001All right. [laughter] [snorts] >> All right. Up next is Mrs. Pochelle. She is an avid cyclist. Mrs. Pochelle is a road cyclist guiding her riders down a long open path, setting the pace and showing them how to keep going even when it feels tough for them. She rides beside them through every wobble and hill, encouraging steady effort and balance and courage with each push of the pedals. Before long, she eases back and her students ride forward on their own, strong and confident, carrying her guidance wherever their roads may leave. You see each student for who they are and help them grow in their own way. Congratulations on your retirement, Mrs. pot. [applause] [applause] All right, last but not least, we have Mrs. Gansky, who is a chef, an amazing baker. Mrs. Gansky is like a
002patient baker, carefully measuring each ingredient to fit every learner just right. She mixes kindness, creativity, and encouragement, adjusting the recipe so each student can rise at their own pace. In the end, her classroom is filled with unique, beautiful creations, each one shaped with care and made to shine. Because of you, learning feels safe and possible. Congratulations on your retirement, [clears throat] Mrs. Gansky. >> [applause] [laughter] >> I'd like to welcome Barisford Elementary School. >> Thank you. Thank you. [clears throat] You want her to come first? >> [clears throat] [crying] [laughter] >> Good evening. I'm here as the principal of the annex um to recognize Haime Kavasos. He has worked for the district for over 25 years. in addition to working for the district, he's been a parent of students in the district, and now he
003is a grandparent of students in the districts. So, he may not be working for us, but he'll be here a long time. I think he's been he's retired in February, and he's been picking up his grandkids um at Bayside, I think, every day since. So, um, some things that I will always remember about Jaime is his infectious smile, his caring nature, his willingness to be a team player, but mostly his amazing ability to play the ukulele. So, um, thank you for all your hard work and your dedication and enjoy your time with your family. Thank you. [applause] So, I'm here to talk about two retirees, Vera Ma and Lisa Moyer. I'm the um I'm Jaylen Chang. I'm the proud principal of Bearsford Elementary School. Beersford's retiring staff member, Miss Vera, has worked at Beersford for
00422 years in room 6. The students and families who have passed through her doors are forever changed by the year they spend in her classroom. Verda's energy and enthusiasm for the craft of teaching and inspiring children is woven into everything she does. She goes above and beyond to make her students feel important. She fosters independence and responsibility and she inspires her students to discover their passions and go for it. Recently, one of her Rimix alumni students reached out to share that she had graduated from Vanderbilt's School of Medicine and has been hired at Harvard as an incoming resident physician. Verda has many successes like this of students who returned to her to let her know that it was her love of teaching and STEM that sparked their passion and led them on to discover the
005world of possibilities and their future paths. The magic Verda weaves into her classroom and throughout it and at Beersford is felt far and wide. And Verda's contributions to her classroom and the school community are too countless to name. Miss Ma's retirement and her absence will be greatly missed and felt by all. Verda, thank you. Thank you for your tireless efforts in everything you do. Thank you for showing up each day with energy and enthusiasm and for inspiring and making impacts that will continue to ripple on. You will always be part of Bearsford's fabric woven into the fibers that have helped shape each student you have taught and each colleague you have worked and supported. You will forever be remembered by the students and staff alike. Congratulations on this well-deserved retirement. [applause] Miss Lisa Moyer is
006Beersford's other retiring staff member. Lisa's story began when her daughter started school at Beersford 28 years ago when it first reopened in 1998. Lisa's chapters at the school have been many. First as a parent and volunteer supporting classrooms, teachers, the library, and school staff. Lisa's next chapter at Bearsford began when she took on the role of Beersford's librarian. Lisa is an amazing librarian. She knows the book preferences and choices of every student on campus. She spends time curating the perfect and just right books that each student at our school is interested in reading. Over the years, Lisa has created and nurtured community partnerships, organizing dozens of literacy week guest readers to visit classrooms from the fire and police department, San Mato's city council, and the college of San Mateo. It is one of the highlights
007of Beerford and especially when officer Adel and rookie come and visit or the men's football and the women's basketball team stay and play with the students at recess. In addition to being our librarian, Lisa is also the school office assistant. In this role, she supports the front office from clinic visits and phone calls to administrative work and accounting and everything in between. Lisa has been one of Beersford's biggest champions and after the 28 years she's going to be closing the book on her final chapter at Beersford. She's thinking of an epilogue. However, she's thinking about returning to Bearsford to volunteer. Lisa, your service and dedication at Bearsford are written and ingrained on the pages of Bearsford's history. As you read your last read aloud, shove your last book, and put on that last band-aid, I
008hope that you know how much you've been appreciated and loved the work you do and the dedication that you've given and the support you provided to students and staff and families alike. Congratulations on your retirement. Thank you for everything. We will miss you. [applause] We'd like to invite Boutage Middle School. [laughter] >> Rewind. Good evening everyone, board of trustees superintendent OOA. Uh my name is Dr. Amanda Gaul and I am the principal at Bowage Middle School and I'm very honored to be here tonight with someone who is an extraordinary human being and one of the coming into a school, you know, you can be different. Um, and just the way in which that every single day that you say hello and you greet me and you greet our students and you meet everybody where they
009are is very very special. And this is Mrs. Hemma Delore and she is going to be retiring from the Bowage community. And I say that because she has been a PAR educator in our school district. She has been Bowage, excuse me. She has had her child that has gone through Boutage. Um, and most currently she is one of our uh extraordinary science teachers that has helped open up our beautiful new science spaces. And so after 25 years, I'm super excited for your next adventure. But before I get to do that, I wanted to read a few things that your students have said about you. I know, surprise. Okay, [laughter] so um they have talked about how you made studying for tests so fun by making cahoots. They've talked about how you did very fun uh
010very fun but safe experiments for her classes. That you included students who were left out. That the projects that you assigned helped them so much for learning the topics. That you integrated AI and the internet for our projects and assignments so that they had a chance to know how to use it for the better of their learning. um and that you made the class interesting and that you have always been happy and super kind. Um and so I am just very honored to get to wish you congratulations. I know that we've talked about it and something that I really also appreciate is she I don't know if you're you're excited about the next chapter, but she wasn't really ready, but when she recently had her granddaughter that was born, she is ready to go and
011she has a one-way ticket to Boston. I know that she will be back visiting us and I just want to say thank you for your kindness, for supporting our entire community, for supporting our students and families and we will all miss you very much. So congratulations. [applause] >> I would like to welcome Assistant Superintendent David Chamblas. Congratulations. >> Good evening. Um, it is my incredible honor to congratulate Lori Kamoto on her retirement. Um, the the opportunity to give her congratulations up here was intensely fierce. It was a very [laughter] I managed to, you know, I think I won on the basketball task. So, um, but, uh, you know, when you talk about Lori Fukamoto, who's been, uh, in our district for 34 years and as a teacher, um, as an assistant principal, as a principal,
012as a principal on special assignment, um, she's literally been everywhere in this district and has been a person that, um, many leaders in our district have turned to for, uh, support for um guidance for getting the job done. Um most recently, Lori agreed to lead her principal position at Northshore View to take on a very important project here in our district. Uh it's a um program um that is funded by Gilead Foundation. It's called Project Career Math. Literally right at the end of her career starting something from ground up never existed before and she's the person that is to do so. Um, yes. When we talk to all those folks who couldn't be up here tonight, the words that they they bring up are things like um incredibly gracious um somebody who reaches out um
013to collaborate and ask and you know invites um opinion of of what's the next move, how should we handle this? Um she has been described as incredibly committed to her students and her families. um a real champion of equity in many different places in our district. Um and uh her her colleagues, her fellow teachers have described her as you know a teachers teacher. Um somebody who really has been a model for them and um shown them um incredible talent and hard work. Um there have been many nights where I walked out the door and and and [snorts] Lori was still here working away. So um with all of that after 34 years, we really are are proud that um we have been a part of your life for that that long a time and we
014congratulate you. turn this on. Um Joe Syam, are you here? Director of technology >> and Carol Cook if you want to. >> Thank you. Good evening everyone. I'm Joe Sam. I'm the director of technology for the school district. Uh Carol was one of the first people I met when I started working here uh four and a half years ago. And from my first day to her last day to her last day, um she uh made everyone that uh walked through through our department called us on the phone uh emailed her. uh she made everyone feel welcome and supported. That's how I felt when I first met her and that's how uh I saw her uh in her work every day um after that. Uh she made everyone feel welcome and supported and uh she supported
015me, she supported the team, she supported the district in dealing with everything that it takes to keep the technology department running. So thank you again, Carol. I really appreciate all your help and support. Thank you. [applause] [applause] [clears throat] >> We'd like to welcome Foster City School. >> [clears throat] [laughter] >> Good evening. I'm Leah Pac, the principal at Foster City Elementary School. We have two people retiring tonight, but Mr. Aber could not be here. He's on his way back from Sacramento with all of his fourth graders. They took a really long um field trip today, but I am here with Michelle Mccclaclin. Um, Michelle is a kind and dedicated teacher who always has placed her students learning and well-being at the center of everything that she does. She has a very skilled and highly
016impressive way of making first grade fun while keeping the academic rigor very high. One of the things I admire the most about her is the meaningful way she honors and celebrates the cultures and experiences of her students. During one of my classroom visits, she had a student who recently moved here from Japan. Michelle developed a thoughtful lesson to help her students connect to their new peer. She read a story about an artist from Japan and had the students create beautiful replicas of the artwork. Her students were beaming with pride. It was such a thoughtful and intentional moment that showed how deeply Michelle takes time to know her students and make them feel seen, valued, and connected. When I asked her students what they love most about their teacher, their responses spoke volumes. They shared, "She
017is kind and never mean. She teaches us a lot of things. She helps us with our classwork and spelling. Students also talked about the fun field trips, wonderful readalouds that you do, and engaging activities you planned for them. But my favorite thing one of our students said is that Michelle is her BFF. Michelle has made a lasting impact on countless of students and families throughout her 34 years in the district. 32 years being at Foster City and all 34 years being in first grade. We [applause] are so fortunate to have had her as part of our community for so long. Michelle, thank you for the care, compassion, and joy you brought to many children's education. Your departure will be felt next school year. Every moment, enjoy every moment of your retirement. Please don't forget to
018visit, maybe even sub, and always keep all those memories really close to your heart. We're very proud of you and we'll miss you. [applause] >> All right. Laurel Elementary School. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening. My name is Jessica Murphy and I am the principal at Laurel Elementary School. And tonight I get to celebrate Jazelle Lennox, one of our PAR educators on our campus. Throughout the years, you have been someone on our community that we could always count on. staff shared that Jazelle is not only reliable, patient, dedicated, but also gives endless support to all of our learners. Her kindness, care, and calm presence has helped so many of our students feel safe, seen, and supported every day. Well, we'll miss seeing you every day on campus. I hope to see you walking the neighboring
019hills or maybe even in triathlon. She's a triathlete. Um, but we are very grateful for everything that you've given our learners, family, and staff over the years. And I thank you so much for your dedication and countless ways that you've made our school a better place. Um, congratulations on your retirement, and you will forever be an Eagle. Next, we have Meadow Heights. Good evening everyone. Tonight we celebrate someone who has dedicated so many years to students and family um and staff at Meadow Heights and other schools as well including Fiesta Gardens. Carolyn Bossi. [snorts] Carolyn has been a steady and caring presence on our campus and her kindness has touched lives all along the way. She has always led with compassions and patience and genuine love for children, making students feel seen, supported, and deeply
020cared for each day. Retirement is such a meaningful milestone, a chance to reflect on a career filled with service and care and commitment while looking ahead to new adventures, opportunities, and welldeserved rest. Um, Carolyn, on behalf of the faculty and staff at Meadow Heights, we want to just thank you for your commitment and contribution to our campus and our students and our community. We're grateful for the kindness and heart that you brought to your work. We're um we wish you happiness, good health, and many moments of joy in the next chapter of your life. Congratulations, >> [applause] >> She taught at Bayside. I got it wrong because she's also uh Spanish bilingual and brought those assets to our campus as well. Thank you. >> All right. Uh we'd like to welcome Sunny Bray Elementary School.
021OH, here's preview. Uh, good evening, uh, Superintendent OA, board of trustees. My name is Cindy Chin. I'm the principal at Sunnybr. Um, tonight we have two retirees with us. We have a third, uh, who was not able to make it, but we want to recognize that between the three of them, [crying] there is over a hundred years worth of uh, working in education. [applause] And before you we have two legends of Sunonny Bray. We have Suzanne Derdorf and Lynn as a party. Miss A, as Lynn is affectionately known as, has spent 40 years teaching nearly 40 years teaching in Samonteo with over 30 years in room one at Sunonny Bright. We are so lucky that she chose us to spend her teaching career in our community. Tomorrow will be the last TK play that Lynn
022will be um producing. So, if you're able to come out and we are excited for her next adventures uh with training her dogs and hope that she does come back to visit us. >> [applause] >> And then for Suzanne, it was written in the stars that Miss Deardorf would spend most of her life at Sunny Bray. As a child, Mrs. Derodorf attended Sunonny Bray. >> She spent over 30 years as an educator in the district and specifically at Sunonny Bray. She's the type of teacher that you wanted to have when you were in school and we are excited for her to take pickle ball world by storm and hope that she comes back to visit us as well. [applause] All right, last but not least, we'd like to welcome Turble Learning. Turbo Preschool, excuse me.
023Congratulations. >> Hello there. I'm Christina Haley and I'm one of the directors of our preschool program. Today we celebrate Joanne Selenus and thank her for her dedicated years of service to our school district in special education annex and of course preschool. Joanne brought her beautiful energy, kindness, and compassion to everyone around her each day. Her caring spirit and positive presence made a lasting difference for students, families, and staff. Her commitment to excellence set the standard for everyone here. We miss her. She retired already in February. We miss your expertise, but more importantly, we miss your incredible spirit. She loves to dance. Joanna was one of the first people in the district to meet Superintendent OOA when he came in for his interview back in 2021. They chatted. That's her kind of style. And she wished
024him good luck. She believes it was because of that wish that he got the job. [laughter] Thank you, Joanne, for helping families through the enrollment process and leading those preschool tours. We wish you a retirement filled with happiness, love, and many wonderful new adventures ahead with your grandb babies, your daughters, your family. Beautiful family. You've truly earned this next chapter of fun. And dance away. [applause] >> We actually have one more from Sunny Bray. I think it's Is it Lily Beth? Um she made it back from the field trip. Um I actually want to Lily Beth Roao um her daughter is here to if Joy can come forward to represent for her. [applause] So, Miss Miss Lily [clears throat] Beth had devoted over 20 years of service in the Sanatail Foster City School District as
025a special education pair educator. And she worked with students with a variety of needs and she loved working with students just as much as they loved working with her. And so, we are excited for Lily Beth's next adventures which u she's actually already started which is why Joy is here. Um, [laughter] so thank you for coming. [applause] >> All right. Before we conclude, I want to make sure there's not anyone out there that we may have u missed. No. Okay. Um, could everyone please join me in congratulating and thanking all of our retirees for everything THEY'VE [applause] DONE. ALL >> [applause] [applause] >> RIGHT. UM, thank you everybody. We would like to ask our retirees to please come to the front. We'd love to take some photos. If you can make your way up here.
026>> [laughter] >> Sorry. Sorry. >> You too. Oh my gosh. >> [laughter] >> I know. I know. >> Excuse me. [laughter] get in trouble. She'll get mad at me if I have [laughter] [clears throat] [applause] It's still listening. >> I know. >> Thank you everyone. So we'll actually take a really quick five minute break so that we can >> let people clear out if they wish to. >> What is that? I know very much. literally right next door. >> That is my hi. Nice. [laughter] >> They're not used to I am. >> Hello, beautiful ladies. You're wearing my colors. >> Oh my god. How are you looking? I know. I see it. Thank you. >> Being younger. >> What the heck? >> Okay. Okay. Me, too. Me, too. Hey, >> I can share your video.
