001[Music] Fall [Music] away. [Music] Huh? [Music] Fall. [Music] Good evening everyone and I'd like to call this meeting to order at 5:31 p.m. Is there any public comments regarding close session? Hearing none, we will adjourn to close session at 5:31. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] That's [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat.
002[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Hey. Yeah. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] I don't [Music] know. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Good evening everyone. I'd like to reconvene this meeting to open session at 6:09. >> I would like to make the recommendation that we dedicate this meeting to Alice Pacheco, our past principal of Mckv. >> Thank you. >> We will start off with roll call uh with
003our student trustees. Trustee Gonzalez >> present. >> Sorry, Asher Gonzalez. >> And our new board member, Natalene Magna, >> present. >> Welcome. >> Trustees, roll call. You're fine. Trustee Kumazawa >> here. >> Trustee Rodriguez >> here. >> Trustee Sandaval >> here. >> Trustee Fru >> here. >> And trustee Aoyo present. >> Uh item B, report of close session. And I would like to announce that the board unanimous unanimously appointed Melissa Gera as director of 7th through 12th curriculum instruction. Congratulations. Would you like to say anything? >> Actually actually please come in in >> under 10 minutes please. or five or three. >> I'll keep it to 20 seconds. But I just want to thank the board for entrusting me with this role and I look forward to working with all of my secondary partners and
004with Director Bergman to continue to move our secondary schools forward. Thank you. >> Thank you. Welcome aboard. And now if you can join us in the pledge of allegiance. >> Ready? Begin. Algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible and justice for all. [Music] Would someone like to make a motion to approve the agenda? >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and second. >> Preferential vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. Item four, staff reports. Item A, student board member reports. Do we have any reports today? >> Yes, we do. Um, do you mind? >> Go for it. You're up. >> Uh, good evening everybody. Um,
005I'm glad to be back. I'd like to begin my report, uh, tonight with the Mckvit Academy of Visual and Performing Arts. Uh, the principal, uh, Lorie Sanchez remarked that they had a successful first day at MKVID, that students and the community were very supportive of the new change, especially coming after MCO's, um, untimely death. uh for the Blanchard Academy of Visual Arts. Um they also remarked that they had a successful day of school and they also had many beautifification projects over the summer to make Blanchard a more welcoming and um welcom more welcoming place for the students. They also made a lot of more a lot of new um equipment purchases um for the enjoyment of their students. So um we are excited for um Blanchard's new look um for Santa Paula High School. Mr.
006Guzman said um that he was very happy with how the school year has started. SPHS initiated its days of welcome. On the first day of the school year, so this past Monday, students reported to the first period of class. However, they also rotated around from different stations, four of them to be exact. Center courts had support personnel. The auditorium had rules, expectations, and changes from last school year. The football field had activities like jolly jumpers, um games, and other such um events. And the gym had a motivational speaker, Lamar WBLE from New York. Kids were moved around by grade level. And Mr. Guzman also noticed that student absences decreased by 76% today and yesterday compared to the first day. First day we had around 100 absences. Yesterday and today we only had around 24 absences.
007Um, I also was able to speak with some teachers in career technical education programs. What they had to say was that they desperately needed a CTE counselor, especially for classes that needed dual enrollment requirements and they needed them to start before. So, it I mean, I can also see how freshmen needed to register for those classes. Um, I'd also like to read a message from Mr. Alex Flores. He is the director of the um a academy and future farmers of America who actually just um came from competition this past week. Um he he writes, "The Ventura County Fair was held on August 4th through 10th. There are 64 students that attended the fair with their livestock products. The Ventura County Fair brought in 1.3 million for all the kids of Ventura County Youth Agricultural Youth
008Organizations. who's livestock projects at the junior livestock auction. This is the power of the agriculture industry. Community members, supporters of the F supporters, and FFA alumni. The livestock projects are funded by our own students and their families in the hopes of making a small profit for their projects. Some students take out USDA project loans, which are federally funded loans to help with the livestock project expenses. The funds earned from selling their market animals goes towards their college savings, savings for next year projects, and most importantly to help support their families financially. The results are in for the reserve champion market lamb Valerie Adennas. for the market lamb class champion. Jasmine Madalo for the uh market lamb class champion. Jessica Martinez for the reserve grand champion. Market steer. Jaylen Abato for the market steer class champion.
009Ani Arbalo for the grand champion breeding hayer. Khloe Cass for the reserved grand champion. Market barrow. Carlos Valencia for the market hog class champion. Jordan Salana for the market class champion. Aaron Reyes for the market hog class champion. Justin Garden for the market goat class champion. Analyia Magna, market goat class champion, Julissa Dorado, novice showmanship champion, Jackson Via, and the FFA agricultural education booth second place $400 prize. Again, thank you to all the buyers, livestock breeders, our teachers, our administration, our parents and volunteers that help support our students with these projects and our agriculture program. Congratulations to all the participants and winners. Sincerely, Alex Flores. Um, also one thing before I um end it off, one thing that I've noticed is that teachers and students alikes have a very shared reception. They do not like
010the Monday start day this year. I mean, that is I've gotten that from administrators, from teachers, from students. Nobody is liking that Monday start. they like the Wednesday into the Friday and then the five week the five days after that. Um I have no other items on my report. >> We apologize. We didn't recommend it. We approved it what they gave us, but let's fix it for next year. I agree. >> And Natalene, do you also have a report to start? Um, I do not have a report for today, but I'd like to say that I'm really glad to be part of this be a student board member for this year. >> Thank you. Welcome aboard. And do you want to say anything like you're a senior? >> Oh, yeah. Um, this is my senior
011year and I'm really excited to be part of this and making this part of a really memorable senior year. >> Thank you. Okay, moving on to our committee updates. I'm not sure if anybody has any committee updates. We'll start with Kumasawa. >> No updates. >> Rodriguez, trustee updates. >> No updates. >> Trustee Sandival. >> Uh I did attend the um Ventur County CSP, Venttor County School Board Association's Executive Committee. Um but I'm going to defer to uh Trusty Ftos to update us on what we talked about. >> Okay. Go for it. >> So, I it was a busy summer, no doubt, but I did attend um my first um meeting for the Santa Paul Education Foundation. Uh so, I'm a non voting member. Uh but nonetheless, I mean the the committee makeup there, you know,
012you you have uh individuals from throughout Santa Paula, educators, business owners, and just in general, you have people who really care and and want to see our community uh thrive. Um, some of the things we talked about were we definitely uh probably need to start a campaign of uh soliciting more money for scholarships, but uh uh for for students, you know, for students who who are in need and who who deserve it, right? Um we talked a little bit about the the past award night uh that took place in June. Uh Paul Royo, uh Manny Elisaras, and Mr. Goodness gracious. Gina Vanessa. >> No, no. The gentleman from um the garden market Yamamoto. There you go. Who was uh were the the the first uh annual uh awardees and so it was just the discussion
013was a good night and looking forward for a second annual uh event. Um and then one of the last topics or out of several but one that would I believe would be a worthy discussion was uh the Ventura County Community College District um discussion regarding an education center here in Santa Paul. So there I later on in the evening there I'll I'll go into more details under board comments, but there will be a meeting on August the 21st. Uh and it was nice as a as a foundation, as a committee that we decided to uh be in support of of of this of our efforts here. Uh regarding Ventura County Board Association Executive Committee, uh we met this past Monday and it was our first meeting and my first meeting as a committee member. uh
014we talked about programming and one highlight that I want to take away from from that meeting was uh our efforts to to reach out to local um you know politicians or local leaders in in throughout the state of California. And so right now we're in contact with Senator Lemon and hopefully we can we can get her to one of our our our our meetings uh there at at Ventura County Office of of Education at Viko. Uh and I think it's just an opportunity for us to get to know her a little more, but also that she can see advocacy taking place at a Ventura County level uh and what we're we're about. But, uh, ultimately, um, we're looking forward to, uh, continuing, uh, I guess setting up more programming, meaningful programming for, uh, for trustees
015throughout Ventur County and for leadership, uh, throughout Ventur County. And that's all I have. >> That was nice. Thank you for the report. >> Uh, item five, public comments. Do we have any hearing? None. Moving on to item six, presentations. Item A, summer school 2025. Good evening board uh student board members, board members, Mr. Weining, and our cabinet and our public. We are very excited to be able to share with you our summer school um program. Uh we are going to be able to share a separate slide for our Cardinal Success Academy that we revamped this year. But um I'm going to turn it over to um first I'll kind of give you a little beef brief overview of what our program is. Um, I'm always very fortunate to have to work with such high
016caliber principles and you know my Aspire leads uh do a lot of work with them to be able to make sure that our summer school runs really well. But here's our focuses and they're going to go into more detail as to what um we actually did happen. But um all of this that we were able to achieve was under their leadership and their hard work and dedication. And uh so we're going to start with our um uh summer school program for the rising kinder and rising eight. Good evening board members and superintendent. My name is Lorenza Sanchez and I have the pleasure of serving as the summer school principal at Barbara Webster Elementary School. Our program serves students from rising kindergarten through rising eighth grade in general education as well as preschool through seventh grade
017in our extended school year um special education program. >> Good evening. My name is Michelle Choa. I I had the privilege of serving as the summer school principal at Blanchard Elementary School. Our program included rising kindergarten through rising eighth grade students as well as rising kindergarten through rising third grade students in our dual language immersion program. We were very fortunate to have an exceptional team of both certificated and classified staff supporting our students this summer. We collaborated closely to ensure high quality learning experiences. And tonight we are presenting a combined elementary summer school program data. Teachers implemented the standards aligned language arts and math lessons using the TCM scholars um curriculum. Pre and post assessments were administered to monitor student progress and guide the instruction across both sites. The data shows um for English language
018arts, 61% of students from rising kinder through rising 8th grade made measurable gains reflecting the success of our focused reading um in lang in language arts and the range of improvement was from six to 40 points. In math, 56% of students from rising kinder through rising eighth made measurable gains, demonstrating the effectiveness of our instruct the instruction. The range of improvement was from 7 to 34 points. These results suggest a positive impact on student learning in both subject areas, helping to strengthen foundational skills and build confident leaders across the curriculum. In addition to the core academics, the students participated in a RAZ kids summer reading program through the learning a throughz online platform. Each class had dedicated Chromebook time for structured reading pro program practice. As students completed all 20 books at their level, they
