we have. And so here's a couple examples of things that have happened. I'm going to do the lower grade ones. Um in second grade, the enduring understanding was what can we learn from facing challenges? So this is not a picture of second grade. This is a picture of the tough two that happens here at Loms. And so the second grade students were shown that
023and they applied that to the characters in the books they were reading and they created an obstacle course which I cannot explain. Um um K kids created these in partnerships and they created an obstacle course to help their characters overcome the obstacles that they were experiencing in the book. So, it's a little bit uh heady, but it was super cool, and I know that would be fascinating if we knew what it was represented. You'll have to come to the second grade to find out. Um, in third grade, they study um characteristics and adaptations. So, students created um a 3D model of animals they imagined could exist. And then they also used Adobe Express to have the computer create the same creature. They're going to be ready for Zach Roers or the Mororrow Bay High um
024digital communications class once they get there. And then we have some upper grade um experiences as well. Mr. Burrus and Mrs. Slaves classes in connection with the corn unit went to farmers market to interview farmers. I was able to translate the questions for one of the farmers. One question is I asked how they planted and harvested the strawberries. The fourth and fifth grade team for our next unit on government. We are doing a studentled project. We're going to find out what we know about Moray the Mororrow Bay community. What good things does Mororrow Bay have and what needs or concerns students have? We plan to take that information to the city council. Thanks for having us. >> If you have questions, do you have any questions for us? >> Thank you very much. Mr. Clawson,
025followed by Mr. Banfield, followed by Mrs. Sheffer, and then followed by >> his name, >> Mr. Buckman. >> Yeah. Hi guys. first great job on the presentation. We really appreciate you coming and sharing all that with us. Um I had a question for you which is can you give me some examples of ways that you can earn pod certificates or things that you guys have done to to earn a pod certificate? >> Stand up there. Uh, we can earn pod slips by like if we pick up a ball that someone left behind after recess and we could do it by like not talking when the teacher's uh >> teaching us. >> Thank you questions. You know, it takes so much courage to be able to stand up in front of people. I really appreciate what
026you've people are doing. I have a question though. What is the Spanish and action program that's going to happen in January? >> Did any of you do that? Okay. It's an afterchool um program that one of the people in the community, she used to be an aid at our school. She offers Spanish for lower grade kids after school if they want to come learn Spanish. So, they do cooking and singing and things in Spanish. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for being here. My question has to do with the graph with the A and B and you indicated those are questions that are answered. Could you give me an example of a couple of the questions that the ser that's the survey is used for? question. >> Yeah. This week's question was whether if
027you like Thanksgiving dinner more or Thanksgiving dessert more. >> Oh, that's a great example. >> The kids um come up with the questions. >> No, those are great. Thank you. >> We started with Halloween. Do you like chocolate or fruity and chewy better? >> We were surprised at the results. Thank you. >> Thanks. Well, I wish I was back in school and you guys are great. But my question is, has anybody done the course that you guys created? >> The tough two, >> the obstacle course. Yeah, >> tough two. They're these fifth graders are looking forward to doing that next year because it happens here at Lossos Middle School. >> Okay. >> Right. Have you Has anybody done the tough two? Did you I don't think you knew about it. They don't know about it
028yet. >> They don't know about it. Okay. >> Well, when you do it, if you'll give me an email, I might come and try it. >> Maybe. >> Anybody from Blooms? You hear that? >> Thank you. Thanks for being here. >> Thank you. >> Okay. I I would like to second what Mr. Banfield said that it is really hard to stand up and speak in public. It's the number one fear I think that people have is public speaking. So I think you're brave and I so appreciate you're coming tonight. You did a great job and represented Delmare really well. So thank you very much. >> Thank you to the back. >> Okay. Item 6.01 01 is correspondence. At the uh time the agenda was printed, we had received uh one item of correspondence from Emily
029Goodman. Um and that has been attached to the agenda packet for anyone who wants to read it and all of the board members have received it. Item 6.2 is public comment. Um, this is the time when the public has an opportunity to speak to the board on items that are not on the agenda. So, um, you you are allowed three minutes for public comment, six minutes if translation is required. Um and we ask if you are unable to stay until your agenda item um is addressed that you speak to us now. Otherwise um it I think particularly tonight it would be worthwhile as most people want to speak to item 10.2 to the budget reductions. Um, it would be worthwhile if you could stay and and listen to the presentation before speaking, but if you
030want to speak now, can't stay, we understand. Um, did you >> Yes, we would appreciate it if you want to speak if you would fill out a yellow public comment form and um bring it up to the front or someone will take it from you and and bring it up to us and Mr. Schaefer will be handling public comment. >> Thank you. And there are some seats now in the front if anyone wants to have a seat. Um, so I'm going to uh this is for general public comment and I please excuse me if I mispronounce anybody's name. Uh, first we have Phil Angel followed by Caroline Cota. Good evening board. Boy, those students are sure hard hard act to follow. You're right. It takes a lot of courage to get up here and talk.
031Um, in front of such a big crowd. So, I represent St. Louis Coastal Teachers Association. Uh, I hang out with sports kids all the time during my day job. So, it was great to see the Delmare kids talk about soccer at recess. uh Zoe uh putting on a clinic over at uh in Clovis High. Great stuff. And all this stuff happens because our teachers, our faculty, our our staff, our classified, we put in a lot of work. And I want to say that we know we know that the budget is tight. We understand. We know that uh we have prepandemic um we're going to return to pre prep preandemic financing in a post-pandemic world. We also know that we can't have everything. You know, we get that. However, I was recently asked, what are SLCTA's
032priorities? and our members. We have a lot of priorities, but the chief among amongst them all is our students. Our students deserve everything we can possibly give them. What can we give them? Quality tier one uh classroom teaching. We can give them interventions and we're worried about losing some of those interventions, both the academic and social emotional interventions. Um, we also know that it takes quality teachers and we know that it is board's priority for you to attract and retain quality teachers, quality counselors, quality educators across the board. Did you know MIT on the the cost of living in St. Louis Abyispo County two years ago was $18,000 a year for housing on average. $18,000 a year, $4,000 a year for food, and $10,000 a year for transportation. Um, not a math teacher, but I
033think that's $32,000. A brand new teacher here at St. Louis Coastal takes home 11 months out of the year less than $3,800. And they're spending 32,000 a year. So, I I didn't do the math on that. to just to live, just not to have the fun stuff. And that's not on top of the stuff that they're putting in their classroom, the money they're spending on supplies, uh donating stuff. Our teachers do it all. Our counselors do it all. Our educators do it all. So, we know we know we're going to go to a preandemic world. And we want you to understand that we have post-pandemic needs in our classrooms with our students every single day. Thank you Caroline Cota followed by Kia Ross. Hello, my name is Caroline Kata and I'm a teacher here at
034Losos Middle School. Some of you may recall that I spoke to you last February regarding the importance of our school counselors. I told you about the students in my sixth grade class who are facing serious hardship. I was I am so grateful to those of you who voted not to cut our counselors. Unfortunately, three of our elementary counselors left the district and we did not replace them. So, this has left most of our elementary sites without a full-time counselor. We went from each elementary school having a counselor to three out of 10 having a full-time counselor. Teach Elementary has a counselor just one day a week. School counselors are necessary for helping students access their learning when they're dealing with hardship and trauma. Counselors provide them with resources and coping strategies to help them attend
035class, access their learning, and contribute to the learning community. In addition to academic counseling, our counselors hold SST meetings, communicate with parents, meet with administrators to plan and address schoolwide management issues, perform supervision, and create social emotional learning lessons and videos for the whole school. since they don't have time to meet with each and every student. This is just a list of what I see. They have a plethora of duties they perform that we teachers don't even realize that they're doing. All of these responsibilities don't actually even include the counseling part of the job. This year has been even harder than last year. Fewer of my students are emotionally regulated daily. Our students continue to face unimaginable emotional challenges. One 11-year-old student in my class who has a different family member has custody of him
036would call his parents every night for weeks this fall to say good night and they never answered and they never called him back. Suicide and suicidal ideiation is a very prevalent concern this year amongst my sixth graders. I have referred several students to counselors for indicating that they're suicidal in their notebooks and in their assignments. In terms of social emotional counseling, at the end of the first third of this year, 12 weeks in, our LOMS counselors have received 110 referrals by staff, parents, and students. That's 22.5% of our population or one out of every five students just in the first third of this year. They've completed nine safety plans which are created when a student is at risk of um suicide or is experienc experiencing suicidal ideiation. And after that, if a a counselor is
037worried that that's not enough, they go to a mental health evaluation team, of which five of our students have gone to. And three of our students were determined to need hospitalization. Um, again, that's within the first 12 weeks of this school year. These are 11 and 12 year olds. Our school counselors are indispensable and our school counselors save our students lives. Thank you. Kia Ross. Ka Ross, followed by Ben Leopard. >> Hello, my name is Ka Ross. I'm a seventh grader here at Los Sos Middle School. And I think that our counselors here are amazing and I don't think that they should leave our school because I have noticed a lot of my friends are very like depressed and sad. So, I tell them to like go to a counselor and I feel that if
038there was a counselor that was missing that they wouldn't be able to get the help that they need because if it's cut short. There's not really a lot of, you know, um, sorry, I'm really nervous. Um, people Wait, what? Hold on. I'm confused. Give me a second. So there's a lot of students here that are depressed and um have a lot of issues at not not only here at school but at home and I feel that if one of the counselors were cut short that some students wouldn't be able to get the help that they need and one of the students is me and I would love to you know thank my counselors um for being here for me and my friends and I really appreciate them and I'm hoping that you guys will make
039the right choice and not cut one of our counselors out because their schedules are already packed with only two counselors. So, if there's one, then their schedule will be overpacked and most students wouldn't be able to get the help that they need. And um thank you very much Ben Liippard and then Scott Craz. Hi, Madam President, members of the board and the public. That's hard to follow. Um, I've also struggled with depression and that was amazing to hear somebody that age talk about it like that and that's super meaningful. Um, I'm going to talk about PG& because that's what I care about, but it has to do with our kids. Um, we've been in this situation where it feels like we're asking PG& for something and I want to talk about what PG& gets from
040us. When operations were extended in 2022, PG& because of the tax rules they had exploited were not going to be able to make enough profit. And so they went to the legislature and asked for rateayer taxpayer money to make a profit at Diablo Canyon. They get over hund00 million a year from rateayers that goes to shareholders between last year and this year. Last year 114 million. This year 121 million for that fixed management fee. They fight for every single dollar. They argue about the CPI. They argue about every little bit to try to get that money. That's $7 million just for that for the fixed management fee that they're getting this year over last. They're getting $226 million from another fund. I'm not going to get into it because it's too boring, but it's $226
041million we pay to them. And we're here now because of what happened in 2022 when we weren't in that room. We had no say. They took every bit they could. And I'm not even getting into other money they get. I'm just giving you the two big ones right now. And now we're here because what happened in 2022 and we're talking about counselors and how important they are. I'm going to say it again. I say it every time. PG& can do the right thing with the stroke of a pen. They do it for their executives. They fight tooth and nail. I know what I know what they do when they want the money. I know what they can do. I've seen them do it. It's infuriating to have to come up here and feel like I'm
042begging a company to do the right thing when they have done nothing but reduce the amount that they have been providing our community. Do the right thing, P Genie. And if you people out there aren't sure, come talk to us because we have information. You need to know what's going on. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. Scott Kresik. Um, what I have is a lot easier to fix than what's come before me. Um, but I'd still like to advocate for um fixing the um the spring break misalignment on the new calendar. Um, as noted in last week's submission to the board by Leah Egan, Cal Poly and Quest have permanently altered the structure of their calendars to semesters such that spring break will likely be a week earlier than it's been in the
043past. This results in a calendar mismatch with the district which causes childcare issues for faculty need to teach class. Staff must take significant time off and college students who work at district sites. It also prevents trips for student enrichment or quality time with grandparents or other family. In their 2017 2027 published calendar, spring break is March 15th through 19th for the local colleges and March 22nd through 26 for St. Louis Coastal. Calpolly and Quester are some of our committee's largest employers together representing over 3,000 employees, hundreds of whom are parents with children in the district. This mismatch creates real challenges. Families struggle to find child care when the schools are out, but parents still have to teach. Students and siblings in college can't plan family trips or shared breaks and our community loses coordinative programs
044between the schools and college such as college students who work as afterare staff. I just informed the slow sun informed afterare staff at pickup that they won't get a well deserved vacation in 2027. This morning I talked with the mom from my son's kinder class about stress how stressful she doesn't have care during minimum days this week. It echoes the stress my family feels on every time we do work around teacher work days, sick days, and our professional responsibilities. I recognize the need for these no school days for the district's teachers, which makes aligning spring breaks in the calendar even more crucial. By aligning our calendars, we'd reduce stress on working families with proven attendance and engagement and also allows parents to participate in their children's education in classrooms. My children are 7, five, and
045two, and don't have many chances left to spend quality time with their aging grandparents, all of whom live out of state. Unless you fix the 2027 calendar, we won't be able to travel to see them next spring. The 2028 draft calendar isn't looking much better. Agenda M1 114 is a draft calendar that likely perpetuates this disjoint calendar on our shared community. I urge the board not to approve this calendar and refer it back so future planning can recognize the needs of the hundreds of local college parents, district workers, and families as stakeholders. Thank you for considering the step toward a more connected and supportive school system. Okay, that is uh that completes the request to speak in general public comment. Is there anyone here who did not submit a request but would like to speak
046at this time? Okay, seeing no one, then we'll close public comment and move on. 7.01, 01 the business and budget update. Mr. Pinkerton, >> just a few quick things to share with the board. Um I was fortunate to serve pumpkin pie today at Lagona Middle School. And so just a shout out to the food service department. Um during this time of year they try to do like a turkey, mashed potatoes, cornbread, tons of kids coming in eating, right? And then they also make fresh pumpkin pie for all the kids. And so they invite us to come and and serve it. So it was really it was nice to see the kids. and um really incredible the number of students that eat at our schools and and so it's it's really great. So again, our food
047service staff does a great job. Um lastly, uh I was I participated in in a a kind of a a gathering today for Electric Ride 805. And so where they had, you know, basically a bunch of different vendors and a AP APCD, those groups that talked about electrification of buses throughout the state and throughout the nation, those types of things. And so it really was nice to to recognize, I think again for Mr. on in for Philips Tarver right for our staff that we you know we currently have six electric buses in the fleet we have five more coming the infrastructure is in now and so it's just really it was really good we're most districts are just baby steps just beginning those processes so I just wanted to share that with the board >>
048thank you educational services Mrs. And before I I all of that is done through $6 million in free money through grants that we've received. So all of those new buses, all of that in infrastructure um again due to to both Philip and Chris and their work uh to to get that from th those funds. >> Thank you. >> Today um the foundation had a lunch meeting where we got to collaborate with our NextGen scholars from Slow High. And what a phenomenal group of young women um that participated with us. Uh Mr. Unger and Mr. Clawson were both there with me and they were talking about the impacts that Marcy Bedall and the NextGen program and Mr. black had um on their trajectory in school feeling like they belong, but also taking field trips to Cal