027I can't No, our boy. >> Can you steal the keys? Where's my ticket? [laughter] >> Remember me? My mom is very nice to meet you here. And then our sunset. [cheering] We got there somewhere else. And so now even we have to retire from the MLS. This is my vision here. >> Say hi to a little kid from the street by She really owns >> I want the first bridge. You're going to pay me. Okay. I wanted to next year. Are you staying or are you leaving? Thank you everyone. >> We're going to continue. It's always the best and worst part of our board meetings is saying goodbye to all these amazing folks. Um, but we appreciate their service very much. Um, so next it looks like we have public statements related to non-aggenda topics
028and we have um one person who uh we'll call that person first. Ro. >> Oh, more >> um Rohini Jotkar, >> go ahead. Thank you. >> Good evening, school district board members, teachers, and community. My name is Rohini. I'm a foster city parent with a seventh grader currently at Bowage and a college freshman who attended Bowage and San Mato High. I'm here to talk about technology use in our schools. And I'm here to start with a question. We would like to find out where our school district board stands on intentional use of technology within our schools. Here's where I'm coming from. Technology is integral to how we operate today. And our motivation is to keep our students safe and equip them with tools and education so that they can navigate technology successfully and also to
029put in place some guardrails to guard against excessive and inappropriate use. Our young ones depend on us adults for frameworks in everything um you know they operate in at home as well as at school. [clears throat] Technology is not an exception to this. Our technology use at school seems to be stuck at pandemic levels and it doesn't need to be like that anymore especially given mounting evidence of the harms of excessive technology use on our students physical and mental well-being. To this end, I have two asks. One, let's adopt a comprehensive digital literacy curriculum for our schools so that every student can develop the skills and the judgment needed to use technology in a healthy, safe, and responsible manner. The blueprint for this is in our backyard. Our high school district is implementing such a
030curriculum starting next school year. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics endorses adopting digital literacy at our schools and teaching it with the same importance we accord to all other subjects. My second ask is reduction in screen use at schools for school issued district in in devices. Let's bring back good old textbooks, papers and pen for grade levels and subjects where it makes sense. For personal devices, let's enforce a bell-to-bell ban on their use. Again, our high school district is leading the way. They're implementing this policy starting the next school year. My son went to San Mato High School straight out of the pandemic and frankly having a pioneering self device-free environment was a lifesaver. It reought his cohort human interaction. So enforcement is the key. For further inspiration, we have the LA school district which
031has put out sweeping measures to reduce screen usage in our schools and the surgeon general's office lately put out guidance as well to curb screen time use. So in our district we have a very motivated body of parents ready to work with you. We understand action starts at the school district level. Clearly across the nation there are now frameworks as well as examples of action and we believe the time to act is now. I'll end with the same question I asked. Where are we with our opinion on intentional use of technology within our schools and what do we want to do about this? Thank you. [applause] Thank you. And just as a reminder, we cannot respond to non-aggenda comments, but we do link um our commenters. Um the next person has uh comments, I believe,
032on both non-aggenda and agenda items. Um so I am asking this person just to focus for now on the non-aggenda items. Um Sandy Arata [applause] What's what's this about? It's just general comments. >> Okay. Sure. Okay. That's fine. Yeah. >> So, I am a parent from Fiesta Gardens and I have been there with kids for the last 11 years. Um, this has been a hard year with a move and a mid-year principal change, but I just wanted to share that the year is ending strong. We've worked really hard to beautify our new campus. My friends who have kids attending the middle school there are really happy. Um my last kid is graduating and I'm so proud of the amount of parent volunteers that are stepping up behind us and we continue to be a community
033who strives to hear from all the members. Um if anyone's free to come next Friday, we have our carnival with all of the dances. It's one of the best days of the school uh year for us. So we're excited about that. Um, and then unrelated, I just wanted to say that I have really noticed in the time that I've been in this district how much better the school lunches have become. Um, I remember hearing about plans to work on this program at a superintendent coffee chat a year or two ago and I just wanted to share that I've really seen that come to fruition with all these foods from different cultures and better quality and um, it's just very appreciated. Thanks, [applause] Um next um in general public statements related to agenda items persons will
034be called on at the appropriate time. Um next we have foundation and committee reports. Foundation. >> Good evening everyone. I'm Karina Wilhelms. I'm the executive director of the Sonteo Foster City Education Foundation. Um, I just wanted to give a few updates. We had our Harlem Wizards versus um, staff basketball game. I see some players in the audience. Um, it was on May 3rd. It was an amazing event. This is the first time that we have sold out the event. We had 850 people in the gym and it was so fun and we had so many families from across our district represented. Um, I wanted to say thank you to the teachers and the district staff who came out to play and to all the families who came to cheer them on. Um, it was a
035really wonderful feel-good event. Uh, save the date for next year. It's going to be Sunday, May 2nd from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. in the Aragon Gym and we would love to see you there. Um, I also wanted to just let everyone know that through our partnership with Camp Galileo, they have donated um, for maybe the third year in a row, 50 scholarships to Camp Galileo for students who couldn't normally attend a STEM camp. And Margarita and Claudia have been working really hard at the district office to assign kids from every campus spots in those summer camps. Um, we are working again this year with Gilead and Verata to do a school supply drive for our Title One schools. Um, so we are coordinating with the Title One principles to give their supply lists and quantities
036and um we're going to do a big day at Galileo's campus um in the late summer so that their employees can come and volunteer and do all the sorting. Last year it was like a lot of Ed Fund board members with all of our children um sorting. So we're excited to like welcome other people to do that with us and have employees feel good about what they've contributed. Um those look like Amazon wish lists that employees purchase and send to our district office for um title one schools. Um this came up a little bit earlier. Um David Chamblas was talking about project career map. Um we had our last Project Career Map field trip today. Um a few of us were there. It was a really special day. We went to Gilead. Um Project Career
037Map is a program where fifth to eighth graders across our district get to go to universities and industry locations and learn about STEM careers and get exposure to them. So they're not just learning about in the classroom, they're going and seeing people who look like them who are in STEM careers. and it is funded by a $500,000 grant from the Gilead Foundation. So, in our kind of capstone trip of the year, we went to Gilead today. Um, I want to thank Diego Perez who was coordinating it and Lori Fukamoto who was up here but has left. She that was her principal on special assignment job was to create the framework for this amazing program that we've had this year. Um, the kids got to see a campus tour of Gilead. They got to hear from
038a panel of six scientists um who were amazing. And the kids had probably there were probably 25 or 30 questions from the kids that were amazing. And then they got to go to stations and like build DNA with out of licorice and gummy bears and use pipets and dress in PPE. It was really amazing. Um, and I just want to thank Federico Pacheo who's our um, contact at the Gilead Foundation who like dreamt up and created this event that we will repeat in the future. Um, lastly, I just want to say we I'll report in the next our next June meeting what our final numbers are. But, um, in addition to the funding that we provide for programs across our district, we give money to each school principal to use at their own campus. And
039last year that was about $180,000. This year it's looking like it'll be closer to $250,000 that we'll get to distribute to our school principles to use in addition to their other funds. So, I just wanted to give that update. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you so much. Um are there any other committee reports? >> Oh yeah. Um, an update from the PTA council. Um, I'm going to go ahead and read this so I don't forget anything. Um, the district PTA council encouraged PTAs across the district to promote the math pathway survey as a way for parent and teacher voices to be part of the process. The district PTA will also be asking sites and principles if their current crossing guard coverage, both paid and volunteer, is adequate or if they will need more in preparation
040for the 2627 school year. >> Thank you. Um, next we have a uh if there are not any other committee reports. Okay. Um, I guess I'll talk or we can talk about um this earlier today. We had a meeting with the city of Sanonteo and they discussed some of the um projects that are upcoming. Um we uh for example they're I think creating an emergency response uh center at the King Center in North Central and so that is going to be um starting construction and um there have also been a lot of u discussions and improvements around pedestrian safety. So want to highlight that. And then um lastly um as part of this we are going to be superintendent oo and I are going to be pres making making a presentation at their meeting on
041June 1st in the evening. So um stay tuned. Um next we have updates from employee groups. We have SMFCA. Is that Fiesta Gardens I believe? Is that you all? Okay. >> [applause] >> Test test. Okay, good. Um, distinguished board members, Superintendent Choah. Uh, thank you for having us here tonight. Uh, my name is Dustin Mackis and I am the current principal at Fiesta Gardens International School. Uh, with me this evening are some of our fifth grade students. uh our emerging sixth graders and my assistant principal who's supposed to be up here with me right now [laughter] >> who will give you her name. >> Good evening. [applause] My name is Sandra Gonzalez and I am one of the assistant principles at Viesta Gardens. >> Thought I was going to let you slide with that one.
042I know. Um who has been a true partner with me on this journey of educational leadership. Um our students and I want to share a pledge uh before we begin and and they have some uh some experiences that they like to share with you all. Um so we're going to begin with that. >> Ready? Begin. Valencia. And what that trans [applause] and what that uh says in English is that I believe in myself and my ability to be respectful, responsible, and kind. I celebrate my intelligence and culture. I pledge to use this day to value knowledge over ignorance, to choose peace over [clears throat] violence, and to take care of ourselves, our school, and the earth. We say this every Monday as a whole school collective, and it's a pledge that we live by. >>
043[clears throat] >> Hi, my name is Misha Cortez and I would like to talk about my experience at Fiesta Gardens International School. I have been going to Fiesta Gardens since preschool. This is my eighth year with the school and I'm proud to be graduating in a couple of weeks. Fiesta Gardens has always been the best school because it's bilingual, has amazing teachers, staff, and principles that care and are always there to support you. [snorts] >> All right, there you go. >> Hi, my name is Aaliyah Kolientes and I would like to talk about Fiesta Gardens. My experience was that I had lots of fun during Carnival. My three favorite experience at Fiesta Gardens are the Fiesta feather shop, the Fiesta Espada Espana celebration, and the Gnaval event. [clears throat] The Fiesta Feather Shop is where
044you earn Fiesta feathers by following the three school rules. Make good decisions, be respectful, and solve problems. Then you can use your fiesta feathers to buy fun toys and snacks from the shop. The second thing I like is the fiesta espana celebration that happens at the beginning of school year. It's always fun and exciting where we all get together, friends and family to celebrate all the diverse cultures, food, music, dancing, and meeting new friends. Our third favorite experience is Garnavad. This is an end of the year celebration where each grade level does a different cultural dance and performs to everybody. [snorts] It's fun, unique, and a great way to end the school year. My favorite dance was lo machetes. And I know you are very busy, but we would like to extend an invite to
045you board members and the superintendent of Choa to Carnival uh this following Friday. It's a it's a big party. [laughter] Hi, my name is Elias and my favorite thing about Fiesta Gardens is that not only do we get to learn Spanish, but there are many fun programs and learning opportunities every year. One of my favorite subjects in school is the science is science. In fourth grade, I took an after school program called man science. This year in fifth grade, I got to work on a science project and display it at the science festival. The project was a hydraulic elevator and it was super fun to make. I also really like seeing other students projects. The science festival was has um vendors that come each year. This year there was a vendor from the Hillary Aviation
046Museum and they brought a fight simulator. It was really fun to fly the plane in the simulator. I want to become a pilot when I grow up. So, it was really inspiring experience for me. I'm grateful for Fiesta Gardens for having opportunities like the science festival to help us learn. [applause] Thank you so much to our students. Uh first and foremost, on behalf of Fiesta Gardens, I want to thank the board and the district for the support you have provided us this year. Uh from the implementation of the community school model to the enrichment activities, um sitebased support, communication, coaching, and the chance to work handinhand with district leadership, we are deeply grateful. Uh Fiesta Gardens is a truly one-of-a-kind school. Not only are students learning a second language through our dual immersion program, uh,
047but they are also part of a community focused school grounded in restored practices and strong relationships. Um, this year has brought a share of challenges and yet through it all we have continued to show up for our students. We have continued to provide a strong successful program. We have continued to elevate student voice, collaborate as a team and create spaces where our students show up, are seen and are supported. This year, we are proud to share that we have welcomed our first cohort of seventh grade students who will become our emerging eighth graders next year. That feels especially meaningful because as they enter their eighth grade year, they will also experience a brand new campus at Fiesta Gardens during the 2026 2027 school year. We are looking forward to new beginnings to continue to continued
048growth into the future of the Fiesta Gardens as a TK8. We are deeply grateful for the continued partnership that makes this work. Thank you very much. [applause] So, we're going to um technology if you can do the screen. I have a presentation here. And while we're waiting, I'm going to say good evening, Superintendent OOA, um, trustees, district staff, honored retirees, and community members. My name is Jaylen Chang, and I'm the proud principal of Bearsford Elementary School. With me tonight, I have student leaders Braden Barson, Sophia, Jonas, and Marco. Hi, I am Braden, fifth grade Bearsford Bear and athletic manager. And this year, Bearsford had its 100th birthday. We celebrated it with an exciting event, the Centennial Celebration. There were facts about the school's history, blueprints for the school, and outside there were tons of games.
049Once you completed all the games, you get a prize. We also got an inspirational video message from Dr. John Hauldron who is one of Bearsford's most distinguished alumni. Next slide, please. [laughter] Also, more recently, we took a whole school photo in the shape of a 100. This year was one of a kind and it marks a very important milestone in Bearsford's history. Thank you for listening. like please. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Buren and and I'm the other like manager at Bearsford. Each year we go on all school field trip. This year we went to Hidden Villa. Next slide, please. Different grades did different things. Well, everybody did the farm tour and looking at the animals while in the garden uh learning about the environment. Fifth grade went did a ropes course which was
050optional. So, if you didn't want to do it, you didn't have to. We all had fun and it was a great experience for everyone. Next slide, please. [clears throat] Hi, my name is Sophia and I'm the secretary of the Bears Food Student Body. I'm here to tell you about Bear Business. Bear business is a meeting we have every Monday morning. There we announce the special things we will do that week such as assemblies, fire drills, and field trips. We also say good morning in our native languages, present about important people from different cultures during the various heritage months, set our intentions for the week, say our school motto, and sing our school song. It's a great way for us to get together as a community, and celebrate our school, each other, and our different cultures.
051[snorts] But the thing that makes beer business really special is that it's run by the students. Next slide, please. Every week, different students run or present at Bear Business. It's great because everyone has the opportunity to if they want. It makes us feel included and helps kids get over stage fright. [snorts] Even my sister who's in TK did a slide for bear business. She talked about former Filipino President Korea Aino. When I ran bear business, I really liked it because it made me feel important to my school and I'm sure everyone else feels the same. Thank you for listening. Next slide, please. Hi everyone, my name is Jonas Sloy, the student body president at Bearshirt. Uh, I'm here to tell you about the new things we added to our school this year. But I'll first
052like to thank my principal, Miss Chang, for everything she's done for us this year. But um uh the new changes turned our school's gloomy outside playground uh with just concrete to a very vibrant playground with kiss with colors and turf. Also this year we installed new bathrooms that were a big change from the old. Next slide please. We also changed the area right outside the classrooms that was never used to learn and had no shade, no area to sit and the tables were dirty. But now it's a fun, calm learning environment with tables, turf, and lots of areas areas to sit for students to use on a daily basis. Next slide, please. Hello, my name is Marco Rubio and I'm the vice president of Beersford. We piloted project-based learning this year. Project-based learning is learning
053a topic, then creating something related. This is a different way of students learning and engaging with others by working in a team. Students also learn new skills over time with the different questions they have to answer. For example, we had to answer driving questions. Students get to use creativity, skills, and teamwork to create projects that we share with our community. Next slide, please. >> Nice. >> We all like project based learning because it was a different style of learning. For our first project, we got to describe ourselves and our ideas with art. We've been we made murals and shared them with our community. We are finishing our second project on natural disasters. We learned about specific natural disasters. We learned what natural disasters are, what to know, and how to prepare for them. Mr. Perez
054came in to teach us about PSAs, and then we created our own PSAs and a goback to share with our families and community. Next slide, please. >> As you can see, we had a great year at Bearsford. Please join us in seeing our [snorts] school motto. Take care of yourself, take care of others, and take care of the environment. >> Thank you for listening. [applause] >> Thank you so much, Um, next we have CSEA. >> Do we have it? And >> always, >> no pressure at all. >> Um, first I just want to congratulate all of our retirees. Um, slightly jealous you get to sleep in Monday through Friday, but we wish you all the best in your new adventure. >> [laughter] >> um I can't say for this whole meeting. So, I do want
055to thank the district. Uh later on in the agenda, you do have the reclassifications on there. Um we're grateful that the district works with us to fix these employees 1998. I won't be able to say that for too much longer. That's the good thing because we've been making really good progress on this. Um 1998 job descriptions um and also give them the pay that they deserve for the job that they're actually doing as opposed to what it was way back then. Um, good news is, uh, this year our HVAC person is also taking on solar, which is one of the reclasses. Um, you would have had to hire someone out to do that. So, when we costed it out, it was about a wash. So, all of those reclasses cost about the same as what
056you would have had to pay if you hired a solar person. So, congratulations on the savings. Um, and then my last bullet point says shenanigans. Um, I want to thank the district for putting up with us last week for classified school employee week. Appreciate all of you and I know you attempted. I saw your email. Um, all of you for participating in the job shadow event. I know someone mentioned the food being so much better. You can ask a couple people over there about the food. Actually, you can ask him too because he helped as well um firsthand. They were in there. They're making the food, serving the food. I think you may have done both. Uh, just thank you all. We did a pony ride along. It was great. Um, so because the district
057participated, we were, long story short, there's a whole room full of people that were not here last time. We, our chapter was picked by our association, our larger association to participate in what they call the ACE program. And it's um, basically us appreciating our classified employees. So, because they were so happy that you guys played along so well, they made you a plaque. Isn't that sweet? >> [laughter] >> So, I'm presenting this to you, sir. [applause] And I I have to give him some credit. He was in the office for like about an hour and a half doing attendance. Um, he then went and helped the child nutrition department prepare and serve food. He gave the doll nicknames. He had a lot of fun while he was over there. I believe he did lunch supervision
058as well. He was a trooper and it was quite the employee um morale boost. We even had calls from teachers that were like, "Hey, you guys should put them on the intercom. Hey, you guys should do this." So, it it was great. Thank you for participating and thank you all. Add on, but I'm going to uh for all you Foster City resident parents, Lisa, you're going to come up and talk in a minute. I know your son goes to this school. >> When Yes, I saw him uh right after lunch. But when your child needs to miss school, >> call the school, [laughter] say his name, then say your name, then tell us why he's missing school. [laughter] >> The job of these folks in the office trying to understand what these parents are saying
059on the phone is impossible. I uh poor Alicia had to had to watch me relisten to these voicemails like seven times before I could make heads or tails out of it. Um but we also um uh prepped about 400 meals at lunch. And um it really is something to see our teenagers uh come up and have four options that they feel good about and to be able to get something as others have mentioned that looks good on a plate and and feeds them. Uh and then I got to spend a few minutes with Reendra who is the custodian there at at Bowage and he's just an amazing person. He's our he's our savior. He stopped the fire three years ago and and we'll never for uh forget that he did that. but he's also just
060a positive force at that school. And um and uh yeah, please do this program again whether your your organization chooses you to or not. Just do it every single year. It's super important. Uh and thank you CSA classrooms. >> Yeah, I guess I guess now like maybe we need a teacher for the day. [applause] >> The teachers want you to come to rooms next. Sorry, I didn't even wait to be called up. Um, good evening. >> Good evening everyone, members of the school board, president, superintendent ooa, district staff and community members. My name is Lisa Fehey and I'm the president of the Samonteo Elementary Teachers Association. We are pleased to bring before the board a tenative agreement that has been ratified by our teachers. This agreement includes a raise and dependent healthc care coverage. It
061is a monumental accomplishment and it was achieved through a mutually respectful negotiation process. We're grateful for the collaborative approach that made this possible and appreciate the district's commitment to supporting our educators and their families. You may have noticed certificated employees are wearing a new badge that says, "I'm here." This badge is our symbol to the community and our students that we are a safe person to discuss LGBTQ plus issues. This is especially relevant as we move into June and Pride Month, and it represents our ongoing commitment to ensuring every one of our students feels supported and valued. As we approach the final nine days of the school year, we're grateful for the partnerships and progress we've made together, and we are wishing our entire community a restful summer. Thank you. >> [applause] >> We'll just
062take a quick pause for like a minute or two in case people would like to excuse themselves. Thank you so much. Are you still awake? You're not tired yet? >> Have a good night. I don't like. [clears throat] [laughter] >> All right. Um, next we have announcements. Do we have any announcements by board members? Not a real announcement, but since uh we brought up that June is LGBTQ Pride Month, I also wanted to acknowledge while we're in May, happy Asian-American Native Hawaiian Pacific Island heritage month, happy Jewish American Heritage Month, happy mental health awareness month, and happy Eid to all those who celebrate. >> Thank you. Any other announcements by board members? >> No. Okay, great. Um uh Superintendent OA, did you have anything else beyond the retirement? No. Okay. All right. Next, we will
063move to the proposed consent agenda. Do we have any uh would any of the board members like to pull any items? I think um I would like to make a motion to pull for B1 since I see that we have a number of um comments here. Um is there are there any other items that people would like to request? No. Um okay. [clears throat] So okay. Um, next, if would would anyone else in the audience like to pull any consent agenda items? Okay, I don't see anything else. Um, Joe, can we check online? >> Yes. Uh, there was one raised hand, but it's not there any longer. We'll continue to monitor. >> Okay, great. >> U sorry, the people on Zoom are saying that chat is disabled. Joe, um can we check on the Someone
064is saying that um people on on the Zoom are saying that chat is disabled. >> Oh yes, we typically don't enable the chat. Okay. So, I would like Okay, I think we could just um announce to the folks online that if they would like to make a request to pull an item, they can do so by raising their hand and announcing what um and they will be called on. And then also when we get to any item that requires public comment, we will also have another opportunity to um raise their hand. Let me see if there are any raised hands. Give it a couple a moment. >> Still no raised hands. >> Okay, then we will move on. Um yeah, >> motion to approve the consent agenda minus 4B >> 11. >> Thank you. Trust
065>> Thank you, Trusty Proctor and Trustee Kim. All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> Okay, we will move to item 4 B11. um which is the RB1 it's is the approval of personal report new hires and assignment changes. Um so I pulled this one because we have received a number >> we had [snorts] just another item. So >> okay >> is it the same one? >> It's the same item. >> Okay. Um I want to Okay. Sorry. We got we received a number of emails about this agenda item and I believe there are a number of um requests to address the board of trustees. And so I just wanted to I guess um ask some clarifying questions perhaps. I mean I know this is you know um a more sensitive matter because it
066involves confidential HR processes. Um but um I want you know I expressed to some folks that had reached out to the board of trustees my kind of um position on the subject. And so I wanted to open up the space for for folks to also add their comments um if they wanted to. Um, do we have any board clarifying questions on this matter that we may want to address? No. Okay. Or do you Okay. Um, okay. So, I guess I will just open it up to public comment at this time. Um, and I'm just going to be going in order of last alphabetically last name. So, first we have Isabella Cabrera. >> [snorts] [applause] >> Good evening everyone. My name is Isabella Cabera, fifth grader from Fiesta Gardens International School. Thank you. I just want
067to say thank you the Torto. I really appreciate everything that you do for us and our school. We are so lucky to have you. [applause] Thank you. Next we have Abigail Haro Aaro. Hello, my name is Abigail June. What? [gasps and laughter] Okay, I'm going to be talking about my experience at Fiesta Gardens and how much I like Mac. I started at F I started at Fiesta in preschool. I am now in first grade with my step at the Dto Mac is my favorite Dto out of all of the three I had have had ded Mac has been very strong these past years helping our school I am [sighs and gasps] happy about Mac thank you and that's >> [applause] [applause] >> Next. Um, Selena, >> sorry. Uh, Selena Martinez Mac. Hello. Good evening, uh,
068board of trustees for the opportunity to voice my opinion and concern regarding the appointment of Mr. Dustin Demacus as principal at FGIS. [snorts] Um, my son is Zuben. He's in first grade in Master Pay's class and my daughter will be attending a first um, TK. So I consider myself new to the PTA school engagement and um the polit political atmosphere here. Um I wanted to be represented uh and so that's why I'm been so engaged um volunteering my time and getting to build trust with the community. Um, I do work as a patient advoc advocate and I bring a racial equity lens and something that's very important to me. Like everyone else here, I feel the same about FGIS is a very special place and I'm privileged to be a part of the community. However,
069I am uh deeply concerned about uh the political power and who has voice and who does not and and who who gets qualified and who's not and what what who gets measured and what the metrics are and when the goalposts are moved and >> [sighs] >> Like folks here, I want what's best for students, teachers, staff, and parents and community. I know folks trust Mr. Kamakus as as do I. And um that's that's significant and um I've built trust with him over over the last year and I know that he is deeply wellliked and trusted. However, I know it's a point to bring about what happened on Thursday. Was it Thursday, Tuesday? And um the qualifications of Dr. Morales and um what happened in her career that left a stain on everybody's mind. Uh but
070I also feel like >> we did not give her a chance as well to build that trust. And um I was really upset last night about the appointment because it brings about um the clarity of the future and I feel that the qualifications how much time do I have? Yeah. I feel like coming to the school and representation and speaking the language, coming from the top does matter and seeing that reflection and that being principal is not a popularity contest and that I want success for the school, but I al also want clarity about what is going to happen about the future of the school and being represented in the language. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next we have Cynthia Munos. [clears throat] >> [clears throat] >> I'm sorry. After school program, >>
071[clears throat] >> Gardens. importos. forgo. Latinas, Coach Mac. Gardens, Latinos, international Aliesta Gardens. [applause] They gave me a translated version, but I'm going to be reading and scoring it while I'm reading it. Dear members of the board, we write to you today with hearts full of gratitude and also with pride in being a united community. We sincerely want to thank the district for listening to us by confirming Dustin Demakus Mach as our principal for the upcoming school year. You have shown us that the voices of Fiesta Gardens families truly matter. Our school has gone through difficult times. We have had to change campuses, face construction projects, and adapt to many changes with very little support from the district. In the middle of that uncertainty, Mack was the only one who truly stepped up for us.
