SMUHSD Board Meeting - May 7, 2026

001Okay, I'm going to call the meeting to order. This is a meeting of the Sanonteo Union High School District Board of Trustees. I'm calling the meeting to open session. Today is May 7th and it is 7:05 p.m. Thank you. Roll call. Trusty Griffin, >> present. >> Trusty Andrade Zuniga, >> present. >> Trusty Land. Trusty Jacobson >> present >> and I am present. >> Tonight we have a team from Hannah interpreting as our Spanish interpreters. For those who are who would like to attend the meeting virtually in Spanish that option is available. Hannah interpreting would you please communicate that for this this evening? Thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. language interpretation. or Spanish. In order to provide language access, this meeting will have simultaneous interpretation in English and Spanish. To enable the interpretation, if you are

002using your laptop or desktop, please locate the icon shaped like a globe at the bottom of your screen. Click on the language interpretation and then select English. If you are on your phone, uh iPad or similar device, then locate the three dot menu in the upper right corner of your screen. Click on language interpretation and select English. If you are fully bilingual, you may remain on the MAN channel. Thank you so much. >> Thank you very much. If you wish to view view close captions of this meeting, please view the meeting on the SMU HSD board meeting YouTube channel. The link to the YouTube channel can be found on our website. You may view the captions in English as we live stream our meeting tonight and you may also view the captions in a variety

003of other languages if you choose to watch this meeting after it has ended. Viewers viewers may request additional accommodations by calling 650-5582201. For our deaf and heart of hearing community, we have a team from Hannah interpreting services and they will be interpreting our meeting this evening. We would like to ask everyone to speak at a clear and reasonable pace for our interpreters. Thank you. Next, we're going to have our student board representatives please lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. Thank you. Next, we're going to report out our actions taken in close session. In close session, the board upon motion

004of trustee Jacobson and seconded by trustee Andrade Zeneiga moved to postpone the expulsion hearing of case 25-26-36 with a vote of 5 to zero. Next, we're going to adopt the agenda. The board of trustees may either adopt the agenda as presented or make a change to the agenda through a motion and a second and a majority vote. The Brown Act prohibits any meetings any I'm sorry any additional any additional items added to the agenda without a 72-hour public notice for regularly scheduled board meetings. Are there any questions or comments from the board or superintendent with respect to the agenda? And if not, would a trustee Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to ask if there's any any hands raised for close for public okay public comment. >> Okay. Would any trustee care to make a motion

005to approve the agenda? >> So move second. >> Okay, great. So, we have a uh a motion from Trusty Griffin and a second from Trusty Land. >> All in favor? >> I Okay. Um how do the trust how did our student board reps vote? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The motion passes. Next, we have our regular reports. Uh Superintendent Brooker, >> thank you very much. Good evening everybody. Happy May. Just a few more weeks of school, which is exciting. Uh but the month of May is mental health awareness month and it's an important opportunity for us to reaffirm a core belief in the Sanonteo Union High School District. Student well-being being the foundation to student success. When students feel safe, connected, respected, and supported, they are better able to learn and engage, build relationships, and

006plan for their futures. Mental health is not separate from academic achievement. It's actually deeply connected to it. This month, we want to recognize the many people across our district who support student mental health every single day. Our mental health and wellness therapists, our wellness counselors, school counselors, wellness educators, psychologists, social workers, classroom educators, classified staff, administrators, family partners, and community-based organizations. Their work often happens quietly, but its impact is profound across the district and within our communities. Throughout the month, schools across the district are engaging students through wellness tableling events, psycho education, stress reduction activities, therapy, dog visits, student workshops, artbased wellness activities, community partnerships, all aimed at reducing stigma, increasing connection, and reminding students that seeking support is a sign of strength. And I just want to do a little quick birdwalk. I got

007to sit in uh last week at the Bridge Academyy's drum drumming circle. >> So using some Prop 28 funds, they bring in um a drummer who's actually a um professional therapist and using this idea of drumming circles and drumming, teaching the kids how to drum. He has these congas and stuff. Uh so it was fascinating. It was so much fun. And no, the drumming was fun. So he warmed us up and we did some patterns and some drums and rhythms and then we stopped and then he asked the kids how they're doing in school and how are they doing in their relationships and kids just started opening up and we didn't even get back to drumming. It was so these these kinds of uh what did I call here? Art- based wellness activities. I got

008to see it in real time and it was fantastic. So um anyways, mental health awareness month is also a reminder that school climate matters. We see it as a time to reaffirm our commitment to creating safe, inclusive, and supporting learning and working environments for all students and staff. May is also educator appreciation month in Sanonteo Union High School District. And you'll recall from the proclamation you all approved at our last board meeting, we are near nearing the end of teacher appreciation week, which is May 4th through the 8th. May 13th is California Day of the Teacher. And then May 17th through the 23rd is California's classified employee week. You know, and as we here in the district, we see all of our employees as educators. So, um with AP testing happening these next two weeks,

009we plan to uh acknowledge from a district perspective, all of our educators uh during the week of May 18th. So, we're looking forward to that. I'm also looking forward to our upcoming board study session next week which will include a board dinner with our student board council uh representatives and a study session on artificial intelligence. I'm really eager to hear what our task force led by Dr. Julia Kempkkey and Mr. Brian Simmons and made up of educators and students, parents, they have to share uh with the board. I think it's going to be really fascinating and and I'm I am really looking forward to it. So, thank you very much, >> Superintendent Booker. Next we have the report of the district teachers association. Thank you for coming in person. >> Um I'll just this isn't

010in my notes but I'll just mention probably the most uh concerning news that came out today uh that a major hack of Canvas our learning management system has taken place uh which is going to be an immediate concern uh if not dealt with. Uh this is the way we teach. This is the way we communicate. this is the way we grade. And so we look forward to the district communicating um regularly about how things are going uh any information that they have that they can share because as of now the message from the district which I understand is just don't even log on to Canvas right now. Um which is to keep everyone safe. But that's a huge concern. Um and a message we know has gone out to all our teachers, all our community

011members, all our students. And we appreciate the fast response. Uh we also uh are deeply concerned about what happens next. >> Uh the thing >> clarify that >> please. Of course. >> I just want to clarify it's not just Sano Union. This is nationwide colleges, high school. Yeah. Okay. >> No, and and sorry about that. Make that clear, but I did um I got the message from my daughter who's in university right now uh 20 minutes before I got the message from uh Mr. Betts at the district office. So uh it's it's much more widespread than our district. Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Booker. Uh the other thing I was just going to mention tonight is something I mentioned last week as well. Um I'm going to continue on this topic um that I mentioned

012quickly. Uh as teachers, we have three more weeks of school uh involving lots of intense teaching, learning, and grading. Um and one conversation uh remains um concern about communication regarding the change in cell phone policy for next year. Uh we would like to be part of any conversation um about implementation, about logistics, about behavioral plans and interventions that might need to be used uh with this new cell phone policy, but time is is of the essence. There's about 3 weeks left and everyone we understand is incredibly busy. Um so we again are looking for guidance, but also want to collaborate on how this policy actually does get rolled out. How will teachers implement the policy on day one of school next year? Um, that's still a concern. Um, uncertainty leads to anxiety. Uh, you know,

013I I appreciate the the comments about mental health month. Uh, I think the district has done a great job addressing issues of mental health. Uh, and I think this is a step in the right direction of addressing mental health issues. Uh, but there is a transition that's taking place that really needs to be communicated clearly and effectively. So um any clear communication would be appreciated um by the members of our association. Thank you guys for your time. >> Thank you. >> Next would be report of the CSA chap chapter 519. >> I hadn't heard from them. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Next will be the report of the cemetery adult school teachers association. >> Um I hadn't heard. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. and we are always happy to see our student board representatives.

014Would you guys like to report out? >> Thank you. >> Hello, my name is Shia Mahapatra. I go to San Mato High School and recently we've had many noteworthy performances such as I brought a list with me, the Pasos Rises dance performance by our group Florico Club at our school. It's like Latin, Spanish, and it was it was pretty cool cuz it was like a cultural club. And we will have the spring music concert this Friday featuring band performances and music. Fact, my friend asked me to come. And a side note being that, you know, like Mr. Booker said, the AP exams are underway. Yeah. And varsity boys track and field PL varsity finals are on the 9th. and our freshman counsel organized a water balloon like event which is interesting. In fact, tomorrow I'm

015going to go and see if I can win. Let's see. And our large spring dance show, Mattio Motion, it took place on May 1st and 2nd, which was like a big performance >> and it did super well. It did great and yeah, it was a success. I'll hand it over to Zoe. Thank you. Hi, my name is Zoe. I'm from Berlingame High School. And in Berlingame High School, the model UN students, including me, recently went to a UC Davis conference for, you know, a normal model UN conference where they stayed overnight and experienced a professional college level conference within the rooms of Davis. So, that was very fun. The students recently experienced a goodbye rally towards the seniors where we all hosted, you know, our final goodbyes and we walked the scene, we watched the

016seniors walk past the field which was very sad but also very fun as our dance team performed for the entire school and student body. And the teachers actually performed their own professional choreographed dance which was very fun. Moving on to school sports. Our boys lacrosse team went against Woodside. Our BHS girls lacrosse team also win um against Castella. I think that's how you pronounce it. And the baseball team won against Cappuccino and Oral Park. So that was or Oracle Park, which is a very big baseball place, I'm assuming. I don't know. I don't watch sports. But >> yes, >> that's that's the Giant Stadium. Great. just to chime in and help a little bit >> perspective. There you go. >> Yeah, >> San Francisco. >> Go Giants. >> Go. >> Have different names. >> Additionally,

017senior night was held for a track and field where posters were created to commemorate the seniors leaving and BHS hosted their last Panther Pal event for the freshman called the Panther Pal carnival as a way to celebrate the year coming to the end. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you both for your report out. Try to be careful in the water balloon uh contest. Try not to get soaked. Sounds fun though. Okay, next uh governing board comments. We'll start with Trusty Griffin. >> Well, you know, I haven't had a chance to do anything since we just had a meeting and I won't have a chance to do anything before the next meeting. So, uh but I I would like to acknowledge the teacher and classified appreciation. Yes. uh you know they play important roles in in

