3/13/25 Regular Meeting of the Governing Board

001Evening everybody. I would like to call this meeting to order. Today's date is Thursday, March 13th. This is the regular meeting of the governing board of San the San Marcos Unified School District. Please let the record reflect that all board members are present with the exception of member Ahmad. The San Marcos Unified School, excuse me, the San Marcos Unified 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 the by the board vice 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 comments is in

002progress, if you speak out, you are out of order and will be asked to leave the meeting. As adults participating in a public meeting, we need to model civility to our children and students. On behalf of the board of education, we thank you in advance for helping us conduct this meeting respectfully. Mission statement. The San Marcos Unified School District is an innovative and collaborative community providing an unparalleled paralleled 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? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States. Do I have a motion to approve the agenda? Second. Thank you. Moved by Carlson and seconded by member Mun to approve the agenda as presented. All those in favor

003say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Tonight the board met in close session and conferred with labor negotiations Dr. Joel Garcia. No action was taken. Next we discuss matters pertaining to public employee employment transfer appointment discipline dismissal release evaluation reassignment government code 54957 in close session on motion of board member Martin seconded by board member Heric the board voted to non-reelect employee number 47433 as a certificated employee of this district effective upon close of this school year. The roll call vote of the board was as follows. Eyes. Carlson Heric Martin. No nays and no abstensions. In close session today, by motion of Carlson, seconded by Martin, the board approved the settlement agreement and release of certificate employee number effective June 30th, 2025 by the following vote. Eyes, Carlson, Heric, Martin, and M. No nazs and

004no abstensions. Oh yeah, thank you. Before our student board reps make their presentations, this is the last opportunity to fill out a speaker card. If you wish to speak during public comment, please complete a request form located in the al cove to the left of the double doors as you enter in the enter the boardroom. Please complete a white speaker form if the item you w wish to speak about is on the agenda and a blue speaker form if the item you wish to speak about is not on the agenda. Please ensure that the speaker form is placed in the designated bin in the al cove. [clears throat] Excuse me. Reports by student representatives. Hello, my name is Sydney Cork and I'm the San Marcos High School student board representative. I'm going to talk about

005some sports first. So, first off, we have girls basketball and our Lady Knights have an overall record of 17 wins and nine losses. They are undefeated in league and they have won the Valley League Championship. Next we have boys basketball and they just won the Palomar League Championship and they currently have a record of 25 wins and five losses. Next up we have girls soccer and they are ranked the top girls soccer team in San Diego County and they just secured the Palomar League title and won the San Diego CIF title. um boys soccer. Um their season came to an end and they had an overall record of five wins and seven losses and eight tats. Now we have um girls wrestling and our girls wrestling team competed at the CIF tournament where we had

006three individual champion and seven total places. Diana Darte is the first San Marcos girls wrestler to become a twotime CIF championship. So, that's really great. We also have boys wrestling and Allan Alvarez and Ty Westernberger um brought home the individual San Diego section freshman county championships and that was held at Mount Carmel High School and the San Marcos team as a whole took fifth place. Now, we have cheer. They just performed at the Frontwave Arena to cheer at the San Diego's Clippers game. We also have softball and our JV team recently beat El Camino 3 to one and the player of the game was the freshman pitcher Payton Banks where she racked up 16 strikeouts in seven innings. Amazing for a freshman. We also have JRTC and color guard. So our JT uh JOTC program

007just visited San Marcos Middle School to recruit future cadetses. and the color guard program also attended the frontwave arena uh with cheer to for the San Diego Clipper game during the national anthem. So next are some programs and events. So we I have a couple student spotlights for f for our FFA program. So Willow Kroger was the student of the month for floral design. Zyla Valencino was for animal science, Corbin Smith for agricultural bio and Melissa Aguilar for agricultural chemistry. In academic league, Mr. Mays, Miss Donahghue, and Mr. Norby helped lead the academic league to victory against Escandido Charter. Our novice team made an academic league history with the first time uh a game ended in a tie, but team captain Dylan broke the tie with his answer to a sudden death question. Then we

008have Model UN. So SMHS model UN participated at their third conference of the year at UCSD and we went against Long Beach and Chiv at Chuliv Vista High School and they won the debate on women's rights under the Taliban and Elsie Zean won outstanding delegate with Na Nathan Bartell's being an honorable being an honorable mention. Also Ella Tacket won outstanding delegate with an honorable mention for Addie Strong. Then win symphony. So they just performed at the CSUB festival and the CSUF band festival where they performed in a large in front of a large audience and worked with um clinicians to improve their performance. We also had the day of silence and that was on March 4th. So this is to raise awareness for those who are unable to represent themselves. We had minority clubs present

009such as uh and they h and they held out stick handed out stickers and then the groups that were there were the Black Student Union, Asian Student Union, Middle Eastern Student Union, and Catholic Club. I wanted to congratulate the teacher of the year and the the certificated staff member of the year. So, Mr. Bell, an AP World and AP Gov teacher and my personal favorite teacher, just won certificated teacher of the year for San Marcos High School for his leadership and support to his students. Um, the picture of Miss Adame is not loading. I'm sorry, but she was the classified staff member of the year and she's actually in my ASB class and she helps aid special education students and we love having her there. That is all I have for today. So, yeah. Hi.

010So, unfortunately the beginning of my presentation isn't as exciting as Sydney's was, but I still feel like it provides some sort of information on some current events we have going on. So, I want to start off with some student feedback we've gathered about our new cell phone policy. Um, so Sydney and I have been working with our superintendent's advisory council and at our last meeting, um, we came up with a few questions for them that kind of focused on our new cell phone policy and some feedback about it. So, we asked them things such as like, have you been more productive in class? Um, how's having like not having your phone um, in class impacted your work schedule? Um, and we even asked them to like come up with some solutions for what they thought

011would be beneficial those problems. So, some of the main topics of discussion when it came to productivity in the classroom was that students noticed that when they don't have access to their phones, the distraction is often moved elsewhere. Um, so now instead of playing games on their phones, they're playing games on their computers. Um, so while the policy may have eliminated the use of phones in the classroom, um, it still hasn't really helped in creating a distraction-free environment that we want. Um, it was also brought up that students hadn't really seen an increase in productivity and work eth like work ethic um or grades in response to the cell phone policy. And many did share that they noticed that certain classes that may be more engaging um that they weren't inclined to use their phone

012in that class because they were already doing something more enjoyable in that class. We then discussed some issues that were beginning to occur in the classroom because of the policy. So students share that they noticed more cell phone use happening because kids are becoming more motivated to sneak their phones knowing now that they weren't supposed to use it and that they don't really have the free use to use it. Um so some even said that this policy created more problems outside of the classroom as well. So now free time that they would normally spend in class, they were now spending outside of class at home, which is cutting into their homework time because time they'd already allotted to do stuff after school, they were now using their phones in that aotted time because they weren't

013able to use it as much in school. Um, and some even voiced that it was a really big struggle when it came to certain elective classes um where they needed to access their phones. So, as a student who takes ceramics, um I've also noticed it because it's a lot harder to complete certain projects in class now without the use of my phone. Um because we often do like research projects or certain like slides and our slideshow about different like ceramicists or the history of ceramics and it's really hard to do in class because a lot of the photos I need to upload get blocked by like the school computers and like the Chromebooks and everything. So, then I just have to look at a bunch of black photos with the teal no sign. So, it's

014a little troubling. and then it just creates more work that I have to do at home. And the same thing goes for ASB. I mean, we're very like social media related class and so not having our phones has been a bit of a struggle. So, we're trying to work around it. Um, we then discussed some solutions to the problems that we identified. So, students shared that multiple times throughout the discussion um that like teacher student relationships played a large part in um part in phone use. So oftentimes students who have good connections with their teachers are less inclined to use their phones because of the respect they have for each other. Um they also shared that if there were certain um exceptions to the policy, they wouldn't have such an aversion to following it. So

015we discussed that maybe being allowed to use like your headphones during independent work and listening to music would help with productivity and also show the students that you know we have some trust with them when it comes to cell phones and that that trust may foster more of a respect for the cell phone policy knowing that they don't have complete like unrestricted access to their phones. Um it was also brought up that phones are not to be used in instructional time and a few students pointed out that in the policy you know it says that phones are not to be used during instructional time which often um allotss for that entire class time but in many classes instructional time doesn't consist of the entire class period. So students often found that, you know, when they

016would finish lessons early or um they have like block day classes per se and we have breaks and they weren't allowed to use their phones, it was definitely troubling, especially I agree with the block day classes cuz when we have breaks, I mean it doesn't really feel as much as like a relaxation as you just like have to wait and do nothing for 10 minutes. Um so they were just kind of coming up with ideas with like if there were to be exceptions to the policy, how we would kind of work around it and make it work for all students and just make it more like I guess more like pliable when it comes to the policy and just easier to work for students because I think there's a few more things we need to

017consider when it comes to student perspective. Although I do think there have been a lot of positives when it comes to the policy. Okay, so I won't bore you for any longer with the cell phone policy stuff and um I'm going to move into some more exciting stuff that's been happening over at Mission Hills lately. So to start off, our Mission Hills principles of engineering class just finished a unit um of study on statistics, which is the force the study of forces between bodies, which I didn't know what that was, but I think it's really cool. So for their final project of this unit, they had to build and test different trust designs before, you know, designing their own as a team. So they performed various calculations and tests before competing with their classmates to

018see who could create the most efficient trust. and then they had a lot more fun breaking them down afterwards because they're high school students. Um, so they had been working on this project for about a month and they really enjoyed the entire process and so it was really cool to hear about how much the students enjoyed learning about engineering in a way that was like enjoyable for them too. The next thing I wanted to talk about was actually an event that happened today. So at Mission Hills we had our eighth grade welcome today um which is hosted by our ASB leadership class with the help of a few other students and staff members. So, we had around 700 eighth graders from all of our SMUSD middle schools and including some transfer students as well um

019come and do the welcome. So, that was definitely a bit overwhelming with all those kids running around, but I think we handled it pretty well. Um so, [clears throat] we gave the incoming Grizzlies a tour of the school and answered some questions and even held a pep rally for them and they all enjoyed hearing about like all that high school has to offer um when it comes to classes, sports, clubs, and so much more. Um, and they really had fun getting to meet other students from other schools as well and just kind of starting to make connections before they go into high school because I know that jump can be a little bit scary. Um, and so they got to play games and participate in the pep rally and they just got to have the

020full like Mission Hill student experience that we offer and that they'll get to look forward to. And then the last thing I wanted to talk about was our Mission Hill ceramics class is currently preparing for an event we have called Empty Bowls. So Empty Bowls has been a recurring event at our school and it's fun for all of our students. whether you're in ceramics or not. Um so students in ceramics have been working to create and decorate bowls for the event. So it's held during an extended lunch period. Um it's happening on April 16th and I would love if you guys came and stopped by so feel free. Um so our ceramics department works with our culinary department in this event too. So culinary students will create a dish that will be served in the

021bowls that the ceramic students make. Um which will then like then be like free to be sold to all students. And all the proceeds that we make from this event are then donated to our local North County Food Bank to help all those in need. Um, and we've seen such amazing turnouts and success from this event every year. And I really can't wait to see how this event goes, especially since I'm in ceramics now. So I see how see excited to see how it goes. And again, if you'd like to come stop by and maybe even buy a bowl for yourself, feel free April 16th. Um, and then again, as always, just thank you for listening and go Grizzlies. Just want to let the board know that um Trinity Trinity and Sydney uh facilitate the

022st superintendent advisory which was last week. What was last week we met, right? Two weeks ago. Man, time flies. Um and Trinity facilitated the conversation with the students about the cell phone policy. It was very open. It was very honest. There was some pros, cons, it was very good back and forth. Uh at the end of the meeting, Trinity asked, "Is it okay if I include some of this feedback in my slides?" and I said, "Absolutely. These are the these are the elected officials who enacted this policy and they they want to hear." So, we're taking all this feedback through the spring, as you know, and we'll we'll come back if there's any needed recommended tweaks to the policy, but we appreciate the students openness and honesty. I was going to compliment Mission Hills High

023School last night from their uh uh showcase that we did see the engineering and all those people out there. Thank you. Superintendent report by the superintendent. So, just a couple of quick updates for the board this evening. First, I want to start with uh last Friday was the annual Calpra uh Excellence in Communications Award program. CalSPAR is the California School Public Relations Association. So, this is Amy's organization and we compete for awards with uh schools, school districts up and down the state. And this year we were very pleased to receive an award for an award of merit for crisis communications. Uh the the team submitted a an award um recognition for the all the communications around the bomb threat uh last year or the year before. Man, I can't remember how long ago that was,

024but they did a phenomenal job and it was really great to celebrate. So congratulations again to Amy and the whole crisis team. Also, just this week, we got really, really, really great news that um our San Marcos High Criminal Justice Program received an industry certification from the law and public safety education network. I was there for the final kind of report out that the team had come there were individuals from this um kind of accreditation team from Georgia. The lead the lead guy was from Georgia and then they're from other places all with criminal justice backgrounds and education backgrounds. Um and so we were given this um uh this certification. It was really it's a really big deal for this program. U you see Christine Kareah in the blue suit there. She's coordinates districtwide RCT

025program. So she was a big supporter for them as well. I do want to highlight that uh throughout the report out from the accreditation team. Um Andrew Goolowski who was the teacher was they could the students could not stop talking about him. Now, the students weren't there for the report out, but they were reporting out what their interviews were like, and just they they were effusive about the connections he makes with the kids, the the the engagement they all feel in this class. Um the way that he teaches life lessons to them, and many, you know, they even have a couple kids who actually want to pursue a a career in law enforcement as a result of this class. So, we were super super excited about uh about that award. So, congratulations to that team.