072He not only took on the role, but also brought us together, motivated us, and restored our confidence. Latino families are part of the driving force of this school and our parent volunteers are always ready to help work and support whatever the school needs. When we learned that MAC was going to transfer schools and that the school would be taken in a a direction that caused distrust, we felt a great frustration. However, that concern united us even more and encouraged us to raise our voices. Today, we're grateful that the district reconsidered and respected the feelings of our community. And with Mac's return comes the stability that our children and families so greatly need. We want to reiterate that as Latino families, Mac has our full and unconditional support just as he has had since the very
073first day. We are ready to continue working hand in hand with him for the future of Fiesta Gardens. We were heard and we will continue to remain present, united, and ready to defend the education and well-being of our children and our community. Sincerely, Latino families of the Fiesta Gardens International School. [applause] >> Thank you. Next, we have Dana. >> Sai, that's good. [applause] >> Uh, good evening trustees. My name is Dana Yates Sahai and I'm speaking as a parent of a fifth and third grader at Fiesta Gardens International School. I want to begin by acknowledging that serving this community is not easy. I appreciate all the work that you do. I appreciate staff that was communicative with me over the weekend over a long holiday weekend and they were very responsive and I I appreciate
074that. Our school is made up of families of different experiences, different needs, and different experiences. I also understand the importance importance of making space for every voice, including those that may not feel comfortable speaking in a room like this tonight. I've heard from members of the board that there are additional perspectives within the community that is that are not being represented publicly. If those voices are shaping decisions, then I ask that those concerns be shared transparently with the broader community in an effort to foster understanding both of one another and of the decision-making process. I respect those voices as much as I respect every voice in this room. Please don't keep information from us. Please share it. We strive every day to understand each other's viewpoints. We may stumble, but we learn. Let's learn from
075the events this week. I understand how inter interview interview panels work, and I hope you as elected board members know how public sentiment works. We were let down once before by the district hiring process, and we feared that we were going to be let down again. That's human nature and I hope you understand that good leaders acknowledge feelings and make decisions based on facts. Great leaders also take the time to explain those decisions so others may understand what they didn't understand previously. Please listen to us with an empathetic ear and respect for what we've experienced. The decision you make tonight might not be for the long term, but it's right for right now. Fiesta Gardens families care deeply about this school, and so do our teachers and our staff. We are engaged. We are paying
076attention. We are listening to you and especially to each other. My hope moving forward is that we have at least a year of continued momentum so that we can focus on classroom learning and learning alongside each other as a community. again. I hope you guys can make it to Carnival. [applause] Next, we have Heather Wnik. [applause] I think the previous speakers have said it better than me, so I'm just going to say thank you for listening to us. Um, I am going to get a little emotional because it has been a really rough couple of years and we've had so many meetings at our school. We've talked to each other. We've talked to each other in the halls. We talk to each other all the time. We are there together and we want you to
077see that that we are a unified community. Yes, we understand there are different opinions. We're we're we're not going to please everyone and that's okay. But we are here together and we're here to thank you for listening to us this week. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Are there any other public comments in the audience? Okay. Um Joe, can we check online for public comment? >> Yes, President Trin, I have one raised hand. Anthony Roach. Okay, go ahead. >> Anthony, please go ahead. >> Hi, are you able to hear me? >> Yes. >> Great. Thank you. Hey, I'm reading this on behalf of my wife who wasn't able to attend right now. Um, so I've been a parent at Fiesta Gardens since 2017, but my history with the school goes back many years. My mother taught
078at the school for 17 years, and during that time, I often volunteered in her classroom. I've been a room parent almost every year and I served the PTA board for two years. So, I know the school well and understand how it operates. It's a wonderful diverse community and like all schools, the parents and staff care deeply about the students. The superintendent and the board have heard from many parents and other community members about the challenges and significant changes our school has experienced over the past few years. I would like to remind you all that unless you have your own children at the school and have experienced these challenges and changes firsthand, you cannot fully understand and appreciate how all of this has impacted not only our students but our teachers as well. So when it
079came time to hire a new principal, you can imagine imagine the various feelings that came out during the whole process. I'm bothered by some of the comments made by the board in their responses to parents concerns. And while I try to assume the best intentions, I respectfully remind the board that while we are parents and most of us are not district employees, that doesn't mean we don't understand the hiring process. Many of us understand because we've been part of interview panels like myself and many us many of us work in education also like myself. Our frustration was not due to how the hiring process played out, but rather the apparent lack of vetting that took place when reviewing applicants for the site principal position. I also want to clarify clarify a glaring misconception. Just because
080we are thrilled that the director Mack is going to be our principal next year, that doesn't for a moment mean that we don't want a bilingual principle. I resent that some of the board believes that this is not what we want. Having a strong leader with a clear vision for a school outweighs a candidate who is bilingual yet comes with unsettling professional track record. Our school deserves better and more importantly our kids deserve better. >> Thank are you um just want to make sure you're done with your remarks. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Thanks very much, [applause] Joe. Are there any other raised hands online? >> There are none. >> Okay, great. Um, I will then open it up to the board or do we have any other Okay, just making sure. Um, do
081we have any board comments on this matter? Okay. Um I also have no other comments beyond what I've already um shared with folks who have reached out to me. And so at this point we will ask for a motion. [snorts] >> Motion [clears throat] to approve. >> Second. Thank you, Trusty Proctor and Trusty Kim. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. Motion um is passed 5-0. Um okay, next we will go to Oh, do we we can take a brief pause if anyone wants to excuse me. [applause] while uh we take this short pause. I was able to um we got special clearance to see the new facilities uh Dustin and I yesterday and it's very cool. It's It's still under construction and there's lots of rusty nails and it's not super safe
082to be out there yet, but we think probably in about four weeks members of the board will get a uh an invite to go out there. I mean, it was Yeah. stood out. >> Love the PG windows. Thank you, Patrick. um for members of the board about 3 [clears throat] months ago, Patrick called me and said, "I don't like the windows facing um Humber. I'm really worried that these classrooms are going to be too dark." And me knowing construction um the way it goes, he and I arm wrestled over this for about a week on phone calls and text messages. He wanted to do a change and make the windows bigger, but I was worried that it would delay the project. So, I mean, I went kicking and screaming saying no. And I have the
083receipts to prove it, but he and I went over there and it does look a lot those windows look awesome when you're inside those classrooms. So, you got your way, Patrick. And it turns out it was actually a good idea. Anyway, just some chitchat while people filed out. Thank you, Dustin. We'll see you. Joanne, since they're still filing out and Stacy's not here, Joanne and I spoke for 20 minutes the day that I interviewed because Allison, if you remember, you you had us in all these different stop. You had us in all these different uh like they put us in all these different rooms and there was this one part of the day where I I I just stood there and the search consultants like didn't know I was there. So I walked over and
084saw her and she said, "Who are you?" I said, "I think I'm your new boss." She goes, "Oh, are you one of those people? You're really dressed up." And we just sat there and she told me her whole life story >> and I know yours, too. >> And we're like best friends. Anyway, we miss you. >> Okay, we will now move on to um 5A, notice of public hearing, local control accountability plan, 2026, 2027. and I will gavvel. Oh, okay. Uh, we will gave in the meeting at 7:22. And are there any inerson comments? Joe, can we check online for public comment? >> Yes, checking. There are no raised hands. >> Okay. Any board comments or questions? Okay. Well, uh we will close the hearing at 7:23. Okay. Um do do we do any >>
085All right. Okay. Um public hearing. [snorts] We'll conduct a public hearing on the 2026 to 2027 budget. We'll open the hearing at 7:23. Any inerson comments? >> Joe, can we check online, please? >> Yes. Checking. There are no raised hands. >> Okay, we will do we have any board comments or questions? Okay. No, we will close the hearing at 7:24. Um then we will open the hearing for the 2026 fund balance in excess of the minimum reserve level. Are there any inerson comments? No. Joe, can we check online, please? >> Yes. Checking. No raised hands at the moment. >> Okay. Any board questions or comments? [laughter] Okay. We'll close the hearing at 7:24. All right, moving on to 6A. Initial review of the 2026 2027 LCAP. >> All right, good evening. Uh David Chamblas from
086education services. I'm quickly trying to share my screen with you. All right. Yes. So, um this is uh the first in a two-step dance we're going to do over the next month where uh we bring to you uh the um proposed local control accountability plan for next year 2026 27. Um this uh proposed LCAP has um as noted in the item received substantial feedback and input from a huge variety of community and and staff groups. And so we bring it tonight for your initial review um and discussion with the plan to take that um uh discussion and and potential feedback in into the next draft of the LCAP and bring it back to you on June 25th for discussion or excuse me for approval. Let me um take a few minutes just to um as
087I do each year to kind of guide you through uh you know kind of just the major chunks of the LCAP. Um, importantly for our families and community, um, Patrick will go into much more detail about this in the next item, but um, there's a broad overview of the budget and funding um, streams, um, that are behind, um, the LCAP and and the the district spending in general. Uh, it's an it's a useful two to three page primer on on, um, the the district's budget. Um beyond that um there is um then a section that where we describe um the engagement of educational partners um in the uh again both in the kind of feedback on how 202526 actions have um impacted our students and supported our families. um and also then you know looking
088at the um variety of um recommendations that come from our our stakeholders. This this section basically just kind of summarizes the various meetings. Um I mean it was truly an exceptional year this year because all of the visioning work the strategic visioning work was really you know a opportunity to get feedback and input on where we want to go as a district. So um we have incorporated that process as considering it truly as as part of the engagement that's informing the LCAP. Um a little further on in the LCAP is um various goal areas. Goal one of course as aligned with our strategic plan is about um is about academic achievement. Goal two is about wellness. Um and goal excuse me goal two is about equity and goal three is about wellness. Each section is
089broken down and I'll I'll briefly go through each goal area. There's a variety of um data um where we measure and report results um that um covers you know just a tremendous amount of different kinds of data that we look at to understand the progress we're making um as a district. Um and that heads that's the beginning of each goal area. So I invite people to spend some time looking at that and making sense of where we're we are making great progress and where you know we are are not yet making great progress. Um then below the data are these uh sections that are called goal analysis and this is really the reflection on where we what we did this year. We talk about um how did the spending go compared to what was planned.
