001call calling the meeting to order. This is a meeting of the Sonatail Union High School District Board of Trustees. Uh t today is November 6th and it is 503. Roll call. Trustee Chavez. Present. >> Trusty Jacobson. >> Present. >> Trusty Lan. Not here yet. Trusty Andra Zuniga. >> Presente. >> And I am here. Tonight we have a team from Hannah interpreting is our Spanish interpreters. For those who would like to attend the meeting virtually in Spanish. That option is available. Hannah interpreting would you please communicate that for us this evening? Thank you. >> Good evening. In order to provide language access, this meeting will have simultaneous interpretation in English and Spanish. To enable interpretation, if you're using your laptop or desktop, please locate the icon shaped like a globe at the bottom of your screen.
002Click on the language interpretation and then select English. If you're on your phone, 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. Effecting linguist, iPad. Spanish. Thank you. >> If you wish to view the closed 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 view the captions in a variety of other languages if you choose to watch after this meeting has ended. Viewers may request additional accommodations by calling 650-5582201. For our deaf and heart of hearing community, we have a team from Hannah interpreting
003services 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. Uh item C, we're going to uh adopt the agenda. The board of trustees may either adopt the agenda as presented or make a change to the agenda through a motion, second, and majority vote. The Brown Act prohibits any additions to the agenda without a 72-hour public notice for regularly scheduled board meetings. Are there any questions or comments from the board of trustees or superintendent with respect to the agenda? Okay. Uh we'll note that trustee Lan has arrived. >> Thank you. >> Allow um let's see any questions or comments from the uh public. Okay. Uh would a trustee care to make a motion with uh to adopt
004the agenda? >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as >> Okay, we have a motion in a second. Any further discussion? Um all in favor? >> I I >> opposed. Okay, the motion passes 50. Um public comments. 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, please fill out a request to address the board form and submit it to the secretary. This form should be given to the secretary before the agenda item begins. If you are 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 upon to make a public comment. We will call on you
005to 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 trustees at boards smuhsd.org. Please note that comments are limited to three minutes. The board president may increase or decrease the time allowed for public comment depending on the topic and the number of persons wishing to be heard. I will call on in-person comments first. Are there any blue cards? Okay. Are there any raised hands on Zoom? Okay. Um guess we're going to bypass board comments, huh? Yeah. >> Session. >> Well, this is a full meeting. >> Yes. >> This is a full meeting. >> Yes. >> Okay. No, no board comments. Special presentation. >> Superintendent Booker. >> Thank you, Trusty Griffin. Um this evening before we get to uh the
006agenda item around our budget and the discussion that we'll have uh as a group which I'm looking forward to um we uh as a district uh team uh have developed a sanitary union high school district initiative to support students with food insecurity and those watching at home uh please take a look at the memo that uh we attached to the agenda along with the corres corresponding resolution. Uh I am going to read a little bit and then give a verbal overview of the initiative that we've developed um and you know open it up to questions, comments, concerns. So, as we're I'm sure all aware, as of November 1st, 2025, federal supplemental nutrition assistance program SNAP, uh, benefits uh are were scheduled to end and then, you know, as headlines have kind of come across over
007the last few days, then partially uh fulfilled and I even read an article today that a judge was saying they need to be fully fulfilled by the end of the month or something like this. Uh but but this is an impact for many families across California, especially here in Sano County. And this change is expected to significantly impact already vulnerable households, particularly those with children. Uh just to give some reference here in Sonteo County, approximately uh 50,000 residents or 6.6% of the population were food insecure as of 2021. an enrollment in the number of Sanonteo County households on CalFresh increased by about 40% from 2020 to 2023. Uh, and on my board memo, I have footnotes where I'm pulling that data and and the community can go ahead and take a look there. Um, but
008here within our sphere of influence, uh, in the Sanonteo Union High School District, we have approximately, uh, over 2,000 students or 23% 24% of total enrollment that are currently enrolled in our free and reduced price meals program across all of our campuses. And at individual schools such as Samonteo High close to 40%, Hillsdale High just over 25%, Peninsula High School close to 50%, Bridge Academy at around 83%, and Cappuccino uh just over 34%. These numbers represent a substantial portion of our student body. With the potential loss of SNAP benefits uh looming and food insecurity already prevalent, we've talked about this before. The district recognizes the urgent need to ensure that uh no student goes hungry outside of school hours. And so to address this uh the district's goal is to launch a multifaceted approach to
009support smoosh students with food uh insecurity. This initiative that we'll uh walk you all through aims to ensure that students who are on SNAP benefit recipients and or are enrolled in the free and reduced lunch uh program have food support beyond the regular school day and weekend so that their learning health and well-being are not compromised by household food instability. Uh this initiative leverages existing kitchen facilities, staff and volunteers to ensure uh food security for our most vulnerable students beyond the school day. So I want to be clear about a couple of things before I move into the components of the initiative. Uh this is a temporary initiative. Uh I see this as a crisis for our community on two layers. one the first layer on those students uh who receive SNAP benefits uh and
010that not being at this point uh totally fulfilled. So when you look at this initiative we've got a number of components here. The first one is what we call from the heart gift cards. These would start soon, and we'll talk about the soon in a minute here, but they will end either on uh the end of December, December 19th, or when SNAP benefits are fully reintroduced by the federal government, whichever comes first. So, I want to be really clear about this. This is a very temporary um initiative uh targeting those around 653 students. this portion, the gift card portion, uh, as I get into more details around the Sunday dinner and groceries, that will continue on through December 21st regardless of SNAP benefits being reinstated because we're targeting the close to 2500 families with targeted
011communication invites to come to those dinners. We know that we have food insecurity regardless of the STAP SNAP benefits being either halted, partially reintroduced, or fully reintroduced. So, the three components um are, as I indicated before, the from the heart gift cards. These are accepted at over 2,000 store locations in the United States, more specifically in the Bay Area, Lucky, Albertson's, Safeway, uh and a few others, uh that some of our families might be attending. alcohol, tobacco, non- merchandise purchases such as gift cards, money orders, transfers, lottery tickets, those kinds of things. They're not permitted uh through the gift cards. We've tested that. They're they're not permitted. Um and I want to remind the board and the community, these gift cards at $50 a week are targeted to just those 653 students who are SNAP
012benefit recipients. And we have that data. uh the $50 per week coincides with the SNAP benefit lost for the student and two the federal reimbursement rate for 11 meals dinner five days a week and three meals a day on Saturday Sunday. So we didn't just pick that number out of a hat. That was Yansancy and his team Mr. Hawkins and his team running through those calculations. I want to thank uh Miss Aino, Miss Chocolley, Mr. Hawkins and so many others that have coordinated all of this. Mr. Vorhee, I mean just the principles, it's been a full team effort. Um so we have a lot of targeted communications that will be going out if approved. Um schools, we have a system and a protocol already at each of our school sites for confidentially distributing uh these
013gift cards uh and for communications home. Uh and we will document for auditing purposes how these are being handed off and to whom with with double signatures. Um so that's part one and that will go uh we were hoping to have started that tomorrow. Uh but unfortunately with the tragic UPS uh plane crash, UPS operations have been really slowed down >> and and halted. Uh, so we were anticipating our gift cards coming two days ago, something like that. Uh, we're tracking them now. I think they're in Idaho right now. Is that right, Mr. Hawkins? >> They're now in Louisville. >> They're in Louisville now. So, we were hoping to get them a couple of days ago to distribute tomorrow. It's not likely we will have them by tomorrow. And so, we will, if approved, we
014will start distributing uh as soon as we can, early next week maybe. uh but when they arrive and that part's really out of our control. Okay. Component number two, Sunday dinner. So, beginning this Sunday, Sunday, November 9th, uh and each Sunday through December 21st, Smoosh staff and volunteers will provide dinner to any student and their family who are either SNAP benefit recipients or on the Smooshed free and reduced lunch list. And again, we are we're not doing a big social media campaign. We're not putting this on our website. These are very direct and distinct communications to those individual families or those individual students and their families. And when I say very targeted, over the last couple of days, we've had some well-meaning community members post some of this information on Next Door. I want to
015thank Miss Chocoly for reaching out to those individuals, letting them know this is very targeted. This is not for the entire community. And those community members pulled down their Next Door uh post. So, I appreciate that. Uh we're preparing, our school nutrition personnel are are ordering and preparing food for each Sunday dinner. Uh they're located the Sunday dinner at three what I call school site hubs, Hillsdale, Cappuccino, and Samato High School. You go to any of our schools and you're on the free and reduced lunch list or SNAP benefit recipients, you can go to any of those schools. You don't have to go to your geographically neighborhood school or your assigned school. You can go to any one of those schools. Um, the dinner is between 5:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. You can either eat
016dinner in the cafeteria or you can take your dinner to go, it's totally up to you. Um, and then the third component, Sunday groceries. So, for families that come on Sunday, whether they sit in the cafeteria or they take their dinner to go or they don't want dinner at all, it's totally up to them. Uh, they are eligible to receive a minimum of one bag of groceries uh valued at $25 provided by Mi Rancho Market. I want to thank Brett Stevenson and Mi Rancho Market for coordinating and Mr. Hawkins and his team for coordinating all that with Mi Rancho Market transportation as well our transportation team doing all the transportation. Uh the contents are going to include non-p perishable items, grains, canned fruits, vegetables, breakfast items and such. Uh they're going to be distributed also
017at the three hub schools, Hillsdale, Samonteo, Cappuccino. Again, at the time 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Uh we've indicated the budget. We indicated it as a weekly cost and also as a full maximum um uh total cost over the over the time of this program. Why we did it on the weekly is because we might end up only handing out one week's worth of gift cards. If SNAP benefits get reinstated next week, we'll do it once and then we'll we'll be done. But the maximum exposure to our uh reserve is if it continued all the way to December 19th. Regardless of what happens, this program ends on December 19th for gift cards at the latest and December 21st for dinners. uh we'll reconvene as a team and talk about where we stand when we come
018back in to the new calendar year. Uh but with regard to this program, it is temporary. It's to address the crisis uh to the best we we can. Um also attached to the board memo is a resolution um that outlines uh this program and our ability and legal right to move forward with it if the board so uh approves. Um and again I just want to thank so many team members for working very quickly and if there was any benefit coming out of co uh it was our ability to transition and put something together like this kind of on on a moment's notice and I'm grateful for our team. So with that I'm happy to take any questions and I'm sure there'll be lots. >> Okay. Does the board have any questions? >> I have
