SB Unified - Board Meeting - Tuesday, April 14, 2026

001We'll call the meeting to order. The regular meeting of the Santa Barbara Unified School District Board of Education on April 14th is now now called to order at 5 at 4 4:46. Are there any public comments? No. Having none, we will adjourn to close session. All right, the board is returning from uh close session. Um, apologies for the delay here. We had some traffic issues at the beginning and a a busy uh agenda. And we'll also um let you know at this point that at the end of the meeting, the board will be reconvening to close session. Um we uh will be accepting further public comment cards for non-aggenda items for the next five minutes. Um and that will move us to item on language access. Good evening everyone. This is an announcement that this

002meeting will have interpretation over Zoom into Spanish and also sign language interpretation. Thank you. Will you join me in the pledge of allegiance, please? >> Ready to begin. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Tonight in closed session, the board voted five to zero to approve the appointment of Alex Sheldon as director of human resources. And that will move us to the student board report. >> Student board member Carlos Taft Vasquez. >> Thank you. Have a few updates. our last board meeting in March, spring break. Our students enjoyed a well-deserved week off for spring break from the end of March to the beginning of April. I also went on

003my first uh of many AVID visits. Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking with the Santa High School senior AVID class alongside Dr. Maldonado. Students spoke highly of the program's ability to prepare them for college over the years. Many of them have been part of that specific AVID class um and been around those students uh since seventh grade and are now preparing to attend a wider range of very impressive colleges achievements that are that they largely attribute to the consistent support and structure that AVID provides. Students did raise some concerns about lack of funding and expressed how much their time how much of their time in and outside of class they spent organizing and facilitating fundraisers to pay for activities such as college visits. They also mentioned that a push for elementary staff to

004advertise and support students looking to become part of the next uh part of an AVID class would be beneficial. I'm really looking forward to visiting additional high school AVID classes as well as the junior high programs in the coming weeks. This week also marks the start of state testing for our juniors. Uh while the added two-hour testing block does introduce some stress, efforts by administrators and student government such as school activities and gift card incentives are helping to ease the pressure and maintain a positive environment on campus. Lastly, the student adv advisory council will meet tomorrow and we look forward to providing input to Dr. Mon Dr. Wilson, sorry, on the instructional continuity plan as well as having a discussion with our high school principles about some of our district's programs andmies. Thank you so

005much. >> Thank you. That will bring us to the superintendent report. Dr. Maldonado. >> Thank you. Good afternoon everyone and welcome. Thank you, Carlos. He's like upping the the report level. It's been I have to tell everybody that's here today and whoever's watching us, it's been such a joy to learn from Carlos and as uh someone who's coming with wanting to honor student voice, he's taken it to the next level. So, I appreciate your leadership. Just remember when he becomes a world leader, we knew him when. That's my vote. Um, with that said, speaking of great leaders, I do want to start this meeting by taking a moment to honor the memory of David Ortiz, the longtime principal of Lalina, who recently passed away. David wasn't just an administrator. He was the heart of the

006Lalina community for 22 years and in Santa Barbara Unified for 31 years. He led with a rare blend of kindness, integrity, and a deep-seated belief in every student who walked his halls. His impact in our district is immeasurable, and his legacy lives on in the thousands of lives he touched. Our thoughts are with his family and the entire Lalina community during this difficult time. Please join me in a moment of silence to honor Mr. David Ortiz. Thank you. On behalf of the school district, I would like to express my deepest condolences to all of you, those of you who knew him as well as to his family and the Lakolina uh staff. On a personal note, the only very few times that I met him and the times that I had a chance to speak

007to him, I I can attest to uh all the things that we're saying about him and his services will be held this Friday. As Carlos reported, as we kick off our state testing window, I want to recognize the hard work of our students and staff. These assessments are a vital check-in that helps us measure academic growth and refine our support for every classroom. Our priority is creating a low stress environment, as Carlos said, which is not exactly happening, but where our students can simply focus on doing their best. I'm grateful to our educators for their preparation and to our families for their continued encouragement at home. We look forward to seeing our students shine. I do want to make sure everybody knows we test uh with the CASP testing or the state testing in grades

008three through six, seventh and eighth. And for high schools, we only do one grade, which is 11th grade. So, thank you for everyone involved in the state's testing. This Thursday, April 16th, we launch our district-wide Armory listening tour at Lacolina Junior High from 6:00 to 7:30. We are seeking community input on how to transform the 4.7 acre site into career tech education classrooms for students, potential workforce housing for our staff, and more. The other date the other dates are here on your screen. Please join us in person or take our community survey at sbunifi.org. Your feedback will directly shape the architectural and programmatic designs that will be presented to this board in the fall. And lastly, as you know, one of my uh things that I enjoy doing most when I give a superintendent report

009is to recognize our staff at all levels of the organization. We have our collaborative spirit award from San Marcos High School, the cognitive strategies leadership team. Please join me in honoring David Young, Dovas Zanos, Fran Corchek, Amy McMillan, and Lindseay Vining. This group of educators came together drawing on their shared experiences to lead the entire faculty through the implementation of cognitive strategies across all subjects. They have designed and facilitated monthly trainings, modeled in modeled engaging lessons and provided direct support to departments. Their work has not only elevated instruction for all students, but has also created a stronger sense of collegiality and shared purpose among the staff. For this award, I want everyone to know that the collaborative spirit awards purpose is to recognize teamwork and uh professional learning community work. So, if you know of

010a team that's doing some great amazing teamwork that benefits our district, specifically our staff and teach students, please go ahead and nominate them. Thank you. And that concludes my report. >> All right, that will that will bring us to public comments. Um before we begin the public comment portion of tonight's meeting, the board would like to thank everyone who's joined us to share their perspectives. Your voice is a vital part of our district's governance. Under the provisions of the California Brown Act, the board is legally prohibited from engaging in back and forth dialogue or taking immediate action on items not specifically listed on tonight's agenda. Because of this, we will not be responding directly to your comments this evening. However, please note that silence does not mean indifference. We value your input and take your

011concerns seriously. Following this meeting, the board will work closely with the superintendent and district staff to ensure all comments are reviewed and that appropriate follow-up or research is conducted. We ask that you please adhere to our time limit so that everyone has an opportunity to be heard. Thank you for your partnership in supporting our students. Considering the the number of non-aggenda comments tonight, we will limit individual comment time to two minutes at the end of a 20-minut period. I will ask the board if they would like to extend the time to assist in time management. We're also requesting that the next two speakers be in the room and come to the podium promptly when being called. Uh, Vice President Munoz, will you please call the first three speakers? >> Okay, thank you. Um, President Banning,

012um, the first three speakers are Ken Rivas, Dana Utra. Okay. And, uh, Mario Guerrero. There we go. Good evening, uh, school board members, superintendent Hilda Maldonado, and, uh, cabinet members. Okay. So, I'm usually here to support a resolution, action item or uh some other matter. Um, but tonight I'm here at the request of two pair of educators I have with me on my right. Uh, and they have requested that I be here in support of their request that they will ask the school board. um they were coming up shortly and um due to a decision that I believe was made from uh our HR personnel for classified employees and the manager from the special education department. I won't mention any names um but just put some context to this. So uh and then you can

013expect a written letter following this meeting. So thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Rivas. Um, Diana, I'm sorry. Um, okay. And then, um, Mario Guerrero, followed by Elaine Rice. >> Hi. Good evening, everybody. Um, >> oh, sorry. Good evening, everybody. Um I'm here today to address like I received a second unvoluntary notice today as I received my first one was on March 17 and it got resigned and I got the notice from Ken like I never received any any notice from HR or anybody else. I believe these two um unvoluntary transfers are kind of retaliation towards I have spoken out about two different issues that I have going on at school and this transfer signific significantly impacts my family as I have my two daughters that are here today with me. Uh they attend to

014the same school. My youngest one has like some special needs and like medical needs that I feel more comfortable have being like in the same school as her as I she could contact me right away and be like something hurts or whatn not like and that's mainly like my goal to like not be transfer and stay in the same school as my daughters. And just my request is for you guys to revise and reconsider this involuntary transfer for my my voluntary transfer. That's all. Thank you everybody for your attention. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, um Mario Guerrero followed by Elaine Rice and then uh Zachary Ortiz. >> Hello. Good evening members of the board. Um, I understand I work for the school district, but I am here representing the students at Harding. My name

015is Mario Guerrero. I am a PAR educator at Harding. I'm here to appeal my involuntary transfer to Washington. This is the second time this year I have been asked to move. My first transfer was already appealed and cancelled because it was found that there was no educational reason to move me. Nothing has changed since that decision was made. As a PAR educator, I have value. My value is in the relationships I have built. I have built at Harding and I know my students needs. I know their families and I know how to help them succeed. Moving me would disrupt just disrupts the classroom's routine for students who rely on my consistency. And also, it forces me to start over at a school where the district previously admitted I am not required. and also it hurts

016the team at Harding where I am where I have proven and have been an effective partner to my teachers. I am asking the board to uphold the previous decision and and cancel this transfer. My students at Harding are my priority and I want to stay where I'm already making a difference. Thank you. >> Thank you. And is Zachary Ortiz is Oh, okay. Thank you. Um, and followed by Oh, I'm sorry. I I am the one. Okay. I'm so sorry about that. Elaine Rice. >> Embarrassing. Hello, members of the school board and the cabinet. Um, I'm here I'm here today because of a grave injustice that is happening with the recent reduction in force notices. Uh, all the current employees in the main office of the student and family services department were given reduction in force

017notices by um by you all. And um this isn't a fair thing for you to be doing to us. Um I started with SBUSD as a temporary employee at McKinley Elementary in August of 2021. and I moved to student services, the former name of student and family services in October of 2021 and I became a regular employee in April of 2022. So I've been doing the district records technician position for the last four years. Um we were told at the beginning of March that we'd be receiving these notices by the March 15th deadline. The reason given for the notices is that there was they were to be restructured to three positions. Right now the admin secretary 4 is at level 50A and the new positions would be at level 50. I'm all for the increase

018to the level 50 for the department. However, there are four positions being rifted with the reason of lack of work or lack of funds. Neither condition is true for my position. I have been increasingly busy. I have a log that I have kept since July of 2022 and I have an on average received and processed over 400 records requests every school year until this year I reached 400 in February. Um the new job description would be for only three people. That's three people to do the job the work of four people. As classified staff we are an integral part of the operations of the district especially at the district office. If we could do the work as three people, it would have been consolidated long before this. As the secretary of CSEA, I know that

019the process to change, update, or rewrite a classified job description must go through a rigorous process, including being ratified by the school board, the CSEA union, and the Santa Barbara Chapter 37 membership. None of these conditions have been um met. Um like I said, there's no lack of work. four all four of us are busy and um if and the assistant superintendent is leaving at the end of this school year >> and I'm sorry and um it doesn't seem right that she should be able to riff us and then leave and not have anybody to restructure for us. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um so um Zachary Ortiz followed by Joel Block and Carolina Bait. >> Hello school board. Um Superintendent Maldonado. Um we have been working very well with the district or at least

020trying to work well with the district being collaborative at every step of the approach. And when I first got here, things were going pretty smooth. But what I've learned is as soon as you disagree with this district, you will not get what you want. You'll be hit with letter after letter in response about technicalities of why we do not have to negotiate with you. These layoffs are just a tip of the iceberg of the issues and the immoral behavior in which this administration that you oversee has behaved with. Whether it's the layoffs just to lay off an entire department just to pull the rug up from underneath them and replace them with higher level positions that have little qualification differences to the retaliatory layoff in a office coordinator position in the afterchool program to refusing

021to negotiate with us over safety concerns regarding a firearm at Santa Barbara High School to refusing to negotiate with us over afterchool program employees that do not have union representation because the district refused chooses to negotiate with us. This is a pattern of immoral behavior and I beg you to please look into what's going on because this district administration is refusing to treat us with the respect and dignity that we res that we deserve as a classified unit of this of this school district. We have worked well. We are not jumping at the seams to complain at every step of the way. We are here now because the boiling point is here. We ask you, we beg you to please sit down, meet with us. We've sent a letter uh an email to meet with

022us individually and I hope you take those invitations seriously. There is a serious problem and again I say it's immoral behavior. You can use whatever legal argument you want to try to uh justify your moral behavior as we see with this presidential administration. It's the same exact process that this HR and legal team is operating with. And I beg you, do the right thing. Our classified employees are struggling. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So, the next um after Mr. Block, we're going to have um Carolyn Abate, Rich Lashma, and John De. See That's okay. Thank you. >> Good evening. Um what I've given you is a chart related to negotiations about salary and uh actual numbers not just how they come out but how they actually affect each of us. So what you have here

023are the first year teachers and 23-year teachers and and what you have is how inflation and the offerings of the district affect each of those. So based on the inflation uh it means that actually in the third column what you have is how much less inflation has caused us to be actually earning for the last for the year of 2025 and then what the salaries would be based on inflation and then what the salary would be if you take the proposed increase of $3,000 from Santa Barbara Teach Association. what the rate increase would be, which is very modest, then what it would be with the really insulting offer of the district of a$1,000 per person where everybody makes less money no matter what. And then that on the old inflation rate at the time and

024the current inflation rate and which is where it says 3.3% that was as of today. That's how much less each teacher would make in that category, which tells you every category in between would lose money. And that every salary that every teacher would be less than what they make now by from the district proposal anywhere from one to two and a half%. And I urge you not to let that happen. I mean, we can talk about how we try to we thought get, you know, work with each other in a proper way, but all this is telling us is we're not worth much to the board or to the district. And I urge the board to direct negotiators to make a reasonable offer. A $1,000 a year is embarrassing and frankly insulting. Thank you. >>

025Thank you. Okay. So, we have um sorry, just uh Carolina Bait, uh Rich Lashwa, and am I missing? Is he here? Are you here? Are you here? Okay. And then, um uh John De. Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. Public comment is essential for freedom of speech and to question the status quo and for the public to hear new ideas. There are critical issues with curriculum and the use of technology in our schools that must be carefully analyzed because there are different better paths forward that use common sense and right reason. For example, do our schools teach biblically based morality? Do they cultivate important virtues in our students? Why is this necessary? Because we all, regardless of politics, value our freedom and freedom cannot exist without morality. Freedom of speech cannot exist without the

