1/15/26 Regular Meeting of the Governing Board

001Meeting to order. Today's date is Thursday, January 15, 2026. This is the regular meeting of the governing board of the San Marcos Unified School District. Please let the record reflect that all board members are present with the exception of member Heric. The San Marcos Unified School District Board of Education meeting is a business meeting of the board held in public. While we welcome and encourage public participation, the expected behavior is that this meeting will be conducted in an orderly fashion. Only the person recognized by the board may speak by the board president may speak. While that member of the public is speaking, members of the audience must not yell or speak out regardless of whether you agree or disagree. While public comment is improcess, if you speak out, you are out of order and will

002be asked to leave the meeting. As adults participating in a public meeting, we need to model civility to our students. And on behalf of the board of education, we thank you in advance for helping us conduct this meeting respectfully. The San Marcos Unified School District is an innovative and collaborative community providing an unparalleled educational experience. Through an engaging and supportive environment, all of our students are challenged, inspired, and poised to excel. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> Ready? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I know. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> I'll move to approve. I'll second >> move by member Ahmad

003and seconded by member Miam. Uh student board rep. Oh, we don't have the student board. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Report of action taken in close session. Tonight, the board conferred with legal counsel regarding existing litigation pursuant to government code section 54956.9D1. San Diego Superior Court case number 25 CU042362C. The board unanimously took action to approve a settlement agreement in the matter of a San Diego County Superior Court case number 25cu2362C. The settlement agreement provides for a release of all claims and a dismissal of the case with prejudice. A copy of the agree of the agreement is available upon request. Next, we discuss matters pertaining to public employee employment, transfer, appointment, discipline, dismissal, release, evaluation, and reassignment. No action was taken. Report by board members. >> Yes, thank you. So,

004board members, it's January and our our high school students just returned to school a couple days ago and they requested the night off. So we are going to skip those presentations this evening. >> Okay. Report by superintendent. >> That's you came up quickly. >> Our mic's okay tonight. I've been trying to make some adjustments. Okay. It's been tuned. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Good evening members of the board. Um Okay. Good evening. this uh couple brief updates for you this evening. Starting with January is I know you guys I never tell you that I'm going to put your photos in here because you always tell me not to and I did it anyway that if I don't tell you then you can't tell me not to put your photos in. Um it is uh

005January is governing board appreciation month, also known as schoolboard appreciation month. So I want to recognize our governing board for the amazing work that you all do in service to the San Marcos Unified students, staff, and families. You know better than anyone else that board service is not always easy and it's uh not always applauded as it should be. You've as you've experienced many many meetings, some going late into the night. Uh issues are complex, solutions require collaboration and thoughtful steady leadership. And you all continue to show up every month and every day with dedication, integrity, and a true commitment to the success of all SMUSC students. So on behalf of our students, our families, our staff, I want to thank you and express our gratitude for your service. And I I do have more

006photos. See, those are good photos. All right. And I also want to recognize our student board representatives who aren't here this evening, but they are just as dedicated to u making sure that our student voices are are heard and represented uh at the board each month, and we appreciate their service as well. Okay, with that, I want to and we're going to come back on item 5.2 a little more on that one. Um, with that, I want to also highlight uh some really big successes we've had recently, particularly with the Mission Hills High School marching band. They are the Cardinal Alliance. Uh, the board knows I'm a band dad, too, so this is special in my heart. I'm going to take a little minute here. Um, the Cardinal Alliance recently won bronze medal, third place

007at the California State Band Championship Finals in December. Uh, they performed their their their show their field show this year was called uh the Avant Garden. Uh, and it and they competed against top schools from California. So, this was not just a local or a regional um competition. This was this was the state and this is a really really major achievement. We they're going to they're going to kick me for mentioning their their cross town friends. Uh we know that the San Marcos band program has been very strong for a long time. And I want to um I want to acknowledge Chris Coughlin. He was our uh teacher of the year last year. Yeah, last year. Who has worked really really really hard with his team to build up the Mission Hills uh band program.

008So, this was a really, really, really big milestone for them. Um, and I know that I know we've talked about this before, but I do want to take a minute to let the board know that when these competitions happen, there's a panel of judges uh objective. They're experts from uh from the world of music. And scores are given to the band. You see in the little box there for the band as a whole. There's a separate score given for the music, both the complexity of the musical piece that they choose and the performance of it. They get scores in the visuals, which is uh the moves that the band makes, I'll call it that. Um uh the the flags and all that. Uh the percussion, which is the drum line and the pit that you

009see here down in the front, they get their own set of scores. And the color guard, that team with the flags and their and and they do the the the twirls of the swords and the and the rifles, um which is really really difficult. They get their own set of scores. So, it's a big deal. There's a lot of scoring going that's involved in this. and sometimes the the scores come down to like a tenth of a point um because the the bands that are competing are so good. So, I just wanted to highlight that and and um congratulate the Mission Hills uh marching band program. Also wanted to give the board a quick update on the Knobill construction. So, it is going uh it's going very well. It's going very quickly and we had

010a major milestone this week with this new crane that is uh on the campus at this point. This crane stands more than 120 feet tall, has a reach of about 144 feet, uh, and it's on site uh, beginning to lift the first pieces of the new twostory classroom buildings. I'm going to show you a photo in just a second. I do want the board and and our and our public to know that safety is in these construction projects, safety is always our number one priority. We have protocols that are monitored daily by both district staff and the construction firm themselves. Um, this crane is always going to remain inside fence construction zones. It'll never operate above classrooms or student or staff areas. It'll be on site for about six weeks. There will be a point

011where they're going to need to move it, but that movement will always be done off hours of when there's no students and staff on the campus. So, again, the safety is of paramount uh of paramount importance. Uh the principal and the team wanted to make it kind of cute for the kids, so they're calling it Captain Crane. Um and that was their choice. So, that's [clears throat] that's kind of fun. Uh, and we did let the parents know um, uh, this past uh, Friday before we came back from break that this was going to be there. So, it wouldn't be a surprise. I do want to tell the board, so I was on campus on Tuesday. I want to go back to this photo here. See the photo on the left? This is the area

012where uh, the one the new two-story building is going to go. This is exactly what it looked like. This photo was taken at 8:45 Tuesday morning. This photo on the left was taken at 10:30 that morning. I was there that I took that photo actually. I could barely get my phone out fast enough to they were they were putting it together so fast. I was really really encouraged to see that. I also had an opportunity to talk to the the superintendent of the program of the of the project while I was there. And I asked him, you know, so we had all this rain over the um over the break. How how far did that set you back? And he said, "Actually, not that much because they were anticipating the rain. So all the open

013trenching that they had on the site, they put slurry down in the bottom of it. So after the rains were gone, they just pipe pumped the water out and kept on working. So I was like, "Wow, almost like you've done this before." Um, so it was really great. So that that uh pro pro u program and that project is moving along very very well. Um, I did want to give the board just a quick update. Um, I know I'm changing subject again, but I want to give the board a quick update on budget situation in the state. The uh governor just released the his his 2026 27 budget proposal. So, you're aware that there's a cycle for the the state budget process. In January is the kind of the first shot of it. This is

014when the governor uh submits his uh presents his proposal. Here's what I think the the uh state budget situation should look like for fiscal 26 26 27. It's important to know this is Governor Nome's last budget. Um he's terming out um and I'm going to come back to that in a second. But I I I do want to highlight a couple of things. First of all, the state at this moment is benefiting from higher than anticipated revenues driven primarily by tax receipts from AI tech companies. Okay, this is important on there's two important things in this sentence. Number one, I I know I've said this many times, but I want to continue to to reiterate this very important point. The the state's revenue structure in California, it's not the way this way in every state,

015but in California is very very very very heavily dependent on the top 1% wage earners. that makes things very volatile, right? Good years are great, bad years are really bad. Um, and we know we experience that on the ground, right? With our budgets going like this. The second thing I want to say about this AI, um, the the money coming from AI tech companies right now, the legislative analyst office, that's the LAO, um, they are a nonpartisan, uh, analysis and, um, advisory group to the legislature. So, their their stuff is really important to watch because it's got no politics in it. It's just straight up numbers. they they um they released a their their analysis of the governor's proposal and this was one of the things that they talked about. They said that the the

016the money coming in from these AI tech companies is is pretty volatile. Um now they didn't go as far as to say it could be like another internet bust, right? Like a bubble, but but they are issuing some pretty strong cautions on on that funding as a like an ongoing thing that we can count on. So I just think that's important to to recognize. Um, I also want to say that the overall state budget is still showing significant deficits in the coming years, ranging anywhere from 20 to 35 billion annually. That's important because when the governor and I'm I'm going to say this too that that um the governor releases his budget, the headlines that go out are historic investments in K12 education, largest funding numbers that we've ever seen. In a technical sense, the

017funding that the districts would receive technically is higher than we'd had it before. But what they don't ever say is that yes, while the funding is going like this, the expenses are going like this, right? So the expenses are outpacing the revenue that's coming in. Now, you don't the average member of the public doesn't see that. What they see is the headline. I will also say that um it's just a political reality is that Governor Nuomo is terming out and he has he has indicated intentions to run for president. So there's part of this is a polit there's a political lens on this thing. Um, so I just say I just want to say that like for for members of the public who are monitoring this on a very high level, just know that there's

018more details underneath. Um, I also want to say these two things. So you know that this so the January governor's budget is kind of that first that first shot. Um, the legislature is the one that actually patch passes the budget and they do that in June, right? So there's from between now and June there's going to be all kinds of negotiating, haggling back and forth, advocating, all that's going to happen and the governor then will release his revision in May. we call the May revise and that's always much much closer it's is much closer to adoption right and that's when we're the school districts are going to know a little bit better um what their numbers are going to look like but I do want to say to the board I know you know this

019but it's important to just reiterate what I'm describing here this January May June timeline this is the state's budget development timeline school districts also operate we operate on a different timeline that's in law it's in the education code that we have to make our decisions we have to adopt our budgets before the state has adopted their budget. We also have to make staffing decisions um for the coming year before March which is just always puts us out of sync. Um meaning that sometimes we have to make very hard decisions when we don't actually know. So we have to make prelim I should say preliminary uh notifications to staff earlier than we actually know because if we don't at least signal or we don't at least give a preliminary nose then we can't make a change

020later um based on how the law. It's always ch it's always a difficult position that school districts are in in California. I'll just say that I I years ago I worked with an administrator who came from another state and when she got her head wrapped around this she asked me she's like how in the world do you guys budget for next year under this? I'm like welcome to our world. It's a lot of Advil and sleepless nights is all I can tell you. Um but that's it's a little tricky. So I just wanted to put that out there again. Um other details in the governor's budget cola is projected at 2.41. The first kind of indications we had been getting was a 3% now it's down to 2.4. This is also important because for two

021two things I want to well I'll come back to that in a second. Uh this one is important because as the board is aware on the natural school districts um expenditures are going to go up from year to year roughly between four and 6%. Um and that's just without even doing anything different. Employees move up by stepping column, electricity gets more expensive etc etc. employee health benefits get go up. So even if we don't do anything different, when we open our doors on July 1st, we're going to be incurring four, five, six% greater cost. So anything less than that from the state as an increase is already putting us in the hole. Um I'll add that when you take a 2.41 and we'll see what it ends up being when it's adopted, but if the

022if the governor's 2.41 is what we're dealing with and that gets multiplied by if we lose students next year, which everybody is in declining enrollment, then that number comes down a little bit more. just creates more and more pressures for us. Um, in the governor's budget, there are some onetime discretionary funds for all districts to to address some rising costs, which again, one, and this is important here, too. Onetime funds, I'll take them. I'll take them all day long. And we also have to understand these are one-time funds. It's kind of like I don't know how if you had a if you had a big I was thinking about this today and I I I should have rehearsed this before I did it live, but if you if your if your district budgets are like

023a big bucket of water with a spot like that the spend you know the expenditures are going all year long. Onetime funds is like okay I'll put a I'll put a cup full of water in there. That's nice. I'll take it but like my spot is still on. I'm still paying staff all year long. I'd rather you put a hose in the top. Does that make any kind of sense? Is that okay? Right. if you put a hose in the top, then I could have Okay, you get what I'm saying. Anyway, so so that's all to say I'll take the onetime discretionary money. Um, but it's not going to solve our problems long term. Final thing I just want to say that there are some larger I've been describing there are some larger structural issues

024with the way that California funds schools in this district and there are three of them in particular that at least are finally starting to get a little bit of conversation. I'll be honest with you, if any of these things change in my lifetime, I mean, I just don't know if they will, but I do want to I do want to highlight them again. LCFF is a local control funding formula. It is the way that California schools are um are funded. I've said this to the board before, I'll say it again. The only time we have an phenomenal, incredible school district. The only time I will ever use the words SMUSD and loser in the same sentence is when we're talking about LCFF. It's the only time because when the LCFF was came out, there were

025winner districts and there were loser districts and and San Marcos is one of the very few. We were absolutely a loser district. What I mean by that is we don't get all the funding sources that mo most of our neighbors do based on unduplicated pupil count and other things. There is finally a little bit of talk about revisiting that. It's been since 2013. Is that right? 2013. So it's been 13 years now. And there's a little bit of talk about Yeah. we maybe want to address this. I will say when the when the state is got these massive budget deficits, I'm not sure if they're going to be able to do anything with it, but at least it's there and I will always be a voice out there. I have been and I will continue

026to be um advocating for that. The second one is about the COLA. There's a cost of living adjustment, right? I know the board is aware of this, but the cost of living adjustment that we just talked about that everybody waits very anxiously. Everybody is waiting. All the schools are agreeing, what's a cola going to be? What's a cola going to be? What's a cola going to be? is a is a formula that is developed on a national level. It is the it is the average increase in the cost of goods and services for governmental public entities nationwide. That's how they give us that number. Anybody who in this room who has ever taken a road trip out of the state, you know that as soon as you get over the border, you're looking at those

027gas prices in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, wherever else you go and you're filling your car up. But what I'm saying, what I mean obviously is that things are way more expensive in California. This colon number has nothing to do, there's no relation in my mind whatsoever to the actual expenses the K12 school districts in this state incur. So there is finally a little tiny bit of discussion on that and I've was talking to Kevin Gordon who you guys know I I volunteer to be on any advocacy group to keep beating this um this drum as much as I can. Again, when the state of California is looking at deficits in the billions with a B, I'm not sure if they're going to be able to do this, but we'll continue to advocate. The last one is

028I just for the board's awareness, we haven't talked about this one that much, is attendance versus enrollment based funding. I'm not going to go into a ton of detail, but I will say early early early in my career, like mid 90s, school districts in California were funded on their um enrollment, right? So, all the kids on your on your roles, whoever's enrolled in your school, we're paying you on those kids. uh late 90s it shifted to attendancebased funding. So school districts do not get funding for the kids on the ROS. You only get funding if the student comes to school. Right? There only I I think I want to say about seven states in the country left that still do attendancebased funding and now there's a conversation actually it's gaining a little bit of traction.