019leveled up and received an incentive prize bag to celebrate their progress and motivate continue growth. at Barbara Webster. Our total a total of 263 students from kindergarten through 8th grade um across both general education and special education programs participated in the reading online reading program. Of these students, 175 students advanced by one level, which means that students had to read 20 books and um complete comprehension um quizzes and within their level. and 55 students made exceptional gains advancing two to five reading levels. At Blanchard, a total of 230 students in kindergarten through rising 8th is reflected on the chart. Collectively, these students read over 8,320 books to the Ras Kids Digital Library. Each student advanced at least one level within the program with 69 students progressing two to five levels and nine students making outstanding
020gains of more than five levels. We also saw tremendous success um with our summer science program at Barbara Webster. The program was designed as a push-in model with science teach um teachers visiting classrooms daily and at Blanchard each science teacher had a designated classroom and welcome different classes throughout the day. This program provided hands-on interactive lessons that encouraged students to be creative problem solvers and compassionate collaborators. Um the inclusive design allowed all students to engage meaningfully with science concepts and with one another. So here are some pictures of our students engaging in these activities. We also have provided some videos of these activities. [Music] >> Three, two, one. >> I think Wow. Another highlight was our speech spectacular for grades six through eight. Students researched and ro wrote speeches on topics of personal interest connected
021to Santa Paula, their school, or broader societal in issues. Topics included bullying, immigration, dress code policies, and mental health awareness. Each class held a competition and the top three students were invited to pres present at a speech night located at the Santa Paula High School auditorium. All participants received medals in recognition of their outstanding public speaking and advocacy skills. We also incorporated a wellness program led by Miss Erica Himenez and Miss Sonia Perez to promote um student social social emotional growth. The goal was to promote positive behavior, build community, and engage students through fun and structure. Both sites implemented a ticket system to reinforce and reward positive behaviors. Students looked forward to shopping for items with their tickets um earned tickets at the end of each week and at the end of the summer program
022a field day was hosted with games, sports and team building activities and it was a chance to celebrate the students. The wellness center supported both individual students and hosted group activities aimed at improving mental health, emotional well-being and peer connection. The wellness center offered a mix of individual and group based stu student services. These visits help student reset, refocus, and get support for deeper needs. Students participated in a number of group activities that created a safe and fun space for expression, connection, and emotional growth. Activities included drum circles, arts and crafts, self-care activities, friendship building activities, and board games. And here you can see the numbers of students that were seen through the wellness center at both sites. These numbers are for both individual and group participation. These slides show a breakdown of total students
023that participated in drum circles and the number of students that participated in other group activities. In closing, we are proud to share that the growth in both academics and social skills we saw across the summer school program. These pictures and videos that we brought to you tonight reflect the joy, engagement, and excitement that our students experienced this summer. It was truly a privilege to serve as at Barbara Webster and Blanchard this summer and we're grateful for the opportunity to continue to support our students and staff. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any comments? >> Oh, sorry. >> I mean, do we want to ask? >> Okay. Just wanted to check. >> That's keep keep rolling. Good evening, board, superintendent, cabinet. How are you guys doing? I'm here to discuss our independent studies over the summer. Um
024before we get into it, uh our real summer superstars are Justin Smith and Liliana Nuno. Together, the three of us, um really made this program go. So that's home visits, virtual meetings, parent meetings, daily outreach, progress checks, and tech support. Um getting kids to work in independent ver independent studies virtually over the summer can be a little challenging, right? You're already in summer mode and then we're asking you to still work. Um students enrolled, the goal was credit recovery. Students had the ability to complete two to three classes during the summer. Uh majority of the students enrolled were full-time independent study students. However, Santa Paula High School counseling office did refer a handful of students to the program. time these students weren't able to attend home uh the in-person summer school. Uh four students also
025transferred to summer is during the start of the second session. So maybe they weren't successful or they did have something so they came to us the second session. Uh 33 students completed one or more classes earning much neededed credits. Full-time is students who did not complete the entire course during summer still have the ability to complete that course in egeneuity. So let's say they 75 80% done with the course, they can pick it up this semester as a like a zero period or a seventh period class to earn those credits. So that's 78 courses for a total of 390 credits. Uh this is more than last summer. So we were very pleased with that. Uh and the majority of these courses uh were courses that students previously failed. Well, all of them because credit recovery,
026but they were core courses um that we focused on this summer. And well, I'll save the questions for later. >> Good evening board members. Uh my name is Mosana and I'm the district lead for the Aspire program. >> Good evening. My name is Jasmine Naga and I'm one of the Aspire leads. And here you can um we have a list of enrichment activities that we provided this summer to all our students both at Barbara Webster and Blanchard. Um here are some of the pictures uh of many that we took this summer. But our goal this summer was to provide activities for students that uh normally would not be exposed to these activities. Um we did so many um from sports to swimming. Uh, but I really wanted to highlight the Flow Academy that we uh
027collaborated with this summer. It was an opportunity for our upper graders to go and learn how to surf and uh we saw some really positive outcome from that. Uh we had students that loved going every time they had an opportunity uh where every time they had their days to go. Um it was a really positive thing that we saw from our students and uh we hope to continue offering that to our students moving forward. Um we also did a lot of sports. Our students are very much involved in all the football, uh, soccer, basketball. Um, we had cheer at the end. Um, and then we also continued our swimming program. So, that was a really big highlight for our younger students as well. And on campus, we also had multiple activities for the students to
028be able to participate in. But the ones that I want to highlight were um being able to have our field day. Our students were able to do have jolly jumpers. They had obstacle courses. They had activities that made them closer with their classmates as well. We also had a water day which we gave them so much time to be able to get in pools. We had water jelly jumpers. We had other games. We gave them cotton candy, popcorn. So, they just had a blast. Um, we did have the opportunity to provide them two field trips. Um, we went to the Los Angeles Zoo, which was a first for so many of our students, especially during these scary times. They felt safe. they thought had so much fun and got to see a different side of
029what they probably are not used to seeing. And we were able to take our students to the Lake Cassita field trip which they always have a blast um getting in the water. So, um you know, every year we always learn from what we do and I I I know that um my my all the staff, the principles and you know, the Aspire staff, they do so much before we get started. So, like all our all our leads, we're working in spring to get ready for summer. So, they really do a lot and everything that we get to do is because of all their hard work and their leadership. So, but we always debrief and learn. So we are now here to to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to run a successful program
030and open to any questions or comments. >> Yes, I have some questions for Miss Sanchez and Miss AOA. Um for slides 9 and 8 um I see that there are totals included 263 and 230 but they were included in the bar graph. Can I get clarification um on what does that mean for the chart? So looking at this chart, so the um on the pie chart there, the green includes the total of students and then the blue is the amount of students that did advance by one level and then the yellow are the 55 students that did um make that um that advanced two to five reading levels on the RAZ kids online reading program. I just wanted to just make sure that that the total was accurate. Um because there was the I mean
031there's the description and I see 63. I'm like wow we had more than 263. Um and then for >> it's both combined in that graph, right? I mean that that that green part really shouldn't be there, >> right? There should be the the the 33 that didn't um make, >> you know, significant progress in there and then that would total up to that 263. >> Yeah. I just wanted to add I just ask for clarification um from members of the public and then for uh five and six there are two um >> two charts right there. Can you just um define the factors that were considered when scores decrease? Was it just um test scores? Was it just did they did not achieve the that the measurement that you hoped they achieved? >> Yes. This
032um these scores these numbers are based upon a preassessment and then a post assessment. and the students were giving the preassessment at the beginning and then they um had that post assessment at the very end. So this is a combined total of all of the grade levels at all of the schools. >> Right, those are my questions. >> Can I piggyback on does that uh because I did have another question on that. Um what assessment was used like is it in line with the assessments that we use during the school year? >> This assessment the the curriculum that was used was the TCM um curriculum that's summer school curriculum. So the assessments, the pre and post were from that curriculum. >> Are those curriculums lined up with what we do during the school year? >>
033It's not the same curriculum that we use with during the school year. It's a different curriculum to supplement during the summertime. >> Okay. kind of like to learn a little bit more about how that we're reinforcing what we're doing throughout the school year, you know, and within summer school, you know, directly from from those the science of reading, the CGI math that we've been investing so much money in. >> So, in the um this curriculum for CCM for reading, it really focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and um also if they have phonics in the lower grades. We don't assess individual like we don't do heaggedy and we don't do core because the assessment that is given is a a holistic assessment. So and then the the curriculum is broken down into components to be able
034to to address the science of reading for those students. But it's at a at a more succinct 21 days. So it's getting them they're leaving their grades. So all the curriculum is focused on that. But we can definitely share that with you and um in a a Friday update. >> Oops, Dr. So those 98 students, what is the next step? Like are the teachers aware? Are they getting extra help or what are we doing for those 98 students? >> 98 students that >> scores decreased. >> So and as you know right assessments they um when they take the test depending how they're feeling is the same test. So they may have had a bad day doesn't necessarily mean so we have to do more investigation with those students um to see really where they are.