026virtue of people respecting other people's right to disagree. Everyone in our country and especially young people must have sufficient moral and virtuous character or we will be unable to govern ourselves and will require a police state to prevent chaos and disorder and the result will be that everyone loses their freedom. Therefore, it is essential for our students to be taught the difference between right and wrong so they will choose the correct and wise use of their free will. It takes time to explain these ideas and reasons so people can hear them and give them some thought. Please extend public comment time to at least 30 minutes and allow flexibility to increase the total amount of time for public comment. So speakers have truly up to three minutes to speak which they haven't had for the

027entire month of January, February, March. It's always been limited to two minutes or less. So thank you for your time and thank you for being willing to listen. >> Thank you. Okay. So, um after Rich Lashua and John Dant will be William Rodriguez. Thank you to those who came out to see Santa Barbara Junior High's spring musical. Uh the arts help our neediest kids to cope. For example, one of our soloists is being raised by her uncle. He's a great teacher, but he was not elected by this board. Instead of receiving a riff, this district's judgment will dog him in every teaching interview. He's gone from job insecure to vocation insecure in a manner of days. With Mr. Dupont's resignation, Santa Barbara Junior High will have its fourth principal in six years. During his entire

028time at our campus, he never had the same admin staff two years in a row due to constant churning of assistant principles and deans. Ever see a business struggle to keep staff? Only the loyalists stay and a leadership that doesn't foster thriving employees will collapse quickly. If the place is lucky enough to survive, it can take years to shake the bad reputation. I mention this because I'm tired of working for a district that kicks us while we're down. The non-reelection of Arthur Gladwell and the resignation of Dan Dupont, while frustrating, are also indicators of larger problems faced throughout our district. The only place it's safe to be an okay teacher in the is if you're in a school where most students enter at the top of their class. Everyone else must be flawless. Yet, I've

029campaigned for equitable access in our junior highs for three years, and this board decided another year for the needs of the schools born on third base was what was needed. I was the only teacher in our district honored at a countywide awards ceremony. Despite news articles and accolades from state representatives and Galita's mayor, it didn't merit an Instagram post from Santa Barbara Unified. This isn't about me. If my ego was fragile, I probably should not be teaching junior high. But if I and my kids are asked to play ball against other kids who were already born on third base, it would be great to have a bat that I could give my students before they stepped in the box. Let's go change the world. >> Thank you. >> Okay. The after these speakers, the following

030two will be Clover uh Gil Main, I'm sorry, I'm not sure how to pronounce your last name, and Rosio Behar. Good evening, board members, Superintendent Maldonado, and staff. Thank you for your time and the work you do for our students and community. I keep coming back and sharing information because I care deeply about this work, and the Armory CTE Center is not good for our community. I spent over 20 years building CTE programs, not just my own. In fact, today I helped a teacher in Northern California to set up a new pathway at his district. I wrote my master's project on the value of CTE for the future of education, and I dedicated my life to this work. I was a part of the conversations when the Armory Project was acquired in 2016. At that

031time, I was excited about the idea of a CTE center, but the context today is completely different. In 2016, about 15 pathways shared a roughly $110,000 Perkins grant annually, and we lacked facilities. In the last eight years, we've invested over $20 million into CT facilities on our campuses with another 11 million planned at San Marcus. And importantly, all three high schools have built strong, sustainable CT pathways that serve thousands of students every year. We're not lacking programs. We're not lacking facilities, but we are facing a different reality. Enrollment's declining. We're always trying to find ways to cut. We're planning for 13 fewer teachers, closing 10 elementary classrooms, cutting 60 high school course sections. And at the same time, you're considering spending a $30 million investment in a new facility that will have an annual operating

032budget of millions of dollars. So, I think we need to go back to what the community voted for. The measure says to repair and upgrade junior high schools and junior and high schools and prepare students for college and careers by repairing classrooms, vocational facilities, plumbing, HVAC, technology, etc. That language is broad, does not require a centralized CT facility. We also need to recognize what's happening in education right now. AI is rapidly changing the workforce and we're entering a period of real uncertainty. The biggest challenge in CT aren't buildings, they're people. recruiting and retaining teachers, sustaining programs, and adapting to change. And right now, our biggest issue is that young teachers cannot afford to live here. You have a choice to invest in our current schools, support our teachers, and strengthen what already works. Because once

033this money is spent, we don't get it back. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, board members. We've reached our 20 minute mark. How many have not spoken? We have um a total of five. We have one including a virtual comment. >> Would the board like to extend to hear those five? >> I I would like to. Yes. >> Thank you. We'll continue. >> Okay. So, um yes, William Rodriguez Clover. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Will Rodriguez. Uh I'm a sophomore at Santa Barbara High School and I'm speaking on behalf of the nonprofit organization AHA. As a student, I've learned the importance of getting an education and doing uh well in school, whether it's on tests or assignments. Um but school can be challenging both academically and emotionally. Um if a student is

034dealing with some form of stress, whether at home or someplace else, it can be really it can be really hard to be a student without support. Being part of AA has given me a space where I can connect with like-minded individuals and the opposite. Um, but most importantly, it's allowed me to be open and feel heard. I've learned how to better understand who I who I am, manage how I process things, process things, and be a support for those around me. I know for a fact not every student has that support, and that's why social emotional learning is so crucial to creating spaces to for students to feel heard and seen. Um, for me, programs like AHA aren't just helpful, but empowering and make a real difference. They haven't just helped me grow emotionally and

035feel more confident in who I'm growing to be, but I've seen this firsthand within my own friends. Through this through their involvement in AHA programs this past semester, which I urge them to join, I've felt our relationships grow stronger and more interpersonal through a shared experience, which is AHA. I'm asking you to continue supporting and prioritizing social emotional learning in our schools so every student has the chance to feel seen and supported. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, so Clover, um, tell me how to pronounce your last name, please. >> Um, Gil Gilmani. >> Gilmani. Okay. And then Rosio Behar and Peggy OA. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Clover Gilammani. I'm a junior at Santa Barbara High School and I would like to speak to you all about the organization AHA and why

036it is important in the schools right now. AHA is a nonprofit organization that focuses on teaching teens social emotional learning which provides students with the skills to manage their emotions, build positive relationships, and make thoughtful decisions. AHA teaches students empathy and effective communication, which is crucial because when students learn to collaborate and respect one another, they not only enhance their social skills, but also reduce bullying and conflict. By prioritizing emotional wellness, AA can help reduce anxiety and depression, therefore creating a safe space for students to express themselves. For me, AA has always been a place where I've been able to work through my problems, be present, form new connections with amazing people, and practice beneficial skills such as mindfulness and gratefulness. I feel that I have improved immensely as a person since I've joined AA,

037and that everyone can benefit from being a part of it. Overall, the skills learned in AHA prepare teens for success, not just in school, but in life. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Hello and good evening. My name is Rosio Carmon. I'm a senior at Santa Barbara High School. Throughout my years of high school, I have been in various college readiness programs um focused on different aspects of preparing for college. What helped me be the vers version of myself to be fully mentally prepared for college was my training with AHA. I learned to understand my emotions and take the actions needed to take care of myself. It personally helped me to learn how to put up boundaries and I think that AVID programs in the district could benefit from a partnership with an emotion social

038emotional teaching program. It would help alleviate stress from academics and help classrooms bond. I want to quickly thank all of you for allowing the implementation of programs on campus like peaceuilders at the junior high and ally at the high schools. I said no to AA when I was in junior high, but when I came across it in high school, I couldn't believe it was the same program I said no to. It has truly been life-changing. With that said, AHA would like to invite you all to our Sing It Out event on Sunday, April 19th at 6 p.m. 11 students and two staff will take the stage at the Lobero and do the intimidating thing of singing in front of a full audience. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Um Peggy OA uh followed by a

039virtual comment from Roseanne Crawford. Good evening everybody. Us. My name is Peggy Ooa. I am the only female youth outreach worker for the entire district and I serve all junior highs and high schools including adult ed. Um, I have a case load of students that I meet with weekly. So, I have to be at every school site every week. Um, I read somewhere that the two top reasons for depression is divorce and getting a layoff, which makes sense except when you get a layoff, it's your company that's divorcing you. So, my heart goes out. I hope you never have to face either of them. If you have, my heart goes out to you because I have faced both. and um I'm here in support of the layoffs that have been happening these past 3 years

040and you're affecting our classified employees. Um we have our student family services team that was vibrant in 2021 when the youth outreach program was created. We had six youth outreach workers taking on all of these schools. And it came in great because of um uh COVID and all the kids that came back with, you know, everything they had to endure during those years um or that time of CO and um CO people say CO's not around, but the effects of CO are still around, especially the emotional effects on these students. The students that I work with are students that um for cultural reasons probably deny or or refuse getting um therapy services. So I'm not a therapist. I'm not a counselor. I'm more like a men mentor or like students call me Thea. I'm like

041their auntie. But um I motivate them to keep going to keep it up. Um, I have students that are teen parents and I'm motivating them to keep going um to higher education. Um, I have students that are in and out of the system. But the saddest part are the students that tell me that they have a daily plan because of ICE where they cannot open the door without an adult. They have a plan to get to school and come right back. They can't be out and about. They can't go to the fair. They can't go to the movies because of what's going on. And for that one time a week that they get to meet with me, I bring activities and we make slime and art and we talk about things and they say, "For

042that little bit of time, I feel normal." And I beg you, instead of dismantling the youth outreach worker program, help bring it back up again. We're losing one of our people. So, it's just going to be two of us for the whole school district to work with these. I know it's a small percentage of students that we work with, but it's still heavy a heavy need. >> Wrap up the call. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Um s I can't see Sandra um or Sidali. Do we have the virtual? >> Okay. >> Sorry, I can see. >> Oh, okay. Thank you. Uh, Roseanne Crawford. Good evening. Roseanne Crawford here. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Thank you. I was pleased to see that the district has hosted targeted meetings to discuss the

043armory. It is important in long-term planning to honor the measure I 2016 bond measures goal of preparing students for college and careers. The bond language is very specific. It cannot be used for housing. The first step was accomplished when the National Guard Armory facility was acquired for educational purposes, including career technical education. While a few of our secondary schools have location >> I'm sorry, I I'm only interrupting because we're trying to hear um we're trying to adjust the sound so we could hear you better. >> I see. Should I start again from the beginning? Should I start again from the beginning? >> Hold on a second. Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Can you can you start again and let's see if it's working? >> I would be happy. Thank you, Mr. Banning. I was pleased

044to see that the district has posted targeted meetings to discuss the armor. It is important in long-term planning to honor measure I 2016 bond measures goal of preparing students for college and careers. The bond language is very specific. It cannot be used for housing. The first step was accomplished when the National Guard Armory facility was acquired for educational purposes including career technical education. While a few of our secondary schools have vocational programs, the needs of all of the secondary schools and the space needed to be freed up for elective offerings need to be explored. There is a shortage of people entering the trades. For example, construction, plumbers, electricians, mechanics are retiring at a higher rate than people entering them. There is a shift of people away from choosing higher education with AI influencing the workforce.

045The community meeting of April 25th will be very beneficial. This big picture meeting is necessary to start looking at declining enrollment across all schools and to encourage an efficiency evaluation. Our trajectory is not sustainable. We can't keep borrowing from Peter to play Paul. Our boundaries have not been evaluated for decades. All the schools have been integrated for over 30 years. We could minimize transportation costs if attendant boundaries were adjusted. Ventura and other parts of California are well in the process of shutting down, combining schools, and adjusting boundaries to optimize operations to lower ongoing expenses. There is a lot of work to do within this district. I asked this board to direct Superintendent Maldonado to make the enrollment and boundary numbers available for all schools so that important long overdue work can begin. Lastly, put on

046the agenda discussion and vote for boundaries to be >> Could you wrap up? >> Sorry, could you wrap up your comments, please? >> Yes. Lastly, to put on the agenda discussion and vote for boundaries to be reviewed every 10 years. Thank you all of you for all you do. >> Thank you. >> Okay, and that concludes public comment on this item. >> All right, that will lead us to board comments and correspondence and we'll do we have volunteers. Anyone ready for their comments? Rose, Vice President Munoz. >> Thank you. Um, President Banning. Um yes, I wanted to, you know, say that this last week I was I participated in the um presentation about the armory and the invitation to the community to part to attend the um the sessions that we're going to have and

047also the um our emphasis on including everyone um the community, the um students, parents, uh family, teachers, ers, uh, staff and such. And so it was it was good to be there, um, and, you know, uh, do a meet and greet with with many of the partners that were there. Um, on the >> You want to go ahead and have our dinner? I already Thank you. >> I'm sorry. What happened? >> Okay. Um I also uh attended uh Spamalot the production at uh Santa Barbara Junior High with the um guidance of um Mr. Lshua and I was um I think the students are a lot more adaptable than I am being this evening um just with unexpected changes and so forth. Um I was very impressed by this production. I kept having to remind myself

048that they were junior high students um because of the caliber of their performances and um I enjoyed it you know thoroughly very inclusive. There was a diverse um participation of students in all the different roles. I think that the selection of students for each role was just like spot-on um and such and um I you know I know um someone else here Miss Caffrey might have been there also I we didn't see each other I guess and stuff but um the the student that played the king was just so amazing and just everyone um they had a student uh who was the diva and such and I mean I you know As you know, I can go on and on. Um, a lot confidence building the they talked about how um how it would be

049to have a production on Broadway and what their wish for was to be able to do that. And I felt like I was at a production on Broadway. Honestly, they came back, they would do the change sets, they would do the um different u outfits, the rolls, just it just amazing how smoothly it went. Um we even had a um um oh gosh, what do you call it? Present. Um sal, let me see. I go into my Spanish. Um the Mr. Dupont was there all of a sudden on stage as part of the production. Pardon? >> Cameo. Cameo. Thank you. Thank you, my dear. And such. And I just it was a delight. There was on the I had like a good seat there in the middle. Um and then there was a family here

050with a little girl who's probably like six years old who was just dancing and singing along the whole time. And we were all just, you know, enthralled by it. Anyhow, um just just amazing. So, it was a a a good week overall just looking at our future um and such. >> Thank you. Who would like to go next? No, no one. No comments. Okay. I just wanted to say um when I arrived in Santa Barbara in 2012 as the superintendent at at Galita, one of the very first people I met um from Santa Barbara Unified was David Ortiz. Um and um I met him in his office and got the first tour of a school other than one of Galita's schools. And we uh talked about our shared um experiences in administration and junior high

051school. And I was impressed at his longevity even then. and uh he's he continued to stay on and and u what a great representative for for the district and uh um my condolences to his family and that will bring us to the report discussion agenda. Uh the first item is an update on the implementation of the master plan for emergent English learners. Dr. Maldonado, will you please introduce our presenters? >> Yes, I want to welcome Dr. Deborah Martinez who's been leading the work on uh the master plan for emerging multilingual learners and is giving us an update on the some of the indicators of the implementation. I do want to make sure that we do not misrepresent that the update of the implementation of the English learner master plan is everything that's in the plan.