090um we we talk about uh obviously the proposed changes for 20 uh in the actions for 26 27. So it's kind of a just an opportunity to to to see the internal thinking um that we've uh done in in engaging with our stakeholders. And then the the kind of the final section in each goal area is the proposed actions for next year itself. Um so um this one that I'm displaying right now is obviously goal one and it talks about the various actions we take on behalf of um academic achievement um including some that you know you'll note here that we are dropping for next year um and some of the changes that we are making um and switching to this section this is the same set of actions for goal two our equity work
091um and what is the funding that's associated with each of those actions. And then finally, there's goal three. Um that is our wellness section, and that outlines the um intended activities for next year and the funding behind them. Um just finally, because it's a it's a piece that a lot of folks don't necessarily have clarity on, there is at the very end of the LCAP this section that talks about red dashboard indicators um and direct actions. And that that is just you know that is a a compliance requirement from the state. Um they set a um a requirement that we look at where we were in 2023 and each year we talk about what are the actions that are addressing either the student groups uh well it's always uh student groups but it's in a
092variety of areas where there's chronic absenteeism >> [snorts] >> um English language arts English learner progress etc. districtwide and then also um you'll note there within um various schools. So um you know it's we do it in a chart format because it's just extremely difficult to pay attention to the different groups and also um attach what action is being taken to address um that performance from 2023. It has not changed from 2023 in the last several years. Uh it's just it was just a specific requirement of that year and it's it's lived on. Likely you will not see this in next year's LCAP. My understanding is that um it will take a slightly different form going into next year. And with that um uh President Trin, I turn it back to you for questions and
093discussion. >> Thank you. Do any board members have questions about this very long document? >> [sighs] >> clarifying questions. Okay. Um, okay. [clears throat] Let's see. Um, I think I don't know. I guess I'm um appreciate all of the team's work in putting this together. Um, and guess I'll open it up to see if there's any public comments in the audience. >> No. Joe, can we check online, please? >> Um, checking. There are no raised hands. President Tren. >> Okay. Thank you. Okay. Do we have any comments before we vote on this or is this a voting item? Sorry. >> No, it's just for >> Okay, it's just for Okay. just for our information. Okay. Any that's it. Okay. Thank you so much. Um that was very detailed. [laughter] Okay. Next we will go to
094uh the presentation of the 2026 2027 budget adoption draft. >> Thanks everybody. Uh you're you're going to chuckle at this, but um this week Joe I told him to expedite a new laptop for me because my laptop has been kind of grinding away here. So I'm going to try and share my screens and hopefully it shows up. >> Sounds like a lawn mower. >> Yeah. No, it's actually [laughter] it's whining. All right. Thanks everybody. Um and thanks to Blanc and the team for putting this information together for us. Um just a couple comments. want to appreciate the comments that our SMU president said earlier tonight about the monumental agreement we came up with. So, we're really proud of that and the collaborative work that we did together to um to come to that agreement and
095we've incorporated uh into your budget into the multi-year projections uh the concertive estimate of what that impact is. Uh we also have me too language with our CSEA partners and we've had very constructive and collaborative and respectful negotiation sessions with our CSEA team as well as a session we had today which was a great session. So woven into your budget is the um the impact of uh those agreements what our anticipated impact is um and I'll walk you through the slides in a few minutes too. Um some of the information we shared in the narrative with you too was um we just uh when we produced this information for you was prior to the actual school services presentation which gave us a little more in-depth information. I forward you copies of all those slides. Uh
096on a positive note um we believe that the special ed revenue that's been coming our way is going to be in excess of $3 million a year. So on a multi-year perspective that's another nine plus million dollars that's woven into your financial picture. Um, we also have uh the professional development block round. We believe that's in excess of $8 million and can be used for a variety of purposes and we talked about that with the teams. Um, and we know that'll be a positive impact which is not yet breathed into your uh budget as of yet. Um, and once the budget becomes finalized, we'll incorporate that into your into your budget document. And it's likely by first interim because when the state budget's adopted between the time that that's adopted, when you adopt your budget,
097um we will uh incorporate that more than likely in first interim. Um there's also some learning recovery emergency block grant funds close to a million dollars. That's another positive impact for us too. And each year when we go through our closing the books because what's brought forward to you tonight is based on a conservative estimated actual amount that we expect in terms of revenues and expenditures. And our trend and our history in this district has been in the neighborhood I'd say conservatively about a $7 million variance annually. So I expect your ending fund balance this year beginning fund balance next year is going to be about another $7 million on the positive. So when we talk about your uh the components of the ending fund balance which we have to disclose um there will be
098additional revenues from the special ed revenue some additional revenues as well from my when we close the books this year which will be positive when we look at our our balances. Okay we take that into consideration too when we talk about um the overall budget and we've incorporated into here for you too in our narrative um what we anticipate in terms of expenditure reductions over a period of years. We've itemized those for you by year in terms of um what those dollar amounts are and in terms of um uh categories as well too. So I'll walk you through some of that information as well in the slides. Okay, let me try see just one minute. Okay, this just shows you where we're at in the cycle. Estimated axles are adopting the budget that we'll bring
099back to you in June for adoption and um we'll bring that back to you in in June. Okay. All right. highlights we talked too about we what we budgeted our propert is at 4% we're about trending about 3.7 you know that this year I seen some information too we saw for the first time my career these fluctuations and the property tax growth so we at the last CBO meeting in the county they they brought forward the team we're talking about that so but conserve we got 4% for the upcoming year 2627 5% for 2728 and 4% for 2829 special ed expenditures we're continue to see those expenditures rise but we also called out for you Here we're raising the statewide base rate to 1340 per ADA. So that $340 per ADA time 9,300 ADA gets
100you to about in excess of $3 million a year and a cumulative $9.3 million I think it's what it's coming out to expansion of TK we're to see expansion in TK right and again we don't get funding for that. the uh other information in the state budget too. Really quickly, there was um this kind of um hybrid cola. Um there's some additional funding that districts are receiving the LCFF which we're not going to receive which is going towards um pregnancy leaves. So that's a cost we're going to uh incur and I think it's a positive thing that's happening but it's just it's not a funding stream we're going to receive. the uh CYBHI initiative, we have incorporated an estimated amount what we'll see in the form of revenue from that, but it's a conservative estimate
101at this point. And as we work with our teams on the process um and answering questions that folks have uh we expect that this will be a solid source of revenue for us for the years to come because just reimbursing us for services that we provide and um the district is the billing entity that um is responsible for generating that revenue. Okay. Okay. Staffing reductions. We've itemized this. We've called this out in terms of what um the uh expenditure staffing reductions look like for the different fiscal years and we budgeted just a round number as well too of a $4 million amount in both 2728 and 28 and 29. So between now and 2728 there's a lot of time some of these positive things I talked about the special ed expenditure revenue that hasn't wasn't
102factored into this. So these numbers are we're going to work with these numbers together but conservatively put this number into the budget for uh for our community to see. Um and again we've got in here too we've got we've been able to offer our employees both salary and benefit increases which we think is again monumental and we're really pleased with the work we did together and we're just sharing with everybody too that's we are looking at efficiencies in our budget moving forward. Uh we're going to be uh good stewards of the our public funds at a at a meeting we had with the community the other evening. Well, last it was last night. >> A lot of folks were asking questions about the budget and revenues and um and what we're doing to manage uh
103funds. So, again, this is just in line what we do already, but it just highlighted something we need to continue to do uh to maintain our outstanding credit rating, which we have currently. Right. >> And and Patrick, you and I have talked about this for, you know, the last year or so. Um normally I wait until you're done, but I have given you a heads up. When this issue comes up, I'm always each time we present our budget, I'm going to um make a version of this remark because it's important that the community hear it. Um that it not be um kind [clears throat] of swept under the rug or thought of as not really clear or not really important. Um, but as you'll hear tonight, the school board is going to be presented with
104a draft vision uh document that was created by essentially members of our school district who represent our school district, every single school uh major huge voice in the process. And that vision sounds different than how a lot of our schools operate right now. And that's exciting. and it'll require the school district to bring down costs that we currently incur and open new positions that don't exist yet. It'll cause us here at the district office to make reductions in the number of administrators that work here going into the 2728 school year. And it'll require people in this room and also outside this room on the administrative side to do different work in some cases add on whole other parts of jobs and it'll create changes in the system. Um but the goal is really high and
105the ceiling is really high and the possibilities that exist there. Um, if you go back the last 5 years, we've had very few layoffs. We've had, you know, I think this year we had a partial position and, you know, the year before, maybe one and a half. I mean, when you just do a Google search on San Francisco Bay Area school district cuts or layoffs, you'll get a laundry list of school districts that have made really, really big cuts. and our I think the strength of our relationship with our labor partners and the efficiency of the way the team manages the district's long-term financial outlook has essentially made it possible for us not to make those kind of huge cuts which has been a blessing but that is going to change. We will recommend to
106the board layoffs in a number that is really different than we have had in the last 5 years. And part of the reason for that is because we are making such big programmatic changes. We are aiming at a new target in as part of our new community strategic plan. And also we have fewer students in the school district. And so that's going to feel different. this room a year from now is going to have large numbers in attendance because reductions and layoffs affect real people and it's very difficult. But we have a very strong and clear and um ethical plan to facilitate these layoffs and these reductions. Um, and it'll really begin the process um, at the end of November after we have developed the new actions and strategies for your um, proposed community strategic
107plan. And then from there, it'll be about a six-month process where our human resources department, our business department, my department work collaboratively to set up a um a really transparent, clear, fair process to move forward the kind of reductions that we need to make. And the bigger part of of why we do that is because the community gets this huge benefit from having a school district that has really solid finances. finances that are clear and um and reserves that are going to last the three years that we build our budget for. Um and and we believe that um that is going to continue to be true, but it [clears throat] will require uh financial discipline. And in the future in our in our upcoming schoolboard meetings, I won't give this long of a description, but
108I'll give a version of this every single time because I really want the community to see the connection between our goals and the voice of our community members. This community strategic plan is not my plan. It has been developed by 45 deeply invested community members, students, parents, and staff. Um and and it's going to make a huge difference in education, but it is going to require some changes that we're not used to as a governance team and that the community is not used to seeing. Um and that works ahead of us. It'll be difficult, but it will be worth it 100%. So, I'll pass it back to you. >> Thank you so much, Superintendent. Just walk through a couple more bullet points in here, too. uh what we've have incorporated into the budget, we also
109had a 42 is that uh we have a partial tax measure V which is going to expire during this multi-year uh budget that we presented to you uh just for budgetary purposes. We show that it renews. If it's not to renew, we we've highlighted for you the number of people that it funds currently. Um and we have had some folks talk to us about their eagerness to um get involved in this process when it is uh when it's up for renewal. Uh so that's just highlighting what the impact is for you. Okay, these budget assumptions you've seen uh time and again the presentations it highlights for you the colas, the FTEES, our ADA uh expenditure increases based on stepping and column our statutory stirs and pers uh rates. So we've we've highlighted that for everybody
110too. Um we've highlighted the property tax growth weight, what's happening with federal and state revenue, um our lottery dollars, and we did have some conversations with some of the community members last night. I'm planning on putting something together which is answering where's all the lottery money going. So we're going to highlight for us I'm going to work with you too David on on the restricted portion of lottery. So we'll we'll highlight for people. So this captures for you what the partial tax amounts are and what our RM routine restricted maintenance requirements are for a percentage perspective. Okay. And then again these slides for you as well shows you total revenues and expenditures, our beginning fund balance, our ending fund balance. Um and then on the budget general fund revenue side, it breaks it down for
111your local state revenue uh or LCFF sources and other sources. Okay. And then it breaks down for your total expenditures in each of the categories, salaries, benefits, etc. books and supplies. Um on the multi-year projections combined, it shows you each of the respective years 26 27 27 28 28 29 and uh we're shown in an overall deficit in 2627 2728 that's diminished and then in 2829 we show there's not a deficit in the combined budget. Okay. And then we also show on your unrestricted fund balance what those balances are on the unrestricted side for each of those years. the components of the ending fund balance in restricted, committed, etc. Okay? And what our total unrestricted general fund balances are. And then we show you what the adopted fund adopted budget is for our other funds
112in each of those respective uh in each of those funds, revenues and expenditures, what we anticipate the ending balance to be for each of those funds. Okay. And again, the final note, this is just it's sharing with you where we're at in the process and what is what is prepared based on. We'll bring back information in June. If there's any other changes, we'll incorporate it into June. And again, I believe that what we'll likely do for some of these other sources I talked about at the beginning of the presentation is um is incorporate that for the first term as well as what the uh our our audited financial information is too. We'll we'll share with our actual uh balances are at the end of the year. Okay. And thanks to the superintendent for your comments
113as well. >> Thank you. Um, does the board have any clarifying questions on this report? No. Okay. Do we have any public comment in the audience? Um, looks like no. Joe, can we check online for public comment, please? >> Thank you, President Tran. There are no raise hands at the moment. >> Okay, thank you. Um let's see. Um okay, well since this is just um anformational um thanks very much. >> Okay, >> next we have um receive information of the 2026 2027 fund balance in excess of the minimum reserve level. Yeah, thank you. And this is again just um these numbers align with the information you just saw on the other slide in terms what your ending fund balance is going to be and we're required to disclose what those components of the ending fund
114balances are. Um and so this form pres presents to you um that information what the in the general fund um what um those dollar amounts are for the adopted budget and again what the ending fund balance are in excess of the 3% economic uncertainty reserve. what those items are. Um and so uh we have this additional 3% reserve. Um you have in your board policy reserve for economic uncertainties. We have a set aside for election costs. We have a reserve amount related to payroll. Um and again a reserve for vacation payout and revolving cash. Um and that adds up to about $10 million on the unrestricted side. Okay? So that added to your 3% gets you to this overall uh $17 million. Again, this is just an information. I'm showing you the breakdown of those
115dollar amounts. And again, when we when we incorporate the revenue from the special ed revenue into this of the $3 million that will increase this um amount, we'll have to call that out. And again, when we close the books and I expect we'll be somewhere in the, you know, $67 million range. That will add to this balance as well. And that will likely go straight back to this reserve for payroll. So, >> okay. Again, just an information item for you. Thank you. Um, does the board have any clarifying questions on this? No. Any public comment in the audience? >> No. Uh, Joe, can we check online, please? >> Yes. No raised hands at the moment. >> Okay. Thank you. Well, since it looks like no one else uh has additional comments, we will thank you
116for this report and move on to the next item. Good evening, board of trustees and superintendent OOA. I'm excited to give you an update on school construction um for the spring of 2026. I will share my screen. Hey, so an update on our two different bond measures. We have measure X that we're down to the last 2% that is being spent on the new Fiesta Gardens expansion and the measure T bond. We're about 75% spent on the 409 million. We just had an excited exciting ribbon cutting at Bowage last week. uh we were able to celebrate uh the different facilities that we opened up during the the school year. So we had 18 classrooms. We then had the library and counseling building and then uh the final milestone was the gym that we officially opened
117with the ribbon cutting. We are not done yet. So, we have uh phase four, which is bidding next week, which is going to be tearing down the old academic core, and then we'll build the outdoor courts, um move some portables around and build an a U14 turf field on the north side of the campus. Fiesta Gardens is in progress. Um we'll be moving into classrooms for the next school year with the gym completing later on in the fall. We have a huge paving maintenance scope that is occurring this summer at Ottabon, Bayside, and Baywood. And then restroom renovations are continuing at um many campuses this summer. our facilities master plan um that was passed by you in January, but just as an update, we're over a billion in need and we have an immediate priorities
118list of about 524 million included in that is the hund mill the hundred million for workforce housing. At the next meeting, we'll be bringing back to you the resolution that you did review a draft of um earlier this year. um that would be being able to then place a ballot on the November 2026 election. Here's some great drone footage of the new Bowage campus, the library that we were able to tour. Some of you guys are in these pictures from our tour. Just want to point out the beautiful nice daylighting that is in all of our new spaces. Uh the gym, this is this was taken a few days before we opened it, so there is still some construction uh material up. Um but this gym is getting used non-stop by the school now that
119it's open. Here's a [clears throat] view on the outside. So right outside where I uh where this picture is being taken is where the future basketball courts will be to the north and then um the new uh the new turf field. Fiesta Gardens expansion. This photo is being taken in one of the two courtyards that are being built outside the new classroom wing. And the building um that this is being shot at is the new gym. Some shots inside the classroom. So, we already have whiteboards going up, the rooms painted, uh tackables going in. So, these rooms are really getting ready for us to start moving in furniture this summer. um Parkside is we had a ribbon cutting um back in February. So, here's some shots of the multi-purpose room and then the new courtyard
120that we were able to build for their adolescent um grade levels turf and paving here at Burell. We've done work over multiple multiple years, but we are finally complete with the scope there. Um, so we have some new drone footage that we completed the upper um, play area and you can really see now on how their um, athletics area is tiered and we built um, new ramp and stairs with viewing areas and benches um, for the kids uh, for during PE and lunch. This is a sidewalk. Um if you've ever been over at Sonteo Park, you might have uh seen the old um asphalt sidewalk that the trees had created um some enormous tripping hazards. So that was removed during uh the spring and a beautiful new sidewalk um was just poured and new trees
121and landscaping here. It really has made a difference in the curb appeal of the school. Some budget updates. So as measure X the last project is Fiesta Gardens North um that bond sale was 28.8 million um the project the budget is at 36. So the difference in that um for those funds to complete the project is being funded through developer fees and fund 40 on measure T. Uh we're still not ready to do our final bond sale, which is um we're calling it series D. I estimate that we'll probably be in the summer of 27 uh maybe into the fall, but with the projects that are happening right now, um we don't uh need those funds right away. Ongoing projects now that we're um we really are about ready to open. Well, we opened the
122last Measure T building, which was the gym at Bowage. Now, we're completing flooring replacement, restroom upgrades, um turf and paving. So, we've um completed all the buildings that we set out to do. Um we still have 10.4 million uh not allocated for projects. And so, uh, at this point and with our our new master plan, we'll be looking to see, um, after you take a look at that resolution at the next meeting and if there is going to be a bond, um, on the ballot in November to look at how we want to spend that 10.4 million. Thank you. And I'll give it back to you, uh, President Tren for any questions. >> Thank you. Do we have any clarifying questions on this report? Um I had a couple well one I guess um it's
123on two slides though so it's the same question but I was wondering if um you could talk a little bit more about the highlighted amounts that say funds not received and what that's about and what will happen once those are received. >> Sure. So on the measure X sheet that is um a portion of our overall eligibility for state bond funds. So I have divided them AC across two sheets. So overall our eligibility is in um it's I think it's about $55 million on the measure X sheet though that 20 I think it's I closed my slides but I think it's 22 million. Um there we submitted those projects to the state. So we are in line um there is some um legal action right now that the is going through at the state level.
124Um but our projects have been approved and we're in line um for funding. The 22 million there is our share. So it's typically a 6040 um split of the funds. So we're hoping that those are coming in um on the measure T side. That's the rest of our eligibility our eligibility and that is by I believe it's um 50 or sorry 2027 and maybe into a 2028. That's when all of our schools would have um hit the 25-y year mark. Our eligibility renews every 25 years with the state for modernization. The last 4 million down there um we submitted our taxes, our federal taxes for our uh solar uh refund. So those are still being reviewed. That was submitted in November. And um we have heard other districts. So Dublin Unified I think received eight
125or 10 million um from the federal government. So, we're hopeful that our funds hopefully are coming soon. But where those funds would go as we look at our master plan with having over a billion in need, we'd look at those that new priority list that we did for um 524 million those um those funds would go to towards those projects. Got it. So, if I'm if we're understanding correctly, then potentially on top of the 10 million, there would be the 22 and then the 37. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Okay, understood. >> There's also 5.8 on the other one. So, there's another >> So, yeah, as those funds come come in, we'll we'll give you updates, but so far um they have not hit our bank accounts. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions
126from the board? No. Any inperson comments? Um Joe, can we check online for public comment? >> Yes. No raised hands. President Trent. >> Okay. Thank you. Any additional comments on this report? I had a just a comment or a couple things that I was thinking of. Um, first of all, thank you for this presentation. It's always um, lovely to see these pictures and see the progress where we were and where we're going. Um, I wanted to also thank you for the the day of outage, the ribbon cutting and getting to see the um all the completion of the projects. Uh, it there were a lot of people there that were really happy to see the progress there and see what that school looks like. So, um, thanks to everyone that made that possible. I hope
127everyone that was there um while they loved it also believes that every school deserves this and every child deserves to live in live I mean go to school in an envir I'd like to live there um go to school in an environment um that looks like Bowich and I hope that um as we continue to get more funding that we really make an effort to um make all of our schools look like this and feel like this because um they all deserve it. So thank you I'll just add on Trusty Proctor's comment and I am losing my voice so I apologize. Um, which is why I've been very quiet this meeting uncharacteristically. Um, I I just wanted to echo what you said at the end there because I think one comment we got so you
128know parents we had 200 folks or more at Bowage for the ribbon cutting. It was a great celebration. Folks are lining up to take pictures in front of the buildings and decorations and everything. But we did and Amy know I talked about this but we talked to other parents and folks who were just really amazed to see how quickly the construction happened. the fact that we can talk about all of our successes, show these photos, show all the ribbon cutings, but also keep highlighting there's a lot of need left on the table that we still have to address, but we have a history of managing funds effectively, delivering on projects, coming in on time, under budget, um, and just having that track record as we go out, especially in a climate where so many folks
129are hesitant to support any revenue measure just given the kind of state of our economy and state of the world as it is. But then when they see firsthand what it's done to transform our sites, what it's doing for our kids and their learning environment for teachers and everyone else who shows up for our students every day, I think it really helps make that case not just in terms of our ability to deliver, but also just seeing I know we have, you know, Bayside and other folks here too. There are a lot of campuses that definitely deserve the same value of treatment. And I know that's part of our plan moving forward. And I think it's going to be a great opportunity for us with all the parents seeing what we're doing to really like
130Trusty Proctor said make the case that we need to do that for all of our sites and make sure that every student has the same type of opportunity and beautiful buildings and spaces to be in. If I can just add on to that, we had, as um Amy and and Patrick both um mentioned earlier tonight, just to um follow up on your comments, a couple of questions came in from the about 60 participants that were in attendance last night. And they asked about bond costs and they asked about the the anticipated um essentially what's the interest rate, how much is this going to cost us? we were able to show and to explain what the value is of having stable reliable governance. That's one of the key criteria that that Moody's and and others consider
131when they're um evaluating the the uh creditworthiness of school districts. And the other is the long-term stability of the finances of the district. And because of those two criteria, our district has and receives the best credit rating possible. There is no other school district outside of or in in California that receives a better credit rating than Sanonteo Foster City School District. The result of that is that when we put out a potential bond measure, we make a prediction about what the likely cost of the bond is over the amount of time. And because of our um efficiency in managing our funding and because of the the strength of our credit rating, we actually on multiple occasions have been able to refinance our bonds and save almost $200 million for taxpayers. And so the cool part
132was last night, one of the the a follow-up question to that said, "Well, where does that money go?" And you know, so we sort of we had a good time with it, but we said basically you're not pay if you live here, you're not actually um paying through for those those bonds because we were able to create those savings. And I think that, you know, we saw sort of the lights turn on for everybody in the audience just realizing we get it. We understand how the investment is being protected by the district having really strong procedures to build um uh according to timelines and on budget and complete projects and then the fiscal responsibility that the board over many years, right? 6 years and even beyond has shown has really put the district in the
133best possible position to borrow money but do it at a rate that really saves taxpayers a lot of money. If I could just make one more comment, I did want to thank Amy, Patrick, Diego, and the whole team for the conversation last night. I think when you had been going to every single site, meeting with every group, teachers, principals, parents about the whole facilities master plan, so much extent of outreach and work, but even after that was done, we would hear comments from folks who felt like they missed the window to really weigh in or ask questions or have certain thoughts shared. So, I understand we're not going to be reopening that process every month, but the fact that there was still an opportunity this late um to for folks to come in, ask those