049State Fresno's football game and then Children's Hospital to learn more about careers in the hospital that go beyond I'm going to be a nurse and expand into other areas of hospital work. So hats off to the good work our foundation is doing for those nextgen scholars. Um also my team uh Mr. Nef and Mr. Black and I are continuing the work on the athletics action plan steps and supporting our coaching teams and communications with families and developing some further um training and communication protocols etc. And I've conducted several site visits across our campuses. Um summer experience planning is well underway. So this is our summer program Mr. Martin oversees for our kindergarten through 8th grade students. Um, and we are developing um, and ensuring that the right students are invited to join us and that
050while they're with us, they're getting really integral um, strong lessons delivered to them. Similarly, we're working with um our student services department to make sure that our students with special needs are receiving the appropriate supports and accommodations when they're at summer experience programming. I'm working with Mr. Shepard on TK planning kickoff. As we have talked about at the budget meetings, TK will be continuing in St. Louis Coastal. And to that end, we're thinking about and talking about ways to make that program better and stronger in continuous improvement. Um, CL Smith had a big lighthouse celebration. Many of you board members got to attend with Miss Parson and the boys and girls at CL Smith celebrating their recognition as being a lighthouse leader in the school. And that means their practices and leadership for students goes
051above and beyond. Um, so congratulations to them. I'm meeting regularly uh with the technology integration team as we are continuing. We developed a plan you remember last winter and we're slowly chipping away at all the different pieces of that and look forward to kicking off the artificial intelligence task force coming up in this January. More information to come. I meet regularly with our other educational partners across the county to collaborate and learn more about programming that's going on and then also working with our board policy subcommittee as we develop and refine board policies for you all to consider. >> Thank you, Mr. Pingerton. Measure C update. >> Yeah, you know what? I projects are continuing. There's not a lot much lot to report other than it's been a rainy few days and so I'm just
052dealing with that with contractors and making sure that we keep things buttoned up. >> Okay. Thank you very much. Um item 8.01 is a public hearing regarding resolution 07-25-26 authorizing a public utility easement to PG&E for electrical service improvements at the Belleview Santa Fe school. So yeah, the board approved at the last meeting um the intent for this easement of course and so tonight we have to do a public hearing and then later you'll see that there's the resolution to grant the easement to PG&E. Basically, they're going to take a an overhead wire and put it underground at their cost. Um, and so making it actually makes the campus safer and the entire roadway that area. So, it's public hearing tonight. >> So, I am opening the public hearing on this resolution. Is there anyone
053that cares to speak to it? >> Okay, seeing no one, then the public hearing is closed. >> Thank you. Item 9.01, a number 05-25-26, developer PE fee report and five-year developer fee findings. Mr. Perton, can I share? This one's just probably easier if I share it, Jacob, because it's not a slide. >> Yeah, that's not it. Can I share from up here or no? Mr. Roger Well, we're good. If I can start to talk about it as we go, if that's okay. >> Sure. >> Um, so every year the board has to to basically approve a new resolution which kind of updates the public on um our developer fees. Developer fees uh we receive developer fees when any new housing goes into our school community. So any of our district boundaries when they build a
054new house, there's school fees that go along with that. Those fees are meant to be um used for growth programs. And so for the most part, we've utilized those at St. Louis Bispo High School over the past few years um as a way of kind of supplementing our measure defunds at the time. And so that is continuing today um through this process. So the problem is I can't I can't scroll though, right? >> Oh, it will advance on this. Okay. Awesome. I don't think anybody's going to read that. >> Is it possible? You know, >> can we enlarge the font? >> We'll roll with it. So, so what I'll do is I can hopefully read it as I go. So, um anyways, to I'll continue on with just kind of going through. I'll I'll try
055to slide through with the corresponding slides. But um so again those these funds are received when new housing comes in people pay school fees right then the meaning is growth. So for us our beginning balance um for the school year of the 20 242 July 1st 24 because this is for last year right we're reporting on what we spent last year. So our beginning balance was 482,000. Total revenues uh for 2425 equal 2,347,000. Um so in terms of overall costs right now really the only costs that we have um we've taken from last year were basically some indirect costs um that we're able to charge and then the architectural costs that are associated with a new classroom building that we're going to be building at St. Louis Vispa High School to replace some temporary portables
056that were there next to the really in between the old gym and the and the new gym that are there. Um so total expenditures were 471 or $421,21. Um ending balance was $2,48,85. Um so during this uh in terms of overall capital facilities funds, our revenues residential were 2.2 2 million commercial 32,000 um interest earned 52,000 and then we did have some refunds people you know initially will pay school fees and then not construct so they we do refund those we had about $41,000 in refunds bringing us to a total revenues of 2.3 million 2,347,220 um again the expenditures so far this or last year were mainly just um for that new classroom building the 353,520 27. Um the direct costs were 67,494 for a total expenditures of 421021. Again, leaving us with that ending
057balance of 2,48,805. In terms of those dollars, what's going to happen is we anticipate that new classroom building is going to be about 10 million. So over the next three years as that classroom building is built, we'll be utilizing these um capital facility funds for that project at St. almost high school. Um that school is going through a growth period. It seems to be kind of slowing down at this point, but um again replacing those uh temporary portables. There's definitely a need for the classrooms. And then in the 5-year report, we also talk about using future um developer fees towards our TK program. So, as the board knows, expanding grade level um at all of our uh elementary schools except for teach. Um and so those those new new students, new classrooms, um of course
058TK classrooms, they're bigger three, you know, trying to be at least 1350 square foot with a restroom inside, those types of things. So that's what the five-year plan basically entails. With that five-year plan, we talk about, okay, what are the other funding mechanisms that we're going to be looking for? As the board knows, we continue to go after um state funding, matching grants for modernization, right? We've been very successful with measure D. will be continuing that with measure C. Um we also have Measure C, $349 million um that we've been fortunate, our community has supported us with. Um and again, expecting about $10 million over this next 5-year period based on the 2 million a year that we're seeing. Um and so anticipated funding overall is about 363,000 in that five-year plan. >> Okay. Thank
059you. So, are there any Mr. Buckman? >> Thank you. There's a lot of big numbers, Ryan. Um, at the top of page six, I'll just I'll just You want to catch up to me? So, there's this statement. There were no loans made from fund 25, the developer fees. So, I'm wondering what kind of loans can come out of there. Is it just for physical just for construction or can we borrow money against this? You you see where I'm going? >> Yeah. No, for sure. So, um, so you can't borrow for other things, but there is inner funds sometimes. So, again, the board normally passes a resolution at the beginning of the year. So, for things like cash flow throughout the the year, we we may utilize funds in different areas, right? um to make sure
060that we meet our cash fund needs, but we can't use that those dollars for anything other than growth projects. So, in this case, it's just telling the board that there were no no interfans that were made um with this funding. >> Shucks, >> sorry. >> Okay. Is there Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak to this resolution? Okay, seeing no one, then this Oh, I be Mr. Paulson, I beg your pardon. >> Yeah, Mr. Pinkerton, um, regarding the St. Louis Swissville High School construction, you mentioned it may start this year. What's the total time frame of construction? >> So, the hope is that the project will start this summer, this coming summer, >> um, in year year and a half. We're also going to be as adding the um, the bathroom
061facility at Taylorfield as well as part of this project. Yeah. >> Okay. So, this is a resolution that uh approves the 202425 developer fee report and the 5-year developer fee findings. And I am seeking a motion to approve the resolution. >> I'll move approval of resolution 9.0. 01 uh 2526 developer fee report and 5-year developer fee findings. >> And I'll second that. >> I have a motion by Mr. Clawson and the second by Mr. Unger. >> Mr. Clawson, >> a yes. >> Mr. Unger, >> yes. >> Mr. Banfield, >> yes. >> Mrs. Schffer, >> yes. >> Mr. Buckman, >> and I'm a yes as well. So that passes 60 with one absent. Uh item 9.0 02 is another resolution. It's resolution 06-25-26, the day of the special educator, presented by Janet Gould. >> Good evening.
062My name is Janet Gould and I'm your executive director of student support services, which includes our special education department. And it's an honor to be here this evening uh in recognition of the outstanding professionals that we have working in our special education department. And I am going to read a resolution um regarding the day of the special educator. And I am going to invite a special educator, a speech language pathologist, Chris Anger, up to read this resolution with me. >> Thank you. I'll if if it's okay with you, I'll read it from here. >> Perfect. Okay. Whereas December 2nd is the National Special Education Day because it is the date that the Individuals with Disability and Education Act or IDA was signed into law in 1975, making this the 50th anniversary of IDA. >> And
063whereas special educators develop personalized goals for pupils tailored to each pupil's needs and special educators are involved in behavioral, social, and academic development. And whereas special educators work closely with parents to inform them of their child's progress and suggest techniques to promote learning at home and work to build collaborative relationships based on trust, teamwork, and shared accountability. And whereas special educators help pupils overcome weaknesses by building upon their strengths and know that all children can learn, but not in the same way or at the same pace and hold the highest expectations for success for their pupils to self-actualize and achieve their full potential. Whereas special educators work to stay ab breast of the latest laws governing special education to ensure that pupil's individual education program or IEP is a complete and beneficial document for the
064pupil and the pupil's parents and teachers. >> And whereas special educators exhibit qualities of compassion, patience, and flexibility and are the unsung heroes who pull all of the pieces together and make things clear for the pupils. And >> whereas special educators include special day class teachers, resource specialists, speech and language pathologists, paraprofessionals, behavioral specialists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, adoptive physical education teachers, deaf and heart of hearing specialists, visually impaired specialists, mobility specialists, autism specialists, program specialists, school psychologists, and nurses who work in schools and serve pupils in special education. Now therefore, it be resolved that the St. Louis Abyspo Coastal Board of Education and St. Louis Coastal Superintendent of Schools hereby proclaim December 2nd, 2025 as the day of the special educator. >> Thank you. Is there anyone from the public that would like to
065speak to this resolution? Okay, seeing no one, then I am seeking um a motion and a second to approve resolution 06-25-26 recognizing the day of the special educator. >> And I would like to make that motion. >> I'd like to second, please. >> Okay. So, I have a motion by Mr. Anger and a second by Mr. Buckman. >> Mr. Anger? >> Yes. >> Mr. Buckman? Yes, >> Mr. Banfield. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sheffer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Clawson. >> Yes. >> And I'm a yes. So that passes 60 with one absent. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. 9.03 03 is another resolution number 07-25-26 authorizing dedication of public utility easement to PG&E for electrical service improvements at Belleview Santa Fe school. Mr. Buckman, I mean Mr. Pinkerton, but Mr. Buckman might have something to
066say. >> So this again for the board, this basically they want to move an overhead power line um that's currently at Bellev Santa Fe and move it underground. It makes it much safer. they're paying for it. They're they're doing the whole process for it. So, it's it's in our our interest to actually have this work done. Um so, tonight we're asking the board to approve um this authorization for uh an easement for the electric electrical service improvements at Belleview Santa Fe School. >> Thank you. Is there anyone from the public who would like to speak to this resolution? >> Seeing no one, I'll bring it back to the board for a motion and a second. So, at the last meeting, I voted against this. So, I think it's only appropriate that I make the motion
067to vote for it as it's so beneficial to the schools. And I was just trying to make a statement about P Gen. >> It was a good one. >> Okay. So, I'd like to approve resolution P Genie easement. Um, >> I'll second it. Thank you. >> Okay. I have a motion by Mr. Buckman, a second by Mr. Banfield. Mr. Buckman. >> Mr. Vanfield. >> Yes. >> Mr. Unger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Clawson. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sheffer. >> Yes. >> And I'm a yes as well. So that passes 60 with one absent. Thank you. Moving on. 10.01. Secondary sites achievement presentation. Looks like we're seeing Mr. Nef, Mrs. Contrarus, and Mr. Der. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Click. >> Thank you. >> Did you want to say something? >> Heather won the arm wrestling contest,
068so she's going to go first. >> That was a joke. >> Uh, good evening. Thank you for this opportunity to present. Um, all right. So, I'm Heather Contrus, the principal at Los Middle School. I'm so happy to have um all of us in our beautiful library enjoying our space this evening. So, this uh presentation I gave um to our cabinet a couple months ago and it's nice to be able to share with you all of the good work that we have going on at Losos Middle School. Just for a little context, this is my second year as the principal of the middle school and uh prior to that I was the assistant principal for a couple years and I was also at Mororrow Bay High School as the assistant principal for two years um prior
069to relocating up here. So our mosaic of our students uh pretty very similar as last year. One thing I do want to highlight is our homelessness did increase uh by se by about seven percentage points up to 10%. Um and we have uh we're at about 17% of students with disabilities at our school site with 51% of our students um being so socioeconomically disadvantaged. With that going to our SIPA goals from last year I want to point out here we had three goals last year and two of the three we achieved. Um the first one was to increase the number of student connectedness to loans in extracurricular activities andor leadership programs. I'll get into some data later on. Um so check mark that green which is great. The second one we did not meet and
070that is to reduce the number of students who are chronically absent to 20%. Unfortunately we did increase and I will get into that as well along with what we are doing to reverse that and to lower that. Um and the third was to increase the number of students who are proficient in the areas of ELA, math and science per the CASP results. And it is with great delight um and pride that I share that we did exceed our goal for each of those areas um which I will share right now. So here we are LOMs Lions our academic achievement. You can see our overall ELA results. We are three grade levels six, seven and eight. um which is different from our uh other middle school which is grades seven and eight. Um and so with
071that I want to share our sixth, seventh and eighth graders. We exceeded uh 67% of our students met or exceeded the state standard. That's huge. Um especially when you look at our state average is at 47% and the county average is at 55%. We did increase by five points overall for ELA and that is through our students showing up taking the test seriously and our teachers preparing our students for that test. Um the same goes for math. We are at 53% of our students meeting or exceeded the exceeding the state standard. When you compare that to the state that's at 34% and at the county at 39%. Um and so we saw an 11 point um in improvement with our math scores uh which is fantastic and we continue to look at our program and
072to look at the support of what students need in the class and then what additional support is needed for that growth. When you look at our CAST data, our eighth graders are the only ones who take this and so our um our eighth grade science teachers, right, they are relying on work from seventh and sixth grade to get them prepared for that eighth grade. And so sometimes tracking that cohort data when it's not year after year is a little more challenging. But I will say this, 51% of our students met or exceeded the standard. And again, we met our goal of jumping in our um in our rates. We are higher than the state average and by the county average. If you look at what I have circled there, we have 80 students who scored
073a two on the cast. Now, I wanted to highlight that because there's something called the average distance from the standard. And it's really tiny, but just on the upper left part of that red circle, it says minus one. students who were very extremely close to getting that score of three. And so when you look at that, it's encouraging because it tells us and it tells our teachers that all of the refinement that they've been doing to their curriculum in getting students caught up and I'll say since co and closing that achievement gap, we're going in the right direction. Um and again, we continue to make progress in our academics. Now for our ELE learners, currently LOMS has 21 ELEL students. We have um six at a level one, so very low level with English skills.