029Should we shift should the state shift to enrollmentbased funding? Now on the surface I think most of us would go yes that's great. However, the devil's in the details as they say. There was a a report that was just released last week, week before of a thorough analysis uh giving uh kind of giving kind of a thorough analysis to the legislature. And I'm just going to say here's where these pieces kind of connect. Every option that um do you know who that group was? I don't put you on the spot. Who who put out the report on attendance base? >> It was the LAO. >> It was the LO. Okay. Good. Okay. So it was the LEO and they told the legislature like here's here's three or four different ways if the legislature was interested

030in shifting to enrollment based funding. Here's three or four different ways you might do that. Every single one of them back to LCFF. Every single one benefited districts that get that ghost concentration funds and not us. So it's the you you hear the frustration in my voice. It's just every time there's a potentially a good idea, like once you start reading the details, it's like h we're not going to benefit from it. So, I just say all that to say we're we're getting into the spring now, so we're going to talk more about budgets and a little bit of a deeper dive in the coming months. Um, but it all this is just to say that un unless and until the state changes their basic structure of all their budgets, San Marcos Unified is always

031going to be a little bit tighter and have have to be a little bit more careful than our surrounding districts. It's just the way it is. So, um, we will, our our team is committed to to continuing to do very very thoughtful analysis of our budgets, thoughtful analysis of our enrollment, thoughtful analysis of our our staffing and programs, and we'll we'll continue to make, uh, the best recommendations we can to the board. But, I just wanted you guys to kind of have that that context. Okay. Okay. Okay. On tonight's agenda, the stars of tonight's show are in the house. Jolenne Leech Tag are here, our students are here, and we're excited to hear you guys perform. Come up in just a second. Uh Dr. Campbell is going to give her update on on the strategic

032promise. Particular focus tonight on our CTE pathways and some really exciting updates there. Uh we have our annual audit on the agenda this uh this year. Kudos to the team for another very very good audit. Um and then we'll close the night. Dr. Campbell will come up again and talk about new high school courses that are proposed for fall of 2026. So it's things are moving moving forward. Despite all the other stuff that we will deal with, our programs for kids are are are alive and well. Um, any questions I can answer for the board? Okay. >> 52 school board recognition mark. I thought you just did that. >> I did, but I have another thing for you. So 5.2 is our pro our annual proclamation. Now last year in the board packet there are

033all the there's the actual formal resolution with all the whereouses and the um the therefors. Uh I'm going to I'm going to forgo the reading of that this evening because we were very very pleased and honored to get a call uh just today, as a matter of fact, from Assembly Member uh Dar Patel's office. She's our assembly member in district 76 and they said they would like to send Andrea from that office to present to the board himself. So I'll Is it Andrea or Andrea? >> It's I got it wrong. That's one of those names you're never going to get right. Andrea. So welcome Andrea. Thanks so much for coming. >> Thank you. It's wonderful to be here with you all. an honor to address you today um and celebrate school board or governing board

034appreciation month I know the assembly member is disappointed not to be here but with the holiday coming up uh they are stuck with session tomorrow uh so didn't get to fly home uh but I get to be here and it's an honor uh as somebody with a nephew in one of your schools uh I jumped at the chance um as some of you may know uh the assembly member has also served as a school board trustee so truly understands the the the challenges, the responsibilities, and also the opportunities that you all have in service and really wanted me to be here tonight to be able to recognize you. Uh we know that you have very deep ties to all of our schools and our students, but also the community at large. uh and the member

035and all of our office just are very grateful to the work that you all put in to make sure we're helping students uh to receive excellent education as as well as our educators and other staff so that they're able to support the students as well. So, we have a certificate here that I would like to present to you and if I can bring it over and and take a photo to send to the assembly member, it would be really great. Thank you all for all you do. He's still gone. So, um, we have some some little guys here to perform for us, um, today. And so, I'm going to actually, um, rearrange the agenda. Normally, we would go to our communication session. We have about an hour of public comments, it looks like, from the

036room, and I want to get these little guys home and to bed. So, we're gonna we're gonna let them do their thing first and then we'll move back over to public comments. Do I need to make a motion for that? I do. Okay. So, can I um I will move to uh move 7.1 forward. Um do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Okay. Uh moved by member Carlson, seconded by member Ahmad uh to move 7.1 uh forward uh before communications. All in favor say I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, Julianne, you are up. >> Is your presentation before the music? >> Okay. Sorry. >> She's so excited about the music. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Good evening, President Carlson, distinguished board members, Dr. Johnson, and Executive Cabinet. I'm Linda Heinrich and

037I have the privilege of serving Jolan Leechag Elementary School as their principal. Um, thank you for giving me this opportunity to highlight our school this evening. Joining me this evening, I have our assistant principal, Mrs. Wana Lopez, our music teacher, Mrs. Shannon Yandelle, and several of our amazing students. So these beautiful faces in the picture are our why at Jolianne. Our school of vision, our school vision aligns beautifully with the portrait of the graduate. Um we believe that all of our students can achieve at high levels through critical thinking, problem solving, and a love of learning. All of our students are empowered to lead with empathy and make a difference in their world. Our vision along with the portrait of the graduate guides our work at Julianne. I would also like a m to take

038a moment to thank our dedicated staff who work tirelessly um each day to meet the needs of our students and their families. Their commitment, care and dedication make our vision come alive. Um we are a title one school and as you can see we serve a very diverse community. Our emergent bilingual population has actually decreased by 6% and this is because our students are becoming English proficient. Our overarching school goal is to increase student achievement and engagement. Research shows that um achievement gap is narrowed with um high expectations, strong instruction, deep engagement, and rigorous learning experiences. At Jolianne, we intentionally design learning environments that reflect these principles across all classrooms. In reading, our students are provided structures which enhance their meaning making and conceptual thinking. A goal for this year is to incorporate these structures

039into small root small group reading instruction to increase alignment across all classrooms. In math, our professional learning has been centered around building thinking classrooms. The goal of building thinking classrooms is to build engaged students that are willing to think about any task. Our students are supported by cultivating an academic mindset where students believe they can succeed, use mistakes as information, and see themselves belonging to the academic community. Students are becoming more adaptable and empathetic by working in random groups on meaningful tasks while engagement continues to the to rise. In the slide to the right, um collaboration is supported by the use of a rubric. So students can reflect and improve their skills throughout the task. Students also strengthen their critical thinking skills through choice during independent tasks. If you look at the bottom slide, students

040have the choice of choosing mild, medium, or spicy problems to begin when they're doing their independent tasks. And they love it. They all choose the spicy and they love the challenge. Right, kids? um to support teachers in creating these future ready learning environments, collaboration is essential. Each grade level team is provided with four full collaboration days throughout the year in addition to their ongoing PLC time built into the early release Wednesdays. These structures allow teachers to reflect, plan, and continuously improve instruction for all of our students. Um, at this time I would like to introduce our assistant principal, Mrs. Lopez, to share how we strengthen a sense of belonging that impacts learning. Good evening. Belonging means students feel seen, safe, and connected. Learning cannot happen without belonging. At Jolanne, we see a strong connection between

041belonging and attendance. This year, our chronic absentism rate has decreased from about 15% at this time last year to 10% this current year. While there's still work to do, this progress shows us that intentional connection with students and families is making a real difference. One way we support this is through education. We focus on helping both families and students understand why attendance matters, not just for academics, but for confidence and connection. Students are taught that showing up consistently helps them feel more successful and engaged as learners. Another way we encourage consistency is through positive incentives. Through our monthly attendance letters, students and families learn how attendance impacts learning. And they also receive positive recognition for improvement. We connect with families through nudge letters, parent meetings, and family events, which help families feel informed, supported, and

042welcomed on campus. We hold weekly attendance team meetings to help us identify students who may be struggling. And we respond early by partnering with families and providing support. Belonging is not a separate program. It's built through consistent communication, encouragement, and intentional support. When students feel connected and supported, attendance improves, confidence grows, and learning is the strengthened. Back to Mrs. Heinrich, who will share how this sense of belonging is reflected in our students as leaders on campus. Thank you, Mrs. Lopez. Our theme at Jolianne is to lead with empathy. We believe every student is a leader and they demonstrate this by living the seven habits of happy kids and the Jaguar way which is doing the right thing even when no one is looking. Our students take initiative and create opportunities to make a difference. They

043have started their own clubs including helping hearts club for community service, a campus cleanup club, a basketball club, an art club, and many more. Kindness is a part of our daily culture. Our older students support our younger learners both in the classroom and on the playground through our kindergarten and first grade playground buddies program. Students understand that their words and actions have the power to make a positive impact in their classrooms, school, and community. We also have a truly unique music program at Jolian through the partnership with our PTO and Palomar College. We offer an afterchool orchestra program as well as a before school mariachi club. At this time we have about 25 students participating in the mariachi program and 100 students in the orchestra program. These programs create a strong sense of belonging and

044connection for our students. At this time I would like to invite our incredible music teacher Mrs. Yandelle to share how these music programs support student engagement and learning. We will conclude with a performance by our mariachi club. So, thank you again for the opportunity to highlight the amazing work we are doing at Jolian. I actually wrote this out because I'm not a public speaker. Um, hello. I'm Shannon Yandel. I'm the music teacher at Jolianne Elementary. Um, I'm excited to be here tonight to share the positive impact our thriving music program is having on our students sense of belonging, engagement, and learning on campus. Here's a sampling of direct quotes from student participants, many of which are in the audience tonight. Music is my second home. I wake up early, so I'm not late. I don't

045want to miss Mariachi in the morning. We are a family here. Music makes me feel calm when I'm stressed. Music turns my bad day around into a good day. I know I can do hard things now because I thought the violin was too hard, but I didn't give up and now I'm good. Music makes me feel responsible, brave, confident, and makes me be myself. I like learning to sing in Spanish so my parents can understand, too. And finally, everyone agreed when one student said, "Music is the best thing about school. Music turns your day happy." [sighs] I want you to know how happy I am to be a small part in providing safe and welcoming spaces that are helping to build our students emotional safety and well-being. I love that our students are finding their

046voices and feel a sense of ownership over their learning experiences and that we're making cultural connections that strengthen family ties and community involvement. And finally, I'm so grateful that our students love to come to school where they're being nurtured all while learning problem solving, grit, and to be disciplined in their pursuit of greatness. At Julianne, we build emotional intelligence, connection, empathy, confidence, and well-being. So, our students want to attend school. They want to engage in learning and succeed academically. I know this because I took the time to ask the voices that matter most. Thank you, Shannon. And yes, you are a public speaker. [laughter] >> Hey, boys and girls, this is your time to shine. Yeah. Happy >> [singing] >> for you. Okay. If you want the candy Hey, back. Okay. Got it. While everyone

047is sitting down, I wanted to share um I went to a performance at Julianne and I was so impressed how the kids were playing violins. I mean, it was like all the children know how to play violins. And then the kindergarteners got up and they had little cardboard violins. So, it was just amazing. They're starting so young, you know, and it's just amazing. So, thank you, Julianne. >> Please remember to invite us to your performances, please. >> Okay. All right. Communication session per education code 35145.5 and government code 54954.3. Members of the public have the opportunity to provide public comment on any agenda item as well as any non-aggenda items that is within the specific subject matter jurisdiction of the board. Per board bylaw 9323, individual speakers will be allowed to speak for two minutes

048to address the board agenda or to address the board on each agenda or non-aggenda item except for our union representatives who have five minutes. In accordance with board bylaw 9323, public comment will be limited to 20 minutes per topic in an effort to hear as many speakers as possible. Comment times may be shortened depending on the number of com comments received. Generally, if there are seven or fewer speakers, each speaker will be given three minutes. If there are eight to 10 speakers, each speaker will be limited to two minutes. If there are 11 or more speakers, each speaker will be limited to one minute. One speaker's time may not be seated to another speaker. If there are more than 20 speakers which would consume more than 20 minutes, all speak speakers who are not able

049to speak during the 20 minutes allocated for each item will have the opportunity to address the board at the end of the meeting. This will allow the board to conduct the board's business during the meeting. For the Brown Act, members of the board are limited in their ability to respond to statements or questions made during public comment. Unless an item has been placed on the published agenda, there shall be no deliberation or action taken. The board may one acknowledge receipt of the information, report or comment, two refer to staff for further study, or three refer the matter to the next agenda. A recording is made of all open sessions of the governing board agenda of the governing board. Again, on behalf of the board of education, we thank you in advance for helping us conduct

050this meeting respectfully. So, based on um the number of items that we have, it'll be two minutes for each speaker. Um Susie, do we have any speakers? Yes. Um Eddie Newman and we do have a variety of topics. So it's typically right three three minutes. Um just for clarification it's three minutes. Um and then if it exceeds so many speakers we go to two minutes. Correct. >> I think for I think if we >> for the two >> group those together then those topics will get two minutes >> will be two minutes. >> Okay. Yeah we have a variety of them. So um Mr. Newman um is first and he will have three minutes. >> Good evening members of the board. Um thank you number one, a sincere heartfelt thank you for your support of

051FFA and the music programs. Um to all the FFA people here today, you guys are awesome. My name is Eddie von Newman. I'm a parent here at San Marcos and SMUSD. We have a problem. There's a pattern of procedural failures and legal ambiguity in how parents are being handled. Um, I've provided all the board members the timeline. Uh, one that creates a chilling effect for parents trying to seek resolution and request accommodations. I've given you the master timeline and I've emailed you statement of facts with evidence documenting my experience navigating the district over the past four months. These documents show how repeated procedural missteps, conflicting justifications, delayed responses have obstructed reasonable requests and accommodations under the law. The district's handling of these issues shows a failure to fully support parents and comply with legal obligations.