052It's really more of a student focused implementation update. There are so many other chapters of our plan that include behind the scenes work that's been done with both our ETSs, our ARIES and other systems that we have put in place uh to make sure that we continue to improve how our system responds to their needs. So, welcome Dr. Martinez. >> Good evening, Dr. Maldonado, um President Banning, board members, uh district personnel and community. It is my honor to uh share with you an update of the implementation plan of the emerging multilingual learner master plan. As m Dr. Maldonado mentioned, we are going to zero in on a few items that are high leverage for um the progress and improvement of our student outcomes for emerging multilingual learners. I am going to begin with a just

053a brief um orientation of our two instructional programs, share with you um relevant data and also share with you practices that we considered high leverage that have really supported our two instructional programs in our systems across the district and across our schools. And then finally uh uh showcase three of our schools who have demonstrated high uh significant growth in LP scores which are the most important indicator for our emerging multilingual learners. So, if you can go to the next slide, please. Or do I have Oh, sorry. Going the wrong way. Thank you. So, as a uh reminder, we do have every emerging multilingual learner is in an instructional program. Um we have our dual immersion program as we know which are um located in three schools. Uh we one elementary, one junior high and one

054high school. We have then also our structured English immersion which is the majority of our English learners or immersion multilingual learners. You can see at the corners I've identified we have 179 EMLs that are in the dual immersion program. That includes the small cohorts at the secondary level as well. And we have 28 reclassified students in that program. And when you look at the other uh side of the vin diagram, we have most of our emerging multilingual learners in the structured English immersion, 1,471 learners. And then we have the majority of our students that are already reclassified, uh, which is 1,37 students. And the VIN diagram really just illustrates uh that both programs have to have a very robust comprehensive ELD program which includes that designated ELD time that is a protected time that typically

055is at the language acquisition level of the child in both elementary and secondary and uh the integrated ELDPS which is everybody's responsibility and that is one of the areas that we will talk a little further on. uh those are all strategies to employ within the content area to elevate language considerations and ensure that students have access. Uh and if you can see from the the differences it is evident in the dual immersion program we are focusing on biiteracy in two languages. Um definitely you know high academic achievement, socioultural competence and the ability to read and write and and and do academic work in both languages. It requires a a specialized teacher. The teacher has to have a certification that's called BClad. Uh the teacher has to demonstrate the ability to teach in the target language.

056In this case, it's in Spanish. And in the other side we have our goal is English acquisition. And even though we may have um initial scaffolds in the child's primary language, that is a scaffold. And it is uh a time where the child is acclimating and not uh something that is sustained. And all of our teachers have an EL authorization. And in the state of California, you have to have an EL authorization in order to serve in a public system. Here I want to just center our reclassification trend districtwide. And this is uh important just to see the trend. And note that in between the 2023 24 and 2425 there is an increase and you can see out of the for instance in the 2425 school year out of 378 students 24% of them reclassified.

057I know there are questions about how our schools are doing with this particular measure and what I can I can definitely share that at a future time. But I also would invite you to consider that the LP measure is a more of an accurate measure. And similarly how we are going to highlight three schools. I do have a report that is a visual that will show you where each school lands when it comes to the dashboard which is the primary metric to um that we use to measure success for EMLs. It predicts their ability to access academics. So as the LP um measures improve and grow, it is predicted that they will have better outcomes academically because their English proficiency is developing. Um so I don't want to miss something so give me one second.

058So I already shared with you that the Alpi growth is the strongest indicator of academic performance and this is a good to know data point. uh but reclassification rates on by themselves is just a piece of information. The LP and compare uh couple that with LP results wouldn't really give you a better picture. So we can go to the next slide. Oh, I guess I do. Um so one of the high lever strategies that we have employed in our schools is um child agency. So in order for our students and this is really a target from third grade to 12th grade. We have developed these systems with the support of our teachers on special assignment and where schools teacher teachers uh various uh members in each school have a one-on-one with the child to for

059them to have that awareness of what their language acquisition is, where their scores are, what the trends mean. And that in itself allows them to have agency in their own progress. Um coupled with that teachers also um utilize different activities that will expose them to the different ways that ALPAC is um designed. So the different task types are being um presented in various points in the school year and especially as we get closer to the assessment period. So this is something that even at the junior high and high school students become much more aware as to their um acquisition level as it's reported by the ALPAC and what that means and how that impacts their reading ability and how that is actually uh something that they also track their their reading comprehension ability. So this

060is something that our teachers have done a remarkable job employing specifically in the third through 12th grade. Here is a summary of professional learning. Um if you were to go back to the two instructional programs in order for those to be effective, our teachers are to be supported in how to deconstruct language across content areas. That is not um a simple task. uh when you think of science or you think of of physics and things that are very complex uh there are certain teacher moves that will uh elevate and predict that the child's going to have higher access. We have two types of trainings. Our dual immersion teachers have been immersed in coaching with our specialists from our partner um organization and that has a different focus because their their focus is really building by

061literacy and understanding the transfer between one language and the other and when um there's a a specific strategy called bridging. Think of it as a meta like the self-awareness of the two languages and what are some of the things that are appropriate to do that with other things are language acquisition in Spanish and language language acquisition in English and when you go to the side of the uh integrated EL focus which really supports both programs. This is where teachers have um been trained and this year we focused on cohorts. So we have like the history teachers, we have the science teachers, we'll have the English teachers, the ALD teachers, and they are uh they receive this intensive training three times a year this year. And they uh basically look at their curriculum and their content

062through the lens of language. And they spend half the day with different activities within their own peers. and then the rest of the day they're actually implementing that within the unit that or lesson that they're going to prepare the following week. It is not a a training where they just kind of receive something and then perhaps uh implement it later. It's something that's very transferable. Uh so the design of the training is very important. And with that I think we have a short video to share and these are just some of the quotes from the teachers. So, Julia, whenever you're ready. We've made integrated ELDA priority because it's central to our new master plan for emerging multilingual learners. It's how we ensure language development happens in every classroom every day for every EML. Recently, our

063grades 3 through 12 educators came together for 3 days of focus training. The goal was to build a shared understanding that language isn't taught in isolation. It's developed through content, through thinking, and through meaningful interaction. Teachers engaged in strategies that elevate student voice, including structured academic conversations, discipline specific language, and intentional vocabulary development, all aligned to both content and language objectives. This work directly supports our master plan by strengthening instructional programs like structured English immersion and our dual language immersion program ensuring that I practices are embedded across all grades and all subject areas. and go to the next slide. These are just some of the quotes our teachers um we do give them a survey every session and we take their feedback and tailor that for the following session. Uh but the feedback has been

064uh overwhelmingly that they do value the time with their colleagues specifically as they process what they learn and they're able to transfer that learning directly to the classroom immediately. Um now I'm going to transition into sharing um and inviting. We have two of our principles here. Mrs. Binkley could not be here. she regrets her ability to be here president, but I'm going to share on her behalf and then I'll invite um Mrs. Curry from Washington Elementary and Dr. Brock from Lakumbre Junior High who we are very proud of the work that they've done with leading their teacher teams. Uh but I am going to do my best to uh share what Mrs. Binkley would have wanted to share with you. So I'm going to start by uh orienting you to the dashboard data that you

065see in the slide. Uh one of the things that is very notable if you look at the 2025 bar which is kind of like the the data. Um one thing to note is the purple which is the first color the 61% that illustrates the students that demonstrate a minimum of one LP level which is what we want every year. We want the students to grow one LP level. You can see in the small image that there are six LP levels within the four LPAC uh scores. This is something that I have shared with you in the past. So a minimum of one is the goal. Uh then we have the 31% of students that maintain they didn't grow they didn't decrease. So we watch those students 31%. And then you'll notice 8% of the students

066uh decreased one level. They went back a level. But if you compare that her to for her uh 2024 comparison data, you can see the remarkable change. And every bar is considered two years that are compared. So 23 24 is compared and illustrated on the 24 here. 2425 are compared and illustrated in the 2025 bar. and that uh because it's more than 10 points growth that uh is considered a significant growth and it is very challenging to get that kind of score and uh resulting in the blue and the blue uh color in the dashboard which is the highest level. Mrs. typically attributes a lot of her success with the strong MTSS program that she has at her school and I have a few things that she would want me to share. As an IB

067uh world school, Harding values to values the students cultural and linguistic diversity as a strength. The school intentionally builds on students languages, experiences and perspectives to enrich learning for all. At Harding, these this is a strong belief that all students can succeed and the growth of emerging multilingual learners reflects that commitment. This progress is the result of intentional systems alignment and the datadriven instruction. This school has developed a strong MTSS system that closely monitors EML students across all four language domains. Teams regularly review progress towards reclassification and adjust instruction based on student needs. After each progress monitoring cycle, teachers and teams refine instruction and strengthen small group supports using strategies such as visuals, graphic organizers, sentence frames, and instructional academic discussions. Fan family engagement is also an area that she highlights as a strength as

068there are sessions that where she holds sessions with parents to really uh share with them not only how what the ALPAC results mean but also uh the design of the assessment and uh ways in which parents can support students in language development and that could be within Spanish development uh because it does transfer to English development and with that I want to invite uh Mrs. Mrs. Curry to share with us um about Washington Elementary. >> Good evening, Superintendent Maldonado, Board President Banning, members of the board, executive cabinet, and our Santa Barbara Unified community. My name is Ariel Curry, and I'm the proud principal at Washington Elementary School. At Washington, we are dedicated to cultivating a community of lifelong learners by building academic confidence and honoring the unique contributions of every student. We know that student

069success requires a collective effort. And tonight, I'm excited to share how we have specifically strengthened our support to our EML students that has contributed to our 17% growth of students who have increased one LP level on the LPAC. This past year, we have intentionally focused on tier one instruction through integrating IEL strategies with our core curriculum. We specifically prioritize the discussion supports language routine in which teachers foster a culture of collaborative conversations and academic language across all student groups. To support this growth, we are utilizing informal walkthroughs to provide teachers with immediate actionable feedback on their implementation. Our teachers and MTSS team work closely with our bilingual par educator to design and monitor targeted interventions. This collaborative partnership ensures that our support is not one-sizefits-all, but rather uniquely responsive to the individual student profiles identified

070by ELPAC data. We believe in empowering our students to lead their own growth as early as kindergarten. Through one-on-one ELPAC chats between teachers and students, we help students understand their own data, fostering the self- advocacy skills they need to take true ownership of their learning journey. At Washington, we celebrate our families as true partners in education. Through our EMAC meetings, we provide the resources and training necessary for families to foster a rich multilingual environment at home, strengthening skills in both English and their primary language. We're incredibly proud of the progress our email students are making. As we move forward, we remain committed to refining our practices to ensure every student succeeds and every family feels fully supported by the Washington community. Thank you for your time tonight and we are proud of the work we're

071doing at Washington and invite you to come see the great work of our students and staff in action. Thank you. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Brock. >> Great. Thank you, Miss Curry, Dr. Martinez. Good evening, Board President Banning, Superintendent Maldonado, members of the board, executive cabinet, and members of the public here this evening. Uh, thank you again for having me here uh to talk about our growth at Lumbre. Um, as Dr. Martinez pointed out with the LP data, uh, the 24 and 25 bars that you see there reading left to right, uh, those show comparable scores, uh, and performance for the same cohort of students. Uh as you know junior high is a group of seven and eight and we and we group students um according to their language level not by

072grade level and the majority 63.8% increased one to two levels um which is remarkable. Uh very few schools can have that rate of growth and in fact we went from red to blue on the dashboard. Um we want to celebrate any growth on the dashboard as we move up uh one color level. Uh but to go from red to blue in one year is uh is truly uh remarkable. And the fact that we have zero students who decreased in the LP level, that little pink band that was 15% uh we zeroed that out as we moved uh through this cohort. Um and this high rate of reclassification at Lumbre really aligns with our district priorities once again of elevating um attention on our ELELS. So by effectively reducing um the number of LELs through reclassification

073uh we're achieving that goal. Next slide please. And similar to Harding uh Lumbre is an IB candidate school and we are developing a culture around elevating the linguistic and cultural exceptionalities of our students uh each and every day. And I also want to thank uh my colleague Miss Binkley uh who is here for helping us build that IB pathway and also thank uh my colleague Miss Curry as well uh many of her Washington students um feed to Lumbre as well and really there's a lot that we're doing at Lumbre that aligns with our EML master plan. Uh Miss Curry highlighted uh a few points. Um the cohort model is really integral to what we're doing. Uh it was um a radical change actually. Up until a few years ago, we were programming ALD students according

074to grade level and uh we made the shift to program them according to language level. Um and then really be strategic about our EML lead uh co-eing in those classes. And uh we're also using our district software uh program Lexia uh to further differentiate for students based on their individual needs and progress. Uh the second factor uh as part of our success is um the interim LLPAC. Um similar uh once again to uh what we're doing at our sister elementaryaries. Uh the interim elac is administered twice a year. It's a formative assessment and it evaluates students skills in listening uh speaking reading and writing. And this level of progress monitoring helps us track uh progress and also adjust instruction uh throughout the year. And uh last are the ELPAC chats. Um these really help students