019a question. Thank you. So what happens if this happens again like do we have some sort of plan or framework or any sort of direction on you know it if it happens now or if any other type of crisis happens. >> Yeah. Well let me answer your first question first which is what happens if this crisis happens again right we would have to reconvene and discuss our options. We don't have unlimited funds. I mean, we are dipping into a reserve, >> and that's what a reserve is for is when you have a crisis. Um, but it's a hefty dip into the reserve. I don't take it lightly. This is not a program we can continue much further than this. Even this is a stretch. So, I think if this crisis happens again, we are going
020to have to reach out to neighboring partners, food banks, and such. I don't see us being able to do something like this again with the dollars that we have. we would most likely need to shift to become which a lot of other I think entities are doing food bank distributors collectors those kinds of things. Um I just don't think we'd be able to do something like this again with the with the dollars that we have now. Other crises that come up we are by far not spend you know like expending our total reserve. So we have still doubledigit percentage in reserve to address whatever crisis there may be. I we just need to be very very careful about when and how we choose to address our reserve. Uh and it couldn't be done outside of
021the board discussion and board approval. We we would have to discuss that. >> I don't know if that answers your question. >> Yeah. And I just want to say thank you to everyone who's worked on this. It's so important. I mean, no students cannot learn without enough nutrition. Um, I know for us too at my nonprofit, like people are really hurting and people are really scared >> and so I um just thank you for even wanting to do something, you know. So, >> and let me say really quickly, we're going to reconvene as a team again, our internal team after this week, Sunday's dinner and grocery distribution to do a check-in and assessment like how to go, what I could see us having to make changes, not changes to the budget, but changes in logistics.
022We're going to learn a lot on Sunday. I have no idea how many families are going to come out. Uh, but we're going to likely have to make some adjustments. If we end up making adjustments, I will write to the board and let the board know what those adjustments are and why. Uh but it won't impact the budget. U the budget is what the budget is. >> But what does the outreach look like? Like are you one more time outreach to the families like how what if there are families that don't have you know internet access or don't have phones or things like that. >> So Miss Chley and her team have done a great job and are continuing to do a great job. We are outreaching in lots of modes. But when I say
023lots of modes, again, I mean very targeted, just to those free and reduced lunch families, just to those SNAP uh recipients. And that's done through email, that's done through text, that's done through autodialer, and we've engaged uh we've worked with our family engagement coordinators. They're just making phone calls to families. Phone calls, phone calls, phone calls, phone calls. Um so very targeted, very and in English and in Spanish. Thank you, >> Trusty Chavez. I think you were then trusty land. >> Thank you. Um I want to echo what Trustee Andrea Zuniga said. Thank you to everybody involved for doing this. Um I've seen uh in the news um some cities and counties stepping up to to contribute to the families. This is our most vulnerable families to cut off your access to food. Um even
024if it's temporary, it's you know, I'm sure there's lost sleep. I'm sure there's our residents are hungry. So, doing this it's it's a big this doing this is a big deal for our district. So, thank you. Thank you to everybody involved. Um I just had a couple questions. I I know uh on the goals here it mentions students on the free and reduced lunch between list on the list between November 9th and December 21st. I I know there's some families who knew that um the state is providing free lunches for K prek to 12th grade for all students whether you fill out the forms or not. So there might be some families who didn't fill out the forms because they knew their their students were were offered the lunch anyway. So I I would like
025to make sure that we you know keep offering to encourage folks to fill out the forms if there's a list with students that will be be that will have this afforded to them offered to them. Yes, I mean I understand your question. We'll work with that. >> Okay. And then I think that's uh my other question is um >> can we help volunteer on Sundays at the dinners? >> I'm so glad you brought that up. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. Uh you can help just no students, >> no no minors uh supporting the volunteer efforts. And the reason you know this is a vulnerable population. they may bring their high school students with them or and to see their friend. Sure. >> That's that's challenging especially when we know how targeted the outreach is and we
026wrestled with that because we know that there's lots of people and students ASB and clubs and that would love to do that and if they want to do that kind of work I would point them to Samaritan House uh uh uh >> Second Harve thank you their local churches their places of faith all the there's lots and lots of places to do that if you want to do that volunteer time as a student just not this program >> right but okay Thank Thank you. And I'm really really grateful that and glad that we're offering the meals to go because some parents might want to bring it home just just you know to your point some students don't want to be identified as students with free or reduced lunch and in in need. So thank you
027for that. Um >> trusty land. >> Thank you. Um just to echo those the last two trustees, you know, I think it's absolutely essential that we do something and I really appreciate the thought that went into this. This is a bold this is a like you said, this is an unknown and we we're taking a chance here and I really like that bold effort that we're trying to make. I think not every district can do this. not every district wants to do this >> and I really feel very honored that we're part of this initiative to give a chance to to students that really need it to families that really need it. Um I had the very the same question with the the counts. I know that with the everybody getting lunch free a lot
028of people avoid filling out the paperwork for that. So there's that's a factor that I don't know what the solution is, but there is something there because >> once once we've transferred to everybody getting a free lunch, all of a sudden our our percentages went down. So that's something we have to take into account and figure out what can we do in that. I don't know the answer to that. I just know it's a it's a problem that we need to think about that. Um, I also just thinking about Trustee Zuniga saying if this happened again, I would love us to really like Claire Cunningham had really rallied everybody to to do something. >> I think we do need to have a town hall, a countywide discussion about what could we do as a team,
029as a group, as as civic members, as education members, as you know, mun municipalities, all of that. I think that's something that maybe our leadership, your leadership can we push to see what we can do next because I think >> we can't we can do this now and I'm very proud that you we're doing this now. I think this is an outstanding effort that is taking a very serious problem and really trying to find solutions. I I love that you admit that we don't know how it's going to go because it is something bold and new and I think that's wonderful and I think that really speaks to our our community, our leadership. I I'm really behind us 100% on that. So that thank you. >> Um down the road I think it's important maybe
030we get other members other community members together because it is going to be something that we we might have to consider doing again and again and again. >> Yeah, definitely. >> So anyway, that's >> and I've informed all of the partner district superintendent. I reached out to Claire Cunningham, was it this morning, yesterday, something? Um and I agree with you. I think moving forward to address the what I would call the part two, right, which is just the general food insecurity that we have across the county. This has been a wakeup call just say personally for me that you know there are some steps not even monetarily not dipping into our reserve but just steps in partnerships that we could take. >> What has I wouldn't say amazed me but has been just felt so
031good is that when we put this out the amount of volunteers that raised their hand. >> Yeah. So people want to help. There's there is acknowledgement there. >> Yeah. I I do want to include interfaith groups too in what we're talking about in the leadership. I I think of Jenn Jennifer a lot and I think that's an important community as well. >> Anyway, >> any other any other questions, comments? >> Yeah. Um I won't repeat what's already been said about the thought that's gone into this. It's it's it's a great idea and um there definitely is a need that needs to be filled. I do want to ask a few questions um for the benefit of the public. So um you said that when the SNAP benefits are resumed by the federal government, the gift
032card portion will end, but the dinners and the sun Sunday dinners and groceries will continue. Can you explain your rationale for that? >> Yeah, for sure. Mhm. >> So the purchasing of the gift cards, that's something I in my career I've never really done before and and I've never experienced in my career SNAP benefits being cut off. So it's kind of a onetoone correlation there. I'm trying to fill that gap. The second part, the dinners and things like the dinners in the grocery stores, that's me trying to address like the the feedback we got from the MLAs around food insecurity of our students uh after hours and I'm looking at the holidays that are coming up um and wanting to ensure that there is opportunity for students and families um maybe to take that burden
033off a a little bit temporarily and it buys us some time to this point of how else can we rally? What else can we do? Not monetarily, not dipping into our reserve, but how else can we rally with certain organizations to continue and even within our our organization like the peace pantry and things like that. This might be a great catalyst for Empower San Mateo to start looking at peace pantries not just at Hillsdale but across a couple of other schools. Um so it's a little bit of like just kind of kickstarting uh this and I've said this from the beginning. We have the resources and I'm not just talking about monetary resources. I'm talking about human power, our kitchens, you know, things like that. What it's really about is will and coordination. And so
034part of this continuing to December is like building up that will and coordination just by planting this seed of of this initiative. The amount of people that have come out of the woodwork to say, "Well, we could do this or we could do this or we could okay, we got to just coordinate. We got to coordinate." Uh >> so that's part of why I'm continuing it to the December 21st, but there is an end date. Like I want to be real clear. We can't even this portion of it when you look at the budget we we can't >> I think we have other priorities right now and I think the rest of the county and com our neighboring communities are going to have to come together to pick up the baton to continue forward. >>
035Yeah, we just, you know, there's there's an unlimited demand and resources and we have limited resources. So, everybody needs to know that there's this has a finite timeline. >> Um, but you know, when you're talking about I'm trying to help out families through the holidays, like yes, but we could say that all year long. We could say that next holiday season. So, there comes a point when, you know, I like what you said about we're trying to build capacity. Um and we we definitely have a limited fund cut off. >> Mhm. >> Um a couple of logistic questions. Uh when the families come in on Sundays, will is there like a checklist that they need to sign off on? Because if there's not, we could have people who are not in our community coming in
036for the free stuff, >> right? So I'm So So no, we're not doing a sign off. >> Yeah. >> What we are doing is we're asking families, we're doing two things. We're asking families to bring their child's student ID card so that we know they're from Smooshed. >> Okay, >> that's one. Two, we have so many school volunteers, school site volunteers, like employees, >> admin, teachers, classified staff spread out at the three hubs. If a family forgets their ID, I feel pretty confident that I'm going to maybe not me personally, but Miss Shu or someone like that, Principal Shu will be like that. That's one of our family, like we know them, you know, but we're also not going to turn anyone away. >> That was my next question. >> We're not turning anyone away.