026I also wanted to highlight um kind of where we are in the moment. There have been questions about uh federal laws that are coming down, federal executive orders and state law. Um I want to say uh by um way of introduction that uh in K12 schools in California, roughly 90% of our dealings are with the state. uh whether that's the CDE who is the the the administrative um uh body that that uh issues guidance to schools or it's the le the California state legislature that enacts laws that become ed code or it's the legis California state legislature that gives us our funding yeartoyear. So most of what we do is with the state and we're very accustomed to all those lines of communication. We do have interaction with the federal government but it's much more

027limited generally around title one special ed. I say all that to say that some of the um executive orders and the other things that are coming out of the uh the presidential administration now is is new for us. Um and so all K12 districts are um monitoring very closely and working through what these orders mean. So I want to tell you I want to tell the board what we know today because there have been questions about um what the district is obliged to do uh with respect to these orders that are coming down. Um I want to say this today is March 13th and so I can tell you what I know today. I may be standing here a month from now and have something new to tell you. Um things things may shift, but

028here's what we know at the moment. Um a large number of executive orders have been issued since the president took office. I think we all are aware of that as we analyze them and as we look at them. Um we are being told by our legal and political adviserss that most of the the orders themselves as they stand right now don't carry the force of law but they describe the policy intentions of the administration. So this is what um may be coming soon. Much of what is in the executive orders would require an act of Congress to become law. Um a couple of examples are closing the department of education. So there's been a lot of talk about that recently. It's been in the news. I know that the president has has um expressed his

029intention to close the department. That is that the department itself would have to be if it's closed, it would have to be closed by Congress. And as again that may happen um but it would be Congress that would do that. um delaying or cancelling appropriated funds that are already out and pushed out to school districts. Um again, Congress holds the purse strings is what they say. So if if the Congress were to take action to delay funds or to pull funds back, then it would be the Congress that would do that. Um so we are waiting to see what happens there. Um, so really the upshot of the whole thing is that our K12 districts are being advised to continue to follow current state law until such time as federal law is enacted or courts

030adjudicate particular matters that are going through the courts and are being litigated right now that would prompt changes to the law or policies. So that is what we are monitoring and that's what we are waiting for. Um, I will tell you that um, our goal as staff is to keep our eye on student achievement on our uh, strategic plan. I have given direction to our administrative team to continue their work on uh on all of our academic goals and on um making sure that they're fulfilling their their school site plans that you all approved in the fall and that we will continue to work with our attorneys and and when there's changes of law that come down then we'll analyze them. We'll figure out what what it is that's needed to be done and we'll

031make whatever shifts are are required at that time. Um and that's as much as I can tell you right now and I wanted to highlight that because I know we've had we've had some questions about that. Okay. Okay. Uh, finally on tonight's agenda, as soon as I sit down, you're going to hear from the students at San Leho Elementary School. I'm very excited to hear from them. I'm also super excited for you to hear from the Rises and Rises and Mariposas groups at Mission Hills High School. They are with us tonight. Very, very excited about the work you guys are doing. Uh, also on tonight's agenda, you know that we have tentative agreements with SMEA and CSA. Very pleased about that. And then it's March, so Aaron gives her second interim budget report. And I'll

032steal the thunder right now and tell you we have another positive certification and uh we're looking forward to hearing Aaron's report. Any questions I can answer from the board this evening. Okay. Thank you. Next, we'll move into presentations. We have San Elho Elementary School, Gary Pope. Go ahead. Good evening, members of the school board, uh, Superintendent Johnson, and cabinet members. My name is Gary Pope, uh, the proud principal of Santao Elementary School, affectionately known as C's. Uh, with me tonight we have our brilliant assistant principal, Mara Mloud, and our amazing student council representative, Vivian Pentino. You could scoot over here. Uh, we're going to talk first because we're smart like that. Uh, and I know she's going to steal the show. So, uh, just wanted to say thank you so much for allowing us to

033share some highlights of our school tonight. And I really want to thank our family, our friends, our colleagues for being here to support us tonight as well. I want to just share that seas is a really special place uh to all of our students, our families, our staff members. A lot many of our staff members have been there for a really long time. Many of our families have been at CES a long time. And we have a shared vision and that is that we are striving to be a dynamic and supportive school community grounded in the belief that all belong, feel safe, work together individually and collectively. Our students develop a passion and curiosity for learning and exploration. We meet students where they are, capitalizing on strengths and supporting social, emotional, and academic needs so

034all students are poised to excel. So for those of you that know me, I could probably talk for an hour on this subject, but I am we're going to limit it as much as possible to share just a few highlights of what we're doing. So first and foremost, of course, we are our core purpose is to educate our students and our academic goals are at the forefront of all we do. And not only do we we we acknowledge the fact that our core purpose is to lay a strong foundation for students to pursue their middle school, high school, college or career opportunities and and we are that foundation for them. And not only are we laying those academic foundations, but also within our portrait of a graduate to ensure that students are future ready, that

035they're good collaborators, they're empathetic, they're adaptable, and so on. So, how that works is we have our essential we have a standards that are given to us from California and our teachers have narrowed those down to the absolute essential standards that we're going to focus on. We there our teachers meet as grade level teams once a week and they look at those essential standards, how we're going to teach them to align their curriculum as well as how we're going to assess and track the students through those standards. So when we get together after providing those informative assessments, we look at data and our teachers make database decisions on what's next for students that are excelling in instruction. What's the enrichment? What's the extension opportunity for students that continue to need more instruction? How are we

036going to meet all those students needs? So as a professional learning team, we are in a continuous improvement cycle based on our action research. Here's what we want them to know. How do we know that we know it? And then what worked and what didn't and what best practices can we take away to continuously improve instruction and improve student outcomes. So some of the professional learning that our teachers have engaged in this year are on math discourse, social emotional learning, reading, writing, science and uh implementing effective interventions in those categories of academics social emotional and behavioral. So as a result, our students are engaging in tasks that are real life experiences to to allow for these portrait of a graduate attributes to to be to come alive. And so we don't teach them as separate

037subjects, but it's integrated into what we do. So if we're asking students to collaborate, we have to give them an engaging task for which to collaborate on or on which to whatever. I I ended with the prep session. All right. Uh so as you can see here students are engaging in some mathematical discussions. We have a kindergarten uh classroom or TK classroom that is engaged in how to be a good listener. We have a parent uh a PTO funded STEM class and there's some highlights there of students building a circuit and operating batteries and and meeting challenges and how to get the battery to operate. And we even had some of our first graders in Miss Haney's class uh figure out how to create a building that is floodproof. And so that's really neat. And

038of course, real life skills like if you take the mental the the model of mathematics for what a cheeseburger costs at in-n-out, what a double double cost at in-n-out. How can we figure out what a 2020 would cost or a 100 by 100 cost? Like I said, real life skills that we are figuring out at C's. And now to talk about how we are supporting behavior. I have our assistant principal, Mrs. McCloud. You, Mr. Pope. All right. Yes. So, at C's, we focus obviously we've got eight over 800 students and behavior is always something that we have to think about and we're all about positive behavior supports um at our school. So, it's really cool. Our school, the way we look at our expectations is we want to co-create them with our students. So, we

039have four B's that we focus on. and it's be responsible, be respect, be respectful, be kind, and be safe. And at the beginning of the year, we bring all of our students together in their grade levels, and they get to create what they feel is safe um at the lunch tables, what is safe in the restrooms, what is safe in the classrooms, and they co-create, like you can see up there, the poster of what that looks like, what is it safe. So, this one's a fourth grade uh class, and they said, "Be safe on the lunch tables, no jumping on the tables." Well, thank you very much for bringing that up. that will be one of our expectations. Um anyway, we go through all of them at the beginning of the year. Then we create

040posters that we show around the school to remind our students throughout the year. Um and they own it because it's that student agency. So I'm super proud of our um expectations throughout our school. Um another thing that we really look at is how we reward and recognize our students when they are following expectations. So we were fortunate to take our behavior team to well actually the solution tree came to our school and our behavior team engaged in great conversation around positive behaviors and how are we flooding our students with this positive reward system. And so they looked at our current system and we were open to tweaking a little things and we created some um ideas through the school to really reward the students for when they are uh doing you know having great expectations

041throughout our school. So some of those things this one um yes we do reward with some healthy we do try to follow the school healthy policy. However, you know, some things the kids get really excited about and they want to earn those eagle passes. So, those like yellow passes are eagle passes. We flood them with um soaring eagle passes throughout the day. We actually added class passes. So, now the classes are earning these rewards. And so, you'll often see Mr. Pope and I out the last 20 minutes of the day. We tell the teachers, "Go take a break. We take the kids out. We're playing whiffle ball, kickball. Might have pulled a hamstring doing it, but you know what? It's all for the kids. They love it. Um, we've had popcorn parties, uh, pizza parties,

042uh, Mr. Pope's walked some kids down to the town center as you can see here, and just we are all about rewarding great behavior, and you can feel it on campus. The kids are really excited to earn these rewards and, um, we have a lot of fun doing it. Also, one of the things that we've really focused on this year is that sense of belonging. Um we look at our portrait of a graduate attributes of sense of belonging um empathy and communication and we have had our teachers really take the time this year to dedicate to create that environment. Um like I said you walk on campus you can feel it on our campus. Kids feel like they belong at our school. Um a lot of that has to do with the way our teachers

043are engaging the students in community. So restorative practices is a huge thing that we're lucky enough to have most of our staff have training on and they dedicate at least once a week if not once a day to creating those classroom community conversations so everybody feels like they belong. Uh we also have our our curriculum adopted from the district second step. This is a program that our teachers also have promised that they will do in their classroom uh as a tier one instruction. So, our teachers are delivering the curriculum to our students. Our students are having really healthy conversations about what it is to be empathetic, what it is to be a good communicator, what it feels like to belong, you know, how to problem solve, what can we do? We we build student agency.