075foster what Dr. Martinez indicated is child agency and self-efficacy. Really giving them a sense of yes, I can do this. Um and at Lumbre, we take it uh another level by um actually asking our students to uh to take their learning plan home to their families. Uh share their learning plan with their families. Uh they record that audio and then upload it into Canvas. So we really make a a conscientious attempt to really close the circle and bring in our parents to participate in that goal setting process with their child. Thank you. >> So that concludes our report. So we welcome any questions or comments. >> Uh do we have public comment on this item? >> Um I don't have any cards. No, we don't. >> No. So, we'll go on to board uh questions

076first. Any questions? >> no questions. >> You don't have to ask. >> Oh, you do? Okay. >> Okay. Apparently, I've been elected to ask first. Um, thank you for those presentations. Um I I would like to ask principal um Brock about the the cohort model. Do you mind if I ask you from your seat? Um that sounds really really um good and really interesting and is this is this a small test of change and is this something that we are considering across our elementary schools? >> We're actually implementing the cohort model and Dr. Martinez feel free to jump in as well. um at our elementary schools and also our junior highs as well. Um this was uh this was part of our EML master plan and uh we started this um about three to four

077years ago and it really helped to I think shift our mindset um in terms of really targeting instruction uh towards language level as opposed to grade level and um and it's it's really been a big part of our success at Lumbre Thank you. Thank you very much for a um really informative presentation. Um and thank you to our principles, Principal Curry, Principal Binkley, and um Principal Brock for this amazing work. Um it's very exciting and uh thank you. So my question is basically about the district level goal for um for uh is it is it based on LP versus reclassification? Can you tell us what the goal is and where we are um in terms of achieving that goal? So the goal is 57% of the students would um increase in LP level and we

078won't have those results until we get the results from our LPAC administration this year. >> So I I guess my question is I assume it's a multi-year goal. So like over the three years of the LPAC, how are we moving towards that goal? So when I go back to the LCAP, there was uh 46% on the first year and I believe it was 47 or 48% the second year. >> Sure. >> Um thank you. That's very helpful. And then um I guess do we also track performance across every school and how how every school is doing over time? So um we have a platform that can has the capacity to mimic school dashboards. So what you see as a district, every school has its own dashboard too. So they use that to progress monitor. So

079the kids that are showing like a decrease, we can zero in and know who these kids are. uh the kids that are uh in the maintain or didn't move uh an LP level similarly and that's information that the schools use in their MTSS systems. There's another uh system in within and where it um illustrates in in a color code manner like the trajectory towards reclassification. So they're tracking uh basically every time they have intervals or cycles. The one of the things they clo they closely track is reading comprehension which is one of the indicators to reclassify. So that's a system within a system. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Those are my questions. Thanks very much. >> Are there other questions? Carlos. >> Hi. I was just wondering what the if you could explain a little

080bit more about what the process is for English learners who do decrease um at least one level. >> What's the question? One more >> process for support after after that is detected. >> So there they have to have the designated ELD support and that is at their acquisition level. So that gets um um modified based on the childs that are identified as not improving. They are receiving intervention. Uh oftent times literacy and language development are at like they they work side by side. So those are some of the interventions that the students receive. Definitely reading comprehension and then the language acquisition is woven in throughout the across content areas. Thank you for it's clear that as a district we're going in the right direction and then tonight we heard about three schools that are really

081exceeding expectations right and really doing something wonderful. >> How are we taking the lessons learned at these three schools and expanding it across the district? >> That's a really good question. There is um there are conversations among leaders as far as the strategies that they are closely monitoring in their success. A lot of it is aligned with the district goals. For instance, integrated ELT would be one. Academic conversations and having discourse that really does help the students just accelerate their language acquisition. Ensuring that the rigor is supported by supports rather than uh giving them lower level text per se. So those approaches are very much um present in every school site within their own goal setting. As far as um monitor, how are we using a lot of what these three schools or the practices

082that they are employing. Uh it it I think it falls into the intentionality and the and the close monitoring and I think our principles are really doing a a great job with identifying students that are close. How can we support them? I can tell you right now as we're getting closer to the end of the reclassific or the assessment administration, there are students that have not been assessed because they're going to be given them giving them the reading assessment because they're so close. So, if we can avoid having them go through assessment one more year, then the sites really do know who these students are. >> I appreciate that. Um my followup would be can I confirm that there are spaces for conversations to happen between principles to share about the the bright points or

083the strategies even the strategies that maybe aren't as successful that we assumed were going to be successful and maybe weren't as effective and then the strategies that were really effective and that these three school sites have leaned into. This is a really great question and one of the things we are beginning to implement as all of our principles have gone through results-based leadership is the process of starting to do factor analysis. So that's when you look at what positively impacted the results or maybe negatively impacted results so that we can we can have the principles do that deeper reflection with their um uh results that they're getting. So, for example, at our most recent per um principal leadership team meeting, principles did that with their star reading um data. And I know that will be

084a presentation for a future um board presentation, but that is the practice that we are implementing now that everyone is results leadership trained. >> Thank you. My question is well first of all I want to thank Trusty Escobedo for asking my question. I think that's a really important um u important information for us to see. This was remarkable success and kudos to the three schools doing that and um you know when we have that kind of success going on right here um I think that's where we need to be looking about where um where to to transfer the um the skills and the and the protocols that are being used. So kudos for that. I appreciate it. I I did have a question. I want to understand a little bit more what the cohort system

085looks like in junior high school. Is it is it simply the seventh grade moving to eighth grade each time or um and and is it a true cohort or is it who happens to be in the class at that time? >> So what? >> Yeah. No, absolutely. Um thank you uh President Banning. Um we really there's three aspects of the cohort model. Uh one is as I referenced the language level grouping. Um so students are grouped with their peers that have similar levels of proficiency and that's determined by a suite of tools that we use in our district. So we're bringing these tools this suite of tools to the table uh to really be targeted about identifying the students and then strategically programming them into their uh schedule. Uh we use uh eyelet screeners. Um

086also um Dr. Wilson mentioned STAR. Uh we also use STAR scores and also their previous ELPAC scores. Um so we have a spreadsheet of all of that data and we're cross-referencing that to then uh also have qualitative discussions as well with our um with our uh language acquisition team and um to go ahead and program those students. That's that's um the highest level of precision programming we've had using those different data tools um that really allow us to hone in on um on cohorts that are are very um specific and and targeted um that we also have targeted instruction that goes along with that. Once we have those um those cohorts that are grouped by level um as Dr. Martinez was referencing in her slide there. There can be up to six levels. Uh we

087have three classes at Lumbre. Then teachers can adapt their um their um their instruction to the proficiency level of that cohort. Um which we weren't doing before. Uh that was just grade level as you know as a former principal. Um so we're able to use strategies like scaffolding um as well as um the Lexia program to create uh stations within those cohorts. uh that really allow us to to target those um those ELPAC uh skill areas. And then lastly, uh our MTSS model as a district is really key to provide integrated support. Um you know, Miss Curry referenced that at Washington as well as Miss Binkley. Um this model involves co-eing. Um all of our schools have EML leads um where we have an EML lead uh co-e with the actual um EML uh specialist.

088They work together. They align the academic standards and uh with uh with the ELPAC and um and they're very targeted in that integrated support model. >> Great. Thank you. So, um, as just an aside on that, when we look at the dashboard and see this difference between 24 and 25, that's representing all EMLs, um, the score for the entire school one year and then the next. >> Uh, correct. When we do look at that at that side by side score, um, those scores show comparable performance of one cohort. >> Okay. >> Half the students leave. >> Right. Right. Right. So, but but so I'm looking at one that says 2024, there's 35% and then it moves to 63. >> Is that group consist of 50% new students in in the second year? It does. >>

089It does. Yeah. In the junior high model. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. >> No, of course. >> All right. Comments. I um just wanted to say I appreciate appreciated the um the presentation and the information that was presented to us. Um I appreciated your you know um inter uh telling us about what pres uh principal Binkley uh has at her school and what her efforts and then of course I um appreciate Miss Curry and Mr. Brock for being here. Um EMLs are of course something that um are very special to me. you know, being a um English learner myself and and such. And so, no, thank you and thanks for your uh for what you've done and then for your continued work. >> Others do. Um my comment

090is kind of as we think about um this is kind of as we think about board governance and setting a board goals, board specific goals, I think it would be helpful to have a really specific measurable board goal for emerging multilingual students so that we can monitor progress over time because um having a specific goal and some key metrics that we can track over time will help us um stay at the balcony level but really hopefully a um you know have clear direction for the whole district. >> All right, Mr. Escob >> just going to say thank you and um Miss Curry, Mr. Brock, um Miss Binkley, very be very proud of the work that you're doing and I'm happy to hear that there's going to be space for us to share the lessons learned

091and do that factor analysis. That's exactly what I want to hear is that we're doing this throughout the process. we can try things, fall short, we can try things and be really successful. So, thank you for being here and just I'm very proud of the work that you all are doing. >> Thank you. Others >> Carlos, thank you so much for that presentation. Also wanted to say congratulations to the schools, these three schools highlighted for all surpassing 50% of students um you know who increased in these ELPI levels. I think that's incredible. Uh and specific I especially appreciated the um the ELPAC chatsuh aspect because uh I thought you know specifically at uh Lumbra where students are setting goals um with their family members involved I think that's um an incredible process that not only

092you know in terms of accountability not only ha uh helps students within the classroom but then also um having that accountability with their parents at um especially when talking about how we can expand the positive impacts of certain aspects of these programs to the rest of the schools in the district. I think that's one um important uh aspect to highlight. So, thank you so much for the presentation. >> Any other comments? >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh outstanding presentation. Um that will bring us to uh item F2, the finance committee update. Um Dr. Dr. Maldonado, will you introduce our presenter? >> Board members, I uh have uh Mr. Tedeski coming up to give an update. A couple board meetings ago, I was directed to have staff conduct two uh items that he is

093going to now give you an update on based on the directive that was given to us. >> There are some some slides. Oh, here we go. Um, thank you uh, President Banning, members of the board, Dr. Maldonado, appreciate this opportunity to come give you an update on finance committee. And, uh, before I get into the recommendations, I just wanted to mention logistically our agendas are now going to be on our new agenda system where the board um, agendas are. So, we're going to use that out. We um, for our next meeting, which is Tuesday. So, I'm excited to kind of get that formally included in into our agenda system. And so, tonight we're going to give you an update on um the specific there were two specific recommendations from the finance committee to the board

094um which was then directed to me to move forward on doing some work um to compile some information for the board and for the committee. So the first action item was to complete the introductory diagnostic tool for the government finance officers association and the second was to conduct a deeper analysis of the um general administrative costs for the district. Both of which have been done. Um but as we move forward there's still more work to do in committee on both of these items. I think there's still some time that needs to be spent. At our last meeting, we had it on the agenda, but we spent a little extra time on the second interim and we kind of ran out of time pretty quickly. So, the first was the uh introductory diagnostic tool from GFOA

095and really it's focused on the smarter schools uh budgeting program um which I've looked into. I completed the diagnostic tool and it was really informative as to what some of the things we are doing and what are some of the things that we um probably need to focus our attentions on. And so a couple of the things as I went through the diagnostic tool is actually linked to the March 17th finance committee agenda on the website as I've completed it. Um but I do want to mention the some of the higher scores in the areas that I were given is we have the right people um with a lot of experience that can really move us forward in uh if we are going to enhance our budget uh development process. And so I'm really excited

096about the staff that I have that works on our budget. Um we also have communication tools and processes to really um engage the board and our community and the finance committee. Uh we have um some great communication tools through social media, through our website, through notices that go out and through these meetings to be able to communicate uh some of the things that are important as we get into budget development. And uh we also have staff, our cabinet, everybody is really available and would be dedicated to really engage around instructional priorities. And so that's was a big theme, instructional priorities. and we've talked about it a little bit in committee and I think that's a direction that we really need to um to move forward and not just high level priorities but getting more granular

097into the detail of that and I do want to mention there are four of us in the room this evening um that are on the committee so at any point through this any of you who are at the meetings please feel free um to jump in uh some of the things that we need to work on or make some progress towards or that could really enhance what we're trying to do is to really, like I mentioned, drill down into those instructional priorities and really treat the budget, the entirety of the budget almost like we do the LCAP where we really get into setting goals and having the priorities and really digging in um as we identify those critical u elements and how we come up with costs and cost-saving measures for those. um identifying cost

098savings options um to identify areas that we might be able to make reductions or become more efficient. And then finally um I need to work on enhancing our budget document to really get into a little more detail about these priorities and costs and what we're doing and are we accomplishing that and maybe a return on our investment in those items. And so that was the diagnostic tool. At this point, I I did put up here that we don't recommend necessarily moving forward with joining the alliance. Um, but I do plan on utilizing the tools and kind of seeing what's there to help us guide us in that direction, at least not joining the alliance now. Um there's a capacity for myself to have to manage um all of that and um from the information on

099the GFOA website to really make this work you have to invest a lot of people and a lot of time because it's not just the budget people it's our educational people it's our basically our entire cabinet including the superintendent to really make this work and so at this point in time I think it's it's just not the right time to jump in wholeheartedly into this but I think I can use some of those concepts as we talk in the finance committee and in cabinet and through budget development to really get that focus on um those instructional priorities. Um the second item there is the general administrative cost analysis. And so at one of our prior meetings uh one of our committee members did a detailed kind of highle analysis into our general administrative costs here

100at the district office. And you could see through his analysis the increase in costs over time with declining enrollment. And so the direction the recommendation was the board was made to the board to really dig in a little deeper into that. And so staff and I worked together to really come up with a lot of detailed data by line item um to really kind of break out the large numbers into smaller numbers with individual accounts for us to analyze. at that next meeting. Um, our committee member who had done the analysis wasn't at that meeting and he would have been a real good uh person to have into part of that conversation. And again, we didn't have enough time to spend on it. So, I plan on putting both of these items on our agenda