018developing not just you know I thought okay educating but developing uh the the students that pass through uh the district you know we need to recognize them they're you know they're on the front line and I think at one point Carla probably remembers this I said the teachers were the conscience of the district and he acknowledged yeah because I was you know talking to them and you know and they are in many ways >> I think you know the teachers and classif They know stuff that's going on out there before we do >> and u you know I I don't underestimate their roles. So that's my comment. >> Thank you. Thank you. Trusty Griffin. Trusty Andra Zeniga. >> Yes. Um I'm going to read land a land acknowledgement that was written by the students at

019Cappuccino um a few years ago. Our community acknowledges that all of our campuses lie on the ancestral homeland of the Rome alone. The remush are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula whose land was stolen from them and whose native language was lost because of Spanish colonization. As settlers on the stolen land of the peninsula, we should be alongside the Romeous remembering their ancestors and relatives. We thank the first people, the Rome Shaloni for taking care of the land we use now for education and activities. Our responsibility of caring for the earth is unique and personal to each of us but should be rooted in allyship with the Rome Shalon so we can work together to protect and preserve the land for future generations. Um this uh tomorrow actually are the Kent and Garfield

020Awards that the Santo County Schoolboard Association will be hosting and um I'm hoping that everyone's going to know. Um but we're going to highlight u many different programs across Santo County across each district. So that'll be there's so many so many different uh programs that are really important to not only um restorative justice to um different types of art therapy to um different types of support. So uh please join us tomorrow 5:30 Crumb Plaza. Um you I don't know if there's still tickets but um >> you can check it out on our website. No more. Oh, >> you can sneak in. Maybe last one. If you talk to me, if you talk to me and trusty land, maybe >> I got the last one. >> Well, it'll be a good time for everyone. Um, I

021was able to attend Night Moves for the first time ever on uh on um Saturday. It was really good. I was really impressed. Last year I went to the Sonteo one. Um, I'm always like super blown away about the talent here in our district. Um, not only by the students, but by the folks that create the sets, um, by the folks that um, volunteer. Um, just all of it is is phenomenal. So, thank you for the invite and it was a really nice time. Thank you. Um, see, don't forget to vote. The primaries are coming up in June, June 2nd. Um, May 18th is the last day to register to vote for the primaries. Um, again, it's very, very important, especially because we are electing a superintendent of public education throughout the state. So that

022is going to be extremely extremely important for all of the districts and the um just all of the like the different processes that go forward, all of the different decisions. Um please please educate yourselves on that. Um mental health awareness month. Uh um Superintendent Booker said it said it great. um acknowledging all of our all of our educators here, all of our the supports for the students um as well as all the wellness counselors and everyone right now. A lot of folks are struggling um with a lot of just the negativity in the world. So, um it's really important that we're there for each other. And that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Trusty Lan. >> I'll just add my echo to vote. Uh ballots are available. You should have gotten your ballot

023by now. So don't forget to fill it out and mail it in or I like to still do it in person. So that's just my way. Um also I just want to echo, you know, this time in May, it's always important because it's the day of the teacher, it's staff appreciation, it's teacher appreciation. I don't want anyone to forget that May 1st is also principal uh principal's uh day as well. Um, you know, I I always get something nice from our PTA and it's wonderful to get some acknowledgement and we are hardworking principles and needs to get acknowledged just as much as anyone else. So, um, I think it's a hard job and I just think but I also want to emphasize just the appreciation that I have for educators. This is our month. It's

024it's sadly the downhill run towards the end of everything uh the end of the school year and everything happens a million miles an hour. There's so many things going on, board meetings every week. Um, just so many things going on with closing up, you know, award ceremonies and open houses and getting the grades in and, you know, it is just a tough time. And I just want to really my hats off to every educator and all the things that we do and all the jobs that we do because it's it just gets tighter and tighter and more crazy and hectic. So, I really want to acknowledge that. Finally, board student board members, thank you so much for your presentations today. Zoe, I was mun too. I was an MUN. Went to Davis and Sanger and

025several college ones as well. So, yeah, we have that connection as well, not just BIS. Anyway, I really want to just uh say thank you to you guys for doing such a great job and I'm glad you guys are here. >> That's awesome. Thank you. >> I'm done. >> You're done. Okay, Trusty Jacobson. >> Okay. Um, so we mentioned the the Berling game girls lacrosse. Well, I was at the Berling game, Hillsdale girls lacrosse game last week. We celebrated senior night for our Hillsdale girls. My daughter's on the team, so I have to acknowledge that we that we beat pearling game, but um Hillsdale girls will be heading to the CCS championship, so that's exciting. Um I also attended Night Moves, and it's my favorite show of the year. It's always It's impressive, too. This

026is This is the 28th uh annual Night Moves. It's been going for 28 years um with the same director Sabrina Bratini and it's just amazing the production quality of this show and the experience that the students have to be in it and um it's so impactful. We have alumni who help out with the show year after year. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. Um, I attended the AI task force meeting on Tuesday night um, as we're preparing for the uh, study session next week and I'm just very impressed with the group. Everybody is very engaged and invested in the topic. Um, it's it's a topic that's a little intimidating and mysterious and nebulous and kind of like where where do we even begin? And so over the course of these, I don't know, four

027or five meetings that we've had, um, it's been a a great process and we've actually come up with some concrete next steps. And what I really appreciate is that in some ways it's easy to just ignore the issue because it is so intimidating. And I appreciate that our district is really digging into it, engaging with it, um, investigating it, studying it, and um, thinking it through. And I also read in the Sanonteo Daily Journal that we have a couple of Aragon High School students who have been giving lessons on AI literacy and safety. Um so I applaud them for their initiative in in doing that and taking on that role within the community. Um I I echo every what everybody else has said said about principal appreciation, teacher appreciation, staff appreciation and I have to

028add on that may this this Sunday is also Mother's Day and I want to appreciate all of our mothers and mother figures um without whom we would not have this district. So, um, moms play a really central and critical role in everything that we do. So, I appreciate the moms out there. Thanks. Thank you. I kind of like going last because I don't have to re restate everything. I could just say I echo what everybody says. Um, but I'll pull a couple things out. Um I do want to mention about the ed educator appreciation month uh for our our um teachers and also our classified staff as well as our administrators principles. We've been meeting almost every Thursday just like a couple of trustees have said. I do think we didn't meet the week that

029was um administrative professionals week. So I do want to give a shout out for Miss to Miss Shakino. I'm not sure if we I don't remember us mentioning that four weeks ago. Did Okay. Well, then you get a shout out with everybody since we're giving a shout out. So, we really appreciate all of our staff members. Um, I did want to mention that that all of us are aware that May is a super busy month. Um, you have finals, you have graduations, we still have some performances which are always amazing and most of the performances have the live band which is super impressive as well. Um, so I do want to just remind students that when you feel overwhelmed, we have our wellness centers, we have our mental health counselors and coaches and reach out

030because it's it can be a stressful time. It most likely it is having finals and everything. Um, I did want to mention one thing. Um, I know we're meeting next Thursday as well, so I have one more opportunity to say this, but um, the citizens oversight committee is a wonderful group of parent volunteers and community volunteers. Um, so so we're there I'm part of that committee, but we're looking for additional volunteers who can come to the meetings. It's Mr. Hawkins, correct me if I'm wrong, it's it's about we meet about once a quarter, I believe. >> Yeah, we do quarterly with one uh trip around the district. >> Oh, the trips are so much fun. We actually travel on a on a little school bus um a shuttle well one of our vans and we

031we drive around. Sometimes we use a bus and we visit the school sites to look at the improvements. Uh sometimes it's in the middle of the project and then we'll circle back around and then six months later to look at look at the end of the project if if it's concluded. So it's really exciting. Um so that the next meeting is May 19th at 5:30 p.m. So please ping me, reach out to me. We're looking for more volunteers. It is an open session meeting. I don't know why nobody ever comes. It's an open session, but we're actually looking for more committee members. Um, so please reach out if you're interested and I'll remind us next Thursday since we've been meeting every Thursday. So, but it's fun seeing everybody here. Um, okay. With that, we'll move

032on to our next item is uh public comments. Okay. Right. If you are joining us in person and wish to make a comment about an agenda item or during the public comment section at the beginning of the agenda, which is right now, please fill out a request to address the board form and submit it to the secretary, Miss Aino. This form should be given to the secretary before the agenda item begins. If you're joining us virtually, use the raised hand feature on Zoom to be recognized. When invited to do so, your camera must be on before you are called to make a public comment. We will call on you to begin your comment once we have promoted you into the meeting. If your camera is not operational, please email your comments to the board of

033trustees at boardshd.org. Please note that comments are limited to three minutes. The board president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comment depending upon the topic and number of persons wishing to be heard. We'll call on inperson comments first. Mr. Aino, are there any inerson comments? >> There are none. >> None. Okay. Are there any hands raised on Zoom? >> There are none. Okay. Thank you for that. Okay. So, we don't have any uh public comments for non-aggendaized items. We'll move on. Um I see we don't have any communications to the board of trustees. I see we don't have recognition tonight. Next, we have consent. Do any of the trustees wish to pull an item from consent for discussion or questions? Okay, seeing none, uh is there a trustee that would like to

034make a motion? >> I'd like to make a motion with comment. Um I just want to acknowledge that in there is the single site, uh the SIPs, which is work that's done by, you know, site councils, by schools. It's a lot of work and sometimes I pull it. I'm not going to do that today, >> but I think I want to just acknowledge that it's a very important work that is important. It ties into the LCAP. So, I just want to make sure that we acknowledge that this is a lot of work done and that we're putting it on the approval. >> Second. >> Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. I will also echo it is a lot of work as school site councils put that parent volunteers also help on that

035as well and of course staff. Okay. So, we have a motion and a second. All in favor? I I >> Okay, that passes 5 to zero. Um, how do our board members um vote on the consent item? >> Student board members. >> I >> Okay, great. Passes two to zero. Thank you. >> Okay, next up is special reports. Superintendent Booker. >> I think I'm going to be handing it off to Dr. Kempy and Mr. William. >> Good evening. um glad to have the opportunity to present um the work of uh another district task force on the new personal finance graduation requirements. Um I have two members of that task force here this evening who I'm really glad will help present. um this task force spent the year kind of considering this graduation requirement which um