044So, students when they're having a problem, we always ask them Mr. Pope and I will say, "Well, did you use the community corner?" So the community corner is a way for two two students or three or four to come together with open hands and ask you know solve their problem on their own and if they can't then of course we're there to support. So, we're really trying to build that student agency, build that empathetic um environment for our students. And because of our step in second step secondep curriculum uh and our teachers are doing that, it also frees up for our incredible social worker to be able to uh spend more time with those small group students who might need a little extra help or a little extra love in order to uh you know

045be you know a outstanding student at our school. So, um, we're very fortunate to have an inclusive school where everybody feels like they belong and it's really exciting. Yeah. So, though that was happening in the classroom, I wanted to share a few for that same goal, how we're doing that schoolwide and and we could all um understand that it's really important that each and every student at our school feels this sense of belonging. So, we are so fortunate to have five specialized classrooms within the special ed department at our school. They are run by amazing people and the students in there are amazing to be around. It just brightens our day every day. And so, we want to ensure we really wanted to focus this year on ensuring inclusion for all students. And so, what

046we did was two main things. Number one, we have a parent uh group, an a parent advocacy group of parents of children with disabilities that partner with us about how we can make our school events more inclusive and accessible for when they attend, how how can they plan their day out, how can we know where to go if we're having a sensory overload, things like that. So, that's been a really great partnership. And we also our special ed team are is amazing. They planned an ability awareness week in which they taught had the general ed teachers teach lessons that highlighted each of the special abilities, how how students overcome them. We highlighted, you know, your your low incident, your high incident disabilities throughout the school and then the special superpowers that many students are developing

047in order to overcome those challenges. So, we also had an ability awareness fair this year, like a legit fair for the first time that we've had. And so, uh, we had we had several vendors. Each of our special education staff member took a booth where they were responsible to work with the vendor to bring them on campus or to present what they do and how do they support students. So, we, you know, our speech pathologist had their communication devices out so students can understand. We had our adult transition program within the district come on a field trip to our school and they presented to our students about American Sign Language and various things. So, uh we also had Love on Alash and Challenge Athletes Foundation. So, it was really awesome and we're talking to other

048schools about how we can expand that throughout the district. So, that's really really exciting. Um as a result, we just see really great authentic friendships that are happening on campus. We just see kids playing with each other, kids including each other in games and you know creating their own accommodations for each other and it's been really great. We also have a very diverse school. We are our school is made up of you know cult various cultures and ethnicities and what we love to do is highlight those and really bring education and respect and awareness for all of our cultures at our Seas World Fair. So, we just had it last year, which was the second year. This year, if you'd like to attend, we'd love to have you. May 3rd, uh, we have over 20

049booths already set up. And so, what it is, it's kind of a it's a fun fair for kids. There's a bunch of games and carnival stuff, but we also have our parents volunteering, some of our board members, too. Sarah's one of them. uh to to to run a a booth to teach students and families when they arrived about the culture, what languages are spoken, religions, uh where it's located on on the map. Uh and my special favorite is uh you also could purchase a food card and taste the food, delicious food from around the world. Uh which is really really awesome. So uh highlight there for us as well. Oh, and there's also performances. So we have various cultural dances, singing. It's just a really really fun time. And I would be remiss if I

050didn't just give a big thank you to our parent our parent organization. We have so many volunteers and parent engagement is really high at C's because we have so many parents willing to come. We have a very awesome we have an awesome PTO that raises needed funds for our STEM and our intervention and a lot of things at our school. As I mentioned, we have our special education parent council. There's so many ways to volunteer on our campus. In the classroom, we have a picture here of our art dosent teaching art. We have a garden in our school and gu and parents volunteer to be garden dosent. We also have the RAD dads which is one of our new one to for bring more dads on campus which is fun and also a lot of

051fun events like our winter concert um and walk to school day and lots of different things happening at our school. But to hear about C's from a student perspective, I'd like to now welcome Vivian Tolantino. Good evening, school board. My name is Vivian Tolantino, the C's class president, and I would like to share opportunities for students at Stanley Hill Elementary like me. I love being at the school because they always support me in any way that I want to. They listen to us and allow us to share our opinions and how to make decisions and make the school better instead of just telling us plain out what to do. We share our ideas and our principal and assistant principal take them into consideration. For example, I wanted students to be able to create their own

052clubs and have their own leadership activities. We created a protocol. I met with the admin and now students are meeting with their clubs on the regular. Our school provides various leadership roles such as the student council and CEN news. Se news is really great and very cool because you get to see it's like working at a real newscast. We also try to give back to our community as much as possible. There are campus and community cleanup days. When the LA fires happened, our student council connected with Marquez Charter School, which burned in the fires. We raised money through a coin drive and dispens sales and donated $2,500 in Amazon gift cards to help teachers restock their classes to make it feel more like home. In February, we participated in the kids heart challenge to raise

053money for the American Heart Association. We have several students with special hearts. So, this was cause was very important to us. Our goal was to raise only $8,000, but we shattered it by earning over $11,000. I'm so proud to go to the school. Thank you for giving us this opportunity to speak today. Thank you very much. Thank you everyone. You go. Thank you, Vivian. When can I cast my vote for you? Uh, next I would like to call up uh our program spotlight and that is from Mission Hills High School, Raises E Mariposas. I'd like to call up. Thank you. Hello. Thank you so much for having um giving us opportunity to be here tonight. Um, thank you to our board members, our board president, our board vice president for just giving us this space

054to be to be able to showcase our two programs at Mission Hills High School. We want to thank our um Dr. Andy Johnson and um Dr. Campbell, uh, Tiffany Campbell for just giving our students representation, you know, as well as our principal, Nathan Baker, um, for just believing in these two programs and believing in our students. Um, and also thank you, uh, Julian Ryan, our AP for being here, and also Eric Cruz, our school, um, counseling, uh, leader at Mission Hills High School. And also, before I start diving into the programs, I want to thank our Mission Hills interns. Um, Alma Barera and Edith Vargas are our SDSU school counseling interns that have been helping Mariposa program thrive. and also Andrea Mendoza who is here our SDSU school uh psychology intern and Edith Vargas have

055been huge in supporting oursis program so we don't do this work alone so as David Martinez and I talk about the program is just a whole team of people that uh just back us up and make things happen for the students um so first program that we would like to showcase is Mariposa and I'm going to have the students that I that came tonight introduce themselves uh with their name and their just grade Hi, my name is Emily and I'm in 10th grade. Hi, my name is Bellery Kio and I'm in 11th grade. Hi, my name is Natalie Rodriguez and I'm in 10th grade. And my name is Amy Gonzalez and I'm in 11th grade. Thank you ladies. Mariposa means butterfly in Spanish and is created in September of 2024. We wanted to start up

056a program that empowered Latinas at Mission Hills High School with the focus of self-esteem, cultural pride, community, and healthy relationships. We meet every Thursday during lunch and we have about 12 students in our program. We use the panorama survey that was provided by the district to pick the students to invite into the program. During the first semester, we focused on a Mariposa curriculum from the one circle foundation. Um, it was purchased through our site Alcap money and this curriculum highlights gratitude, dreaming about our futures, creating goals, the power of words, combating negative self-t talk, exploring opportunities, and pride in our community and culture. Now, this second semester has been focused on healthy relationships. The um the ladies just finished a fundraiser. Um, they sold about 545 heart-shaped gonchas, which is mex Mexican sweet. It took

057like 12 hours to make and they were in the culinary arts room like and they were working hard to create something new and then we were able to to and then the following day they delivered it to the teachers, they sold it to students, they delivered it here to to the district office as well. So, they were able they will they were able to raise $1,521 which will go to their Disneyland field trip which we're currently working on. Uh the students were able to attend a bario empowerment conference at Marra Costa College in February and then we're in the process of creating a community service opportunity for them to be to do this semester. Um we have been collecting data from the beginning. Okay. Um, and so we wanted to showcase how this program is

058helping our students. And there has been an increase in the following areas. Students being able to express boundaries and friendships and family, importance of community in their life. The huge one is a sense of belonging at Mission Hills High School. A sense of belonging within their program, within their group, and then a pride in their cultural identity. As one of the students said, the program has helped me talk more and open up. It also helped me meet more people and be closer to my peers and the counseling staff. The Mariposa program doesn't just provide opportunities to our students, but it brings transformation. The symbolism of a butterfly is transformation, rebirth, hope, self-discovery, and the ability to change and evolve. As students go through our program, our hope is that they're willing they're they're hope our

059hope is that they're willing to keep evolving and be ready to fly away and pursue their dreams after high school. So, thank you for your time. Um, I'm going to give it to David Martinez who will be um uh bringing up the RISUS students and show uh showcasing the RISUS program at Mission Hill. Hi, good evening. Buenes noes. I'm David Martinez, one of the school psychologist at Mission Hills High School, and I have the opportunity to share with you about Raises. We have the honor of having some of our Mission Hill students here. Um, so I'm going to have them introduce uh themselves. Uh, you can say your name and the grade you're in. I'm Edgar Wacha and I'm a senior. I'm Bana Menddees and I'm in 12th grade. I'm Anaka Cortez and I'm a

060senior. I'm Rodrigo Posos and I'm a senior. Renee Ree and I'm in 10th grade. My name is Jason and I'm in 12th grade. I'm Vasquez and I'm proud to say I'm a senior at Mission Hills High. Carlos Conco and I'm a senior. Uh, Miller Romero and I'm a senior. Um, Edwin Bush, I'm a freshman. I'm going to have Miss Andrea come in as well as Hi everyone. My name is Miss Andrea. I'm the school psych intern. Okay. I want you to be there and stand proud of who we are. Okay. Um, Raises, which means roots in Spanish, is a studentled initiative at Mission Hills High School created this year in response to supporting students whose close friend passed away last year. During this tragedy, we met the students and built connections. So, this year, Mrs.

061Martinez and I with the support of Miss Andrea and Miss Edith decided to form Raises to provide students with mentorship, belonging, access to opportunities, and cultural empowerment. Meeting every Friday during lunch, Raises creates a safe space for 25 students to engage in meaningful discussions about culture, respect, and emotional literacy while also developing leadership, business, and life skills. Through partnerships with local businesses, students enjoy donated meals and in an incentive that keeps them engaged, but more importantly fosters community and connection. Beyond conversation, Raises is about real world transformation. In collaboration with the district's career and technical educational program, students made and sold tamales, creating business plans, designing marketing strategies, and managing costs. Their dedication led two students to personally deliver tamales with me to district leaders and sit down with Dr. Johnson to share their experiences.

062Students have additionally been able to give back to their community by working with our CTE engineering teacher to create Christmas ornaments using a 3D printer. They delivered the ornaments to a third grade classroom in San Marcos Elementary. They wanted the elementary students to know that they are important, loved, and cared for. They also participated in the making of Korason Sagrados with their ceramics teacher. participated in activities at Palomar and Mira Costa Community College, visited trade schools, and even earned going to Six Flags in December. That was a little bit hard, but we made it. Last Friday during the San Diego County of Education School Counselor event, eight seniors from our program were invited to be part of a student panel where they spoke about raises and their lived experiences to approximately 100 counselors. After high

063school, some of our seniors will be attending community colleges, universities, trade schools, join the workforce, and some are joining the military. Along this work, we have collected data to monitor areas of strength and areas of improvement. We are excited to share that 100% of our students can identify a trusted adult on campus. suspension rates have decreased. You can see there that in 2023 it was 3.33 and last year it was 1.86. Part of our pre and post survey which was given in September and last month has students rate themselves from one to five. One meaning strongly disagree and five five strongly agree. Two results we want to showcase that show the biggest improvement are in sense of belonging at school and culture. The first one is I feel connected to school. This one went from

064an average of 3.05 to 3.89. And I am connected to my culture from an average of 3.95 to 4.1 4.15. These numbers are huge. We've seen the growth in many areas and the connections we have formed have been meaningful. I grew up with my father in landscaping and I learned that roots are dynamic and their growth is impacted by the conditions in the environment found in the root zone. To grow and survive, roots need need things like water, air, minerals, non-toxic soil chemistry and space. Just like the roots in landscaping in Raises, we aim to provide a space where we demonstrate understanding, love, respect, empathy, and a sense of community. We look forward to continuing our work with some of the most amazing, hardworking individuals at Mission Hills High School. I also teach graduate level

065courses at San Diego State University and research states that we cannot do this alone. and partnerships with community members, district programs, and staff at Mission Hills High School is vital. On this slide, you see some people and organizations that have blessed us with food, time, money, and guidance. We look forward to continuing this collaboration with our community. Thank you for your time and having us here today. Gracias. Thank you. Thank you so much to the students and you should be really proud of yourselves for starting this organization and and um really I think following all of our goals with Portrait of a Graduate. You guys are doing a great job and next time um you have a fundraiser, hit me up. Um absolutely you guys have my email. Um, thank you to our counselors and

066to our school leadership for supporting the students and and helping them h helping them keep this together. Thank you ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. You guys you guys did awesome. That's those numbers are speak volume. Those numbers are what we want to see. So thank you. Gracias pades. Thank you to your parents also for empowering you to be a part of this process. Next, we'll go ahead and move on. Or did anybody else want to say anything? No. Okay. Next, we'll go ahead and move on to 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 item that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the board. Per board bylaw 9323, individual speakers will be