074Uh 10 out of two, five, and then we have 59 students who have been reclassified, but they're still being monitored. Um and so um or 50 monitored, nine who are fully um exited. And so we do have for us um our EL population that requires support. And we know that as for one of our uh focus groups, it is a group that requires additional support in meeting our standards for um all of our state testing as well. Now, with our EL loan um with our EL learners, they take the ELPAC every year. This past year, uh we did not score where we wanted to score with our students. um we were at a 38% of our students passing the LPAC whereas the year before we are at 65%. We've got um a few things as
075we reflect on why is that? What was different? One of the differences was in the curriculum that we were offering the students and we are looking at how do we bring that back for our students and doing more of that pre-Avid work that we had students doing previously. Um I will talk about some of our interventions that we've put in place for this year as well. I also want to highlight that this is the first year in um many years that we have an EL aid coming into loans for support. We previously have not had that and they are here 20 hours a week which makes a difference. Um and it allows us to have a give students that support in class and then also through pull out. Okay. And so we know that through
076that support and also through the one-on-one support that we are providing to students in one of our interventions called study skills which is a pullout model um that and then also in preparation for the ELPAC that our students we anticipate those scores going up most definitely this year. Um, when you look at increasing academic achievement, there's a list of things that we're always doing as a school site. None of us are sitting and we're always constantly wanting to do better. And that's one of the things that I love about my LOM staff is coming to the table looking at where there's a need and then wanting to try something new to see if it works and to see if it's meeting the students where their needs are. and we're looking at the data to see
077does that show up and so of course you look at your first best instructions. I do want to look at or focus on our study skills pull out. So because of the master schedule we've been able to provide um four sections of teachers who are pulling students in small groups to support them some with executive functioning skills. We've got two sections being used for math support to help bridge that gap. And then also we have um one of those study skills who is also supporting our students who are EL who are not in an EL class but are have rather been RFP or our long-term English learners, our ELTELS. Um and so that's the additional support that we're doing. We are re-evaluating it this year to see what is um is it where we want
078it to be and then also the master schedule will always impact what we're able to offer. Um, with that also again the ELA uh support that we have uh supporting our students. We also have a parent volunteer who has a very high skill level and she is coming and working one-on-one with one of our students who has very limited English skills um just so that he can learn the language. And so that's been very helpful as well. I'd also like to focus and share that we do partner with Qua and Kalpali through their fellows. And so we have um multiple college students who are on campus going into classrooms working and supporting teachers and then also helping us with afterchool tutoring opportunities for our students. All right. So we're academics and then we are culture
079and climate. So, we look at our attendance, our discipline, and our extracurriculars. And I'll just kind of There we are at uh our first pep rally. It's a great time. If you're ever around for a pep rally, you should come and join. And then our tough two competition uh that we had at school and we opened tough two up to the community this year um back up to the community on a Saturday as well. All right. So our core values are build community, be responsible, be thoughtful, and be caring. This is what we want everything to d be driven by. And when our students leave us, this is um and while they're here, this is what we want them um and staff to be along with our families as well. Uh our student senate goals
080that were established last year based on the youth truth results. Goal one, enhance school culture and positivity by consistently incorporating student and staff voices into decision making. This uh goes into surveying our students, surveying our staffs, holding small focus groups of students in particular to hear their feedback on certain things that may be off the radar of the adults. Um and also um in our family events that could be at principal's coffee having them share things that um as a staff member we may miss. The second goal, increase student engagement in extracurricular and uh and uh academics. And so we want students to show up, right? Which we know is tied to also the attendance um with the attendance um engagement. And we also want them uh to take pride in their school and to
081celebrate what makes us unique at LOMS. Diversity is a great thing and it takes all kinds um to make a beautiful world and so our students want to celebrate what makes all of us different that then weaves us together to make us the beauty of what LOMS is. With that we do have a robust restorative approach with tiered discipline and behavior management guidelines. I've talked to you about our behavior expectations matrix in the past and the work that went into creating that. I will say one of the things that we are doing this year is we are participating in the social emotional behavior program that is through SLOCKO and think a more PBIS related. Um it is something that we decided to do last year. One is we do have a great culture and climate,
082but yet there's still struggles at a middle school campus and there's still ways of like looking at how do we make this a place where kids are initiating things? How do we give more of the onus to them? How do we create a safe space for all? And so one of um the key pieces of that work that is a three-year program I will say and it it consists year one of five uh professional development full days at the county office with a team we have a team of eight doing this um is looking at the behavior matrix and seeing how we can refine it. And so this work that we did years ago, we're back digging into it to make it better and to see how we can make it more applicable to our
083students. Um we do have something called a request for assistance at a middle school campus at any campus there is a need for support and what we saw after COVID was the increase in SSTs referrals, the increase in 504s, the increase in IEPs. it was too much to manage. And so, um, our counseling team and our school psychologists came together and they said, "Let's create a request for assistance so that we can get in there when there is a struggle with a particular situation with a student. It could be academic related, behavior related." And so it allows the the brains of our counselors and ISIS um to come together and try different strategies for a certain amount of time prior to saying it's time to move on to an SST. Um and then during that
084time they can collect data which will then um support the process of going through an SST process or a 504. Um we do have our behavior referral log. I also want to point out our citizenship reflection. One of the things that we do at LOMS is at the end of every grading period, students reflect on their citizenship. This is a rubric that is connected to our behavior matrix that is connected to our um our our core values and students can see where they believe they are on their citizenship and from there the teachers give the student feedback. The whole idea behind that is so that there's communication in expectations and what they can do to earn a certain citizenship grade at the semester because citizenship matters. And so it's a nice way to really across
085campus have a system in place that gives a student an opportunity to see what um and for a teacher to see how the student is viewing themselves and then how the teacher is viewing the student and where they need to come together or stay on the same track. We also celebrate character with character counts. We have revised some of our character traits this year again to align it more to our behavior matrix and our core values. Um and we are honoring students quarterly. Every month there's a different character trait that um is focused on in advisory. And then we are we have changed up our ceremony our awards celebration to include inviting families for our seventh and eighth graders this year which is new for us. Um and so that's been really nice. Now, our
086multi-tered social emotional supports, it takes a village to support our students and through our multi-tered social emotional supports, we have Miss Hernai and Mr. Vialtta who are super counselors. Um they are connecting with kids uh yes academically but so much more goes into what they are doing and what a student is doing with their academics with their attendance um with things that they're struggling with here at school that's school related and then not school related. We also have our school psychologist who are partners with us. Um they do provide for some of our students uh with disabilities some additional counseling that may be in their minutes called ERS. Um, we do have SEAL lessons that our counselors put together and they are pushed out through advisory. Um, we have they make these fantastic videos that
087are so relatable for the kids. Um, pretty amazing. Uh, and then it's great because it allows the school to have the school focus. Um, there is small group and individual counseling that is happening as well with our counselors. We have our counseling enriched center um that is uh meant to just have a space for a student to go who may be disregulated. We do track the data to see how much time a student is accessing to see what other needs or supports are needed as well. And of course our county partnerships that we have for the therapy. We have um two counselors here a couple days a week who are working with a a much smaller population of students. there is the option of the virtual outside counseling services that um is available to students.
088We do find that a lot of the students do not access that. It's can be challenging for an adult to access counseling um virtually and for a student it can be even harder and so but those are some resources that are available um to our students. I will also say coming up because of what we see with there being a need, our counselors and our school sites are hosting a parent forum in December to talk about um wellness for students and what that wellness looks like. um how to support at home with academics with um what students are experiencing online through the use of social media and um and just like group chats that bring a lot of stress also to them. Um and so it's going to be a lovely night for parents to
089get some resources and some support from our counselors and our school sites. our attendance um we are uh on the dashboard we are in the red for attendance um from last year one of our as I said our sips goal was to be at 20% for chronic absenteeism that um our chronic absenteeism rate was at 24.6% last year. Um it is something that we are actively addressing. Um, one of the things that we have started last year because we knew it was an issue prior to the end of the year when looking at our attendance, our chronic absentee rates was going and signing up for our social emotional behavior. It was a way to have some guidance in um looking at ways to make our our school um a better, safer place for all. And
090then also they have an attendance component in there with certain um elements that they'll get into for support. It gives us a good uh good resources as well being connected to the county. Um right now we are partnering uh LOMS and all of our coastal feeder schools, our elementary schools. Um looking at our coastal attendance, um multiple of our elementary schools were also in the red with um higher chronic absentee rates along with our high school as well. And so the idea is to have a coastal attendance group um with our admin coming together to look at common messaging and to look at some of the procedures and systems that we can have in place to decrease our chronic absenteeism. I want it to be known nobody is I am not happy with this. This
091is alarming and it's something it's messaging this year that we have started to ramp up. We've started looking at bringing students in um who want to participate in athletics and dances who are chronically absent and having those conversations as well. Um because it needs to go down. You I I did include the 2019. Now 2019 is off because that was the COVID year, right? But or actually that was prior to CO. So you'll see at we were lower prior to CO. Um, since then it's been pretty pretty high. Um, and we haven't been going in the right trajectory. Um, and so that's our main focus. I will say that's one of my main focuses of getting students here and getting parents um, the support they need to have students be at school regularly. And coming
092to school regularly is great. We have athletics, we have clubs, we have leadership, and we have kids who are participating. I spoke earlier and said that one of our SIPs goals was to have more students involved in extracurricular activities. And when we looked at our data, we were at 80% of students who were involved um in one or more things, which is phenomenal. What's interesting is when you look at our youth truth data, the belonging, sense of belonging um uh and the connectedness is always very high at Los Middle School, which is important. And so we had 58% of our students participate in athletics last year. And mind you, this was prior we did not have the athletics for achievement as robust as what it is this year last year. So 58% 26% of our
093students were in a leadership um program uh in some sort of capacity which is huge. 41% of our students were in clubs or um some sort of performing arts that takes time outside of the school day as well. And so we celebrate that. You'll see Miss Bravante's class, her choir there um at one of their concerts last year at Mororrow Bay. You'll see um our students who are being recognized for character counts with that courage. Um you'll see Miss Stoneman students working in the garden um and doing some gardening and then our student senators at a Senate meeting doing some brainstorming uh over our data. All right. So again, we do have our social emotional behavioral team that's working to look at our profitive reward system. Um, we have our safe and nurturing schools team
094that continues with our lessons that are focused focused on um, providing students with a lens to um, be more inclusive of others, looking at that equity lens as well. We have our youth truth survey. We're proud of the data. We have had um, a lot of parents participate and take our survey which is great. The youth truth survey recently came in um, and you know, there's a thing sometimes we can over survey. And so it's always trying to find that balance of like needing information from families that is useful um and doing it in a way where they will u be willing to provide that feedback. And so a couple more pictures I just want to show. We have our six seven kids uh during Halloween. We enjoyed dressing up on that day the day
095before. That is our SEB team at our first um meeting at the county and uh in that room were schools from multiple districts working on the same with the same focus. Uh the next picture that is our teacher of the year, Miss Cotta being presented with uh her flowers last year. And then we have Miss August Evans and a student on our first day of school. We like to put out the red carpet for big special events. And our student and family engagement, our lunch on the lawns are fabulous for families and our students. They love coming out. We've had two already this year. Um getting onto campus, spending time. When we had our tough two-day, we have our families on campus. We invite them here. We welcome them to come and to spend time
096and to support the school in whatever way they're po they possibly can. We hosted a student appreciation day. One of the things we wanted to do is we found a day in October that had the lowest um attendance rate the previous year. And so we said let's do a student appreciation day and we'll market it to the kids and we'll see if that has a difference um in attendance. Um it didn't have a huge drastic dist uh difference, but I will say that our having a a day called a student appreciation day with flyers. What it was was uh our food services served their favorite breakfast, cinnamon rolls, uh their favorite lunch and pizza. We had music out during um uh during lunchtime and some other activities. And it was just a fun way to
097be able to tell kids like happy student appreciation day. uh and so we'll be hosting a few other of those. Um I do also want to uh mention that we have a robust lunch inter murals team uh or opportunity for students and our again our leadership opportunities. We want every kid to belong and to feel like they have a role because they do. And so with that I want to celebrate our achievements. In closing, there's a lot to focus on and be proud of. I will say I know um things are hard right now and it's important, right, that we are looking at both things. Um what do we need to improve on? What is challenging? What do we have control over? What are our next steps for those things? And that takes consistency, that
098takes thought, that takes planning. Um, that takes talking to other people who may be doing something that appears to be better than you. Um, and I love that about being here and working on the coast and working at LOMS. Uh, because I will say I do truly believe that that is the focus of always making that improvement. With that, I want to celebrate again. We exceeded our state testing results last year and I know we are going to do that again this year. We were named a 2025 educational results partnership honor role school. It's our first time receiving this and it is based on academics. Um we are very proud to have received that and we celebrate that. And then last year um we were named a 2025 best middle school as well. We continue
099to be a schools to watch. We will be going into the redesignation phase soon and looking at our rubric to see where we're going. But we already know where we're going. we already know where we need to go. Um, and so with that, uh, thank you so much, uh, for the time. Okay, thank you. Is there anyone from the public that would like to comment? Okay, seeing no one, then I'll bring it back to the board. Mr. Buckman. Thank you. >> Thanks. That was amazing. >> Thank you, Mark. >> It It's just great. And this school is just it gets recognized inside and outside and it's just it's it's amazing for you and your staff. >> Um I did have a question and I just don't understand how with such a special school some I
100I followed the trail. you put in some links to other presentations you did and so I went looked at them all but the back to school night had a a slide on the attendance and it's like 75% of the students are at risk. So there was at risk and then chronic and then severely chronic >> 20 24.6 >> are that's how much are chronically absent. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> And then there's this thing called at risk which is 50%. >> Mhm. >> So those that's approaching that um that's in the low 90%. >> Okay. And so that just was scary to see and I'm just trying to figure out why students >> would were are missing school here. Yeah. >> You have some ideas? >> There's a range of reasons. I will say I was
101looking at like my home hospital students or students who were out for extended periods of time for mental health reasons. Um it was mentioned earlier the number of students who have been hospitalized. Uh those students were not on home hospital that attendance counts against us. Um we have some students who you know some of it it could be related to mental health some medical. I had a student earlier this year who had knee surgery and they didn't anticipate her needing to be out so long. she didn't go on home hospital and she was out for three weeks um with issues that counts against us. We also have some students sometimes, you know, if a student's getting sick. Okay. Um, but if it's that frequently, what's going on? Um, we also have some students who are
102missing here and there for whatever reason. And and I will say that's some of the work right in this focus work with attendance that we're doing and teaming up with our other coastal schools to look at what kind of culture are we seeing when it comes to attendance and making that a priority. And you know, you don't want to um you don't want to take things away and restrict, but also there has to be something that is motivating somebody to realize, well, you know, I can get to school and you know, and and show up um and or maybe I'm not going on that out of town trip on a Friday or a Monday. So, those are the real things, right? that and I'll be looking to my families for that support and also that
103encouragement. I think the alignment with what we'll be doing with our coastal schools and the common messaging part of that also comes into the common times of when we are sending letters out to students when we are attendance letters or to families I should say um will will align very shortly. >> It sounds like you've got some plans. definitely have some plans. >> I'm just so The school is just amazing. >> The school is amazing. And I I will say some of the things in the dashboard, I love like seeing our ELA and math scores, right? Go. And um there is a sense of pride. And when you look at like our suspension data that went up8%, I was in the green suspension, you know, the year before. Now I'm all the way down in
104the orange. It's it's disheartening. Um same with the chronic absenteeism, you know, now that went up um by uh four points and so it's it's just too high um on the coastal schools. We are slightly higher than the high school. Yeah. Thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Mr. Hunger. >> So, I have a question and this might be for you, Heather, or or Lisa. Um, one of the things we hear we heard about today during the foundation meeting, I think, were the CalPoly fellows. Is that correct? Is that what they're called? Is that the group that comes over to Los Alus Middle School and volunteers as well? >> They do. >> Do we have concerns about that program being cut based on what we're hearing from the federal government? >> I have not heard of any
105concerns from who I work with at uh, Qua College. I haven't heard any specific concerns yet from the college, but last springtime when the federal funding programming um those funds were held back, yes, it affected the fellows. Um but we haven't heard an update at this time regarding it for next school year. >> Okay. Thank you. And and just kudos to Los Souls Middle School. >> Thank you. You guys are really you you've you've continued to do a phenomenal job for kids on the coast and >> Yes. >> Please just you guys all keep it up. >> I thank you for that. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Dowler. How's it going? All right. I'm Chris Galler. Got a lot of different jobs in the school district. Today I'm acting as a principal
106for Pacific Beach High School. Is there a slideshow? Burning precious time. All right. Telling the data story of Pacific Beach High School. Go ahead. >> Oh, I can. That's good. Which clicker? >> Oh, lame. All right. So um first I wanted to talk about enrollment and some of the demographics of our school. Our school enrollment on average over the course of a school year is over 100 students. What do those students uh what are the demographics look like ethnically? We are very diverse with a majority enrollment of Hispanic students on average from year to year. um primarily male um or the majority of which are male. I think right now we have an unusual enrollment of about 50% female and 50% male. That's an unusual year for us as you can see. Um additional demographics,
107we have a very high percentage of socioeconomic disadvantaged students. Last year was roughly about 85%. We also have a high enrollment of homeless students. Um, last year it was over 51 of our students were um could be considered under Mckin Vento as homeless. Um, we get kids to school on a really good clip. So last year we averaged 86% average daily attendance for all of our students and our goal is over 90%. Now this is one statistic I'm particularly proud of because we do not give this away. This is our number one goal. This is a unified goal schoolwide. All staff share this. Our primary goal is to make sure that students graduate and to make sure they graduate with a plan for what they're going to do next after high school. And we were
108very successful the last couple years in ramping that up to above. Um last year we were at 97%. Um I did want to throw in this and you know shout out to Keith and my counterparts at other continuation high schools. Lydia, I know they work really hard, but we do have a much higher graduation rate than all of them. So, I do want to spend a special shout out to them. Um, particular program highlights um that you guys have been instrumental in helping us develop is our construction um trade program for kids um run by Dana Mccclitish. Um fantastic construction program and this year digital vocational art. This is run by a woman um local artist. I think she's fantastic. Gina Jane. Um, so Gina is running that program for kids because we have a
109lot of artistically inclined kids that would like to make careers out of art and there is a place in society for working artists and they can be very successful like Gina. So I wanted to make sure that I mentioned that program as well. Um, SPSA highlights for this next for this current year is increase our graduation rate. I I don't know how we'll do it, but I want to get to 100%. I think I can we can do that this year. Uh increase our student attendance rate to 90% and um you know keep our establishment of our construction program and our vocational programs in place. All right, that's it. Okay. Is there anyone from the public that would like to speak to Pacific Beach? Seeing no one, I'll bring it back. We'll start with Mr.