036is a standalone semester long class in personal finance and it was really a pleasure to work with a thoughtful dedicated group of educators um to kind of unpack this new requirement. So, I'm just going to provide a general overview of how the requirement came about and the the requirements and how we've um integrate them into a timeline for Sonteo. Um first, it was an assembly bill that came forward um that added a standalone semesterl long course in personal finance to the high school graduation requirements. And this graduation requirement commences with the class of 203031. um meaning that we're talking about it way in advance, but it does have quite a few implications as we'll talk about tonight for all of our courses. Um and the the law also requires that the personal finance course pilot

037starts piloting that this the districts offer it starting in um 2728 school year. So um not next year, but the following year is when we'd start offering the course. It's not a graduation requirement for that year except for the incoming freshmen. So the incoming freshmen of 2728 are the group of students that have to have that as one of their high school graduation requirements. Um along with this there was in that law that students who complete the standalone um one semester class in personal finance may opt out of economics requirement. So, as you know, right now, one of the high school graduation requirements um is economics. It will continue as a high school graduation requirements, but students and districts can allow for this opt out. We'll talk a little bit more about that. Um and

038within that requirement, districts are still required to offer the the economics class to students. So what that means is that students may continue to take both economics and personal finance. Um so the timeline for implementation we spent this year looking through the law. It's quite convoluted and so we did spend time and actually get legal guidance around what is required and when. um because it was legislature making you know rules for schools which doesn't always end up into to be the most sensical way of doing it but we did we we do I think we have a pretty good understanding now we read through the law we've um looked through the curriculum guide so our timeline suggested for implementation follows and we know it's aligned with the law um we did some look at the

039curriculum guide talked a bit about how it intersects with economics ICS and personal finance, but there'll be more of that work going into the fall. Um, and we've started to identify the curriculum work group that will start designing that course of study next fall. Um, there's not actually anything that you'll approve tonight. Um, however, in the fall, there'll be a course of study that will come to you for approval. Um, based on what the required components of that personal finance classes, um, tonight we're doing the board meeting to kind of update you on it. Um, and then the fall, like I mentioned, um, we'll have a workg group and then they'll bring forward a course of study. In the spring of 27, that course will be offered to students. So, it will be on their

040course um, request um, sheets. So, students can start taking that. Um, to not complicate it, we're we're suggesting our suggestion when it comes to you as a course of study is that it will be a 12th grade elective. If we start offering it to freshmen in that 27 years, some students would have the class for the graduation requirement before and it just could become very um complicated. So, we're that's the way we're proposing it. We don't have the course yet developed. Um and then in the fall of 27, we actually pilot the class. So, we hope to have at least enough student interest that um we'd be able to refine the class, have student and um teacher feedback to provide any refinements to the class that we think are necessary. During this time, during that

041pilot time, students are still required to take economics. So, you no matter what we do, economics still has to be a graduation requirement during that pilot phase and that is within the law. Um, and then in 27 2030 there's this implementation pilot phase and then in the fall of 2030 is when we actually would implement the graduation requirement. Um, and as for yeah, as I mentioned, um, we're proposing it as a 12th grade offering. Um, if you know our course sequences, semesterl long courses can really mess with the sequence of students taking classes and teachers teaching schedules. So, we're um suggesting that it aligns alongside American government um and then that we optu that students may have that chance to opt out of um economics, but we'd still offer it as an elective. Um and

042then we also are looking at um incorporating all units aligned by the law plus key components of current economics class. All of the teachers on the task force. I think all of them are current economics teachers or have been economics teachers in the past. Um and with that I'm going to pass it to Alex Dove and Carlo Porty who are going to speak to the work. >> You can That's right. >> Um, good evening again. Um, so my background with economics, just so you know, uh, when I student taught in 1999, I was student teaching in an econ and gov class. And since, uh, 1999 2000, uh, the past 26 years, I've been an econ and gov teacher in this district. Um, the task force really was was a a call from Dr. Kempkkey and

043from our socialist council to look at this law. And I think the first meeting we probably spent the entire time just asking questions like, what does any of this mean? we don't understand this. Uh we need more advice, we need more feedback. Um we met pretty much every month and a half, two months from that point on starting in fall to clarify and really act as liaison with our department members to see what questions people had, what we could clarify and if we could make sense of this kind of moving forward. Um that Oh, it works. Okay. Um, you know, econ teachers, I don't know if Miss Dove agrees with this, but econ teachers are kind of like the step siblings of the social studies department where a lot of history teachers, a lot of

044government teachers, a lot of people study history and government, but econ teachers either become econ teachers because they learn to teach econ by teaching econ majors who love nothing more than economics. And so when we came together, it was a group of all current economics teachers. And it was it was really refreshing actually. It was great sort of professional development camaraderie was really high. We all kind of bonded over this idea that we love economics and we started off being very I think frustrated by the fact that economics seems to be kind of on the chopping block uh to replace this with personal finance. And so one of the things we really tried to do was see if we're going to teach a personal finance course, what economics concepts can we keep in that personal

045finance course? Um and also are there personal finance lessons we do already in our econ classes? because I think we acknowledged all of us have at least a mini unit if not a significant unit on personal finance already. So what are we doing already that we can expand upon? Is there a way to if this is going to be requirement, we're not abandoning the the ideas that that we cared about as econ teachers? And so through conversations with ourselves, through um surveys and a very robust uh Google survey with uh every social studies teacher uh in the district and ma mainly people who had taught econ before, we asked people to identify what are the econs that you would hate to see disappear. should the board decide to get rid of econ as a concept.

046And one of the things we realized was in a personal finance course, there's no way you can talk about, you know, budgeting without talking about opportunity costs. Uh there's no way to talk about tax law or taxes without talking about fiscal policy. There's no way to talk about interest on a loan without talking about monetary policy. Um there's no way to talk about buying a house without talking about supply and demand, especially in the Bay Area. So there there's no way that in a personal finance class we're losing economics and we really see as kind of our next step to oh you know when we start developing the actual course of study uh to make sure that the work of the task force up to this point which has been to identify what's really important

047in economics uh make sure that that doesn't get lost in the development of a personal finance course. So you can see here that um these are some of the course requirements that we're working with. Um as Dr. Kempy shared, we will be refining our course of study and we are excited to bring that to you um in the future. So give you a moment if you want to read through this or see some of the exciting things. Um but just to kind of echo as you're reading through this what um Carlo was speaking to, I'm really proud of the work that we did. um we you know as he shared we were really concerned about this and we really did a lot of rich um deep work thinking about how to really make this a

048really meaningful experience for our students. Um I will say you know teaching economics for several years the personal finance unit personal finance lessons that's really where I see the most engagement for my students because they really see that's relevant to their life. Um especially our seniors and I'll talk about this more but they're starting to make real financial decisions and it's no longer theoretical. It's actually applicable to them. Um, so I'm excited and I think we all kind of came to the realization that we can make this a really meaningful, rich course for our students that really has a lot of benefits and a lot of opportunities for them to really um, utilize what they've learned with us and really apply it to their life. Does anyone have any questions about these course requirements, excitements,

049enthusiasms? >> Yeah, a lot of economics >> the principles of investing and building wealth with these. >> Yeah, come on in. You're not allowed to give financial >> darn it. >> Anyway, >> so what we recommend after lots of meetings, lots of discussions, meeting with lawyers and really learning legal manifestations, etc. Um is that we recommend that it continues to be a 12th grade course and um essentially replace the economics um position with personal finance. Um the reason for that is that that would be the smoothest transition for what our students are currently experiencing and it also makes most sense with the curriculum as well as how it's kind of implemented on our sites. So it would provide the students continuity teachers. Right now I teach government in the fall and economics in the spring.

050So this would now be I'm teaching economics in the fall and personal finance in the spring. Um or sorry govern the ball. Just really excited about all economics things. Um, this also allows teachers to develop curriculum that really reflects um, each course content. Right now, it's economics and government. I'm prefacing things for economics in my government course. And in economics, I'm referencing back. So, when we're talking about fiscal, monetary policy, we're also talking about what that means with the governments that we have and how they're functioning at the federal, national, state, local level, etc. So, this would also allow us to do the same thing with personal finance. And it also would be I think for principles and for our site etc. It would be smoothest for um staffing as far as making sure because

051these are semester courses and we do need to make sure that they're matching up and if we have them at you know different places that creates a lot of interesting experiences. Um additionally I think the real reason though beyond staffing etc is really for the student experience that the personal finance is most relevant for our seniors as they are going out. They are right now thinking about what loans they're taking out should they choose to go to college. They're thinking about what types of jobs that they're going to need to be getting. Um what types of where they're going to be living if they're buying cars, transportation, managing all these things that really adulting is happening for them. And this is a course that really offers them an opportunity to start grappling with that in

052a safe, supportive environment where they can start practicing the skills so when they actually have to apply it and do it for real that they're more prepared. and something I wish I had had um as someone who had a very scant economics experience in 1999. Um and when I had to make these decisions for myself, I did not have that opportunity to practice, which I'm really excited to provide for my students. And I'm constantly telling them, it's okay to be confused. It's okay that you're struggling with this. I want you to be exposed to this and I want you to start understanding. So when you have to do it for the real time, it's not the first time you're being exposed to this information that you're more confident in making decisions for yourself and also

053giving you opportunities to start talking about with your family, with your loved ones, with your community, so you're making the best decisions for yourself and really doing that at the 12th grade level. This is when students are really starting to think about it. At prior levels, we're really starting to help our students open up their world of view. We're starting to make them realize that there's a world beyond their middle school, their earlier years. Um whereas by the 12th grade year, they're really primed for this. >> Y'all are starting to think about things, right? Like, you know, it's getting there. Um so that's really why we strongly recommend to keep it at the 12th grade level. >> Um and then as Dr. Kempy shared, um economics will still be offered as an elective and I

054look forward to figuring out how that's going to be managed um with our staffing, etc. Um, but we don't recommend right now that students are taking economics and personal finance. Um, unless they're really passionate about that, which of course go for it. Um, but we are, you know, moving forward that personal finance and really embedding um, the economics terms that we as a group and as a district feel are super important that we'll maintain in the personal finance course, which I was actually really excited about. Um, it seems like, you know, right now we do majority economics, minority personal finance, and it seems like we're just going to kind of flip it where it's more robust personal finance with making sure that we're still embedding a lot of economics terms. And as a group, we've