067allowed up to three minutes to address the board on each agenda or non-aggenda item except for our non excuse me, except for our union representatives who have five minutes. In accordance with board bylaw 9323, public comments 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 comments received. Generally, if there are seven or fewer speakers, each speaker will be given 3 minutes. If there are 8 to 10 speakers, each speaker will be limited to 2 minutes. There are 11 or more. If there are 11 or more speakers, each speaker will be limited to 1 minute. One speaker's ta time may not seat be seated to another speaker. If there are more than 20 speakers, which would consume

068more than 20 minutes, all speakers who are not able to speak during the 20 minutes allocated for each item will have the opportunity to address the board at a specific time later in the meeting. This will allow the board to conduct the board's business during the meeting. Per 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 nor action taken. The board may one acknowledge receipt of the information report and 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. On behalf of the board of education, we thank you

069in advance for helping us conduct this meeting respectfully. Susie, do we have any speakers? We do. Um it looks like we have 13 speakers on one topic. Okay. Um with the first being Rosie Haggera. Yeah. In an effort to hear as many speakers as possible, each speaker will be limited to two minutes. All speakers who are not able to speak during the 26 minutes allocated for each item will have the opportunity to address the board at the end of the board meeting. Thank you, Rosie. Thank you. Thank you, XXXY Athletics for the T-shirts. Here are a whole stack of complaints for San Marcos Unified School District after a principal told a parent that their girl only had to undress down to their underwear in front of boys identifying as girls. Inside the girls locker room,

070boys played with tampons and mocked those on their menstrual periods or wore a see-through undergarment, exposing their male genitalia. Don't be surprised if you get a million views on libs of Tik Tok for endangering the safety and privacy of girls in their locker rooms and competitive sports unless you change your district policies. Now it appears you have violated Title 9 federal laws. Trustees Carlson, Ahmad, and M Martin. You too, Superintendent Johnson, for giving concerned parents the excuse that you're following California laws. As you know, federal laws trump any and all state laws. You know, just recently, Chino Unified su successfully sued the state of California and Alcohon Valley is next. The parents are rising up as well as they should to protect their children. So, I hope that you do change your policy and you

071um air on the side of safety and protecting all students, especially our vulnerable girls. And I'd like to give you this stack of official complaints. Thank you. Patrick Haggera. Yeah. I think it's an atrocity that you're even allowing boys to get into uh girls private spaces. you've had a numerous girls speaking up here, beautiful young women that you're allowing, you know, you're saying, you know, you're trying to protect the people. How about uh as a district, you do the right thing, moral thing, and protect the girls um from this atrocity, letting boys into their private spaces. Federal law does trump state law, sir Andy. I hope you know that. Allowing boys/men to be in their private spaces is irresponsible, disrespectful. You know, Stacy, Lena, and Heidi, when you girls were in high school, how how

072would you like a boy being in your private space? That's so wrong. So wrong. It's not right. And you know it, Andy. And if you don't do something about it, you do not deserve to be called doctor at all. Um parents, if you've had enough of this, then there is something you can do. Uh the US Department of Education launched enddei.ed.gov, a public portal for parents, students, teachers, and the broader community to submit reports of discrimination based on race or sex in public funded K through2 schools. Let me repeat that so you can write it down. It's enddei.ed.gov. And if I'm not mistaken, the federal uh the federal government funds about 10 to 20% of your of your funding. Your budget for the state is about $133 billion. Let's call it about 15 to20 billion.

073If you don't stop this atrocity, are you willing to lose that money for your students? Because it's all going to be on you, Andy. It's all going to be on your shoulders because you're the one that holds the power. So do the right thing and get the boys out of girl spaces. Mary Davis this real quick. Where's my timer? Is it Oh, okay. I just do I get a countdown here or um there's no preset for Okay. Uh good evening. Mary Davis here. I am here tonight to push back on the harmful ideology of gender affirmation which too frequently leads to permanent solutions to what is statistically a temporary problem. We don't affirm anorexia and tell girls they're fat. nor do we affirm suicidal ideiation and direct them to the nearest bridge. The data continues

074to build as to the long-term devastation being done to this generation of children via gender confusion harm. It is ironic that the county of San Diego in its lawsuit against social media robustly laid out the fragility of the adolescent psyche. I do urge you to read that complaint part of which reads because of the prefunnel corpex develops later than other areas of the brain. Children and adolescents as compared with adults have less impulse control and less ability to evaluate risks, regulate emotions and regulate their responses. The region of the brain uh is also central to planning and executive decisionmaking including the evaluation of future consequences and the weighing of risk and reward. Gender mutilation is this generation's labbotomy. Puberty blockers its quit hurting kids down a path of permanent physical, mental, and me and emotional

075harm. Lastly, obey federal title nine. Keep boys out of girls restrooms and locker rooms. Revol revise your policies accordingly. If you thumb your nose at federal law, be prepared to lose federal dollars. Thank you. Legendly Audra with um Gambler up next. Well, that's interesting. Don't touch it. It's actually not twisted in. It just slides back. Maybe not. Anywh who, okay, just be very careful. Everything is maybe we need to spend some money on this. Who knows, right? Um, it is interesting to see that we even have to have conversations about safety and the double speak that happens of you wanting to keep people safe, but at the same time putting them in harm to do it. You're picking and choosing who you're going to keep and make safe. And it's sad to see that there

076are parents of transgender youth saying,"Well, you know, it's only flaccid 90% of the time." So, right, what happens in that other 10% of the time when a young girl has to be in a space potentially to like Rosie was saying that, you know, just go down to your undergarments. The fact that we even have to be having these convers it is beyond ridiculous that we are saying that it makes somebody safe to make them uncomfortable and be unsafe. And I just don't understand. It's like what happened to just going to school and and and finding some education? It's an indoctrination center. It's a place to sexualize children, to make them feel unsafe, to teach them things that lead them to being, you know, uh, set up to possibly engage with a predator and have some

077kind of, you know, sexual assault happen because of the things that this door opens up to. and the fact that you guys want to kind of push to keep this in here and your policies, you are you are setting yourself up for some punishment for that. And the fact is is that you can never change your gender. It's not even gender. I don't even know why I'm using that word because that's a total madeup word. You can never change your sex. You will always either be male or female. And the fact that we are pushing to make people feel like they're crazy for having that understanding and saying you need to capitulate is absolutely asine. You should be defunded. That is why the education system needs to go. Speaker Gambler. Perfect. Hey, how are you

078guys doing this fine and lovely day? Gambler here. I want to go ahead and bring something to your attention. You guys are educators, right? Would you tell your students to grade their own work and not check it? Would you, any of you, would you ch have your students grade their own work? What grade do you think they would give themselves? An A? I would assume so. And if anyone wanted to check, let's just say the president of the United States wanted to check their work. Did you know they can't? That's amazing. I'm not talking about actually school work. I'm just talking about the election. Something much more important than all that. And you want to know who goes out and collects registration cards? Unions. Do you know where you get a lot of your money?

079Unions. Do you know there's a direct link between 2020 election, 2021 election, and your union? Do you know that? And you're supposed to be educators. You're supposed to teach us common sense. What are you teaching our kids if you're saying it's okay for the registar to not have her work check and then we're supposed to just agree with the fact that a study back in 93 we're going to base all our opinions on after all the changes that are taking place and you guys still want to affiliate yourself with these groups still p push their agendas seriously you guys are educators I want to know have Any opinion on that? Do you want to continue going down this path when because Trump is pissed and he's after the ACLU and I gave them a direct

080target. ACLU was the one that dismantled our election systems and they're doing it today. Go ahead and look it up. You guys are educators. You are smart enough to go ahead and figure that how they've been playing the good guy to the public and the bad guy to the to the public. they go to another state and go over there and go ahead and try to go ahead. I definitely understand that. Until you guys tell me to leave, I will leave. Your time has passed. Thank you. Appreciate it. Greg Denim. Denim. Good evening. Uh my name is Greg Denham. I'm the pastor of Rise Church in San Marcos. And thanks for a few moments to be able to chat with you. I have two beautiful daughters. I have two beautiful granddaughters, all of which are

081in the community. But I wasn't here last week. I just want to make a few comments. Okay, let me let me frame this. Look, there is such a thing as fact-based truth. We know that 2 plus 2 is four. San Marcos City uh is phenomenal city. Can I hear an amen to that? Right. It's fact-based. But when we deny fact-based reality, we open the door to non-reality. um when it comes to the issue of gender dysphoria and I think I heard one of you guys mention this and and I agree with you like it's it's real should be accompanied with kindness and compassion but what it should not lead is to trump biological fact and science and common sense that exploits the majority with the wrong prescription that biological males use female locker rooms and

082vice versa. And I was so disappointed that the majority of the board actually last month chose to promote an alternate reality rather than to demonstrate moral clarity in the times in which we live in which we need so much. Look uh needless to say big issue today. Uh, I think we need to ask the question, who's pulling the strings here? And I just hope our our our school board are not pawns of a larger, darker game that exploit the innocent. So, I just encourage you, I mean, be a Churchill in our time. Seriously, not a Chamberlain. Have moral clarity. Be fact-based, biological reality and so forth. And look, not to be heavy heavy heavy. I just make a point. um the most influential rabbi in the history of man and that's Jesus. Okay. I mean

083he underscored that those who deform the formation of a young person um will uh will will stand with the highest highest judgment. Okay. Not to be a vibe here but we all okay we all agree let's protect the kids and um and I hope that you change your mind here. Okay. Thank you graduates. Shauna Nland. Shauna and next will be Tony Crane. Good evening, members of the board, and thank you for your time. My name is Shauna Nland and I'm here to speak on behalf of current and former CNS employees about ongoing sexual harassment specifically perpetrated by one individual and the lack of action taken by leadership despite clear knowledge of the situation. I'm speaking on their behalf because they fear job retaliation, continued harassment or ostracization if they come forward. The harassment began in

084March 2023 when concerns were raised about an employees behavior and student workers feeling uncomfortable around this employee. The colleague who reported this behavior was told that the executive director of CNS, Naomi Shadwell, was aware of the situation. Despite this, the issue continued with the employee making inappropriate and sexually explicit cookies in May and December of 2023. The cookies were made in the school's kitchen using district supplies and were available for students to see for several days. It was reported to Naomi Shadwell and she was provided with a picture of one of the cookies that was made in the shape of a giant ejaculating penis. No action was taken. I have copies of that photo for all of you so you can decide for yourself whether you think this is acceptable or appropriate to have in

085your schools. In February of 2024, the same employee discussed in graphic detail sexually explicit videos. Despite multiple reports, no action was taken. By June 2024, following a one-on-one meeting with Naomi Shadwell, the colleague who first reported the behavior was told that they needed conflict resolution, while the employee perpetrating the harassment faced no consequences. In September of 2024, following further harassment and a meeting involving Joel Garcia, who walked out of the meeting, a formal sexual harassment complaint was filed. According to state and federal law, as well as the district's own policy, as laid out in the employee handbook, beginning on page 69, an investigation should have begun immediately, but it wasn't until November of 2024 that an investigation was initiated. That was 586 days after the initial report. One thing is clear, leadership has been aware

086of this harassment for over two years now and has failed to protect the staff and students. Six long-term employees have left now because of this issue. And just last month, student workers complained to out individuals because they did not feel supported within the district. Thank you, Shauna. Yeah. Dr. Johnson, can you can you give a report to the board and follow up on this? Thank you. Tony Tony Crane. Hi. Good evening. My name is Tony Crane and um I know all of us are here because we have a love for children and I I do thank the board and Dr. Johnson for being here and for your love for children and I know that's what your heart is leaning towards. Um however, the resolution that the board passed is is harmful to many children. It's

087titled safe spaces for all children and it is it is not safe for all children. I'm going to speak for a few parents that I know because a lot of parents are busy. They've told me I can't come. Would you speak for me? So, I'm speaking on behalf of some parents. My friend's young daughter at Woodland Park Middle School had a boy in the locker room and was forced to undress. She felt she was not safe and was very uncomfortable and asked her teacher for help. Um she was told she had to walk all the way to the health office at the front of the campus to change if she felt uncomfortable. And after that somehow the kid was moved out of her class. And her mom shared with me that um you know the