110Buckman, then Mr. then Mr. >> Mr. Chris, wait. >> Okay, sure. Mr. Hunger, >> um Chris, you have an amazing number of homeless students and you mentioned the McKenna Vento Act, of course. Um are you finding that most of the students that fall in that category are are couch surfing you know sharing multiple you know multiple families sharing sharing one um doicile. >> Yeah. The vast majority of our of our students who qualify as um homeless under Mckin Vento are doubled up. Um that's you know districtwide and that is certainly the case at our school. Um, we also have a high percentage of unaccompanied youth. These are students that have moved out of their parents house and are not living with a court of boarding guardians. So, oftentimes are living with relatives or friends of
111the family. So, we have a really high percentage of our homeless students that are unaccompanied homeless youth. >> Um, you guys are a a state model continuation school. Is that right? >> Yes, sir. >> What What's the secret sauce that you guys have? What what do you what you know what what what is it that that that you you get you to the place where you have the highest graduation? >> Humble humble humble leadership. No doubt >> humble leadership. >> You know your engagement, you know, your youth you youth youth truth engagement off the chart. >> We have an amazing staff at Pacific Beach High School as you guys are aware. Um they make it look easy and it's not easy. there's 100% buying on the part of staff to make sure that our students
112are warmly received that they have a positive safe learning environment every day. And there's, you know, wired in consistency schoolwide in that goal and and how we try to achieve that goal. And I I just I'm I'm really lucky to work with the staff. They're fantastic. >> And I guess finally, I'm aware that a high number of your students have to work as well as go to school. >> Yeah. How do how how can they possibly balance that? What do you guys do to help the students to make sure that they're able because I I'm sure they're not working because they they want to work, you know, they're probably working because they have to work and yet here they are. They're making a commitment to graduate from high school. How do they do that, Chris?
113>> I don't know. I wasn't ready for that question. I haven't even really thought about that to be honest. other than I think every day kids vote with their feet and if we didn't offer a you know these students most of them nobody's made them show up. I've worked in court and community school programs as you guys are aware and a lot of times those students are there because they have a probation officer that's made sure they go there and the continuation school here um these students show up when they want to and so every day that they show up is a vote of confidence that they're investing in their education. So I think um our job is to provide a safe and a positive learning environment for them and when we do that they
114show up. >> Uh Mrs. Chefer, >> when we chatted the other day, you were telling me about kind of the construction during construction. >> Yeah. >> And I'm really Would you I I think we >> Would you tell describe that to the rest of the board? I was really impressed with that. >> Yeah, it's really cool right now because Dana is um Mr. MLH is working on a basically construction project with the kids that kind of mimics the same process that the construction is going through on the back field. So, as they were working at kind of leveling the ground and laying the um bedrock for their concrete, he's doing the same thing. And then he's starting to raise, you know, a shed in this one area on our campus. So, it's really fun that
115they can go out and see what they're doing out on the construction and then come back and mimic that in the classroom. Yeah, I think that yeah, >> kudos for um Mr. Mcclush for taking advantage of what's going on on site and turning in it into a real learning experience for the students. I think that's wonderful. >> Yeah. And as always, um >> just you do >> have an amazing staff there. >> Yeah. I just wanted to again Oh, hey. How you doing? >> Good, man. I'm doing >> uh first I wanted just to say that your graduation and um attendance data is amazing. Um but more so I think the the humility and the approach you bring creates a culture that's that's really powerful. Um, part of that though is is is you you
116kind of come here and you just say here's what we did and and we're differentiated and it doesn't give you an opportunity to really say what else do you need? And and I guess my question is you have some um probably unique needs compared to our other schools in the district and what else do you need that you're not getting that that would allow you to excel further? this guy. I didn't even realize he was back here. Um, yeah. I' I'd love to see better partnerships with the local community businesses. That is something I'd really like to see is have our students have an opportunity to get out in more local businesses, have internship opportunities perhaps in those businesses so they can have a better link to um exploring vocational interests. That would be something
117that I think is a is a nocost proposal that I think is really vital for our kids is having local businesses opening in their doors and being interested in program development with our school public private partnerships. >> Yeah, >> Mr. Banfield. >> I wish everybody in this room besides the board members could go out and enjoy their graduation ceremonies at Pacific Beach. They are so beautiful, so wonderful. And uh you and your staff do a labor of love. >> Thanks. Appreciate it. >> All right. >> Okay, my turn. >> Oh, hey. >> Hi, Chris. Where have I heard before? What do you need? >> Yeah, all the time from you. >> Yeah, >> appreciate it. >> Um, you do a a fantastic job there >> and your staff is just the most caring, the most
118dedicated, the most connected um group of people. I think you have a lot to be proud of and I wonder I am noticing that um under let's see offer more field trip opportunities. I have seen that I think several times. Yeah, our kids previous reports >> field trips >> and I think that uh your student senators have also expressed that desire and I'm wondering what types of field trips would you in a perfect world have for your students? Um and what is the impediment to taking them on field trips? >> Often times the impediment isn't as much financial as it is like just time. uh a lot of as you know a lot of our students intercredit deficient and we don't have time for non-curricular sort of um ventures as much as we would like.
119So that is the number one impediment but it hasn't been financial. Um I'd say that I love going out and visiting businesses. So like the field trip that Aaron took us on to Trust Automation was really fantastic. We've been to Diablo Canyon. So again, that's part of me exploring different business um partnerships in order to take students out into workplaces where they can see what a professional work space looks like. Um that for a lot of them allows them to visualize something that they can work towards. And it's been gamechanging for a lot of our kids to go out into professional workspaces and see what those look like. >> And are you the person who lines up those opportunities? Um, how does that >> sometimes? But I'd say that Lisa Palladian is our like basically
120like a college career tech and she has lined up most of them almost every time. So, she's been super important in making and reaching out and soliciting opportunities for our kids to go visit professional workspaces. >> Okay. Well, your attendance is um is stellar. I mean, >> yeah, thanks. >> Great. Better than any other school I believe in the district. And I >> um and your kids, >> you're right, they do. They vote with their feet and they vote to be there. >> Um so I know you want to increase that number, but I >> Yeah, >> you're riding pretty high. >> Yeah. >> So, thank you very much for the presentation. >> Appreciate it. >> Oh, Mr. Buckman, >> I had to step out. >> I all I can say is ditto. But um
121I also I have to tell you how much I enjoyed visiting the campus and I'm watching that new new school come up and >> yeah, we're excited. >> I know you're excited, but I kind of like the funky so it's it's building it's going to be a little hard for me. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks, Chris, for everything you do. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, I think before we start this presentation, I would like to take a five minute break. Okay. So that we can use the facilities and what have you. I'd like to call the meeting back to order, please. If the board members would take their seats. Okay, I think we're all we're all here now. Um, and we'll move on to item I think I believe it's 102. >> 10.02.
122>> Yeah, 10.02, the budget reduction recommendations discussion. >> And Jacob, if you could throw it up on the screen for me, please, the presentation. So, yeah, as the board um, again, I should start with this was supposed to be Dr. Prader. These are Dr. for Prager's recommendations, right? So, um again, and I know that he wishes he could be here right now to do this and take, you know, cuz again cuz he he does, right? We know Dr. Prader, we know his leadership, we know that he he would he would want to do this and go through it as as >> I think as painful as it is, >> he sacrificed a hip to avoid it. >> Yes, he did. So, yes, but that rod hammered it. Um so, again, here I am to share
123with the board again. Right. Okay. So, as the board knows, this uh you know, this has been coming for years, our 10-year budget that we were going to have to at some point make reductions. Um unless we got that TK funding, that uh unitary tax again, right? Then we wouldn't be here today as Mr. Liippard um pointed out, right? And so, I'm going to I'm kind of going to go through this first presentation, the first part of the presentation quickly. Um anyone in the audience you can watch my video on the budget right through the LCAP people have seen it. Um but yeah this we started in August kind of slowly stepping through it why we have structural deficit then what our reductions were and now tonight is the first time where we're publicly um
124reviewing the proposed reductions for next school year. Right. Um so again I think it does it is meaningful just to quickly go through why we have a structural deficit. Um so one of the reasons of course is the loss of unitary tax. Now we did have SP 1090 which was fantastic. Gave us one-time funds for about six years. Um that kind of made up a little bit of that loss of unitary tax. And again had Dable Canyon shut down. Had the plant closed, we wouldn't have the slide up here today. We wouldn't be talking about it. But the fact is it is still open. And because when they passed SBA46, they didn't put in anything for to reestablish the unitary tax or keep the mitigation payments going. Um, here we are, right? So, we're done
125with our mitigation payments. They're gone, right? $4.6 million in revenues gone. And we don't have any there's nothing to make that up, right? That is a large amount of money. Um again you can see the overall effect over $7 million close to $7 million from 1617 down to 2425. I am concerned um and I share Mr. Liippard's angst right about um about PG& and what's happening. I guess my really concerned is that if they do grant a 20-year extension that at least at that point they will do something to reinstitute unitary tax should that happen. um there are processes, procedures that go into play if that long term happens, but I there's just some distrust that I have for how that process might go in the future. And so again, as the board knows, Dr.
126Prader and myself, we're monitoring this. We're pushing for it and we'll continue to do that. So the second thing is uh again, and and it's been brought up earlier tonight, CO related funding, right? So, we received a lot of money, like $30 million in in COVID funding, one-time funds, and um as needed, we hired staff. We increased interventions. We hired more counseling support for kids. We lowered class sizes. We did all those things. And it was all great, fantastic. We loved it. If we could keep it, we would continue today. I would not be here speaking about any making reductions if we didn't have to, right? um they were all great things for kids. As you've heard tonight, some of those issues with CO haven't gone away, but the funding has. All right. So, that's
127a that's a problem. That's an issue that we face as a school district. Um the third again is we've added a grade level with no funding associated with it. So, we're a basic a school district. More kids doesn't help our our process, right? So this has basically become a major intervention that that we we have taken on, right? And so despite our fights um with the legislature, right, and talking with Senator Lair and Don Addis, right, you know, Mrs. Addis or Assemblywoman did put forward a bill to try to get us TK funding. Um but there's kind of a disgust with basic aid school districts and the legislature, right? Because if you saw the chart on the handout, the printout, you'll see that some of those districts make 20 $30,000 more per student. And when
128our legislators think about basic aid, that's what they see. They don't see the fact that St. Louis Coastal is $675 more per student, right? So, we get kind of lumped into that group. So, we've um we're going to continue to advocate for that funding, right? Um even if it's a some type of a sliding scale seems fair. So again, yeah, if you're a district making 20 $30,000 more per student, yeah, you don't receive TK funding. But if you're at one of the bottoms, like we're we're close to the bottom level of unified school districts basic status, then then maybe we receive some funding for TK. Um again, kudos to our TK teachers that last year, right, we had talked about TK, um possibly reducing TK, right, and not having it anymore. um they they kind
129of worked with our our educational team um took on more kids did a half day model those types of things and again um it's it's thanks to them for for kind of helping us make this this work. Now that said um TK kind of do district basic districts have to have TK uh was something that came up over the course of the year because several basic a districts are going through the same issue. Um, and we got kind of a Dear John letter from our our state superintendent of education, Toby Thurman, that basically said it it is mandatory. So, you're not going to see TK reductions um tonight for next year because as far as we're concerned based on what what's been told to from from the state, we have no choice but to offer
130TK. Um again rising staff costs is another aspect of it right um this first part the stirs and pers which we've talked about uh again those are costs to ensure that stirs and pur stirs teachers retirement system pers classified retirement system um that they stay in effect that they're funded and so you know several years ago they basically put that requirement on the school district to pay right so again stirs has gone up um from 8.3 to 9.1% % for new staff it's also gone up the cost of stirs. Um and and then for PERS it's gone from 11.7 to 27.5. So that's each employee paying more right on top of for a classified we play for social security as well. So close to 34 34% in benefits. Now the hard part with that for
131our staff is they don't that's not paying the rent like Phil talked about. That's not paying for food, right? that's not paying for transportation or anything else that people need. Um, but it is a cost that the district has to bear right for that. And we have no choice. It's you can't negotiate that away. You can't do anything with it, right? You can't take it as pay. It's something we have to pay. And and again, long-term retirement wise, it's it's important that that system is funded, right? Um, for our employees. Again, we've also negotiated 29% salary increases during the same time period. Um, listen, we've always I know this board has always prided itself on trying to offer the high salaries, especially in our county, right? In comparison, we know Santa Maria is tough to
132to compete with. Um, but definitely for the other districts, some of them with the increases in LCFF have caught us at the lower level. Um, you know, first, second year, third year teaching spots, those types of things. And so, um, again, we've we've tried to continue to give increases, but la, so last year, for example, um, you know, hard fought negotiations back and forth doing things, the the board, we ended up approving a one-time ongoing increase, um, as well as a 5% increase for special education teachers, right? Knowing that their job is tougher than ever before, the amount of paperwork, what they have to do, right? Recognizing them by giving that increase um, as well. But know that that represents about $1.6 million of ongoing costs to the school district. So when we look at
133the five million of reductions tonight, that could have been 1.6 million less, right? So when we talk about and again, we're going to be going into negotiations again with all of our unions. So it's that balance salary ongoing, right? um working conditions um you know and we'll talk about the the changes to working conditions as I go through the cuts that we've made thus far but know that again we understand that salary is something we want to cost of living is super high here I have a daughter who's a secondy year teacher it's very expensive to try to live on a a new teacher salary very difficult um so I I I hear the group as as we talk about it and and it's something that um we need to prioritize right we need to
134prioritize salaries, but we also need to prioritize all the other things that we're going to talk about as well. So, again, the board annual priority was to, you know, we we need to cure the structural deficit this year. We need to make sure our revenues, our expenditures um align for our next school year, right? And then we also need to build up our um unrestricted reserve levels. Why do we need to do that? Because the county office of education told us, you you're too low. you're you're kind of at a breaking point with our unrestricted reserve levels, right? It's the lowest we've been since I've been here in the past 15 years. So, we we have to build that back up. We have to work on it, right? And so, that's why we're finally at
135a point where we we can't push the cuts down the road anymore. We have to make these reductions to ensure that our expenditures and our revenues match. Again, we're going to continue to fight for TK revenue. We're going to continue to fight for unitary tax. Love the fact that our parents are backing us and trying to get something for that as well, right? In that group, um we'll try to support them any way we can. Either one of those would wipe out the need to do a majority of these reductions, right? Either one of those would be fantastic um for us to do that. So again, we're continue to fight for those. We did all last year. We tried on both fronts um and unfortunately we're unsuccessful. And that's why we're here today, right? That's
136why we have to u move forward with these on on a second part. Um before you can talk about this year's reductions, you really need to go back and look at what the reductions were in the prior years, right? Because it kind of gives a pattern. So of course um nobody cares about administrators or district office staff, right? So where we started, that's where we started, right? So we started with we had three principles on special assignment. We had um a a counselor on special assignment at the district office and those were the first positions that were eliminated back in 2324. Um last year we began to look at again a lot of different things. Our initial projection for reductions in elementary staffing was $1.8 million. What I'll tell you is we ended up with