055really been talking about already seen with um different topics in personal finance where it makes sense to really embed those economics terms. So, I'm excited for a really rich and exciting course and I'm really excited for our students to be even more engaged um and really get something out of it. So I think that's the end questions. >> Thank you. I know they're full of questions and comments. Trust me, >> I have a quick comment. Thank you for the presentation. And uh Trusty Jacobson and I had this really deep conversation and both of us wish we had taken more econ >> and apparently the four of us should get together and just really chop up the balance of trades, fiscal policy, um tariffs, um unemployment rates, interest rates, you know, all of that >> right

056now. you know, I mean, the stuff, you know, you a lot of this you don't appreciate >> until it's too late and you're trying to figure out how can I afford $8 gas and have lunch, >> you know, the, you know, allocation of resources and the scarcity. So, um, you got a real challenge, I think, and I know Trusty Jacobson has some comments and we had kind of and I don't want to take take all the all the time. Uh I did teach a like a personal finance course because I uh Junior Achievement has something and I don't know if if uh >> this was back in the uh 70s 80s I taught at Bowish um with a guy I went to school with and we actually you know it it was this >> you

057were a company huh? >> Yeah. Yeah. We were we were a pair. But anyway, it was it covered budgeting, uh, banking, you know, how to fill, you know, what a checking account is, a savings account, uh, job applications, a lot of stuff that's in there. And, you know, and the students really, really got into it. And I see maybe it's an econ class. Did you guys have stock was it stock market games? >> Oh, they love the stock market. >> And they love it. They loved it. And the they love it. the eighth grade, you know, and I was telling about, you know, well, you know, what do you se what stocks do you select? Well, look at what you buy, look at stuff, you know, about for the, you know, for the contest. >>

058And uh I think it was really >> it was really, you know, it was really beneficial to him at at that point. Now I'm kind of having said all that about teaching project business and that was you know got me engaged in education and and wanting to expose uh students to what you know what business people were like and what business was like. Uh I know I'm not going to go into some details but I would like to not and I think you said you're not going to >> um drop you know let one go for the other one. Uh but there's some other challenges cuz you've got the deep you got some real deep concepts and how do you give them something at the surface level that you can connect the dots at while

059you're just you know you got all these all these subjects to cover. So um but I wish you well and I'm sure we'll we'll hear you know we'll hear the report come the fall. Mhm. Thank you. I have some Yeah. Um, thank you for this. I wish I would have paid more attention in high school economics, like especially with student loans and all that stuff. It definitely makes a difference. And, you know, a lot of a lot of students don't have that literacy at home. So, it's so important. and taking out credit cards. When you're in college, they the credit card companies pray on you, you know, as a young person. So, you end up with these outrageous interest rates. Um, so my questions, um, one, with students that are new to the country, um,

060students that don't speak, uh, English, what how do you foresee that them being taught? And then especially for students that are learning the economics of this country. Um how do you marry that? Um so that's my first question. >> I'll just say we do that now. Yeah. >> Uh we do that with economics uh right now which in many ways are more esoteric less easy things to understand right in terms of like this is economics is often more philosophical. uh personal finances like here's the bill like you know what are you gonna do this month and so I think in many ways it gives you access to language that's much more everyday language uh and maybe much more relatable immediately um to students who are learning English you know or are new to the country

061so I mean we we all have training and all have skill in working with um students who are who are learning English but I think this content matter may make it more accessible uh to students of all kinds. So I that's my immediate answer. I also think it's really important because um as you're mentioning like this is an equitable opportunity for students. um as you shared not every student has family has um people in community in their life that is able to provide them with that knowledge and that's one of the things that we see perpetuating cycles of inequality and I think this is really an opportunity for us as a district to >> work towards breaking that cycle of inequality so all students are getting accessible information that's equitable for them that they can

062apply to their life um and build up opportunities for all so I'm excited for that um and yeah it'll be like what we do in all of our classes, providing those scaffolding, looking for opportunities, working with our LL um leads, etc. to really provide um content that is uh able to be um accessed for our students. >> Thank you. Yeah. And I think about families that don't use banks. >> Um there are some that don't. And um so how how would you how would you um explain those types of things like these concepts to students who don't have that experience? >> It's the same for our students in our US history courses or our world history courses who don't have the lived experience of the governmental system of the United States with our federal system

063etc. um it would be the same that we would have to be I think this it just means that we have to be good teachers and know our students and know where they're coming from and know where their needs are and then being able to reach them. >> Yeah. >> And I would say as of we do that now. Um, you know, I I liked hearing Trusty Griffin talk about, you know, stock market investing. And I will say we have kids who have, you know, never >> heard about banking and simple banking concepts. >> And we have kids in our class who want to talk about cryptocurrency and markets, right? So, you know, we have to figure out a way to balance that every day. >> Um, and we'll continue to do so. >> And

064then in uh at sites like Peninsula, like will they get this type of education too? um or will they just be at the comprehensive site? >> It's it's a high school graduation requirement, so every student in our district would have to have this on their transcript in order to graduate. So, >> as well, >> yes. >> Excellent. >> And just as a side note, I think the >> one of the most skilled econ teachers in our district is uh Sage who's at Peninsula, does a phenomenal job, and he is >> he's really one of our real leaders of our group. So, >> yeah, >> he's he's a great >> he was on the task force. Awesome. >> And has I think he has a business degree, so he's his background in business is one of

065the >> I might have already been using some of his work in the class this semester. >> I love that. >> Well, thank you. This is wonderful. Thank you. >> I have a few things to say, but I want to let others go first. Uh go ahead, trust me. >> So, you know, I'm going to be very candid. I was very fearful about this, especially if we're giving up economics. Like, I was kind of terrified actually, like, wow, we're really trading off stuff. But thank you very much for your explanation and your in-depth, you know, the work that you guys have done because it really makes it clear that this is a worthwhile class that kids are going to get a lot out of which you've already started in elements that you've already taken with

066your microeconomics part of your economics course. It seems really interesting because in my mind, you know, you have government and you're going to talk about macro economics and then your principal of finance is going to be the micro kind of matching it together. I I see that now that I didn't before this presentation. So, thank you both. I really think that's important. Um I think that's a discussion that I hope will continue is what are the economic underlying standards going to be in both government and the personal finance course that you've mentioned. I think that to me as a board member is really an emphasis that I think you you brought out today that I hope continues. Um but I think you think congratulations. Thank you so much. I really appreciate this because you really

067brought it to a level where I can understand and feel like yes, this is what we're doing. Um, on a personal note, I don't know why, but Zoe reminded me of MU. I had to take economics independently as an independent study because it wasn't in my schedule. I had such a busy schedule. I had to take it independently. And it's like I had to self teach my self-taught economics. You know how hard that was? But um but really I really value what you guys are doing it and I I don't want this lost. I want this to be to be brought lifted up what you do not pushed down and say okay now this is extra and I think you've done that. You showed that to me tonight. So thank you so much. >> Thank

068you Trusty Jacobson. >> Yeah. So, um I'm really glad that you expressed a lot of passion for the subject of economics and recognized the importance of it. Um as Trusty Griffin mentioned, he and I were talking about this, did not talk to any other board members about it. Um, but I I expressed to him and it sounds like Greg shares that concern, you share that concern, he shares that concern that we really uh understand and value the the relationship between personal finance and economics, but also the distinct and nature of both courses. is um which we don't want to lose. Uh so when you said that, oh why does econ have to be on the chopping block? Um I don't know that it has to be. Um and I personally I can't speak for the

069other board members, but I would invite them to He's doing this over here. Oh, >> Okay. Just making sure. Oh, okay. He's like, "Oh, no." Trusty Jacobson, >> it's a thought. It's a thought. >> It was That's okay. >> Um, I just was thinking that it is. I understand that it's difficult with semester classes and where to fit them in. And I was doing some thinking about it and researching. um we have semester courses in the ninth grade year. There's there's some flexibility um there. And what would it look like if we had kind of the book ends of we have personal finance in ninth grade in kind of that life skills year. Um, when it's actually really relevant to all of high school students who you think about kids who are having their first

070job, starting to earn a paycheck, building that muscle of exercising, saving choices, spending choices, um, uh, paying taxes and that the depth of knowledge required for that level of thinking, I mean, it's more concrete. It's probably more accessible for a ninth grader. And the the macroeconomics really pairs very nicely with the government part of the sequence in the 12th grade year. And the depth of knowledge is higher. So, I would just like to see a proposal um of what that might look like if we maintained economics as a standalone grad requirement and the personal finance as a standalone grad requirement. The other thing is that um the economics as I said it pairs very nicely with government and I think both of those lend themselves to the 12th grade year because it's you're setting the

071student up for voting for civic responsibility um and understanding how those voting decisions are related to fiscal policy and uh and those choices that they're making. So that's something that I would like to be considered. >> Did I comment on just really quickly? >> Yeah. >> Um I think I think we definitely talked about all the ways we could try to keep economics as I mean again we were I think very defensive of what we teach, right? And very protective of what we teach as well. Um and I think we can certainly I mean we'll do whatever you guys tell us to do, right? Um, but uh I do think that when you mentioned the stuff about personal finance, it it in 9th grade, it something reminded me of one of the really nice things

072about having in 12th grade um even as a a unit in my econ class is that there's there's sometimes a little bit of a a power shift, a dynamic shift in my class where the students who actually do work and do help support their families um sometimes for the first time in high school, all of a sudden they're the experts in class. >> So like, oh, I yeah, I do my taxes. >> Yeah. >> Right. I know exactly what this paycheck is. >> While some of our and and again, I'm grossly overgeneralizing here, but some of our our real powerhouse students um never saw a paycheck in their life. And and there's something really nice about, you know, I understand the idea that like previewing what personal finance might be like in your life uh

073freshman year has value. Um, but I also think it has real value um to the students not only who are experiencing it during that senior year, but also I know Miss Dev and I were talking about this before. Next year you're I could tell you right now, hey, you kind of have an idea what you're going to do next year. Let's find an apartment in that community right now. >> Um, you know, let's look for jobs in that community right now. And we've done that in our econ class. And to be able to expand that during senior year has real value. So, um, I certainly appreciate your comments. I just wanted to to respond in one of the ways that we've thought about this as well. Um I also just and I'm sure you've had

074this conversation before. I I don't fully understand from what you mentioned what would be replaced um if you added a semester course freshman year um or is it just >> Well, no. So I know >> Oh, I don't know. That's for that's for the district to get creative. But we have I mean we've talked about grad requirements and maybe making shifts with those um in our in our board sessions about CTE and how we have you know we have VAPA we have um a foreign language requirement we have a CTE requirement we have a health requirement I mean >> shuffle those around like the order >> I mean it's scarcity this is how I It leads to exact right there. >> No, I I actually had the the same thought. Um we're going Yes, exactly.