088do the girl now has this very negative um opinion about this other young this other student a trans student. Um, and the the mom had to try to say no, you know, you need to be loving, you need to be kind to this person, but actually had the opposite effect is what I'm trying to explain because this girl felt so uncomfortable and had to be and she could didn't even want to be in her PE class. Um, what she learned there was she doesn't matter. You don't matter. You have to undress in front of males or others and your feelings don't matter. That's what she was taught. We are called to protect the children under our wings. Reading from the Bible, Psalms 82:3. Defend the weak and the fatherless. Uphold the cause of the poor

089and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy. That's what we are called to do. I'm also I have a letter from another friend who is choosing to not send her children to our district. She says, "I'm submitting a formal complaint to you as a concerned parent and community member regarding the recent decisions promoted, and I'm saying promoted because that's what happened last meeting by our school district. And I love our school district, you know, that um but this this promotion of allowing biological boys to access girls locker rooms and bathrooms um is what was promoted. I understand the intent behind this decision is to pro promote inclusivity and respect for all students. We love all students. We know that." But she says, "I strongly believe this policy compromises the privacy, safety, and well-being of

090our daughters." She said, "We brought us a house. We bought a house to make sure our children will be safe." And thank you, Tony, for your words. I have made the decision to not enroll my daughter in your school district for parents and many of that as well. Sorry. Thank you. That's okay. No, thank you for bringing your parents' concerns. Thank you, Mary Ellen. Good evening to our superintendent and members of the board. Um, my name is Mary Ellen Cow and I'm a teacher in this wonderful district for 23 years, which I can't believe, but um, I love my job. I love Twin Oaks Elementary where I get to work. And I love the families and students that I serve and have served over the years. Um, I have two children. I have a 9-year-old

091son and I have a 14-year-old son and of which I'm very proud. Um, I'm here because over the past few years as a teacher and as a parent, I've noticed a push in education that concerns me. Um, and you know, I I just want to talk I did send an email to the board and our superintendent. Um, but I just want to kind of lay out briefly um what I talked about. One of the things that concerns me is we had a training um [clears throat] called the gingerbread man model which presented a progression of ideas about gender identity. And while these lessons may be well intended, many educators, including myself, felt that they went beyond teaching respect and ventured into shaping children's belief about gender, sexual orientation, and identity in ways that may not

092align with their family's values. Um, also there's symbolism in the classroom. LGBTQ flags are flying in nine-year-old classrooms and other classrooms. And I just want to say if LGBQ flags are allowed, then why not Christian crosses, Jewish stars, a prayer mat, why not allow all these things? Um, if we can't represent all, we should display none. Classrooms should be about education, not activism. A flag about sexual orientation should not be displayed in children's impressional when they're impressionable in their classroom. Student surveys, that's another concern I have. Why are we asking children personal questions about their gender, their identity, their sexuality? Thank you, Mary. We appreciate your time. We don't even ask questions like this. Are you transgender to other adults? It's inappropriate. Thank you. Right. Paul Mendoza with Alandre Alvarez next after that. Hello, my

093name is Paul Mendoza and I'm a parent of a student in this district. Some of the comments I've heard here tonight do not reflect anything I have heard from parents or children at my kids schools. I'm here to express my sincere gratitude to the board members who voted to support the LGBTQ students and [clears throat] and staff and also undocumented students. As a parent, I believe that every child deserves to feel safe and welcomed at school. When students don't feel secure, they don't show up. And this hurts not only their education but also impacts the district financially through lost attendance funding which impacts all students. The resolution you pass isn't just about inclusion. It's about creating an environment where all students can thrive academically. Our district success depends on every student having equal access to

094education without fear or hesitation. By standing up for our most vulnerable students, you've demonstrated true leadership. I encourage the board to continue prioritizing student well-being and safety in all future decisions. Thank you for your time and for your service to our community. Alandre Alvarez with Kathy Steel next. Hello, my name is Alandre Alvarez and I'm a resident of San Marcos with a younger brother in the SMUSD school district. And I stand and address you tonight because I care about the safety of our children in schools. And I care about the LGBTQ students who are terrified to go to schools because mobs of hate are demonizing them to be predators in their own schools. 83% of transgender youth are bullied in American public schools according to a study published by the National Institute of Health. And

095the pastor talked about fact-based reality and how we shouldn't exploit the innocent. But what about the innocent? The truth of the fact is that these students are victimized much high at much higher rates. The truth of the matter is this. Trans youth are more likely to be victimized and ridiculed and bullied than to victimize other. That is a fact not rooted in homophobic national talking points, but in studies conducted out about our atrisisk youth. Nowhere in SMUSD safe schools resolution does it violate Title 9 or foster sexual harassment. I implore you to point out where in the resolution it gives way for that. Individual acts of harassment that were brought up tonight should be dealt with according to the parents involved, the student, and the disciplinary actions the school administration sees fit. This resolution's entire

096purpose is to allow all children to feel safe because the facts are as follows. LGBTQ people are nine times more likely than non-LGBT people to be victims of violent hate crimes. When you quote the Bible and talk about rescuing the weak and the needy, what about the weak and the needy? And the elimination of our civil rights and protections for LGBTQ folk in the US puts them at risk for further victimization. That is what this resolution is fighting. To say it fosters harm is wrong, divisive, and won't accomplish anything. And lastly, a gay pride flag won't turn a kid gay, but it will mean the world to an LGBTQ student. It'll allow that child to feel relief that during the current state of the nation, a state that has normalized homophobia, weaponized transphobia, this child

097is safe in that classroom. And that is the safety I want to see in our school district. And I know that many, many constituents of San Marcos feel the exact same way. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy Steel. Good evening. Sorry, I have a horse voice, so I will try to um talk as um loudly as I can. Um, thank you so much for hearing me tonight and thank you for guiding one of the most envied and highly rated school districts in San Diego County. That's the top reason that people move here. They want a quality ed education for their children. And even though my husband and I no longer have children in school, we live in San Marcos and value education and the strength it brings to a community. Now we have carpet baggers coming

098to our schoolboard meetings and demanding we fix what is not broken. Their objections to San Marcos unified policies regarding men and girls bathrooms is grossly distorted. All these angry protests are doing is creating fear and division and diverting the school board from their stated purpose of educating and nurturing our children. The issue doesn't even appear in the board's most recent resolution. The school board is following state law. It is not a matter of choice. Kindly leave San Marcos issues to San Marcos. Thank you, Christie Fowler. Hello. I have a daughter that has attended all San Marcos schools from kindergarten to 12th. She's now graduated. Um, she's had a great experience in San Marcos. Um, that being said, thank you for protecting other trans kids. My daughter's not trans, but she has a lot of friends

099that are that she's met throughout um her extracurricular activities that she does. Um people saying that their children are scared with having a trans person in the dressing room or in the PE locker or whatever, I found to be false. My daughter has never, you know, she's she's done theater. She's been in there's there's trans kids involved there, there's gay kids involved there, and never once has felt scared or uh violated by, you know, changing in front of someone like that. What I do think is people would be very shocked if say a trans man walked out of a woman's bathroom. You know, that would look very, you know, that might be shocking to someone. So, the fact of saying that it it's all biological, um, I just don't buy it. And I would like

100to just thank you guys for protecting all kids, whether they're cis or they're whatever. Um, transgender, gay, it doesn't matter. Um, I do agree that a gay pride flag is in a flying in a classroom is not going to turn a kid gay. And neither is having friends that are either gay or transgender is not going to turn a child gay or transgender. It doesn't matter. What I'm saying is the things that you're saying right now, no, the things that you're saying are unfounded. So, thank you so much for protecting all the children. Um, I appreciate it very much and thank you very much. Thank you all for your insightful comments. We appreciate that. Oh, my apologies. These are other topics. Okay. Sorry. That's okay. Gambler on um agenda item 9 9.2. two 9.2 right

101here shows the union that is basically helping commit voter fraud. See, or at least mask it that you guys go around collect ballots so that the companies that are pushing your agendas that you guys go ahead and follow. Like for example, you remember as a little boy, how hard was it to control yourself sometimes? So if you're in a bathroom and all that stuff and you're acting like you're a female so that you could see girls, what happens if you get a heart on? Would the girl feel uncomfortable? Would you feel uncomfortable at 7 years old seeing a boy with a heart on right in front of you? Would you feel uncomfortable with that? You would, wouldn't you? You're I see a way ahead. nod right there. You would feel uncomfortable, but yet you're telling

102all these people that this is good idea. Why? Because the you because these groups that go ahead are committing voter fraud. And the only way that that will be discovered is a DOJ investigation. And when that DOJ investigation takes place, it's going to see all the unions that are participating in voter fraud, the unions that are pushing these agendas. And when that happens, this will be exposed to every single person. So if you want to go ahead and continue pushing those agendas, go ahead and keep on digging. Take away all your funding, take away everything that you have and be discredited by the entire United States because we don't appreciate this. The people don't like that. We saw that this last election. So if you want to continue going down these paths, you want to

103continue doing that stuff, then go ahead and seal the fate for this children. Take away all their funding. Go ahead and push these agendas. Disagree with the federal government. Keep on pushing. I saw you laughing earlier. How do you feel now? How would you feel? And how would you guys feel? Sir, sir, just to be clear, I voted against this. Okay. So, how the people that that wanted it, how would you feel with a a little boy standing at you at seven years old, how would you feel with a heart on? Would you feel, "Oh, I don't feel I I feel perfectly safe." What happens if he approaches you? Would you feel perfectly safe? But you want to tell the kids that they do, right? Is that true? Is that true? The people that are

104agreeing with this, is that true? You want to tell them it's okay to that they should not feel bad about that. A little boy with a heart on that he cannot control in a bathroom. You want to say that's okay. Each and every single one of you, I want to know that. Hear it. I You guys push these agendas. I want to hear you say it's okay. No. No more laughing. Yeah. All right. Next. Allegedly Audrey. This is for uh item 11.1. This says sex offender. Yes. Item 11.1. All right. So fact that well sex offenders this is something that we should be making sure that we are protecting the children from. Um it should be something that um you know there's inform like informative natures that are coming out of you guys to make

105sure that if there is anybody that is going to be a threat to the children or even any teacher or employee that you're making sure that you're not putting them in harm's way by not informing and or making sure that there is no way in hell that they could be near anybody. Because the sad thing is is that, you know, I mean, just San Diego alone is like releasing sex offenders into the communities, right? We just had one go into Hakumba. He's like 82. And it's like, well, he's not going to offend again. He's like an old man. Like, that matters. We're we're continuing to put our sav our our communities in danger by allowing things like this to happen. And when you open up the door to the things that you guys have been

106doing, it's it's making me question whether or not you would actually protect everybody from a sexual offender or would there be excuses that are made to allow them to be in a space that they shouldn't be in? because there seems to be always like a pushing back of um things where it's like, you know, this is I don't even know where I'm going with that, but it's just sad to me to think that we even have to be talking about these kinds of things. Um because many times the predators are not punished the way that they should be. Like they shouldn't be even released out into our communities. And when they are, we spend exorbitant amounts of money to house them. It's like three times the rent that we're paying somewhere so that they can

107go live there and just all of the services. I mean, they should be actually on a prison ground in a trailer or something like that because they're complete they continue to reoffend is the problem because they're not being uh punished to the extent that they don't want to do it. And I know that from experience because the predator that was abusing me for years, they said it would be worse off for him to go to jail for a year. And that's the kind of stuff that happened. So we need to be making sure that we are protecting the students and the employees from anybody that could put their hands on them and further traumatize them. Well, or just traumatize them. So, I hope that you guys will do the right thing and make sure that

108you are keeping them away, but also informing people if they're anywhere near anybody and doing what you guys need to do to make sure that that happens. Is that it? Thank you. Dr. Johnson, can you please remind uh me, are all staff trained in being mandated reporters? And what does that mean? Yes, they are. And Dr. Dr. Garcia, I could probably talk to give you more specifics, but yes, it is an annual training that all staff have to go through on identifying um any signs of abuse. Um and the responsibility of educators is that if there's a suspicion of of abuse that's taking place that they are to report it. Um and then they give an instructions on how to do that. They're not to investigate it. They're to report it to child protective services.