052Repeated evasive responses and shifting explanations leave parents uncertain and frustrated even when a parent has documented medical needs. These actions create more exposure for the district as unresolved and mishandled situations compound over time. This is not about my case. It rises it it raises broader concerns about how the district treats parents, enforces accommodations, and ensures fairness. The way these matters are handled can directly affect trust, parent engagement, and student success. Board members, I want to be clear while why I'm here. I have exhausted every avenue available within the district. Two separate issues were closed prematurely. one by Superintendent Johnson, another by Assistant Superintendent Garcia. Without resolution, without clarity, and without accountability, I am a tenacious and determined parent, and I have stayed engaged when other parents may not or may give up out of frustration

053or fear. That's the concern that I have. If these same strategies are used on the other parents, they won't hear their voices, not because their concerns lack merit, but because the process quietly pushes people out. So, in this sense, my experience should be seen as a warning sign, a stress test of the system. And I'm asking you to treat it that way. You're the governing body. You can set the tone and expectations. I hope you'll use this moment to strengthen parent access, clarify procedures, and ensure the district truly welcomes parents as partners, not as problems to be managed. Thank you. >> Okay, we now have um I believe nine speakers on San Marcos FFA and the first is Kate Foster. Good evening members of the board. As you know, I'm Kay Foster, president of San

054Marcos FFA and vice president of the Southern Region FFA. Thank you so much for all the time that the board has given us over the last few months to talk about our A program. Before we start today, I just want to point out that on the flip side, there hasn't been any students, parents, or industry partners representing anything from a business pathway. So, I'm hopeful that the board will consider our passion and love for this program and our a community when you make your vote. I also want to say that I'm representing all of our floral students at this time and I am voicing the concerns that they have brought to me. This is not just members of the office or team. This past year, I was elected to the Southern Region FFA office. This

055opportunity has given me the chance to interact with students and teachers all over not only Southern California, but over the entire state as well. There are over 165 thriving floral pathway programs in California. And I've been able to tour some of these agricultural programs. These floral programs are embedded into their agricultural programs and play a significant role in providing students opportunities in leadership and career development in agriculture education. At Escandido High School, a teacher Mrs. Huford has several floral students every year that are certified florists with the California Floral Association. At Sunny Hills High School, a teacher Mr. Kim has his floral students making arrangements for school banquetss, district events, and graduation ceremonies. Paris High School a teachers, Miss Mcnall has several points of sales windows attached to her a classrooms where her students can

056sell floral displays on campus during the school day. At Norcco High School, a teacher Miss Kunmeer has running a floral a full floral shop. Her students create, deliver, and set up extravagant floral designs for weddings, funerals, and all the types. San Marcos High School's A program has not been given this opportunity to grow its floral program to its maximum potential. Although these A teachers have tried to approve advanced floral classes, these have never been approved at the district level. And I would ask you that before you vote on moving floral out of its a pathway, I encourage you to tour these successful a programs and recognize the potential that our program has in the agriculture pathway. Thank you. >> We just want to clarify that we're not voting on this, just so you know. Um,

057okay. Next speaker, >> Charlie Stone. Hello guys. Hello governing evening board. My name is Charlotte Stone and I am currently serving as our vice president of San Marcos FFA. As a student in floral design, tonight I have a few questions that should be answered on how floral coexists as a business pathway separately from the agriculture department at San Marcos High School. Will agriculture students be able to participate in career development events hosted by FFA in floral design? Will the A program still be able to rely on selling wreaths and floral arrangements on campus within our and within our community for fundraising? Will AG students who are passionate about floral design still have the opportunity to complete supervised agriculture experience projects using floral skills taught by our A teachers. We understand that tonight there will be

058a deeper discussion about these changes. However, it already sounds like the decision has been made. The district has already invested in training the business CTE teacher. That teacher is already advertising on campus about her classes, yet the board has not voted yet. Please, before you vote, please recognize that there are several questions that parents, students, and our A teachers still have about our A program, how our A program exists without floral. Thank you so much. Elena Vanetta. Good evening, members of the board, administrators, and teachers. I'm Elena Barera, and I'm currently serving as our chapter treasurer. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today. I am here to respectfully ask that floral design remain an agriculture pathway within our CTA program. Next year I will be a senior finishing the final chapter of

059my high school career. And like many students, I've worked hard to stay committed to a pathway that reflects my interests and my future goals. For me, that pathway is agriculture. I plan to pursue agriculture in college. And the classes that I take now are not just electives. They are a preparation for my future. Floral design is not simply an art class. It teaches real agricultural skills, plant science, soil and crop knowledge, sustainability, business practices, and hands-on problem solving. It connects creativity with agriculture in a way that engages students who might not otherwise find their place in this field. If floral design is removed from the agriculture pathway, I and students like me will effectively lose our right to continue in an agriculture class during our senior year. That means losing a critical opportunity to complete

060our pathway, strengthen our college applications, and gain experience in a field we are passionate about. CTA programs are meant to open doors, not close them. Removing floral design from agriculture would limit opportunities, discourage students, and weaken a pathway that already provides so much value. I ask you to consider the students who are depending on this class not just to graduate but to move forward with purpose. Please keep floral design as part of the agriculture pathway. Thank you for your time and consideration. Claire Hi, I'm Claire Lenahan and I'm the current FFA reporter. I'd like to start by thanking the board for the time that they have given our parents and students. The CDE website lists ornamental horiculture under the agriculture and natural resources pathway. It states that the ornamental horiculture pathway prepares students for careers

061in nursery, landscaping, and floral industries. Topics include plant physiology, soil science, plant reproduction, nursery production and flooriculture as well as landscaping design, installation and maintenance. This state document goes on the list sample occupations in floor design. Um the document also lists the following standards under the agriculture pathway. Understanding floor design principles, demonstrating the use of plant materials and tools. Apply basic design principles to to products and design. Handle, prepare, and arrange cut flowers appropriately. Develop a marketing and merchandising strategies to use in the floral industry. Before the board votes, please ask yourself the following questions. What standards are going to be taught in the business marketing retail floral class? How how do you teach a floral class without a standards? And if there is a need for a business pathway and floral is the only

062learning vehicle available to teach these business standards, then why isn't it being created in an agriculture business pathway? Thank you. Aaron Aaron. Hello. My name is Aaron Lennan and I'm a current sophomore at Samaros High School. I've had the opportunity to take floral design during my freshman year at high school. I excelled in this class creating arrangements for weddings, floral subscriptions, and I also earned an industry standard certificate from the Ben School of Floral Design, which prepares students who are able to demonstrate competencies in [clears throat] areas of floral design and business management. Although I spent a year in the classroom learning, I was very thankful for the guidance from my agriculture teachers who had had professional training in floral design. The teacher that has been selected to teach the business pathway floral design course

063has been a student this year in Miss Silva's class. Being in those same shoes last year as a student, I feel disheartened and sad for the future students who will not have the same opportunity to have highquality, adequate, certified, and properly credentialed teachers to facilitate their education in floral design. I ask that you please do research on other floral programs throughout the state and the credentials that those educators hold in order to teach highquality floral programs. Thank you. Asthma. >> Hi, good evening board. My name is Azma Husini and I'm a junior attending San Marcos High School. With this school year marking the 50th anniversary of our chapter, I am reminded more than ever of the unique importance of our FFA. This is a program which provides opportunities to students who may otherwise have difficulty

064finding a place that feels like home anywhere else on campus. And for the majority of the 50 years our chapter has existed, Floral has been a keystone of its existence. When flipping through old chapter scrapbooks between the livestock students and chapter events, you'll find student after student with their bouquets and floral arrangements. Each one an active and proud member of the San Marcos FFA. Because floral beyond the class itself is a doorway for students into the world of FFA in agriculture. For many it is how their a journey begins and as a fixture of our program. These floral students are welcome at a wide variety of events and experiences ranging from the chapter to the national level. For today, as was then a floral student is an FFA member. These students wear the blue and

065gold just as truly as one in the greenhouse or the livestock pen. The splitting of this class from our program represents not only a flippant and destructive break from both tradition and the strong educational ecosystem that has been built within our program, but also a wholly unnecessary hindrance of floral students futures. For as a separate program, these students not only will lose effective access and opportunity to connect with the network of floral and flora adjacent professionals already while connected with the FFA in the community of other floral programs within the high school's agriculture departments. But these students, Can I continue? Okay. But these students will also have to pursue their interest within a program which in being separate has access to less resources that may be afforded to a larger department like agriculture. Furthermore, this

066will cause great damage to other aspects of SMHS agriculture as our program will lose an outlet to find new students and raise money through the sale of floral arrangements. Splitting floral from agriculture won't provide these students with greater opportunities through a business class. It will deprive them of a community and network which has for decades elevated students and helped them grow across the nation. High school agriculture programs pride floral design as deeply rooted fixture of their identities. The na very natural nature of floral education in this country is built around such an association. Why is that suddenly a problem for us? Thank you Crystal Thomas. Uh good evening board. My name is Crystal Thomas and I'm one of the agriculture teachers at Sanos High School. feel like I know most of you. Um, and uh,

067thank you guys for welcoming our students over the last couple months to talk about this big concern and our parents as well. Um, and some of our industry partners. I want to start by thanking you guys for the numerous opportunities that you guys have provided our a program over the last several years. Uh, I've been with the district seven years now. This is my 13th year teaching. Uh, the addition of multiple a teachers in 2022 has allowed our program to grow and has provided opportunities for more students. So, I want to thank you guys for your support in that. I also want to thank you guys for the big project, the reconstruction of the farm in 2023. That's allowed our facility that has been uh used by a handful of students to be transformed into

068a facility that provides opportunities for over 400 students every month to learn career skills, problem solving, and adaptability. Some of those key uh cornerstones that we know that we want to see in SMUSD students. The support through CIG grants and Perkins has allowed our students the opportunities to attend leadership conferences, participate fully in FFA, and learn to set an example for all SMUSD students on how to be future ready. Removing floral from the A program will be removing opportunities for students. This is a setback for our program. The retail floral class description you are voting on uh in the future is written as an agriculture class that already exists not only at San Marcos High School but at over 150 other schools in California within their a programs. Voting yes on this course means that

069you're voting yes on changing floral from its agriculture pathway where it can be taught by teachers that have completed coursework in their credentiing pro credentiing process and have each taught sections of floral at San Marcos High School in the last 5 years. to a teacher who does not have the industry or educational experience in floral design to effectively effectively teach this class. Put your confidence back in the agriculture teachers. Help us continue to provide opportunities for all of our students and vote no on the implementation of the retail floral business CTE pathway. Thank you, Stephanie. Hello board members. My name is Stephanie Navarete. I am one of the agriculture teachers at San Marcos High School. This is my third year teaching at SMHS and I've been practicing floral design since I was a student teacher,

070which is a total of four years of mastery. I'm here to speak to you all about my opposition for the retail floral business class. The reason behind my opposition is because we are currently have a floral design class in our agriculture pathway and I'm teaching one of those. Um, in our agriculture pathway, we have a floral subscription for the second year now. We serve San Marcos High School staff, Lamada staff, and Discovery Elementary, which is pretty profitable. We've done weddings, countless school events, and San Marcos community events as well. Within our floral class, students receive certification where they could learn um more floral business aspects. All throughout the state of California, there are over 150 schools with agriculture pathways that have floral design. The inspiration of the business marketing retail floral class comes from an

071agriculture program in Texas. We also have a career development event team that encompasses the art and business portions of floral. In the CowPad's course description, the capstone class, which is advanced floral design, states the following. This course builds on the concentrator course with the addition of marketing, sales, economics, cash flow, and management of the retail and wholesale floral business. This will include how to prepare a bid for floral products and services for events. And this is under the agricultural floral um floral design class. Our agriculture program has been trying to get a second floral design class for six years now. So, I really hope that you guys do not take floral away from our agriculture program. Thank you. >> And last for the FFA is Fred. Good evening and thank you for allowing me to

072speak today. This is way too high. Here we go. My name is uh Fritz Bios. I am an active I have been an active supporter of San Marcos High School's A program for over 25 years through plant and material material donations and serving on their avisory committee for all this time. I work in the wholesale nursery industry at Firstep Green Houses in Tmacula and I am a board member of the San Diego County Flower and Plant Association, the San Diego County Farm Bureau and the president of the San Diego a in the classroom. All of these associations are very supportive of agricultural education in San Diego County as many of the these students will choose agrous careers in San Diego County and help this county to continue to be the number one nursery and floor