037Um, again, I think we've done a pretty good job of targeting communications and invite. Um, >> but >> and we're have to reassess >> Yeah. if we're overrun by >> Wow, this is too much. Now, we also have a finite amount of food for Sunday night that we're prepping and a finite amount of grocery bags that we have coordinated to come to our sites. >> So, if we're overrun, we're going to have to reassess what we do. >> Yeah. And Yeah. And so, I think built into this is a weekly monitoring. >> Correct. >> Reassessment. >> Yep. Yes, >> we already have that scheduled I think for Tuesday, our team meeting. >> Yes. Okay. Um, last question. What do you do if there's maybe two two more questions? What do you do if there's grocery
038bags or dinners left over? Like, let's say you're planning for I don't know what the numbers are. Let's say you're planning for 300, 150 show up. >> Yep. What do you do with >> So the groceries part is easy because they're self perishable, right? So we have a storage location. >> Talk that through. >> Uh the the hot meal dinners. Those will be packed to go and we're coordinating with Hillsdale High School and ETA. They already have a system, a protocol of delivering hot meals to certain communities here, certain apartment buildings and such. They've been doing this for years. And so we're coordinating that with ETA for those deliveries that night if it needs to happen. >> Leftovers. Correct. >> Leftovers. Yeah. Which >> as individual? >> Yeah. As individual to-go boxes. >> Yes. >>
039Yeah. So then the other question I had is um in terms of food that we already have uh for breakfast, snack, breakfast, brunch, lunch, do we have any leftovers from those meals that we could just offer students come and grab like after school? >> So possibly >> is that an option? >> It it could be. Right now, we're keeping these two programs very separate. We're not using any We're not permitted anyways using any dollars from fund >> 13 uh which is school nutrition. >> Yeah. >> We're not using any of uh the food that's sitting in our kitchens for this is all separate purchased food, all of that. So, we're really trying to keep that fine line. Now, >> moving forward, what I do know that happens at school school sites right now is we
040have share tables, right? So, if you get your little bag of carrots as a part of your meal and you don't open it, there are share tables to put it out. So, kids if they want a second bag of carrots or whatever during lunch, they can grab and go. We have that. >> Okay. >> What we don't have right now, and this is what I mean by like these ideas kind of blossoming from the development of this initiative. >> If the kids don't grab them at the share table during the end of lunch, what happens to that? Well, I already know that it's not being distributed out in the community. Mhm. >> I'm sure there are rules about that, health code, all kinds of stuff that we would have to work through >> and it's
041something we should talk about, right? What are we regardless of this initiative? >> What are we doing with our left? What are we allowed to do with our leftover food and what can we do with our leftover food? >> Yeah, I agree that that is a question that we should look into regardless of this, you know, aside from this specific initiative >> that's come up. >> Okay. And then just can you clarify again what items are not permitted with the gift cards? >> Yes. And like I said, we tested this uh alcohol and cigarettes. We know that for a fact. Uh I think this year uh non- merchandise purchases, they can't buy a different kind of gift card. They can't do a money order or transfer. Not lottery tickets. It's it's really uh and and
042Mr. any nutritional um restrictions? >> Remember, >> uh no food and beverages uh is okay on that. Just there are no there are no um gift cards that you can purchase that we've been able to find. >> There's a concern that we have around the kid getting the gift card and then going over to Safeway and buying like Doritos and a six-ack of Pepsi. >> Like that's not the intent, right? And this is why we are really working hard to communicate with the families. >> And if the family communicates back to us and says, "Listen, I don't want you giving this gift card to my kid. I'd rather come and pick it up >> so it goes to the hands of the parent, we'll we'll we'll um facilitate that." One of the questions I thought
043you might ask is why are we giving it directly to the student and not just straight to the family? Why aren't we just mailing it to the family or something like that? >> Because we talked about it yesterday, but I'm glad you're bringing it up. Um, one of the concerns that was raised in our team meetings is that some of our families don't have the means or the opportunity to come over to the school site during the during the school day. Um, or have the means and opportunity but are nervous Yeah. coming out. So, uh, we didn't want that to be an impediment an impediment to distribution of of the cards. Now, if we get as part of our team meeting next week, Tuesday, if we hear through the grapevine that kids are buying Doritos
044and Pepsi, well, then we may need to rethink how we're distributing these gift cards. >> Okay. And so, when will you be uh updating the board on this? It'll be Friday of next week during my weekly, >> but not I mean we could do it at the next board meeting publicly, but just in the sense of my weekly memo, we'll provide an update based on our Tuesday meeting. >> Okay, that's all. >> Okay, I I'd like a turn. Anyway, I really want to commend the superintendent, the administration given the compassion, given the need, the compassion, and the speed because I know our church is trying to figure out what we can do and we can't even get the day and the time of the first meeting for the committee that hasn't been formed yet. So,
045um really I think this is uh it's a good it's good uh first step in this and I know we're putting up you know hard dollars and we're and I've talked you know our Tuesday meeting was just hand ringing by the auditor here about all this stuff and >> hence the resolution. >> Yeah. No. Um, you know, the concerns about things that, you know, I I introduced a concept of in auditing you always what could go wrong >> and I tried all my what could go wrong in the circumstances and and he weathered the storm. Um, you know, one idea and I don't know if these cards say gift cards on them. They're purchase cards or they're food cards. I would like to have something other than I mean just >> Oh, I hear what
046you're saying. Yeah, >> just in general, >> you know, we we everybody calls it a gift card. It's really not a gift card. We're It's a purchase card. >> Great. That's a really good idea. I'll work with Miss Chocolley on how we communicate the name of that. That's why we've called it like from the heart. That's what they're actually called. I think they say it on the card. Yeah. >> But the concept of gift card, that's a good idea. We'll look to change that language. >> And then um >> it's a good idea. I guess the fed funds are in the school nutrition fund, huh? Is that where the federal funds for uh deals are? >> That that's the primary. Um there is some leeway in some of the general fund specifically in title one
047um that we will look to use all of that leeway. Obviously, we look to use the most restricted funds first. Um so we will use that and then the remainder would be our general fund. I was going to ask how much is title one is available for this. >> Not significant amounts. I I I don't want to um but we're we're going through all of those minations right now um to use uh uh the most federal funds possible um in basically backfilling, you know, the federal support that was going to our students that were receiving SNAP benefits and really need this support. I mean, we don't get very much federal funds in totality anyways, so there's not a ton there. >> We'll probably get less in the future. So, >> yeah, I don't know. We'll
048see. But >> anyway, yeah, >> but we can be more specific about that as we move forward with the board about absolutely what accounts the really how it's balancing out, >> you know, the the the other thing and it's the um the the Sunday dinners and the Sunday groceries. uh we've kind of programmed and you know this is we've programmed the maximum amounts so we've created a budget if the problem goes away in a week okay we only have to spend one week's worth of that budget but if it goes on we might look to collaborate and I wrote down inind donations or donations from >> um you know >> manufactur you know manufacturers or you know >> right >> people that process food or produce or whatever and u >> you know make sure
049they get promotional consideration for helping this program >> right totally agreed that's what I mean by you as we've started to talk about this initiative more ideas more ideas have come up about you know how could we expand without expanding our budget >> and then and this this is a a worst case what could go wrong scenario I know we're t we're using a target uh very targeted communications. Have we contemplated security and what to do um if something goes haywire with uninvited guests showing up? >> I hear you. I mean, we have a tremendous amount of administrators and other educators at each site in support as well as other adult volunteers that have committed to support. Uh Kevin Skellyy, former superintendent, is going to be supporting us. Um, I I think if something goes
050a little haywire, I think just the best bet is contacting the local police and having them come out and help us out. But I I'm going to have some faith that it'll be calm. >> Well, I hate to say, you know, I was trying to not say who would make it go haywire, but the people uh from the federal government are the ones that could possibly. So, I hope we have drills and things that are legal so that I mean, you know, I'm trying to >> I hear you walk right down. >> I hear you. We do have protocols. That's why there's a lot of admin at each of these three sites. They know the protocols. We have >> endlessly talked about the protocols. >> Uh, and again, I'm going to go in with a
051lot of faith that that this is going to go smoothly. And if it doesn't or if we have to pivot, if CO taught us anything, we can pivot quick. Real quick. >> Okay. >> Like real quick. >> I think I'm close to my last question, you know, and and and um are the the unused uh purchase cards fully refundable? >> Oh, it's a good question. >> Uh they are not. Um but but we will be doing this week by week >> in batches. So we are ordering just as many as we need. We'll order a few more in the first week but then every other week will be that. Um and then if not, you know, we will use it. Um we have culinary classes. We have other things for the small amount that may