035We didn't want to uh break down everything like we've done in the past just because it um is over um it could be overwhelming. But we do have they did collect the data grade by grade level and then we can um update that spreadsheet for you to be able to review and look at and we and we do look at next steps because one of the goals for us this year was to really u motivate them to read and to be able to see the kids running around that that you know the school saying how do what do I do to next what do I have to do to level up and they were reading those books at their Lexile level. So, it was for it was to help them get better at reading. And
036so, that's uh it was exciting to see that they did. Uh we had some kids that went up to nine levels because they were just reading. >> But we can share that data with you. >> Anyone else? >> I did have one other question on or for Dr. Mr. Dandia. Um >> don't waste your time, please. take it from someone who knows. >> Yes. Go ahead. >> Um how many um independent study students did we start off with? >> About 50. Okay. So about 20 didn't or 17 didn't didn't uh manage to complete anything. Okay. So no I was just trying to get a a sense of that. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Actually I I had a question too for Dr. Dandia. Um, so you you mentioned that I thank you for the question,
037trustee. I was going to ask ask that as well, but so you mentioned that the total credits I think earned increased over last year, which is great. Um, how did the enrollment in compared to last year? Do we have more students? Do we have less? >> Yeah, so we did start with more but about the same as the success rate, but we had students complete two to three courses. We had some students complete three, which is honestly awesome. They were like six hours a day putting in work on the weekends um to get those credits. So >> So the success rate was higher. >> Yeah, exactly. >> That's good. Good. Thanks. >> Yeah. So I I have a couple of questions um for Dr. uh No, I'm No, no. Actually, first first thing is um
038thank you guys all for for what you do because we know the hard work and we know sometimes it you have to go a little bit extra and a beyond to to keep the attention of an already tired uh student population. So So believe me, I've been there so I I get it. Um but we talked a little bit about credit recovery. Did we do we have any data or were we able to get any information on attendance recovery? Was there any initiative uh in that area because that might be init something we could >> one of the things that we did discuss with Yenia was that the students that that didn't enroll from July um let's say the July to July 18th that's the last day so those students if any we could use
039that to kind of like u put it in the bank so if there any of those students are absent we can then recoup attendance that way so we are being it it didn't go into law until after July 1st But we have all the records and everything so that we can then be able to grant that >> because you know that will help us that will help us move that needle when it comes to ADA. Uh and then maybe more so for for for audience and and members that that are viewing um can you talk a little bit about what a day looks like just in real brief you know academics and then they on to the the enrichment piece. >> Yes. So from um from 8 to 12, we actually did something a little
040different this year where we're really excited. I think we didn't get any complaints, but from 8 that I know of. So from 8 to 8:30 or about 8:20, we actually had all the students eating breakfast. So everybody ate breakfast from 8 to 8:20 and then though actually the TK well rising kindred to fifth grade, right? And I mean I know we did a so from TK to 5th and then the teachers would come and then they would be in instruction from 8:30 all the way to 12 and they had a 45m minute block of science. So they had language arts, they had math, they had RAS kids and then they had science and the science was tied to the lessons in math. So everything was building on on on the students um knowledge and prior
041knowledge. And we actually this year had um our one sped teacher doing science and that was what she did the whole day along with another uh teacher because we didn't have enough. But so yeah, that's what it looked like. So all and then from 12 to 12:30 was lunch. Then from 12:30 to 5 was all the enrichment. So they um we partner with um with the city of Santa Paula. So some of the kids, that's why I told you these ladies are amazing. My Aspire staff because they have to coordinate all the the students leaving to the basketball, leaving to football, leaving to swimming, living to surf. We were I mean I think Jasmine went to surf every single Thursday and it was so fun to see the kids out there surfing. Um but it
042was in a partnership with uh the uh city of Santa Paula, the YMCA, and then our surf uh surf flow. I think it's flow. That's what it looked like. And we also had a counselor all day. So the counselor really worked with the kids because like I we had talked about before our students still need some support in the afternoon piece. So then um Erica and um Sonia would pull small groups and do strum circles, do one-on-one. They really worked really diligently with the students who needed the support this especially our te our rising kinders. and and and so I just also want to give acknowledgement to the all the pre-planning that takes place and I know it started you know not not that it started but I know that in our 2 by two
043meetings we had these conversations and I want to give uh Dan Singer and uh Greg Barnes uh >> um you know acknowledgement because we know the hard work it takes and >> it starts in January. >> Yes. And so they sing our praises as well because they know that we're a good partner. >> And uh and and I want to thank you all for for being >> for being the face of our organization during this time and and thank you for for uh for giving you know our our students what they deserve. So thank you. >> A question for Mr. Dandia. Um you said that there that you said that this year there was 320 where credits were covered. Yes. >> I think it was 330. >> 330. Um, you said there's an increase. How
044big was that increase? >> That I'd have to go check and I can email you. >> Can you ballpark it? >> I want to say it was in the twos. Justin sent you that. We have it. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Guess no more questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next. >> So, the next presentation, Cardinal Success Academy for the summer of 2025. >> Hello again. So, I'm I'm gonna ask Richard and wow, we're very you know, it's a special treat for us because we have our CSUCI math instructor who she came and she uh did ethno math with our students. And um they'll tell you, I won't steal their thunder, but they did an amazing job. I wanted to uh just take a few minutes to thank Richard because I did reach out to
045Richard and to Robert Chapo to help us reimagine how we support our students. And so as you look at the learner profile, you know, one of the big things that um we wanted to do different for our rising uh ninth graders, which are our nonpromoters, this year they went from 71 to 41 students that ended up not being able to pass uh language arts and math. And when you when we did an empathy interview with the students, we noticed that the students were really defeated. They felt like, you know, my teacher thinks I'm dumb. My teacher thinks I don't care. So we I said Richard, we need to change that. Like we need to support the students and give them help them become confident learners. Have them become courageous communicators. So looking at our learner
046profile, we wanted to create a program that was student centered, that was authentic, and that was competency based because the kids would tell me, "I didn't do any writing this summer." And when you look at the slides, you're going to see how much writing and talking they actually did. And so and they did a lot of collaboration together, but um this is was an initial plight. So we combined our long-term English learners and our um rising ninth graders together so that they no one knew who was who. The goal was really to create a really student centered program where they were going to thrive and to hopefully not have so many students drop out our first semester in ninth grade. And so we um so this is what um I charged Richard with and Richard
047and Robert did an amazing job creating a program. So I'm going to turn it over to Richard so he can go off and uh discuss it. >> Good evening. Um so we started off uh meeting with Gina. Gina said, "I want every student to leave here this summer feeling like I can conquer the world." And so we're like, "All righty then." Uh we prepared a uh problem-solving learning curriculum for the students. Uh we trained staff so that they practiced patience, empathy, and then got into teaching. And so it was about building relationships. Um, I'm going to go ahead move that up. Uh, we had a unique staff uh that included teachers from our school, uh, a math professor from Moxar College, psychologists, speech pathologists, counselors, uh, we had, uh, social emotional learning trainer, avid tutors,
048and, um, a big part of our staff was Ventura County Behavior Health. They gave us two folks for the summer and they were there every day. They taught um at least one time a day with us and it made a big difference because um our folks were a group of oppositional learners uh and we wanted them to learn to take risk and by the end of the summer uh I think we got there. We had uh all students earn five credits the first semester. Second semester I think all but uh two earned five more credits. So that's what we were that was our goal. Um they covered um in in a day what we would do was uh we would start off with uh gives and gets. Um we would uh have student recognitions and
049then we would have uh guest speakers. Our first guest speakers in the morning were uh BCBH staff Anelles a Royal Small and Julio Mayo and then after that we brought in an array of guest speakers which I'll get to. Uh after every presentation, students uh got into a focus group where each student was asked to answer a question and then students provided verbal written uh mathematical solutions to some of the problems that the guest speakers were throwing at and we called that the problem of the day. Well, we were doing this. We were training them on how to solve problems with what? Identify the problem. So what? Understand what it means to you and now what? What are you going to do with the information you have? Our guest speakers um included Dr. uh Giri
050from the Isabella Project, uh the founder of uh Clinica's El Camino Royale, Roberto Huarez, um we had uh Simone Silva, a very well-known artist. We had uh martial artists and uh world champion boxer uh Graciella Casillas amongst them. And then we had other folks uh that usually only deal with university students. We brought Arnaldo Torres who's a lobbyist here in California. He lives in Sacramento. And when he heard about what we are doing, he got excited and came down. So he spent the day with the students. Um students got 42 presentations on leaderships, values, goals, college and career, CTE, public policy and mental health. They participated in 40 plus problem process groups and then students were asked to do research and gather data. And I want to have uh professor Rubakava talk a little about