073culture crop producing county in the country. I have seen the egg program at San Marcus High School go through many changes over the years and I feel that there that there is a great program in place now especially with the new farm facility that was built recently in Twin Oaks Valley. You have excellent a teachers and many very impressive and talented students right here um that are headed in the right direction for careers in agriculture thanks to your programs. I don't understand why the San Marcos High School administration feels a need to remove the floor culture classes from the ActCTE pathway. There may be practical, financial or political reasons for the change, but I think the plan I think the change would be detrimental to the existing a program and the future Farmers of America

074program. And I respectfully ask you to vote no on the propos proposed change when it comes up. Thank you very much. Our next group um will be on the tennis program and the first speaker is Destiny. Two minutes each. Okay. So, so it's two minutes and the way that it's going to work is It will beep once and when you hear the first beep that means you have 30 seconds more to kind of wrap up your thoughts and finish and then it'll start beeping a lot. That means your time's up. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um good evening members of the board. My name is Destiny Mendes and I am the girls varsity tennis team captain and I'm also a senior at Mission Hills High School. I'm here to ask you to reconsider the termination

075of our tennis coach Coach Ang. This decision has directly affected our team in conflicts with his core values at Mission Hills at what they stand for. Value one is serving the needs of the individuals in a diverse community. Coach Ang has served all the players and not just the ones that access the private training. He built an inclusive program yet the decision appears to have stand on based of a small group of voices. While most players were not consulted, input from mostly one opposing coach was considered instead of a broader feedback. Value two, motivating, respecting, and including one another. Coach Ang listen listened to all the players. Administration did not. Student athletes were asked to reinstatement and a petition was signed for over 120 players, parents, aluminiz, and opposing coaches was dismissed. Being told that

076there was a different vision without explanation was hurt morale and divided the team. Value three, challenging assumptions to improve. If the improvement was the goal, removing a coach who commits and communicates consistently supporting players growth does not reflect that value. Value four, decision derived driven by clearly defined results. No clear explanation, results or vision have been shared to justify this decision. More than a month later, that direction remains unidentified. Value five, ethical behavior and responsibility. Coach Ang was given the opportunity to conflict resolution before being terminated. Ethical leaderships requires transparency. The last value is that Mission Hills is a home and a family. Coach Ang treated our team with care and respect and families listened and included those affectedness before making major decisions. I ask I respectfully ask you consider Coach Ang's determination. Clearly share

077your vision and act in alignment with Mission Hill's core's values. Thank you. Next is Victoria Victoria because there's maybe more of us. Good evening everyone. Good evening members of the board. I appreciate your attention. Uh my name is Victoria Landal and I'm a parent of the student uh who is attending Mission Hill High School tennis program. I'm here to address the board on what appears to be proper termination of tennis team coach for boys and girls tennis team at Mission Hills High School. So my understanding is that the board already familiar with the issue um group of parents advocating for the coach um for coach's reinstatement previously contacted the board on the matter. As a result, parent has been redirected back to the mission hill high school u administration because and I quote it's the

078site related issue. Um I would like to inform the board that I had contacted Mission Hill High School administration on two separate occasion on two unrelated issues with two different representatives and on those two occasions in just a few minutes into the conversation I've been told and I quote ain't going to happen. So today I'm not only advocating for reinstatement of coach an who has been nothing but professional, supportive and positive coach for boys and the girls tennis program. Um but to ask the board to look into Mission Hill High School administration personnel audit and review their decisions and actions because ain't going to happen is at the very least is unprofessional language. It is borderline rude and shows lacks of any respect to the parent and to students by the administration. Such dismissive language

079leaves no room for understanding on either side. That being said, the site related matter isn't applicable to the situation with the coach on. Um the group of parents given very little information on the matter students has been dismissed by the administration in the mission high school. I personally attended every single JV tennis match and never was consulted by any administration on the matter. I would like to ask the board to look into the decision. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much, Nate. Good evening, members of the board. My name is Nate Robertson and I'm a varsity athlete on the Mission Hills High School boys tennis team. I would also like to request for the reinstatement of Coach Chong. Coach Hong has been nothing but positive to our team with his communication skills with weekly

080email receipts as well as frequent Instagram updates with positive messages that kept the team up to date. Heavily he was heavily involved and supportive of organizing the new courts. Always had a team team bus and organized match logistics every week. Team merchant uniforms were distributed during the season to give us a sense of Grizzly pride. He supported academics and ensured schoolwork was the first priority. Oncourt coaching led to a significant amount of upsets this season, notably against our rival high school San Marcos. Even when on paper they seem like a superior team, his lineup allowed us to win. I simply don't understand why he was let go and I believe it is unfair and I sorry and I request the reinstatement of coach Ramy. Good. Good evening everyone in the board. My name is Rammy

081Kador. I play on Mission Hills High School varsity tennis team and I'm a sophomore. Respectfully, we want Coach Ang back. We've played with him over the last year and he's the kind of coach who pushes us to get better, keeps practices challenging and fun and really cares about the team. He doesn't just teach us tennis skills. He teaches us how to work together, stay focused, and never give up. He motivates everyone, whether you're new to the team or returning player, and make sure we all feel included and supported. We know he makes a huge difference, and he's one of the best coaches I know. The team respects him and we've seen how much of an impact he has on everyone and he coaches and he coaches helps us improve not just as players but as

082a team. We really hope the board keeps him back because playing under coach Ang makes our team stronger, more confident and ready to succeed. Thank you. You Q. >> Uh good afternoon. I'm Hugh Hawquist. Uh I was last season's varsity single uh one player and I'm currently a live scout uh working on Eagle. Uh I'm here today to ask you to reconsider the decision to fire our coach. Not just because of what he's done for us as tennis players, but because of who he's helped us become as people. Yes, our tennis improved under his coaching. Our skills sharpened, our consistently our consistency increased, and our understanding of the game deepened. But what truly set him apart was that tennis was never the only thing he was teaching us. He cared just as much about our

083mindset, our discipline, and our character as he did about our forehands and serves. Every practice, he challenged us to be better than we were the day before. not just on the court, but in how we showed up in life. He taught us accountability. He taught us resilience when matches didn't go our way. He taught us to respect ourselves, our teammates, our opponents, and the game itself. Those lessons don't just disappear when the match ends. They stay with us forever. He believed in us when we doubted ourselves. He pushed us when we wanted to quit. And because of that, we learned how to handle pressure and respond to failure. Those skills matter far beyond um than just the game game of tennis. A coach like that is rare. Anyone can teach technique, but not everyone can

084shape character. He created an environment where growth mattered more than results, where effort mattered more than excuses, and where becoming a better person mattered just as much as becoming a better player. Rehiring him isn't just about bringing back a coach. It's about restoring a leader who made a real lasting impact on our team and our community. someone who genuinely cared about our development, our values, and our future. I respectfully ask you to reconsider this decision, not just for nostalgia, but for the long-term benefit of the players and the program itself. We are we are better because of him, and we still have more to learn. Thank you for your time and consideration. Billy. Okay. Uh, Stefan or Stefan? 120 seconds or 180? Okay. I've had the honor and incredible responsibility over the last 18 months

085with these students out here to lead our Grizzly student athletes and it's genuinely been one of the most fulfilling endeavors of my life. I'm really disheartened at where we are today because instead of celebrating new courts, which should be an asset to the community and preparing for the spring season that starts in two weeks, we are without a coach. We're triaging a fractured team based off of a Mission Hills administration that unfortunately has so distrust and alienated folks from the beautiful game of tennis. We've worked really hard over the short term to rebuild this program, reinstill excitement into the tennis program, the Grizzly tennis program community, with the long-term vision in mind of democratizing tennis, allowing open access to all, not just those that have the ability to afford private lessons, and most importantly, teaching

086life skills. I'm here today to expose the blatant corruption, conflict of interest, breach of confidentiality and trust, as well as the discrimination and the feckless behavior of the administration, starting from the principal all the way down to the athletic director. My goal today is to formally put on record the behaviors that have antithesis of not only the Mission Hills but the district core values and ask respectfully that the board open an independent investigation that is agnostic of Mission Hills aimed at course correcting the abuse of power for on display for the future benefit of our children. Not coincidentally, a flood of parent concerns came in shortly after I had a falling out with a local professional coach who aggressively asked me to monetize with him the new courts for his junior team tennis programs. I

087respectfully declined that and said that the court should be used as taxpayer funds for the benefit of our Mission Hill students only and a notfor-profit endeavor. It so happens that coincidentally those parents have ties to the principal as well as ties to others and I respectfully ask I will send my um formal statement to the board. I respectfully ask that we reconsider um just for the benefit of the students. I appreciate your time. Thank you >> Marissa. Good evening. I'm Cararissa, a parent of Mission Hills. Upon hearing of the administration's decision, the overwhelming majority of student athletes, parents, and opposing coaches immediately expressed support for Coach Ang and asked administration to reverse their course. They further expressed dismay that their opinions were not solicited and rather a small group with an agenda were allowed to

088influence administration. A petition of over 120 signatures has been signed in supporting the reinstatement of coach. This rep represents our community tennis players, parents, and opposing high school coaches. Administration has been provided with a copy along with emails which they have dismissed. groups of student athletes and parents have met separately with Mission Hills leaderships and have been fed ever evolving reasons with numerous mistruths, innuendo, and outright lies. Again, zero vision has been shared by administration. At this stage, our suspicion is the current administration will fabricate an attempt to impugn coach's reputation to try to cover up for their agenda. I am happy to share the details surrounding at a minimum appearance of impropriety and at worst the blatant conflict of interest, breach of confidentiality and abuse of power due to inappropriate relationships amongst Mission Hills

089leaderships and the parties who filed concerns involved. The handful of students whose parents have voiced concerns to administration about coach without ever addressing these with him directly outwardly brag at school about how they have outst coach and a central parent figure involved who also works for the private coach flaunts access to administration by bragging about being family friends with the principal's brother and sister-in-law also Mission Hills employees. She serves as a boys tennis booster club president and has inappropriately shared contact information without parent consent and player consent. You will not find another coach as selfless and dedicated to student athletes wellbeing and development of skill and character as coach. >> Thank you. >> And last for the tennis program is Dwight So, I'm a parent of a student athlete for three seasons. During the time,

090we went from a unengaged program. The previous coach in my daughter's freshman year was horrible. And the last two seasons, it's it's been great. I'm not going to go over some of the things have already been talked about by Mo on as many things as I can. The admin has been uninvested throughout the time um that I've been there at the high school. They decided to make a coaching change without without consulting student athletes, without consulting parents. I've not seen them at at one game. I was there for every game except one for the entire season. Um I've emailed a few people um who are here um like sitting at this desk and I'm the one who actually sent out the email. So, um, the petition has been has been referenced. It included 30 plus

091students. So, that should tell you something. The the maximum number of of players would be about 40 something. So, that should definitely tell you something. Um, in a meeting with uh, Principal Baker, there were shifting answers that we kept getting in terms of why things happened. The alleged HR concerns, um, I've I've talked to the coach. Um, nothing was ever shared. He went to HR. um concerns about how the booster club was being handled. And I'm gonna put that name out there, Vanessa Rojas. Um that definitely a problem. Um that that person purposely excluded even some some of the student athletes here in this room from from the boys tennis team. And this was just last month. And I've advised two people sitting at these tables of this of this action. Um there there was

092a statement that there was no oversight that the school had o over the booster club, which is um totally wholly inappropriate. He says that they have oversight over the over the coach, but you have no oversight over the booster club, including when they're um excluding student athletes. There's been no communication whatsoever on any things like the the uh the new courts, the coaching search, the program in general, and there's been no follow-up to the meeting that myself as well as a number of parents we've heard from and others have had. So, I'm going to seed my time, and that's it. Okay, one more. Michaela. Sorry about that. >> Hey, good evening. Um, my name is Michaela and this is my husband, Eric, and our daughter is a player on the Mission Hills High School team.

093I'm also asking for Coach Ang's reinstatement as tennis coach at the Mission Hills High School. Um, [clears throat] Coach Hong was fired about a month and a half ago. Um, and we the players and the students um, and the parents are trying to still understand why. I would like to first premise this with the fact that I have four kids and they have all played sports over the years and I have never seen a more dedicated and motivated coach for any of my kids than coach. I also played sports my whole student career and again I have been blown away at his level of dedication to the tennis program. The kids and the parents have suffered a real loss in his firing. I have also talked with other parents who share similar sentiments to myself.

094When we talked with Principal Barker, he explained that coach was fired due to the fact that they want to take the Mission Hills tennis program in a different direction and that their vision of the future of the girls tennis and boys um tennis program does not align with where coach wanted to take the program. But what I find most confusing is that Principal Barker was utterly unable to express to us parents where he wanted to take Mission Hills Tennis program. And this was after over an hour of inquiring about it. I would like to add to this that I never saw anyone from admin at any of the games or any of the practices. And I was at at just about every girls tennis match, both home and away. So I'm at a loss to

095understand how they can accurately analyze where the program has been and where it is headed when they have never been witness to it. So I'm requesting that we be informed of where this program is supposed to be headed. My other concern is that there has been discussion about using the new tennis courts at Mission Hills for private JTT teams, which you have to pay for in order to participate. These teams are large and would take up most of the courts. And I have concerns about equity for those Mission Hills kids that won't have equal access to the courts if they can't afford to pay for the JTT teams. That's it. Thank you. Thanks. Before we move on to that, I want to for the Mission Hills students specifically because I think a lot of the

096questions that were asked is we're not that there's a frustration that you're not being told why. And I would like to ask Dr. to um talk about the process of why you may not we may not be able to give you all of the answers that you're asking. >> Same thing. Yeah, sorry about that. Um yeah, so any personnel action is a confidential matter, right? It's it's investigated with due diligence. Uh look for looking for information, but it cannot be discussed with the general public. Certainly there's conversations that happen with with any of the employees and I'm speaking very generally here obviously uh but to to get to that information disclose that publicly to other people is just you know there are privacy laws that restrict us from from doing so not sure if that's

097the you were asking >> I just I know that it's it's really hard when you know when you have students and parents who are like hey this this major thing happened answers and and we're limited in what we can say. And so I just kind of want them to understand why we're limited. Um, and I also would like to ask uh staff to try to try to have a meeting with the parents to explain and the students to explain what we can and try to find some sort of resolution. Um, so that's for Mission Hills for FFA. I would ask you guys to stay. Um we have presentation coming up that deals directly with what you guys um are interested in and then also um the information item is the last item on the agenda.