137only $1.275 275 million because when we were making class sizes, when you're breaking it up and the number of combo classes and how many kids can you have in a first grade or a second grade class, those types of things, right? We didn't feel like we could reduce elementary class size any more than we have this year and the board's hurt, right? The impact of that. So, the effect on working conditions, right, for teachers and staff going from 18 kids to 28 in a first grade class, it's difficult, very difficult. Um that said, we we had to bring up our class sizes. We had to do that um through this process. That's the the main area of our budget of our personnel cost is class size as it should be classroom teachers, right? They're the
138most impactful on students and student achievement. Um we also made some reductions uh in at the high school level as well, right? So overall that represented about 15 staff um nine elementary teachers, five secondary and again one physical education teacher because they give they provide the prep for those elementary teachers. Um as well um we got rid of uh some some site title one positions, reduced them, right? And that allowed the sites to kind of take their title one money and use them. um in a lot of cases it was to help um help assist and pay for our our SQS and and other intervention at those school sites. So the title one the title one funds that we have is really elementary focused, right? A little bit goes to PB, but as a school
139district, we've decided to put all of our title title one funds into our elementary sites. Not all school districts do that, but we understand the importance of early education, getting kids to read, math, those types of things, and that's why it's been focused there. Um we had two secretarial um positions that that left during the time period, a halftime position at teach um as well as a full-time position at Laguna. They had kind of a bump in enrollment. We gave them a secretary for a very short time and then we moved them um to Smisville High School um with those retirements. Again, much of this we've tried to do through attrition as much as we can keeping the current employees that we have through that process. Um we reduced um it's really 1.8 MTSS. I
140was corrected. Um TOSAs at the district office um as well last year um we reduced the summer planning days and grade level planning days. subs, right? So, this was just again um yeah, it's a time when teachers would get together, plan for the year, um meet with other grade level partners throughout and so those sub days were reduced personnel costs associated with those and basically ask, hey, you know, utilize your TCT time, your staff meeting time, um your your PD days that are are part of the schedule, right, as that process. So, that was about 100,000. Um we cut uh three district department staff, an executive superintendent in the superintendent's office, a payroll tech, a human resource technician. So again, a lot of again district office reductions as well, right? As we went through this
141process, um we reduced instructional aids at the same time. Um we had initially talked about reducing all kindergarten aids because that was something that was relatively new that we brought into the district. But with raising class sizes in kindergarten and not having any aid support, it just didn't make sense. So we did leave um based on Lisa's recommendation at least at halftime for every kindergarten class throughout the school district, right? Um and so so again, it was less than we had anticipated initially with those reductions, but still was about 11 aids altogether. What I will tell you on that standpoint is all of those classified staff, we we have PAR educator jobs, so nobody had to lose their job. um maybe not the job that they had but we have jobs in the school district
142for all of those employees that wanted to continue to work um student support specialists. So initially RSC cube teachers were reduced at the first group but again through that elcap process through um you know kind of working Stephie Shepard Lis Mashida right Dan Nef working with the staff with the principles um they brought those back using kind of a different funding pulling together using the title one funds to do that and so those were kind of reinstituted but it wasn't savings at the time so again the TK was not a savings per se but again because of the the willingness of our TK teachers to work with us and staff, we were able to um not have to add an additional one and a half million dollars worth of cost um with that program. It's
143going to be interesting to see what happens with TK enrollment. I will tell you, right, we have, you know, 460 kindergarten um kids and we have 376 TK kids. Why that is, I have no idea why people wouldn't come for free all day school. Um, not that I'm trying to bring our enrollment up, but it's just it's an interesting thing. So, we'll see next year kind of where that goes now that it's full year, four year olds, right? So, it'll be interesting. As well as I believe some of the federally subsidized programs are are being reduced, right? Being cut. So, we'll see what happens um with that part. So, we've also did some non-personnel reductions. Again, things that, you know, it's all meaningful. It's all great for kids, those types of things. But again, we
144needed to make as many reductions as possible um through that process. So, you'll see that list there as well um to try to get to our our our $5 million, right? Um in reductions last year. So, so far this year, again, we the board made these reductions February, I believe, right? And then we had a process where we went through the budget process, LCAP. Um the board approved a budget in June. It's still bad, worse than we anticipated. So we had conversations with the board at the time about hey if if if people leave if then we may not refill positions right so through attrition trying to again save the people that we have currently right their jobs um that we wouldn't backfill positions and so uh we had HVAC technician computer technician library media
145tech that left um and again all of those um were all part of that that reduction from last school year so this year um in terms of reductions uh you know that we're looking at so far right and this is again through attrition we have the I innovate so and I'll talk about these as we come through actually so I'll I'll spare you on that behalf um I did this was a you know Mr. Buckman um did ask about some ratios, those types of things at our last um study session. So, so the public knows, we spent three hours together last Thursday. Um it was like the teaching day is all over again. My my voice was crackling at the end, right, after talking for three hours straight. It's a lot of work, right, to
146go through that and and to to to be a teacher and and to go through that that uh information with the board, right? Um hopefully that was helpful for the board to know that three hours of information, right? taking all of that in. Um and so tonight is you know I wanted to share this with you because again some of the the ratio aspect is is interesting right so um this looks at a task lucr coastal pasa robels you can see the total enrollment there um anywhere from 4,000 to close to 10,000 kids of lucmr so you look at the teacher FTE the administrator FTE the pupil services right FTE um non-instructional support FTE and And then they they have the ratios and what you'll find is that student teacher ratios and again this is
147last year after our reductions. So St. Louis Coastal still maintains the best student to teacher ratio at 18.2. We have the worst administrator ratio at 242 to1 compared to the other school districts. We we have a um our special education program has grown dramatically um since 20134. In 20134 our special ed program was 14% of our budget. It is currently 30.6% of our budget special education. And so what's happened is that has almost become like an intervention program for the district. It's taking resources, right? And it's it's not something that we can change. We we once you spend those dollars towards special education, they remain. They stay. You you can't make any reductions in special education. So tonight, when we look at the reductions, you're not going to see reductions in special education, right? There
148there really is none. Um though we may look at some organizational aspects of it administrative lead management wise um for that department. But you look at the student uh services, right? Pupil ratio, again very good compared to other districts. And then lastly, the student to non-instructional support ratio um we're you know close to the worst in that as well. So um again the focus is more on the classroom where it should be it should be on the classroom. So what are the proposed uh reductions for this year? Um we did have a a fiscal sustainability committee. So, a group of um again some some reps from our our three different unions. We had some parents there. We had um some of our TOSAs. We had some principles there. We had some teachers. Um and we
149kind of went through this same process uh that we did with the board on on Thursday. And the the green, yellow, and red was their information just to share with you. This is not the board's priorities. It's not what the board says to bring back or not bring back, but it was the fiscal sustainability's recommendations in terms of hey, if we have money, if things happen between January and June and before the board makes the final budget, um these are the things that we see that you would bring back. So, I'm going to talk about those first um in nonpersonnel and then we'll do the same. So in terms of non-personnel reductions, um we have a common ground advisory task force which has been really great. Um really looking at critical issues, problems that come
150up in our schools and kind of grounding us. And so with that though comes a consultant, comes attorney's fees. And so it's not that we won't do the common ground task force. It's just we're not going to provide the consultant, the attorney, the other the other people per se um for that for that um that committee to meet. And so that represents about $43,000 in savings. Athletic budgets. So we are looking at asking both high schools to reduce their athletic budgets. This is not stipens, not stipent amount, but the actual amount which mainly goes towards transportation by 50,000 at both sites. So 50,000 SLOH high 50,000 at Moral Bay High. Um Wayfinder is a middle school curriculum that's used for SEAL um learning and curriculum and so um that is something that again was a
151was a reduction. We are looking at other sources maybe medical things restricted funds to continue that um but again they felt that that was important to bring back. Um we are also and have notified both the city of Moral Bay and the city of St. Abby Bispo that we we may not be paying for the the two resource officers at the two comprehensive high schools. That represents about $44,000 in savings. So we're I know Dr. Prader has meetings set up with both groups to talk about that. You know, our hope would be that the cities would be able to fund those. Whether that's possible or not, we don't know. um the the role of a I will tell you the role of a um of a school resource officer has changed over the years because
152California has restricted what a school resource officer can do at a school. Um but that said again we still value their presence on our school campuses and the safety um and just the feeling that it provides right for those those two campuses. Um instructional or using instructional budget. So several years ago we had really had a need to to increase the you know instrument replenishment those types of things right at the time. So we are looking at um reducing that budget by 150,000. Um we have our leader in me which is uh is a training setup right and this is the district cost to kind of be the district player in it. Um our hope is that there will be an alternative funding source to help. Um and that kind of ties into our athletics
153of with achievement for our elementary students as well. Um the next non-personnel reductions again, cultural creations has um is a consultant that's come on and has helped our schools um our secondary schools in particular, but even some of our elementaryaries in kind of setting goals for our students. You heard about some of those tonight, right, with with um with Los Socialist Middle School. um you know things like building up attendance, changing academics, right? Um so it's again, it's not that that work can't continue. It's just not we're not going to pay for the consultant to work with our schools to do it, right? We're going to have to leave it up to our our administration, our district office staff, our teachers um to pull that together. Um second steps to respect again is the elementary
154level of curriculum for learning. So that's another one that we looked at reducing um as part of the non-personnel costs. again potential alternative funding for that through medical um fundings and and looking at continuing that in a different way just not these are all these all represent general fund reductions um principal mentorship we it's nice when you have a new principal to have an outside person come in and work with them right so that they you know feel like they can converse talk do those types of things um so that's something we've looked at just reducing we'll have to have one of our our current staff um in the district assist with that the youth truth survey. This youth truth survey is something that we have uh really um benefited from, I would say, over
155the years and especially with our LCAP outreach and getting people to respond. And so we're looking at maybe making that every three-year um contract, right? So we do it every three years. The school can set goals. We can see where they're at and then we can um we can do that. But no, we'll have to replace our LCP survey with another type of of survey instrument. And then um again, we we did hire a lobbyist to help us. the manif firm to try to get the TK and um funding as well as the uh the PG& funding and unfortunately that wasn't successful. So we we've stopped um stopped that contract and so that'll be savings for next year as well already reduced. And then lastly again another consultant that helps um with our our leading
156equitable schools, University of Washington is another consultant. So again that work can continue. It's just not not with the consultant um aspect of bringing it up. When we look at personnel reductions, um again, painful as we go through them, right, to you know, everything that is listed on here are things that we've added to our school sites because we felt like they were needed and necessary for kids. So, we take no pleasure in having to even present these to you tonight. Um but but we have to balance our budget. So again, we looked at those ratios. You look at what we reduced over the last few years. You try to get to a point where we where we're kind of making we're trimming right um the budgets of of and and really unfortunately these are
157the people reductions, right? So these are people that are affected um by those cuts. So the first one is is um going to be a heavy task for Miss Yimasha and her team and that's reducing interventions across um across the the school district, right? and and those are mainly elementary I will say. Yeah, there are some district office TOSA staff that do our or TK12. Um, but a lot of that is elementary e, aits, subes. Um, you know, people that have direct impact um on kids. Um, again, we felt like we can't reduce elementary staff anymore. like our current class size in elementary, the number of combos where we're at now, like we we just you're not going to see further elementary reductions in that. So, if we're not going to reduce in the classroom,
158then we're forced to look at things outside the classroom in terms of making reductions. Um, but those are painful. The secondary teachers as well. So, when you look at secondary teachers, it doesn't say intervention on there, but you just heard from you just heard from Heather tonight where she described a series of classes that are offered at her school. And so, those are all classes that she's going to have to weigh whether or not we can offer them with these seven reductions of secondary teachers. So, I don't want you to walk away, oh yeah, just increase secondary classes. Who cares, right? They can they can take more kids. They're high school kids. They're they're middle school kids, right? um know that it will have an effect on the school and programs. Um and so that
159that is built into that seven number um as well. Right. So again, those are those are tough cuts to to have to try to make and I know Mr. Nef is working with the principles right now and trying to see um again this we're fortunate that it looks like we have some attrition that's going to happen. We have some retirements coming up. So if we can make those with keeping our current staff um in place, then that would be fantastic, right? um to be able to do that. High school is different than elementary and that you can't, hey, you're third grade. I'm going to move you to sixth grade next year. You can't do that with an English and a science teacher, right? So, secondary can be difficult in terms of making these reductions and
160having to do that. So, again, a lot of work is going to have to go into those master schedules and what we offer on the sites. The next one is elementary athletic coordinator. So a point 6 right now this is um someone who oversees right the all the elementary athletics programs in order for us to continue that program we're going to need somebody to do that. Who that is how we set it up going to have to work with the foundation um to try to see you know try to find a way um to be able to make that happen right if if we if we're able to make it happen. know that as I go through these that we are going to be tasked with not doing things that we've done in the past
161you you can't you can't make these reductions over the last two years and expect people to do the same things that we've always done right it's not manageable and so that's going to be something that again Mimasha their staff right are going to have to work with our principles and talk about and what what can people do what can't they do right as we go through this process so I you know we know that these are difficult and and that they're tough. Um and they're already experiencing those, right? We're hearing um from staff even this year after last year's reductions. Um we do have three secondary counselors um kind of bringing us back to our our counseling level that we had precoid, right? We had added a counselor to Loms Lambs and um St. Louis
162High School. Um we we have added the two wellness centers at both uh Slow High and Mororrow Bay. Our hope is that right now they're billing, they're continuing to bill, right? We're hoping that those will become funded positions in the future, which is why we've kind of left them um for now, right, in that process. Um you saw from Heather tonight, there are some county behavioral health um things like that, right, that are assisting our counselors as well. Um it's kind of a slap in the face to call them academic counselors, right? So they do much more than just academic work with kids. We've we've heard that from some counselors, right, too. So, when you put wording, when you say things, right, it can come across in a negative way. So, I apologize for that.