051uh the math work they did in the afternoon. So, the curriculum that we used was a little uh non-traditional. Everybody's favorite word, math. Four-letter word, right? Math. Everybody loves math. Um, so the intent of of what we were doing in in our groups was to build curiosity, uh, willingness to learn, to take chances, make mistakes, learn from them, uh, just problem solve, build persistence, build confidence in the student. And it wasn't the algebra that you might see on a regular basis. It was very different and tailored to maybe tactile skills, building all the possible shapes that you can with a um with a a cube or a a square block and even to solving the Rubik's cube, which I found it very intriguing that students here at Santa Paula uh used all their resources including
052AI to be able to solve this complex problem. And so that was very impressive of our students. >> All right. Um based on the speakers and the math work that they did, uh students wrote 16 reflective pieces and they gave five speeches that they also had to write. Uh they completed the VARC learning style and multiple intelligence bar graph. And so they started to learn uh and gain metacognition. How do I learn? What do I do? Um, beyond that, we went on field trips, went to Oxnard College to learn about the opportunities there, whether it was college, CTE or trade. Uh, then we jumped over to the Port of Weini. Port of Wimi rolled the red carpet out for us and um they went through uh various positions. Students learned that they didn't need a
053college degree to make $200 an hour. So guess what became the job of choice when we left there. Long shoreman all the way. Uh from every Friday we'd go on a trip. We also went to the Ventura Aquatic Center. Um and these students you know they're 13 14 years old but when you talk to them and meet to them a lot of them bear the burden of adults. And so when we went to the aquatic center, it was the best field trip that I've ever been on because I got to see young people with burden on their shoulder act like kids. And so that was a amazing trip. Afterwards, we went into the park and we did a process group about what is fun, you know, what is health and and we got into a
054real deep discussion. From there, we continued at the Los Angeles Science Center, uh, where they had, uh, lot of fun there. Got to see a lot of things. Um, and then we went to the Ronald Reagan Library. And I was little concerned when we got there because people are a little uh, uh, little uptight there sometimes, to say the least. But our students handled it like pros and they really uh, overperformed. Uh we went into the uh Granada uh Grenada um uh situation and we had folks in the uh Oval Office and the um the strategy room and then the press conference room and our students just got up, spoke, asked great questions and gave uh great opinions. And then we ended our trips with Cal Lutheran University which was a beautiful trip. Um during
055the summer we did uh I just put 40 plus cuz we lost count of how many home visits we did. I think this was very eyeopening for some of our staff because some of our students live in a matchbox. Five people in the one bedroom and you open the door and there's a bed here, a bed there and there's no furniture except beds. And I think um I was surprised uh but but our staff I think really got in tune with that. And the next day when we started working after these home visits, you could see the staff get more excited and work a little harder, be a little more empathetic and a little more patient once they saw the home situation. BCBH did 22 presentations on mental health. 41 students were screened for the
056PSC35 and offered services. That means 41 qualified for moderate to severe mental health services. Five students were approved and um by the beginning of the school year those five will be getting services. 10 of those the parents um are working to get the student in services, but we have the majority of them that are going to still need services and uh principal Guzman has promised we're going to get them in services, too. No pressure. Uh family and staff engagement. Um this work can't stop here. Um we we're going to start with the mentor program. with community members and I hope some of you board members will join us. Um, Miss Espinosa, if you'd like to come up and just talk about uh your idea and what we're going to do. >> Great. Good evening board
057members, Mr. Weinstein. Uh Laura Espinosa, president of Santa Paula Latino Town Hall. And after all of these fantastic reports, uh you hope and wish that everything the students got from their experiences will stay with them. But we know that um life changes and situations change and uh what better way to reinforce what has happened in the classroom over the summer through these trips through these uh guest speakers than to have some significant people in our community step up as mentors. And um we'd like ideally to uh follow these students all four years and that would be ideal and we're going to try to select only the best for them. So um Latino Town Hall is really honored to be part of that and we'll be working very closely with Mr. Castanero and Dr. Ramidz. Oh
058boy, these flies are not good here. Anyway, um I think you get the picture and um we hope it'll be very rewarding for the students. >> Thank you. Uh to further follow up, uh we are going to plan a afterchool program for these uh students uh we now that they are ahead on credits, we want to go ahead and keep uh earning more credits. So, we're going to do tutoring. We're gonna VCBH is committed to continue to work with the students whether it's informal or in therapy. Uh staff strategies um that we're going to be using will include home visits and and a lot of the stuff that we did over the summer. But it's all going to start with uh patience, empathy, and uh then get into the teaching stuff. Um over the summer
059we saw great uh gains in terms of self-sufficiency, persistence and problem solving. And I think um self-determination um is something that our students struggle with. And I think that is something that we're really going to continue to focus on so that they know uh the more authentic that they are, the more intelligent they are, that the more success they can enjoy. And so teaching them responsibility is one of the things that uh we're going to task ourselves with. Uh with that, uh Miss Adennis is here. All right, come up. She is our psychologist and a very important part of our team. >> So, um, good afternoon. This I'm Anna Renas. I'm one of the school psychologist at Santa Paula High School. Mr. Castinto um asked uh for support during the program and of course can't
060say no to him but um the program was challenging but with patience and um a big heart for these students because that's what they need was uh tremendous support. Now that school has started and these kids are on our campus, I have met with half of the kids by running in saying hello. Uh familiar face. I met with a student today and connected them with uh our SRO who the student wants to be uh an explorer. So connected them with the um main student for the explorer program and um officer Benson. Um, we got one of our other students that advocated for a correction in his class. Um, had another student that got a job at the cafeteria. So, just connecting with these kids that these kids have a familiar face on campus, someone they
061feel comfortable with, just I felt so productive today making all those things happen. But, um, just saying hello to them as they're crossing campus. Hi, hey, you remember me? And, hi, Miss Alinas. And so just being out there and they know somebody that they can they are familiar with. So I feel like the I feel like the program was very successful. I really look forward to seeing seeing these kids through um graduation. >> Richard, I have one. Would you like to mention our high school graduate that? >> Well, we're going to actually play a video for you so that you can see. Before we play the video, I just wanted to to just let you let everyone know that the students were only required to be there 12 days. They were not required to be
062there 24 days. We said you can come back for another 12 and they all came back and that says a lot for them. And um I know that I get emotional sometimes because you know the these children deserve to have an opportunity and I cannot thank Richard and all the team everybody who put their efforts to be there every day. I mean, he was never absent ever. And he's calling me at 6 o'clock in the morning, 6:30, but I'm like, "Yes, Richard." Right. So, I am like beyond grateful for all the work they did. And And I know he wanted to have um I know he has a special name and I always forget that special name that you have at that. What do you have? What's your what's your No, no, no. Your your
063uh title. Okay. Lead camp. So, we wanted him cuz he said to me, "Hey, it will be great for me to connect with them because I'm going to be there." And so, I said, "Yes, let's make it happen." But I think he was only able to do four days. But that was we appreciate that too. And I also want to extend a thanks to Mr. Guzman because he already had a lot of things in progress moving forward and um so his team, Dr. Dr. Fabula, we are they're just really open to really supporting the students because we know that if we don't help them by the time they get to ninth grade and if they don't have credits by the time they end ninth grade they're going to not their their uh their success rate
064is much dimmer. So, we'll show the video that uh again Augie, it's all Richard um that Augie did for us. But go ahead, Irving. Gina Ramirez and I'm the assistant superintendent of English language services and Hello everyone. My name is Dr. Gina Ramirez and I'm the assistant superintendent of English language services and community engagement. And one of the things I get to do in my job is create summer program. And so this summer, we wanted to create a program for our nonpromoters and our long-term English learners that was going to help them understand their power that they have to conquer the world. So, we wanted them to be able to be part of a program that's going to give them the basic skills that they know that who they are is good enough and that
065they can do anything and if they want to change anything, they have the power to do so. So, that was the whole intent of the program. We are very fortunate to partner with Richard and Robert Chapato to ensure that the first step of the mass low hierarchy really does happen so that they can then be able to self-actualize. So we wanted the students to realize their worth and their value so that they know that they're the only ones that can conquer the world. No one else can do it for them. [Music] This has been a wonderful program that basically shows that when students are put into the right conditions, they can really blossom. There's been a lot of love and encouragement going on here and they've been successful. It has to do with basically setting
066some standards, some situational things, but these kids are amazing. They're producing. They're doing really well. I am super proud of them and all the things that they've done. [Music] So, thank you. Any questions that we may answer? Can any of us speak right now? Any questions for anyone? >> Um, wow. Um I'm gonna take a deep breath here because uh you know my entire life is based on working with these at promise kids and the one moment I had you know as as an invite uh and I know it was a small moment but I walked away feeling empowered uh I I your energy uh Mr. C and Miss Arenas. Um, and and the rest of the staff, you know, you guys, you had me pumped up. You had me fired up and I and