098So if you can hang out till the end, hopefully you'll get more answers that you guys are asking for. Um okay, next speaker. >> Patrick Baker. Good evening board. Thank you for your time. My name is Patrick Liker. Uh my children attend Lacasta Meadows Elementary. At 10:41 a.m. on December 11th, I received a text message stating LCM was in a shelter in place. I stand before this board to address the district communications protocol following emergency events. I will start off by saying this is about the safety and transparency from my family and all families in our district. That being said, I am a survivor of Coline High School. When I speak out for school safety and district accountability, my perspective comes from experience and not from performative actions. In total, approximately 15 police and sheriff

099vehicles responded. Streets were closed, bomb squad units brought in along with bomb sniff sorry, bomb sniffing dogs. This was not a minor event. At 4:05 p.m., we received the one and only email from the school administration sharing its conclusion of the day's events discussing the word bomb was found, but the campus was declared all clear. The final statement in that email stated, "We know events like this can be unsettling for students and families, and the counseling teams will be available to support any student who may have additional or need additional assurances and assistance." The mention of counseling was presented with no contact information for parents to access those resources. No district representative came forward to help families with questions and no direction of who in law enforcement, Carlsbad PD or sheriffs would be leading any

100investigation that followed. A month later, it is still not confirmed if there was or still is an investigation ongoing. Even our own school administration when presented with concerns from families who requested more follow-up communication were told any additional communication was not necessary. Last year, Sano Middle School experienced a similar scenario and families I know there have expressed the same frustrations with transparent communication. This shows a gap in our district's communication protocols. I will close with a recent example of how I hope this district changes their communication to those horrific events. Last week, a friend who lives in another San Diego County district received an email from their their children's school talking about a threatening message that was found in the bathroom. The email listed out where it was found, what steps were being taken, and

101provided contact resources for parents to reach out, including the principal, the school district, the local law enforcement. They acknowledged an investigation was in place. The next day, a follow-up email was sent with more detailed response to help alleviate the family's concerns in sending their kids back to school once the event had been fully vetted. I hope after two events in our own district, this will bring about communication changes to our protocol. Thank you so much for your time and I do appreciate all you've done for our schools. >> Normie Norm. >> Well, good evening board and Dr. Andy. Good to be here again. Uh I'm going to be short and sweet because a lot of information is passed out. You all have the packet uh for our annual uh student speaker contest. I was here

102last year at the same time and I only had one student participate and it was a daughter of your board member and I thought she did very well. But you know we'd like to see four to five to even six people. So the reason coming to the school board in the past I used to do it just go to the high schools and everything but uh we need to get make encourage the board and and administration to get the ASBs the uh the uh debate classes and everything get them involved in in these uh student speaker contests. It's uh $21,500 is at stake. They can win a lot. uh their first trip, the first three elements are right here locally and it that's $500 cash. The one that wins the uh club uh our San

103Marcus Club will be on uh February 20th at 6 o'clock at the Boys and Girls Club. That's the first step. And then the zone is the second step and that's a $150 cash. And then the third step is a region which I run the region. in the region goes from uh Miramar to all the way up to Oceanside and uh that's 15 clubs. So uh we have a nice element there. So anyways, it's a good opportunity. Uh and then the after they in the 250 if they get to the region that's $250. So there you there's your $500 cash. the 21 and the 20,000 come 21,000 comes from uh it's all of the trust fund in the uh student speaker corporation in which they do and they have seven years to draw on that and

104whether they whatever college they go to or technical school they go to and it's all all that information is there and we'd like to have more participation. We used to have a lot of participation prior to pandemic and then it died for a while. So we're trying to get it back up again. There's a lot of opportunity, a lot of money out there. And listen to some of these students speak. That's all the speakers are already here. All they got to do is fill out a sheet and say they want to participate. Nothing. Other than that, great. Thanks for your time and it's always good to see you. And uh I'm done. [laughter] Can Can I ask real quick? C Can we get this like in the Peach Jar flyers or like our social media?

105>> Yeah, I will make sure it gets to um our principles. And when I'm looking at the title, the youth mental health, um I think it can go directly to like our Mission Hills peer-to-peer student program, counseling program. So, I think we have some specific avenues to send it out. >> Thank you. All high school. >> I think there's there's different ages. >> Looks like grades 9 through 12. >> 9 through 12. Yeah. >> John Moer. Good evening board audience. Um, for the record, I'm John Moer with San Marcos Mobile Home Residence Association. Um, I want to thank the board for supporting me and and working with our schools um and students to to blend our our senior knowledge with everybody. We're looking forward to this next year and actually getting some programs going forward.

106Dale has reached out to me. Well, he just left, but he'll be back to also incorporate the teachers, which will be good. I understand I need them for the clubs, too. Um, the reason I I decided to talk tonight is because I had Carolina with our sheriff's department reach out to me this morning and she let me know there's been an uptick in senior scams here in San Diego County. Um, and she wanted to get the word out to everybody they could. So everybody here, depend on age, parent, grandparent, greatgrandparent, please tell them to be careful on the phone. A lot of it's coming with phone calls and convincing people to send money. Um, I reached out to one of my mobile home parks and they let me know they'd already had two different examples

107of something recently that people had buying gift cards and other stuff. Um, I went down to the North County Transit District board meeting earlier, talked to them and all the leaders there, and I've hit everybody in our city, all the council members and our city manager. So, I'm I'm spreading the word as much as I can. Um, one thing I would say is all of you speakers, I'm very impressed. I've seen you a couple times now. Um, so I would apply. Um, and the one thing I have learned, I I used to think it was just something people said about one person making a difference. You can um, also there's boards and commissions in the city. As you go through stuff, if you have interest, look at them. Um, even take a look at what

108our city does now. I wish I would have done it 50 years ago and really understand how things work. And there's a youth commission our city has. if you guys aren't on it, it's worth looking into and share that with your friends. Thanks. Couple of quick comments if I may before we move on. So, first of all, yes, thank you. Uh and the senior scam thing is a real is a real deal. Um se several of us up here on the Dios have had family members who have uh been involved in some of those and it's scary. So, thank you for your advocacy there and we were going to work on making sure we get some speakers for you. Thank you very very much for your partnership. appreciate that. Uh just with a very quick

109notice um I know this is not an agendaized topic so it's not for board discussion but I do want to say that with respect to um emergencies and crisis communication that we take that really really really seriously. I know the board is aware we've put a number of systems in place um electronic systems for rapid um rapid communication to our families. I I will say that one of the tricky things for us as a school district is that anytime that um law enforcement is involved as soon as law enforcement is on the scene the district takes the back seat. we are in a resp we're in the we we're they are in the lead. Um and so we have to rely on their cues for what communication can go out, when it can go out.

110Um our PIO Christine monitors her uh text messages and the the exact times they go out, how many get opened, the text messages, the emails, she's on it, she drops everything. I'm very very pleased with the response uh timing that we have. Um, and we do generally when there's a when there's a um an event at a school, obviously it's unsettling. I should I should lead with that. It's it's always unsettling as a parent. It's your worst nightmare that something's going to happen while your students are at school. So, um it's it's really important to us. Um and uh the that we have two schools in the Carl'sbad city limits which makes things just a little bit more challenging sometimes because when the law enforcement is responding sometimes Carl'sbad responds and San Marcos responds because

111there are schools and then we don't have any role in how they are working out who has jurisdiction and who's taking the lead uh on the law enforcement side. So that's something that's not within our control. Um but then we last thing I will say is that um we know that the relationships the strongest relationships are at school sites which is why we do direct families u back to the administration and the counseling services at at the school sites because that's where the relationships are but know that our district team isn't 100% uh behind the scenes working very closely with our school sites on the responses and on the on the services that are provided to students and in the in the follow-up for some of these things. And last thing I will say without

112disclosing details is that I have seen through the course of my 31-year career these types of things I will just again without disclosing details because I'm not allowed to the some of the things that that are happening now that we're aware of 25 years ago an administrator would find a note and throw it in the trash because you you know 100% that it's not anything we're living in postco we're living in post uh ualdi we're living in a in a climate where we just can't do that right so every single thing is taken seriously um and I will just tell you on a gut level you you you just you know as an experienced administrator that that um that they're it's going to result in it's going to result in nothing but you always take

113it seriously so I don't know if Dr. Camp has anything? Yeah, you're the head of the response team. >> Think that um the the issue is that every time it's terrifying and parents don't know what's going on and every time that something like this happens, it's an opportunity to look at our communication, say, you know what, how can we do it better? Um and so I think that that's my takeaway is, you know, how can we do it better so that um you know we have our process. But you know what? Then you hear, you know, you hear something like this. And I think that as a parent who's who's gotten these these messages um that you know you you don't know what what is going on with your kid and you really want to

114have more communication about what the issue really is, you know, and so I think it's just an opportunity to to review and to try to make it as clear as we can with parents as as we're able. Um yeah, kind of what I >> No, I agree with you and and I would say I want it's important that the board knows that after every single incident, our team debriefs exactly what you said. We go through every single step. We look at timestamps on the messages, the exact wording that was used is always with that eye to is there anything better we can do? Um and again, when law enforcement is in charge and when law enforcement is doing investigations, they're going to tell us you can say this much and you can't say anymore. And

115so we go up to that line and then we add our empathy and the supports and the counseling and it's not dissimilar from the the personnel items that we that we can yeah there's a limit to what we can share but but absolutely we are always looking to make sure we're doing the very best we can. >> Um all right uh we are going to move on to presentations 7.2 strategic promise update goals one and two CTE pathway update uh and that is Christine Furrow and While our two ladies are working their way up, I'll do um in way of a little introduction. Um Miss Corral is our coordinator of CTE and future readiness. Miss Donna is our director of constru uh curriculum and instruction. Um they're going to give us a bit of a

116deep dive into our um education pathways, our CTE education pathways. Um much of the presentation will look at our agricultural program and our in our floral design class. Uh we all three will be available for questions from the board um either during or after the presentation. >> Absolutely. Good evening, President Carlson, Vice President Martine, governing board members, Dr. Johnson, executive cabinet members, audience members. Again, my name is Nikki Dur. I'm the director of curriculum instruction for San Marcus Unified. I am thrilled to be here tonight. Let me do my little slideshow. Um to share an update about our strategic promise. I'm here to highlight goal one and goal two which is our promise to our students and our community is to provide rich and engaging relevant learning experiences that are grounded in student interest and

117strengths. These experience promote academic, social, emotional and physical well-being. And all of this this is that so that our students are able to make informed and educated decisions about their post-secary careers and futures that they choose and that they graduate from us future ready. Tonight you will hear about how career technical education is meeting this promise. >> [snorts] >> Career technical education connects learning to real life by providing students with the opportunity to explore and engage in potential industries while in high school through rigorous academics, hands-on learning, industry partnerships, and early college credit. CTE expands access to opportunity and prepare students with skills, credentials, confidence needed to participate in the 21st century workforce. This is a strategic investment that we are making in both our students and our community to ensure that our graduates are

118future ready and our district remains responsive to an everchanging economy. Selecting a new pathway or industry sector is done thoughtfully and strategically. We look through our labor market demands. What careers are on the rise? We look at high wage, high demand careers. We want our students engaged in livable wages. We speak with our students about their interests and their thoughts for their future. We explore our teacher talent. We connect with our local businesses for support, internship, and advisory. We partner with our local community colleges and universities so that students do not have to decide between college or career, but they can select both. This process, our pathways are developed, they are strengthened, and they are expanded. I am so lucky and honored to work alongside Dr. Christine Carrero. She is our coordinator of future readiness

119and CTE. And tonight she will take you through an overview of the CTE program, the phenomenal things that are happening in our school year this year and our vision as we look towards the future. I have one quick question. I don't know how to advance the Okay, thanks. [laughter] I'm new to being up on up on this stage. Um, thank you so much. Um, I appreciate all your time this evening. Uh I'm going to take you a quick overview of our career technical education programs here in our district. Um we currently offer nine industry sectors. Um we've also got 17 individual pathways across our district. Um we offer career technical education at our middle schools as well as our high schools. Um and alongside that we also offer CTSOs which are um clubs that are

120related to some of our different pathways and some of the different career opportunities. So, we currently h offer those such as Skills USA, FFA, um, uh, HOSA, and a few others that we're, um, also looking to implement in the coming years. We currently offer, uh, internship programs across the district. So, both of our high schools currently offer the opportunity for all students to participate in an internship, whether they're enrolled in a CTE pathway or not. Um, our CTE pathways currently consist of two classes, a concentrator and a capstone. So, in order for a student to be a a CTE completer, they just need to complete those two classes. And we currently have uh 2900 students who are participating in CTE. Um, and an exciting statistic, uh, I just came across the other day, 70% of

121our graduating class, our most recent graduating class had participated in CTE in some way, whether it be with one classes or as a CTE completer. So really, we're talking about a majority of students in our district participating in these programs. We also currently have 37 CTE teachers across the district. So I'm going to share some of the new things that are happening uh that happened this year and then some of the programming that's going to be on the horizon for the future. So new this year um we started a pathway in cyber security offered at uh through dual enrollment with Cal State San Marcos uh at Mission Hills High School. We'd actually tried to create a cyber security pathway prior and really couldn't get the enrollment. The students had didn't have the level of interest