109Okay. The shipments Hi, good evening. Uh, my name is Sally Shiffman. This is Lance Morgan. Um, we have three students in San Marcos schools. We've got a son at San Leho Middle School and then we've got a daughter and a son over at San Marcos High School. And, um, tonight we're speaking on behalf of the San Marcos High School agriculture uh, program. and our daughter is a junior there. She's in her third year of the program. We're also members of the A boosters club and Lance is actually the current president of a boosters. Uh it was brought to our attention that the district may not be allowing the school to apply for a state agricultural incentive grant this year or AIG. And um this is a grant that can provide up to $26,000 in matching

110funds. And it we were told that it's because there may be a change in the curriculum requirements at the district level for the A program which may long no longer um comply with the state grant requirements and um however the teachers there have stated that they have already met the curriculum criteria for this coming up year um and that they already have the matching funds available. So the the state funds can only be applied if there's matching funds through through the district. The teachers have those funds for this next 2526 year. Um and they believe that even if the curriculum changes at the district level, there will be variance abilities for the following 2627 fiscal year at the state to also still apply for the grant. So, while we know that it's likely that budget

111cuts may be required over the next couple years, we just want to formally ask that programs such as this where the teachers are able to find the funding that may be outside of the typical budget. Um, and especially when there's matching funds that are free and clear money from the state, we ask that, you know, you you give very serious thought to whether those should be on the chopping block. Um, it's a program that benefits a lot of kids at not just at San Marcos, but I know San Mission Hills also has an ad program. You guys just spent millions of dollars on the new farm, which is amazing. So, we really want to be able to keep that program going. And, you know, with matching funds, that's $52,000. We don't want to lose that

112that money. So, that's all we wanted to bring up tonight. Hopefully, um hopefully we are misinformed and that money is still there. So, thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, just to say we are I'm personally a huge fan of the A program as you know. Um, we'll I'll work with staff and get some more details on the on the specifics of what you're bringing up. Thank you. Okay. allegedly Audra for uh 10.13 salary that thing. It's like so far away. Um this would in involve all the salaries I would say as opposed to just the superintendent. Um, but as what I was just speaking on with the the sexual predators, it's interesting that the comment was saying something about mandated reporters and CPS, but we're talking about like a sexual predator. So, I

113mean, are you saying that once the student has been abused, then you're going to to do something? I mean, I'm a little bit confused by that. Um, and the fact that we're talking we we a woman came and was talking about the sexual harassment that's taken place and then how long it's taken to um pretty much address it is very disturbing because then as I'm talking about like a sexually a sexual predator is do we actually do something about or we just allow it to continue right and maybe protect the predator over the victim and make sure that people aren't being fur further victimized. And that's why I think that, you know, talking about salaries, I mean, it's about time to start reducing salaries until things change instead of giving people more and more money

114to cause destruction to not only children. I mean, it's just interesting that like the uh and even just I mean, it's great to come and listen to people talk because they give you information you may not have known before like the uh gender gender breadman model and stuff like that that we're trying to get teachers to engage in and then push it on down to the kids. Um, at what point are we going to get back to educating kids? Like, do we need to go back to the days of like Sunday school where they actually can learn some stuff, not being in an indoctrination center? I mean, because the inflammatory language and information that is being spewed out is is insane because it's like you're talking about behaviors of children and like rewarding them for

115certain things, right? So, it's like if a child feels unsafe, are they going to be punished for that? Right? Because you're you're going to protect some students, but if a young girl feels unsafe because she has to go and be forced to change somewhere or go down to some other building just to do it, I just I don't see any kind of protection here. I see continued abuse and abuse of power. And when people aren't willing to stand in the gap for children, and you can sit there and use language like um you know, you want to protect all kids, which you don't because it had nothing to do with all children. It had to do with a specific class of children. And it doesn't matter how much I would want to be a unicorn,

116I'll never be one. I could dye my hair if I want, right? Put on a little horn, but it doesn't make me one. And instead of encouraging children to be happy with who they are, they were made by God in that perfect body that they have, whether or not they want to stay in it. You should be encouraging them to say, "Love yourself." And that comes from loving God and accepting Jesus into your heart. And when you're not willing to do that, then you guys will go in and manipulate just like the God of this world does. Thank you. Who masquerades the angel of light. Thank you. There are no more speakers. Thank you very much. We'll go ahead and move on to uh reports by board members. Does anyone have anything they would like

117to report on? Are we able to make comments about the speakers like comment back to regarding if it's on the agenda? Um if it was an agendaized topic, there was certain speakers that spoke on agendaized topics. Okay. So if it wasn't on the agenda, we're we can't say anything. Um the board is really the board is Yeah. The Brown Act um requires that public that sorry that board deliberation be on items that were that were posted and agendaized. We're not deliberating on it. You can ask you can ask a clarifying question. Yeah. I I'm a new board member. Um like I think this is like my third meeting. So I have a couple of questions and um a comment. A few people asked about or talked about the the flags and some symbols that were

118displayed in classrooms. Um do we have a district policy about any flag display or any kind of um nonclassroom education? I don't know if we do or not. Yeah, that's something I would work with our team on and get to report back to the board on. Okay. Mhm. Okay. [clears throat] Um and then secondly, it's the beginning of the night was amazing hearing about all the activities that are happening in our schools like Trinity and and Sydney. Like you guys crushed it. Awesome things going on at our high schools. It's it saddens me to see so much attention on these controversial issues. Um it kind of takes away from the amazing things that are happening in our schools. Um, I know we have a board policy about controvers controversial issues. I think it's 6144. And

119I'm, as a new board member, I'm trying to understand how how do we deal like who decides what a controversial issue is and then how do we apply that board policy to issues that seem super controversial. Yeah, I mean I can just say in brief that the controversial uh controversial topics policy is mostly aligned to adopted curriculum and lessons that are taught um on political matters generally like in your polyai classes and things like that. Um more detail I can get I can get Dr. Campbell to to write something for the board. Yeah, that would be great. Thank you. Sure. All right. So this month um it was a very busy month I would say getting oriented I like Heidi I'm new to the board um so Dr. Johnson took us on a board tour

120through um quite a well the high schools um and one of the elementary schools and then since then I've been to another elementary and um middle school and it's been fantastic to see the programs that we have um like Heidi said the beginning of the night I'm hearing everything that um the programs that we have at our schools are amazing when you go on campus it's awesome to see the engagement um I I agree that it's disheartening to have um concerns that we have going on. Um, personally, I think that it's a transparency issue. Um, and that maybe that's something that we can work on moving forward, being more transparent with parents and families so that they know what's going on. Um, that it might be more of an issue of fear because you see

121things that are outside um of our district also going on. Worried that that's happening here. Um, but transparent communication with our community is essential. Um, as soon as people think that something's being hidden, they're going to get more upset. So, um, that would be my ask, uh, moving forward. Thank you. All right, we'll go ahead and move on to board reports. Uh, does, uh, reports by board members. Is any Oh, okay. That was it. Okay, that was regarding I will also add I got to volunteer. I think you did as well, Dr. Garcia, about the project next interview skills day yesterday that was hosted at San Marcos High School and I think the other two high schools as well. Yes. Yeah, it was amazing, you guys. It was so cool. Project Next is awesome. Um,

122it's helping high schoolers figure out their next. And, um, it was just awesome to see so many people from the community come out, people from the banking industry, from the water district, like tons of professionals came and just poured into these kids and built them up. And it was a real honor for me and I was super happy to be invited to it. Um, and I will also validate that Dr. Johnson loves the egg farm because he almost climbed over the fence when we couldn't get into it cuz the gate was locked, you guys. He was like, "Look at those steer. Let's get as close as we can." [laughter] So, thank you for the tour. It was amazing. I would just like to say that last week I attended a virtual parent academy. They spoke

123about anxiety. Uh there were a lot of parents on there. So, thank you to that team that put that together. It was very helpful. a lot of good information for parents. Um, and again going back to Mission Hills High School, kudos to you for last night. Uh, Lena, I think you Heidi, I think you were there, too. Both of you. Yeah. Or thank you. It was it was wonderful to see everything showcased. So, thank you. Okay, we'll go ahead and move on to action items. publicly public hearing to hear comments from the public regarding the financial provisions of collective bargaining agreements between the San Marcos Unified School District and the San Marcos Educator Association, SMBA, and the California Employee Association and its chapter number 413 regarding 2024 D- uh/25 and 20 2025/2026 contract negotiations. Aaron,

124on tonight's agenda, the board will consider approval of tentative collective bargaining agreements with SMEA and CSEA. The government code requires school districts to publicly disclose the provisions of any bargaining agreement, including the costs that will be incurred prior to considering its approval and allow for public comment. Joel will review the more details of the tenative agreements in a moment. I'm just going to highlight the sections that have fiscal impacts. The agreements provide a 1% onschedule salary increase effective and retroactive to July 1st, 2024 and an additional 1% onschedule increase effective July 1st, 2025 for all staff including certificated classified management and confidential employees. In addition, the special education teachers um have the option to work additional work days at their perdm daily rates. In the current year 2425, we estimate the total cost of these

125agreements will be $2.3 million. And beginning in 2526 fiscal year, we estimate the total ongoing costs will be $4.4 million. The breakdown of estimated costs for each bargaining unit are listed in the disclosure documents that are attached to this agenda item. And also I just wanted to point out that although this agreement includes language regarding district contributions to health and welfare benefits, those costs were already disclosed to the board as part ofus withme and cse at the November 2024 board meeting. So, the costs that um were not included in the figures that I just reviewed. Um I don't have them calculated right now in my head. [laughter] So, no, I don't have those. Those are all those the the health benefits are already included in the budget after they were approved at the November board

126meeting. This public hear this public hearing is now open. Susie, is there anyone who wishes to speak regarding this public hearing? There are no speakers on the public hearing. This public hearing is now closed. 9.2 Two, disclosures of collective bargaining agreements of the San Marcos Unified School District and the San Marcos Educator Association, SMMEA, and the California School Employee Association, and its chapter number 413. Aaron, to comply with the government code, documents have been prepared that disclose the costs of these tenative agreements. As required, the superintendent and I have certified that we can afford the costs of these agreements in the current budget year and the subsequent two years. and the disclosures were provided to the San Diego County Office of Education for their review in advance of tonight's meeting. Thank you. Do I have

127a motion to approve the disclosure of collective bargaining agreements of the San Marcos Unified School District and SMEA and CSEA and it's chapter number 413? So moved. Moved by Carlson. Second. Seconded by Hendrickk Heric, but pardon me, I apologize. I like a little Jimmy Hendrick. To approve the disclosure as presented, student board representatives, please say your vote. All in favor say Oh, wait. Go ahead. Sorry. I. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Tenative agree 9.3 tenative agreement by and between the San Marcos Unified DIS school district and the San Marcos Educators Association. Dr. Garcia. Yes. Uh board members, our current contract with SMA expired on June 30th, 2024. Uh this school year we engaged negotiations for a successor agreement and I'm happy to share that we reached a tenative agreement

128on February 25th. Uh terms of the highlight as Erin referenced uh there's a 1% onschedule salary increase for the current school year a 1% onschedule salary increase for 20 excuse me 202526 school year a shared cost model for healthc care benefits an increase of paid pregnancy disability leave from 3 to 6 weeks and a new special education article establishing uh case load caps for educators. Um, we also reached an agreement on the term which is a two-year agreement uh which goes through June 30th of 2026. The uh membership ratified the agreement um and we I want to thank the negotiating teams for their work reflected in in the tenative agreement. This is an action item with a recommendation to approve the theme tenative agreement as presented. Thank you Dr. Garcia. Thank you. Do I have

129a motion to approve the tentative agreement by the by and between the San Marcos Unified School District SMEA? So moved. Moved by member Mam seconded by member Carlson to approve the tenative agreement as presented. Student board representatives please say your vote. I I All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. 9.4 Four, tenative agreement by and between the San Marcos Unified School District and the California School Employee Association and its chapter number 413. Yes, board members, our current collective bargaining agreement with CSEA chapter 413 expired also on June 30th, 2024. Uh, thus we've been engaged in successor negotiations of a new agreement. And I'm happy to report that we reached a tenative agreement last week. I think it was Friday at afternoon. Um, similar to the agreement with San Marcos