134questions to really engage. I got a half dozen comments this week from folks who really appreciated that opportunity and just I think it goes a long way towards the type of trust we're trying to build with a lot of folks that this is coming from so many conversations that you've already had, but that there is a continued process for us to receive feedback, hear directly from our community, from our parents, and from students. And so I think the meeting last night, just having that opportunity, but also folks who made it out there went a long way towards establishing the kind of trust and relationship that we want to build, especially going in to November. >> Thank you. >> Is anything okay. Um, yeah, thank you. Thank you so much. I mean, I look at some
135of these pictures and I honestly it kind of looks like a rendering. It's so nice and perfect. Um I was like, is that a real picture? I can't tell. Um but it it looks amazing. And you know, big shout out to to Amy and and your team and just every single person who worked on this, right? It's such a a team effort. And um I just remember walking into the the Bowitch library and seeing like how the the displays are set up and like how it's an opportunity to kind of like encourage students to maybe branch out beyond their typical um what they typically read. And so I think, you know, even the the furniture is like designed to be comfortable and casual and just like just creates such a warm and um I think
136a feeling of like exploration. And I just really want to, you know, say big props to to everyone who is involved in designing and and executing this vision. Um, and I'm I'm just really excited for all these students to um actually get to enjoy their space. Um, I went to public school. I think I was in my schools were in major construction from the time I was in sixth grade all the way through law school. So, I like understand the pain of of being um in like active construction zones, but it's like it just is so nice after it's done. So, um, it's just really exciting to see these spaces come to fruition and and to see kids and the community actually enjoying them. So, thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um,
137well, if we have no other comments, um, we can move on to the next item. Thank you. Uh next we have 8A under human resources 8A approval of the public disclosure AB 1200 public disclosure of collective bargaining unit agreement with SMEIA. Thank you. As Lisa Fehee shared earlier this evening, we have a ratified tentative agreement with SMEA. And so tonight along with that, I'm presenting the AB1200 disclosure that's related to the tentative agreement between the district and SMEA. Uh this is required by California law. The AB1200 disclosure demonstrates that the district can meet the financial obligations of the of the tenative agreement while maintaining fiscal solveny. And so we ask that the board please consider approval of this item and I'll pass it back to you trust. Thank you. Do we have any questions about
138this item? No. Any public comment? You know, Joe, can we check online, please? >> Yes. Checking. There are no raised hands. >> Okay. Thank you. Any comments? >> Yep. >> Um, just really wanted to say I'm I'm so happy to see the district and SMIA come to an agreement. um when President Trin and I met with like Smeita reps a couple months ago, you know, just seeing, you know, having family health benefits was such a top priority for them. And so I'm really appreciative and glad to see progress being made in this area and just, you know, seeing it mapped out over the next three years. Um so just want to just thank everybody on the SMEA and district negotiation teams for, you know, just a respectful process is what it sounds like. Um, and
139you know, just really coming from the perspective of being a classified staff member, it's so reassuring to go into the summer knowing like what to expect um, you know, for the coming year. So, just want to appreciate everyone for their good work. >> Well said. Thank you. Um, are there any other comments? Okay, so this, um, is up for a vote. Would anyone like to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. >> Second. >> Thank you, Trusty Brooks and Trustee Ho. All in favor say I. I. >> I. >> Okay. Motion passes 5-0. Next, we have approval of SMF CSSD and SMETA tenative agreement for 2026 2027 and salary schedules. We are very excited to bring this item forward and really want to acknowledge the fact that we were able to do this
140through a collaborative and respectful negotiation process and we want to thank the SMEA negotiating team for their partnership and their commitment to work together on this. We are very pleased to bring this to you um and ask that you please consider approving this item. I'll pass it back to you, trust. Thank you. Any clarifying questions? >> No. Okay. Any inerson comments? >> Jill, can we check online, please? >> Yes. Checking. [clears throat] Uh, there are no raised hands at the moment. >> Okay. Thank you. Any additional board comments? I also make a quick comment to echo what trustee ho said earlier. Um I'm part of a lot of regional trustee networks with other school boards and when they hear about the relationship that we have with SMA even the fact that we're at this stage
141now in the school year. Um it's a lot of envy it's a lot of questions about how did you build that relationship and I know that was forged trust is forged over time and even with different teams whether it's on their side or on district's side the fact that over the years we developed such a productive relationship so that even as so many schools around us or districts around us are facing some pretty severe headwinds and some pretty severe storms. the fact that we view this as something we're facing together as partners um coming together address a lot of the concerns but also seeing ourselves as one big team um having that kind of relationship with our labor partners there's a lot in our district that I feel very constantly fortunate to have but that
142is one of the things I think we're very extremely fortunate to have and the fact that we're at this stage now I think just reaffirms the trust and the kind of collaborative partnership that we've built there so thank you again to our team to smea team and all those involved >> thank you um yeah agree that I really appreciate that we have such a good relationship with our um our bargaining units and hope to continue that into the future. Um if there are no other comments um I will take a motion for this item. >> Motion to approve the tenative agreement. >> Second. >> Um thank you Trusty Kim and Trustee Brooks. Um all in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. Okay, motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Next, we have the California Healthy Kids
143Survey 2026. >> Uh, good evening uh board of trustees and superintendent uh Diego Choa and community. Um, it is my pleasure um to um have my colleague um Dr. Mara Edia Peltz, executive director of student services give us uh an update on our California Healthy Kid survey. Uh Dr. Edia, take it away. >> [clears throat] >> I'm unmuted. Yay. Good evening everyone. Trustee, uh, Superintendent Oella, staff, and community. Excited to share an update on the California Healthy Kids Survey. And uh tonight we're going to look at uh some snapshots of uh our data from 2026 uh district climate uh report card and then we're going to look at staff and parent data overview and then just a little bit some summaries and then the next steps. So this year um again we had some robust
144participation and we did see at the elementary level there was an increase um in students uh response rates. So it went up 6.73 and in the middle school students went up almost 2%. But you can see here elementary u middle school we had about two 2,100 uh respondents middle school 2,685 staff. Uh combined we had uh close to 650 staff uh between elementary and middle school and um almost 1500 uh parents that participated in the survey. So that was that's exciting. One of the areas that we looked at uh again for 25 26 is connectedness. Uh the red line that you see that is the state average. Um so we are doing better than the state average as you can see for most of those um areas. So students are holding at the elementary level
145from last year um in connectedness and then we see meaningful participation at the elementary there's a slight um increase um again another area that we're happy is no fear of fights it that is increasing that they're not having fear and then just positive behavior in school it's holding at 92 which I'm really happy about. um middle school. We're looking at again uh the data you can see we're the red line again is the state average and we're doing u better than the state average um and we're increasing in connectedness um slightly with caring relationships meaningful participation and then again no fear of fights that's gone that's increased so that's that's great um almost uh six points there >> and actually this is where Um, I get to jump in and talk. >> Okay. Should I
146go backwards? >> Yay. No, no, no. Right here is where where I'm going to jump in. Um we as you know as a school district um like about 90% of school districts in California we uh several decades back adopted a system of uh student management campus climate management um that is known around the state as positive behavior intervention supports. One of the things that our our community strategic plan group, our design team has been focused on is what is the kind of school campus and climate that results in kids feeling inspired, heard, seen, um feel like they have an opportunity to be leaders. And so we're showing you the data at two schools that have implemented pretty big changes to the way students are invited to lead and expected to support one another. You heard
147actually tonight our our Bearsford uh Bears that came up and did their presentation. Students at Barisford and students at LEAD are receiving um messaging from the school that is fundamentally different than what our students hear at almost all our of our other schools. So at Barisford the motto is take care of yourself which is a very direct message about wanting students to develop selfmanagement um about wanting students to understand what it means when they feel a certain way and how to advocate for themselves and how to take care of themselves. The second is take care of others, which means think about the person next to you and the person behind you and the person in your vicinity. Um, and the person in your school when you're interacting with other people, but don't just think about
148them, take care of them. There's a sort of there's an action. There's a verb there that's telling you you have a responsibility. And that's kind of cool for kids to hear that message. And then the last one is take care of our environment which is a way of getting kids as young as 5 years old to think just really big really beyond even their classroom and their school. Uh and currently most of our schools have adopted be safe, be respectful, be responsible, which are all sort of pointing down at students and my personal opinion, but also the research would support messaging that indicates that adults manage you and you are sort of being um being judged and part of a structure where you're expected to fall in line or follow rules. And that's a very
149limiting and a very um uh very restrictive way of establishing school climates. So when you look at LEAD's data, I want you to look at the yellow bar which shows you the extent to which students at LEAD last year said they felt connected to adult an adult at the school. And look at the almost 20 percentage point increase in one year at a school that implemented project-based learning and opened up that question of student leadership and student voice. The same thing goes for meaningful participation at that school. Five, one out of every two kids last year said, "I'm not really that in meaningfully participating in my learning." And this year you see that big again close to 20% chunk academic motivation which is a question that asks them irrespective of how your classroom environment how
150do you feel about school and about how are you motivated to learn and that's a sort of an internal question that you see this really big gain and then the other one is a cool question because positive behavior in school asks you to think about how everyone else around you behaves. So, it's kind of like the question of like, you know, is everyone is everyone else paying attention in class? You're we're all parents, so your child tells you I was paying attention, but you know, some of the other kids. Look at how big the gain is of students at LEAD and Beersford. Because the key is for two and a half hours a day on a very regular basis, the students are given project-based learning opportunities where they make a lot of choices where it
151isn't being tightly controlled by the adult and students are trusted and respected and listened to. And what students are saying with more freedom we're behaving better which is sort of works at odds with some of my former some of my former football coaches but also teachers I had who believe the opposite that if you give too much freedom kids will be out of control. The other thing I can tell you is the school district is starting to receive our California state test scores. So we're at about 95% of our math scores are in and about 70% of our reading scores are in. these two schools are doing significantly better than they did last year and and multiple prior years and a careers and it was their first year using this program. So that's what there's
152sort of a through line to connect this to what we talked about earlier tonight, the community strategic plan. We saw Jayen actually I haven't told her your test scores are good. Um, so she's sitting there like holding holding holding her emotions and they're really it's really really wonderful to see. And as as we talked about, the goal isn't just to make test scores. It's about learning. It's about passion. It's about um students having the drive and the motivation um to succeed. So with that, I'll pass it back over to you and you can click to the next slide. Dr. >> Thank you. Good. Um so again looking at mental health school climate questions and um I think we can celebrate again that we see the chronic sadness and hopelessness we're it's continued going down slightly
153and that's what we want to see is that that um looking at a five-year um review we can see there's steady growth in that. Um, and then we have, you know, parents asking about schools. That's holding. Um, slightly dip there, but it's it's still really good. Um, and then we're looking caring relationships again overall at the elementary. This is elementary and middle school. Um, so we're holding uh and then a slight increase in supportive inviting campuses. And then clarity to rules for is is going up. Um, so just just uh a lot to celebrate with our our healthy kids survey. Here's another area that we uh looked at which is the use of course of you know vaping, smoking, drinking and the majority of our kids are are not they're reporting that they're not. So
154this is really um helpful and great in how we're supporting them in the interventions that we do for um tupe. But we have students that reported about 2% that are vaping which is um we've gone down and then some are reporting the use of alcohol in the middle school and u other drugs but only 3.8 which again we want to continue to support all students. So that's um yeah it's really good. So this is the report card um and this is just for the the district again overall report card. So uh we we talked about what it means to kind of feel connected whether it's uh PBIS project based learning the restorative practices but our students are feeling a connectedness and it's um it's influencing their academic motivation and it's increasing their school safety and
155this feeling of uh caring relationships. And we're seeing that at um the elementary level and we're seeing that at the middle school there was a slight dip um and I might be losing my voice a little bit at [clears throat] the academic uh level there for middle school and then uh staff again we are seeing increases in staff where they're feeling that there's a learning environment there's a slight more collegiality and you know respect for diversity. And then again the question on readiness to learn that's um holding at 16% and again that's their perception of our students ready to learn. Uh parents are feeling uh again like they're welcomed. uh we're promoting diversity and the schools are are more orderly rather than disorderly and there's an increase sense of safety each year that we're seeing.
156So, kind of data um summary and some takeaways for us is that we're continuing to see that um well-being um particularly adult support and and a connectedness is is uh they we feel it and students um want it and staff want it. Um they they have trusted adults. We're we're seeing an increase in that slightly. And then uh we see that we're in the right direction but mental health remains you know elevated means there's just so much happening in the world that impacts our students as well. So we still need to continue the supports that we do for mental health. Um and then staff there's a stronger sense of alignment. um increased confidence in addressing student behaviors and emotional needs is reflected um in again the professional development that we've been doing. Um but they
157are um also sharing that they're overworked and that the emotional demand particularly in some complex um students u supports is is hard on them. So again, um takeaways is just like the sustainability for for staff with and the training they need when they're starting to feel um overworked. Uh indicators for parents again uh survey there's a connection with positive relationships, increased trust. uh there's a higher feeling of feeling welcomed. Um especially our multilingual families. So some of the outreach that we've done um and then they there is still a perception that we could do a little better with our communication around like what are we doing? Um that photo there uh you could see the students smiling. We just did a training for peer mediation and these students these are all middle school students who
158volunteered uh so sixth, seventh and um some fifth graders that are going to be so who are wanting to like embrace being a peer mediator. So that's that was really great. Um and then we have school climate student experience. Again, there's this focus on restorative justice and strong uh building inclusive practice and the implementation just continuing to the next level, which is why we have the students down there because they are the next level. So, really uh embracing our students and their leadership. A as you know LCAP is um again indicators with the all the the money but we use our data and this chicks data is part of what helps uh principles really think about their spending and where they need to invest a little more as well on the school climate pieces. So
159every principal reviews their data sometimes um Dr. Dr. Rubakava and myself go out and help principles and kind of model how to like break down the data, how to engage staff with that uh so that they could themselves personalize what they think they need versus us telling them and looking at the data. So really having the staff own that process as well and then um they they make a plan which is collaborative and then there they implement the plan. And that's what I have for you tonight. Um, President uh Tren and uh trustees I open for comments and questions. >> Thank you so much. Do we have any questions? I have a couple questions. Um first of all before I start with my questions I have to say that um you really stepped up your
160game on the slides. It's these are really um easy on the eye and inter very interesting and I really like the presentation here. So, thank you for sharing that. But I did want to ask one question on um the slide where you showed um lead and Barisford. I was wondering are there any other schools where you saw big dips one way or the other um like positive negative that we should be aware of? >> Um I think that we highlighted those two because they really stood out as um like big big jumps in the right direction. And I think what you'll see with the rest of our uh schools is that they're holding. They're holding. There weren't like big shockers um for for dipping in the other direction. So holding and making growth. Yeah. >>
161And what I can share as an addendum to that um we receive this data on or about April 15th. It just kind of depends on the year. And the reason is that the scoring of the data and the production of the reports is all done by Weststead. It's done by an external agency. We wait to get those reports. There's something really nice about our state um test scores because we get it as a big um Excel file or CSV. So as soon as we start getting our state test scores, myself and others are back here just, you know, going, you know, over time crunching the data, analyzing it, turning it into a reports. Chicks data is really valuable, but is very difficult to work with because it's all PDF reports and the the amount of
162time it would take to reformat and clean it up and and do the kind of data analysis that we do with our state test score data, it just wouldn't be worth the time. it would take weeks and weeks. So, what we do is we pull a 4-year analysis using PDF reports. So, it's kind of sad, but there's just a lot of papers on the the conference room tables. And there were two schools that had a really rough time. And in order to sort of avoid, you know, singling out any one school, there are reasons why we saw changes. And actually, Dr. Reedia and Dr. Balawa went and visited with those school sites to share their data with them to have and this is actually something we did 3 years ago um at a school that
163is one of the um schools we pinpointed for the dramatic growth we've seen. So what we do on an annual basis is we track for those kind of big changes and then we produce reports specific to that school and we go and spend time with those school communities um to start a conversation about how to move forward in a culture where it's nobody's fault but it's everyone's problem. And that's kind of, you know, the the sort of the the system that fuels this ongoing annual um evaluation. The other thing I'll add is that we have multiple schools in the district that are historically way above the mean and those are Parkside and Northshore View Monasuri. And it it's a really interesting thing to analyze once you go into these big reports because they're about a
164100 pages. Um, schools that have really really high achievement scores oftent times will have the highest scores of students reporting I feel stressed. I feel anxious. schools that are in XYZ part of town have scores that call your attention to I don't feel safe or I don't know how I get home uh safely from from school to home. So, it it it has the effect of of opening up a conversation about how to address those areas that we really want to get um better at. and and I think um our sort of structure of having this really close relationship with our principles and the care team because every school has a care team and that is is how we sort of funnel this information out um to each of our school sites. >> Thanks. I
165had one more question. Could we take a moment to look at the California school staff survey and maybe would you mind um like explaining a little bit more maybe just readiness to learn? What does 16% mean? >> Uh yes. So if we So you want to talk a Let me go let me just move this here and then I'm going to pull up. Um so we saw that we had about 650 staff. Um that's let me go back to this uh uh share. Sorry, just getting my my uh camera over here. >> While you do that, Dr. Ed, let me just chime in. I I have the actual staff report here that I'm looking and I can't um project it, but I'll just discuss it. So, readiness to learn is a um is a summary
166um statement about four different questions. I'm going to read them to you. Students are healthy and physically fit is one of the questions. Students arrive at school alert and rested. Students are motivated to learn and students in this school are well behaved. What Weststead does is they take the calculus of the staff responses to each of those and they turn it into this metric called called students are ready to learn. In order for that number to be represented in the chart that you're seeing a a response has to be on this four point scale of strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree. It has to be strongly agree. So it's not reporting any of the agree for that particular metric. So 16%'s like oh my gosh that's really low. Um what I can uh share
167with you so like the question of students are healthy and physically fit 70% of our sorry 75% of our staff agreed or strongly agreed with that statement. Arriving at school alert and rested 66% strongly agreed or agreed. 30% disagreed with that statement. uh students are motivated to learn. 80% strongly agree or agree, but so what it looks like there's 19, but it's really 80% and then 20% don't think that that's the case. And then students at the school are well behaved, 80% and then 20% uh disagree with that statement. >> Thank you for that. That's very helpful because just like from my perspective reading this makes it seem that our staff doesn't think kids are ready to learn and it from what you've described um it seems like it's much more positive than how it
168looks on here >> and we kind of debated that. >> Yeah. >> The issue is if I like change that metric like the way we describe that metric some as you know Jean somebody's going to send an email that says you changed it and that's not so >> we kind of went back and forth like let's report the data. We were sort of we had anticipated oh I wonder which school board member is going to ask about that particular one >> and >> yeah but that's that's a good ask right it's exactly and then you could see it's >> and that's something that again um that we go to school sites and some that might need some review of the data and then when they they combine them they're like oh so it's a lot
169better than it was but again it's not just student response but it's also when they respond if they don't rank it as the highest then it's going to show 16%. >> Yeah, >> thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I love letting Trusty Proctor go first because she asked everything that was on my mind. Um, agreed, amazing slides, great presentation. Really love seeing the trends. Um, I was going to ask about the sight specific differences, but I think Superintendent Trusty Proctor addressed that one already. Um, one additional question I wanted to ask in addition to the ready question. Um, I know we're trending in the right direction, but the phrase chronic sadness and hopelessness, the fact that one in five of our students is still answered yes to the elementary school students, >> I imagine they're
170not following news as aggressively as I am. So, I'm just curious to know, do we have more context maybe in the way the question is written or why we see that? Because one in five, especially chronic sadness, hopelessness sounds like a fairly alarming statistic. Well, I I think that that could be within that 30-day period. Did you ever feel and again for students, they if they felt some they didn't get invited to a party, they might say that, right? >> Um so it is over that they do specify within that 30-day period. Like so I I I think that we know that we still need to continue to provide support and I think that was a big takeaway from our staff, right? that we do need to um and parents that we do need to
171continue to provide students with um social emotional supports and we're doing a great job as far as providing support but it's like making sure that we capture students where they might not be sharing that but they did share it during the healthy kid survey which is anonymous. So just to clarify, the question is phrased as did you feel sad or hopeless in the last 30 days? Because that to me sounds very different than the way it's presented here. >> Yeah. So just directly from the elementary report, the question is >> do you feel sad? >> Yeah. Do you feel sad? And then >> sorry. And then the options the student has are no never. Um, for our district, 25% of our students responded, "I never feel sad." >> Wow. >> Those are my kids. >>
172Uh, 64% responded some of the time. Uh, 8% responded most of the time and about 4 and a half% said all the time. So what they're doing with this metric is so they move it into this other category at the elementary the metric is very simple at the elementary level in middle school they start to ask did you feel continually sad over a x period of amount of time um statewide we're at about 11 percentage points below the mean in the state and One of the uh sort of initiatives and one of the ways the connection points that we think uh helps facilitate that is the really rigorous amount of training that we've given to our staff and the investment we've made in this multi-layered mental health uh support system and and that um is
173obviously you know a huge part of the work that Dr. IA and Dr. Rubalaba and others on the team uh over the past 5 years have been able to orchestrate um and ours has gone down 9% in the last 5 years. That middle school metric, the elementary school metric, it it does fluctuate from year to year. Um but it is as you said it's it's alarming to see you know 15% 18% 20% saying I feel sad most of the time or all the time. >> Thank you for the clarification. Um, thank you. Does do we have any other clarifying questions? Okay. Any public comment in the audience? Joe, can we check online, please? >> Yes. Checking. No public comments at this time. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other board comments on this? Um, I'll just
174make one comment. I didn't I purposely didn't ask about the sadness one because I feel like I ask it every year. Um, so thanks Trusty Kim for bringing that one up. I do um it makes me sad to hear that there's like 12ish% of kids that feel sad all the time or most of the time. So, um just want to appreciate what we're doing um for mental health in our district and um we can always do more and I hope um the conversations are helping kids like bring this to the surface so that I mean if I found out that my kids were answering a survey saying they were sad and not communicating that to me that that would just be heartbreaking. So, um, as much as we can do to kind of pull that
175out of kids and let them know that there are adults and friends and people that really do care about them and, um, you know, they're not alone. So, thank you. Um, you know, just first want to say, you know, thank you Trusty Proctor and Trusty Kim about the comment about sadness. I saw that. I was like, yeah, that's about right. You know, I I I was like, oh, I'm probably the one in five on the trustee board who feels that um about this day and age that we're living in. Um, on a separate note, um, I just want to say, you know, especially because you're here, um, kudos to Jaylen Chang and your staff at Barisford, similarly to Natalie Dela Hunt and everyone at LEAD, soon to be College Grove, um, for piloting project-based learning
176this year. I know it I can imagine it was just a monumental effort for you and your staff and training. Um, but it really it shows just how well it's worked. Um, it's really encouraging to see all the growth that's happened in just even one year. um you know and it's just it's you know it's coming out but it's very simple that like hey when we involve students in their own learning like they feel more connected they are happier and so and they do better so just want to just thank you for you know the daily grind that you are doing um and you know thank you to everyone here at the district who's supporting um project-based learning and really excited to see this um be expanded to additional schools next year as I should
177note the other principal in the room is one of the schools that we are expanding to next year. [laughter] >> Maria. [snorts] >> Oh, I forgot one more thing. Um, on slide 11, you were mentioning like um, you know, sites implementing consistent restorative practices, you know, and I just really wanted to, you know, appreciate everyone. You know, a few weeks ago, I, you know, was here, you know, for a meeting and I saw in this room just a bunch of middle school students getting trained on restorative justice practices. Um, and it was like, I don't know, it was like one of those really wonderful moments for me. It's like, wow, like each of these kids represents different schools and they're going to go back to their schools and be able to lead in that way.