122that we were hoping for. However, this year, whether it's uh just talk around uh the world about the the high need for cyber security and even in our own district, um we started off the pathway this year with with a full class of almost 40 students. Um so, we're excited to see that continue to to roll out. The way in which it works is obviously colleges are on the semester schedule. So, students take uh one course the first semester and the second course the second semester. So, they're actually able to earn a total of six uh college credits in cyber security um over the course of this year and then they'll be able to earn an additional six credits the following year. The reason this is so exciting is because CalState San Marcos offers a

123three-year bachelor's degree program in cyber security. So, for our students coming out of Cal uh San Marcos Unified, they can transfer to CalState San Marco having a big chunk of those credits towards a three-year degree already out of the way. Another program we're offering right now um is also a dual enrollment course with CalState St. Marcos in game design. We were the recipients of the SSP, specialized uh secondary programs grant uh which awarded us the opportunity to create two new courses in game design. We did that in partnership with the computer science department at Cal State San Marcos um who's looking to create a minor in game design. Uh we're actually piloting the classes for them first and we were also able to use funding from that to create um a game lab and esports

124uh room for uh San Marcos High School. And lastly, it also has allowed us to pro provide some student mentorship to the students at San Marcos Elementary. So San Marcos Elementary has gotten really excited about game design and esports. They've created their own gaming lab and our older students are now able to provide some mentorship to them. We also created a mental health and behavioral health pathway at Mission Hills High School this year. Um it's centered on peer counseling. Again, it's also partnered through CalState San Marcos. We've found them to be really open, welcoming, and an incredible partner for us. Um and so that is through their Swift program, which is again another three-year bachelor's degree program in mental health coaching. So again, our students are able to earn those credits that are really going

125to get them uh down the road um towards a an already accelerated program. We've also uh offered the internship course that I mentioned before for students interested in pursuing internship opportunities. We expect that to grow in the coming years. We've had high interest in that. Um, some of our most popular CTE classes are ones that allow students to go off-campus, offers them a work-based learning opportunity and the opportunity to really do. That's what we hear from a lot of our students is, "I want to do the thing. I want to go out and I want to really participate in the world of work." Um, next, we also offer uh an engineering technology pathway. So, this is um a new offering at Mission Hills High School this year in algebra 1 and robotics. So the students

126participating this are able to get their um first year algebra 1 credit through learning about robotics. Um this comes in really handy for students like myself who were a little bit uh nervous around math. So a course like robotics really helps kind of allow them to dig into the areas that u might excite them as well as get the credits that they need in order to be successful um in their their general education math courses. Uh we also started an environmental engineering pathway this year. Um it's the course uh the first course is focusing on alternative energy and green architecture. Um this is part of our kind of efforts to really explore green jobs and offer more opportunities to expand things like agriculture um and and environmental engineering and really focus on those jobs of

127the future which we're seeing a big increase in the need for for green jobs. We um have also seen some uh exciting uh changes in and opportunities in concurrent enrollment. We're currently offering the opportunity for concurrent enrollment, which again allows students to leave uh campus during the school day, go over to a college campus to participate in programming there. Um, and we do that actually through one of our pathways in um I call it HVAC, heating and ventilating. It's uh the air conditioning one. Um and we also offered uh Twin Oak students the opportunity to go take autoshop courses at Palomar, which has been something that's been requested across the district. So, we're hoping to capitalize on that um and maybe make opportunities for students at San Barkros High and Mission Hills High in the

128coming years. And then also child development. So, that was something that they really um were hoping for to be able to offer at Twin Oaks High School because they're a smaller population. They didn't have the class sites, but through concurrent enrollment, we can make that a reality. Next up, um our criminal justice program was uh quite the award winner. Um we were off we were awarded the classrooms of the future foundation for teachers of the year. Um both of our teachers last year won the award together jointly. Um and then our uh program at San Marcos High earned the National Program of Excellence from the Law and Public Safety Education Network and was uh myself and the teacher there uh Mr. G presented at the CTE conference in Palm Springs. Um and we got a

129lot of a lot of positive feedback. I think it was a great opportunity for Mr. G to really get the opportunity to showcase this program. So, what's on the horizon? What is coming new? Um, one is that our health careers um exploration and health careers pathways, we hope to expand those opportunities for our youngest younger students. So, we're looking to offer our health science and medical terminology, patient care pathways to our eighth grade students. We're trying to find opportunities across the district in our middle schools to allow middle school students to be able to begin their pathways in eighth grade. Um, that is allowable. And so because we have our career um labs that allow students to um explore many careers um in all of our middle schools, we'll they'll now have the opportunity to

130kind of capitalize that and begin the pathways in eighth grade. We're also looking to offer more dual enrollment courses um through some new partnerships with Mira Costa and Gmont College. We're hoping to offer students the opportunity in our culinary classrooms at Mission Hills High School uh the chance to earn a certificate of achievement through dual enrollment course credits. And then we also um h will have the opportunity to um allow students in the horiculture pathway to earn up to 12 units of college credit. There's a real emphasis um on the part of the governor to have all students graduate high school with 12 units of college credit. Um it's a wonderful idea but but bringing that to scale is really challenging. Our horiculture pathway will actually be the first pathway in our district that will

131allow us to achieve that goal for the governor. Next up is our translation interpretation pathway. We currently offer this pathway at San Marcos High School. We're the only the second district um in the state of California to offer such a pathway and we're the first to offer a college certificate. So students um enrolled in this pathway um earn a certificate in community translation interpretation from CalState San Marcos. Um, and we're looking to expand this to be able to offer sections of this program to Mission Hills High School in the coming year. Um, we've also, uh, had some good news in recent weeks. Our teacher and site admin from San Marcos High have been asked to present at the National Caber to tell them more about what we're offering with regards to our translation interpretation pathway.

132Um, additionally, we've got a new um, industry sector. Some of you have been referencing the business pathway. So um this is the opportunity to add a new industry sector to our district. So where you whereas before you saw nine, you'll now see 10. Um we've had a lot of uh high level of student interest. We have done some student surveys over the past few years um asking students what kind of pathways were a high level of interest to them. Um and the one that tend to to rise to the top most often uh was business and the high desire for that. We believe that this is coming from what we're already doing in middle school. So, a lot of our middle schools, as you know, focus on entrepreneurship. And so, because that energy is built

133for them in middle school, we're seeing that they want to they want to continue that. They want to really kind of dig in in business. Um, and so the new pathway will be an entrepreneurship and self-employment. Um, this will allow us to convert our popular floral design program um into a studentled enterprise and business that will allow them to uh create floral arrangements for uh the district, local uh customers um and really kind of bring that program to fruition as a full-fledged business. Students will also still be eligible to earn their VAPA credit for the first year of that pathway course. Um, one thing I did want to address is that there was concern that um, the course would be uh, not taught by an agriculture teacher. That is correct because this would be a

134business pathway. So, it would not be taught by an agriculture teacher. It' be taught by a business teacher. However, floral design is by its very nature an art form, right? It it's it is design in in nature. And so, um, that will be the the the medium with with which we'll be u creating the business program. Um there will also be offering a new CTSO. So future business leaders of America will be um offered to students in the business pathway. It will allow them to continue to do opportunities for leadership development just like FFA as well as uh public speaking competitions, um business pitching competitions. Um we've actually had the opportunity to observe some of these FBA competitions. They're extremely impressive. Um, and I have no doubt that, as you can see from our incredible

135speakers here, um, our students across the district who engage in the business pathway will similarly be able to be trained in incredible, um, opportunities for public speaking. There's also the opportunity for college scholarships in FBA as well as community engagement and mentorship. Uh, we're already in the process of planning a a women in business event that'll be coming up um, in the spring at San Marcos High School for um, students who are interested. We're also looking to in the future be able to offer early college credit and potentially the entrepreneur certificate through Palomar College. Um so that is something that we're looking to to offer on the horizon. Um next is our expanded agriculture and horiculture pathway. So we're building upon the current success of our agriculture pathway at San Marcos High and expanding the

136instructional program to the other high schools across the district to increase access to agriculture programs. We're hoping to offer dual enrollment horiculture classes at San Marcos High, Mission Hills High, and Twin Oaks. Again, those are those dual enrollment credits with Mira Costa College that I was mentioning. Students will have the opportunity to earn up to 12 credits as well as potential for industry certificates. Um, the courses that will be offered in 2627 are the horiculture classes 115 and 116. They are plant science and soil science. um they very much mirror what is being taught in the current a bio class and they will still allow for students to earn their biology credit as part of their high school requirement in addition to allowing them to meet the needs of the calgetty which would earn them

137the science credits needed for college. So all you know Cal State uh university students need to meet the requirements for basic science. These two courses would allow students to kill two birds with one stone, not only meeting their high school biology credit, bio credits and all as well as their college, which really puts students on the right foot regardless of what they choose to do in the future. A chemistry will also be offered. Sustainable agriculture will also be offered. Vet science and animal science. Students in these courses will all have the opportunity to participate in FFA, which we know they love. Additionally, we're also going to be in the process of creating the Agricultural Innovation Center. Um, our district was one of the um districts that was awarded the Golden State Pathways Program Grant. So,

138um, Golden State Pathways Program was a a large grant initiative by the state of California. Our grant, our district, um, wrote for and received the second highest award in San Diego County. Um, a portion of those funds will be used to convert a piece of district-owned land that's currently across the street from the animals uh animal farm into uh a full-scale working horiculture lab. The land itself will have an orchard uh crops and employ sustainable techniques like agroforestry and use of solar energy. Again, we're really hoping to have this be a place where we can weave opportunities for environmental engineering pathway our agriculture students in addition to other grade levels as well. Currently, Woodland Park Middle School is offering an a science class in seventh grade that's very popular. They love the opportunity of using

139this lab. We ideally hope to have this be a a place for um elementary students to engage in environmental um education and agricultural education as a field trip site. And then lastly, we've been working closely with um the special education department to allow this site to also be uh a source of workability um and a a job placement site for adult students during the school day. So, uh, we truly believe that this is going to be an incredible facility for our entire district. A real, uh, gem in the crown of San Marcos Unified School District, and it will really speak to all of the, um, uh, goals of our strategic promise, giving students not only the opportunity to um, achieve uh, well within their their courses, but also that opportunity to do meaningful work um,

140and create great purpose for their futures. Thank you. Okay. So, thank you. That was a lot. And [laughter] all sounds amazing. Um, I don't know if we should ask our questions about the design program specifically, if we should do that here or if we should wait until the information item. >> My thought is we should do it here. um while we have the two ladies who are well-versed and I will also add and chime in to answer the other questions as well >> because I have a list. >> Um I think you went through I mean I think you hit like some really good things right like I think that there was um some suggestions or concerns that um that FFA or egg are being cut back or whatever and it's really clear that we're

141growing the program. >> Yes. >> Um So I hope that um that that is is understood. >> I also wanted to address the concern that potentially it would result in in changes around job structure for agricultural teachers. So currently we're um expecting a retirement in agriculture. Um so that will allow for the creation of the business pathway. We don't expect to have any changes um in in the the staffing of our agriculture pathways. >> Okay. Yeah. So that was one of the questions that I had was, you know, are we are we going to be losing teachers because because >> we have no expectation of that. Um the goal is that obviously as we expand agriculture programs out to additional high schools that we only grow in terms of not only the programs that we

142can offer at a single site um because there'll be two available pathways to students um at San Marcos High. The goal would be to also be able to offer two full pathways at Mission Hills High and again ideally something similar at Twin Oaks again depending on enrollment. So really a lot of this will be about u when students vote with their feet they're going to be making those choices about what speaks to them whether it be plants animals or all of the above. >> What about funding for the program if floral design gets gets moved over? There were a few questions that related to funding um just the program but also their ability to fund raise for >> right. So, there's no reason why an FFA chapter can't continue to uh experience, expand, and create

143activities around floral and floral design. I know they have monthly meetings. They're welcome to to do floral activities during their meetings. They're welcome to uh, you know, take on floral design projects if that's what they choose to do. Um, there's also no reason why they can't fund raise with floral fundraisers. um it it really won't have any effect on what's happening within the business pathway um and what's happening with FFA. They're they're very separate things. So FFA is a CTSO. Um and we're talking about programmatic changes to courses, but in terms of what they can do with regards to fundraising or activities that include floral, um there's there's nothing holding back the FFA chapter from exploring those things. >> Okay. Um, how did the how did the change from having the floral design class under

144the a umbrella to moving it into the business umbrella? How did that how was that idea? How did it happen? And then like can you walk us through the process of um of um I guess like the input and the you know the curriculum and like all that stuff like how it got moved over. I think the biggest thing that I can share is that the goal was to create a business pathway and the allowing of the business pathway and using floral design as the vehicle for that is what gave the impetus for creation of the business pathway. Um I don't think that there was um concern about taking away from agriculture there. there's a robust agriculture program and we felt that offering them two pathways in both plants and animals would still allow for

145them to continue to grow agriculture classes, programming and their FFA chapters, but the expansion of a business pathway would actually open up um an opportunity to students across the the campus of San Marcos High as well as potentially across the district. Um and using Floral as a vehicle. I also can we can you talk a little bit either Miss Dana or Dr. Car talk a bit about um how courses are chosen or how pathways are chosen as it relates to the San Diego industry sector etc. So CTE is really designed about strengthening the the pipeline to workforce and making sure that we have workforce development. There's a really interesting statistic out there right now that our unemployment rate versus the actual students in school are equal, but it's about skill development, which I think is

146a really interesting statistic. When we look across the county, um every county has this. They have um priority sectors. Those priority sectors are um identified because they have 10,000 plus jobs. They are high wage. They are high earning. There is multiple career l ladders within. That's how they get identified as priority sectors. When we think about new pathways, um, especially connected to our funding, we look at those priority sectors because when the state awards us funds, they want to know how we as a county and we as a school district are supporting that workforce development through CTE funds. We also do a lot of talking to our students. Christine mentioned earlier about our student surveys. Every time a course selection is out, we have a CTE survey for our students to answer. So, what pathways