052be left um at the end. Uh but we will also require the same level of audit support um that includes uh as Superintendent Booker. Um we've got um we've got signout sheets for every single uh batch that are going to schools that go to the runners that we have a sign out sheet that goes to the person who's picking it up. We in Aries we will be um identifying documenting each one of those. Um we I've already spoken with our auditors um about this. Yeah, I I I spoke with our auditors yesterday um and uh and have gone through all of that. Um, so I think we're we're covered on that. So, >> and legal. >> Yeah, absolutely. Legal helped us draft the resolution um that's in front of you. Um, so yeah, we spend
053a lot of time with legal. >> Okay. I guess you've done everything you can to mitigate those extra cars. I'm like, man, >> the chintzy guys that uh so they'll come directly from a a broker or whoever the financial services people. Yeah, they're coming they're they're coming from Idaho, but um we actually picked them up at a at a separate location, one of the I don't want to say which one, but uh another local um location where again we will do a sign off um uh to accept those cards. >> Well, Albertson's headquartered in Idaho, so that's where they're coming from. >> Yes, that you're correct. >> Okay. I >> can I sorry to interrupt. You mentioned legal concerns by talking with legal counsel. What were some of the concerns that were brought up that
054were addressed in the resolution? >> Issuing gift cards. Okay. >> Uh food cards. >> Food cards. Purchase >> card. Grocery store cards. >> That was the only >> that was the big one. No. >> Yeah. I mean within that is the gift of public funds like and uh absolutely there's there's a history in the state of California around um free breakfasts around um uh if the if the board believes there is an educational value to this which I think uh the administration team would absolutely say we we believe that having students fed uh is an educational value um uh and that's where the uh the resolution has that information uh included. But uh that's where um the gift cards cuz we obviously do or food cards uh typically, you know, we do not have that,
055you know, because of a lot of the issues that uh that uh Trusty Griffin noted as well. So, um >> Thank you. >> Yeah, we we take it very seriously. >> What I wanted to know, >> grocery cards, grocery cards, >> grocery carts like that. Any other comments, questions? I mean, it's a great idea. I wish you all the success and we can all have a, you know, just >> nice to be able to help people that are, you know, this is a tough place to live in a normal circumstance, in an up economy. >> Seriously, >> we've got layoffs coming. We've got this government shutdown. I called, I hate to say, I called my nephew and he's not getting paid and he has to go to work every day for the office of personnel
056management. He's got two kids and a mortgage and all kind of stuff. Yeah. >> Um and it's not easy for anybody, but I'm sure it's not easy here. >> So, >> if there no if there's no more discussion or any blue cards, anybody here who wants to speak on the issue? your Yeah, your thing's not working. >> There you go. There you go. You got it. >> Sorry. I see a raised hand online. Uh Abby, I'll promote you now. Hello, good evening everyone. Thank you so much for opening the mic for me. My name is Abigail Pora Wong. I am a intern at the Daily City Youth Health Center. I am also a graduate of Mills High School, class of09. So, I'm really grateful to have the opportunity to learn about how my community is
057supporting um everyone in this crisis. I apologize. I joined fairly late, so I just have um I just have a few questions. Uh first, I did hear that um there's a possibility for volunteers to sign up. Is that correct? or has all like the volunteer positions been filled? >> This is a this I'm we'll we'll ask the superintendent to respond. We're actually looking for your comments and if you have further questions, I recommend that you actually contact the superintendent's office and you can get detailed information, but if you want to finish your comment, please. >> Oh, okay. I apologize. >> No, no problem. I guess um a comment and a concern I have is after hearing the discussion about all the planning and thinking about our vulnerable populations that will likely be um visiting the
058hubs. I I am worried that this might be an opportunity for um I don't want to say it bluntly just because I don't want it to scare anyone but uh I am concerned about the overall safety of uh people who will be visiting the the school sites and I guess it's also to my understanding that the superintendent has protocols in place to ensure um nothing bad would happen to the families. So, I just want to echo that um that is a concern that someone brought up and that I do understand where everyone's coming from. >> Okay, thank you for your comments. >> Any other comments there? Any other speakers? >> Uh that seems to be it. >> Any further discussion? Okay, we have a resolution. Is everyone >> make a motion to approve the resolution?
059I'll second that. >> Well, you know, we're quick draw tonight. You know, you jump over everybody and you weren't letting Trusty Lamb beat you to the draw there. So, we have a motion and a second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. The motion passes 5-0. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. And I want to thank my business services team for letting me assurp your time. I appreciate that. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Um, thank you everyone. I appreciate it. >> Okay, we're going to move on to item G, the the uh district budget. Um, all right. As we uh as we pop up the presentation here, I'll I'll get it started. Uh, the first thing uh I need to do and I usually unless I forget I do. I I just need to
060thank uh my team. I really do have a dream team um of folks while um who's relatively new, although can't say he's new for that much longer. Um, Vanessa and Christina are just they're the best in the business and I'm incredibly lucky uh to be supported and to get here and speak in front of you. Uh, but thank you. I really appreciate it. Uh, tonight's bud budget study session, the goal of it is to give the board and really the overall community an overview of the district's budget. Um, there's going to be time for questions at the end, but don't don't worry. Jump in if you got a question. A lot of times, you know, it's it's technical. It's a number. Um, you're going to forget it by the time the question period um runs
061out. So, just, you know, just just jump in. No worries. Um, the focus of the presentation is the general fund. Uh we do have, you know, other funds including construction funds, uh food service funds, which we've already talked about tonight, adult education funds. Uh but the the the big focus is our general fund, which we run uh all of our major operations uh for our educational 9 through 12 out of uh the numbers come from two primary uh sources. Uh the first of which is the adop the the board adopted budget from June. Um and uh when we're talking about mainly our fund balances, um we talk about our uh September unodudited actuals. Uh so most slides will have the source of that uh information. One thing that I note at this time of the
062year is you know the budget information is from June. Um you know lots of lots has happened since June. um and the board and the community will get a budget update uh for this year um in December at the first interim budget update. So, we're going to be talking more in general um but using this year's budget uh you know as kind of the backdrop to look at those numbers. All right. Uh and then the the uh the study session really is in two parts. Uh the first part uh the vast majority of it is going over the general fund budget. Uh and then we have a second part um which will go over uh some more uh immediate items that we're looking at and we'll just uh look at the step down plan um
063that the the board has approved. All right. So, we'll go over the the takeaways, the the overall budget, and break down into revenues, expenditures. We'll hit on fund balance, and the multi-year projections. Uh, and then, as I noted, uh, we'll spend a little bit of time at the very end on the step down of one-time expenditures. All right. Uh, I used to call this uh, if you only listen to uh, five things, um, but we're going to switch it up. We'll we'll play a little bingo tonight and uh these five items are your bingo card. Um the key understanding, so the key takeaways, what are the most important things for the community and for the board to understand about the budget? Uh that's about our secured property taxes and their growth uh as our primary
064driver of additional revenue uh in the district. Uh the impact of staffing formulas, ratios, and headcount. Um that's the number of employees we have. uh the impact of collective bargaining with our labor partners uh enrollment projections and more and more over the last especially over the last few years the impact of health and welfare premiums uh and their increases. We also will look at uh and affirming our one-time funding and step down plan. And just some other uh takeaways, not really on your bingo card, but uh definitely to take a look at um is pension obligations. Uh that's our Kalpers and Calsters. Um the the pressure of special education and mental health costs um utilities, insurance, and litigation. Uh as well as the federal and state budget impact on the district. Um, and as Trusty
065Griffin noted, we'll get into a little bit more on federal funding uh this year uh given uh some of the changes over the last six months. Overall, the district uh general fund budget is a little over $240 million. Uh 90% of that comes from LCFF sources. Um and what are LCFF sources? Primarily property taxes. and we'll break down that in a minute. Um, but we are primarily funded locally uh by local property taxes. In terms of expenditures, uh, we're in a people business. Uh, and that's represented by the biggest piece of that pie, which is salaries and benefits of over 80%. I think adopted budgets a little little north of 82% this year. When we look at the overall budget, uh the I'm a little bit of a broken record on this. Really really the
066focus is the unrestricted side of the budget. Um it's a vast majority of the budget. Um and it also includes the impacts of the restricted side. So, if the the district needs to make contributions to the restricted side of the budget, which mostly go to our special education program uh and our routine maintenance program, those are reflected in the transfers out uh sorry, the transfers uh yeah, the contributions out of the unrestricted budget. So, all of those impacts are listed on the unrestricted side. Uh when we adopted the budget this year, the unrestricted side um was basically balanced. Um but we'll have an update um of that as didn't include uh the totality of our settlements with our uh our labor partners. It also didn't include uh the final assessed value growth um for our