101for Tuesday to have that further that conversation and hopefully we can get to the end of that conversation or at least to determine what next steps might be. And so those were the two items, both of which still need some work. Um I think the diagnostic tool is done, but I think we didn't get enough time in committee to really discuss it. And so at this point, we'll put it on the agenda for the next meeting. And so um and our next steps, I I think we really as a committee need to make sure we're working on alignment and goals. I, you know, we've met 10 times and I think it's a new committee with new people. I'm new myself still. It's been 10 months. I still consider myself relatively new. I'm going to keep

102using that as an excuse for um the foreseeable future. But I think it's important that we all kind of get aligned on what our budget looks like, what the budget document looks like, and kind of get familiar with our processes to really move forward on getting coming back to the board with some real good recommendations on where to look next, what to do next, and how to make the committee work really well. I think we're close. We're not quite there yet. Hopefully, we can kind of make this um a real productive group. And just so everybody knows, we have two board members, two of our union representatives, two committee members, myself and our student board member on and two principles on the committee. And it's a great group of people that are very different in

103their roles and in for the district and I think um hopefully we can start to really make some good progress soon. So that's what I have for you this evening. I'll take any questions or comments. >> Thank you. Do we have questions? Oh, public comment. >> No public comment. None >> questions from any of the board members. >> Trusty Beal. >> Uh, thank you for that explanation, Mr. Tesky. Um, so I I understand that um this tool has it's been insightful as is what I can gather from what you've said and you're going to bring it back to the finance committee to discuss in more detail the areas I suppose that have been identified. Um the question I have is um as as you know the finance committee is an advisory committee for the board

104and I think ultimately we want um spending to be directly linked to our goals and so my understanding is this tool was to sort of see how close are we to doing that and if I understand what you're saying correctly you feel that there's capacity right now to do that um and this tool might if we were to adopt this process, it would it would be time and energy and work that might take a while. Is is that correct? >> I think that's a pretty accurate assessment. I mean, it's a real investment in it, but you you know, we have a big budget. >> Yes. >> That we need to get through. >> So, I guess my question is um really we're going we're going through all this process of analyzing our finances. where where

105is the place where we actually link it to our goals like really down to the nitty-gritty and and I'll I'll just say a little bit more is just from my point of view as a board member um uh we have such a big budget like you said and so many areas to spend it. How do we look at our budget and and would this tool or another tool or any action by the finance committee allow us not only to make sure that our spending is in line with our goals but that we are really planning two or three steps ahead. Um, and that really has to do with our restricted funds. That we have a term for our restricted funds and that we're not in a cycle of not spending money when we should. And

106that we even have um, you know, uh, board president Banning has often said, we wish we had the money to spend on everything we want to do. And so that we even have so I guess I'm asking is a finance committee able to even say okay now we have money that because we're saving money we can spend on things like really tying a lot of issues together. So so that that's my question. You know I didn't know if this tool I'm not a finance person was going to get us closer to that type of planning. if you're saying that you already have a process in place or maybe this one isn't the one you would choose that you might choose another process. So really kind of looking to the future, >> right? Um I want

107people to understand we do have a really good staff of people working on the budget that's doing a lot of good work. um there's still room for for some improvement and really getting down to that granular goal level and I think really that's the work that needs to be done you know as we work on a strategic plan really setting more detailed goals of priorities and programs and I think whether it's this tool or some other way of I think we all kind of get the idea that it's about setting the spending priorities um and tying the spending to those priorities and getting some metrics as to whether are we are we hitting it or are we not. Um and just as a quick example um I went to the conference that Tyler uh who

108oversees our um who actually sold us our financial system. And so there's updates that they've done and they have a whole mo module now called priority based budgeting. And so it's a tool that they have that uses AI to take your transactional data, set metrics, provide reports, and so there's many different options for us to move um toward what we're getting at. I I think we've come to a point to where I think we're kind of feeling the same type of goals here to really get a good understanding publicly um for where our money is going. I don't necessarily think that the finance committee would be about save money here, spend it there. I because I think that's the board's that's the board's responsibility. But I think the finance committee can identify areas of savings

109and kind of get us, you know, make the recommendations. But even within that committee, there's competing priorities from union reps to principles to board like it would be it would be and even community members different priorities would be different uh as far as brought forward. But I think it's a good forum for us to really get into where the priorities are. Do we have the right tools to analyze that? And I think that that would be the next step for the finance committee of you know finding out where those there's uh you know the funds are but I think it's this board that would set priorities for the spending and how that would go and then the finance committee would be there to say okay the board set these priorities show us where the money's

110going and that kind of that is how I see it kind of moving forward >> and I don't know any other members can jump in >> um All right, Vice President Murios, go ahead. >> Thank you. As we fight over who goes first, thank you, Miss Caffrey. Um, yeah, I wanted to ask, you know, from the conference that you attended, um, that as mentioned, um, do you do you see the possibly the priority based budgeting as a good model to to how you know to, um, to help lead your efforts? The thing that I like about it is it's fully integrated to our position control, to our budget, to our pay. It's fully integrated to everything there. So, I have the rep's name. I need to schedule a demo to really see. I saw a

111little bit of it, but I really need to see uh, you know, evaluate it and maybe bring it to the finance committee to take a look at too to see if that's something that that we would do because I really like the idea of having one system where all the data is that we can get the data out, move the data in, run report so it's all in one place instead of moving it from this system to that system and then turnurning through it. So that would be the goal. >> That sounds awesome. Um, thank you and and Thank you for your presentation too. It's very helpful. >> Trusty Caffrey. >> Thank you very much for the presentation and I um heard so many things that I really appreciate. Um so I I think having

112priorities from the board, very specific, measurable priorities. um I mean goals, smart goals and then aligning the budget to those goals and the board understanding our spending and how our spending aligns to our goals and then so yes I I heard many very positive things. Um my question is how would you use this to inform the next steps? Um so for example like creating a uh you know identifying um identifying cost savings that other districts are using successfully. That was one one piece um that was a part of the diagnostic test or uh creating a three to fiveyear financial plan that is linked to the strategic plan. So I'm curious how how you how you think about that. >> Right. I think moving toward specific areas in the budget and benchmarking specific areas kind of

113like we talked about with general administration uh is a good way to look. I think the a next big step for us in the process will be setting priorities and goals starting high and kind of getting down, you know, for mental health. Here's the priorities and the goals of things that that was just an example. But I think that's kind of the next step as we move toward the strategic planning process, looking out over the next few years and really as we're putting the budget together now, really keeping those concepts in focus. I can't do them all in the next month for the current cycle. But I I think as we move forward, chipping away and adding additional uh reportability goals, really kind of getting into it as we move forward as it's a growing

114piece. Then hopefully sooner than later, we have a great model that we can count on. It's just take time to implement it all. And I think identifying those areas to really look at first is probably a good way to go. Mr. Esco, any questions? >> Yeah. Um, I guess it's more about the mechanics and how it's been going. And the last time that we had the finance committee topic in front of us, we were trying to narrow the scope, I think, because it was a little all over the place and there was um authority creep into maybe some of the board's responsibilities. It doesn't sound like that's an issue anymore. But what about the productivity of uh moving towards um getting insight about parts of the budget or I see the finance committee as a

115really good opportunity to have discussions about the budget, the budgeting process for you to bring items to the to the committee when you're weighing different um when you're weighing uh different either paths to getting feedback or even specific specific decisions you're making about budget priorities. How has it been going? And I'm kind of going to open it up to my fellow members. And this is uh I'm going to challenge you all to be frank and honest because as a board member that isn't there and isn't privy to this information, I do want to make sure that this is as productive as possible. And I think it's really easy for a committee like this, a really important one, there's so many directions to take it. And for it to be productive, it has to be really

116focused that you can do you can try and do many things at one time and you're going to do them all unsuccessfully. If you stay focused, we can make some real progress on on our budget. >> So start with you, Mr. Yeah, I will be um very honest. It has been a challenge. It's been a challenge to identify for me what are the important topics to bring and what what will the committee get the most out of and what direction do I think the committee should go and that's where the misalignment has come a little bit into where I've thought maybe this is what we should do um where kind of the committee will then go a different direction. So, I think that alignment piece, I'm still trying to find that sweet spot of structure

117of what how to best break it all down to bring smaller chunks to the committee that in a digestible way that can facilitate the conversation. I don't want it to be just me standing there talking to the committee either. It really needs to be, okay, here's the topic, here's a little data, let's talk about it. I I think that's that's the direction I'd like to go. And I think we've had some of that. We've had a couple really good meetings. We've had some where we kind of went all over the place. But I think really keeping that direction and also trying to keep the committee as a whole on on board because you know when you have a committee, you may have one or two members that have a lot more to say than others.

118And so then others don't speak as much or may not have as much input. We really want to get everybody involved. And so that's kind of those are some of the struggles we've been having really trying to identify those specific areas to focus in on that will bring the most value to the committee and to the board through recommendation. And what has the time dedicated like this? This is an investment. The finance committee is an investment of your time, your team's time, and an investment that can be really, really prosperous for the school district, but it could also be taxing if we're not seeing the productivity on the other end. And I think you spoke to it a little bit earlier and I think we should be frank. There are a variety of um interests

119and sometimes they conflict and that's not to say that they're bad interests. It's just to say that they're different and the perspective of a board member is different than a perspective of a principal. That's different. I mean heck, we have six different opinions up here. Um, so >> I'm kind of leaning towards trying to reassess how we continue to focus and fine-tune this. Can you talk a little bit about the time that you're dedicating towards supporting the finance committee? >> Um, that's a good question. Depending on the topic, like compiling the the general administrative cost data took a couple hours of staff. Um, I've had, you know, we have an agenda setting meeting. So, it's it's not it's not hours and hours and hours and hours, but I think as we move forward and find

120those areas we want to focus in on, it will become more. And so, I think we're still trying to find that right lane to get into to where we're covering a topic, I bring data, we move on, and I think it it it moves along. So it's not it's it's not unbearable amount of time right now as it's set, but I think there's more progress and I think we need to get there as we look at some of the priority based budgeting pieces without the right tools that can be very timeconuming. So I I think finding that lane between the board, what the board wants from us and what the committee wants, I'm kind of in the middle wanting to please both. And so that's I don't know. It's kind of a roundabout answer, but

121I think it's it's something I'm committed to do and um want to make it work if it's going to work. >> Thank you. >> Superintendent Maldonado has asked for some comment. >> I'd like to add a little bit to Mr. Tedeski's answer as um someone who's over help overseen his work and and his management of his team. I think what I'm observing is the learning curve for Mr. of coming into a new district where he's learning a K12 finance system while at the same time trying to and this is not a performance evaluation but manage a new committee the curve of learning for both him to do those things including the members of the committee in what is exactly their goal is where I from the reports that I'm getting that is the pressure point

122and As a leader, one of the things that I want to make sure we think about and us as a governance team is we can talk about the work we're going to do or actually have time to do the work. And so for me, the tension point to your question is that my observation is and I know that when before we voted for this committee, there was one of you who made a comment, we have a new uh assistance soup coming in and maybe we needed to postpone it. Too late for that. we've already started but I think that it's is it g is it the is is it the let me say it this other way we need to manage expectations as a board as a governance team of how fast things are going

123to happen and in order to do that I think we do need to recalibrate and think about how that's going to happen we expected recommendations this year they didn't happen. It's too late in the budget cycle to even get any. Now we're looking into a new budget cycle. And so I think it's important in addition to Mr. Tedeski doing everything in his heart and soul to to ensure that we all get what we want, he is also learning a new team of very dedicated people. we have to align our expectations and really um be sure that it's not just a one perspective in order for that to to continue. So, I just think it's really important to your question that we think about what that's going to look like. And I know we have another

124team, another topic later about committee work and all of that, but if you even look at our committee list in a later board agenda item, we can also start to lead a lot by committee and then when do we get to the work? So, it's really important how do we want to manage that. I just want to add to that observation and I want to commend Mr. Teski for shifting his leadership skills into new ways that wasn't exactly something when we hired him was an expectation. Thank you, >> Trusty Caffrey. >> Um, so what I think that would really help the finance committee is basically as we've said over and over again, the budget should support the goals of the district. So we need board smart goals and basically we need a strategic plan because

125without those things how can the finance committee basically the finance committee's role is not to say what we should be spending money on but aligning the spending with goals. So basically I think that is the major reason we've been totally a drift as a finance committee is that a budget starts with goals and a plan and and you're aligning the two together. So I think that has really been the challenge like I don't think that the finance committee has is fighting over competing priorities. It's it's that we we as a governance team really need to set better direction and then and then the budget will um basically support that. So that's my point um like how how can the board support the finance committee I think is to work on those things. Um that would

126make a huge difference. And then my other point is basically finance committees are standing committees in many districts and I assume many of them are highly functional. So I would love to also hear like how finance committees are structured in a way that they are super productive. I think they're you know we don't need to reinvent the wheel. Um and that it is hugely important to to focus on this. I mean basically like our budget is all we can achieve in our district like and how well we manage it makes a huge difference for students. Our efficiency, you know, knowing that how effective our programs are, how cost effective they are. I think all that um will really benefit our students and the performance of the district. So I I think I I truly appreciate

127all of Mr. Teddesky's work and I think as a board really and I know that President Banning you've talked a lot about this like the board setting direction for our district um but but that is what would make our finance committee successful. >> Did you vice president Munoz? >> Certainly. Thank you. Um initially when we thought about you know when we discussed I should say the finance committee I certainly voiced opin um concern about having a finance committee before Mr. Tedeski came on. Um, first of all, you know, I I was um I stressed that and I thought it was, you know, it was a real concern. And then, you know, we certainly have talked about resolved some concerns about who should be on the committee, you know, etc., etc. Um I'm concerned about well

128one um first of all to address you know Miss Caffy's concerns. I know I find that the um the December, you know, CSBA conference is helpful in terms of workshops with other schools that have what are you know their work with with finance committees um different districts what they've seen you know what are their um pros or cons or how they've have finessed that first of all. Um second in terms of the finance committee meetings and the work that you know the um that your department has Mr. Duseski certainly I've wondered um and this is you know the three of you are there and of course the superintendent is involved with this also is the how frequently the finance committee meets you know how how frequently the finance committee meets and I imagine you know