067I appreciate that. Um, the the kids were awesome. So, when I got to do my my school visit on uh on Monday at the high school, some of the kids, hey, what's up, local? You know, what's up, Doc? They don't remember my name, but I don't care. It didn't matter. Like, I think you, as you pointed out, making those connections and that was important. Um, one of the highlights that that that I'm walking away with was the uh uh was the home visits. I I there's a power to that and and again I'm a broken record when it comes to to to to that and I just can't speak uh highly and and emphasize how important it was in your program and what I know it can do uh going forward in any program. um
068the empathetic, you know, exercises that that comes from home visits and and learning what the value of where these kids are coming from is immeasurable. So again, thank you. Um to our leadership team, I mean, there's partnership opportunities here. I mean, just just in today in the short time period in this long list on slide seven, you know, VCBH, Latino Town Hall, College Professors, um we we need to we need to thank all of our partners in our in our community for for what you do and it it's good to see two two of you here with us today. So, uh thank you. Um you know, so we appreciate that. So, >> um I got a couple few questions here. Um this was 42 students. Do you have any idea about how many students that
069represents for that were transitioning from Isbel to the high school? >> I would guess it's roughly 10%. >> So 401% of the students were the nonpromoters from the middle school and then we had about >> Oh. Oh, sorry. >> Right. 30 were I think it was 30 and and uh >> you know I'm saying and maybe that's >> it was 40 30 and 12 >> 313 okay so a little less than about if you put them together about 10% right um you know I think it would be important for us to uh make sure that the the follow-up is formalized you know I think that you So, uh, is there already a counselor assigned to engage, you know, and what is that engagement going to look like, right? That these are the the the 10%
070that are struggling the most and, you know, that followth through has to be there or else, you know, this is a nice program, but those gains are going to be gone, right? Or whatever value, you know, they got out of it. So, >> so um BCPH has committed to following up with the students and the parents. They're going to offer um you know, sessions with the students, but more importantly, uh workshops for students and parents. So, >> and that's all great, but I'm at what is our staff going to do? >> I'll get to that. Uh, principal Guzman's very supportive and um, so one of the things academic counselors are working with them. Um, and then we're going to collaborate. We're going to have the social emotional learn learning trainer uh, come in and do
071sessions with the students uh, probably once a week. And then we're also going to have uh, um, a group of uh, mentors that are on campus working with the students. um for about an hour after school and that's going to be start with academics and then go into uh you know career CTE those kinds of uh goals. All all our um all our uh field trips were based uh either on career or CT except for the aquatic center. So we want to continue that. uh we're looking at doing some career seminars for them and so we'll we'll continue to work with them. I think the biggest challenge for us is to continue the magic that uh professor Rubakawa started in getting them to want to solve a problem that that's you know that's was kind
072of the magic sauce >> uh that we worked with and and it all began with someone speaking them listening them reading and then them writing but it was all functional >> uh we didn't give them anything that was extra so we And now that they're in class, uh, we have student profiles for each one of them. So, every teacher and all their counselors are going to know, do they have an IEP or do they need a 504, that kind of thing. We also have all their uh, learning styles, their BART, and their um, uh, and their scores. So, um, we're we're going to frontload that with our staff, and then we're going to follow up with school mentoring in the home >> and we you know we had a meeting this week I can't remember
073if it was Monday or truses with Dr. Fabula uh Miss Nuno who's the superstar and then Miss Aamora who's this counselor and as you as you heard Anna say she's already connected with 20 of of those students because we know that it can't just stop there and that's the whole reason why I reached out to Richard because he's a site member there and um last year Mr. Dr. Guzman, he already started an outreach program with our outreach um outreach coordinator this year, Dr. Samaripa. And he h he's going to be one of those who are going to be working with all those kids because we know that some of us some of our students have a parent that checks their grade every Friday and says, "No, you're not going to go out because you haven't
074made this grade." Some of our students don't have that. So, we're going to become that for them after school. We're going to check make sure they're on track because like we said they earned 10 credits and they and they had to attend. They had to follow the rules. They had to follow the Carnegie hours for them to get the 10 credits. This says a lot about these students and their desire to do well. So we just got to continue to build that. So that what you're talking about Dr. Sandival is something that we're working that's within the system because if we don't change the system, we can't change the way we do business and we want our students to end the year and after four years and graduate and walk those lines. And so we're
075going to provide those supports as they're coming as ninth graders. So, we're working I mean it we're going to bring the contract to you probably in the next board meeting so that we can continue to support our ninth grade students but in collaboration with the site administration the counselors Anna is the psychologist at Santa Paula High that's connecting with those kids every day and even today when I was there I saw our our um sec our campus security Chris saying good morning to all the kids have a great day you know and that's what we want to do we have to build relationships with our students and treat them like people. Um I think another thing that you know I I would like to see or is you know with these particular this particular group
076you know first if it's in a board update or presentation or whatever first quarter what are the grades look like you know uh end of semester how many credits did they earn you know because I want to see are these interventions actually working right and so you know they don't have to be 4.0 0's, right? But 2.0's. Yeah. Right. For sure. And no fail fail uh failing. Um >> and that's what we're going to do. >> So I want to see that data though, right? Because if we don't expose the data, then it's just a bunch of words on a page and I want to see how they're doing. Um you know, and this is just something that kind of is more for next year. Um, you know, I do kind of wonder like with
077the work that's been done at Renaissance and kind of thinking of it in in terms of a not just an alternative high school, quote unquote, you know, continuation high school, but but really as just a a different method of, you know, um, educating our kids, right? Because not everybody's going to be okay in a school of 1500 getting lost. Like I do kind of wonder whether students like this it makes sense to to cohort them somehow, right? Maybe have, you know, at least one class a day where they all share, you know, and maybe that class is is kind of geared towards more, you know, of the practical skills, right, that they might be, you know, lacking, um, you know, or needing more emphasis on. So, you know, it's just something to think about for
078next year. Like, can we build this into, you know, what we do during the school year and not just have it as a well, you know, you got to catch up, right, in the summer because I mean, honestly, this is too late. Like, these kids have been having problems for a number of years, I'm sure. Right. This isn't any like surprise that, wow, they're not they didn't make it, you know, they didn't promote. Um, so I just would like to see, you know, kind of more, you know, thinking about how this gets integrated into that into the day and not just that extra time. >> Yeah. Just to pick it back off Dr. Sandal's request, you know, along with the grades. Um, in all honesty, I would just like to see context, not like what's
079exactly going in specific students, but more context of a student had to have a home visit because their home flooded or something occurred in the home. just general descriptions of what's going on because we all know life happens and this is the most sensitive um portion of the population that's coming into nth grade. So if we can get some context because I understand that grade point average is important but also context within that situation understand that why scores might be lower why certain things might be happening why certain absenteeism is up would be would be amazing. Um the other thing the other question I I I had for y'all was how does this change the culture for Santa Paula High School? You know I believe that there were some soft skills skills taught some new
080attitudes embedded. So can you please elaborate on how does this change the culture? You spoke about wanting to solve a problem. How did we move the needle to wanting to solve a problem instead of just giving up? Well, I I think uh one of >> Can you use your use the mic just to make sure that the online can >> So, um Miss Lily, if you want to come back up, but one of the things that we did was we brought in speakers that were talking directly about issues that impact this community, whether it was the founder of Clinica's El Camino Royale or um uh Roberto Huarez uh or Arnardo Torres, who is writing legislation right now about immigration advising uh county boards and school districts. So, uh they took on those uh issues directly
081and talked about um the issues happening in the context of these student lives. And so what you have is, you know, they ask what what is a problem that you have in your life or community? What does it mean to you? And then okay, now that you have that, what can you do with it? And what what was beautiful about this process is that students start advising each other um or giving different perspectives and we get some excitement going on that because they feel empowered. I think with the math I would like to have uh Dr. Rubocava just talk a little about ethno ethnom math and also just problem solving. Ethnom ethnomathematics means that every culture has some experience in mathematics whether it's sorting counting organizing problem solving strategizing those are some of the basic
082skills of mathematics that uh define ethnomathematics um but everyone's favorite word f-word fractions right and uh Dr. Dr. Ramirez talked about doing this again and again and again. They have been seeing mathematics or standard strand or standard standards of mathematics their whole entire career. So we introduced them to different uh projects. One of my favorite one was uh building the highest tower with one sheet of paper where everybody had to collaborate and work together to build a highest tower and then compete with each other and then run over to the other side of the room to see what they were doing and borrowing and stealing ideas to make their tower better. So that's just one basic activity that we did, but it was all intended to be collaborative, sharing, making mistakes, learning, and then building