067property taxes. So you'll get an update of that uh in December. Uh before you move on, I have a question. >> Um on that line item under other sources contribution, why is that figure >> Negative on unrestricted and then it shows up in restricted. >> That's a great question. So the contributions out of the unrestricted side to the restricted side. So you'll see a you know a corresponding entry on the restricted side. >> That is pime primarily two sources. >> Um uh a little over $30 million um is the contribution to special ed and we'll get into that in a little bit. Um but the federal government and the state government continue not to meet their uh obligation uh or commitment um to fund special education. So about 75% of the costs of uh special
068education are funded by the unrestricted side of the budget. Uh even though it's a restricted um and then about 10% or a little bit I sorry not 10% uh a little over $10 million um is the contribution to what we call routine restricted maintenance. Um that is a requirement of the state. um any district who has taken state bond funds um uh is required to contribute 3% of its overall budget um to uh the routine restricted uh maintenance. Uh and so for our district um we actually uh contribute a little bit over that. So it's about $10 million that we contribute there. >> You know that money is what we used to call encroachment special money is is I was gonna say the old word was encroachment. >> Yeah. We've uh we we've uh we've
069been told to be using uh kinder and gentler words. Uh Trusty Griffin, >> I don't think we should. We should just use the word. I'm I'm happy to I'm happy to uh to update our language as we move forward. >> I don't know. >> I don't want you to answer this now, but if you could in one of your updates >> Yeah. that encroachment. How much is it federal versus state for special education if you don't mind out of that? You don't have to tell me now if you don't know. >> Yeah, I I mean I can I mean I can tell you uh just generally special education any any district this is this is not is is about 20% of your budget. So for our district that's just south of $50 million um in
070the district. So the federal piece of that is our federal revenue is $2 million. So they're covering about 4% of the cost, well below the 20% that um when IDA was passed um a long time ago, which was the federal commitment uh to that. Um our uh our state and local revenue, which we get in AB 602, I want to say is about $8 million. Um, and so total we have about $10 million. Um, and then the other um, uh, almost $40 million or, you know, uh, is coming from, uh, the unrestricted side of the budget, >> right? >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Um, all right. Uh, get your bingo cards ready. Key takeaway number one, uh, our LCFF sources. Um, so that little number right up there, 194 uh just south of
071$195 million, that's our secured property taxes. That's when you look at your property tax bill, you see that 1% of your assessed value. Um, that's our chunk of that 1% uh in the district. The reason that it's so important, other than the fact that it's 195 of the $240 million um that the district receives, is it's our primary driver of growth yeartoyear. Um a lot of our other revenue is relatively stable state federal um you know it stays you know pretty level yeartoear um when we hear when you talk about assess when you talk about assessed value growth that's why it's so important because this is the primary driver of you know how do we fund our collective bargaining um agreements how do we fund programs that we want to have for kids uh it's
072primarily in secured property tax growth Uh just a couple other things in LCFF. We also have things like unsecured taxes. Uh that's airplanes sitting at the SFO, a big chunk of that. Um and then one just to just to highlight a little bit is the educational protection account. It's it's pretty complicated, but um uh back almost 15 years ago, the the state passed Proposition 30 um and then repassed a extension of Proposition 30. Um but we receive about $200 per ADA um in uh EPA. So a little less than $2 million in our district. Um you'll see on the uh elections in the next couple of years an extension of that. Um and so that will be an important election when we look at because it means about a little less than $2 million for
073the district. >> Sorry, can I just ask a clarifying question on that? I was under the impression that uh when you said ADA, you mean average daily attendance. >> Yes, thank you. I should have I should have uh >> I was under the impression that that didn't affect our revenues at all. >> So it in state funded district it doesn't um because in state funded district it um it offsets the state aid that the state has to give you and we'll get into that in a second. Um, in community funded districts, um, it actually, um, is $200. There's a there's a line in the legislation that says no district will receive less than $200 per ADA of this revenue. Um, but in state funded districts, the $200 that it pays for offsets what would have
074been another state contribution. So overall net net they don't receive any other they don't receive any additional money. Um but originally Proposition 30 um was to reduce cuts like it sorry to avoid a reduction of cuts. They actually made um uh they made trigger cuts back this is a long time ago but they they they had cuts that were triggered if Proposition 30 did not pass. Um, and so, uh, basically that money just went to making them, uh, you know, not less. So, um, >> so I let me just clarify my question. Um, maybe you answered it, but I didn't understand. Do we get money to that $200 per day when our students attend? >> I don't understand. >> No, sorry. It's 200. It's $200 per ADA. So a average daily attendance over the entirety
075of the year. So um for a student we have about a 95% attendance rate. Uh and so one student equals about 95 um ADA or 100 students equals 95 ADA. We receive $200 per ADA um on that. So, our gosh, what were we about 8280 8,200 ADA overall um which equals, you know, about a little over $1.6 million um from this revenue source. Sorry. >> No, it's not you, it's me. That Thank you. >> I doubt that, but thank you. I appreciate that. >> Okay, I'm I see where Sherman I get it, too, because my thought is you're talking about LCF LCFF resources. So these are the unduplicated these are those funds that are e do you know what I'm talking about those is that what you're talking about in this instance >> it's it's
076actually the sorry and we call it LCF sources because that what the state tells us we have to call them it's all the it's all the objects 80 um which again is getting into tech you know >> it's but it's mostly broken out into property tax um and state aid Um, and so it makes more sense in the in a state funded school district. It doesn't make as much sense for a community funded district. >> I I'm aware of that. What I'm talking about is when you and I'm thinking now of revenue limit districts or state funded districts, >> you have students who are in categories. >> Correct. And I'm just my words are not working for me right now. But subcategories, you know, and you have unduplicated, you have, you know, those all those
077you're not talking about those monies that add additional >> per child. That's not >> this is just a a $200 >> on top of all the other property taxes and other revenue. >> See, we both had the same different questions, but we're trying kind of confused by it with the ADA. And again, the only reason I bring it up is that it will require a statewide vote to continue those funds. And while I'm generally um bullish on if something like that will pass, um anytime that our revenue is based on someone else having to do something, I'm going to bring it up and and let the board know. >> That's it. Thank you. Where are the Where is that? That's what I was going to ask about. Where's the supplemental? >> It's right here. It's
078just part of the calculations embedded there. Yes. >> Now, see, we're just gifted students. We're asking questions in advance of what you're going to show us. There you go. >> I know. I know. >> Um All right. So, how does state funding look for schools in uh California? So, uh the state guarantees um a district's revenue um uh based on the local control funding formula. the local control funding formula. Uh it was brought around 2012, 2012, 2013. It replaced, as uh Trusty Lan noted, the old revenue limit uh system. And uh basically the state guarantees um funding based on a weighted student formula. And what that means is every student is given a a a sorry uh a per student grant. So every student gets a grant and that is adjusted for three subcategories uh
079low-income students uh multilingual learners uh and foster students. And so it creates a weighted student guarantee. And how is that funded? So that's not the check that they write to every school district what's in LCF whatever your guarantee is. Uh it's a guarantee. Uh it's first it's funded by your local property taxes. So you'll see here's the you know the guarantee is the the beaker that you're filling. You first fill it with your property taxes and then the state uh gives whatever is remaining. So, in a district like ours, our state guarantee is about $und00 million. Um, if our property taxes were $20 million, the state would write us an $80 million check. If our property taxes were $80 million, the state would write us a $20 million check. >> So, maybe you're going to
080answer this. >> Yeah. >> Is our beaker just bigger? >> So, our beaker isn't bigger. >> There it is. But when we fill it with our property taxes, there's more than enough property taxes to fill the beaker and we have to get a separate beaker. Um, so we have an extra beaker. >> I know that's a very technical term. >> I was in my mind I was envisioning overflowing. So you >> absolutely >> and I know that you do this every year and I appreciate you because I need the review every year. >> I do too. So you're good. You're do it's it's a good review for me as well. >> Yeah, absolutely. chime in on the questions here. So, I thought that school districts such as ours, we have a choice whichever one is
081higher. You're either LCFF funded or your basic aid funded. So, so but now I can see we're getting the liquids from two beakers. So, now I'm a little confused. >> Oh, sorry. Sorry that um so we get which whichever is higher. So, if the guarantee is in our case, uh, you know, h 100red million, um, we're guaranteed at least $100 million. Now, as I noted on that earlier one, our secured taxes alone are $195 million. So, that's already $95 million above our state guarantee. We get to keep those. Um and so uh yeah, in cases where local property taxes are in excess of that guarantee, the local property taxes are retained by the district. And that has to do with a state constitution that doesn't allow the state to take um locally uh generated taxes.