147are you into? What would you like to take? why aren't you signing up for a CT? All of those things so we can gather how do we structure our pathways better. And for the last four years in a row, every time we have a student survey is about entrepreneurship. Our students really want to know how do I you hear this sometimes that they want to learn how to do taxes. They really want to know about how do I make money? How do I do a gig industry? How do I work for myself? How do I have multiple streams of income? So between the priority sectors, between student surveys, we also look at our teacher talent. We also look at local businesses who's willing to support us in terms of advisory and internships and supports. We

148also look at our local community colleges and universities. It's really important for us that our students while they're with us have the opportunity to earn free college credit. All of the courses that Christine mentioned earlier are completely free. So they're earning 12 Cal State San Marcos credits. That's phenomenal. Why would we not, you know, capitalize on that opportunity? All of those things go into consideration. It's probably about a two and a half, three year process to figure out what's a new pathway and how do we change direct trajectory on that. >> Okay. Let me find I can't read my writing. >> Oh no. >> Uh we did that. Um okay. So how is this change better for for science students? I don't know that it's better. It's just different. Right. So, um I think it's

149I think it's um going to be a different opportunity for students, right? They're going to be learning uh the different business aspects. They'll still have the opportunity to design with flowers. Um and they'll still have the opportunity to um engage in in learning about the the floral industry. Um but they'll also now be given the opportunity to learn about the business industry. So everything from uh the accounting aspects to the marketing aspects to the sales aspects, all of those things are now going to be embedded in the coursework. Um and it's going to give them an entirely different experience. So um it's really taking what they were doing in floral design and elevating it and including and embedding the business aspect um in a new way. Right? So we know that um especially with what

150the the FFA students were sharing with you that that aspects of business are focused on in uh an A related floral class. This is a business class with floral as the vehicle. So they're really two different ways of looking at it. >> And Stacy, I'm sorry if I can just add one thing that I think is really interesting. When we say studentled enterprise, what we're actually talking about is creating a real business that's generating revenue. What's interesting about that and I think good for kids is that we are trying to design a salary schedule for our students. Right now, our peer counselors at Mission Hills High School actually earn a paycheck when they are servicing and counseling their peers in the same way that this floral business will create a revenue where students when they're

151working in the shop, if you will, will actually earn a paycheck and be able to raise that social mobility. So when we talk about is it better or or how is it different that's one of the aspects I think is really unique to this idea that we're also focused on how do we raise the social mobility of our community by pro by providing these opportunities. >> Uh will students still have access to FFA and ACT classes? I think you already said the answer is yes because they can take a science or or whatever. So they they're not leaving FFA, they're getting it through a different class. >> Floral design will no longer be a AD class for FFA chapters. You have to be in an agricultural science class. So if they don't take the the

152capstone, one of the capstones for one of the pathways right now is floral. So if they took a bio or a KIM or vet science, they're in an A class, they can be participate in FFA. the floral design class which will move to uh retail floral will be part of the FBLA chapter. So they'll be an FBLA member, not an FFA member. >> But if they if a floral design student chooses to take advant >> Yep. Absolutely. >> They're also have another >> and they're also an FF they can also be an FFA if they're taking the dual enrollment horiculture class. >> Absolutely. Yeah. They are considered um when we put them into our cow pads, which is way too in the weeds for you guys, but if we when we put them into our

153system, they're categorized as an A program and so they get um counted as FFA. >> Okay. >> And what's great is that kiddos can be in the A program and now they can also be in the business program. So they can actually be in two charters, which is pretty cool. >> Well, they still have opportunities to earn certificates. >> Oh, definitely. >> Okay. >> So, I mean, I have a I have a couple I guess uh I'm going to say stuff. You guys can tell me if I'm wrong. [laughter] Happy happy to listen. >> So, as I see it, the um when it's all said and done in terms of our a pathway, we're really investing even more on it. You know, we're we are doing the dual enrollment. We have the um what's it

154called? the the newer um the innovation center pathways um and really starting to strengthen even more so and in investing even more so in our a pathway. We're also offering our students a secondary pathway to business. These students can take be on both pathways if I understand it correctly. So the what I see has um what I'm reading between the lines and thank you to the speakers that have come out is a lot of this is there's a pathways and then there is the FFA programs or club um so pathways being strengthened FFA as I understand it when a when a student signs up for the floral design class they get signed up for FFA which increases our FFA numbers. Is that correct? And there is a standing >> regionally in terms of the number

155we have in our program. So that is that one of your concerns is the number loss of loss of numbers. Um, and so when it comes to the we're since we're adding more classes and we're expanding the pathway, have we looked at that as well that the numbers should even out or break, you know, not not be as big of a hit to our FFA students? >> Yeah, we have. So, yes, you are correct. All of your all of your logic aligns. Um and and yeah, the hope is that as the plant pathway, the horiculture pathway grows, as the animal science grows, again, we allow children to vote with their feet. So, as many students that want to participate in those courses, um will allow them to participate in FFA. Um and so, yes, they'll

156still have all the opportunities to to participate in FFA that they've always had. Um and those opportunities are being expanded. And this also doesn't limit what FFA as a club does in terms of floral design, the classes, the programs, the fundraising. All of that still stays in place. That is not going to be impacted at least fit. >> Correct. And if they feel that there there is a need for more floral design, they can they can always do floral design activities within their FFA chapter. They're not limited from from doing that just because they don't have a floral design course. Um, I'm curious and the answer could be no, and that's fine. But I'm just I'm wondering if there's been any thought to like splitting the baby so that we have half of the floral

157design classes are on this business pathway and half are more of that a dirt type FFA centered or is that like impossible? >> I think as we're starting to do a new pathway, it's difficult to split student focus. I think some of the things that you probably hear and and um Vice President Martin, you probably hear this a lot in terms of student schedules and what they have availability in their schedules when we split things like that, we force kids to choose between the two and it's not very successful for a new program. I think the concern from from FFA, if I'm hearing it correctly, and I think you are as well, is is that if our if we reduce floral design out of FFA, our numbers will dwindle. And I think Miss Ami, you

158were actually pointing to the right direction. We have Mission Hills High School students who very much want to be part of um agriculture and horiculture and because of our facilities, because of our programming, they can't. We've explored a couple different ways of how do we bust kids over to San Marcos High School so they can participate and it never quite works out just because of our timing is so close our bell schedule. We have kids who are very excited about this coming and because of that there will be a new FFA chapter at Mission Hills High School and then Twin Oaks High School. It's right next to the farms. They go over all the time. They're super excited about the animals and the plants coming. We could actually start a chapter there. So, it's probably

159not going to happen next year, but as the program grows, I can absolutely see FFA rebalancing back out to the numbers that they have right now. >> Thank you. That's the exact point I was going to make is that I I want I want our students to hear from me and our parents and and families and Crystal as well. Um, so you're hearing a lot of details. These are really important questions. So we have so from my perspective, my seat, we have staff who's monitoring the grants and the and the uh the industry standards and all those pieces from the superintendent seat and he I've said this to you guys before, but I want you guys to hear as well. Um I had never experienced FFA until I went over the hill to um Lakeside

160and I was assistant superintendent and I was superintendent in Lakeside. I spent six years over there and I was absolutely floored by how strong FFA is. I had no experience with it. All at the beginning of my career in Los Angeles, never even heard of FFA, didn't know what it was. My six years in Lakeside made me an absolute believer in the strength of that program. You need to know I was hired here in 2021. One of the very first decisions that was put on my desk when I didn't even know their names was what are we going to do with this egg farm? Either needs to be closed down because it's unsafe as you mentioned um or we need to invest in it. And I didn't even take one second to think about it.

161I I told our business officer, find the money and invest in it and rebuild it, which is what you have now. So, I just want I just want the the team to know I I get that there are forgiving the students and families. I get that there are um there are uh potentially some short-term numbers issues, but the direction I've given the team is I really want this to be as best as we can a both and kind of a solution. I want to make sure we're expanding these pathways to meet the student need to meet the industry standards and still support our FFA um with when I heard that there's going to be a chapter opening at Mission Hills that I was very very pleased to hear that. So I guess I just want

162you to know that from my seat there is absolutely zero interest in phasing out in in declining any of that. It's all there there is an absolute commitment to keep strengthening this program. Um and I want to encourage all you kids. I've been I've listened to you for the past whatever it is three four meetings and you're you're just like every FFA student I've ever heard poised, professional, articulate and you have very very bright futures in front of you. Thank you for your patience. Um this is not in front of the board tonight for a vote. Appreciate you guys coming and I don't want to end the conversation if there's more questions for sure. Um but I just I felt it was important for them to hear at least from me that the the kind

163of 30,000 foot vision for this program in our district. >> I mean I would echo u Dr. Johnson's statements. I am so very much impressed with you guys and there's nothing but support from I would say I'll speak for the board for from us to you guys. Um but I do have another question. Uh do we have an idea of what percentage of FFA students are coming from floral design? Do we know the number? >> All the students who are currently enrolled in floral design. >> Oh no, the other way around. think so I know all all all of the students floral design are FFA >> but of the FFA students how many are floral design do we know the >> I think all of the students in the AD program are involved in FFA

164>> how many floral students are there >> do you guys do you guys know it's a third >> sorry I misunderstood the question yeah fural is one of our capstone programs. So, they don't start in floral, they start in the science class first. >> It's okay. Um, but I think we're trying to get >> Yeah, we're trying to get as much as we can. Yes. >> Third and and get our questions answered for what for what we need to do. >> Yeah. So I I heard about sorry shouldn't but anyways a third about a third are coming from floral for FFA are coming from floral design but as you were saying Nikki um floral design isn't the first class that they would take so they would start off in a bio I think right a

165bio a egg chemistry sustainable agriculture and or or andor um horiculture right >> so there's actually multiple pathways within the egg umbrella so you can do a bio into an egg chemistry and be a completer. You can do a bio into a floral design and be a completer. So there's multiple pathways, but floral is not the entry into the agricultural pathway. >> But it is the entry to FFA, I guess. Is that good? No. >> No. A bio is >> not necessarily. And again, I just wanted the big picture is yes. In the short term, there will probably be a dip in numbers. In the long term with the with the opening of the chapter of Mission Hills, it'll it should even out. >> Okay. >> So, two points. Uh vote with your feet. That's

166what she did say. Uh so course selection that's very key that's very key especially this time when you guys are doing your whole course selection those will drive numbers especially when doing the master schedule for counseling and uh the master schedule team to work on to your point and I I I've had that question about splitting the um [clears throat] our funding and the grants the CTA grants how will that affect their funing because if you have a a grant that's very specific, would that hurt that grant? Would it hurt the funding? What What does that look like? >> No. Agriculture is one of our priority sectors in San Diego County, so we get funded at the highest level for them. Um, when I came into the position that I'm in now and took over

167CTE, we really only applied for $250,000 under DCIG. We're now applying for over millions of dollars. So we have a variety of funding streams and agriculture is always listed in every single one of them and that's not true about all of our pathways. So an example is our um film academy because film academy is not an industry sector in San Diego. When we apply for our grants we are limited in what we can do with them because we're not meeting the workforce development within the county. Agriculture is one of the priority sectors. So in every single through K16 strong workforce seed tick golden state pathway all of those grants we always write agriculture into it and they've received as Crystal said earlier the the farm that got rebuilt the new farm that we're building now

168is over a million dollars there's a lot of money and infrastructure being put into agriculture as we expand the program so that more students can access what these amazing um Samar high school students have been able to access. >> I have another question. >> Okay. So the floral design program is funded. >> It was a part of agriculture. So it's funded equally just like all other a classes. >> So if you change the business, it won't change that funding. >> No. >> Okay. >> Um so we heard about the um the obviously one of the teachers is retiring, new teachers coming in. Design floral design is moving more into a business pathway. So, I'm going to assume that a bunch of kids take floral design because of the course content, right? So, and I'm going

169to assume now that floral design is moving on to the business pathway, that content may change a little bit. I'm also going to assume that with ornamental horiculture, and I don't know enough about this. I have the acid thumb, not the green thumb. So that's you know um with the horiculture and ornamental horiculture would that have some of the hallmarks or content that we have today in floral design that those students that may have been interested in floral design would also be intrigued or meet those you know kind of um because it's not going to be the same class. I'm assuming it's it's going to be a different class. the name the name stays the same but the content you know how does the content split like what does that look like >> so um

170they're interested in the design but they're also interested because it's a VAPA credit so they continue to get their VAPA credit which I think is an important thing to cont um keep in our minds when we think about a business pathway they have to have a product right we have to make something to sell the thing that they're going to have to make to sell are floral arrangements so there will be content and curriculum around how you design floral arrange arangements that can't go away as we're learning the business if we're really going to be a full-fledged studentledd enterprise that's generating revenue. They will have to meet customer demand. So they will be learning how to design floral as well as the business aspects as well. >> And so that's VAPA. Now if you switch

171over to horiculture >> or ornamental horiculture, what are some similarities that is in the current design? Yeah, in the current like for examp what are some some similar content that students might find in horiculture and I'm guessing does ornamental horiculture for example meet a vapa requirement >> the current the current floral design course does also need a better credit >> I'm talking about the the future one >> yeah I think >> the horiculture classes the 115 and the >> yeah I think you're referring to the horiculture classes >> both are uh horiculture 115 Sorry. Horiculture 115 is plant science. Okay. >> And horiculture 116 is soil science. So those will kind of be the equivalent of what is currently a bio. So no, they will not be similar to what's happening in floral design. They're