178you know, yes, we have educators who are um trained in restorative justice practices, but seeing students do that, you know, and one day having them graduate on to different high schools and colleges and workplaces to have these skills that we so need in this day and age. Um, so I really I just wanted to appreciate the work that was being done to raise up our students in in this kind of leadership position. >> Thank you. If I can make one more comment, Trusty Hill reminded me, I wanted to comment on the project based learning as well. Um, one conversation that I had with district often is that we celebrate a lot of launches. We announce a lot of programs and one thing that Diego and I just talked about earlier today is that we're at
179a point now where we can actually show that return on investment. And so it's not just announcing that there's a new math program, whether we're doing project based learning or that we have different restorative practices, but now we're seeing in our testing data, in our healthy kids survey and so many other places, how that's actually bearing fruit and how the types of investments, you know, all the training we had to do, the professional development, um, getting so many folks to kind of realign our approach has paid off in such significant ways. And so I know both Dieos have talked about this desire to kind of really close that loop and show our community, show our parents and our folks that the projects we started a year ago, two, three years ago are now paying off
180significant dividends and really putting that argument forward for a lot of the work that we're doing. So just again seeing it here visually, having the additional context of test scores on top of that, I think it's just really great to see that all come together in that way. And I really hope that's a story we can go out and tell. And kudos to our principal, everyone else involved in that process. >> Thank you. >> Yes, thank you for the presentation. And I mean a lot of this kind of um you know I I often h I've had many conversations I think over the three more than three years that I've been here u with superintendent ooa about like how do we give students more agency in their lives and how do we um how do
181we create you know students who are excited to learn who take ownership of their learning um who you know because we're not just rate you We're not just educating kids. We're developing future citizens of our world. Right? We want to develop students who see a problem and believe that it's within their capacity to fix. Right? I think all of us know that, you know, we are never going to achieve perfection. We're always trying to get a little bit closer each day, each year, um each generation. There's always something we can be working on. And so um I see this um especially the data around let me sorry let me pull that up. Um especially the data around meaningful participation. Like this to me is really the crux of why we are doing this because for
182you know half or less than half of students to feel like they meaningfully [clears throat] participate in in their learning which is where we started. um and apparently is pretty typical statewide. Like that to me is appalling, right? Like how can you design a system in an environment in which fewer than half of the students feel excited or like that it's worth their time to be there. And so I think to see this extreme jump in the data, like obviously like we want this to be 100, that's never going to happen, but we want to like get as close as we can. Um, I think it's just really remarkable to see how the systems that we design affect outcomes. And we should always keep that in mind is that like the choices that we make
183are not theoretical. Um, [clears throat] they're extremely um relevant and they're extremely concrete to the students who experience the the schools. Um and so I am really excited that this has resulted in in these these sort of emotionally um like the data in terms of the how students feel is is really positive but and it sounds like the data around achievement is also really positive. Um, but I just want to like keep pushing us forward and I also want to kind of talk about, you know, we've talked earlier about the physical environment of the school and how that affects the in um the experience of the students and you know um we also learned about some of the changes that were made for example on the Barisford Elementary campus in terms of creating these spaces
184where kids want to be outside or they want to, you know, use these spaces in different ways. And you know, I also um there I have a I have a good friend who has two neurode divergent children and they're boys and I have girls so I it's like a different perspective talk talking about you know like they're just not the same people and you know just talking to her makes like reminds me that a lot of the way that we set up our our physical spaces in schools does not serve a lot of our boys. Um, so I want to be really mindful of that and I want to be really intentional that like going forward we create spaces where all of our kids feel like there is some option for them to like be
185comfortable and to be like be able to move their bodies in the way that they need to. Um, and it's not just neurode divergent boys, right? It's like everyone wants to feel like the space is is created for them. Um, and so I just really want to keep that in mind as we talk about like facilities and I know it's not like strictly about the the chicks data, but I think it's it's relevant and um I just want to pull some of those threads from earlier in the meeting together as we talk about this. And like we're not just talking about schools, right? It's also about the physical infrastructure. How do our what do our cities look like? What do like how how do we make it easy for kids who are obviously not driving
186[clears throat] um to get around our city and our spaces and feel like the city and the neighborhoods belong to them too that they can go where they want to go and hang out with friends and like explore their their um their home. Um, I just remember having a conversation with someone who lives in a neighboring neighborhood whose college I think college age son did not know how to ride a bicycle. Um, and didn't know how to like n like I for there was I was asked to drop him off somewhere because she was out of town. Long story. Anyway, I asked him like, "Oh, how do you get out of this like little neighborhood?" And he couldn't tell me. He had lived there for like four years and he couldn't tell me how to
187get out of his neighborhood. And so that to me is like we're like we're raising adults that don't that are like so reliant on like other people or they're they're just like they have no concept of themelves as like part of a whole or part of like they don't know how to navigate. Um, I know that's a little bit like further a field, but I think it really feeds into my conception of what we're trying to accomplish, which is people, adults who understand when they are like lacking in knowledge and go after that knowledge and feel empowered to be part of their community. Um, so I'll just I'll close out the remarks there, but um, thank you for for sharing this data. I know we always have more work to do and I'm feeling really
188good about some of the results around the project based learning and I'm really excited to see like you know what else does this look like? What does this look like at other schools? Um especially schools um with middle school students like what does it look like there? And um so thank you so much and um I'm really excited to move forward with this. >> Wonderful. Thank you. Um, okay. Now I'll sign off. Can I [laughter] can I just quickly add I just want to say um thank you for the report and I want to just uh echo my fellow trustees, but I just want to give a great big kudos to Superintendent OOA for navigating and we're finally getting to a space where everything is starting to align with the facilities, the curriculum, the teachers.
189getting the professional development that they need to learn to teach the kids that they are um serving. I just want to say thank you for this amazing um alignment and how we're moving in this direction in our school district. Thank you >> and your staff. Sorry about that. [laughter] >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Um I don't know. Do we want Okay. >> Do we just do we want to blast through this and then go to close? Okay. >> Okay. Let's do like a quick five minute break. So, thank you. >> Yeah. She's over here. Do you want to keep it up here? >> Okay. Thank you everyone. Um >> coming back to meeting We will now >> move. Sorry, I'm trying to get back online because my computer also
190was on its last legs. I had to get a new one. Um, okay. >> That's fine. Okay, >> that's okay. I I think I got it. Yeah. >> Um, okay. So, next we have approval of the 2026 2027 board meeting dates. >> Motion. >> Um, yeah, I guess we can just um make a motion on this. >> I'll make a motion to approve the future meeting dates for [snorts] um 2026 2027. >> Second. >> Thank you, Trusty Brooks and Trusty Hoe. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. Next we have the adoption of resolution for the election of two governing board members. >> Thank you, President Tren. Item five uh 10B is uh our every other year resolution. It has been developed in consultation with the Sonteo County Elections Office as well as
191our legal council Atinson Anderson lawyer Ruden Romo complies with all the required notices and upon the board's approval tonight, should the board uh choose to do so, district staff will uh immediately commence the process of notification to the community promotion of the election and um ultimately on November 3rd, this district will initiate a uh be part of the election uh for trustees areas one and two which both represent portions of Foster City and portion if of the Northshore View neighborhood in San Monteo. um administration recommends that the board approve this resolution and uh doing in doing so we would initiate this process and with that I'll pass it back uh to the board for questions and comments. >> Okay, thank you. Any clarifying questions? >> I just wanted to make a clarifying statement that um
192trustee area one also includes the Los Praos area. >> Okay. Um, any inerson comments? Joe, can we jump online, please? >> Yes. >> Checking. >> No public comments at this time. >> Thank you. Any um board comments? No. Okay. I will take a motion. >> Motion to approve the adoption of the resolution for the election of two governing board members. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Trusty Kim and Trustee Brooks. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. Um motion passes 5-0. Next we have consideration of possible approval of the um SMFSD community strategic plan. >> All right. And we're joined tonight by our chief of staff, Lisa Joseph. Lisa, I know you're going to join virtually there. Before I kick it over to you, um huge thank yous to our vision design team
193um members who are actually one of our members is sitting in the audience here. Um part of the reason she stayed tonight. Um but as we've talked about um repeatedly during these now 10 monthly updates. This team has had uh the monumental task of developing new vision language that sets a very high bar and delivers the kind of education that each one of us wants in the future for our students. Um and the orchestrator of this process is with us tonight, Lisa Joseph. Take it away. >> Good evening, board of trustees and superintendent OOA. Uh I am thrilled to be presenting our 10th update on the community strategic plan. Um and even more thrilled to finally be moving that green triangle over to the last phase in this slide. Um it has been a long
194nine months of hard work. Um but we are finally ready to present this community vision for the board's consideration. This vision was created by our community and will guide our district for years to come. Um, but before I get there, I want to take a a few just a few minutes to acknowledge and thank those who built it. As Superintendent OA mentioned, um, at the start of this year, we formed the vision design team, which is a group of about 45 community members, including students, families, staff, community partners, and administrators who met on a monthly basis to study, research, and craft this vision. Um, but they did not work in a vacuum. Uh in every meeting, the vision design team was drawing on input gathered throughout the year as indicated on this timeline from across
195the community. And that community voice came through surveys, community vision meetings, Imagine the Imagine School project, um field trip reflections, listening sessions, um and countless other informal touch points that contributed to the vision. So, I just wanted to uh take a moment to really appreciate everyone on the vision design team and all of the community voices that um became a part of this vision. Um so, with the vision design team, we also checked in with the team at the end of every meeting and when we asked whether the meetings gave the opportunity gave them the opportunity to collaborate and connect with each other, we started the year at 90% agreement um and finished at 100%. um really proud of how much this team has worked together. Um they consistently said that what they valued most
196about our team meetings was the opportunity to work alongside each other uh and learn from each other. And as a result um every team member of the vision design team has expressed a desire to continue this work in some capacity whether um on one of the strategic planning teams that are going to be developing the community strategic plan or um running sessions. So, um, but I do want to highlight for a moment the most impactful voices on the team, which were our students. So, I just have, uh, a short video for you here. [music] When I found out that there was an opportunity to change part of the district and to have my voice be part of it, I was very inspired. [music] It's been one of the more original programs where I've been able
197to actually talk to parents, [music] just be able to see what their input is versus my input about schools and the school system. [music] >> It's very inspiring to see how many people come to it and how at [music] the end of the meetings it's like a lot of people like well this is a new strategy or this is a vision I've never seen but like we never even thought [music] of. It kind of brings us together as a community all for the better. >> [music] >> When we include students in the conversation, we're ensuring that their needs are met where they are and we're not assuming where they're coming from. A lot of times people don't really realize how important community is. But if we do come together and if we say, "Oh, okay.
198We're going to do this as a people, as a community, and we take control, that is something [music] very powerful." We hope to see you at the next community vision meeting. Well, we're all set with community vision meetings, but uh I just wanted to showcase some of those students. I have so much gratitude for each of them um and all the me all the members of the vision design team and all the community members who participated in this uh visioning process. Um, so before I go over to the vision, um, I do want to acknowledge that this was a vision. What I think what excites me most about this vision is that there isn't a sentence or phrase that was written by one person. Um, this was truly a collective effort, every word, every phrase.