082Um so uh districts like that like us are known as either community funded district um or basic aid school district. So you'll hear those used uh synonymously. >> Um >> one thing on how you're >> you know the state deficits the amount they put in our beaker for lack of a better term every year and don't don't they old school districts a bunch of money? Uh yeah, they do they they do some really complicated >> yeah things got gymnastics to >> um but yeah no they do they do owe they do owe school districts luckily uh they don't owe us very money much money um but SMUSD has been a community funded school district for well over 40 years um so that has been our that has been our funding uh for a long time.
083All right. Um, looking at federal, so, uh, you know, we said 90% of our money comes from those local LCFF sources. Um, a little over one and a half% comes from federal, uh, resources in our general fund. Uh, the primary two pieces of that are special education, as I noted earlier, of about $2 million, um, and title funds. That includes title one, title two, title three. um a little less than a million dollars in the title funds. >> Wow. So little anyway. Sorry. >> Yeah, it's it's it's it's incredibly small percentage of our budget on the general fund side, but I will note um so, you know, I think a lot of our community members, a lot of the board, you know, what are the impacts of the, you know, one what one big beautiful
084bill that happened back uh in the summer? uh we saw significant cuts to education um across the country um but for us uh in at least in the general fund it was somewhat limited. So as of right now for uh we're anticipating a cut of title 3 uh completely uh which supports our multilingual learners um of approximately 160,000. Uh the biggest impact actually of those uh federal reduction uh happens on our adult education side. Uh and those are the WEOA funds. Um those are workforce primarily workforce um training uh funds of approximately 750,000 uh which obviously is a much bigger number. Um but a key is it's about 12% of the adult school budget. And so we'll be hearing more about that um uh as we go the remainder of the year as we find
085out the exact numbers uh and how to deal with that. Uh one bright side is on the student nutrition side uh we haven't seen uh while there were cuts to some programs federally, those were not programs that we were involved in. Uh and so no significant impact to fund 13. uh state revenue is about uh 7% of our overall revenue. That's a little bit misleading. Uh as you can see the highlighted line of uh the stirs the on behalf contribution that is a simply a accounting entry. The state uh gives some money to stirs on our behalf and then they tell us what to book. So that's not money that actually comes in the door. So overall we receive um you about three to four% of our money from state. Uh the biggest three chunks
086of that is lottery uh of a little bit of $2 million. Um arts and music and schools is what's better known as Prop 28 funds of a little over a million dollars to expand uh arts and music. Uh and home to school transportation of 1.8. uh you'll see a little bit of an increase actually in first interim spoiler alert on that on home to school transportation. So we went over the ongoing stuff for the state. Oh >> more questions. >> Absolutely. >> Um when we were talking about the nutrition funds um does that come from general or federal or state or what bucket does that come from? >> That's a that's a that's a great question. Um so it's not as much in this because it's in the general fund. It's not in this presentation.
087Um but our budget is over 5 million. Um getting close to $6 million overall. Um that is funded fairly equally. Um actually I think a little bit more on the state side this um but is federally funded um for our free and reduced students and then the state um funds our non-free and reduced students. >> I see. >> Um for that. So it's at the same rates. Uh but um yeah, we receive over over $5 million a year between federal and uh state sources. Um and due to our demographics, that's actually more on the state side districts primarily in in California, it's going to be more on the federal side because you're going to have a higher percentage of free and reduced than we do. >> I see. Thank you. >> Yeah. Yeah. We we
088so we sorry we talked about the ongoing revenue in terms of one-time uh revenues. Uh you know we've talked about that a lot. The one I do want to um focus on is the student support and professional development block grant. Um that is a new block grant this year. It was not included in the adopted budget because it hadn't been approved by the state yet. Um but uh during that process it was uh during uh the end of June it was approved. Um, and the reason I bring it up is it'll be in first interim, so you're not surprised on it. As well as that is the funding source of the empower San Mateo uh commitment that the board made in June. Uh, in terms of local grants, uh, overall it's about 2% of our
089overall budget. Uh, the two biggest chunks are facilities use revenue um of over 2 million um, and interest. interest rates are actually pretty decent in terms of that right now. So, don't expect that always to continue, but we'll take advantage of it while we can. Um, one thing that you won't see there is a lot a huge number from our parent foundations. You see about 512,000 by the end of the year that number will be way higher. Um, but how we budget that is primarily once it's received then we budget for that. This is for the commitments uh for staffing. Uh so we do require a commitment letter uh and we do include that in our budget. Uh but do expect that number to be much higher by the end of the year. >> When
090you say much higher, what do you mean? >> Uh millions higher. I mean we have significant contributions from uh our foundations uh from our uh arts uh foundations, from our athletics foundations, from the ETA foundation. And I mean, we are incredibly lucky to be supported by such an amazing community um on that. So, yeah, well over a million dollars coming from uh parent foundations. Uh we noted this, so I won't spend too too much time on this, but yeah, 20% of the district's budget um is special education. Um it's funded by a three-legged stool of uh property taxes, federal and state revenue. Um, but that funds less than 25% of the overall costs and that uh as Trusty Jacobson was uh asking about earlier that's the largest piece of that contribution from the unrestricted side
091to the restricted side of over $40 million or sorry over $30 million uh on that contribution. So our you know I noted before uh on our in terms of expenditures we are in a people business uh salaries uh are you know north of 80% and benefits are north of 80% in the district and it's broken into three categories. Um we call them the ones twos and threes in our office but what does that mean? uh certificated. So this is uh teachers, principals, counselors, psychologists, other credentialed uh TOSAs. Um and then classified employees. Um so those are the twos. Um your classroom aids, your mental health uh therapists, uh office staff, maintenance and operations, transportation, district office, and departmental staff. Basically, anyone who's not certificated is classified. Um and then you have the benefits related to
092that. Uh that's the pension both calsters and kalpers. Um our social security, Medicare, workers comp, unemployment and health and welfare benefits. Uh uh how is that breakdown in terms of the salary and benefits of that 82% of our overall budget? Uh certificated salaries uh a little over $91 million. Classified salaries about half that. um at about 46.5 million. Uh and then between uh the retirement contributions um you know we've got about 37 million uh in retirement contributions and uh $21 million of health and welfare. Uh sneak peek that will increase at our first interim uh due to our settlement with our labor partners. All right, key takeaway number two. Key takeaway number two, uh, salaries and benefits and staffing formulas. So, uh, staffing formulas drive a vast majority of our staffing in this district. Um,
093which is best practice, number one. Uh, but number two, uh, changes in staffing formula are very significant in terms of, uh, increasing or decreasing costs. Um, but just some examples in our district, our teacher um, formula is 26 to1. Um so for every 26 students that a a site gets, we allocate one FTE in staffing. Our special education um uh is 22 to1. Uh that excludes uh our um Bay University Bay Academy classes. Uh our multilingual learner MML MLL is 20 to1. Um and then uh our academic support is based on unduplicated pupil count. Um and our SPOE's um are based on a CASBO custodial formulas and factors. >> Can I just say I'm just very proud of these numbers. Um >> yeah, >> this is not true of many all districts. I'm very impressed
094and I'm happy we do this. >> It's it's it's not it's it's it's not like a lot of districts. You're absolutely right. >> I'm complimenting us. It's this is really good. Key takeaway number three, enrollment. We just noted that we've got ratios um and staffing formulas. What are they mostly driven by? >> How many kids are there? Uh so enrollment uh is a huge impact uh on the district's budget. Um so enrollment drives staffing. The district was in a little bit of a slow incline uh decline uh since right before CO. It wasn't CO, it was uh right before CO. Uh that was after uh 10 plus years actually of growth in the district. Um it's it's important to note that in a community funded district in a lot of ways it's really nice to
095to be community funded. The one way it's not as great is if you get additional students they're not giving you any extra money. So we do have to watch the uh enrollment projections. Uh and uh we we projected actually a little bit of an increase this year uh after um about six years of decreases and guess what we saw a little bit of an increase this year. So we're seeing a little bit of a bubble um actually primarily coming through Berling game um and then we're projected to start a a little bit of a slow decline um after the next two or three years as we go into it. >> I'm feeling the pain too. Don't worry. I'm I I'm sure I'm sure you're busting at the seams over there. All right, key takeaway number
096four on your bingo card. Uh salaries and benefits collective bargaining. Um so this shows the last 5 years. Um this is the single largest investment uh on a year-to-year basis uh that the district usually makes. Uh we just approved our contracts um with DTA. Um and we're about to approve them with uh CSA and ASME I believe at our next meeting. Um uh and so yeah, this is uh a really important factor when we look at our budget of how much we're able to give in raises every year. Just a couple of numbers that are important to always remember. Uh the cost of step and column and so those are those automatic steps that uh you see every year uh are about $2 million a year for the district. And the cost of a 1%
097raise to all employees is about $1.6 million. Uh and that includes salary and benefits. Uh uh most of the uh benefit costs um are what we call driven benefits and that's because they are driven directly by the salary as a certain percentage of that. Um so stirs is 19.1%. Um, PERS is higher. Uh, so sorry, STIRS is for our certificated employees like our teachers, principals, etc. Um, the PERS is for our classified employees. Uh, that rate is about 26.81%. Social Security, as most folks know, is about 6.2%, Medicare at 1.45. Um, workers compensation low in our district, uh, 1.2. We're very, uh, we're very happy about that. That's lower than you'll see, uh, in most districts. unemployment re pretty small um 0.05% and then health and welfare benefits are based on a tiered cap. Um
098so the two main in terms of benefits the two the largest um pieces of that are are retirement expenditures in pers and stirs of you know 37.5 million uh and then health and welfare of 21 million which as I noted before uh we'll see an update to that at first interim for our bargaining agreements. >> Quick question you go back. >> So health and welfare is at 32%. Is that is there an increase decrease? What does that look like percentage-wise? >> That has we've been talking >> that that has been increased. That has been increasing. But I will say um and we'll get into it in a minute in stirs and pers stirs and pers were increasing astronomically um between 201213 um and a couple years ago. Um PERS continues to actually increase and we'll
099get into that. um stirs now is at the level so um the health and welfare I expect the health and welfare piece of that pie uh to be increasing um it'll be increased next month when we come at first interim and given the increases that we continue to see from the health and welfare markets you know uh it's continuing to to put pressure uh uh on our district and you know many districts. Okay. >> All right. So, in terms of stirs and pers, I noted we would get to it. Um, the first thing is it is critical for attracting and retaining staff. So, it's incredibly important. Um, you know, it it gives a certain level of stability for our employees. Um, but the second thing I wanted to note is these are statemandated funding rates.