163Um, for those counselors, they do more than academic counseling, right? They're there for kids all day in many different facets. Um, but but we are looking at reducing the three and as you heard tonight, that's painful. That's tough, right? We have a lot of kids with still have needs. Um, we're looking at again restructuring student support services. So, we went through a whole study with our special education department and and it's probably the one area where our management of special education is something that needs to be corrected. So, we're not looking at adding positions. It would be looking at our current staffing program specialist. How can we, you know, move those around, change things um to adapt and and to change that department. That may not happen this year, but it's something that we need
164to start to to look at um to support um the the student services. um summer athletic stipens. They were put in place just two years ago, right, to provide kind of a pittance to our our coaches, right, who are now kind of year round for summer programs as well. Um so it's just a little bit of money to to try to help them out, right, for all these these time and and that they put into their to their activities. Um and so it's it's one of the things that we're looking at reducing um until we have funds in the future. And those are all things those top six right there that I just read off those are the things that um our physical sustainability committee really um again they would like us to bring back
165if we have funds. I would say that the number one thing that they really focused on in hearing from them was the intervention was classroom intervention as the as um something that they would like to see us try to maintain if at all possible um as we move forward. So again, we reduced a uh we're going to look at reducing a grounds worker. Um we already reduced a custodian uh because we had a retirement. So we just did back fill that position. Again, we've been doing that as much as possible when possible. Um it says is position. We thought we were going to have a retirement there. It may not. That's probably going to change to a district office secretarial position is what that reduction will will end up being. Um, we have elementary library
166media tech reduction. So, we had one library uh media technician leave over the course of the summer. Again, we're right now we we backfilled St. Louis High School. We have two schools right now, two librarians that are sharing a third school. Um, so we are looking at reducing library tech hours throughout the school district, throughout the elementary um levels, right? um that that that will vary uh by school, by school site, by the number of classes that have to go to the library. Um and again, it will have an effect on the the library, how many hours it's offered, when kids can go in, those types of things. But we're still maintaining the libraries. We're still maintaining um classes going into the library, right? But but again, it very different. It is a reduction um
167for that. And so what that looks like, do we have do we have librarian share? Is it going to just be, hey, it's a point4 person at Delmare, a point 6, you know, what what that looks like will be something that m Dr. Puchia is going to have to work with CSAA on and and um and the effect of that long term. Um again, a few of these were a little bit easy in that we had, you know, we have like we're paying for a counselor sub for somebody's on maternity leave, so we're not going to do that next year. That's a savings. Um, again, we talked about the three elementary counselors that left over the course of the summer. We didn't backfill those. So, we used a formula um based on need, right? And
168we re we um we reallocated the six and a half that were there. Um, we had an HR tech that was partial year this year that is now gone. So, that's a savings that'll happen. Um, in working with Mr. Dowler, you know, they have funding that um through Title One, through some of their other grants. So, I'm going to be working with him on making a reduction at PB. He probably won't need to lose any of his current employees with that, right? But just using that funding in different ways. And so, we met last week. We're going to continue to meet on that um so that we can at least try to again all the other schools are making reductions. They're all feeling um the impact of these reductions. And so, you know, PB is
169is going to be no different, right, in terms of that process. Um the last one is again the foundation TOSA was also um on leave for most of the year. The district's paying for that position. We we won't be double funding that. So um that was a reduction that we plan on making as well um to get us to that you kind of $5.1 million range um in reductions. So next steps for the board, right, is that we're going to receive our property tax information here very soon. um you we'll share and so that then will be part of our first interim presentation with the board kind of sharing okay where are we at this year 2526 it's our first um first presentation right for the board to see kind of where we're at and
170then it'll also we'll update the tenure budget so you can see but I can tell you right now that as it stands right now we're looking at again the need to reduce by about $5 million and that's without finishing our negotiations with our three unions Right. So, which we're going to probably begin in January. So, that has to be taken into account as well, right? As we we know that salary is an issue um that that's discussed, you know, frequently. So, we'll um with that first interim budget, right, that will then kind of give the board a clear view and then again, Dr. Prader will bring this back. We'll listen tonight what what public has to say, we'll listen to the board. Um if he needs to make adjustments, he'll do that. and then he
171will be presenting the kind of final list of proposed reductions in December for the board and then know that the reason why we're asking you to do that is there are timelines that are associated by March 15th. So, we have to notify people. We have to go through that process, do all of those things, but also know that between January and June, the board is still working on the budget. The board's still developing the LCAP in what we're going to do. We're hopeful that there's going to be a good chunk of one-time funds in January because the state economy has been good and normally if that happens that the St. Louis Coastal also receives those onetime funds. So those would potentially be available for the board, right? Um to look at potentially again with the
172budget the process of do we bring things back? Now bringing back personnel with one-time funds is very difficult, right? So it's it's I'm I'm not I don't want to candy coat it, right? But but again, it's something that the board will be able to consider as we go through that process. Again, we'll we'll have gone through negotiations um hopefully by that standpoint as well. So, we'll kind of, you know, the board will be able to make some decisions by June, but you can't go back in time and do these other reductions if we don't do them now, right? We can always take them away. You just you can't go back and make reductions, right, in June. So that's why we're kind of pushing for this December timeline um to make this happen, right? Um and
173to go through that process again, all all painful, all horrible things. Dr. Prager is beside himself, right? These are all things he's built up, programs he loves, things that he's done, right, over the over the past few years. Um and they're great. It's fantastic for kids. All of it is. Um but at the same time, we we we have to balance our budget. we have to um and I honestly I I don't want to do this again. I don't want to sit here next year at the same time and be going through the same conversation. So, it it's in our best I I would say our best interest as a district to again as the board goal to make this happen right in December get to that point. Again, hopefully we'll have some funds, be
174able to do some things um over the course of January to June, but at least next year we'll be in a position where we can actually look at, hey, your property values and salaries and and employees and those types of things and have a much better picture than constantly having this um reduction talk. So, that's my presentation tonight. I know we have a lot of people that want to share with the board. I'm not asking, we are not asking the board to approve anything tonight. Tonight's kind of about listening to the public, hearing from them, right? Um, and then of course I'm here to answer any questions afterward should the board desire. >> Okay. Thank you. I think Mrs. Schaefer has the public comment slips. >> Thank you. Um, I'm going to call a couple
175names at a time so that people can be kind of prepared. And again, please excuse any misprononunciation of names. So I have um Ashley Hernie followed by Jose Viala. You here? >> Thank you. Hi, I'm Ashley Hernai, school counselor at LOMS, and I'm disheartened to be back to fight for keeping school counselors intact, even after some of you so graciously backed our cause nine months ago. Let me first acknowledge the realities of this budget deficit and the need for cuts to come from somewhere. I still see you all as individuals with my counselor's heart and recognize the discomfort that you feel in these situations. But my core goal remains the same, and it would be an admirable goal for you, too. We are in far different era than we've ever been when it comes to
176youth mental health. It's undeniable that every staff member feels it. Sometimes I call in a student who seems put together by the usual standards only to have them start sobbing in my office for reasons like pressure, lacking self-confidence, or heartbreaking turmoil at home. It's not just that there's no way of knowing which students need additional support. It's that they all need additional support. Budget cuts will lead to larger class sizes. Larger class sizes leads to students feeling lost in the shuffle more than they already do. Teachers will be less able to connect on a deeper level, which can result in student behavioral challenges that put everyone in the room in fight orflight mode, the kryptonite to learning. Understaffing school counselors means that those left to do the work will only have enough time for intervention,
177not prevention. And please let me point out that intervention in mental health doesn't just look like extra time spent teaching concepts. Intervention in our world includes suicide risk assessments, threat assessments, and mitigating acts of destruction and hate. Additionally, I would like to point out some of the language on the recently released budget handout. On the last page, you'll find maintaining perspective. I understand this is to serve as a silver lining, but it does not align with the perspective of me and my counseling partner. Under retaining and maintaining, you'll find wellness centers and career techs. These aren't at middle schools. Your middle school counselors are the wellness center. We are the career techs. And as Mr. Pinkerton pointed out, the use of academic counselors is actually a slap in the face based on the work that
178we do. Uh, it's not just academic. We also support disciplinary concerns and chronic absenteeism because all of it relates to mental health. Here's where I'll share a request. Before you vote on whether or not to keep the counselor cuts in this budget action, please come spend a day in my office. Be a fly on the wall and see the work. Witness the fears, tears, collaboration, and magic that occurs when an adult can truly allow students to feel seen and heard. Ideally, more than one of you would come on different days and then discuss your observations. They will be so different from one another because the job is absolute chaos. Incredibly beautiful and rewarding chaos that cannot be done effectively with a larger case load. My door is open to you all. I promise I'm a
179gracious host. This includes cabinet members. In closing, while I naturally don't like confrontation or challenging leadership, I must model for my students what it takes to fight for what you believe in and that they are worth the fight. I hope you all will join me in modeling the same. Please show them that you believe that they should have access to the care that they need and that they deserve. Thank you. Hello, I'm Jose and admittedly I might appear and sound a little shaky. It's a mix of nerves, uncertainty, anxiety. Let's call it passion. So once again, hi, I'm Jose. I'm one of your school counselors here at LUMS. I want to give you all thanks to this I want to give thanks to this community for welcoming me in and being such a family. In
180the year and a halfish of being here in the San Louis Central Coast area, I have grown to absolutely love this place and its people and have felt so proud telling everyone where I live and where I work. That is why I feel the need to stand up for its future. You all ask us to be advocates for our students and their families. So tonight is no different and I would be failing my kids, my team, these families and even you if I didn't advocate tonight. Last year you voted to preserve counselors for your kids and it was such a win. A win. Uh we cannot take steps back. All these all this talk of money way above my pay grade. I know one thing we can't afford and we cannot afford to take steps
181back. Last year, the sentiment around voting to keep us around another year was that of kicking a can down the road or delaying a problem. That is not what our kids are. You aren't voting in the interest of us counselors. You are voting in the interest of and for the future of your kids. You didn't vote to push something off. You earned another year of support for your kids. In true counselor fashion, I do empathize with you and the heaviness the decision you all have to make. I know it's not easy and hopefully not fun. And even as someone on the chopping block, I don't envy the position you are in right now. So, just to keep my part short and hopefully give uh other voices a chance, I just want to leave you with
182this and hope something resonates. Um, what can you live with? Letting down your kids, your families, your community that you came here to help. Please remember why you are here. Make a difference and mean something. Next is Michelle Row, followed by Jane Holly. >> Hello. My name is Michelle Row. I am a parent of a gonna get emotional. Um, I'm a parent of a child at S Shinshshire Elementary and I want to talk to you a little bit about the proposed cuts to the library tax. Um, I don't know if a lot of the parents in the Senheimer know that the library texts are our beloved librarians. Um, sorry, Mr. Pinkerton mentioned that the proposal that he has, he's unclear at this point exactly how those cuts are going to look. And I want to
183little tell the board a little bit about my experience with working with our local librarian. Uh, I think it would be very important for the board to look into exactly what those cuts are going to look like before you decide whether or not that is a category that you think should be actually cut. Uh, our librarian on the day-to-day basis is there from the morning to the evening. The kids are coming in every day getting books in the morning, getting books in the evening. It's not just the time when their kids kids are coming into for classes there. She opens the library three days a week. Um, I watch my child and her friends go in there to uh spend their lunch. Sorry. No. Um, it's a safe place for them to go. So, losing
184the librarians even part-time at any of these sites is going to be detrimental. Our librarians not only check out books, but they're cultivating a collection all year long. And I've worked very closely with our librarian for running book fairs for the past three years, which we're currently doing right now. I've helped her uh run fundraisers just to supplement prior cuts to like her ability to purchase new books for our uh our our students. I have uh volunteered not every week but nearly every week for the past four years during one of my child's classes to uh make sure that she has help. And I've watched how kids love her. They the librarians that we have at our schools are just so important to these kids. Um, last year, I only have 47 seconds, but last
185year, um, I know at Simer, they had a survey about who the kids trust, who the trusted adult, the school they would go to. And, uh, our librarian was named time and time again. Um, I just I'm really hopeful that before you even consider a cut to the library text, you will, uh, really look into what exactly that looks like because it's very broad right now and it's very concerning that we don't know exactly what it's going to look like. um just implore you because the library is like a fundamental part of learning. If you want those ELA scores to continue to stay at where they're at or rise, having a resource uh for those kids to go and learn at is going to be a um it's so important. You're taking away a piece
186of their fundamental learning. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Jane Holly. I've been an English teacher at Slow High, the secondary curriculum TOSA, and AVID district director, and I now proudly serve as your district librarian. Although I'm a teacher, I manage a talented team of highly qualified, classified library technicians who lead our school libraries. These are the people I want to focus on tonight. Behind me are women who have dedicated their professional lives to inspiring a love of reading and learning. They work with every student, building relationships that last for years. They know our students challenges, dreams, and passions. They read aloud to them, teach information literacy and digital citizenship, support teachers, manage resources, and create welcoming spaces where students can read, build, design, draw, and simply connect. They also manage thousands of books and devices
187and keep our libraries clean, safe, and inviting. The value of their work is clear. Last year, the Pacheo Library Tech circulated 33,623 books. The Los Ranchos Library Tech taught 468 library lessons. The Loms Library Tech reached over 500 students with digital citizenship lessons. The Lamb's Library Tech supervised 60 to 90 students daily at lunch. Across our district, our library circulated 169,320 library books to students, inspiring children and teens to be readers for the rest of their lives. Our libraries are central to our schools for many reasons, but I want to focus on our primary purpose, literacy. Libraries help students fall in love with reading because they offer freedom of choice. As an English teacher, I taught between the world and me by Tanahasi Coats, who wrote, "I was made for the library, not the classroom.
188The classroom was the jail of other people's interests. The library was open, unending, free." Now, I'm not advocating not assigning reading in class, but that freedom is essential. Libraries center curiosity, exploration, and personal interest. They represent the best of our society. A passion for knowledge, respect for learning, empathy, truth, community, and the role of imagination in providing meaning and pleasure in our lives. All of this is possible because of the people who work in our libraries with our students. Tonight begins a conversation about our program's future. While I can't go into details now, I welcome your questions in the coming weeks as you consider tonight's proposal. Ple please know that I'm available to talk and listen to your concerns. I also invite you to visit our school libraries to watch the magic of students discovering
189the joy of reading for yourself. Thank you. Michelle Garner, followed by Buffy Anderson. >> Hi, my name is Michelle Garner and I'm here tonight because our students success academically, socially, and emotionally is directly tied to the adults supporting them in schools. School counselors are not an optional luxury. They're essential. They deliver academic guidance, college and career planning, crisis and mental health support, and small group and classroom lessons. They help teach students how to manage emotions, set goals, and stay in school. The American School Counselor Association or ASCA recommends a student to counselor ratio of 250 to1 so counselors can provide these comprehensive services effectively. I don't know what San Louis Coastal's ratio is, but I know that cutting three secondary counseling positions certainly will not improve it. This is where I'm going to get emotional.
190One of my sons, a student here at LOMS, had some serious struggles with mental health last year that impacted him in every area. His grades were slipping. He was missing a lot of school. He was withdrawing socially. My husband and I have both been teachers for 22 years. With all of that education and experience, we couldn't reach him. We couldn't get him to school. It's not like when he was four years old and we could just throw him in the car and carry him into the classroom. It was the most difficult time we've encountered as parents. I reached out to our amazing principal, Miss Contreras. She immediately connected me with Miss Hernai, his assigned counselor. Miss her and I implemented supports and strategies to support him and communicated with his teachers about what he might
191need. On the rare occasion she wasn't available, Mr. Viala was there, which highlights the critical importance of having more than one counselor at a large school site. My husband and I are eternally grateful for their help. This year, our son is thriving. He's excited to come to school. He's getting really good grades and he's participating in social events again like the school dances all of which he skipped last year. This would not have been possible without Mrs. Herni, Mr. Viala, and Miss Contraras. Any short-term payroll savings you might achieve by eliminating secondary counseling positions will be heavily outweighed by long-term costs to our students and the district in the forms of increased absenteeism rates, increased dropout rates, higher crisis intervention spending, poorer college and career outcomes, and the human cost when students can't get the
192help they need when they need it. So tonight, I ask you two things. One, keep all school counselor positions. And two, prioritize maintaining at minimum the as A as A as A as A as A as A as A as A as A as A as A asca recommended student to counselor ratio of 250 to1 at minimum as a long-term goal for our district. Our kids deserve a district that supports their academic success and their mental health, not one that chips away at those supports in the name of meeting a budget number. Thank you. Hi there. I'm Buffy Anderson. This is my 19th school year working for St. Louis Coastal. I am a school counselor at Laguna Middle School and I'm also a parent of two St. Louis Coastal students currently and my third child
193um is a recent slow high school graduate. I'm here to comment both on the proposed cuts to secondary counseling and some related issues concerning counselor duties. Um, first I'd like to talk about the district produced document in the section proposing those personnel reductions. It lists a reduction of three secondary counselors and goes on to describe them as academic counseling positions. I do appreciate that Ryan um kind of commented on this already, but I have to point out that this is inaccurate and it really misrepresents what school counselors do. We provide comprehensive counseling services to students, including personal, academic, and career counseling. Later on in the document, it talks about potential challenges that would be brought on by the cuts. And among those is reduced academic secondary counseling support. And while technically reducing secondary counselors is
194going to reduce academic support, um the document fails to acknowledge the personal, the social emotional, the college, the career counseling, all of those other things that counselors are providing. The high school campuses do have wellness centers, but our comprehensive school counselors at the high school level are still providing critical personal counseling to students. And at the middle school level, we don't have any wellness centers. The middle school counselors are all we've got. If the cuts are made, I encourage you to find other expenses to reduce um if expenses have to be cut. things that are not going to be felt so keenly by our students. All students benefit from counseling. However, the students impacted will certainly be our most vulnerable students. The final topic I'd like to bring the board's attention to is that of
195counselors being assign assigned lunch supervision and other supervision on campus. The assignment of these duties is problematic for three reasons. The first one is that supervision causes um we we have to be involved in discipline and it really conflicts with our role as counselors. The second main issue is that because we're providing supervision at lunch, we can't provide counseling at lunch and that really was a prime time where a lot of students would come in and get counseling because they didn't want to miss class. Maybe they're anxious or they just want to prioritize their learning. And the third issue is just the sheer number of hours spent. every hour we're spent doing supervision. We can't be counseling students. And for our team at Laguna, this is seven hours per week. Add up all the weeks,
196add up all year long. It's a lot. So, please consider how important counselors are and how we're spending our time. >> Okay. Uh Mary Sanchez Alwine followed by Sandra Knap. Hello. Um, my name is Mary Sanchez Alwine. I am a counselor at Laguna Middle School. Um, I've been there for nine years, but I've been a school counselor for 22 years at four different districts. Um, I'm also a parent. I have two student high school and one at Pico. And honestly, this is the first time that I've ever felt compelled to come to a schoolboard meeting to speak about a concern in my 22-year career. Um, and I'm here to express concerns about the proposed secondary counselor cuts. The past few years, as a team of three counselors at Lagona, we've been able to meet one-
197on-one with every single seventh grade student and every new eighth grade student to our school. We introduce ourselves. We ask students about their interests, concerns, and feelings. And most importantly, let them know we are a trusted adult on campus who is here to help. At the most recent student senate meeting where Dr. Crater was in attendance and I assume a few of you Laguna students shared out what was going well and they said having those individual meetings with their counselors. Even the high school c the high school students who were present were disappointed that they didn't have that opportunity to experience that. Our goal is to be proactive and it is working. Students feel connected and supported at our school. However, that is only possible with three counselors where our ratios are 263 to one.