199Um, and just to orient you, this vision starts with an opening sentence on our process and our purpose. Um, then we have three parts. first for all learners, for all adults, and for all educators. In addition to that, we included a glossery to clarify some key terms in the vision like challenging, growth mindset, and inclusive. Um, so I won't read through the whole vision uh for you all now, but thank you for considering this language for possible approval, and I'll open it up to the board for questions or comments. Thank you. Um, any clarifying questions? I had a question. Um, first of all, thank you for this and I'll save my comments for next, but um, in the glossery there's a a definition for educational equity, but the phrase is never used. And I'm wondering
200if there was a point in time where it was part of this and it was taken out and what the thought process was there. Educational equity as a phrase was not in a prior draft of the vision, but we thought it was important to name it in the glossery in some place. Um, I think what we've we debated for a while whether we should be explicitly talking about equity in the vision. And I think what we've what we landed on was so much of what the vision states is in service of educational equity as a core value of our district. So we wanted to have a definition of it so that people know when we talk about educational equity this is what we mean and these are all this is the vision for how we
201achieve educational equity. Thanks. Any other questions? Okay. Um I'll move on to public comment. Is there any public comment in the room? No. Okay, Joe, can we check online, please? >> Yes. [clears throat] Check. >> No public comments at this time. >> Okay, thank you. Um, do we have any board comments? >> Um, thank you so much, Miss Joseph. Um, you know, I think just from start to finish, the creation of the strategic plan is just has been executed just admirably. Um, so just I want to thank you and the Bayad fund um for just this gift to our district um for this kind of level of engagement um and participation. Um it's just it's like unlike anything I've ever seen. Um I think my only piece of feedback um is in the first bullet
202point under all educators. Um it says all educators will design experiences with multiple ways for every learner to access and engage with grade level instruction, cultivate creativity, etc. Um I kind of wanted to you know ask um or not ask but really just kind of suggest you know grade level instruction I feel like that should be at the minimum. Um to me grade level instruction should be the you know, it it shouldn't be shouldn't be the kind of level that we set it at, but you know, versus a minimum that students are exposed to. >> Um, I'm glad you raised that because that was a certainly a topic of discussion at our last uh vision leadership team meeting that was working on some of the language here. Um I I'm going to point you to
203um the definition of challenging that we have in our uh glossery. Um there is a sentence up top referring to all learners will experience uh actually let me get the exact language. Um engage in challenging and collaborative learning experiences. And in our definition of challenging, we talked about grounding in grade level expectations and that this includes opportunities for learners to go deeper, think critically, and extend their learning. Um, so the reason why we included this language was because we wanted to emphasize the importance of deep knowledge of grade level, deep um mastery of grade level standards over um achieving beyond grade level standards. it's more important that a student knows the the skills that they need to succeed at grade level before they go to extend their learning beyond that. So the I think what
204you're referring to is is in this definition of challenging. That said, I think if we want to include that word in this section on all educators certainly open to that as well. Just wanted to draw that connection. >> Question three. questions or comments? Okay. Well, actually, I have a question I missed. Um, thank you again for the presentation, for all the work on this. One quick question I had though, in the slides, it talks about how there was a conscious decision to replace the phrase every learner with all learners, but I'm still seeing the phrase every learner several times in the draft statement. Was that intentional or is the goal to replace those phrases? Um so initial in the initial draft of the vision for learner experience each of these initial phrases started with every
205learner will belong to every learner will engage in and so we made a shift to using the phrase all learners will at the top to create that more communitybased mindset and define what all learners mean. Um that said, I think there's some uh instances where we use the word every learner in order to articulate the differentiation that different learners need. >> Got it. I just wanted to confirm that was intentional, but >> I understand it's going to apply to the first four bills then. Okay. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Just like was listening um [clears throat] comments. Okay. Yeah. So, just wanted to again thank you for this process. Thank you for um every single person that was involved in this. I think this feels like a really um inclusive process that uh really pulls from
206every every voice that we're looking to hear from and want to hear from and particularly with students. So, um, I just really I read this and I felt really good about what the vision is. I feel like this resonates with me and if I still had kids in this school district, I would feel really proud that um that they're part of this district and going to, you know, be um set on their path using this vision. So, just really want to thank you for thank everyone for being part of this. >> Yeah. Um, in terms of my comments, you know, I repeat this every meeting, but I just wanted to thank the entire team for the incredible outreach, inclusion, the multiple efforts. I think even the last meeting hearing that folks who hadn't been involved
207in this process were still being pulled in. I think, you know, even if the vision statement that came out of this had only been three words, it would have been a productive exercise because I don't think that ever in our history of our district and frankly any district around us has had this type of level of conscious outreach and engagement in the way that we built. And that's something that even after this process concluded, we can continue to build upon the relationships, the trust and everything they built as part of their process. But on the vision statement itself, I really appreciate the slide showing some of the changes, but also just reading it over when I first saw this over the weekend, it shows so much of the feedback not just the board had, but
208other community members have raised and addresses so many different angles. I think one comment we made previously was about whether or not it felt aspirational enough and a lot of the language here does feel that way. Um to Trusty Hoe's comment, I did see that in the definition of challenging, we do talk a little a lot about having folks extend their learning to go deeper to think critically. I think even the concerns we had about technology are addressed in the school community section. And so so many different aspects of what we've heard from all the students, parents, teachers, administrators, and others involved in this process are reflected here in a way that feels very inclusive, very intentional, and I think sets a great framework for how we're going to move forward together in a way
209that I think a lot of us can agree on and goes beyond just kind of our core principles and who we are now, but also captures a lot of where we want to go from here. And so I was just really impressed seeing just all that work come together in a way that I think really captures again not just where we are today but where we hope to be tomorrow. >> Thank you for the presentation. Um I really appreciate the thoughtfulness with which each ever you know each word each phrase was chosen. Um, and I agree that it it it seems like a a great kind of um north star for us to kind of move towards. I mean, a couple things in in reading this, there were a couple things that I wanted to
210make some suggestions about. Um for example in the school community all adults will um the the point about modeling respect empathy and kindness um supporting learners to understand their emotions and develop strong relationships. I would add understand and communicate. I think that part of understanding emotions there's like there's an element of learning to identify and then communicate that to someone else so that other people can understand where they're coming from because sometimes even if they're understanding their own emotions um part of asking for help or asking for support is being able to communicate their needs. Um, and obviously we want, you know, everyone to to be able to do this, but it takes practice. It takes time. Um, developing a common vocabulary about what something means. Um, so I think that to me has been
211something that I've I've definitely developed over the last um decade or so and and raising my children and um like kind of navigating those. Um, another thing that I wanted to add to this section was something that I touched on a little bit earlier, which is how does the physical environment affect the um the learning environment. And so I think for for this section I would also add design and adapt the physical environment to support inclusive learning and whole learner wellness because I think it is important like when we um create the spaces we have a certain you know we have certain priorities in mind and I want to empower um the adults in the school communities and I mean to some degree also the the students to look at their classroom and look at
212their school environment and say this could be better like what can we do to change this right the buildings um obviously like we talked a little bit earlier about how changing the windows changes the feel of the space u we talked about the library about it and how you know all these sort of floor to ceiling windows and um comfortable um seating spaces creates the environment that we want to create. And so, especially as we look at um the facilities master plan and we talk about the potential bond measure, I think it's really important to also think about, okay, even if we're not going to be, you know, upgrading a bathroom or the HVAC system at a particular school site, what are the ways that we can adapt the classroom or expand and our understanding
213of what the classroom even is to go beyond like taking um taking things as they are and and sort of like taking them as a given because we know that for example in the monastery um environment it's not just about the instructional model it's also about how things are laid out within the classroom everything is at student level so that students can access the materials without an an adult's assistance, right? Like this is a core part of the monastery tenants. Um, and so I I want to really urge us to think about that piece of it as well. Um, so that's that's what I would add. And then I think under glossery all learners I would also add immigration status but I know we could go down like all the a rabbit hole of like
214all the the different aspects of of how the things that affect someone's learn um learning environment. But um those were the things that stood out to me as um adaptations or like adjustments that I would make to this this statement. Thank you, President Chin Chin. Um, I have added those in. I meant to reference them earlier and I will make sure that I just wanted to make sure that you had a chance to share your >> Okay. >> Yeah, thank you. >> And um with the board's um approval and and and first of all, thank you Lisa for the presentation. the board's approval of these um statements, the board's um support for this kind of an educational shift is really important because over the next five months, we will convene multiple teams of SMEA members,
215CSEA members, parents, students, and administrators who will spend Each group will spend eight days between August and the end of November here at the district office develop developing strategies and actions that will allow us to achieve the goals that we've written in these vision statements. So there's a um it's special to be part of a group that gets to sit down and think about and reimagine things, but it's scary. And then I start picturing Patrick sitting in his office just shriveling up just getting really because while we we'll have these design teams, they're actually going to be referred to as star teams. these star teams developing the actions and the strategies. We're going to have a separate group that's going to involve multiple key stakeholders as well who are going to have the huge responsibility
216of taking the visionary ideas and translating them into required statutory efficient um strong ethical management steps to turn the ideas that fulfill fill these statements into actionable. So this the teams that are doing the designing will send us this language and then a month later they'll get back a bunch of notes from the team that's going to be doing the analysis and it's going to be Amy Rufo and Blanca Cervantes and and Patrick and David David. He plays a huge crucial role in the LCAP development. Myself and others will invite Smeita and CSA to be a part of that conversation as well. um it's harder for parents and students because there's just different things that have to do with confidentiality and employment and so that's gets a little bit more uh difficult to have them
217as be part of that process. Um and so the board's potential approval this evening would satisfy a couple of things. One is we can initiate the recruitment process to select the people that will be part of those star teams and that's really important. And then the second thing is we can start to loudly and publicly and repeatedly communicate that this vision has been approved. Um and as you know our process up until tonight has been repeated monthly updates posted on the agenda all over social media. I think uh multiple thousands of touch points with community members. So, our recommendation to the board is is given the remarks made by TR by President Trin, I want to recommend that we uh you know consider utilizing that language specifically to design and adapt um the physical environments
218to support inclusive learning and whole learner wellness. And that that really also connects us to a potential bond measure that I think is sort of top of mind for many of us, but also just to the realization of what a a 360°ree view of a student's experience is. And that's I we didn't mention it earlier, but both of our our um pilot schools for PBL had a a financial investment made in new furniture that that facilitated the kind of work that they were able to do this year. And I can see Jaylen nodding her head back there, but it made a difference. It really does make a difference to think about the environmental design uh that students experience. So, I wanted to kind of wrap this up by putting that idea on the table and
219ask the board to have this conversation about potential approval this evening for the school district's um vision um um moving forward uh 2027 through 2032. >> Sorry, quick request. Lisa, can you scroll down to where we can see the edits you made with based on President Trin's comments? >> Yes. >> Thank you. I can see now >> on the environmental question, President Tren, so I'm I'm looking at the first bullet and the last bullet and some of the obviously the word environment, but also the inclusive element seems not I I know you're going for a different kind of focus on the physical as opposed to just environment of like culture and all that, but I'm wondering is there any way we can condense those two into something that hits both points? >> I think well
220maybe we could do like a cultural and physical environment or something like that. Um >> and then add the whole learner wellness at the end. >> Yeah. I mean just show you what that would look like. I mean I also want to I think say something about you know a cuz we're you know some I think create sort of implies from scratch but I think we're not just throwing everything out right like we got obviously [clears throat] can't do that. Um but I I think just something about like what are the changes that we can make that are not necessarily that don't necessarily come at a huge financial cost. Um but just thinking about the physical space as one element of um of the learning environment. So I yeah I can see um something like
221that. Um, I think I, you know, the whole learner wellness like this, I think kind of gets to my point earlier about how, you know, students, some students may not feel kind of like at home in the school environment. And so, um, and I've talked to to folks about the powerful impact and calming impact that, um, green spaces can have. and I've talked about that before at these meetings. So, I'm I'm just wondering like how could we put that element of it somewhere in here? Um, so it's not just that they feel welcome, respected, and valued, but that they also feel like at home in their bodies or like something with that kind of feeling to it. Um, that's what I'm thinking about. And I I can I don't know if anyone has a suggestion
222of how we could kind of combine those ideas. >> Could it be something instead put in the glossery about like the definition of an environment and what that means to us? >> Yeah, I could. Yeah, I think that would be good too. And then maybe we it doesn't like it's not all clunky over here, but we could put it in the glossery. Um, so maybe we change like define environment and um >> I'll just say that for what it's worth as we were developing this vision, we found ourselves creating a lot of compound sentences and ended up splitting them apart because sometimes they lose their >> value when they are put together, especially when we have two very distinct ideas. Okay. >> Yeah, that makes sense, too. I don't know if people feel like we
223could keep them separate. I mean, I think I I think I do agree to some extent that the environment, the first description of the environment is is more like a feeling, right? It's like a culture or a um the way that people interact with each other. And then the last one is more like how do people interact with the space? And those are those are two different they're distinct ideas like they're related but they're not um totally the same. Um so I don't know maybe we just go back and we keep it as >> alternatively if we say design and adapt physical spaces to support something that sounds a little bit distinct from the first bullet. >> Sure. >> Yeah. physical spaces I think is >> for inclusive learning whole learner wellness I feel like
224that >> now looks more like an independent separate >> piece >> or maybe design and adopt physical spaces without the >> the going back up the an environment yeah I think I mean that looks good to me >> if people >> when we when we put together all of our plans for schools like that you were all just there's a wow factor those faces were considered with that and that's what we all reacted to like this isn't just you didn't just put up another high school when you walk into those places I understand how old wellness how the idea of seeing kids experience factored into creating that space. So I think for that reason I tend to lean a little bit more towards Lisa's sense that really does help to have it. >> Okay. Yeah,
225I think the way it looks now looks good to me. Yeah. Okay, great. Um Okay. Well, I guess we can call for a motion on this one. I'll make a motion to approve the vision. Um, I'm sorry. No, no, sorry. [clears throat] >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. Do we have a second? >> I'll make a motion to approve the vision um for the San Los school district. >> I'll second. >> Okay. Thank you, Trusty um Brooks and Trusty Kim. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you all. All right. Next, we have Jean's favorite item or Stacy's favorite item. First review of the proposed board policy and administrative regulation updates. [laughter] >> How about Do you want me to start? >> All right. I would like to welcome
226Jackie Hang. She's on the screen there uh visiting us virtually. She is an attorney and partner at AALRR and she has been supporting us with updating our board policies and administrative regulations. This I'm calling this round three. Um and she's here this evening to talk through the various uh board policies and administrative regulations that are in front of you on the agenda that are redlined. So I will turn it to you Jackie. Thank you, Stephanie. Good evening, board of trustees and superintendent OOA. I'm happy to be back here tonight for um Trustee Hoe's favorite um agenda item um to discuss the district's ongoing work um to update the board policies and administrative regulations to ensure that they are consistent with changes in the law and with CSBA's um model policies. As usual, I'm going to
227highlight a couple policies that contain the most substantive revisions. Um, several of the other uh policies and regulations um contain pretty non-substantive and minor edits. So, um I won't be discussing those unless there are any trustees that have specific questions about those policies. Um, I corresponded with Trustee Kim yesterday and earlier today on some of the revisions and I appreciate his thoughtful comments and um and his review and I will address some of that discussion in my summary tonight. So let with that being said, let's start with um board policy administrative regulation 5144.1. It is the suspension and expulsion due process policy and regulation. Um before I get into the substantive revisions, um it was brought to my attention that the numbering in some sections in the AR was off that I suspect that that
228may be due to some formatting issue when it was converted from a Microsoft Word document to a PDF. Apologies to the board. Our firm does still use Microsoft Word. Um I have been asked why we still use Microsoft Word and unfortunately I don't have a sufficient explanation for that. Um that technology decision is a little bit um out of my out of my authority and my scope but here we are. So in any case um I will make sure to work with district staff to correct that numbering when we finalize these po um these policies after this meeting. So the revisions that were made to BP and AR5144.1 were re were made to reflect changes in the law and new requirements under Assembly Bill 1230 which became effective January 1 of this year. That bill
229amended various sections of the education code related to student expulsion rehabilitation plans and readmission procedures. Um AB1230 reflects the legislaturator's intent to make expulsion rehabilitation plans more meaningful um individualized to address that particular students uh specific needs and behaviors and also to make it more accessible for the student and their family to facilitate their readmission um back into the district. Accountability of students is of course an a very important part of the district's responsibility and oversight of its students to ensure that um all students have a safe and positive educational environment. But the focus is not simply on excluding a student for a period of time. The focus is also on ensuring that the student has a realistic pathway to address the conduct that led to their expulsion. um access any kind of necessary supports
230and services and ultimately transition successfully back into the school when it is appropriate. So revisions were made to that board policy and administrative regulation to reflect the district's obligations under AB1230 and um the legislative intent of that law. I'll move on to the next uh board policy administrative regulation. and I'll take questions um on all of these policies as soon as I'm finished. I want to move on to board policy 4119.24. There is of course a corresponding board policy for the classified unit as well as the management unit. So that's 4219.24 and 4319.24. This is the policy on maintaining appropriate adult student interactions. Um, this board policy is a new one for the district and it was added pursuant to the requirements of Senate Bill 848, which prohibits inappropriate conduct before uh between district employees
231and students, including by requiring that district employees avoid any kind of boundary blurring behaviors that undermine the trust in the adult student relationship. and that may lead to the appearance of impropriety. I discussed with trustee Kim the broad language in this policy um regarding the examples provided of what may be inappropriate interactions between district employees and students. So for example um the policy prohibits socializing or spending time with students outside of school sponsored events except as participants in community activities. So, the question is, what if a district employee chaperones their child's birthday party where other district students are also present? Um, is that allowed? Is that prohibited? Um, that is not prohibited by the policy or the education code. The policy and SB848 require the district to establish quote unquote appropriate limits on contact between
232employees and students. It is not intended nor does it require that we ban all possible interactions. Um you know there's incidental interactions, there's entirely appropriate and innocent interactions. So it is not intended to ban all kinds of possible interactions between employees and students. So, what I discussed with Trustee Kim is adding language to clarify what constitutes community activities um as well as clarify that the policy is not intended to prohibit ordinary um community interactions. Um provided of course that the employee maintains appropriate adult student boundaries and does not utilize that interaction to initiate or cultivate any kind of you know private personal intimate or otherwise inappropriate relationship with that student. So if the rest of the board is supportive of adding that clarifying language um I can certainly do that for the next time that
233we have this up for review. Um, and uh, otherwise I I'll open it up now to to the board for any questions or comments on any of these policies. >> Thank you so much, Miss Hang. Um, everyone's like looking at me, so I think they were waiting for this moment. Um, so I wanted to spend, you know, looking through all these. I only had kind of some um questions about um things specifically in administrative regulation um 5144.1. >> Um so first um I personally feel uncomfortable with the term Indian child. Um I was wondering if we could switch that to Native American or American Indian. I mean I hear that it's a legal term, but it's it's like a legal term from like the 70s. >> You know, it's not great. Don't love it, but
234it's that's a legal term. >> I don't know. I mean, yeah. >> uh, yes, Trusty Ho, we can adjust that language. Uh, that that language is is reflected in the CSBA model policy. Um, admittedly, I also had a little reaction to that phrase, but um, yes, of course, we we can change that terminology. >> Oh, we can >> um, change it. So my I mean my question around that is like is there are there implications because of like IQUA or you know there's federal law where Indian child is like a legal term. So I guess I want to make sure that we're not like butting up against that. >> I can I can research that further if that terminology is required. Um you know I I I guess the question is will will there be
235any kind of misunderstanding right? um within the district. If we do change that terminology, ultimately um I think that it comes down to the response and the rights provided to those to that population of students and and that shouldn't change um regardless of of the terminology that we're using. But I can certainly look into whether changing that terminology is going to have any kind of practical effect on on these policies. Yeah, I mean I I mean my input would be if there it doesn't have practical effect then yeah I think we should like update the language to reflect norms. Um but thank you. All right. Um I'm continuing. Um so this one I just wanted to make sure that I'm understanding it correctly. Um so um on pages four and five right there's there's there's
236separate sections right? There's grounds for suspension expulsion K through 8 and additional for grades 4 through 8. >> Um, and so I guess my, you know, clarifying question, if I'm making sure I'm reading this correctly, like all of the items like 1 through 19, you know, apply for all students, but you know, the ones for specifically 4 through 8 don't apply to K through three kids. Even though you know like 1 through 19 includes things like possessing a knife, selling drugs and like the things in the you know the upper grades right the additional grounds were things like hate violence, sexual harassment, intimidation. I was just kind of a little bit confused and wanting to make sure that I understood that correctly. >> Yes. Um and that is a that's actually a limitation restriction set
237forth in the education code. Um there are specific offenses such as sexual harassment, such as hate violence, such as intentional harassment and um you know making terroristic threats that uh the education code specifically indicates that students you know in grade levels 4 through 12 actually are um are the ones who can be suspended and recommended for expulsion for those offenses. um the younger kiddos, you know, from kindergarten through through third, they are not subject to a suspension or expulsion for those incidents. And presumably that is um may perhaps to reflect their developmental age and kind of the um the emphasis on using other corrective means to address those behaviors and help them understand the impact of those um situations. But um to answer your question, Trusty Ho, yes, those those limitations um for additional grounds