129you may have discussed that and the timing of the meetings and then are you able to similar to other committees say well we're not having a meeting this time. You know, we have other areas of focus and such. Um, >> we've kind of drifted between questions and comments. I just want to make sure there's no other questions. >> Well, um, I just I we've heard from Miss Caffrey, but I'd love to hear from President Banning and Mr. Vasquez about You're on the committee as well, right? Um, about your experience on the committee. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, if I could if I could summarize what I think the the challenges are is that um much like like everything we do, there's a lot to be done and it's complex and there's um there's nine different people

130on the committee from different perspectives and trying to figure out how to make all that work. Um at the same time that we've been talking about um processes to improve or redefine strategic plans at the times that we've been talking about processes to strengthen governance protocols and things in general. Um that I think really what's happening that is the the greatest challenge is the the question of where are the priorities and what is the sequence to be dealing with them. And I mentioned at the last meeting that I have a tendency to kind of zoom out from it rather than to narrow down and say let's look at the GNA. Let's look at the entire system. And one of the things that that I've heard in my career many times is if you want to

131know what a district's vision is and what the district's priorities are, look at the budget. And what we're saying is we want to say these are the priorities and we want the budget to reflect that. We say look at the priorities and that's a a huge shift because in general budgets are managed by very special people that can handle the the complexity of the numbers and the counting and all of that type of thing and they tend to live in silos. There's all the schools and the kids and the teachers and the custodians and the board and everybody. And then there's the budget people, right? And they get have an audit committee because they have to have their budget audited. If we really want to get to something that is priority based budgeting, it can't

132be done by looking at the budget and it can't be done by looking at the strategic plan. It has to be done by looking at this holistically from the the the perspective of this is what our priorities are. This is how our budget aligns with it. I think it's easier to see what the end result is than it is to see how you get from here to here. And that I think is the biggest frustration because everybody may have a everybody on the committee on the board might have a slightly different idea about what the most important way to do things are. Not not only the sequences but the the ways and this this tool is an example. It may be a perfect a perfect way in some cases. It may not be relevant. But

133we focused on that and we're looking at it and we're going to see how that makes sense. But we can't keep looking at things in isolation. Here's first interim. Here's second interest interim. Here's strategic plan. We haven't even talked about how LCAP is measured and connected into the into the budget. So once again, um it comes down to me to the level of complexity and perhaps frustration about not knowing how to get to what we all I think we probably all have a pretty common vision of what it should look like. But um Trusty Caffrey, you talk about having strategic measurable goals for growth and things like that. Do we do that now and then connect the budget to it? Do we do the budget first and and does the budget drive it? >> These

134are the frustrations that I'm seeing in the committee >> and I don't know. >> Um go ahead. I'm going to >> or maybe that is at a different time and I truly think um Mr. Cheski has been extremely supportive of the committee and has been putting in a huge amount of work and I just based on the verbiage and sorry Carlos why don't you talk then I'll have my comment. I I now I owe you a dollar with >> Oh, it's five each time you >> I've carry a few with me now. >> All right. I mean, from what I've seen so far, um, I think the real, um, problems with the committee would be the lack of a general understanding of what the, you know, committee's purpose is. Of course, we've talked about this,

135um, of exactly what our purpose is and what what these meetings should look like. And then really a lack of, I think, specific direction. Specific direction could be super beneficial to this committee. I think being able to um you know I shared in this past meeting about what I had envisioned my role to be in or we all did really um but how my role um I was thinking with this committee would be to go and you know maybe survey um students and and decide whether proh programs effectiveness stuff like that where our money could be spent in smarter ways. obviously we haven't gotten to a point like that and I you know and so so I would say that that lack of understanding um and then that lack of direction um would be the

136the main things and I would say based on the time based on the times I've spent in those meetings I don't I don't like foresee the committee coming to an understand coming to like a a consensus on okay this is what we should be focusing on like I don't see all our principles you teachers, um, board members, all of us coming together and saying, "Okay, well, based on all of our different perspectives and whatever, we're all we're all going to decide that this one thing is the thing that we're going to whatever." I don't think, you know, maybe some of you guys disagree, but I don't see that that happens, especially not before my one-year term ends. And the two principles, Mr. Hauldron um and Miss Clint uh Miss Miss um Chmerit, they you know

137finished their one-year term. And so I think that's you know there's a lot you know pretty much the entire um time this committee has been alive that I've been going to meetings. Um there's been a lot of just back and forth on what the what the committee should look like. And I personally I think that um you know a a direction from from this board or you know from some from some administration on what exactly we could look at would be you know would really uh put us a lot more a lot more ahead of the game. So >> all right Trusty Beal. >> So thank you for that Carlos. Um I feel that um we did set it up as a board advisory committee and one of my thoughts in hearing this conversation is

138the finance committee has identified many areas in which they could focus and at some point I would think that they would say we can't do it all. um we think that these might be the areas that we can accomplish a lot in and they bring it back to the board and say what is our focus? Can we do one and two maybe three and four later and so I think there really should be an interaction where the the finance committee says we can't do all of these things in a year but we can do these things. what is important to you as a board and and then just focus on that because in an ideal world we get it all done with the help of chat GPT or claude in like five minutes but we're

139not there yet so we focus and I I I feel this um I this idea that you know I sit there listening to you and we're saying save money and then spend money responsibly but we really haven't said what right and it and my my my thought for the community and this finance committee and the board is that our conversations in the boardroom aren't so difficult in terms of where we can afford to spend money and where we have to um to pull back. So when we have commenters saying that we are taking the family services department down to nothing um is the conversation really that we've built capacity somewhere else and we're focusing our money in those places just like the CTE programs are saying well things have changed in 20 years now we

140have great CTE programs on the campuses do we need to place them at the armory that things change and then we people understand that change and how we change how we spend our money because those changes have happened but just being very granular about the the committee. I do think that we have to provide the finance committee if we become outcomes focused with what that means, right? And so that is a missing piece of the puzzle. But maybe for now, um having a discussion about what you can do and maybe coming up with your own priority list of things that you think are really important, things that we need to understand and then presenting that to the board. I mean, >> so I think um you know the reason that the committee voted for the

141GFOA diagnostic tool is that it at least gives a road map of how do you assess a budget and make changes over time. So I think that's what the committee the the reasoning behind it is like here is a road map and maybe it's not the right mo road map but it is a road map and it's saying start with a strategic plan have instructional priorities you know what I mean so um my thinking is basically like um that it's a little premature because the committee wasn't able to even discuss the goofa's diagnostic plan to say that staff advice is not going forward without having input from the committee who advised that we talk about this this tool in the first place. So, I appreciate that it's going back to the committee on Tuesday, but

142I think like they, you know, whether it's this tool or another one, the whole point of the tool is that it gives you it gives you actual step-by-step um a step-by-step road map from going to to going to a place where you your um priorities and your budget are aligned and everybody understands your spending. So I think like that is the reasoning behind this tool. I don't know if it's the right one, but for me because the finance committee is an advisory committee, the fact that the committee wasn't able to vote on whether or not this seems like a good use of of um time is premature. Um and yeah, so so that is my point and I think um to President Banning's like the end goal is clear and so maybe that's what the

143committee needs to backward map to. We get to a day where our budget supports very clear three to five year goals with metrics and then like what is it going to take to get there? I I mean that may backward mapping maybe that's that's the red broo. >> I'm gonna go to Munoz and then to to Mr. Esco. >> Okay. So I'd like to um piggyback on what Carlos said is that because Carlos from what I understand you participate on the committee >> the fin Okay. Um, and so I certainly, you know, I agree that about, you know, the many different the different perspectives. I'm sure that there's some commonalities, but I think there's also some differences. Um, I'd like to compare it with the um housing committee that I'm on. You know, on that

144committee, we have, for example, you know, of course, it's not it's not the same. However, we have a lot going on with housing currently, you know, um and and such and you know, without going into that detail. However, this this month we haven't needed we there wasn't a need identified for the housing committee. Um and so I think that that's an example of when are we there yet? you know, um, we have a new finance director, and I'm sorry, I'm I'm not sure if that's exactly your title, sir, but, you know, and such, but we also have time of unsure finances, you know, the, um, administration prices, you know, gas prices, etc., etc., etc., um, many different details with all of our with running, you know, 18 schools, um, and such. And so I think

145that it might be um prudent to look at you know what are the goals what are the achievable goals that can be for the finance committee and also allow some allow Mr. Tedeski to determine to be our point person to say, "Hey, you know, this is what I'm thinking at this time right now. This these are the other things that are going on with the district financially and such." I mean, which, you know, I'm not privy to, but you know, so you certainly are. Um, so I'm I'm not saying I'm not certainly um saying we shouldn't have it, you know, first of all, I'm just getting from Carlos the perspective of of as if I was in the room that there are many different takes on it. Um, identifying a like as I asked you

146earlier, you know, what did you find from the um conference that was all about finance, right? And school finances and so forth. um and in your experience as you know with your um lengthy experience with with school finance and budgeting and so forth. Um, so I'm saying, you know, how about letting letting some of, you know, as just idea, I um letting some of this happen and then bringing it back so that you, you know, you would meet and proceed from there um to where you know with the goal ideally that it's going to be something that um that you folks can meet about like in terms of you know goals um common goals, what are we seeing? what are the monies that came in in actuality and so forth. Um so that you know

147as a board member that is what I'm encouraging. Um >> let's wrap things up board. Um >> other co questions or comments at this point? Um, so where I'm landing is I I still have a lot of questions about how productive the space is right now. And I think I have a little more insight tonight from the perspectives that have been shared. What I'm going to suggest are I'm going to suggest a few things and just kind of gauge if we can provide general direction to the the finance committee is one I would like Mr. Tedeski and if the the committee but I would definitely like Mr. Tedeski to draft up possible focuses for the finance committee and present them at the next finance committee or the meeting after. I would eventually like there to

148be some recommendation and it needs to be focused for the finance committee. I would like that to be presented to the board and I want two things. I want um how the committee votes as a majority. I want to know what the vote was and I also want to know separately what the suggestion is from Mr. Tedeski and his staff because and the the reason being and the reason why I want to separate the two is Mr. Tedeski has insight into what an undertaking, a suggestion or a focus can be for the finance committee. And I want that pulled apart from the committee so that we can weigh the pros and cons and all of the considerations for the suggestion from the finance committee and weigh that against what is the investment that we are

149going to request from Mr. Teddeski and his staff. I am going to ask Miss Powell to look into um can we have uh this committee recorded and available for review for just the public similar to any other board meeting. It happens at city councils with their ordinance committee, their finance committee. Um, and so they have similar to this committee a minority of the their council and it would be the minority of our board. So I don't think that there's a Brown Act violation, but uh >> that would be fine. It just kind of folks over here. >> Yeah. So maybe looking at that'll be one of the recommendations maybe to come back to us with is if that's feasible for our staff and I think that's more for Dr. Maldonado. Um, and then I think

150it comes back to the board and we can have a discussion about what the focus is going to be and really making this a productive space because I think it has the potential to be. And I think all that's happening right now is folks are frustrated because they know it has the potential but it feels like we're just spinning our wheels and we're investing time and not seeing the fruits of that labor. So that's what I put on the table for for my colleagues. >> Okay. Any last comments? >> Yes. is excellent, you know, suggestion in terms of the um I believe in terms of the um finance committee. Um I've certainly sat in on, you know, many many city council meetings and attended um uh you know, subcommittees and so forth and and whatnot.

151And so I think that would be the most productive and then we could come back and look at it. >> All right. Um anything else? I I just a closing comment. I'm fascinated to learn more about the um priority based bud budgeting and the munus integration. Um I know how important that could be and I want to thank you for the time of of of learning and and setting those kind of things up. So I think where where this has left us um um I'm not exactly sure where it leaves us. So why don't you summarize? Yes. >> As is my job. I want to make sure I understand the direction I took fast notes. Mr. Esc I'm by seeing the nods of the board members without taking a vote. It seems like we're reaching

152some consensus here that uh we are asking Mr. Teski to draft the focus for the finance committee. We're asking him to uh ask the committee to make some recommendations to present to the board. We're asking him to provide information on how the committee votes in terms of the majority or how however the vote comes. We're asking him to with his staff create a separate suggestion about what needs to happen separate from the committee so that you have a it sounds like views from both perspectives. And then um yes, I can certainly look at the availability of the staff to record the meetings, the space, and the time. I don't see a problem, but it will be an addition. I want to make sure the board knows it's going to be an additional cost to the

153board to pay staff over time to do that, and I don't see it as a bad investment. >> Can I just want to make sure I captured that correctly, Mr. Esco? >> Yeah, as long as um I'm looking for two recommendations. one from the committee, one from Tedeski and his staff. They could be the same in the end, they might be different >> and um >> be able to speak to >> what it would take to do both. >> Does that make sense? >> So, just a little clarity on the recommendation you're looking for. Is it for the focus of the committee? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. And can I can I add to if you are writing up your um trustee Escobedo recommended um having a write up of how the committee should

154function. I would like to hear basically um some research of other finance committees and how they are functioning. So I think informing it based on best practices for finance committees. So, how are they typically structured in districts that are really high performing financially? >> Before we answer that question, I would like clarity from this board if that is what you're asking Mr. Tedeski in as part of this proposal because that shifts the time and attention of Mr. Tedeski's goal and what was I heard proposed. I just I'm asking for clarity >> and can I just give context for why I basically think we we have heard that the finance committee has struggled to coalesce. So I think as you said earlier about schools learning from each other, schools learn from each other, best practices for

155schools. Similarly, we should be taking best practices financially and in and in our financial committees. So it just seems like this is worth the added investment so that we don't waste the time of everyone who is committed to serving on the finance committee. So that is my reasoning behind asking for that. I I would only say that that the the process of determining comparative and appropriate other locations that are that meet the terms of what you mean by high performing and and so forth is is also um a lot of time and energy to find a comparison that is truly a legitimate one. >> I but I'm I'm guessing Mr. Tedeski is part of an association he could pull his colleagues. I mean it doesn't have to be scientific like exact but I I think