075How are you going to allocate those resources? It's directly applicable in many areas of our lives, um civic and otherwise. Uh we're doing it again with the with the cell phone policy and judging what product to use or whether even to to do that make that decision. And so, um, I just think why do we have to automatically assume that econ is the class that has to go. >> Yeah. >> I only say I think part of this because of the way the law was written. >> Yeah. They said, >> well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I the the law is written so that >> it gives boards the opportunity to say if you would like to >> not require econ anymore, personal finance does need to. So the way it was

076written suggest I I fully understand what you're saying. I just >> Yes. thought about. >> Okay. I I hear what you're saying, but the law also says that districts can cut another class >> to make room if they need to. So So >> it wouldn't be the first time a bad law was written or an incomplete law was written. Um, you know, I I I uh >> we did have that conversation and I was not I was not going like that because she said anything that I didn't fully support because um part of that came from the fact that uh you don't want to underestimate eth graders cuz we were doing budgeting exercises and they were figuring out how they were well >> how am I going to pay you know if I'm buying a

077car >> and I got to have a fancy How am I going to pay my rent? I mean, you know, and so they were starting to get that and we were discussing >> well, you know, I'm not the sequencing government and econ are like this >> in our world. I mean, it's just really interlocked. >> They don't have >> uh personal finance. I did see some of the benefits because if you can't, you know, you're and not that people are handwriting, not that people even can write or print anymore, but if they're doing job applications, >> you know, one of the things we went through was how do you complete a job application, >> you know, or find a job or some of those basic skills. And that was, you know, that was stuff that

078did impact and they were able to, you know, wrap their heads around it in a lower grade. Now, I must say we could did not figure out that the scarcity answer about, well, it's already full, you know, fully booked, you know, the first year, probably a lot of the second year. How's it going to be, you know, how is it going to fit together? and we kind of said, "Well, we'll leave it to the the powers it be to figure that part out." So, but I mean, you know, it's something I think is worth considering, but we had not heard, >> you know, the part, you know, the real presentation that you made. Um, you know, there's there's pros and cons on how this is going to work, but I I I think it's an

079important class. We want to we want to see econ right there and I think it does the most good in the senior year. So >> I would just say that we certainly can model some examples of what it would look like and what would be impacted if that's of interest. We did talk about it at length um in the task force because I would say there was a grief process probably in the first two meetings that the teachers were feeling very there's a lot of grieving like this is going to go away. So I think they got over that and went through the stages and then realized that there are some a lot of the components of econ that we can maintain in personal finance. But >> um certainly I don't think you're going to

080have any argument from the work group or the task force that if we want to see ECON continue as a class um but we will have to give something up. So I think we could model some examples of core sequences through 9th through 12th grade. we had already started trying to think about it and uh we didn't necessarily come to a good conclusion but um I think because the law allowed for this opt out I think we kind of got over the grief that you know maybe econ would become an elective and started just down the route that we've we're at now but certainly if there's um a suggestion that you want us to model some of this out we can and we can talk about the pros and cons and what what we lose

081you know in that process because we do have a scarcity of time for students um especially in the nth grade year. I'll say that that year is particularly packed, but it is something that we talked about at length and we could come up with some models. >> Well, there there is another Oh, yeah. Go ahead. I have a few things to say. I'm going to let Trusty Lang go. >> Thank you. Sorry. Just connecting with what Bob was talking about with eighth grade. We are we have a financial literacy course. It would be great for us your knowledge of what the prerequisites might be, the things that maybe get them started early in eighth grade so that they would understand because we do do the resume stuff, we do the job application, we do taxes,

082we do break down your payroll, what is it? Yes, we do. And only but it's an elective class, not a required class. And so, you know, and it doesn't happen all the time. It's just something that we think is really worthwhile based on what was happening with the law. And so I think that knowledge that you have and and it's really solid research that you guys are delving into right now, that discussion with our partner districts might be really worthwhile what we could do in eighth grade. >> And I think that's that's something that I didn't want lost because I I just I jumped on what he said and I was like, well, that's an important thing that I forgotten to mention. Um, it is a struggle. I I I think Julia that I appreciate

083what you're saying because yes, we you went for the we went for the easy out and what are the other options too? It I I think we might land on this, but it'd be important to really explore the idea of keeping economics and government tied um and what would that look like? What would a personal finance look in a different way? But it's it's an exploration that I I think you did a lot of the research here. So I think it was valuable and and you converted me because I originally was right where you guys were where it was like no way should you get rid of economics but the way you explained it maybe how to figure out where the macro and the micro work together in government and the personal finance that might

084work but anyway >> everybody's so excited about this topic they won't let me speak I'm going to speak now for a few minutes if that's okay then you guys can ask more questions um let me backst step a few steps so I love economics. I'm probably a minority. Um, I took my high school economics in 1987, spring of 1987. And because my teacher made it so fun, I went on and I majored in economics and I got a bachelor's in economics with a minor in business. I'm not here for a job interview, so I won't say any more about me, but I will say that times have changed for sure. Um, and I know economics that I took in 1987, which was just a few years ago, is going to be completely different than economics

085now. And also there was no financial literacy then. If you wanted to pay your credit card bill, you had to write the check on and mail it seven days in advance because I lived up in the mountains and it's got to trickle down to wherever there's a larger mailing location. So times have changed for sure. But um I I was kind of concerned as well. So I'm really glad that I would I would have been right there with you like we can't lose economics. There's certain things we got to have, right? So I'm still not sure we should completely lose it. I know it can blend together either more or less. Um, so I did want to mention that I do think the financial literacy is is also important too. Um, both my daughters graduated

086high school in a district and one of my daughters and her friends, a group, I'm no teacher. You guys are amazing. I tried to teach them just as one topic because they were asking me what the difference was between debit cards and credit cards. And nowadays it could be confusing because some some um debit cards have a a credit card slip balance such as Visa because you can use it either way but but the choice you make is very different. You're either using money you have in the bank and it's going to draw down, you know. So I had to explain all that um versus borrowing. And you got to know what your interest rate is. And so I'm always telling folks that check the interest rate and if you only pay the minimum amount

087on your credit card billing statement, you're gonna you might pay double for that purchase you made. So I know there's there's a law now where now the credit cards have to put that on there if you only pay the minimum currently. It's going to take you 47 years to pay it off. And and you're going to I'm exaggerating, I think, for the most part, but but at least it's a it's a law where the credit card companies have to put that on there if you're making the only the moving payment. So um so that part but students and young adults need and older adults as well need um much more training much more information so they can make informed decisions um than to just versus paying the minimum or paying it all off or maybe

088not buying that because it's going to end up costing me double if I don't end up if I don't pay it off. So I think both aspects of personal finance the finance financial class class as well as economics is important. I loved economics. Um, and that's why I took it. That's why I I went for the bachelor's in economics. But I'm glad that you both have done such a great job on on explaining the course requirements and what can overlap. Um, and that we're not going to we're not going to erase economics because I I would advocate for us to keep economics uh and not not lose it entirely. But it sounds like it would be more of a blend and we're still working towards that final output. Right. So, I guess that's what I

089wanted to comment on. And I want to ask our student board reps if they have any comments. >> Now, I was wondering, can I take this class in 12th grade? >> Yeah. >> Like personal finance like as a whole sounds very important and economics, it's a bit abstract to us, especially right now. And personal finance instantly gets into mind like our future. And our future sounds pretty important to us especially. >> It's very present. And you're saying like >> like by the time we're in 12th grade like we can take this or what's >> so we'll be piloting it in the 2728 school year. Um and then the intention is for students are graduating in year 3031. They will have to graduate with taking the course. >> Okay. It's interesting. Personal finance. Oh man, that

090sounds incredibly like beneficial. >> Yeah. Like when I think of economics and I think of personal finance, which one immediately brings to mind benefits for us immediately, you know, considering that it's around like 8:20, we do have to get going. I appreciate you talking about this. >> They have some You guys both have a test tomorrow, correct? >> Yeah. Good luck on your test and study hard. Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Not getting on. >> So, do you have any comments to make for about the um about economics? Okay. or with your test. >> Thank you guys. >> Okay, thank you Trusty Chop. >> Yeah, so we still have some couple board questions or comments, but I just want to say again, thank you for the presentation and um I'm glad we're not losing economics

091and I think some trustees might have a couple more things to say. Chris, >> can I mention one thing uh just in response and I think I think Mr. Dev mentioned this already. I I think everyone on our task force felt pretty strongly that we'd like to continue offering economics as an elected course and maybe even a year long maybe even a more robust economics, you know, year-long course. So I know that's not what you're what you've asked for, but I think we all feel pretty strongly that economics is important. I would like to offer it to students. Um it's really trying to find I guess the way you know what's what's required and what's not. So >> and it's required by law to offer to continue to offer it. >> And and Trusty Chavez,

092to your point, I talked about this their frontal loes are not fully developed, right? You know, biologically and that's thinking about long-term consequences of your actions. And we know that when they're going on to college, when they're first getting their jobs, this is the age that they do get prayed upon. And we talk about that reading the fine print how important that is. >> And I really do see this as like this is something that is so important for my students that way they do not get mired into debt because you see these days you see >> how people get sucked into it so much >> and it's so important for them to be empowered so that way they are not taken advantage of. And >> I appreciate that. And I wish we again the

093scarcity. I wish we could teach this at every level. I wish we had a life skills course so we could be teaching every year to really build on this and have some vertical alignment through that. Um, but I really see it as incredibly important and the most applicable, most relevant to their lives as seniors because that's when they're really going to be making decisions that will affect the quality of their life or their future. Um, you know, as they're younger, they still are at home. They still have family members. So, the decisions that they're making while they're getting their jobs, they're starting to think about things. the stakes are not nearly as high as I really see it for them because some of them when they're going off to college, they're out. They're adults and