238for suspension expulsion for grades four through eight, that is specifically set forth by the education code. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um my last one um is on my last question is on page eight. Um when it talks about onampus suspension it says um the student shall be responsible for contacting his her oh sorry the students teachers to receive assignments to be completed in the supervised super suspension classroom da da da um I think when I'm reading this it it feels to me that it's appropriate for an older student but not a younger one like would a kindergartner be responsible for going to their teacher and being like hey I need the work like that seemed a little bit unrealistic to Right. Um I I can see how that that can be interpreted
239that way. Um well, I will say that presumably, you know, hopefully that for students of of that young grade level, their parents are communicating with the teachers and vice versa. Um related to any kind of classwork going on. Um this specific language comes directly from the education code which does um set forth you know it is ultimately the students obligation to communicate with their teachers with district administration to make sure that they're getting the work that they need and of course once that request is made it is incumbent on the teacher to to provide that to provide that work and that um support. So, I don't believe that the legislature has perhaps maybe contemplated that that may apply to students in kindergarten. Um, I think typically that applies to students of um higher grade levels,
240but um this this language, this entire paragraph right here comes directly from ED code 48911.1, excuse me. >> Thank you. So, there's no like um you know ad addition that could be made, right? like the student or a respective parent. Um, it has to follow this because it was it's written so as edode. >> That's that's correct. Yes. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, that's the end. So other people can ask their questions now. >> I just want to make sure Trusty Ho opened her Christmas presents first. Um, I appreciate Miss Hang all the comments and back and forth on some of the, you know, more minor formatting issues and other pieces. um so that I could spare the rest of the board some of the less substantive ones. I did want to
241provide some more commentary on BP 4119. Um very supportive of what SB48 does and especially establishing or clarifying the boundaries between anyone who is an employee of the district um and students and obviously there are a lot of concerns that we share as the board to make sure that nothing inappropriate takes place and we have very strict policies in place. At the same time, the reason the conversation that we had came up is because under definitions of inappropriate conduct, there are several specific examples that seem very ordinary and safe. Like being alone with a student outside of the view of others, if a student hangs back in class to ask a teacher a question, that would technically be a violation of like the literal sentence that we wrote out there for their social media uh
242pieces saying that we if we have a social media account, you can't accept follows. But again, if you have a public account, we're not monitoring the age of every person who follows you and whether or not they have a history in the district. And then especially the socializing 1.11 socializing or spending time with students outside of school sponsored events. There could be teachers who volunteer as coaches. There could be church activities. There could be kids birthday parties, especially if you have kids in the district. That would get very complicated. So, I agree with the clarification we discussed. I was wondering if there's maybe something even more broader we can do to just clarify that even with this list of activities we're explicitly talking about ones that would be, you know, if it's ordinary, transparent, professionally
243appropriate, if it serves a legitimate educational, professional, or lawful purpose that those would be allowed because again, some of these are going to be near impossible to enforce or to be aware of until after the fact. And so I'm trying to figure out a way to not create more confusion and clarify that we're specifically addressing concerns around inappropriate relationships, grooming, and a lot of conduct that would fall outside of our expectations without then taking completely acceptable behaviors and creating a gray area that would, you know, either be cause for concern or cause for action. >> And I imagine this is a common issue across districts, >> right? Um and and I hear you. And uh you know in my opinion I I think that these policies are drafted quite broad so that district administration and
244staff have that flexibility to investigate and to determine um on a case- by case basis what is appropriate what is appropriate or what is not approp uh appropriate or what may appear you know give that appearance of impropriy. So, you know, perhaps being alone with a student outside of the view of others, um that may not necessarily be inappropriate in every single situation. Um but when those situations arise, um it is important to provide district staff with an administration with that opportunity to investigate and to ask questions and to determine um you know, depending on those cir particular circumstances whether or not that is an appropriate incident um or not. So, I think that we can certainly add um additional language to clarify that all of these interactions should have some legitimate educational purpose. Um
245but I I I'm hesitant to add additional language that might actually have an unintended consequence of of narrowing um any any particular uh examples provided here. um any given situation that arises where a student feels uncomfortable, a parent feels uncomfortable, they report that to to the school staff, to to district staff, um an investigation of some kind, an inquiry of some kind needs to occur. And so these examples here are are certainly not this is not an exhaustive list, right? I think that it captures a lot of common behaviors that we have seen unfortunately in these situations, but it is not an exhaustive list. And so with that, it it gives that's g it gives staff that opportunity to ask questions and to seek clarification um and determine whether or not something is a violation
246of policy um or not. But to the extent that you're requesting, you know, at least some additional language such as, you know, legitimate educational interest, um we can find I places to to add that additional language to this policy if necessary. And I completely agree with the read about we want there ought to always be inquiry if any of these events that we talked about are triggered. And so I do think if there is a global policy that just clarifies the district has discretion. The way it's written now almost feels like it was a breach because >> the literal thing happened >> whereas it's almost like I agree that these should all be cause for inquiry but not like that in itself was inappropriate. It's all about the context and making sure. So if there
247is a global comment we can add that says this is not meant to apply to again behavior that's ordinary lawful transparent with legitimate educational purpose I think it'll at least provide that kind of discretion where even though inquiry will be merited it won't automatically be a violation just by virtue of having you know explicitly done the thing listed here. >> Understood. Sure. >> Any other questions? No. Thank you so much. Um I really appreciate the the detailed redlinining and then also the explanation of why um some of these are new um or you know why we have some of this language. Um I'm going to open it up now to public comment. Do we have any in person? >> Can I just make one? [laughter] So we do have a practice that we ask for
248homework when students are suspended. So Jackie, that's a district pra practice that we do. So any child regardless of how old we ask we, you know, we let the parent know, hey, you're entitled to this. We get the homework. So that's one of the things that we we don't want to create a gap. So that's that's one of our district practices. >> Okay. >> Fantastic. Thank you, Dr. Heredia. >> Thank you for sharing. Um Okay. Um Joe, can we check online for a public comment? >> Yes. No public comments at this time. Okay. Um, do we have any board comments? Okay. Um, well, this one is the first review. So, I think we just were reviewing it, right? And then we'll come back to it a different meeting. Um, so I think that's it. Thank
249you so much for your time. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Next, a very exciting one. Um, we have oral report and action to approve the employment contract for assistant superintendent Dr. Margaret Heredia Peltz. >> And it's my honor to make this presentation this evening uh for the board's consideration is a contract pursuant to government code section subdivision C3. The board will be provided an oral summary of the salary uh recommendation for the following local agency executive assistant superintendent Dr. Margaret Margaret Eelia Peltz and the term of the employment contract between the district and the executive is from July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2030. And the nonrepresentative executive manager um is employed pursuant to this individual written employment contract that uh the same health and welfare benefits is provided to the district's management personnel
250will be made available to Dr. Appelts and the district will provide a um salary set at 278,682. Um having been uh part of the district now for 5 years, Dr. Edelia and um her colleagues in the student services department um have been instrumental in creating many of the conditions upon which our students are able to thrive across 22 campuses. Um she is a trusted mentor to many in the district. Uh she is a force for good. Um and I'm very um honored and proud to uh recommend um in the strongest way possible that the board approve the employment contract for Dr. Peltz. And with that I'll pass it over to the board for questions and comments. >> Any clarifying questions? >> [laughter] >> There's a process. >> Okay. Looks like there's no clarifying questions. Do
251we have any inerson comments? Okay. Joe, do is the Can we check online, please? >> Yes, [clears throat and cough] there are no public comments at this time. >> Okay. Any board comments? Um, well, we will miss you, Dr. Ru Caba. Uh, congratulations, Dr. Heredia. Um, you've contributed so much to our district already and I really look forward to seeing you in this new role and think you are so deserving of it. >> Yeah, I um co-sign and I am happy to call for a motion. >> I would love to make a motion to approve it. >> Thank you, Trusty Brooks and Trusty Kim. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Congratulations. [applause] >> Okay, moving on. Um, board member requests for future agenda items. >> I do have one. I've discussed this with
252uh, superintendent OOA, but as we keep hearing in the messages we're receiving conversations with parents and at board meetings, there are a lot of questions coming up about digital wellness. And the reason I bring this up is because I know that our staff is incredibly thoughtful about this subject and it is a big part of how we evaluate our programs. It's a question the board has raised multiple times whether we've been talking about different initiatives rolling out or the amount of screens used um in classrooms. But I know that something that a lot of parent groups and others is a ton of concern and this is a national conversation. It's not related to our district. But even today, we heard comments about whether our cell phone policy was up to par. And the superintendent and
253I were literally in a round table with the governor of California just a few months ago as a role model for the rest of the state on our cell phone policy. And so it's one another example of those things where we're already doing the work. We already have the AI task force. We're doing so much kind of thoughtful management and um work around this kind of finding that responsible balance of technology. But I don't know that because our community members aren't part of those conversations or part of the task force seeing all that kind of work and thought that goes into it. I think it would be helpful whether it's a study session or a board agenda item to give an opportunity to not just hear from the community about what some of those concerns
254may be but also just really present our philosophy, our approach, the incredible amount of progress we've made in that space and even you know the issue about whether we've evolved since the pandemic. I mean that's that's a given given the conversations we have but to be honest before I joined the board that was concern I shared as well. I wasn't aware of the types of step that we taken. I wasn't aware of the amount of thought and effort that went into kind of reimagining a lot of our processes. And so I do think that is something that is in national news every day. Um the concerns around AI technology screen time in classrooms all that is only going to continue to grow. And I think it's an opportunity to not just clarify a lot of
255misinformation, show what we're doing, but also I've talked to the superintendent in many ways what we're doing here can be a model for a lot of our neighboring districts that I think the more we can really get that information out, I think it'll help drive the conversation in a more productive direction. So that would be my request for the fall. >> Yeah, agree. Um, and I'm wondering whether the format of however we um discuss this could be more I guess like a little bit less formal. You know, we can formal, you know, agendaize it and everything, but I'm wondering if it could be a less formal um like structure, like more of a town hall type of thing where >> it's a little bit less um us talking at or like staff talking at the
256community and more of an opportunity for us to hear like what are the concerns are there perhaps people who are happy with the current level of technology are people are like why isn't my kindergarten use you know kindergartener using AI did whatever like you know and I think we we obviously hear the the parent um from the parents who are most concerned and so but I want to make sure that I understand kind of the range of responses to this. Um because, you know, I've seen the online chatter. I support um our middle school cell phone policy and I've talked to Superintendent OOA about like do we want to talk about like what that looks like in elementary school as well. Um because you know if sixth graders have phones so do a lot of
257fifth graders, right? And so um is there anything that we can do to be responsive to that? Um, but just like seeing um, people talk about cell phone policy, it's certainly not universally loved or liked. Um, I've certainly seen some parents say that they hate it or that they really disagree with it or they want to be able to reach their child at all times during the cold day. Um, or that they want to be able to for the student to contact them, etc. So, I think there's um when we talk about this subject, I think it we should make I think more of an extra push for it to be um truly accessible to um the members of [clears throat] our community. So, that would just be my two cents on that. Um okay,
258but then that's it for now for me. >> I was going to say I agree with you, President Trin, on that. And I think it's also an opportunity for us to call in a lot of community members. We've had physicians and others come through to share their concerns. And so in addition to hearing those concerns, just like we do with AI task force, if there's a way to bring some of those folks in to help us work on our policies or involved in this process, I think we have a lot of talent and concern talent talented and concerned parents in our district who can be a part of helping us clarify where we are on this. >> Agree. Okay. Are there any other future agenda item requests? Okay. None for now. Okay. Board member statements.
259Do we have any this? >> Okay, >> pick one. >> Um, so, um, I might be it might be lengthy like vice president Kim. Um, so first I want to say last week I had the opportunity to spend a few hours at the district central kitchens um, in honor of classified staff appreciation week. Um, I just really wanted to give out a shout out to the women that I worked with on the line. Um, Allison Del Rosario, Maline Montufar, Celeste Gonzalez, and Carla Renteria. Thank you for your graciousness and kindness in hosting a trustee who struggled to place six dumplings in each tray who dropped said dumplings onto the conveyor belts on the floor um and just made a mess in general. So, thank you for um not laughing at me when I was laughing
260at myself. Um, I also wanted to share um a few of our district's accolades that have happened in recent weeks. Um, first to our community schools initiative, restorative practices, and early literacy programs. Um, all received a 2026 Kent award um by the Sanonteo County School Board Association. Um, so, you know, I we often get the opportunity to see a lot of this amazing work firsthand, but it's really nice to be recognized in this way. Um, specifically, I really enjoyed, um, we had a visit last week to the community schools to see their closed closet and food pantry, uh, one of the school sites. And so, it was just, it was really wonderful to see everything that's happening around our school district. Um, another one, a congratulations to Superintendent Ooa, who was elected and started his
261position as vice president of the Association of California School Administrators. Very exciting. Um, last but not least, I really wanted to say that I was really glad to see on the consent agenda item um, crossing guard agreements with both the city of Sonteo and Foster City. I, you know, think it's really awesome to see all of us come together, you know, in collaboration for the safety of our students. >> I will have a much shorter update than usual. Um, I I did just want to do a few quick acknowledgement shoutouts and some of which trusty Ho covers so I won't repeat, but I did want to uh congratulate the College Park Friends of Man and Scholars Community on the uh annual gala they had earlier this month. I did buy a ticket. I was unfortunately
262unable to attend. It's the first year that I missed it, but I saw a lot of pictures and heard it was a great event. Um, one thing I did want to talk about, Trusty Ho and Trusty Proctor and I had a chance to go to Laurel to see the community resource center, the food pantry, the clothes closet, and they know I've already shared my thoughts at the special board meeting we had, but it was just an incredible example of how our community comes together to support the families and students that need it most. And to hear about the generosity of not just the individuals who volunteer and give items, but all the different sponsors and supporters. I had no idea how many folks are involved in this effort, whether it's local churches, whether it's big
263corporations in our neighborhoods, the amount that they give. Um, and I think I' I've shared this in my comments at the board meeting, but or at the special board meeting, you know, as as somebody who grew up relying on these types of resources, relying on food pantries, relying on closed closets, um, and having to face a lot of stigma back in the day back in the '90s when that was a weird, tougher thing to do. I think seeing the conscious effort that our resource centers and specialists make to take away that stigma to turn this into a safe community space to reframe it as sustainability, reframe it as, you know, so many other things and make it feel much more welcoming and much more okay. I think even more than the resources being put together,
264that kind of conscious effort we put in to dstigmatize needing those resources, coming together as a community, um, accepting a lot of, you know, fresh produce and amazing things that they put together there, I was just really impressed by. And the question that many of us had is how do we scale that beyond what we have now? Whether it's strengthening what we have at different community schools, but also beyond our title one schools. Um finding ways to reach more families. And just seeing hearing the fact that we get so much donated to us and it goes out just as quickly means that we have the kind of trust and relationships in our community to really move a lot of products needed. People are talking about diapers, shampoo, food, jackets, whatever it is. Um, it's maybe
265not the central core of our mission, but in so many ways, everyone here understands that we can't do the work we do in education without addressing a lot of these needs. And the fact that so many of our team members volunteer um, and contribute their time, energy, and wealth to making something like this happen, which is again a great reminder of how special our district is and we're just excited to see what how we can build upon this initiative given that it is fairly new. Um, and lastly, you know, point of personal privilege for me. I was at Bayside Academyy's U music program summer concert last night. Really amazed. Uh, my daughter did perform at that concert as well. But just really seeing their students perform and come together, it's just a great example. Uh,
266my daughter was also in the Bayside drama program. And I think we talk a lot about different things we do, but on the arts side, the work we're doing in drama, uh, music, and so many different programs we have in our district, just incredibly valuable for our students for their development, for their confidence, for expanding beyond the kinds of things we think about that are just, uh, math and ELA. And so, just really love all the folks who are part of those programs on each of our campuses to make sure that those opportunities are available for so many of our students. I want to send a big congratulations to Dr. Heredia and um also want to say thank you to Dr. Rubicaba for all of your work and all of the amazing things you have
267done in the district. We really appreciate you. We will miss you dearly. I want to send a great big congratulations to all of our retirees and a great big thank you for all of the work that you have put in uh not only um to our district if you've had any experience and any of the others. I want to thank you for those as well. Um and I just want to say happy summer. Have a wonderful summer. We have what? Nine days left for school. Yeah. >> Counting. >> All right. No one's counting though. She's happy saying happy summer because our kids are done. [laughter] >> High school is over. >> We're in summer. [laughter] Okay. Um is anyone else? >> Okay. Okay. Go ahead. >> Um thanks. I just wanted to share a couple
268of comments as well. um you know, we went to the Bowish ribbon cutting and then I think it was pretty much the very next day we were at Laurel um to visit the community closet and uh and the pantry there. And you know, I said it earlier that when you go when you see what our schools can look like and all the hard work that goes into that and you go the very next day to a school that the students deserve exactly the same that the Bowage kids have or the other schools that we the beach the beach park schools. I mean it really um it really makes you realize that our schools are really different. It's the community obviously makes the school, but um you know I want to continue to just shed light
269on the fact that we have so many campuses and so many students that deserve to have environments where um they can flourish and um you know I appreciate all the work that's being done at at Laurel and um want the best for them and want the best for all of our students. So wanted to just say that and thank them for inviting us there. Um also wanted to congratulate our retirees. I want to say that as a personal um hobby of mine, I love to look at the seniority list and always um I always notice that Lynn as a party is the number one person and I'm like, "Wow, that's amazing." And so I just want to give her a shout out that our number one person on the seniority list is retired after 40
270[laughter] years, too. >> Right. >> Was number like three. >> Yeah. Yeah. So then I so then I started to scroll down and there's you know a bunch of the top seniority folks are retiring this year. So um wanted to wish them congratulations and it's welld deserved. And then um my last comment was just about um you know we passed a resolution for an election. I want to encourage people to run for the school board here. Um we need to hear from more voices and um oh I'm one of the areas that's up for election. So, if anyone wants to reach out to me, I'm one trusty one. You're you're trusty, too. Um, but just want to encourage people to get out there and um and not to be afraid and put yourself out there.
271Um, I never thought I would do it and I did it. So, if I can do it, anyone can. [laughter] >> Thank you. >> Seven years later. Um, I also want to say, um, for the job shadowing, thank you to Miss Julia, Miss Carmen over at Beach Park Elementary. Um, I was helping with the snack distribution. And I was just amazed at how she could tell exactly what each kid had taken and what they needed to take and if they had come around before. and like it was just um you know like she just knew the kids so well individually and so um you know I really appreciated the care that that she took and then Miss Julia um who's a custodian there um I was speaking to her about her um history with the
272district and she said that she had previously worked at Laurel for a number of years and you know just seeing um the care and dedication that that all of our classified staff um put in each and every day um you know regardless of whether they're being called out for it or not. And I just want to just reiterate my appreciation for for our staff. Um secondly, I was able to attend the induction ceremony earlier this month for our newer um teachers and it was really it's always really cool. This is the second time that I've gone to this ceremony. It's really, it's always really cool to see what the teachers are up to, how they've grown in the last two years. Um, their mentors are always, you know, have such lovely things to say and
273it's just um really a reflection of how we invest in our um our teachers and I it's just always a really good like a feel-good um thing to to see and I'm excited for um all of these newer additions to our district. um to maybe be the future, you know, Miss A or Miss, you know, all these people who are going to be 40 years from now, they're they're going to be at sitting at the top of the seniority list potentially. Um third, unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but I did hear incredible things about the Abbott drama production. Um and I just heard that it was like really good, really funny. Um so I want to shout out the Abbott drama department. And then lastly, you know, thank you to all the people who
274reached out to us this week um about concerns that they had or showed up and made public comments. You know, I I think that sometimes in these situations, emotions can run really high. It feels so personal. um you know, everyone is so deeply invested in their school community and it can feel it can maybe feel like we're you know sitting on high and we're just like you know waving our hands. Um, but you know, I think all of us do really truly care that each individual school community it like reaches its potential. And um, I just want to, you know, really say unequivocally that we're all on the same team. We all care about all of the kids and we all want them to be the best that they can be. And I just want
275to really remember that. Um and as you know when we navigate these sometimes really difficult situations. So thank you. I think after that we [sighs] uh that's it. Uh sorry future meeting dates um the last one for the school year is June 25th and public comments on close session items. Do we have any in person? No. Joe, can we check online for inerson comments? >> Certainly. There are no raised hands at the moment. >> Okay. Thank you. So, we will now recess to close session. Thanks everyone. >> I've need to sign this in blue. [laughter] session. Um, reporting out item 15A, a majority of the board voted five to zero to reject the claim C SMC SIG claim number 2026-00854 presented to the district on April 21st, 2026 with respect to events or occurrences alleged
276to have taken with place within 6 months of presentation of the government claim with respect to any events or incidents alleged to have occurred prior to October 21st, 2025, i.e. prior to six months of claim presentation. Those claims will be returned as untimely. It was unanimous. Item 5B um was approved. 50-0. There's no um and that is an agreement and stipulation for expulsion and suspension of expulsion enforcement. Okay. Um that's it. I will take a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. >> [laughter] >> Thank you, Trustee Proctor and Trustee Kim. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Okay. Thank you. Good night.