083and rebuilding again. I just wanted to share one story about a home visit that we weren't aware of. And if it wouldn't have been because Richard went to go do a home visit because we're ready to drop a student because they don't if they don't come, we have to drop them because they can't get credit. We realized when he went and I'm I'm is that he went that the her father had just died. Nobody knew her father had been sick and that he had just died and we were like shame on us for not knowing that. Right? So then we had to then we had to readjust because we can't punish a student because they can't come to school because their dad just died, right? So they had to attend a funeral. So, we found
084ways to recoup those times, those minutes because it all has to be based on Carnegie hours. But one of the things that we that we really discovered this summer is that when we go to those homes, we realize what's going on and how we can best support our students. And the most of all when we talk about street data when we did those empathy empathy interviews that Jessica Lemon did for us because she has she was the one that was connected to the students at Isbel students are saying my teacher thinks I don't try but I really do. My teacher thinks I don't care but I really do care. Right? Granted that we did those interviews later on and it was for us to be able to use that information to help us create a
085curriculum that's going to make them thrive. And like I said, there's noitos. I don't believe in that. I don't believe I'm going to save anybody. I believe that children have the power to save themselves if they see or they have the power to have a better life. And that's what we wanted to do. We wanted them to realize that no one in this world is going to do it for them. They're going to do it themselves. And for them showing up for 24 days, they showed they have the grit to be successful. Now what we have to do is create a system to allow them to be successful and not judge them by the time they come into the door. >> You know, and just a followup, you know, we ask you what stakeholders on
086site are are on on board with this, you know, we ask you or we suggest ideas to you, but what do you need from us? What do you need from the district? What do you need from your sites? Do you not have all stakeholders present? Is this going to take a bit more time to see the fruits of your label labor? um you know come into our hands or >> you know I have to say that I am extremely grateful for Mr. Guzman and for Dr. Fabula, Dr. Olivo and Adam Grant who are willing to support us and move our and support these group of students because they know that if ninth graders do not succeed, they're not going to make it. And so I believe that we have their support and we also we
087have the lead uh security support and then we have the teachers. We have so many teachers there who believe in our students and want to do good things. So I believe that we have what we need to be able to make a positive change for not just that group of students but all our students. um Trusty uh Rodriguez that you bring up a really good point and it's something that I know I've asked in the past and and maybe it's something we probably should revisit. It's a it's equitable grading. It's grading based on where the students are and how much content they know and and and grade them on that because right now I feel like we're in deficit grading. Uh if they're absent, they lose points. if they're if they if they fail a
088test, they lose points and it's hard to get them out of that deficit. And so, um, we need to revisit that because we have to acknowledge that we are in a in an environment where there are challenges and we have to be able to to face those challenges by being empathetic to the needs of our students and because as the one example you just gave, you know, the the young lady said that well, I do care. I do try. I think that if we had a teacher that really understood empathetic, you know, or equitable grading could could work with that. So you're you guys are being charged. We just we we just approved a new uh director uh 712 director. So Miss Gera, you've got some some work here. You know, Mr. Guzman, you've got
089some continue work as it you know, it sounds like the things are are working well. So this isn't about what what beating ourselves up. It's just again you you've heard me say being reflective of what our practices are, what doesn't work, and how can we improve on it. And I I like that that that piece. What more can we do? So if we need to revisit equitable grading, then maybe that's something we need to look at. >> If we were to get rid of the zero and give kids a 60%, they have a better chance of being able to get out of that hole because once you get a zero, no way. Even you get a zero and then you had 100% you're still in the 50%. So you're getting an F. So that zero
090kills our students. >> So Mr. Weinstein, that that question then comes to you. Is that a pilot board policy or is that a a school culture policy? Um, it's a it's not a board policy. Um, when I first got here, um, in the second year, we had the sites to go through the grading for equity book. Um, which is something that was very successful when I was at Oxnard Union High School District. Um, it's really about figuring out how we can reach the teachers to embrace that new different type of looking. I mean, um, one of the things we try to do in grading for equity is we say they're going to write an essay. We have them write an essay, but we're giving them credit for writing the essay. Then we have we show
091them the corrections. We give them credit for making the corrections and understanding what they could have done better. So throughout the time, there's no zeros. They just keep building on that grade. Um, my next goal for next year or this this year we started right this year. this year um is uh to have sensitivity training for those teachers. So, um, you know, a lot of our teachers have never experienced or seen firsthand what some of these kids are are going through. And I think that if we can do a professional development training for all of our secondary teachers that basically say, hey, you know, remember in elementary school, they have the student all day. there's a better chance of building relationships and understanding what the child's going through. When you only have, you know, 30
092students for for, you know, 50 minutes, it's hard to build that same relationship even though you need to. So, I think sensitivity training would help them a lot to understand why the the systems of the past are not going to work for the for the future of our kids. >> No, and I appreciate that. Again, I think so. I mean, where wherever the next steps are, uh I think guide us in that because I I believe that we need to continue to to tighten the safety net for our students so that they're not falling through those cracks. I think that's very important that that we do. And we under we know that there's going to be extenduating circumstances where students are going to need other types of secondary wraparound services, but we we can't we
093can't let that conversation go. So this presentation was very impactful because it what it does for us is that it it allows us to continue to think outside the box for not just 42 students, right? Because there's there's there's a lot more students as we know in independent studies they end up in Renaissance. You know, there's a lot of success stories there and we got to continue to build off of that but knowing how we got there and a lot of it comes from wraparound services. So thank you. I I love the idea of uh doing this type of training. I think one of the things after this experience this summer that I think would be really important is that we get training in how to teach different learning styles. Only 16% of these students
094were reading and writing learners. The next lowest was um oral and then uh we had kinetic uh learnings were our highest. We didn't know that. Thank goodness uh our college professor could ID that quickly and and help us work our curriculum out. But during the school year that that would be a great support. Learning styles is something that I think is uh been kind of left behind in education and I think uh this summer it proved to be a huge factor in terms of starting a student at a a level there where they could succeed and then increasing the rigor so that became more challenging and they would have three or four wins before they failed so they were willing to get right back up and do it again. So, I think it's a great
095idea. >> I mean, continuing on that, it's we should be looking at this at the middle school level as well before they get to 9th grade. I think it's easier to take care of it, nip it in the butt, then I it just feels like this year was more students than before that were in that group of of not promoting from >> Well, actually, they it was lower. It was lower this year. LA I think the year before we had close to 80 or 50. Oh, it's because it goes down. It goes from like 71 and then but they they did do an amazing job to to give to have just only 41 students. It looked more because we had our long-term English learners part of that group too. So because we have about 20,
096I can't remember the exact number, but I know that the middle school they have their sore period where they really work um diligently to try to get the kids up and running. And then you know in the afterchool program we have Tommy Mendoza and Alex Roth who they're not gonna let if you're an Aspire they're not going to let you go to anything unless you are passing all your classes. So they're there supporting. So we had a meeting yesterday and all the kids that were in Aspire who were not doing well. Tommy and Alex made sure they did well and they and they passed on. So I do know that they do a lot of work at the middle school to ensure that the kids get. So we just have to kind of be creative
097and what else could we do to support them and I we haven't had a chance to to have a meeting with the middle school to see how we can plan and be a little bit like think of other things that we could do to be proactive to have less students not promote. And in reality from the 41 students only one student didn't promote and it was because they didn't come to summer school. Well, you did a phenomenal job and I think putting the the fun with the learning makes a big difference, but I know you can't do that all the time and it's sometimes during lunchtime. >> Well, the fun >> being a teacher, you can. And Tommy can attest to that. >> I guess I'm thinking about when I was in high school. >>
098I think the only fun class was was ASB sports and that was like the fun part. everything else is like, "Oh, really?" But just kudos to everybody for all their time and all the outside partners. Thank you. >> Yeah. Just a follow-up question. Sorry, I I completely overlooked this, but you had a lot of buy in from parents and I was there during your ceremony. Um, and it was amazing to see all those parents come out and support their students. Um, I really would like to know and how on how you plan on expanding with these parents that are now engaged. I understand that you have done a VCBH presentations. We do have a wellness center at Santa High School. I know in the middle school we have opened up the wellness center to parents.