094they're treated as adults by society and I really don't want them to be taken advantage of and I really want them to have a class that really sets them up so that way they are making the best decisions for themselves and we're giving them the most opportunities. >> Absolutely agree with you. >> Yeah, I thank you for that. >> Thank you so much for that. I I would just invite my board members to remember that we have currently graduation requirements that are above and beyond what the state requires that our district has imposed. And so in conjunction with this, in conjunction with our discussions about CTE pathways, I would invite us to do as Dr. Kempkkey offered to model out what this might look like in some different ways and and we can have the

095the hard conversation about um about rethinking our our graduation requirements. >> Um I don't know if I have consensus on that, but that's what I would like to see >> on the modeling you know the modeling. Yeah, I thought that with the the they were going to take a stab at it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah. >> All right. There'll be more to come on this topic regardless because you'll see a course of study. And >> thank you so much. And long live economics. >> Thank you. Had to remind you guys that I studied economics. Okay. That was fun. Okay, so next on the agenda is Sorry everybody. We have a construction. We have nothing and we have Division of Human Resources personal consent agenda. Dr. Black. >> Yes,

096we have a consent agenda. On it is the personnel actions. We have a pride prom job description that's been revised uh for a $3,000 stipend. It involves planning, promotion, volunteer recruitment, coordination, safety, and postevent evaluation. There's also a new agreement with the San Foster City School um city school district to allow ESL classes at Laurel Elementary School for our adult school program Tuesday through Thursday in the during the school year at Laurel from 6 to 8. That's anou. And then there's anou with Stanford for student teaching. That's the consent agenda. >> Is that the step program? >> Yes. >> So those four items. Okay. Any questions from the board? Not. Okay. Great. Okay. So, is there is there a motion >> comments? >> Oh, there are none. >> No, not okay. >> Move to approve

097the consent agenda. >> Okay. So, second. >> Trusty Anda motioned and trusty L seconded. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. That passes five to zero. >> And um division human resources. Dr. Black. The first item is personal actions addendum and there's no retirements to uh recognize this month. >> Okay. >> I make a motion to approve the addendum. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. Okay. So, Trusty Land made Oh, there none. >> Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Trusty L. Trusty L made the motion. Trusty Andre Zuniga Zuniga seconded it. All in favor? >> I passes five to zero. >> And item number two. >> Yes. Item number two is the final resolution for the reduction in force. On February 5th, the board approved the first resolution for the reduction and that contained FTE

098and job categories that that could be included in the layoff or the reduction in force. Subsequently, HR people have met with um all of those who could potentially or could have been potentially involved in the reduction. We gave them their bumping rights and hearing rights, training rights, job searching and reemployment rights. Um, and this the last step or the the next step in the process is for the board to approve a final reduction in force resolution that contains the actual individuals, their employee numbers and their FTE who are involved who will be involved in in the layoff. But because of the resignations, we were able to reduce the reduction down to two employees. um one who chose to not bump and take the layoff rights and another who uh does not want does not want

099to come back to work as they're going to school but they will take the layoff rights. So there's two employees on the resolution but they've chosen not to uh come back in the fall. So we recommend approval. >> There are none. >> Sorry no public comments. Okay. Any questions or comments from the board? Okay. Okay. Anybody would like to make a motion. >> So move. >> Okay. Second. Okay. I'll second it. Okay. Trusty Griffin made the motion and uh myself, Trusty Chavez, seconded it. All in favor? >> I passes five to zero. >> Okay. Item number three. Next item is the uh declaration of need for fully qualified educators, which is a required annual board approved document that authorizes the district to hire teachers on emergency or limited assignment permits when there are no fully

100qualified candidates available. The declaration requires the district to anticipate areas of potential needs for limited assignment or emergency credentials. So, we've listed those. They include special education, English language development or ML. Um, this year we had less than five uh limited assignment permits and we anticipate the the same or hopefully less next year. >> I make a motion to approve. >> Second. Okay. I'm going to ask Mr. Kane if there's any public comment. >> There are none. >> Okay. So, we have a motion from Trusty Lan, a second by Trusty Andra Zaniga. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. That passes five to zero. And our fourth item, Dr. That last item is a contract and I have to read out the terms, but the district recommends the approval of an individual individual employment contract

101for Michelle Fisera in the position of administrator designate for Peninsula High School from the dates of April 27th to June 30th, 2026. And the following are the compensation terms. Michelle Fisher, administrator designate, salary $38,911 based on an annualized salary of 2000 $29,740. She'll have 41 work days based on a prrated year of $214 work days. The health and welfare benefits will be prated up to $45,416.70. She'll receive transportation and cell phone reimbursement of $275 a month, various subscriptions and memberships, and reimbursement for district approved expenses. And we recommend approval of the contract. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Black. Mr. Kino, are there any public comments or none? Okay. Any comments or questions from the board? >> I move to approve the contract. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. So, Trusty Andra

102Zuniga made the motion and Trusty Griffin seconded that. All in favor? >> I I abstain. >> Okay. So, four eyes and one abstension. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, Dr. Black. All right. Next, we have Division of Student Services. There there is none. Uh next we have Division of Instructional Services Dr. Kempkkey for the mobile device pouch recommendation. And I do want to say we have an inerson public comment for this item. >> Um should we do you want public comment first? >> Sure. >> Emo Rosenbomb, thank you. Thank you for being patient. We know that the warings we've gone off for 90 minutes. Thank you for being patient. You have three minutes. Thank you. Um >> microphone. >> Oh, the microphone. That's >> microphone. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Thank you, Mr.

103Simmons. >> Uh so this is about the cell phone policy. So it's well, what is the policy? As the teacher also mentioned, you know, it's causing a lot of confusion and anxiety not knowing what the policy is for next year. So imagine as a parent the anxiety we have passing on to our students, passing on to the teachers and more importantly the students the anxiety they have about not knowing what's going to happen next year. How are they going to communicate with their friends during the day or after school or for after school activities? So you know policy would be really nice and instead we're talking about like what color pouches to get or what kind of pouches to get. like that seems like something that should be farther down the line like we should

104have this policy approved and kind of spread out before we talk about you know what the implementation of the policy is you know other things I'd like to know is like well what kind of delay does this introduce in the beginning of school at the end of the school you know kids have activities they have to get to right after school jobs you know learning about personal finance like how does this affect them how will it affect Um um the board memo or the memo talks about you know student engagement. Well, how do we think students are engaging if not on their phone? Like taking away their phone doesn't automatically say, "Oh, they're all going to talk in person now." Like their phone is their major form of communication. Like they're talking with each other

105on their phone. So, you know, taking that away, putting it in a pouch is just doesn't really seem to be the right answer to what we're supposedly trying to do. uh kind of relevant is you know canvas is having problems today again how are teachers and you know going to communicate with students how are students going to communicate with each other about what's going on if not using their phone or other devices. Uh another topic about personal finance it seems like you know that's setting up students for success later in life. Banning cell phones how does that set them up for success? It just delays them not knowing when to use their cell phone or when it's appropriate to have it out or not have it out. Just saying you can't have it out doesn't

106really do anything. I mean, look around. How many of you have your cell phones out during this board meeting? You know, what kind of example is that when we can't even, you know, put our phones away ourselves and we're telling students, "No, you can't have your phone. We can have it, but you can't." Like, that's not, you know, I don't want that example for my children. So still time reconsider this policy or at least have a policy first and then reconsider it. So thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Are there any raised hands for this item? No. Okay. Thank you for that. Dr. Kempkkey. >> Thank you. >> Yes. I think I'm just handing this one over to Mr. Simmons to talk about um the cell phone po pouch um process. >> Yeah.

107Thanks Dr. Kimi uh super uh trustee Chavez board. Uh tonight we're here just bringing forward a proposal uh for approval of a contract uh with Quiet Case as the district's recommended Belltobell phone pouch. Um over the last month or so um staff engaged in a in a pretty thorough process of looking at about five different uh uh options including Yonder, which is used at Sonteo High School. Um and we settled on this particular uh phone pouch case. So, as you can see, uh, Trusty Griffin there is working on it. And basically what it is, it's a zippered pouch, unlike the Yonder pouches, which are more of like a pin in sticking inside of a hole thing. Um, so if you Yeah, you can. And so the the zippered pouch, it also inside of it is

108a it has a signal blocking uh technology. So it's it's a Faraday case on the inside. Um throughout the process, we looked at we looked carefully at cost, durability, ease of implementation, student experience, and kind of the long-term operational feasibility of the particular um um options that we had. And we did give a pretty we gave a very serious uh consideration to to the experience we've had with Yonder Pouches um as a school district um at San Mo High School having their partnership's been I think it's now up to like eight years, seven years. Um so quiet case emerged uh as the preferred option and again we had representation on the committee from Samonteo and and and all the school sites uh teachers uh site administrators and a couple of students um and compared to

109the other systems the the quiet case product was viewed as more durable uh more studentfriendly in design and more aligned with the day-to-day realities of implementing across the comprehensive schoolwide uh district implementation. Um they also appreciated the case is kind of customizable. Uh it's also that they like the the signal blocking capability that that that caused a significant increase in um in uh in cost if we in the with the other with the other solutions. Uh these are approximately $18 per case. Um do you need me to pause? I think it'd be a good idea. I I think we can continue. I >> Okay, >> sorry. >> Um, so yeah, so basically uh we recognize that this this is a newer vendor. Just want to be, you know, upfront about the fact that it's a

110newer vendor and implementation is going to require all the things that have been said tonight. We know that this is going to be a big lift. The really awesome thing we have is we have a proof point in the district right now in Sonteo and are leveraging a lot of the information to share with the other school sites about how to do it. So this is not new to us as a system. It's new to five, you know, all the schools that aren't Sano, but we have that example to go from. And one of the things I would say that that Michu would say if she were standing here, you know, giving you this, giving giving anybody a talk about this is you got to take it seriously and get and really dig in as

111a core part of your program. And that's one of the things that she even said to the principles at the principal meeting that we had a couple of weeks ago in person to talk about like the importance of the case itself. You know, we could probably haggle over with this case or another case. That's not the point. The point is really being vigilant about making sure that that that we take it seriously as a as a system and and that people understand why we're doing it and how we're doing it and all of that. Did you all figure out how to get it open and close and all that? >> But I couldn't figure it out how to lock it. You push push the little the little plastic button on the top. Oh, >> that's