130Educator Association, um, on salary, it's a 1% on schedule increase for the current school year and 1% on schedule uh, increase for next school year. Um, there also retirey benefits for employees who are 55 or older with 15 years of uh, service to the school district and the uh, same amount of pregnancy disability leave um, as we have with SVA. Um, we also revised the uh safety article within the contract and we have a three-year term uh starting July 1 of 2024 going through June 30th of 2027 with reopeners in the 2526 school year and the 2627 school year. I'm happy to share that the TA was approved uh through the uh 610 process that CSEA has in place and ratified by the membership with overwhelming support. And again, I want to thank the both

131the district and the CSC negotiating teams uh for their work reflected in this agreement. Uh finally, this is an action item with a recommendation to approve the tenative agreement as reflected. Thank you, Dr. Garcia. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the tenative agreement by and between the San Marcos Unified School District and CSA and its chapter number 413. So moved. Moved by Heric, member Heric, and seconded by member Carlson to approve the tenative agreement as presented. Student board members, please say your vote. I I thank you. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Dr. Garcia. Thank you. And I wrote down Harris like [laughter] 9.5 candidates for the 2024 25, pardon me, California School Board Association Delegate Assembly. And yes, the board has been briefed on

132this. Each year the uh board selects from uh the CSBA uh local region region 17 um delegates to represent the board with CSBA's delegate assembly. So you have before you one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine candidates and the board may select no more than six. And any any member that um any member on the on the ballot here that the board has agreement on uh we will um send to CSBA as your as your votes for the delegates. Do I have a motion to nominate candidates for the 2025 California School Board Association Delegate Assembly? move that we nominate Barbara Avalos from National um Elva Lucasa from Sweetwater Union High School District, Rena Marocco from Vista USD, Senid Rosario from Sanro Elementary School District, Barbara Ryan from Santi School District, and Cypriano Vargas

133from uh Vista Unified School District. That's three incumbents and two new. Um I like that Alvarez is from a high school district and um Senida is from an elementary school district because they bring really different viewpoints to delegate assembly. Um I'm on the delegate assembly currently and um I'm I'm terming out at the end at the end of this year. Um it is on I just my voice is I'm sorry I'm sick. Um but yeah, I think that that um the group brings in some new people, brings in some new perspectives. Um so that would be my nomination. Um I'm sorry. Yeah. Uh do we just discuss it? Yeah. Okay. Um so I read through we we got a big packet of all of the candidates applications. Stacy, you've done this, right? So you you

134know what it's like. Um, so as a first- timerr, I actually read through all of them. Um, I'm sure they're all wonderful people and unfortunately they can't all go. um my thoughts based on reading through their applications. Um I was looking for um sorry I'm a recruiter but I was looking for some simple things like spelling and grammar and thought put into the applications and unfortunately a few of them missed the mark with multiple spelling and grammar mistakes which was unfortunate on an important application. Um but I also looked at content so why do they want to do it? What do they want to accomplish? What are their goals? Um, and so the people that rose to the top for me, I'm not going to go into all of them for the sake of time.

135Um, Raina Morocco, who I think Stacy also suggested, um, Bob Weller and Jane Leah Smith. Um, and Zeneda Rosario. All right. I had so I'm trying to go because I have um Barbara Abalos, um Reena Morocco, Bob Weller, and is it Zeneda? Yes. Yeah, those are I didn't I not all six, but I did four. Okay, thank you. I would like to nominate Supriano Vargas, Zeneda Rosario, Barbara Abalos, Renee Morocco. How many is that? Two. Barbara Ryan. Thank you. So I'm telling here it sounds like there is consensus amongst the board on Raina Morocco and Zen Rosario. Are you guys all tracking the same way I am? Um Barbara Avalos had three. Rain Morocco. Oh, sorry. Barbara and Barbara had three. Yep. Thank you. Yep. One, two. So So yeah, we're going to do three

136again. Barbara, right? Raina, Zeneda, Barbara, Raina, and Zeneda. Am I right? Were the were the ones that had either three or four? Correct. Um, so then we have Yeah. Um, so that's one, two, three. Who has two? So then the ones that have two are Barbara Ryan from Santi, Cypriano Vargas from Vista, and Bob Weller have two. Ela um from Sweetwater only had one. So, correct. Okay. So, we'll cross her off. Yep. Okay. So, I'm I just last call. I just want to make sure we got this. Uh I'm tracking correctly. Barbara Avalos, uh Random Morocco, and Senator Rossario. Yes. But since we had since we can nominate up to six, there are at least two for also. So we have three that that we all agree on, right? And then we have two that

137are Barbara Ryan, Cypriano Vargas, and Bob Weller. So I'm looking Yeah, we could send six. Is that what we're saying? I'd be looking for common consent on those guys. So the only one that didn't kind of make it get at least two of us to say okay was was Ela. Um otherwise, if we want to do at least three, then I mean we don't have to nominate six. Yeah, you know better. You know the process better than I do. I'm fine with doing I'm fine with six. Yeah. If we can do it by common consent, that's that's the easiest. Yep. So then we have Barbara Ryan, Cypriano, and Bob Willer. Yes. Now, if one does not agree with with any of these or we what what would be the problem? This is this would be

138the time to just to to say that. So just uh I had an interaction at a workshop here, as a matter of fact, for uh when we had MIG training with one of our board with one of these board members and Uh, I found it quite offensive. I have to admit, uh, he mocked Spanish speaking parents in Escanido Unified School District. He said something highly inappropriate in my opinion. I privately did go to him and explain him what he said and he kind of laughed it off and I mean it was in my opinion it was highly appropriate. A couple other board members, not just from San Marcos Unified, but from all over Southern California were present. A couple of them were offended to be quite honest with you with his uh Spanish. So or

139use of inappropriate Spanish. So that's just my feeling on that one. I mean what who are you talking about? Bob Weller. Okay. Um so you guys if you want to So what we could do is just say look either we get three votes or we're or we don't take these other two. since they've got only two or we can fight it out. [laughter] Again, being a delegate is very e to represent you know California schoolboard association and you know we can have all these political differences but when you do inappropriate my opinion again was it my opinion is that I did not find it it was very unpleasant. Yeah, I'm sorry to hear that because I've interacted with him and I have always had a good experience. Um, so I I I guess I would

140say then um let's let's drop the three that only got two, okay? And just go for the three that that there was consensus on. Okay. Instead of, you know, it's probably the right thing to do out of fairness. That's probably the fairest thing to do. Okay. So, we're back to Barbara Avalos, Raina Morocco, and Zenida Rosario. Correct. Okay. Just checking down the line. That's okay with that. Yep. Okay. Okay. [clears throat and cough] Yes. So, now you can Yeah. Now, okay. Do I have a motion to nominate candidates for the 2025 California School Board Association Delegate Assembly? I nominate Barbara Avalos from National School District, Raina Marco from Vista Unified School District, and Zenid Rosario from Zenita uh Elementary School District. Moved by Carlson. I'll second. Second by member Mal. Thank you. All those in

141favor say I. I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, team. 2000 9.6 2024 2025 second interm report and positive budget certification. Aaron have a second interim budget report tonight. The full budget report is um 110 pages. It was attached to the board um agenda tonight and as always it is available for the public on the district's website. I will highlight just the key numbers um that in the budget um tonight in the so we are here in March. Um this is the annual budget reporting cycle. The second in report must be turned into the county office by March 17th every year. Um, this report reflects actual revenues and expenditures through January 31st, which is seven months of our of actuals of our fiscal year with projections for the remaining five months through June. But

142the first interim that we just saw in December um is only has actuals through October 31st. So the second interim we have the benefit of three more months of actual um expenses. Um so it's this budget reflects much closer to what our actuals um we expect them to be by year end. In the general fund for revenues we have four main sources of revenues. We are projecting a total of 311 million and a half million dollars um from these four sources. The bulk of our funds come from the local control funding formula. There'll be sever several slides tonight. We'll be talking about that in more detail. We have 73% of our revenues coming from local control funding formula. Um, as always, the state um has the local property taxes fund that piece of your calculation

143first. So, for us, um, a little over $85 million is funded from local property taxes and then the state fills in the rest to get to our total of $227.8 million in LCFF funds. Um beyond that we our next largest piece of funds is comes from the state and then we get some local funds and then the smallest portion of our budget does um our federal funds. So we're just going to walk through the changes in the budget from first interim. So tonight we are projecting $2.2 2 million dollars less in revenues um than we were back at the first interim for LCFF. Just as a reminder, we are using the the prior three-year average ADA um for LCFF funding and the funded cola this year was 1.07%. Federal funds um are down just a

144little bit. Had an adjustment to our title one award. State revenues are up by $3.5 million. Bulk of that came from um $3.9 million new Golden State Pathways Grant. And then that increase was reduced by several restricted um programs that um we reduce their expenses aren't expected to spend them this fiscal year. The amount that were reduced will be become carryover into the next fiscal year. And then our biggest change was in um local revenues and we're going to talk about it in the expenditure section as well. Um, we were carrying in the general fund budget large amounts of $9.6 million of one-time revenues for transportation bus grants that we got to purchase electric buses this year. So, back at the January board meeting, we asked the board to open a new fund, fund 15.

145That's a place where you can account for transportation equipment outside the general fund because those large dollars in here for one-time purchases are viewing some of the numbers that's normal in the general fund. So if we go back to compare it in future years, the general fund for this year will be difficult to compare because those extra things in there. So we checked our the accounting man manual. We consulted with the county office and um we we determined that the best way to account for these funds outside the general fund and in fund 15. So we've moved $9.6 6 million of those grant funds out and we'll we've also moved the expenditures over there as well. Um so that reduction in local funds is offset by increased amounts of interest earnings in the general fund

146as well as um just under a million dollars of medical reimbursements that we have received. Okay. So moving on to expenditures, we are now projecting $329.1 million of expenditures. Over 80% of those are in salaries and benefits for our employees. Um so this is also where the the pictures change. Remember that was um it was under 80% at first interim because the capital outlay um percentage was about 4%. So, we've removed those capital outlay expenditures, moved that out to the fund. So, now that our our PI chart for expenditures and the general fund is is much more normal um that that we usually have each year. So, bulk bulk of expenditures, salaries and benefits, followed by services and operating expenses, then books and supplies, and then a small just a small amount for capital outlay

147expenditures. What kind of things would fall in services and operating expenditures? So, there's lots of things in there. Um um the majority of it is our utility costs actually um our electric bill that we pay um every month. Um also um all contracted services for students that we have um our our property liability insurance payments those kinds of things are are all in under services and operating. All right. So when we compare to first NRM, we have been able to reduce our expenditures that we're projecting in the general fund by um over $13 million, the bulk of it in that capital outlay piece, moving that out. Um but we'll go through each one of these. I'm going to kind of toggle back and forth between this and the next slide that has the budgeted um

148narrative reasons as to why things are changing. So is certificated and classified salaries first. We've made adjustments to um reflect position vacancies at this point in time. The bulk of the vacancies that we have are in special education. We've brought the um salaries down for that. Um we also have a decrease um in benefits. So we have the benefit of looking at the January payroll for benefits. before that we have to do a lot of guessing. Um what happens at the January payroll cycle is everyone has determined where they are going to be for open enrollment. They've changed the different on the different health plans they're going to be on and and that's taken and also the new rates for 2025 begin. So after January payroll hit um we looked and we needed to make

149adjustments um to what we were putting in the budget for health benefits. So we have made that at this point in time. And then books and supplies is down just a little bit. Um when we prepare for for interim reports, we sit down with every single um district department and we go through their budget. And so during that process when when we looks like at what people should have spent, the percentage of their budget should have spent to date. If they're not looks like they're not going to spend it, we asked do you have plans? Are you going to do something? if not. So, we've been able to reduce those supply expenditures down during those um department budget meeting process. Services and operating expenses has also been reduced by $1.8 million. The bulk of that

150is related to the ELOP grant. This is still kind of a new program, still kind of figuring out how much we're spending yeartoear. Um and we the bulk of those are in services. we the Boys and Girls Club and Champions provides those services and so we made a reduction in that based on the number of students that are being served. Um we don't think we're going to have to pay as much out to the Boys and Girls Club. So we've made a reduction in that um offset by increases in utilities. We've increased utilities by about $400,000 increases in the transportation budget and insurance claims that we've had to pay. And then the biggest change is um a reduction of $9.9 million um by moving out all those bus related equipment purchases out to fund 15.