100Um so this board as as much as you know maybe they would want to change some decisions um they they do not have that authority. Those are made at the state. Um they are still underfunded. Um and so the current rates um uh are set to bridge the large unfunded liability over the next 25 years. Um and then this is a a key point those rates have increased over 100% since 201213. Um and then who determines the employer rates which is uh you know the rates that we pay uh in STIRS it's only the legislature um but for PERS the PERS board actually has that authority that they set that rate um which um operationally means that the stirs rate isn't changed very often. Um it's been changed once you know over a 10-year period
101uh over the last 50 years. Um but that change was that over 100% increase over um seven or eight years. Um and then the PERS rate we see a change every year. Stirs uh we noted Stirs was 8 and a quarter% back in 201213. Um and for Stirs that was the good old days. It is now 19.1% um since 2022 2023. Um to put that in perspective, if the rate had been back at 8 and a quarter% um the savings could hire 50 more teachers in our district. Um PERS has been even more significant. Um uh that increase since 2013. Um and uh yeah, that's driven the classified driven cost to over 35%. So definitely significant uh chunk of uh cash on that. Can I ask you a question about that? >> So with PERS,
102I know with stirs, >> it's our contribution and then the state has a contribution. >> Correct. >> Is that the same of PERS and PERS is just determining our contribution is going to be increasingly more and the states is increasingly less. >> Um so PERS and SURS are they're a little bit different. So I'm asking um so stirs uh 19.1 for the district. Um 10 and a quarter for 10 and a quarter for um uh uh classic members. Um a little bit different on the PPA, so newer employees. Um and then the state actually puts in a chunk of money. That's that on behalf payment that I said was just an accounting entry, right? And I want to say that's 6%, but I'd have to double check that um that they give. Um on the
103the PERS side, we don't get that, you know, that 6% from the state and that's why our the district's contribution is, you know, it's about 8% 78% higher on the PER side. Um but yeah it is similar in the sense of there is an employee contribution uh as well on the on the per side and because of the PEPRA um each employee is required to pay and this is really technical but 50% of it's an actuarial term the normal cost of uh the benefit that they're receiving. So >> you gave more than the answer but thank you. Yeah. >> What? Good. It's about this slide. So, yeah. So, my quick question is >> I like your note right there in blue. While benefit costs have gone up, we can see it sub the percentages have
104substantially gone up in the last 10 years. So, while the benefit costs have gone up, this has not equated to a bigger larger pension for employees. So, can you explain like what what happened to the difference between what it used to what the percentage used to be and now it's higher, but employees are not receiving that. >> Correct. So the higher rate is really is is actually just funding the underfunded portion of the benefits. So they looked in they got the smart actuarials in the room and said how much is this actually going to cost us in 30 years and they said uhoh we don't got enough money. So they have to contribute enough for each of those employees. um and they actually have to increase it more to fund what's you know hasn't been
105funded in the past. There also is an important thing and and this is becoming uh more and more Peppera which was the pension reform back in 1213 I think it's 1213 um created two classes of employees and so uh if you were hired prior to that I think it's before January 1 2013 you were known as a classic member um and if you were hired after that you're known as a PEPA member um they have significantly different benefits so not only is it the costs have gone up and it's not equating to a bigger or larger pension. Uh any employee that was uh started after January 1, 2013 has a significantly less benefit um which you know may hurt uh recruitment and uh retention uh as we move forward. So, we'll see that. Um, and
106you know, after the first few years, it was, you know, a small percentage of our population, but it'd be good to actually look at what percentage because I bet you we're getting, you know, probably close to 50/50 now in terms of our uh our staff as classic or u PEPA members. All right. Uh, here we go. Bingo. This is uh this is number five. We got there. Um, key takeaway number five. Health and welfare benefits in the last uh since 2020, health and welfare costs for the district have increased 50%. 50 5O um you know we've seen uh one of our uh providers uh increase 50% in the last two years in terms of their premiums. Uh so this continues to be a negative uh pressure on our budget. um as we can only use
107every dollar once, you know, we have to make those decisions of whether we're going to uh support additional health and welfare payments or we want to give more salary or more program. So, uh these increases in health and welfare costs um as you know demonstrated this year as uh as the board very well knows um it's a very large factor in negotiations as we move forward. In terms of other expense, uh, significant expenditures, uh, we've talked about most of these, um, utilities, insurance, litigation. Uh, there's a lot of special education costs that are outside of the regular staffing portion, including a non-public school placements, um, residential placements, uh, for our students with mental health needs, uh, mental health contracts and settlements. Uh we have the gateway program that we partner with uh the Sanonteo County
108Office of Education uh on as well as a couple of the other districts like Sequoa. Um equipment purchases every year. You know, we we update our buses. Um we have professional development, instructional materials, and deferred maintenance. Uh I did note that, you know, we our primary focus was on the general fund. Um but as Trusty Jacobson noted and a couple other things, we have other funds. Um so uh the main impact of the other funds that I look at and I try to have the board focus on is what is the impact to the general fund. So what impact do those uh have those funds have on the general fund? Uh fund 13 um actually has no impact really on the general fund. And the reason I'm bringing it up, why are you bringing it
109up, Yansy? Uh it used to be a significant contribution um prior to COVID, prior to universal feeding, we were we were contributing over $500,000 a year to our student nutrition program. Uh now with the efficiencies gained of universal feeding uh we uh we don't make really any contribution at all to fund 13. Um and so that's $500,000 a year that we're using on program that uh we weren't able to do in the past. Uh deferred maintenance. Um, we put one and a half% of our general fund expenditures away um to be um prudent and uh good stewards of our uh of our financial resources um to support a lot of our um maintenance needs at our facilities districtwide. And also fund 40 has a small contra account um which is 12% of our property tax
110increase goes into that every year. In terms of our fund uh balance, board policy, board policy 3100.01 um is our board policy around uh um our fund balance and it requires a 12% uh uh unrestricted reserve that's based that's in two parts. The 3% statemandated um reserve and then a locally defined 9% additional to equal that 12% reserve. um our ending fund fund our ending balance trend. So what does our ending balance looked over the last five years? It's averaged about 17% uh after COVID um you know goes up down a little bit each year but you know as you can see pretty stable over that year. Uh but to put that into perspective and kind of look at your own like personal budget that's about two months of payroll. So, two months of expenses
111that the district um um could cover um you know if uh as we talked about earlier um you know crisis come along in terms of our restricted so you know we spent most of the time on the unrestricted side. Um we do have restricted grants a lot of that is onetime money. Um, we've got about $10 and half million dollars still sitting uh in onetime money that is uh being spent down. Uh, the lottery is is the probably the biggest chunk of that $2.3 million. Um, and Dr. Kempkkey is very happy that that is there because we've got a lot of budget sorry of um curriculum adoptions coming up and so um you know we've been saving up so that we can afford those adoptions moving forward. Uh we have the arts, music, and instructional
112materials uh block grant of about 2.4 million. That's key as we get into our one-time. That's the primary uh source of our what we call our COVID uh funding our COVID positions. Um but once that's out, that's uh that's you primarily gone. Um and then, uh we've got dual enrollment opportunities, uh you know, of about $1.3 million. And then arts and music in school of prop $28, about $1.3 million. Um, in terms of our multi-year projections, we always look at our uh district's budget over a three-year period. Uh, looking at it the current year and our two subsequent years. Um, you know, we base we we build those multi-year projections based on a pretty uh complex uh group of assumptions. As you can see, it's a big list of assumptions we got here. I'll hit
113just two. Uh, in terms of assessed valuation, we use a 3 and a.5% outyear. um valuation. We've hit that I think every year, but one that I've been here. Um uh and then uh one that I do really want to focus on is you look at that salary increase line. Um it has the 2 and a half% for the current year. Uh but it doesn't have anything in the outy years. Um and that doesn't mean we're not giving raises in the out years. Uh but we have not committed to any raises. So any look at our multi-year projection um has to you know be colored by the fact that we know that we don't have salary increases in there. Uh overall when we look at our multi-year projection um the the current year um the
114vast majority of that decrease at the budget adoption was related to that one-time funding. We talked about that $10 million on the restricted side um being spent down. Um but by 26 27 we are back to you know balanced budget where we want to be. All right. So I know that was uh uh very exciting for everybody but uh but we got our bingo which I think everyone's very excited about. And uh any other questions? I know you guys did a great job of asking questions during but happy to >> Are there any other questions? This was quite normally it's a very crusty land >> only got one um if you went back to Yeah, there we go. Multi-year projections. Dangerous question. >> Okay. >> Salary increase. >> Mhm. >> Should we is it a
115good idea to include or not include and what's your thought on that? I know I'm asking a dangerous question. I did that on purpose. I I wouldn't say it's necessarily dangerous as much as it could be considered bargaining in public. So >> there you go. That's all I needed to hear because again, why would you? Why wouldn't you? There's there's there's my answer. That's where I was going. >> That That was the perfect answer. Thank you. >> Exactly. Because somebody might ask, well, why not? There's a really good reason why not. >> All right. >> Anyway, I I just want to say, >> yeah, >> great presentation. I think we're on track. I think in planning for next year's budget, are we looking at stability? Like in the multi-year projection, it looks pretty solid. Is
116are we looking at any major cuts or any concerns, major concerns that we need to look into for the next year in budgeting? >> I I think there's there's two items that I think are that we really need to look at and focus on. Um um we had a big increase in health and welfare, right? And I think the district really stretched um and really worked with our our partners in labor uh around how to deal with that. Um and after January, we're going to know what the the full impact of those are after open enrollment and uh you know who's on what plan and you know families and um and so I think we're really going to need to look at that because I think the district did make a big commitment to that.