172they're separate things. >> Okay. And did I hear like ornamental horiculture somewhere? And is that >> you might have heard that word used because um that was uh that is kind of what the the current pathway is called the ornamental horiculture pathway. and it was made up of a bio and floral design. >> Okay, >> that's that's where that's coming from. So, currently we have three a pathways is how I called animals, plants, and flowers. >> Okay, >> we're going to be moving flowers to business. >> And then we're still going to keep plants and animals. >> Okay, >> so we're still having two pathways within the agricultural industry sector. All of our other industry sectors only have one pathway. >> Okay. So, it's it's going to be more science-based pathway. Correct. Got it. And

173truthfully, like I said, all of our industry sectors generally only have one pathway. A still is with two full pathways one of our bigger path one of our bigger industry sectors. So there's there's an exponential ability to expand. >> Okay. Um yeah, I think the question you were saying is like the part that we're taking out of the current floral design, is that part put in anywhere else? Is what? Right. like the the part that makes it egg and it's being substituted in for business is coming in instead. Is that going to be in another course or is that just gone? >> So the parts of the flower the the way that flowers are grown, how you arrange flowers together, that curriculum still stays. >> Okay. >> within the business classes. >> Yeah. Again, we

174have to >> um I was curious what grade do people usually take? like what grade that they're in. Do people usually take the foral design? Is it freshman year? >> It can really depend. So, um most students in the current pathways all begin with a bio in 9th grade. That's the first year of the pathway. So, students in grades 10, 11, and 12 could potentially take floral design. Um there's also sometimes uh situations in which students do not take the prerequisite class and are placed in floral design. And so there are there may be some students in the upper grades that haven't taken uh the full pathway. They've just taken floral design. >> Okay. Just curious if it since it sounds like it has been a bit of a gateway for some people that maybe

175didn't know that they wanted to do the FFA or something like that if I'm wondering if if we could just add something into the class. >> Yeah. >> Still business but to as like a plug >> definitely kind of partner with for the fundraising and whatnot. >> Right. I think the gateway is still going to be the horiculture 115 and 116 because that'll be the class that freshman or or lower grades will most likely be taking as their gateway. Um, and by doing that, they're going to participate in FFA. And through the participation in FFA, they might also learn about florals and floral design, again, potentially through fundraisers or other activities. um and that might lead them to then want to take the business pathway where they're they're learning that aspects of floral design as

176well. >> So they have they have multiple opportunities to continue to grow within FFA but that that initial >> first introduction is going to be in those initial horiculture classes. That's kind of where interest is going to be sparked in and the enrollment is going to be begin for students within FFA. >> Okay. But if they so if but once they current in the current status when they start the floor class they've already te taken a bio correct. So then in the A bio they can be an FFA. No sorry >> when students enroll in a bio they can enroll in FFA. They're enrolled in FFA. Gotcha. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you guys for having us. It was a pleasure. >> Thank you. Okay. Um 8.0 reports by board members. Does anyone have anything

177they' like to report? Oh, >> so sorry. So my question, we were just I was sad clarifying what Nina had asked about oral design. So there could be a split where design pathway or whatever business pathway in one class. >> So to be a CTE completer, which is part of our college and career ready indicator as the state measures us, right? You have to be in two classes. So if we had a singular standing agriculture class by itself, without a year or two behind it, it affects our funding and it affects our CCNI indicator. So it's difficult to do a standalone FFA I mean I'm sorry agriculture course as we need to be able to create completers. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Report by board members. Does anyone have anything they would like to

178report? Nothing. Yeah. Welcome back. Um okay. We're going to move on to the action agenda. uh 9.1 review and accept the 2425 annual audit. >> Okay. Um all California school districts um must engage with an independent audit firm each year to conduct a comprehensive financial audit. Um so our 20 242 audit was completed by our audit firm Christy White um and will also be filed with the San Diego County Office of Education and State Controllers's Office as required. Um, by January 31st of each year, the school district governing board is required to review the annual audit report at a public meeting. So, I'd like to welcome John White House, partner with Christy White, and he's going to go over the highlights and the findings from our 2425 audit. >> Good evening, governing board. Thank you

179for having me here. We've concluded our audit of the district's funds, capital assets, long-term debt, and compliance with federal and state law for the year ended June 30, 2025. Our audit is comprised of two phases. Uh we come out once in the spring for the interim phase and the year-end phase is in the fall. Um our audit is limited to but not limited to um but or sorry our audit is not includes but not limited to documenting and testing internal controls, testing state compliance areas such as attendance reporting and instructional time. We conducted a single audit over the district's federal um grants they receive. um uh and we tested one major program this year and that was a special education cluster. And finally, we tested all June 30, 2025 balance sheet accounts um along with

180revenues and expenditures across all funds. Um before moving [clears throat] on, I wanted to provide some context about responsibilities over these financial statements. The responsibility of management is the for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Um the auditor's responsibilities are to obt to obtain reasonable assurance whether the financial statements as a whole are free of material misstatement whether due to error or fraud and to issue auditor's reports that includes our opinions. The results of our audit tests are reflected in the independent auditors reports and summary of auditors results. We opined on the financial statements, the report on state compliance, and the report on federal compliance. All of which were given unmodified opinions for this year. An unmodified opinion is

181the best opinion you can receive from an external audit firm. We call it a clean opinion. There's no modifications. Um, page 89 of the audit report is a summary of the auditor's results. Provides all of our opinions. uh all of which were given unmodified opinions as discussed. Um overall for this year, there was one finding uh that was presented on page 90 of the report and we'll touch base quickly on that. Uh so during our testing of uh balances reported in the district financial statements, uh we noted material errors in the financial statements that required audit adjustments. Uh the errors impacted the following balances reported in the financial statements. The cash with fiscal agent and the crude liabilities accounts were affected. Um uh these errors resulted in the district not preparing financial statements in accordance

182with generally accepted accounting principles. Um just to touch base on those adjustments we had to make. The cash with fiscal agent um was an adjustment based on an uh based on the solar and energy conservation project that the district is doing. Um, so essentially the money sits in an escrow account, gets pulled down as the project construction and in installation is happening over a multi-year period. Um, and so it's a little bit different because it's not in the cash and county treasury. It's outside of that. So it's being held by the escrow and so at the end of the year that money needs to be moved. all that activity that's happened in construction and installation has moved uh needs to be moved onto the district books and the cash with fiscal balance needs to be

183uh reduced. Um and so that didn't happen. It's understandable. Um it's kind of a unique transaction. Uh so we just had to uh make a make an adjustment for that. Um and we've already I've talked to Aaron. talked to um [clears throat] uh Arazelli and you know they're adding it back making sure that it's part of the close process and we've already formulated a plan to to move forward with that. Um and it's almost done. The project should be winding up or winding down in the next year too. So it's just going to happen one more year. Uh so we'll make sure that that does happen to mitigate this happening going forward. Any questions about the audit report? Great. I just want to thank Aaron Arazella and their team. Um it's a pleasure working with

184them. Um they provide everything in a very timely fashion and um it's been a pleasure working with them over the years. >> Just two quick things I want to say. Thank you for your your firm's continued u uh support, not support, but um oversight of our of our budgets. And I want to thank Aaron and her team that you know what we get here at the board are are Aaron's highle slides that represent just the tip of the iceberg on the very very very complex and voluminous uh work that goes through that office. The audit report itself is over 90 pages. I've reviewed it myself and there's just a lot of things in there. Um it's important that our public knows that there are many many many layers of of checks and balances on the

185public funds that are expended in the district and we do a really good job. So thank you Erin and and to your team for this. Thank you. >> Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the 2425 annual audit? >> I'll move to approve. >> Second by member. Seconded by number to approve the 2425 annual audit as presented. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda for discussion purposes? >> I'll move to approve. >> Move by member, seconded by member Le to app. agenda for discussion purposes. Is there any discussion? >> No. >> Moved by member, seconded by member M. Uh, all those in favor say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Proposed new high school courses for 267.

186Okay. Good evening everyone. This is part two of our new courses that are coming to us. So this is that time of year where the board gets information on the new courses that are presented for our high schools. Um and as a procedural standpoint, we'll present to you for information this month and they will come back to you next month um for final approval. Um the guiding principles behind our new course proposals always aligned to our strategic promise. Goal one future ready students in particular looking at courses um in a broad course of study for our students that helps them to identify and build upon their individual strengths and interests to inform their future choices. Um and also that objective 1.4 for um allowing students to engage in deeper learning within their community andor having

187a work-based for uh work-based focus. Um the process um as was mentioned earlier that's typically quite a long months and monthsl long process um before new courses come to the board. So um recommendations for new courses come from various means. It can come from teachers, from students, from site administrators, district administrators. Um and then there's a step-by-step process. Um the course description and the outline is prepared by the entity um that is recommending the course. That course is then submitted to our content curriculum councils, ELA, math. Um our CTE have their own curriculum councils, our vapas have their own curriculum councils. Um so they're submitted to the curriculum councils and then to our CNI department. um they get an initial review and approval. Um courses are looked at for which grade levels will they be

188offered to um are they or do they have potential for A throughG status? Um and are they aligned to our strategic promise goals? If they are approved in that process, they are then moved to the secondary curriculum council. Secondary curriculum council is made up of those uh administrators that oversee our content curriculum councils. So um they go through another review with both course description as well as are they aligned to our goals um are they aligned to A throughG etc. If they make it through curriculum counsel they then um make it to the ed services office um ed services um myself Mr. bomb. Um the two principles meet as well as our CNI director and um our CTE uh coordinator. Um we meet with site principles. We are looking at it through the lens of

189viability. So um are there costs? What are the costs that are associated? Are there facilities issues? Is there credentiing? Are there credentiing issues? Is there curriculum? Do we need to purchase curriculum? Um our principles look at staff availability. It's one thing to say we want to add a course in rocket science, but if we do not have a teacher that is credentialed to teach it, it is not a viable course for us. Um so those two um measures need to be met. And if all of those things um happen, then they come to you for um anformational read um and then a final presentation for approval. Um this asterk is super important. Um board member uh Martin mentioned it before that students vote with their feet. So even if it makes it to course selection

190if students do not if there's not a number of students who are who want to take the course the course will not be offered. Typically um in the olden days it needed to I would say we need at least 20 to 25. these days 25 to 30 is really the viable the viable number um for it to be offered and that higher number is typically where we want to land. So we have uh five courses that are coming to you tonight. The first are some interest based courses. As you know, we have been working towards um with the advent of our strategic promise to really create courses that meet both our core content and are more interesting for students. So, the first course is an English course for grades 10 through 12. It meets A

191through G status of a B English. So, students will take it and get a B English credit. It is creative writing. Um, so it is a writing course but also incorporates um all of our state standards for um all all of our ELA state standards. So students will experiment with expressive and poetic modes of writing. They'll also look at all genres of creative writing as well as reading mentor text um in order to express themselves in their writing while also getting uh their English credit. We have had um a real push for creative writing probably for the last five years or so. Um and we finally think we have reached critical mass with both teachers who want to teach it and kids who want who want to take it. So we think this one is

192going to be a really interesting one for our students. >> Yes. >> Correct. Yes. whatever year they're taking it, they will it will meet graduation requirements as well as um CSU UC requirements. Um for CTE and electives, we have training and nutrition, which is a PE course. Um and we are super excited that it is a PE course that actually is also going to be UC approved and will get a G elective. So it will incorporate our um PE standards as well as um meeting A throughG requirements for an elective. So students are exploring both physical uh physical wellness and physical training and nutrition. So they are going to the big capstone of the course is that they are going to create their own training regimen that includes both how do I move and what

193are the types of nutrition what's the nutrition that I have to take in order for optimal wellness. So um it's going to be pretty cool. Um they will be doing a lot of work in both um strength training um doing research in nutrition and then they'll have to develop their own plans. um 10th through 12th graders, it will count as a PE credit in addition to a G elective and it will be a repeatable course if students would like to take it again. PE teacher teaches it. Yes, this is how they will get PE credit. Um, United Sound is an elective course. It will receive a VAPA credit um grades 9 through 12 for students. um and it will receive an F vapa for A throughG as well. Uh this is a course that's pretty

194unique where it pairs general education students with students who are receiving special education services. Um so our general ed students are mentors. Our special education uh students are new musicians. They work together. Um they learn to play musical instruments together. It's leadership for our uh mentor students and our and it is a real um integration for our special education students. Um and the goal is that at the end of the semester um they come together, they join the symphonic band um and they play a song at an evening concert. Um it's super exciting. It is an extension of our uh United PE courses. This is the next step of that and both will be offered uh both uh both high schools will be offering the course. Um and we are just awaiting uh A3G approval

195for this course. Um the next two courses um we have just had the conversation about if there are additional questions happy to answer. Um this is our retail floral and our entrepreneurship and small business management. So 9 through 11 for our business marketing retail floral class. This is the first um this is a introductory course for retail floral and then entrepreneurship and small business management is the second capstone course. The first course is an uh VAPA course for A throughG um and it will be CTE credits or can also receive VAPA credits for our graduation requirements. The second course is a G elective for A throughG. Um and it will build upon that first um course. And the second course really the focus is on the marketing, the creation of the the creation of the

196business um and really doing the kind of the internship portion of the course. And those are our five courses. Again, they will return to you in February for final approval. We will answer any questions between now and then, of course. Um, and then upon approval, the students will see the courses during the course selection process. Um, and if the class is deemed viable, meaning it has enough students, um, it will be added to the 2627 master schedule. Thank you. Um, with the training in nutrition, >> has there been any thought to tying it into the culinary? >> That's a great idea. Um, that's a really good idea. Um, I will put that as a note. Um, I think for sure as the class continues, it makes perfect sense. It's a very nice tiein. I will

197make that note. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, okay. So, uh, organizational matters. The next regular board meeting will take place on Thursday, February 12th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in the media center of the North County Regional Education Center, 255 Pico Avenue, San Marcos, California 92069. This meeting is adjourned.