156just as we I mean this is really where I want to go with our financial management just as we expect best practices for um how we teach reading like similarly we can learn from from from others. >> Okay. Mr. ESO. Then >> I'm just I'm going to try to land us in a spot where we can move forward and say um I'm not going to go as far as where Miss Caffrey wants to go. It might be helpful to provide options for the the committee. Provide a rationale on why you chose those options. I'm not going My suggestion would be that we don't hold you to any specific process. Explain yourself. um and that uh that should be enough. The committee might also bring other options and settle on another option which is why I

157want to have the two recommendations from the committee and from Mr. Tedeski and his staff. And does that seem agreeable to the board? >> Yeah, I would like to say that I'm in support of, you know, as we as indicated in terms of um Mr. Tedeski and the committee. Um, I do not support having Mr. Tedeski research other schools, contact them, follow up, see how they, you know, what uh models they use for budget budgeting and so forth. I I'm not supportive of that because of the cost and the time that would be spent. >> Okay. >> Um, >> are we at a point we can move on? All right. Thank you. I appreciate the dialogue on this. It's important. That will bring us to our action agenda and the first item on that is

158the amended board committee assignments >> and I think we're going to have uh Okay. So, Miss Powell, do you want >> Yes. As you may recall, we did um discuss, we just finished talking about one committee and we know that we have to >> uh learn about how we're running the many committees which you can see an extensive list here. Uh, I want to thank Miss Powell for organizing the committees in a way that helps us all understand the Brown Act, the Green Act, and all else that's available as we look at ways to involve community and other folks in the decisions that we're making tonight. What we want to make sure that we are clear on is who's participating when and how are these how is this work being led because there's many work

159streams that we have to uh conduct on top of all the other things that our cabinet leaders and directors are leading. Thank you, Miss Powell. >> Okay. Um, so this item asks the board to assign board members to board committees under board bylaw 9140 and it categorizes each committee under the applicable legal framework. Um, just as background, board bylaw 9140 requires the board to formally appoint representatives to all district committees. And so this chart formalizes the assignments and adds um some committees that weren't on the prior chart. So like as everybody probably remembers, we went through this in December and January and this is essentially a cleanup. Um I wanted to explain the way I organized the chart which is into three categories based on um who and how the who created the committee, how

160the committee was created um which determines what laws apply to the operation of the committee. So category one is Brown Act committees. Those are any committees uh created by formal board action. It doesn't matter who sits on it. If the board created it through formal board action, that makes it a brown act. The only exception is if it's an truly ad hoc committee, um, which none of these would qualify for. Um, category two is green act committees required by the specific ED code. Um, there's a specific ED code section that dictates which committees um, must operate under the green act. And they're, um, pretty much just the parent uh, parent advisory committees. Um, and just to compare and contrast, so Brown Act has a lot of procedural requirements as we all know and talk about

161a lot. Posted agendas, public notice, public participation, and no discussion of committee business outside of noticed meetings. The Green Act is very similar, but the main difference is that last requirement under the Brown Act, the no discussion of committee business outside of noticed meetings, that requirement is lifted for the Green Act. So there's not the similar concern about parents or whoever talking about green act um matters or green act committee matters outside of the meeting, but they still do have to um comply with the open meetings and the posted agendas and allow public comment. Um and then the third category listed here is committees created by the superintendent to advise administration and those are not subject to the Brown Act or the Green Act. Um and they're operational committee. So that was kind of the

162work I did was really just trying to figure out all of the different committees that exist and put them in the chart and then I think I'm going to hand over I don't know if you want Bill me to hand over to you now to lead the discussion on kind of where who should go where. >> Yeah, I think we just want to make sure that we've got holes filled in the the right people in the right place on this. So let's um let's start at the top. >> Well, may I say one more thing? >> Yeah, I apologize. I do want to note under the Brown Act committee and and I apologize if you said it miss Powell there's a new one uh which is the career tech advisory committee and you'll note in

163the document that is something we have not done that is one of those moments this is one of the moments where we're going to do but the proposal is not to start till 26 27 so for tonight are we asking to assign or do we do we move that to the December mber organizational meeting which is when we actually select the committee members. >> Maryanne, do you know when it's going to start meeting? >> It won't start until next year, next school year, >> but I think this will be our first time to like we're if the if we don't meet until if we don't do committee appointments until December, then there would be a few months of the committee operating without Got it. >> a board member on it. >> Okay. >> So, if

164it's that's a committee where the board can have a member on it or they don't have to. So I think it's up to you but I think now would be a good time to appoint. >> Can we have a discussion first before we move on? Yeah. >> Thank you. >> So is is there an interest in in uh in us assigning board members for that committee now to be effective in the beginning of 26 27? >> Okay. But um I want to make sure that what I'm hearing is later we are you I think it would make sense for us to have representatives on this at the start of that committee or not tonight perhaps. >> Maybe we should get a write up of sort of more what it's about and have a little more

165information. >> I think that makes sense. We can get that done later this spring. >> Yeah. And I I agree because I don't know where we're headed with the Armory project and so I think we need to know more about what this committee might do. >> Yeah. And just to be clear, it's a required committee that we have not had. And so there's a learning curve on our side about how to set it up because it is required. It's not something we are putting together separate and apart from the Armory project for all CTE programs. And so I think the learning curve on our end is how to set it up, who's going to be on it. That's like the first phase of us getting started. And then the question is, do they have to

166have board members or can we decide not to have board members have the advisory committee run by staff? Does it still become a brown act because you have it as car category one? Can you clarify that? >> It still becomes a brown act regardless of if board members are on it or not. For example, the seabach is a committee that is a supposed to be a Brown Act committee that is not actually allowed to have board members on it. So, it will be a Brown Act committee no matter what. Um, it does not have to have board members on it, but it can. And that's probably just something to decide once we bring it the item. >> I hope that's helpful. I want to make sure we're all clear on our own learning curve on

167the administration side. >> I think we need a future agenda item to uh clarify more about that committee's role and select people at that point. >> All right. So, um let's just walk through these and see if things are okay and fill the gaps. Uh audit committee is currently um uh trustees Caffrey and me. Anyone want to change that? All right. The citizens bond committee. We don't have there are none permitted. So the next >> May I ask a question about that though? So is the is the board responsible for appointing people or recruiting people to the citizens bond oversight committee because I know we've had vacancies for for some time and I'm curious do we need to be active in recruiting people? And then my other question is I've tried to read the minutes

168of the bond oversight committee and there's no information in the minutes. So basically, how do committees that where board members don't attend report out um to board members so we understand what's happening? >> So um so there are seven members on the committee and so we currently have four. We're going to be bringing we've been recruiting and so advertising that uh process and getting the right person to fit that particular role. So we will be bringing a fifth person coming up either at the next board meeting or the meeting in May to be approved by the board. So Seabach is responsible for recruiting and so we do all the recruiting we can but uh ultimately we bring the application here for the approval. So regarding the minutes we'll go back and make sure that we

169capture everything that we're supposed to be capturing in the minutes. So, >> and um for also I think the plan is it may be like a slow roll out but for all of the ones listed under Brown act here and maybe we should also do the green act ones to actually happen through diligent um in terms of the posting of the agenda and so that'll be where minutes are captured. So I think there will be more structure to it. >> I do see the agendas but I don't see I see minutes but the minutes have no information. >> You're absolutely right and we that's what we're saying. We're going to fix that and we're going to start using it in diligence so there's no like fishing for minutes like we currently have. You're absolutely right.

170>> And then we get an annual report from that committee. Is that right? >> Yes, you do. In the springtime. >> Okay. >> So, from the the president of the committee. >> Okay. The next is Cababa. Um that's uh Gabe and Rose. This is uh this is now becoming a Brown Act committee. I don't think it has been in the past. Uh Rose, you're listed as alternative on that. >> Uh yes, certainly. Um and I'm interest, you know, I would want to continue on that committee. >> All right. Um the finance committee, that's uh Celeste and Bill. >> Any volunteers? I I think we better stay on and figure it out. All right. The housing committee is uh Gabe and Rose. >> I'm also curious about reporting out on housing. >> Yes. And as Miss

171Munoz said earlier, we have not met for a while. Uh so I think that part of it is when we meet we will have updates, but we haven't for a while. And most of the time, I don't think I've missed a report out from our meetings. So, we just haven't met in a long time. >> So, at what point does a >> at what point does a committee come ad h become ad hoc versus standing committee? >> It's really about the jurisdiction. So, if an ad hoc committee would be like there's something happening right now and it's going to end at some predetermined time. So, >> so the housing committee has in some documents called itself ad hoc. But I think ad hoc is actually like a legal question and it's I would not >>

172So it's a brownout committee that's meeting on a as needed basis. >> Yes. But on a standing subject matter. >> Yeah. Okay. Uh >> and I'm sorry I was you know out of the room um for a minute. Was it that we're going to report back on committees or I'm not sure what the No discussion was. We're looking at at the committees from the uh the lens of whether they should have been or are green green act or brown act or superintendent committees and there are a couple of them that we have members that have been attending that had not been officially appointed. So we're just using this opportunity to double check where we are with all of them. >> So that was housing committee. Um the wellness committee is a has an NA um

173apparently not board members on that. That is also a a Brown Act committee. Is that correct? >> Okay. Is it possible for board members to join that committee? >> Um, so it it's possible. It's my I don't know who has knows the most about the wellness committee and maybe they can come up, but um it's my understanding that it's really more of a um operational you know I think the board has historically been on committees where it's really about like the high level oversight governance input that is the board role. So I think you guys just want to think carefully about you know is the committee doing work that is actually appropriate at the board level or is this more of a working group operational sort of um body that it wouldn't make sense for

174a board member to be on but it is ultimately up to the board member and uh Kenya >> the wellness committee evaluates the nutritional program of the district its sole purpose is to do an evaluation um every other year every third year I don't recall and then to look at our wellness this policy and make sure it's been implemented across the district. >> So, I guess my question is um kind of right now we don't have a policy committee if and let's say tech policy that is integrated with wellness or nutrition policy or PE policy. I don't know like how do we as board members right now um approach writing policy if it's not uh if because when I asked about a wellness policy they said it was going to be developed in the wellness

175committee that in in my board Q&A or I misunderstood >> that is not true the wellness policy is part of those standard policies that we bring through that's from CSBA we update it with specific specific names and things that are unique and specific to the district, but what is in there is standard language. >> We do have current wellness policy within the CSBA. Um >> okay. And then the the question in regard to establishing committees was answered in think in the in the board correspondence. Okay. So the next one is that that finishes the brown act and the green act. The first one is the uh the DEMAC committee and that's currently uh Rose Munoz with Sunnita as alternate. Are we okay continuing there? >> Yes. >> Um the local control and accountability plan parent

176committee. This has a TBA on it. Is this one that that um >> we are asking? >> Well, I think this is one where maybe some board members were wanting to go or were going and so we just wanted to formalize that if that is going to continue to happen. So, I've been attending the meeting since before I became a board member and um I mean if there is a place for a board member to be there, I would like to remain involved. >> Okay. Can we put you down as the representative? Um do we have a um volunteer for an alternative? >> Alternate. I would like to be an alternate if that would be a you know um good support and I don't yeah an alternate >> and and I'm gonna ask a general

177question where we have committees where there is a committee member and an alternate I'm presuming it's appropriate for both to attend. Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> I I also should have asked first how often does this it it meets as needed I would imagine. Right. the out the LCA cap. Oh, and and also if it o if they overlap sometimes, you know, like the I'm also on the MLA committee and so forth. So, tra traditionally the part that I participate in is the parent one and that one has a series of meetings that start in about April and run through May. So, it's a very concentrated set of meetings like four. >> Four. >> Yeah. And so, that's what I participated in. Sounds good because I and yes and I know that I've certainly sat

178through um uh Mr. Venz's, you know, um, LCAP presentation to the DMLAC committee and such, but yeah, thank you. >> So, we have two there. >> Okay. >> And just I think we should, um, get all of the assignments and then do a vote on the whole thing. >> Okay. And then, uh, spe uh, the SEAK special ed advisory currently, uh, trustees Caffrey and alternate uh, Beal and in the superintendent um, created committees. This is where we have some folks that have been attending and I think we want to fill some gaps uh, formally. So there is a um artificial intelligence committee that uh um can somebody let me know how this is meeting and who's been attending or who is interested? >> So we've only had one meeting and um I did attend that

179one and um I think it's taking shape. It's it's supposed to meet through I believe the fall of next year and then I don't know if it'll be ongoing beyond that. I guess it depends on how the AI world treats us. >> And this is this is separate from the tech committee, the district tech committee. >> It was it was deliberately split. Yes. >> Right. >> And I'd be interested in this committee also >> as an I would also be interested in that committee just because I'm on the tech committee and I've been reading a lot about tech. So, I don't know if it's a strong interest for you, Trusty Munes, or if >> I'm sorry. >> Oh, I don't know if it's a strong interest for you to be on that committee or >>

180Yes. I would be interested more interested in the AI committee than the tech committee. >> Oh, I was basically saying I'd love to serve on both, but >> I'm willing to step back. I will send my husband as an emissary, but um I mean, you know, I >> it's okay. I >> So I'm hearing on the artificial intelligence committee. >> Caffrey, >> I have a question. Would we >> Well, honestly, like this is, you know, trying to figure out how to put this. Would we send a spouse or family member on the on a committee for >> I think it was a a joke. Um >> I know he is. he would represent me, but he has an interest in how the district develops AI technology. So, I think there's all these working groups and

181I I don't know. >> They are separate. >> They're not a voting group. So, I'm not sure. Is it really a conflict? >> No, I think it's fine. I think everybody there has an interest in it. So, I think it's you know, he's not I think he needs to be clear. He's not representing you. He's not representing the board. >> But we do have the limit of two. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, where are we landing, Gabe? >> If we can go back. I'm bringing my husband to the demlock committee. >> I have a I just want to express I have a strong interest. Sorry, Dr. Bill. I have a strong interest in Dr. Bill being on the AI committee just because I know that this is something that she's very interested in.