117So, you know, what is the impact of that and um uh you know, how do we how do we look at that moving forward? And then the second is what we're about to get into, which is the the step down of the of the COVID uh commitments. Uh we've already stepped down um or uh um absorbed a lot of the uh commitments that we made, but we still have about 10 FTE, and we'll get into that in a minute. Um, but we'll have a lot of time to talk about that at at our first interim. Um, and as we get into the spring, >> but those would be the two things that I would um, you know, I we're incredibly lucky to be supported locally. Um, our our our friends in state funded districts have
118seen, you know, very low colas over the last couple of years. Um and so you know you're starting to see more and more pressure uh on our state um funded um partners uh that it's really tough. So uh we are you know knock on wood we are very lucky to be supported locally um by property taxes you know which are typically the most predictable and and the safest uh form of funding. >> Thank you. So the state normally has a budget crisis crunch and they depend heavily on capital gains revenues to to you know for keep their budget solvent. Uh what kind of where's the state these days? Uh and what kind of impact could that have on us in the in this coming year? So, I'll go back to the quick answer is I'm
119very happy that we are locally funded on that. That's the the quick answer. Um, yeah, the state has the state has some significant issues. Um, they had to use some some budget trickery. Um, they brought back uh deferrals again at the state level. So, deferrals are back. Um, they have something called the Prop 98 maneuver. >> Yeah. uh which I don't even fully understand honestly. Um and uh and I spend all day looking at this stuff. So uh yeah, they're they're playing some tricks right now. They've used up a good chunk of their Prop 98 um uh reserve. I will say though, um the state as a whole is in incredibly better shape than it was back in 20089. One of the biggest problems at the state level was back in 20089 when we had
120the great recession was the state was already in a crisis before the crisis. Um right now uh at least the they had a a large fund balance at the state level. They had a large Prop 98 reserve. Um but they've used up a big chunk of it in this year in 2526. Um and unless uh revenues continue to outpace the projections, they're going to have to use more of that trickery uh as we move forward. Um and that's going to mean um you know, you know, tough times potentially for uh our our state funded uh partners. I will say though that um um it it doesn't always it what you get from the state doesn't always match, you know, potentially the crisis. I mean, they used, you know, they, you know, they gave us the
121that student support and professional development block grant, you know, while still having to do the maneuver and the deferrals and the deferrals, >> breaking into that. And a lot of that has to do with politics. A lot of it has to do with Prop 98. Um, you know, commitments they've made. But sorry, that was a really long answer to what I probably should have said. I'm very happy that we're locally funded. You know, the other question there a lot of projects are stalled right now. You know, we got a lot of empty lots that were going to be highly appraised properties that were going to be, you know, paying taxes and we're seeing increasingly more of that. We're seeing layoff notices, you know, and unemployment maybe creeping up. Um, and that's probably not so much
122here, although there is here, but certainly nationwide. So, I mean, there's a lot of storm clouds off the off the coast, you know, kind of scary. >> No, I absolutely I mean, I really I really focus on the ones in the real estate market. Um, um, uh, you know, you know, what are what are our vacancy rates, what are our, you know, that knock on wood, right now we are not seeing big spikes in that. Um, and we've had this relatively the same, you know, statistics over at least my time here, uh, in Sonteo. Uh, but, you know, that can that can change. Um, so, uh, you know, we continue to monitor that. But again, you know, I go back to we're incredibly lucky to be locally funded and, you know, based on a really
123strong property tax base. One other thing that we we don't talk about this very much at all um but we have an incredibly diverse property tax base you know um >> uh you know I don't think anyone one uh property is more than like two I don't even think one is more than 2% of our overall uh assessed value in our district. You know there's some districts where you know 40% is owned by a single company or a single person. Uh we have a incredibly diverse um tax base. Uh now I think there's a much bigger risk of stagnation than necessarily really you know a reduction um in um in in property taxes. Um but yeah absolutely there's I I see clouds I see clouds everywhere u trusty Griffin but that's that's a big portion
124of my job. >> Trusty Chavez. >> Well this is what a great presentation so much information. So, I want to thank you and your staff and Vanessa and Wyo and Christina. Uh, thank you so much for putting this together. Um, and thank you for walking us through every page and also addressing our questions every few pages. Um, I had a question, but I think you kind of answered it earlier about the food service. I want to make sure I got this straight in my mind. Um, for food service, we have federal federal funding which would um be connected to the free and reduced lunch and then we have the state funding which would be for everything else. Yeah. So providing meals to all students. >> Yeah. So basically what the state did is they said,
125"Hey, we're going to mirror your free and reduced the federal mir uh free and reduced program, but everybody's allowed to um participate." So what they do was, you know, kind of in their own way, they say, "Great, everybody who's free and reduced at the federal level, >> we're not giving you any money for that because we know you're getting money from the federal level, but we'll backfill all of those folks who are eating that are not qualified for the free and reduce." >> And also the differential for the reduced because now now family is paying for that reduced amount. Exactly. >> They don't pay anything. Correct. And then I was going to ask if there's any significant amount funded from the district, but you already you had already mentioned that fund 13 used to pro
126used to provide about $500,000 an hour. Yeah. And that's right now >> and that and that's that's pure savings uh you know in terms of budget as we look at it in terms of money we can put into program. So that's been a really great I I really um uh I want to thank Dennis and his team because they've done an amazing job. Um, a lot of this district's universal feeding has actually killed some districts in terms of from a budget standpoint because they didn't have the infrastructure in place uh to do it. So, >> thank you again for the presentation. It was very well laid out and and and >> yeah, thank you again. Thank you you your entire staff. I'm like stuck talking. >> Uh, all right. Uh so the the second the
127just the small portion in terms of step down um of one-time expenditures. This slide's not new to any of the board members of the community. It's at every one of our um budget presentations. Um but uh during COVID the district uh invested in approximately 25 FTE uh overall in uh uh COVID or COVID support or whatever you want to call them positions. Um over the last uh few years we've uh stepped down uh or moved around uh to other funding sources about 15 of that FTE. Um and we've got about 10 FTE remaining. Uh those positions are currently uh scheduled to sunset uh on June 30th of 2026. Um and as we as we noted the in terms of the process um where are we in that process? Obviously, we're in the uh we're in
128the fall of 2025. One thing that I want to be really clear, we're not acting asking for any action on this tonight. This is just, you know, just a reminder, an update of where we are. Um we're actually uh having a a principal summit, I want to say the 18th on on the 18th. And this is going to be a big uh chunk of the discussion around getting principal input. Um, obviously we're holding the right now we're doing one of the things right now. We're holding the the uh budget study session and we're continuing to explore funding opportunities. Um, the federal government's making it a little bit harder to do that right now, but uh, you know, we'll be looking to other state and local uh, funds uh, on how we can support um, any
129of that. Um and then as we move into the winter um you know that's when the board will have to take uh action uh um on that and you'll be getting a lot more information on this in December at first interim once we've had those discussions with principles um and that the admin team feels that you know we have a lot more of the information in terms to give to to board members. Uh, and any last questions? >> Trusty land. >> Just that 10 point >> 10.2. >> Yeah. >> How much is that? >> Uh, it's about $2.5 million. A little less. >> That's what I wanted to know. >> Vanessa, is that about right? I think it >> it's a little less than 2.4 million. Any other questions or comments? Okay. Well, I think
130it was a good session and uh I guess we'll just hate to say in one hand, I hate to say this uh because we just got an audience. On the other hand, I think we're all ready to go. Meeting adjourned. >> Patrick.