112it. And then it's locked. And then the magnet unlocks it and then you can unzip it. There you go. Thanks. I probably could have done a little demonstration beforehand, but there you go. >> It's locked. >> That's it. And I'm happy to answer questions. Go ahead, Dr. >> Yeah, I'm going to jump in just for a second here. And it's it's to rewind us a little bit, help our community member who who spoke a little and just kind of set the stage. I I just want to remind the community, we we had a very long packed house discussion on March 26th about which direction to go, what the policy should look like. Um, as the board of trustees know, the board of trustees gave the district a directive to move forward with a what we

113call bell-to-bell uh policy, which is uh in in other words using a pouch device like we have seen at Santo High School for the last years at Sato seven years, something like that, but to enact a similar bell-to-bell policy um across the district. So, I want to remind the community if uh you didn't get to see that discussion or learn about that discussion, you can go on the district website uh to find the board memo, the presentation. You can also watch on YouTube uh to see the full discussion and there were doubledigit public comments uh of of community members here. So, our timeline of roll out uh to the community member who spoke earlier's I'm somewhat in agreement with him. It would have been better for us get that directive, bring a sample policy, the

114actual written policy that reflects the directive to the board now, but every school district across everywhere is doing this and we needed to get in line very very quickly to order these pouches and we're not allowed to do that without board authorization. And so that's why we flip-flopped it. We're doing pouches tonight based on the directive that the board gave us at the March 26th meeting. And at our meeting in June, I have to look that up. >> The first board meeting in June, we will bring the actual language of the board policy, which will mirror Santa Clara's board policy, which we put in the board memo on March 26th, so the public can get a sense of what that policy language will actually look like. It'll be almost identical to the Santa Clara Belltobell

115uh board policy. On top of that, at the second board meeting in June, we'll be bringing forward to the board, not for approval, but for review, uh, our student handbook regulations that outline how we're going to implement and enforce. What are the educator expectations? Uh, this is to Mr. Cord's point. Uh, he brought up earlier, educator, what are the educator expectations, what are the student expectations, what are consequences, all of that. So, we'll be bringing that to you at the second board meeting of June for review. So, just wanted to give that quick overview for people watching at home or >> Thank you, Trusty Lyn. >> I I think thank you for that because I think the misunderstanding of why we're doing it this way is important because yes, I understand why you have to

116do it because financially we need to get ahead of this and we need to go with it. But what both speakers today talked about, and Brian, I'm glad you brought it up, is the principles are talking about it. They're going to get it on board. They're going to communicate with their teachers. The teachers are going to communicate with the students. It's going to be part of the handbook. It's going to be very simple like this is, you know, this is the way it's going to be. And so, I appreciate that. And I and the implementation is going to be difficult. I'm not going to say it's easy, but you know, thank you all for just getting on board and like, let's move on. Yeah, we have an advantage in that we have a school site

117in the district that has been doing this for years. So, we're not reinventing the wheel. If families at home want to get somewhat of a sense of what this looks like, they can go to the Sanonteo High School's website and pull up their student handbook. There's a whole section in there about implementation. >> It's a good way to think. >> Yeah. And as far as rolling as far as implementation, which that's going to be could be complicated and and uphill might be jogging a little bit uphill at first, but we can definitely tap into Santo High School and find out how they started because there I think their program is really successful right now. They might have had a few bumps and we don't have to reinvent the wheel. We can certainly learn from uh

118our educators over there. Okay, Trusty Jacobson. Um, I'm just curious, is is that magnet the same one that you can buy on Amazon that unlocks the yanders or >> it's it's essentially the same magnet. And so we know that. Um, I think curious >> the thing to be clear about this that we that we've really discussed with Samonteo as well is this is as much about the the theater of it as it is the actual thing itself, right? You can't have a phone if you're in the school. It needs to be in a pouch or or not with you. So the point is even if you're able to break the pouch no matter what the the or open the pouch with a magnet if you have a phone it it gets taken. >> Yeah. I

119mean that's the so that's the a piece of it is in some ways even the locking isn't really necessary from that perspective but it does make it easier because then most of them are locked up and it's easier but that's been the discussion we've been having with Samonteo is that this is as much about kind of the the the the environment as it is about the actual like because yes students will always find a way to open those cases if they really want to. >> I think that's totally the right way to think about it. I was just kind of curious because you said like this is a newer company. I'm sure there's going to be more iterations. I was just curious if where the technology was going and if that had been >> part

120of the iterative process of manufacturing. But >> yeah, I think I think it is I will say we didn't say this explicitly. I should say this um that um Samonteo is going to continue to use yonder pouches after some discussion um and given their track record with yonder, we're basically going to going to allocate some resources to them up to the amount that would be uh what we would have paid for the for the quiet cases for them and then they will cover the rest with their uh how they've been covering it pre previously. So do know that they are going to continue with yonder pouches and we'll see how it goes next year, right? Next year will be kind of the how we'll see how this case really does um hold up and and

121what we want to what happens. The last thing I did want to quickly add because I didn't say this earlier that I think is really important that I've only recently kind of stumbled into myself. I said a version of it at the AI uh task force the other night and that is that we're essentially creating kind of a walled garden for our students that I realized I didn't really think about it until we got to the Faraday cases cuz the undercut pouches that are currently used at Samite are not they don't actually have signal blocking currently and one of the things we know is that students are using their phones as hotspots even if they're not even if they're not available to them and then they can get access to things through their phone. So

122actually not having access to your phone and again students can bring burner phones or do other things but in general we're creating the conditions by which we can really scaffold I think and support students with being digital citizens in ways that in some ways because you we're going to have to use our own devices now in terms of laptop I mean um our our our mobile devices will be our own Chromebooks because doesn't make sense not to use those if you you can't use a MacBook because it would be like having a phone. So the point is we're creating the conditions that I think we're going to be able to actually help students really, you know, um, thoughtfully engage with technology in ways that I think is which is better than us saying take it

123all away all the time, which there are some districts in the state that are doing that currently. Um, and so I think it's it is I think I think we're getting to a place where we're actually going to have the ability to to just be more thoughtful about what we what students are using and it's going to address a little bit of the digital divide that exists um, across our district. Yeah, I think that's that's really helpful to think about. Thanks for bringing that up. >> Thank you. Any any further questions? >> Yeah. So, the action tonight, not to cut off >> conversation, but the action tonight at the end of the day is really to approve the contract with quiet case that's attached to the agenda. >> Yep. See that here. Before we do

124that, are there any further questions or comments? No. Okay. Is there a motion for the contract? >> So, move second. So we have a a motion from trust trusty Griffin, a second from Trusty Lan. All in favor? I >> Okay, so I So four to zero and one absent. Thank you and thank you for your presentation. Um, Division of Business Services, one of our favorite things, one of our favorite topics that goes right along with economics and personal finance. Mr. Hawkins, >> uh, thank you so much. as we get the presentation pulled up. Um, I'm excited that everyone was really pumped about the personal finance uh class. And guess what? This is your first class. This is the district's personal finance class. So, uh, you know, it's new, so I hope you give me a

125little bit of, uh, grace. But, uh, as we move forward, uh, where we are tonight is at the the general fund budget assumptions. Uh and so tonight I'll be asking the board to approve uh the general assumptions that we are building the budget on that we will bring the preliminary budget in uh on the 11th and the proposed budget on June 25th. Um uh where we are in the cycle uh is in between the second interim which we uh had in March. Um and uh in between that and the May revise which is scheduled to come out uh next week on the 14th or 15th um which hopefully we will bring an update uh of the potential impacts of that at the 21st meeting. Uh I would be remiss uh if I didn't say thank

126you to my amazing team. Uh two of the three of which are back there. Uh well actually we got the whole team but two of the three of the major players are back there. Um while and Vanessa as well as Christina. Um I'm incredibly lucky. Uh and I I hope to never forget that. Um all right. So tonight we're going to go over just a few key key takeaways. Um we'll go over some factors impacting the budget and then we'll get into the projections that we're building the budget on. First of which are our enrollment projections. Um second those enrollment projections um drive a lot of the staffing projections which you will see. Uh then we'll talk a little bit about employee compensation. Um and then go over some of the key budget assumptions. Uh

127most importantly being that assessed value growth assumption. Um and then uh we'll just do a reminder and look at where we were at 202526 second interim and our initial projection which we looked at in March and then we'll hit on next steps. In terms of key takeaways, the first is that the district is in a strong financial position uh to navigate through future challenges. Um we've included right now a secured property tax growth of 3.5%. Uh I will note that the AV growth uh on the countywide tracker uh as of last night when it was updated last um was actually at 3.99%. So I do expect that projection of 3 and a half% uh to grow uh in uh in the June budget. Uh but we will use the most updated number that we have

128uh at that point. So that is one budget um assumption that will change between now and then. Um enrollment impacts. Um we continue to be relatively flat uh in the district. Um but that doesn't mean every school is flat. Uh we've got some that are growing, some that are slightly declining. Um the governor's proposed budget um as of right now doesn't have significant uh impacts for our district. Um, but I'm very interested to see where um it comes out next week, especially given uh the strong push back from both CSBA um and uh CTA around the over5 billion uh that the uh the governor proposed to hold back from schools in the January budget presentation. Um we also continue to look at inflationary and interest rate pressures. um uh those have been only exacerbated by

129the current geopolitical uh environment. Um and speaking of the you know that um you know we're projecting and looking at likely some increased utility costs um given the cost of um of oil right now in terms of factors how do we build this budget? uh AV tracker as I noted earlier that's uh you know that's we look at that daily in terms of uh where we're tracking on assessed value and our property taxes. Um we look towards the San Monteo County Office of Education um which gives us recommendations around uh budget assumptions. We look at the federal budget and state budget. those just to uh are not as large of an impact on as obviously our property taxes are. Um we'll look at the enrollment projections uh and staffing projections later in this presentation and

130as well as sorry collective bargaining. Um changes to payroll taxes, retirement and health and welfare benefits on the payroll taxes and retirement front uh not significant. uh but we do see significant uh continued pressure on health and welfare uh rates uh especially over the last three to five years. Um we'll also go in a little bit uh special education obviously u 20% of our budget so that's going to be an impact uh and as I noted before the geopolitical environment. So I I noted that uh we are relatively flat. Uh our projections um are within about 35 students of where we were uh this year. Um we were slightly growing up until uh about 2020. Um since 2020 uh we had been slightly declining. Um but as you can see we flattened um from uh