099Um have we considered considering opening up to parents at the high school? Um I just don't know where we're at with that, but it just seems like we have a lot of buyin. We should really w ride on that wave to see if we can keep them consistently engaged. Well, BCBH is committed to continuing to work with the students and the parents. So, we're going to continue working with them there. We're also going to do um student report card reporting to parents. Uh and we're looking at doing progress reports for these students. So, there'll be a regular dialogue whether it's on the phone or a home visit. We plan to keep uh keep the communication going. some of the folks uh especially during this time have different needs. So there were a couple times where
100parents shared, you know, they were strapped for food or, you know, strapped for gas and so we're able to connect them to district resources to help with that. So we're going to continue the dialogue. This population is definitely high need uh thrives on attention uh that that creates outcomes for the student and that's what this is about. >> Thank you and thank you for all the work all of you have done. >> Uh one question um I heard a little bit about ethnom math. I was a little vague. I'm curious. Could you elaborate a little bit more and clearly explain what ethnomath is and what it teaches? Ethma ma ethnomathematics is a study of how different cultures use mathematics and it's counting is one of them sorting is another strategizing is another just various things
101that different groups do like the Eskimos don't have a base 10 counting system they have a base two the Mayans have a base 20 and then it's a calendar so exploring the different mathematics is an opportunity for students to see that their life is in there somewhere and that that was our goal is to just not to the standards which I know is important but we we're trying to make it live. We're trying to make it exciting and engaging so that students will will just be part of the problem solving process. >> So applying the math to the applying the math that they learned to how real world so applying it to how um the real world has used it. >> Most people think that mathematics is algebra. That's not it. That's just a strand
102in mathematics. And so different cultures express mathematics differently like symmetry and art is is all over the place. Music. So it's exploring how mathematics is is uh shows up in different places in life. >> Thank you. >> Sure. >> Once again, thank you. Okay. Item seven, action items. Uh, item A, superintendent, second reading of CSBA policy updates for June 2025. >> Are you going to do all of them together? Um so uh so as everybody knows about every three months we get a packet of policies that have been updated based on changes to CDE code um laws legislation um court um rulings. Uh and in the June 2025 there were three um we we came back to the board with three uh policies for the first reading. The rest we're still working on. So we
103go through a process where when the board policies come in, they're sent out to the different departments that they relate to. Those departments read through the policy and then make sure that one, we're in compliance with that policy, but also what changes. A lot of these policies have options of how you want to do things and make sure the options we do are correct. So on these um June 2025 uh policies, the first few policies that they went through are um charter school uh oversight policies. We don't have any charter schools that we oversee. So that really doesn't apply to us. This the second is the comprehensive safety plan. So, one of the things that the comprehensive safety plan changes have been is that we do the comprehensive safety plans, but now it requires us
104to also do training on the comprehensive safety plan. Um, so which uh I believe will help. And then the last one is let's see why I forgot it, but it's here. Oh, the last one is an exhibit. So, it's not a board policy. It's just changing out the exhibit to to use different language on the exhibit. And that's um all the changes. So, we'll come back on the 27th hopefully with um the first reading of the rest of the policies and then we'll we'll move from there. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I second. >> It's been moved and second. Uh preferential vote. All those in favor? >> I I board vote. All those in favor? >> I >> passes. So the next item is the uh board policy, a single
105board policy that we brought for first reading um two weeks ago where the changes to graduation requirements. So we're still at the 230 credits that are needed. It just gives different options for students to achieve those credits. Um some of the the basic changes are um making sure that we have computer science in the A throughG, making sure that we added chemistry to our science requirements. Ethnic studies is another one. Even though it's not a requirement, we've been very proud of our teachers who uh embraced the idea of doing an ethnic studies class and um it's going really well. Um, we need uh courses in visual and performing arts. And then the other major thing that they're really sticking to because before it used to be that if you did CTE courses, you didn't have
106to take world language. And here this separates world language. We need two courses of the same language are required. And that also includes American Sign Language, which I hope one day we'll bring to the to the high school. Um, and then one semester of health. So what ends up happening overall is the elective courses go down to 50 credits and the rest are all mandatory courses. And then the rest of the policy is just talking about exemptions for foster youth, Mckin Vento students as well as military families. >> Okay. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? I'll second it. >> Any questions, comments? >> No, just more just a comment or just to reiterate from what I talked about last uh meeting when this came up, you know, now that
107we have a director of secondary, you know, education. um you know hopefully we can work on you know making sure that in the eighth grade uh math one is available so they can complete that credit and also I'd like to see a foreign language you know as well um because again I know that the schedule gets really stressed for kids and if they can you know we do dual enrollment right why wouldn't we do you know that kind of thing in the eighth grade as well and then and then again uh aligning it a little better to uh UC a throughg as well So hopefully we'll >> and health also with students taking CTE there's several courses that they need to have if they're going to do CTE ASB sports all their extracurricular they need
108and it seems like after so many years many are not aware of that. So yes, I will be looking for that that when eighth graders or when they're seventh graders because honestly you can take foreign language as an eighth grader if you're fluent. I had two of my kids do it and they got A's at VC. Um it's doable. So provide our students are aware of these opportunities so that once they're in high school they can take as many courses they want or add. Thank you for bringing that up again. No other comments, questions hearing none. Um, let's have a preferential vote. All those in favor? >> I board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. >> So, one comment on the graduation requirements uh kind of piggy backing off of uh
109what Dr. Sandabal said, "We are doing an experimental experimental um math class where we are taking um our CTE instructor of our new CTE pathway of of labor and we are matching it up with the math students, math one students and math 2 students at um RHS so that it the math that they're doing applies directly to a career that they might be interested in. And then our goal is to see the success of that and then bring it down to the um to the middle school. >> So something like construction management where you're learning how to measurements, >> right? >> Height, weight, >> reading, architect, you know, architectural drawings, all those >> blueprint. That's wonderful. Yeah, those are >> Yeah, >> they'll be ahead of the game. And by the way, one of the
110questions I had for our team was that this hybrid math class is still going to meet the CDE standards for math one and two. And they they said it definitely does. >> Yeah. They will learn algebra. They will learn geometry because you need to know all of that in construction. >> Yes, ma'am. Um the last board policy uh is the before and after school program and this is based on new legislation. So um for a while now we've been getting in in the very beginning a while back we used to get ASUS money which is the afterchool program um and now we have ELO money which is expanded learning opportunities funds and so one of the things that they did was they tied the ELO money into attendance recovery. So the idea is that when
111similar to what we talked about with summer school, when a student is uh not during their 180 um school days in in during the school day, if they if they do educational um activities before or after school or during um spring break and winter break like we offer, then those um can be paid by ELOP and those also can um be used for attendance recovery which is something that I think you know the more we have the better it'll be. Questions. >> Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> And do you have a second? >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and second. Preferential vote. >> I board vote. All those in favor? >> I >> passes. Thank you. So moving on to item B, educational services. Item one, approval of transportation contract with
112Smart Shuttle Ventura Transit for the Santa Paula High School athletics for the 2526 school year. >> So uh unfortunately we couldn't get the contract attached to the agenda. This is a company we use each year, but it's for sports transportation, sports teams transportation. Um, so what I'd like to do is modify the action item to where the board approves it conceptually not to exceed the $200,000 and to bring it back to the board for full ratification on the 27th. We have sports going on right now and we need the transportation for those sports teams. >> Okay. Would anyone like to make a motion? >> So move. >> I'll second that. Um, any comments, discussion at this point? Are you seeing a rise in cost or is this pretty >> This is about what we spent