182I've talked to her a few times about it. I don't know. I I personally have a strong interest, but I will back out. >> Yeah. No, I mean I I personally Okay, here's here's the deal. I think, you know, Sunnita, if you're on the AI committee, I think that's a a real asset. Um, I would like to be on it. Um, especially we've having we're having a lot of concerns about this given my u mental health background and issues with it in terms of how that can go. Yes. Bad and not so good. um and for our students with their um mental health welfare that >> are we are sure that we're understanding the distinction here because I know that there's discussion about device usage and how much time kids are spending on devices at

183school and at home and AI is really more about developing policies and understanding the capacity of this new new tool embedded within the school is is that >> that's my yes so the the AI committee um Rob has been setting up and he could certainly speak about this is has a couple of arms. One is to set board policy to come up with board policy and then we are there is I I don't want to say we there's a conference on April 30th where speakers are we're still figuring out what's going to happen there but there's some issues that people want to have address concerns about AI and students and um and so yes I do have a great interest in it. I've been thinking about it a lot. It's a big part of my

184career. So, I'm I'm happy to be on it, but I don't want to push somebody out who is has a real interest in it. Um, tech use committee, which I also have been participating on um for the last year and a half, has now turned into kind of a working group and they're really uh talking about how we're going to manage technology with students. And I know that it was set up to be a limited and it was supposed to kind of decide some things by the end of this year, but it's not clear to me that, you know, if we just sort of say, okay, we're going to take all the technology away from everybody and we're just going to go into, you know, with our notebooks, um that that we can just do

185that, make that decision and that be the end of the committee. I mean, I think there's a lot of talking. So, um I I go to support the parents um because they're they they have some real concerns. So, I I you know, I don't know. I I feel like um we've got to think about this one a little bit more and we're still kind of seeing where it's going. That's that's the complicated thing. Um >> well we need um I I think that we can >> I I do think that um you bring a lot of expertise to the AI committee so it is important for you to be there. Um >> and I you know for me like if if you're on the AI committee I mean that's great you know I think we

186>> you know >> for me the tech committee is more important I would say. So, >> so would you be all right with with Sunnita and Rose being on the AI and you on tech? >> And then who is there another one or an alternate interested in the tech committee? >> I'll serve as an alternate if if no one else on that. >> Oh, do you would you prefer? >> I would be okay staying on it if nobody else wants to be the alternate. >> Got it. Okay, leave me off. That's good. That's good. >> They were all one, but now they're split into two. So, that becomes a little challenge. AI now is uh Rose and Senita and the tech use is Senita and Celeste. Okay. And that brings us down to the uh

187external and >> Can I just ask one question? >> Um it's not about those committees. So the district arts steering committee, I I would say that I don't I'm it's not as much that I'm interested in being on those committees. I'm more interested in going to the meetings and seeing what's happening. As you may recall, we've had a lot of people talk to us about the Prop 28 funds. >> And so if if so, it's really I've gone just to kind of learn and understand how they work. I actually haven't been to the recent meetings because they this is kind of the end of the year and there's not a lot of decisions being made. So I don't know if what happens if a board member just says, "Hey, can I just go to one

188meeting? Can we just to just to to see what the conversation is um as opposed to participating with every single one >> that's yeah I mean I'm used to that important question I think it's a hard line to draw and I have been trying to be clear about it but I understand the resistance I mean I think under the the question is what does it mean to be on the committee versus going to committee meetings um and in my view I don't think there's really a difference especially when you're going as a board member because when you go as a board member, even if you're like, I'm just here as a member of the public, like that's not how it's seen. And I think it also is very hard in practice to go and just

189listen. And I think the bigger thing is like if you go, but you're not on this list as assigned, then what if two other people do the same thing? And then you have a Brown Act issue because you're all three there. So I think if you want to be on the committee, the thing to do is sell everybody on putting on appointing you to the committee. If I understand the conversation correctly with um so I know that with our brown and green act committees we are going to have minutes but with these superintendent created committees I'm just more interested in the decisions that are being made like how much money do we have? What do we decide to spend it on? I mean I think in an ideal world it's we have something on our

190website that talks about how we're spending our Prop 28 funds. Literally people stop asking questions that I cannot answer. And so some that's really in some ways my interest in going to the meetings is to just see how the school the the schools themselves say okay this is my pot of money this is how I want to spend it. Um and then all these other people come and saying why aren't we spending money on this. So I just want a greater understanding of how those funds are spent. They're ongoing funds. Everybody seems to be interested in them. Not everybody knows how they're they're being spent. So that's my only interest in going to the meeting. >> Well, maybe part of the solution is for all three of these superintendent committees having it's not a requirement

191under Brown or Green Act, but having a practice of having agendas with some minutes so that you could review and see what happened. >> Like maybe a summary I I know it's work, but a summary of what transpired just you know >> I totally agree with Trusty Bill because I cannot be on another committee. I feel like I'm really at capacity, but I would love to know what's happening and um and maybe could we standardize what the minutes look like for committees so that we have discussion and it could be an AI agent that that does this, but we can read the discussion as opposed to just the decisions because decisions without context, it's hard to understand what was going on. So I I have I'm just going to want >> I have a concern

192about Yeah, just real quick. I have a concern about creating extra work for, >> you know, so much as a superintendent as staff in terms of every committee meeting. Um >> but with AI, they can literally just transcribe everything. It it's no work at all. It's like a transcription, >> right? Except the thing is that um jeez that with with the minutes from a meeting then we have questions, right? Just like I would if I you know if I got minutes from a charter school meeting or so forth. So I'm just saying like this the work that can be involved. That's that's what I think. I don't know what Mr. Oscoto thinks or you know or the rest you know um the rest of you Carlos um and such >> I I I think that

193um we've heard from our general counsel that the that having now I here here's my question this is a superintendent created committee the arts committee was created without board member participation and is that something that was in statute about this or is it was it just that decision? >> No, because there wasn't a statute because it's just the board uh the superintendent who created it. But I think >> my and I'm not sure who on staff knows the most about it. But I think it's >> the thought was it's the same kind of thing where it's more operational and less kind of at the board level and that's why it's historically been that way. >> So it was originally created um before COVID and it was designed to create a a a strategic arts plan.

194So that's why the committee was originally created and then once we carried over after CO we continued to update the arts plan as well as knowing the money was coming through to communicate and work with our arts teachers. So that's the origin of it >> and we do have a website dedicated to the expenditures and the funding u Mr. Kelly, that is a live website that that we can update every year that shows how much money school is getting and what the money is going to as a response to the concerns you mentioned earlier around this particular topic. So, it has morphed into first this money's coming, what are we going to do with it? Then it was by school creating their plans. Then it became okay so how is the money being spent and

195so on. So it has morphed into that. I don't know that we necessarily need to convene it more than maybe even once a year if anything. So again, these are committees that we set up for particular issues and then they can be morphed into others, but they're not intended to uh be the similar kinds of setups as the Brown or Green Act meetings. >> Okay. I I have a suggestion at this point. if they're meeting annually, maybe the solution is to just make sure that there's a brief report after the committee meeting at the next board meeting. >> I think that would make many people happy, not just me, just because they can read it and I don't have to tell them. I'll just say read this piece of paper. >> All right, moving along.

196The external inter agency bodies, the uh Santa Barbara County Committee on School District Organization is the the committee that never meets. Um, and that's my committ and and actually they they have to meet once a year, but you're not on that committee. You are the district's representative. So, the only time you have to meet is if there's something that affects Santa Barbara Unified. And so, that's >> perfect. Okay. Um, the Santa Barbara County School Boards Association currently, um, Trusty Munoz is the member and I'm the alternative. I I have spoken with her about swapping those roles. I would like to attend those meetings and have her as a backup. So, let's do that. >> And then, um, the Santa Barbara Ed Foundation um, representatives, it's uh, um, Dr. Beal and I are are on that.

197I'm not sure if it's a standard and alternate. I don't really know the difference. You've attended certain ones and have come when I said I can't. I've typically been to anyone that I can go to. Can we leave that the way it is? All right. And um the South Coast Youth South Coast Youth Safety Partnership Policy Committee, Gabe Escobedo, and I'm the alternative. Do they meet? >> Yeah, they meet next month. I believe I got an invite >> and you'll stick on that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, I think we have a roster um to move forward and uh establish these. The other thing I would like to say that I think at at uh an appropriate time that it would be wise for the board to meet in a a special session um to

198have some instruction uh from our general counsel in terms of what are the differences in these committees, things about committee protocols. We've talked about that a little bit. Um I'm I I don't want to do overkill and have a committee on committees to decide what the committee should do. But um I well I heard also the standardize of minutes, right? That is something that I don't think just the board needs, but I think we as a staff need uh and I think that's something we need to develop so that when you do get minutes, we're looking at it. While I appreciate the suggestion that AI takes notes in our meetings, I will say that my particular accent doesn't always get picked up the the way that I think it does, like when I do a

199voice text or even using chat GPT. And so I I don't know that the technology is there yet for us to use AI. But I do think that we need to uh create a coordinated way to capture minutes and um have all of us who are running committees get trained on that way to do it so that you can expect minutes that that really are meaningful and that capture the work while we do the work. Otherwise, we're spending time talking about the work we're doing while take trying to take notes and we'll just drive ourselves crazy. So, that would be my recommendation. >> So, I misunderstood the intent of the the expectation about having some further training. You've explained to us the difference of these committees. You've asked some questions. I'm not asking for more

200work or more meetings. But so, >> it's more like standardized practices. Okay. >> That we all learn together. Okay. >> It's not just the board. I think the standardized practices about running committees, taking minutes, protocols to follow whether it's with board members or not is the the work we're going for here. >> So there will be some sort of training around that. Okay. Thank you. All right. Any um any further questions or comments? Um then in that case I'm going to um there no public comments right and I'm going to ask for a motion. >> I'm Oh >> I motion to approve the board committee assignments. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> And board member Vasquez your advisory vote please. I >> board members. All in favor? I >> I opposed. >>

201Motion passes. >> All right. Our next uh agenda item is approval of agreement for with artifacts IT to provide consulting services and this is um >> yes I'm back. Um >> Mr. Tedeski. >> So this is a really um critical point for us um with the munus system. And so the Munis system contains a lot of our financial data, position data, expenditure data and we implemented this system what 15 years ago and the system has evolved. Um, I don't know how well this district has evolved with the system. And so at this point, we've had some personnel changes in critical positions. And it's really important, I think, now to take a step back and uh really bring in someone who knows the system very well, who understands schools and what we do and how we

202do it. um to really take a look at how is the system set up? Are we maximizing the efficiencies that are in the system? I think what has happened over time, the system has evolved, rolled out improved processes, programs, interfaces that we haven't necessarily picked up on and implemented ourselves. And so what we have tonight in front of us is a contract with a company that does consulting that has experts. the consultant we talked to actually worked for Tyler Technologies who created the Muna system um who knows all about it and so the focus is really to start on the HR side just that's one component of it from hiring an employee to the paycheck and all of the things that happen in between because when I talked about the priority um budgeting if your

203data is not good in the system your reports don't come out accurate and aren't going to be useful. And so the real focus initially starts kind of in the HR area of position control, a critical piece since 82 83% of our budget is in positions. And so it's it's stepping back looking at how the system is set up. Do we need to make any changes to those setups? and then actually having this consultant work with staff to see how they're doing things and help them be more efficient in their processing of things like retropays and all the different things that we go through. And so I think this is a critical time and um contract for us to really get some support in that area. Like I said, we have some some changes of staff

204in critical areas that really need some support, a little training, and uh this consultant actually wrote um some of the user guide for the mun for the mun system in this area. So, I think we had a a pretty good meeting with them um and got a good feeling about um the work that they would do. And the nice thing about the contract as well, it's a not to exceed and so it's based on hours and based on the statement of work, most of the work would be done remotely. So we're not having to pay travel fees or anything like that. And so they would get into our system, look at how things are set up, spend time online with staff, go through processes, and it will have an impact on how we create our

205budget and how we create projections for staffing and all of those bringing all those pieces together. And so, um, to me, it's a it's a big next step for us to support our staff, to help them be more efficient. Um, and um, it's it's a great opportunity for us to really get better at how we do things. And like I said, it's a not to exceed. If we get a couple hours into it and we feel like this really isn't working, there's a provision 30 days notice to get out of it and be done with it. So, I don't think that would happen. Um, but, um, we would definitely stay on top of it and, uh, really make sure meet with staff regularly to make sure, um, that it would be working well. It would

206be the HR staff, my budget staff, some of the payroll staff, all kind of working together to make sure we get the most efficiencies out of the system as we can. John, did you have anything you want to add or >> So, with that, we can take questions or >> are there public comments? >> No. >> Okay. >> Um, questions from the board members. >> Comments? >> I appreciate that you're working to optimize Um, Munis, so thank you for this work. >> Sorry, I only chuckled because I'm like, let's go. No, no, I was like, let's about >> I I I really appreciate this. I know that that um Munis is not highly used in the area here and having the the support and and connecting all of these kind of things. I really appreciate

207you taking the initiative on it. >> And I really got to see how many things it can do that we may not be doing. And so, um, this is a great opportunity for us to get better. >> Bravo. Okay. Is there a motion? >> Dr. C. >> Um, >> Miss Caffrey, >> thank you. Um, I motion to approve the final um, statement of work for artifacts it. >> A second. >> I second the motion. >> The student advisory vote. I >> board members. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion is approved. All right. That brings us to item H. Accept acceptance of donations. I'd like to note that this month's donations include a generous contribution of $30,000 from the foundation for Santa Barbara High School to be used for the Santa Barbara High School library

208fund. Any questions? Is there a motion? I'd like to make a motion to approve the donations. >> A second. >> I second the motion. >> All right. Board member Tas Vas Taff Vasquez. >> I. >> Board members. All in favor? I will note that uh Trusty Caffrey is is not here. >> And that gets us to the consent agenda. >> Are there any items to be pulled? No comments. Is there a motion? >> I'll move to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> We need a second for the consent agenda. >> Oh, I second. I'm sorry. I said I second. >> Okay. >> All right. Board member Tess Vasquez. >> I. >> Board members. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> The consent. >> Okay. All right. Motion passes. Um, >> we have

209um only remaining items of um future agenda and such. We are returning to close session. I would advise that we take a brief break before convening in the in the other room. Are there any other items that we need to cover? All right. So we are adjourning to close session at 912.