198If we lose a counselor, our ratios will be 410 to one. Let me repeat that. 410 students to one counselor. We will no longer be proactive but reactive. Our days will be spent triaging crisis situations instead of connecting with our students and fostering relationships during these formative years. Additionally to note, the LCAP goals for this year once again include intentional culture of care. The goal states SLCUSD will create an intentional culture of care that includes a focus on students social emotional wellness and parent connectedness priorities derived from stakeholders input to ensure safe and nurturing campuses. Is removing three secondary counselors going to improve the culture of care in our district? Absolutely not. I don't have to tell you how challenging the middle school and high school years are for our students. So, for their sake,
199I urge you to not allow the secondary counselor cuts. Thank you. Uh, good evening board members and San Francisco community. I have some signs that were made by some kids from Monarch Grove and I wanted to share them with you. Um, for all of you who don't know Miss Montana and I love her, this is their message. Um, just gonna take this now because I don't know where else to put. Um, I have a fourth grade student at Monarch Grove Elementary and I have a seventh grader here at Loms. My name is Sandre Knap and I'm here to talk about the fact that our coastal elementary schools as of October no longer have a full-time uh no longer have full-time librarians. Our Monarch Grove librarian has uh been has been asked to split her duties
200between Monarch Grove and Baywood as you know because um the Baywood librarian went to go fill the position at so high school and that position at Baywood is not being backto filled because of the budget cuts. Uh because of this Monarch Grove and Baywood and Delmare students whom you all heard from earlier this evening all now have a part-time librarian. So, how does this affect our coastal students? For the parent that was here earlier, I'm going to let you know because it's happening right now. Right now at Monarch Grove, the Battle of Books has been cancelled. Our librarian has a backlog of the millionword reader challenge, which you can see still goes on and carries through through the middle school. Um, she teaches 13 different classes. Now she's added six classes at Baywood, not to
201mention doing the basic duties of circulating books, dealing with IT issues, shelving books, weeding out old books. Unfortunately, at Baywood, they've completely cancelled Battle of the Books, and no longer do the Millionwood Reader program. So, those two things have been completely eliminated. Our librarian at Monarch is the only elementary school librarian in our school district that is now responsible for 659 students. The city schools all have full-time librarians with an average of 100 to 200 students less than our librarian. So my question is why are the coastal elementary schools and students not being offered the same educational services? And my concern is this is not equitable for our students and it is not sustainable or a reasonable workload for the two librarians left. In the most recent 2025 standardized tests, 54% of our students in
202Slow County met or exceeded the ELA standards. This figure is higher than the state, but it's still prepandemic levels. shuttering our school libraries during school hours when school when 40% 46% of our kids still cannot read or write or comprehend at grade level means we are intentionally setting up our kids for failure. >> I'm sorry I must ask you to stop. >> Thank you for your time. love him. So, the final the final speaker sheet I have is Steve Gay. >> Hi board. Thank you. My name is Steve Gaty. I teach biotechnology at Mororrow Bay High School. And I'd like to say thank you because I know that everything you guys are doing is with uh kids in mind and that's evident by everything that you do do. Um I'm here to speak about salary
203and workload tonight. I work 50 hours a week which means five 10hour days. Six of those days are um directly working with students and then four of those hours are um ordering reagents, maintaining equipment, um writing lessons, and grading. I don't have to um read essays, but an English teacher, you could fill that in. So, what I'm saying is it's pretty typical for a high school teacher to be working 50 hours a week and we have it easy. The elementary school teachers, my wife teaches fifth grade at Baywood and she regularly works 60 hours a week, which if you think about that, that is five 10-hour days plus 10 hours on the weekend. Four weeks a year, she works a 70our week. That's three week three of those weeks are during grading periods and then
204the week before school starts she works seven 10-hour days. Um, now speaking to salary, since 2016, your document that we looked at earlier said that we have um been given a 29% salary increase, but a conservative estimate of our increase in cost of living has been 48%. Which is a huge gap and it's getting bigger. If we were to keep up with that, we would need an average of a 4.2% 2% salary increase per year and we've been getting an average of 3% per year. Now, we've got shortterm money and we're paying for long-term commitments. And for example, transitional kindergarten, TK, it's a beautiful service, but what we're really providing is the highest level child care, and we're giving it for free. But it's not for free. the teachers are paying for it by this
205decrease in compensation. So perhaps you could look at charging people for some of these services that we're providing because they're excellent but they're not free. Us teachers are paying for them. Thank you. That completes the written request to uh speak that we received. Is there anyone who would like to speak who did not submit a request? Mr. Liippard. >> Hi. Thanks again. My name is Ben Liippard. Um I have two daughters in the district and I have to defend TK. Um, do any of you know how much we spend on TK in the district? Anybody? Check Check online. See if you can find it. It's not $5.7 million. That's the number that's in the handout. I know you know because you submitted letters to the Commission on State Mandates. So, I know the number. I
206asked you guys in February. You didn't give me a number. I am in schools and I the teachers and it's not their fault think that TK is costing other students. It is not true. That is a legal requirement. And to call it child care is I know you mean well, but that is tough to hear. Um because there's plenty of studies that show how important TK is, how important early inter intervention is. And to try to pit parents against each other like that is what I was most afraid of in in January. Find the numbers. Come talk to the people. Don't just repeat things that other people have said. Try to find the numbers. Um I'm sorry. I just the TK stuff really bugs me because um I've heard it at my schools too. And
207I think it's just a misunderstanding that people have about the way TK works. And I think that's a failure of communication and a failure of transparency by the district. And you guys know this. I've talked to you guys about this. I'm just going to say that again. Uh thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak? Please come forward. State your name, please. Okay. My name is Angela Avula and I am an English and Spanish teacher here at LOMS. And I have two adult students who are um graduated from Mororrow Bay High School a few years ago and are in college right now. So, I want to speak to having our counselors here um both first as a teacher, but also as a parent. And I really encourage board members to take um
208Miss her and I up on her offer and come and see what our fabulous counselors are doing and how they're working with our students because I know as a teacher um I can help them conjugate verbs. I can help them write an essay about Beaowolf, but it's really hard for students to focus when they're thinking about so many adult heavy topics. When they come in and they're worried about an ill family member. When they come in and they're worried about immigration issues. When they come in and they're worried about um their home, whether where where they will be living, all of those issues. And I know you know about that. So I just really really encourage you to come in and see what they're doing. This age being an adolescent it's fantastic. It's chaotic and
209it's already hard to to do that to start with and top on top of everything else that some of our students are dealing with and to um mental health. I know this as a mom as um this is a very important topic at our house and if a student is not emotionally well the learning just cannot happen. It's so much harder. So I really really encourage you to do that. And if there's any PG& CEOs or people listening to this, please know the value of our counselors for our students. Thank you. Please. Hi, >> my name is uh Rose Yuas Fei and I didn't plan to speak tonight, but um there's just a few things. I've been in the district for I don't know, geez, 25 years. And um the the frustrating part about listening
210to everything here is just the impact that counseling library text I mean I see and I have seen how effective both of those roles are in a middle school. I was here long enough to experience having a 1.5 or a 1.2 25 or contracts for counseling to patchwork it. And it the school did not thrive as it is thriving now. It didn't it wasn't as healthy as it is now because we have at least two counselors at our site. I did the math and it would give us 200. We're at 243 students per one counselor right now. If you cut it, that number is just going to increase. It's going to make it more challenging for us to do what we need to do. And as a math teacher, the number one issue I have
211is growth mindset and having that heart and that determination to believe in themselves. They have to put everything on the shelf in order to get to that point. it. We will be 10 steps backwards if we cut any counseling. If you added counseling because of the COVID funding, well, you made progress because we were behind for too long. The EL aid that we had, 15 years since we had EL support. That EL support person is in my classroom and I have her moving. I know all the kids on that case load and I don't waste any time. We are efficient as teachers because we care about those kids. Cassandra in this library during lunch, you ought to come and visit. She has Santa's little workshop going on inside of that room. She is monitoring 10
212million things going on. There are safe environments, kids in little cubby holes. I mean, it is dynamic. I really do think that there is something to be there's truth to you going and visiting the schools to see what resonates with you. Where is your heart? What do you want to keep? I know the union is not going to be happy with me, but I would hands down increase my class sizes in a middle school math class, then cut Jose or Ashley or make Cassandra's life miserable or get rid of any of her hours. Thank you for listening. Hello, I'm Amber Spinnamman. I'm the library tech at Teach Elementary and I also have two children in the district, fifth and seventh grade. Um, I was not planning on speaking tonight at all, but as I left
213work today, um, we had a meeting, the library texts had a meeting at Delmare this afternoon and on my way out, the secretary flagged me down at my school and said, um, some mail came for you today and I just wanted you to have it. I didn't have a chance to look at it because I was busy with all this stuff, but I opened it just before this started and I felt like it was so just symbolic and I felt compelled to share this letter. Um, it's from a student named Nina who moved to Florida and she wrote me a letter and it says, "Dear Mrs. Spinman, hi, it's me, Nenah, your friend and helper. I miss you so much. I miss the library. My school doesn't have one. It was fun being there helping
214you and doing the acting stuff for the book trailers. I miss library class and you always had something so cool planned for us. This is a poem I found I thought you would like. Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know that they're always there. Isn't that a good one? I didn't make it up, but bye for now. I totally uh And there was cats. Oh, I went to Italy and there was cats everywhere. Love, Nenah. Just wanted to share that. Hi, my name is Shane Vagnal. Um, I did work as a substitute teacher in this district uh for two years prior to COVID when all the substitutes were furled and my wife is a library tech at CL Smith Elementary and uh I wasn't planning on speaking either. But
215one of the things I did want to make a point of so that it's on everyone's radar was in looking at that presentation uh there were the first to return, second to return, last return. And it's disheartening and it's shocking to see that the library media texts would be uh second to return that anything that they would not fall into a first to return category. To me, that means that they're prioritizing things like a summer athletics program over an all-year uh library services for the students. Um, so I would just I would hate to see any cuts and hopefully these budgets can get worked out, but I would like to see the library text be considered an absolute mandatory first return in lie of being pushed back behind other priorities because I don't believe library
216tech and librarians are not a first to return priority for the schools. a little follower. Um, I just wanted to ditto exactly what the gentleman right before me said. So, I was not on the fiscal sustainability task force. I don't know exactly which humans were on that uh committee. I think a lot of their recommendations uh maybe do not represent what the entire school community may recommend. I think if there were people on that committee that um more were more willing to speak up that maybe this would have been a different list of recommendations. Uh it's also pretty surprising how many consulting fees carried over from last year's budget deficit of $5 billion in cuts. I remember one of the questions I asked amongst many emails with many of you was what was on the
217list last year that was considered for a cut that was not a recommended cut. I did not get an answer to that question last year, but if it was answered, much of the consulting fees we're looking at this year would have been cut last year instead of elementary school counselors, for example, that we didn't rehire. The interesting thing was on Thursday at the study session, Mr. Brian Clawson asked the same exact question. what was being reviewed for cuts this year that didn't make the recommended list? And I don't believe you got an answer to that question. So, I'd be very curious to see what other expenditures are not being cut as opposed to secondary counselors. I just want to say Common Ground Advisory Task Force being a first to return is really shocking and distasteful.
218And if they want to hire consultants and attorneys, they should find people to donate the time instead of using our general fund and taking library texts and school counselors money. Everyone here probably knows me from coaching lots of sports. I love the athletics budget. I love the athletics for achievements. It is not a first to return item in a district that has a structural budget deficit. It is libraries, counselors, support specialists, and intervention only. That's it. Okay. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Please, please state your name. >> Good evening. My name is Emily Parish. And so many people have said much smarter and better things than me, but I wanted to offer my two cents tonight. I am a children's librarian for the county and I attended tonight's meeting because I
219learned yesterday that uh the library texts are on the chopping block and I need you to understand that we cannot get stories into the hands of children and teens without our school librarians. The school librarians I've been fortunate to collaborate with do fantastic work. Miss Nelson, Miss Intoani, Miss Clover, Miss Florendo, and I feel certain that the staff I haven't worked with yet are just as phenomenal. They learn a whole school full of names. They learn student interests. They learn about their goals and dreams and help them find stories that speak to them. They let them see the world or feel seen by the world through books. I'm honored to see so many young people at my libraries in Los and Mororrow Bay. But I know for every kid who gets a ride to the
220library or walks over or skateboards over, there are many more who never get a chance to visit a library outside of their school. And after all, a library on its own, this building is just books. We need our librarians to make the magic happen. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to speak? Okay. Then I think comment on this item is finished. Mr. Pinkerton, bring it back to the board. >> Yeah. So again, we're not asking the board to make reductions tonight. This really tonight was about first time we announced this publicly hearing impact um of course as you have and then this will be a you know a lot we'll you know hopefully conversations happening over the next month um as we come back in December um and it'll be
221Dr. Prader standing up here hopefully um to give that uh that final look at the reductions for the board to consider after our first interim presentation. >> Okay, Mr. Clawson. >> Yeah. So, first I just wanted to thank everyone for being here and I wanted to spend a minute um talking about PG& and really appeal to all of you and let you know that we need all of you to potentially help solve this problem. And so, I'm going to spend a minute with some thoughts on our funding shortfall from Pug Gen. Um, you know, traditionally we've received 10 to 15 million dollars a year um from P Gen through their operation of the of the Diablo Canyon plant and that is now now coming to an end. If you so really the basics is if
222that funding continues in any form, everything here goes away. every single thing that we're fighting for can be preserved and and even if it's solved in a few months, the the changes that are being made now can be brought back. And so I'd really appeal to all of us to fight for this. And let me dig into why. If you listen to the discussion going on about PG's support of our school district, I think you'll hear two things from them. The first is it's really complex. It's tied up in the legislature. They can't do anything. it's really hard and that's not true. And and the second thing you'll hear and every time their spokesperson is interviewed, he'll say, "I just love to meet with the school board. I would love to meet with the administration.
223I'd love to try to solve this." And we've all met with him. And and they're not trying to solve it. And so I'd like to just dig into this a little further. The basic history of this is that we've received money from Diablo Canyon for decades. The plant was scheduled to close. It was depreciated, which is a normal financial strategy when something's closing. But then a legislative step was made to extend the plant for five more years. And it's operating, but it's been depreciated, so it doesn't have any value. So there's no tax base. And and so we we've met with them and appealed. And and I'd like to dig into the discussion that I had with Eric Daniels from PG& um because I think it's important to understand as part of this discourse um
224we tried to have an open discussion and his feedback to me was that we were not we did not have lobbyists in the room when they extended the plant and because of that we are no longer receiving funding and they can't do anything. And my response to that was, we are a school district. If I came to this group here and said we need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on lobbyists instead of on teachers or counselors or library techs, I I hope you'd ask me to step down. And but that's the point of disconnect here. He had the audacity to tell me that we were bad at lobbying and that is why we have a financial problem now. And and I would say there's just a total disconnect there. And so so our
225response was there is a moral and social contract that has existed between P Gen and the school district for decades and that needs to continue. And this is a direct quote. He said to me, "There will be no love money." and and and I it was probably one of the most frustrating professional experiences I've had in my 30y year career. A and I left it just really disappointed. But but so what I've concluded is we've appealed to their kindness. We've appealed to reason and that's not working. We have confirmed that they have the ability to donate funds to our district. This is not a situation where they can't help. It's a situation where they're not and and all I can see as a solution is all of us banding together and letting them know that
226that's unacceptable. So So my request to all of you is that you find Ben and you find Emily who have organized the St. Louis Coastal Parent Information Network a and you help and that we try to solve this and and I think if we ask Mr. Pinkerton, I I don't know, he's probably given up hope that they're going to do the right thing. I haven't but but we have to try. So So please help us and if we can solve this everything here is saved and and and that's what we all want. So um that was not a question I guess I guess my question was this is a question session. So uh >> you get to just speak >> Mr. Baker. Do you think there's any chance that what I'm saying makes any sense?