131202425 to 202526. Um and it shows a little bit of a potentially a bump up and then uh you know going down again. Sorry. Aragon uh we show as relatively flat. Um Berlingame as I noted um you know we have seen uh about 100 student increase uh over the last four years. Um we are uh projected to be relatively flat um in our enrollment projections but I do want to note uh that given the actual enrollments in there um we're looking at higher. Also just a quick note that on these projections they do not show our Bay University students um which is a cohort of about 50 additional students. Um so uh those would be on top of these students. Uh Cappuccino relatively flat maybe a little bit of a bump which is actually really

132good news. We had we had seen a few years ago some projections that Cappuccino might be declining um significantly. We're really happy to say that hasn't happened. Um really great work uh at Cappuccino. Um at Hillsdale um we did see a relatively large drop uh in terms of enrollment from 2425 to 2526. Um but it it's uh projected to flatten out now. Mills similarly uh relatively flat. Um and then peninsula um I don't think it's as important to look at um these projections because uh the peninsula high obviously um is driven more by uh you know student referrals in terms of uh what is best for those students. So um I don't look at those uh uh projections too much in terms of uh driving our staffing or looking at that. uh Sonteo uh similarly

133um we do see uh a projection for a little bit of an increase here. Um but in a flip to Berling game, these these numbers of actual enrollments have actually been a little bit soft. Um so we'll continue to monitor those uh as we get closer to the end of the year. Uh and then Bridge Academy, similar to Peninsula, you know, this is based on the students who come in uh harder to project based on trend data. Um, so, uh, while these are our projections, I think actual enrollment, um, and, uh, referrals that we're getting into the program are more important in terms of how we look at and staff that. Uh, the next several pages are literally our entire staffing. So, I'm not really going to hit uh, too much on them. Uh, other

134to say that uh, overall in terms of certificated and classified staffing, uh, we are relatively flat. uh in there. Um you'll see it notes a little bit of a decline of about 6.6 um FTE in staffing. Um so uh right around 1%. Uh but I do want to note that a majority of the uh site funded by our some of our foundations that uh FTE is not in there. Uh so this likely will be less than uh less than 1% in terms of uh staffing as we move forward. uh as noted in terms of classified staffing um were relatively flat year-over-year. Uh in terms of classified staffing, uh employee compensation, employee compensation, uh as I've noted many times before, we are in a people position, uh people business. Um 80 to 85% of our budget

135goes into staffing. Um and so a big driver in terms of our expenditure side is uh the employee compensation and the uh um and the increases that we work on. Uh I've noted AV growth uh over the the last five years. Um as you can see still strong AV growth but uh you know a little bit less each year. So we're hoping um that we uh you know buck that trend a little bit. But I do think that we're probably going to be in line um somewhere, you know, around the 25 26 numbers uh if our trend line uh continues. Uh in terms of salary increases, it's important to note um we are just starting uh work with our labor partners and so there is not a salary increase as of right now um put

136into our budget. Um but as we move forward in those negotiations, we will add um that increase uh to the budget. But obviously as that is not already in our budget that will make a significant increase or sorry a significant difference in our budget uh once those costs are included in there. Uh and as a reminder the cost of step and column is uh approximately 1.25% or about $2 million. Um and the cost of a 1% raise to all employees in the district is right around $1.7 million. Yeah, of course. >> Yeah. >> Um, why are the percents of the PERS going down? >> That that's a that's a great question. >> That was amazing. >> So, um, on the Stir side, sorry, I know you asked about PERS, but on the Stir size, those

137rates are set by the legislature. Um they've changed um uh a lot from 20134 to about 22 23 um from about 8 and a quarter percent to 19.1% but then they are now projected to stay flat uh on that end. the PERS rate uh for employers, not for employees, uh is set by the PERS board each year and it's based on the actuarial studies that they do in terms of how much money that they're going to need uh in order to run the program and the legislature has delegated the authority of setting that rate to the PERS board. Um and so different factors. Um the biggest factor is stock market um in terms of what the assets of the PERS pool is doing. Um but they do a full actuarial analysis every year um and

138then determine what rate they need to charge uh in order to meet the obligations of the PERS fund. Um so those go up and down. uh they similarly grew significantly um uh from about 2013 uh through 2223 um you know they were around 13% uh now they're almost at 27% uh in terms of uh uh PERS uh but uh we have seen a little bit of slowing and you know while it's you know a quarter of a percent point4 of a percent you know we're not going to sneeze at a little bit of savings uh In terms of that we use in our projections we use the PERS board actually gives projections of where they see the rates over the next three to four years and we use those projections um in terms of the

139rate um as we move forward. So, I was going to ask the same thing, but I wanted to extend. So, with the stirs being stable with the 0% over time, has that been advantageous for us finally? Has that smoothed out things a little bit? I'm not saying huge savings like you're saying, but has it helped us out over the time last few years? >> I would say it's helped us out in the sense of, you know, there stopped being huge increases year over year. So that meant, you know, you know, before uh I think it was and it it changed a little bit, but it was increasing about 1.85% a year. >> Yeah. >> And so that meant, you know, if you had a 4% AV growth, well, your real AV growth was just over

1402%. >> Because you had a you know, automatic increase of almost 2% to stir. So we I would say we were in better shape um to move forward than we were. I wasn't looking for like, oh my god, we're saving millions. But yes, I get it. >> Yeah. >> No, no, no. It it has been it has really allowed us um to um you know, use more of our um our AV growth um in terms of uh raises to our employee in terms of program and really to um support health and welfare costs throughout the district. >> Thank you. Um here are just a list of uh some of the major budget assumptions um that we use. I think the two that I'd like to hit on uh I noted assessed valuation at least is

141set at 3 and a.5% here as noted uh as of last night that's 3.99% uh and we will update that as we get closer to uh the uh preliminary budget and as I noted before we do not currently have a salary increase in there but as we move forward in negotiations we will put the projected costs of any settlements uh in um likely by the preliminary budget um on June 11th. So, you likely will not see zero um as we move forward with our negotiations uh with our labor partners. Sorry, I went too far. Uh this is uh the second interim and 2627 projection. Um I do want to note uh for trustee land that we that we put in the ending uh fund balance uh projections um of about 16 and 2/3 um for

142this year. Uh before you get too excited in terms of hey I see a little bit of an increase in 2627 remember that I also noted that there is no salary increase in there and you know approximately a 2% salary increase uh would put us level with where we are for the 2526 uh budget. In terms of next steps, I noted earlier we have the May revise coming up next week and I'll bring any uh significant impacts to our district at the hopefully at the May 21st meeting. Uh the state adopted budget, I do expect that we will have a adopted budget uh by June 30th. Um we will continue as I noted daily looking at the uh excess value tracker. Um we'll monitor enrollment especially uh you know at Berling game and San Mateo

143as I noted before. Um we're we're just starting up in negotiations. So uh we'll be monitoring that obviously. And then you know uh just in terms of a couple of the high level uh recommendations and uh budget guidelines that you give us that's part of the uh the memo our narrative. Um we're going to analyze how long-term management plans align with our district's goals and our LCAP. um with Dr. Kempkkey um we're going to manage our fund balance and financial resources to maintain fiscal solveny and stability um which is incredibly important um and uh Trusty Griffin noted it earlier. We're going to avoid relying on anticipated future funds or one-time revenues um to cover reoccurring expenses. So uh with that uh I'm happy to open it up to questions. >> Thank you. I wanted to

144ask Mr. Aino if there were any hands raised for public comment. No. Okay. Okay. Any trustes have comments, questions? Trusty Griffin. >> No, thank you for the presentation. >> I'll just say one >> if you don't mind. >> I just want to thank your whole team. One thing that I want us to be aware of is most many districts are not in this situ in this solvent situation. They've used one-time funds, you know, in a in a bad way. They're in ma major cuts. They're worried about so many different things. So, I really want to put our hats off to to the whole business department and the whole district for really thinking about how to be fiscally conservative, make sure we're and still get the programs that we want, still give, you know, compensation to

145our teachers. And I just appreciate all of you and all the work that you do. Thank you. >> You >> Thank you, Trusty Jacobson. >> I'll just echo that. I'm very grateful. It's It's great to be able to sleep so well at night because of the good work that you all are doing and the and the financial position that we're in. >> Yeah. I I I do want to note and I I note it every time, but districts don't have the the level of talent. Um I've worked in many many districts. Um and this is by far the strongest team that I've worked with. It's at it's at another level. Um and I just appreciate them so much. I want to thank you um for your presentation, you and your team, the work you put

146together and consolidate here for us. It's easy to understand and it's it's amazing. So, thank you to your entire staff. I know you're right over there. I just wanted to comment on on page 21 about the um the 1% cost of 1% is 1.7 million and the cost of step and column uh is an average of 1.25% 25% uh for that during that um cost of the step and colon column the the annual cost which is $2 million. I think most districts um they leave that part out when they're when they're presented to the board and that's something that I feel great about having everything available all the information because it's it's important to know what is the average cost of 1% increase but it's also important to throw out there. And the other piece

147of information is that the $2 million is also going to be spent annually on the Stethman McN. So, thank you for for including that in the slide. >> I agree. I think it's incredibly important for both the board and the community to know that. >> Thank you for your presentation. >> You know, well done. Oh, >> you know, step and column used to be closer to 1%. Of >> course, when that was when gas was a nickel. >> Yeah. remember around a dollar. I don't remember a nickel. Trusty Griffin, >> I remember 19 cents. So, >> as as as salaries increase over time, I think you bring right. So, you have salaries increasing, you know, year after year, hopefully that's what we want. Um, then the step and column would actually have the upward trend

148as well. So, I think that's good to point out, trusty Griffin, what you said. Yeah. Thank you again for your presentation and we're going to look I'm looking for a motion to >> Yeah, we're looking at a budget assumptions. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. So we have a motion from trustee land and a second from trusty Griffin. All in favor? >> I. So that passes four to zero and one absent. Thank you. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you everybody. Your entire staff. Thank you. Forgot where we were here. Okay. We are on board operations and there are none. We are on future board agenda items. If there's any item that I know we're meeting every Thursday, but if there are any other items you want on the board agenda, we can certainly

149add that. Any other items? Okay, thank you. Uh hearing none, we'll move on to our last item is adjournment. We're going to adjourn the