151So with that um this is where we are for our ending balances and reserves. So we always have the unrestricted and the restricted portions of the budget here separate. We start with our beginning balances. We have the revenues that we just went through, the new projected expenditures, you have contributions, the unrestricted portion of the budget always makes a contribution to the restricted programs um that don't have enough funds to support the um those are special education and routine restricted maintenance account. Um so that shows us our deficits in each of the programs. So in our unrestricted fund at this point in time, we have a are projecting a deficit by year end of $4.8 8 million. That's down um from it was about roughly $9 million at first interim. So that's an improvement there. Um

152and then as always we have a deficit um and restricted program just because of how they work from an accounting perspective. It's normal to have that. So that leaves us um with our ending balances projected for June 30th with a 10% reserve. That ending balance and reserve does reflect $12.8 8 million in set aides for commitments change a little bit once you um plug in the the retro pay for Okay. Yes. Oh, I think I I I I went over that bullet point very too quickly back here. Okay. The second bullet point on the expenditures is no salary increase increases were included in this budget. um we don't ever in add salary um increases to the budget until the board approves it. So y'all just did that tonight. None of those um additional expend were

153included in the budget. So yes, it is going to change and I will talk about that more when we get to the multi-year projections about how it's going to change. Okay, thanks. So we're in a better place than we were at first gen interum um with in terms of deficits, but when we go back and add in the salary increases, their deficits are going to go go up again. Okay. And so before we transition over to the multi-year projections, we always do a review of our enrollment and average daily attendance. Um this chart shows a five-year history of enrollment in ADA. Um and the three years um projected into the future. The yellow line running through represents the average daily attendance rate. So, as you all know, we are declining in enrollment for this year

154in 2425. We we do have the actual the Cabbeds number was down by 514 students and we're still determining what the our final attendance rate will be for this year. So, that's um projected. Um we are using a 93.6% assumption of attendance rate. That's what we ended last year's school year with. So we're using that for all three years in the projections. During the months of January and February, we also sit down and do very detailed enrollment projections for next school year. And we begin to determine how many staff we need to staff all the different all the classrooms. When we did those enrollment projections, we determined that we needed to start preparing for a decline of 200 students for next year. Previously, we were using 100. So we are now um plugged into the

155budget a decline of 200 students for next year and we still have 100 decline assumed for 2627. Unfortunately at this point in time I we don't have our projections from our demographer. We're expecting that report um as soon as possible. So when we get that we'll do another check of comparisons and see where we are and may may make another another adjustment before we get to that final budget for next year. Um, as always, we have to make we don't know what's going to happen next year. So, we have to make a certain assumptions in the multi-year um projections. Um, so these on this chart is just the uh the the projections that the assumptions that drive the majority um of the dollar figures. Um, in the full budget report, there are four pages of

156very detailed assumptions in there that so we can always go back and look at what we were assuming at different points in time. Um, the the biggest change here is the governor's budget came out in January with a lower COLA projection for next year. So for LCFF COLA, we are now using 2.43% for next year and for 2627 3.52%. I have the enrollment figures, the attendance rates, the unduplicated pupil counts, and all of those different assumptions that we have on there. And for expenditures, again, this budget does not assume any salary increases. Um, but after the board approved the increases tonight, we have 45 days to get those increases um salary increase in the budget, and we'll be working on that next. Um, it assumes a 2% increase in health benefits. um we have some

157attrition savings built in there um always and then it does also include ongoing reductions of 1.25% that the board um approved back in December. Okay. Before we talk about the numbers, I'm going to talk about LCFF revenues and how COLA and declining ADA impacts the dollar amounts we receive. So, we talk about cola a lot. Um, but we don't receive cola percentages um at schools. We receive dollars in the calculation. Um, so for this school year when the cola was 1.07% when you multiply that out by the number of students that we are um now serving um for our average daily attendance, we actually lost dollars in the calculation. So for this year and under LCFF, we're receiving $4.7 million less funding than we received last year because of declining enrollment and that very low

158pola percentage. As we move to 2526, we've now adjusted the COLA down to 2.43. We lost half a percentage there with the the new projections. And we we are hearing um that it's it is um trending a little bit downward more closer to 2.2% 2% at this point in time, too. But for now, um, we're all using this 2.43. And you multiply by that, um, we're only getting half a million dollars more funding in LCF next year. Um, less way less than one 1%. And it get then the picture gets a little bit little bit better when the coal is a little bit higher. Um, in that third year, three three and a half% it does start looking a little bit better. So, um, we've been talking about for a long time. This is a

159tough budget year that we're in right now. Next year is also going to be tougher than that. Um we when we move from one school year to the next, you open the the doors to the school and then the next in August um automatically um our costs go up and because of how schools costs are structured um we typically need three and a three and a half to 4% more more funds just to operate in a new year. So, anytime the the the our funding is less than that, um we're going to see our budget strained. Um it's going to create operating deficits um that reduce our reserves over time. And that's exactly what we're seeing um in our our financials. So, this is what they look like at this point in time. we have

160um calculated based on all those assumptions I just we just went over our estimated revenues, our expenditures, our total um deficits, and then I pull out and highlight that unrestricted deficit number. We're at the $4.8 million this year. We'll bump up next year to 7.6 and then go again because the third year gets a little bit better. So, the deficit bumps down a little bit to 6.3. um our reserves stay pretty steady, just dip a little bit below 10% in that third year. And I will just share with you um that when we go in within the next 45 days and add in the salary increases that we've talked about um and the disclosure documents that were included um that that were approved earlier on the agenda have all of these numbers in them. So

161what will happen when we go um add the salary increases is the 2425 deficit will increase to $6.8 million. 2526 will increase to 11.4 million and 2627 will be right at 10 million deficit and the reserves will drop to six and a half percent in that third year out. Okay, these these figures that I just um went over still represent a positive budget even when we add those in. Um but the the larger deficits um that we're having in our budget um will need to be addressed at some point, but we have time to do that. Um and likely we'll be continuing to make small reductions every year to try and manage those deficits just like we did this year. We made that $1.25 5 million of of reductions. Um expect would expect that to

162um continue to be needed over the next couple of years to manage these. Can you remind us what a healthy reserve would look like percentage? Sure. So um there's um typically what I look at is the government finance officers association recommends a 17% reserve. A 17% reserve reflects two months of all of your operating expenses. So that's typically, you know, how businesses want to operate in terms of, you know, cash flow they keep they they need to keep around in case of emergencies if something happens. Um, so that's that's kind of a good rule of thumb that um I is think it's important to look at. And keep in keep in mind too um that beyond these 10% reserves, we have um committed funds that the board could redesate in an emergency to use if

163we're needed. That's for a district our size. Yes. Okay. And then this chart just shows graphically the um historical ending balances in the general fund and our reserve percentages. So we've been holding very steady um for the last five years as well into projected into the next few years um you know eight nine 10 10%. So the the numbers in the presentation tonight reflect the highlights of of what's all in that detailed second interone budget report and I do recommend approval of this budget tonight. Thank you Erin. Do I have a motion to approve the 20 2024 2025 second interimm report and positive budget certification? So moved. Moved by member Miam. Second. Seconded by member Carlson to approve the 2024 2025 second interimm report and positive budget certification as presented. Student board representatives, please say

164your vote. I. I. Thank you. All in all those in favor say I. I I any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, Erin. Again, go ahead and move on to 10. Consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda for discussion purposes? Move to approve. Moved by member Carlson. Second. Seconded by member to approve the consent agenda for discussion purposes. Is it are is there any discussion? Very good. As mentioned before, moved by member Carlson, seconded by member Heric. Student board representatives, please say your vote. I I Thank you. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. [clears throat and cough] Excuse me. Information agenda. 11.1 Revisions to existing governing board policies. Board policy 3515.6 sex offender notification and board policy 1250 visitor outsiders. Erin. Okay. So tonight

165there are we are bringing two new updates to business related board policies. The first is board policy 3315.5 regarding sex offender notification. This policies is updated to clarify that when information regarding a sex offender is disclosed to a district employed by law enforcement, they may only disclose that information in the manner specified and as authorized by that law enforcement. What does that mean? Can you spell that out a little bit more? So, it it just means that sometimes law enforcement has to go in with with and give information on a sex offender, whether it's a neighbor or it could be a a parent of a student. And a district employee is not allowed to disclose that information to anyone else unless the law enforcement tells them specifically you may, you know, tell this person this,

166then that's it. So, if law enforcement goes into a school and says, "Hey, we're looking for somebody, whatever." Like, is that what you're talking about that they would say, "Hey, we have somebody that, you know, we're trying to find whatever that's possible." And they somehow they think they could be in connected to the school in some way, then yes. So, where like where else would they be going? I guess I don't understand like I I don't know because I don't know how what this actually means like in a practical sense for us because when you read it doesn't sound great you know like that we're not allowed to you know let anybody else know. I know there's there's all kinds of penal code references in here and unfortunately I'm not an expert in the penal

167code. So I couldn't because I know this is just information. Yeah, this is just new. Yeah. Get that information about like what this would mean practically speaking in a school and like how how this would be applied. Um yeah, before we vote on it because it's going to come to us next month to vote. Okay. Thanks. and and some backstory like I don't like why why is this a change? Um what prompted it? Just having some background would be helpful. Okay. Um the second thing that um this policy the second change on it is specifically um related to when um a registered sex offender's email address or social media identification um um is given to someone at the school. Um it may only um that may only be released by the district to law enforcement

168as well. though specifically talking about social media information related to accessible. Yeah, I definitely want 11.2 revisions to existing governing board policy. Board policy 5030 student wellness. Oh, sorry. I had two to talk about visitor also. Sorry, I got flustered with other questions. [laughter] Forgot about the second one. The second one is board policy 1250 related to visitors and outsiders. So this is being updated to make several points of clarification including all visits during school hours are required to be arranged with a principal or designate. It requires everyone except staff and students to register upon arrival and wear a visible means of identification. So for us we have um visitor stickers that print out and from our visitor um management system for that purpose. Um, it states that all visitors must behave in an orderly

169manner and any visitor that is causing a disruption shall leave campus at the request of the principal or designate. And it also adds a requirement that the principal report to the superintendent or designate any time a request by a registered sex offender to enter the campus is received. And would you happen to know if they have a system, I can't remember if it's called Raptor or something where they have to present their California ID and Yes, we have we have a um Identic and every visitor has to swipe their uh driver's license and it is connected to Megan's law. So if they're a registered sex, it will immediately pop up and they will be not notified of that. Thank you so much, Aaron. Okay. Now 11.2 to revisions to existing governing board policy 5030 student

170wellness. Dr. Kemp, we are bringing forward an update to board policy 5030 student wellness to align with guidance provided by the California Department of Education Nutrition Services Division. In order to meet USDA guidelines, uh student wellness policy should include USDA's full non-discrimination statement. Uh this is anformational item only. As a note, with the changes currently taking place within federal agencies, when this item is brought back to the board for final approval next month, it will include the most up-to-date USDA non-discrimination statement. Thank you, Dr. Campbell. Any questions? 11.3 Revisions to existing governing board policy 9240 board training. Dr. Johnson, thank you. So yes, this board bylaw is being updated to include that ethics training is now required of all board members uh who are in office as of January 1, 2025 and must be completed

171by January 1, 2026 and every two years thereafter. Uh another additional item in this board bylaw is um the requirement that the superintendent work with the board president to include funds in the budget for professional development uh for the board as a whole, which we already do in practice. That would be things like the CSBA conference, masters in governance, things like that. Does the ethics courses that we've already taken count towards this? Have to take Yes, you have to do you that that one counts. The one you just did count and then you got to do it every two years. Okay. Just did it. [laughter] Okay. Do student board members need to do that? You have plenty of [laughter] closing items. Organizational MA 12.1 organizational matters. The next regular board meeting will take place Thursday,

172April 10th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the media center of the North County Regional Educational Center, 255 Pico Avenue, San Marcos, California, 92069. This adjournment 12.2. Uh, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you.