227Um, so that's that. Emily and and and and Ben, can you raise your hands? Can everyone here please find them? And, um, thank you for what you guys are doing. So, uh, that was that. Um my comment on on the cuts is um and on the budget I mean I think that we've really seen intervention as something that's had a huge amount of success for us and it it hasn't been discussed extensively tonight but um I I guess I just want to reiterate how important I think our intervention programs are and have been and are critical to our future. And and I guess my comment there is um you uh you you very resourcefully found solutions last year to bring back some things that are key parts of intervention that you know went through periods
228of of potentially not being here and and you found ways and um you know I I'm praying for your resourcefulness to be um an asset to to the district this coming year as well however much as possible. So, um, that's that. I guess I didn't have a question. >> Mr. Sheffer. >> Yeah, I'm going to tack on to what Mr. Clawson said briefly. Um, Mrs. Roger, Mr. Clawson and I all met with Eric Daniels together. Uh another question we had for him was if uh would PG&E support the district in a legislative solution and he did not commit. So we don't even know whether if we found a way to to come up with we and we have been in touch with our legislators whether PG&E would even support that. they're not they're certainly not
229going to take the lead on anything. He was very clear about that. So, um they spend millions and millions of dollars a year on lobbyists. It was pointed out that we shouldn't be spending any money on lobbyists, but we gave it a shot. Um and uh I think with regard to TK with that issue that I know we speak frequently about how um it people in the in the legislature don't like to hear about basic aid districts and I think that's that obviously is true but it speaks to their lack of desire or intellectual laziness to not look at the differentiation between levels of funding for basic aid districts so that uh it's easy to find our we have a wonderful staff administrative staff in the uh district office at St. Louis Coastal and it's
230my understanding that uh Dr. Prader's executive assistant Mandy Dawson pulled together the information for the chart that we have that has been presented. So it's not, you know, a lay person can do that and I know she devoted time and effort to do that and it's much appreciated. It and it should be something that every legislator should be able to have at their fingertips to say, "Oh, look, there is a huge difference between St. Louis Coastal and Palo Alto." you know that that there is a a difference in the funding me in the way the funding works. Again, uh back to PG& they just I can't say enough about the parent group. Um I hope everyone will join in writing letters and paying attention. They have a website, they have an Instagram page, they have
231a presence uh and are looking for uh people any way they can. Um so and my question I will have a little question here is um the the current administration today set out that they are looking to completely and uh dismantle the educ department of education and I know that you know that well in a in a normal world that would take a great deal of time in the world we live in now apparently it can be done overnight. So I don't know I know Mr. Pinkerton you don't have a crystal ball. I know you don't operate with a crystal ball because you are a person who deals in hard numbers but um I'm curious as to whether you have any sense as to what impact that may have on our funding. >> So yeah,
232we've we've I've tried not to go down that road thus far, right? worry about what the Trump administration's going to do with title one and we would be adding another $1.5 million worth of reductions tonight for that proposed list is what would happen. Um that said if it happens we're we're going to have to we'll have to deal with it at that point. Right. I do know that the push back last year was great. When they talked about reducing title one again amongst all of the House of Representatives, the Senate, he got a lot there was a lot of push back and it was restored, right? He was going to reduce title two, title three, title four. Um and then we ended up again push back and uh receiving that funding. So I I he
233could do any he could do anything. I don't know what'll happen. you know, you never know um how it goes. But for now, my hope is that, you know, the other the Senate House representatives will continue to to push to support um the current title one funds that that come forward. And again, if we if we have to face that as a district, we'll we'll have to face it at that time. Yeah. >> That will mean a lot of further reductions in intervention >> is what I would tell you >> because that's where most of those dollars go. >> Thank you. And I think what you know when I read this I mean I'm try the it looks as though they're going to try and spread it around all department of labor and health and
234human services and all these organizations that have no history or experience in dealing with these issues. Um, but it just is something that I think as as uh fiduciaries sitting up here, it's one more thing we have to keep in the back of our minds going forward as but it it certainly won't impact what we're having to do now, but a lot can happen between now and June >> when when the budget is finalized. So, um, no one sitting up here is taking this lightly and we're about kids. That's what it's about. But we're just going to have to make some decisions here. Um, and that's what we'll keep buckling down and doing, thinking about. We I appreciate your input. It's important. It's meaningful. And thank you for being here tonight. >> Okay. And then
235I just would add that um as Ellen um said, I was in the meeting with Ellen and Brian and Eric Daniels. Um and we did try to appeal to him. U he representing PG& we tried to appeal to their uh better angels. Um, and that was a no-go. They they do not have any interest in helping our school district. I believe I could be wrong about this, but I believe that 40 years ago, Diablo Canyon put us into basic aid and now there's a possibility they will take us out of it. So my take my take on Eric Daniels position um as a representative PG& was like a a a little kid on the schoolyard make me they are not going to do anything to help us because they care about us. So we have
236to try to make them and that's pursuing a legislative solution, a letterw writing campaign. They rely on the community's goodwill. They don't have goodwill from the school district right now. Let's see what we can do as a group. Nobody here wants to make any of these cuts. This is not pleasant. This is not the um you know seeing the kids going to the schools. That's why you you're on the school board because you care about the kids. There's no glory in this and there's certainly no uh personal satisfaction or um there's nothing in it. making these cuts is not something that I want to do or that my colleagues want to do. So my question is Mrs. Turn's very heartfelt and um heartfelt suggestion that we come and spend a day with her and see
237how counselors work with students. Although I would love to do that, I don't think that I will be able to do it or any of my colleagues will be able to do it because I think that her work with students is confidential and I would like some confirmation of that >> from me or Miss Herni or Lisa. Well, from whoever you can't really be I mean yeah I think her point is just for you to see her workload what happens during the course of the day interaction with kids but she's with students >> but you wouldn't be in there during a counseling session with a student. >> Of course not. So I don't know that we really can go and see what she does when what she does is with students. We can't I don't
238think we can be in there. I know that my know my children benefited tremendously from the school counselor in elementary school when their grandmother died a gruesome death, had her legs cut off at the hip and the school counselor was very helpful to my kids. I have always supported counseling, but I don't think I can go and spend time with Mrs. Her and I because I think what she does is confidential. That's my comment. >> I I'll be here tomorrow for hours with the counselors. >> Thank you. Thank you, >> Mr. Pinkerton. I don't think there's additional board comment. I don't think there's additional public comment. I think this item So we'll see you in a month. We'll be back in a month to again for a interim update. Um Dr. Prader will present final
239recommendations at that point and we'll uh we'll see what happens with the state budget and and as we as we proceed. Thank you. >> Thank you for your presentation and thank all of you for coming tonight. >> Okay, let me If I can get back here. >> Can I get back to my agenda? >> Okay. Okay. Item 10.03 is a proposed revision to board bylaw 9270, conflict of interest. This is a first reading. Good evening board. Um I am bringing to you today per uh CSBA's recommendation to review our conflict of interest policy. Um California School Board Association's Gamut did um do a revision and update to our conflict of interest recommendations. Should I keep do Would you like me to keep going? Can you hear me? Okay. And so um we began um with
240the school board policy committee to work on the development. Now the policy itself is super legal ease because it is all defined by government regulation and code. And so we elected to call Mr. Whiteside our council to have him on the phone on Zoom and talk us through the revisions of this board policy in its entirety. Most notably, I would want to draw your attention to the fact that um our schoolboard policy subcommittee has elected to keep the dollar amount to $250 in terms of what you have to declare as received from any individual or group. Um although the law has since been changed to $500. So, our schoolboard policy committee has recommended keeping it at the $250 because they believe that in a small committee community like this, it's important that every donation um
241be noted and counted with the group. >> So, I bring this forward to you to recommend to consider it to bring back next time for a second reading. >> Okay. Is that the will of the board? >> Mr. Claus. Well, so my question is maybe just a basic one, but um it seems like the conflict of interest policy um has come up two or three times since I've been on the board for three years. And uh I was just wondering is that because of broader changes outside our district? I mean, is this all just gamut really driven? I mean, >> I'm sure you guys on the policy committee spent a lot of time on this and I was just curious about the context. >> We called when we called Mr. for Whiteside. He reminded our
242team that there wasn't a requirement. This is a policy that's required every other year to be revised and we had just done it last year. So, we did not have to make changes at this time. I believe Gamut did make the recommendation for change because of that increase to the dollar amount. So any changes in the governmental codes and laws that pertain to conflict of interest is what Gamut is responding to. But there was no requirement at this time to update it because we did just update it last fall. >> So I guess is there like a layman's summary of any material changes to our conflict of interest that I I should know about? I mean I read it but I was like it seems similar. It is very similar and continues really the primarily
243there's the interest 700 form that you all fill out and we all fill out as anyone who oversees the spending of government money to declare any conflict of interest or personal gain that we might get from any contract that's being disgued upon or any kind of um anything we're engaging in. Okay, then are would we like to bring this back? >> We'll bring it back for a second reading. >> Thank you. >> Okay, so we're moving on to the action consent agenda now. So, please let me know if you would like anything cold. 11.01 01 approval of the minutes of the November 4th and November 13th, 2025 meetings. 11.02 approval of furniture and equipment requests. 11.03 Acceptance of donations. 11.04 Approval of 2027 2028 instructional calendar. >> Can we pull that one, please? >> Was
244that you, Mr. Boss? >> It was me. >> Okay. 11.05 approval of certificated and classified personnel items. 11.06 approval of board policy BP0460 local control and accountability. Second reading 11.07 approval of board policy 430 non-discrimination and employment. A second reading 11.08 approval of board policy artificial intelligence. A second. >> Please pull that one. >> Okay. So then I'm seeking approval of 11.01 through 11.03 11.05 through 11.07. Okay. I have a motion by Mrs. Schaefer. Is there a second? >> I'll second that. >> Okay. Uh motion by Mrs. Sheffer, second by Mr. Unger. Mrs. Schauffer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Unger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Banfield. >> Yes. >> Mr. Buckman. >> Mr. Clawson. >> Yes. >> And I'm a yes. So those pass 60 with one absent and 11.0 for the instructional calendar. Mr. um Clawson,
245>> I just pulled this because we had a public comment asking us to review it tonight and I didn't have a lot of context on how much we've looked at it or considered that individual's request around KPOL schedules on our schedule. And so >> since I didn't know anything about it really, I figured I'd ask. >> Yeah, I can speak to that. Mr. Clawson is the uh so the HR calendar or the um the instructional calendar comes out of HR and so we work with multiple stakeholders uh within the organization both um CSEA SLCTA SEIU administrators etc. Um the the things that we look at with regards to the calendar there there's a there's quite a few things that go into it. Um, a we want to try to balance the semester. So, you know,
246when you're looking at the school year, you don't want the fall semester to be 110 days in the spring semester be 70 days, if that makes sense, because you're trying to cut the you're trying to prep kids for the final exams. You're trying to prep kids at the secondary level for uh AP exams, etc. Those things are also factored in the calendars. That's when the state testing and the AP testing which we don't ne we don't dictate those things. Um we do look at the uh spring break from a standpoint of all the breaks trying to pace out the school year to make it somewhat humane so kids and teachers and the principles get a get get a break every once in a while because we know like October is a challenging month. There's really
247not a day in October that we have off. So, you know, looking at those things. Um, so the spring break has typically been um part of what we look at the spring break for the school district is related to um St. Louis Abyspo High School's trimester because um it it is right about that time that the second trimester begins and ends. So, there's a there's a number of factors that go into that. We we did um we have looked to into it. I've reached out to both um Kalpali and Qua. Questa did respond to me um just saying, "Hey, we've already got our calendar for 25 20 I'm sorry, 26 27." Um the problem with potentially changing um changing spring break now for this school year is families have already made their plans. They've already
248bought tickets. So that that would be a a challenge in and of itself to make a change in this school year. Um, for whatever reason, Calpaly and Qua don't create their calendars as far in advance as we do. So Qua said, "Yeah, we're working on our calendar, but we pro for 2728, but we probably won't have it till closer to the end of this school year." There is no set schedule as to when they're going to have their spring break. So it's not like they say, "Yeah, it's always going to be the first week in April or the last week in March." So without some definitive understanding of when that break would be, it really is it would hold us hostage to set a calendar. So if we change 2728 now to match the week
249that the gentleman recommended, theoretically Calpali could move theirs back a week and it could end up being when we have it >> now. Is that >> correct? And they haven't even begun to develop. Well, Calpali didn't get back to me when I reached out. >> They don't have their calendar. >> Okay. >> They don't have a calendar. All right. >> So they did it easy for us to look at. >> Yeah. But we're just >> So we're theoretically sympathetic to the request. It's just problematic. Okay. Certainly we would be but but yeah it's just it's challenging to have to be kind of wait for some other organization to complete their calendar um for us to complete our calendar. >> Okay. Thanks for the context. >> So did you want to make a motion to approve
250>> Yeah. I mean does anyone else have any opinions on that? I I I don't have strong opinions other than I mean if we could make them coincide it seems like it would be great but it sounds like >> we would love to. I mean that the Eric Eric ch Eric um task me with trying to work that out with um >> okay >> with the two universities but it just didn't their response well just said it will be the end of this school year before we've got our 20 728 calendar ready to go. >> Okay. So the problem is like for next year's calendar which is the first time request and kpali are together because this has never happened before like next year is the first time that they're actually together and so that
251that was the first request that was that we change next year's calendar the 20 26 27 calendar right to correspond. But the problem is we've already pulled our staff that week and they they've made plans. They have vacations. They have flights. And so to change like to for us to do that to our staff and our parents now would be, >> you know, I I >> just for Caling Quest, I don't think that that's necessarily a good thing for us. So, >> all right. Now, we face the same. >> I'll move approval of item 11.04 >> unless there's other discussion. Sorry. >> Okay. So, I have a motion by Mr. Clawson, a second by Mr. Buckman. Mr. Clawson. Yes, >> Mr. Buckman. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Sheffer. >> Yes, >> Mr. Banfield. >> Yeah, >>
252Mr. Anger. >> Yes. >> And I'm a Yes. That passes 60 with one absent. And then um Mr. Clawson, you pulled 11.08. >> Yeah, I pulled 11.08 08 cuz I think um there's been a reasonable amount of discussion around um some final edits to it and I thought it might just be useful to get the perspective of you guys on the policy committee as you finalized it and um just make sure we a are all aligned on it and b um I think part of the request was just that there would be a clear path to have engagement on on this policy and I want to make sure you guys feel like we've adequately covered that. >> It was it was interesting as we looked through as I looked through the policy again, there was
253a section that was already in it >> that um that called for um community input and so we were just we were it was just easy to just add the the other things that you and Erica were asking for. So, and it just made sense was perfectly it made perfect sense to do it and it was just a lovely place to put it. So it's in there. Now >> I mean I think the complimentary question is just like from an administration standpoint, do you feel like we got to an outcome that allows us to, you know, ensure there's some engagement without creating a burden or overhead that is unreasonable and do you feel like you have a clear path forward to administer this policy? >> Yes, I I definitely do. Um I I feel like
254the interesting and important piece about board policies is that this is a breathing and living document and I am very confident that because this is a brand new policy we're adding to our collection there will be regular updates coming from Gamut and so we will both be prompted to make changes as this landscape of artificial intelligence um adapts and grows and changes. is within our schools. So I do believe that with the addition of just naming all the different stakeholder groups, students, staff, parents and community members in the policy has accomplished um the goal of ensuring that our broader community is involved in artificial intelligence in our schools. >> Okay. Thank you. Can I can I ask a quick question? So >> sure g >> g g g g g g g g g g
255g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g g given what you were saying about just being a living, you know, policies being living and breathing and things like that, um does this policy give you enough guidance to be able to create the administrative regulations to implement it? >> Yes, I'm very excited that as I had mentioned when I first brought it forward, you know, our secondary teacher group has just begun on a districtwide level. Many obviously have been dabbling in this work independently, but we as a school district are just starting to have a broad consistent conversation about the appropriate use and inappropriate uses of artificial intelligence in our school programming. And I think this
256policy is the perfect jumping off point now for the artificial intelligence task force that will be doing its work in hopefully January, February. And furthermore, I encourage and am excited that the board members, you will all be with me at CSBA's conference and one of the keynotes is exactly about artificial intelligence and its impact on schools. Um, and so I feel like again as the board and as our school district stakeholder group continue to learn and grow in this area, um, we will need to build and adapt both this policy as well as the procedure or AR that we de develop about the use of AI in our schools. So I I do feel like this is a very generic beginning starting place for our school district. And I just wanted to add that I
257think that that this the way the language is in in the board policy allows for the development of the AR without the board getting into that how and that I think that's an important balance that to be aware of that that the the board by adopting this is adopting the what we expect and then it will be up to Miss Yashida and uh Mr. Kellish and whoever else is involved to determine how it will how to best implement it to meet the needs and uh goals of the district. So you have your work cut out for you in that regard. >> Okay. Then >> I will move to approve item 12.08. >> Okay. And do I have a second? >> I guess I am the second. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Uh, we've got
258a motion by Mr. Clawson, a second by Mr. Banfield. >> Mr. Clawson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Banfield? >> Yes. >> Mr. Anger? >> Yes. >> Mr. Buckman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Schuffer? >> Yes. >> And I'm a yes. That passes 6 with one absent. >> Okay. Um, anything for advanced agenda? Okay. Then reports by board members. Everyone's tired. If there are none, then this meeting is adjourned.