113last year. So the 200,000 was an estimate based on last year. >> Gotcha. Any other questions or comments? Thank you for bringing that up. I'm comfortable with going with same amount. Okay. Um preferential vote. All those in favor? I >> I I passes. Board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. >> I would like to appreciate um one of our trustees, Mike, who uh emailed me today and gave me um the great idea of doing the conceptual approval because we couldn't get the contract on. And I really appreciate that suggestion. >> Thank you. It's those skills on his other job. >> Um, Mr. President, uh, I wanted to recuse myself from this next item since I am the treasurer of, um, the Santa Paul Art Museum. >> Thank you. Um, item two,
114approval of contract with the Santael Art Museum for Aspire program enrichment. So, good evening. We are asking for your approval. Um, this year we are not contracting with Star Nova. Um, on the contrary, we're contracting with our neighboring um, businesses here in Santa Paula. Um, the art museum is going to be able to provide us with um, lessons from 3:00 to 4:00 and then 4:15 to 5:15 across the way learning about fine art, sketching, printing, crafts, everything. So, we're really excited with the opportunity to be able to work with them as they provide all our schools with some type of art. >> And Gina will be coming back with and the boys hopefully the Boys and Girls Club. >> Yes. So, we met today with the Boys and Girls Club to um um answer some
115questions that um that needed to be uh addressed um for business and then we will hopefully bring that back at the 23rd board meeting. Okay. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> I'll second it. >> It's been moved and second. Any comments, questions? I >> I I just want to commend you, Dr. Ramirez, because we know we charged you with this uh a year and some ago being, you know, creative and thinking outside the box about providing a service for our students. and again at building um community partners. I mean I I think that that says a lot for uh for our community and that that we have this expertise out in you know in our community where they can come and provide for our students. So again I mean we know that it's
116chopping it up a little bit and it's having to have more conversations but I think they're meaningful for our kids because I agree. >> Yeah. they get to see these instructors at bonds and you know and or at supriad you know wherever they wherever they go but they get to they get to see them as a Santa Paul citizen as well. So thank you. >> Yeah. I also wanted to make a comment that you know I I appreciate that you're working with partners but at the same time if they're not delivering um to the standards that you feel we should have. We also want to hear that feedback. Um cuz honestly I'm not aware of how many instructors or how much staff they have to provide for all our schools. And it may be where
117they can really only focus on three. So I definitely want to hear that feedback. But honestly, this is a dream come true that we're actually working with local partners and just having so much art museums here in town and and people who >> who do this um volunteer their time actually um to help. I mean, my kids were fortunate at McKvette to walk to the art museum and do those activities and they had so much fun. Um, I got to be a chaperon and and those are great skills. I mean, art is so important in the lives of all our kids. So, again, um, just I'll echo, thank you so much for making this happen. >> And I know we are going to be requesting more staff, but that's I don't know if it's in
118this board agenda. I didn't check, but but it is. It's going to be wonderful. And I just have to commend again my Aspire staff because they're like whatever you need and we'll make it work. So they're amazing. >> And Chair Roy and just to follow those comments too, like I I mean this is awesome. It's really cool to see the district partner with, you know, an organization like the the museum and something local like that. But I kind of had some of the same questions too of like, okay, yeah, it's great that we're partnering. I'm sure that the the students enjoy the programming, but you know, how do we assess, you know, again, the performance of of the museum and, you know, what metrics or whether even if they're qualitative, you know, like anything that's
119not anecdotal, you know, that we feel like we're getting the value. Um, you know, obviously the students feel like that, that's important, but I'd also like to know that, you know, staff feel like it's we're we're getting, you know, it's doing what it's supposed to be doing. Yeah, definitely. >> Perfect. Yes, thank you. >> And I would like to just make one comment a little outside this item but related to it. On September 25th, we are having our annual partnership gathering networking session. Um, and it uh we are looking forward to it and some of these same things that we're bringing to you came from these partnership dinners that we have. >> Thank you. Thank you so much for bringing that up. Sometimes we need little reminders. Uh preferential vote. All those in favor? >>
120I passes. Board vote. All those um with one absention. All those in favor? >> I passes 40. >> Don't tell Danny that we finished. >> Oh, he heard you. Item three, approval of start educational contract for the Barbara Webster sports program for the 2526 school year. I'd >> like to invite principal Madrical to come up and talk about this contract. I'm sorry. What's that? Maral. Um, so thank you all for the last two years for um allowing Barb Webster to have this sports program. Um, it's been quite a a ride. I've learned a lot. Um, I have seen you were talking about data. I was thinking about it. I do have a lot of anecdotal evidence. I want to give you two pieces in regards to things that have happened in the last two years
121and then tell you how I want to expand next year, which is why the contract cost has gone up. Um the last two years I have I did not expect when Mr. Weinstein gave me this idea of becoming a sports academy of how powerful it would be to several segments of our population. Number one, the segment that struggles um those kids who don't believe that they can do well in school. There's a certain student and if anybody's watching me on TV, they'll know who it is because I talk about him a lot. Um, when I met him in kindergarten, he met me by sticking his tongue at me and telling me to leave him alone. And he did that to multiple teachers. And at first it seemed silly, but then it became I realized it
122was a that was coming from a place of trauma. I found out later that this student lives in a converted garage and the reason why his backpack has holes in it is because the rats get to his backpack overnight. Now, we dealt with that social emotionally and we dealt with that physically, but how do you deal with that internally in a kid? How do you get a kid to understand that if they can achieve in one area, they can achieve in other areas, which was always the dream when Mr. Weinstein gave me this idea of the sports academy. If I can show you that you can do really well in a single area, then the hope is that that will translate to other areas like reading, writing, and mathematics. Um, I've only seen the preliminary
123scores for CASP, so I don't want to get too happy, but it seems like it's working because Webster, according to the preliminary scores, not only went up, but we made all the metrical goal, all the metric goals that we put out for ourselves. And so I can't I don't have the data to say if that was exactly the sports program and what was exactly the incentives that we put together and core and CGI and everything that we did. But it all goes into the mix of creating a student at Barbara Webster that is well-rounded that under that can express themselves in multiple modalities. So with this one student, the student who stuck his tongue at me, we pushed him to join track and field and then football and ultimately basketball and he started to excel
124at those things. It's not like he had great talent. We just realized he was really good at working. And if you're an athlete, you know, there's a switch that goes off in a person's body when they train enough. And you can see it. And I saw it in this kid. I saw it when he would do PE. I saw it when he was um on defense in flag football. I saw it in basketball. There's just a way that he moves now. The only way I can say it is he's physically educated in being able to do that. We saw that with multiple kids. kids who were overweight, kids who um you would never think would get involved in any sports, they suddenly got involved in sports where regularly we have 50 kids for every single
125one of our sports, especially basketball and track and field too, which is everybody knows running sucks. It's a really hard sell and we've been able to sell that to the kids. >> Hey, watch it. I did cross country. All right, >> I would love to bring cross country to our school, but I again we got to go one piece at a time. I know I'm asking for a lot of money. Let me talk about the other end, the tip of the spear. Um, one of the things that I'm not good at that I have to get better at, and I think having the community schools grant is going to help me do that, is advertising what's going on at Webster. Sometimes I feel like we're one of the best kept secrets in the county because
126I just don't put effort into that. I'm so locked into what's going on during the day that I don't think about explaining this to other people. So, um, we had a student, um, female, 11 years old, who last year in track ran a mile and 6 minutes and 19 seconds. If you know anything about track, you know that that is not only very close to the world record at 12 years old, but would have qualified her for the top six for the conference championships for track and field 11 and 12 year olds. She did a 619, she did a 622, and she did a 640. So it wasn't an anomaly. That kid never emerges if we don't have this program. And respectfully, I don't think it ever emerges if we don't have this program structured
127the way it is. If I'm relying on, as I did at the very beginning, volunteer coaches. We have a highly structured program. Our PE curriculum matches the afterchool program. The afterchool program has an outreach coordinator that goes out and goes out of her way with her team to recruit kids and hold kids in there. That little boy that I was talking about at the beginning, he has quit on average five times a year every sport and every time we bring him back and every time we bring him back. And I've told his mother and she agrees with me. He's not quitting under any circumstances and his mom is down with it. The other thing that I think is great about this that again Mr. Weinstein was brave enough to allow us to do this is
128we have a wrestling program. And the wrestling program, the wrestling and jiu-jitsu program has become the most popular sport at Barbara Webster, which I'm surprised, especially in the summertime. I don't know if I'm sure you realize because you guys approved the money for it. We uh had a six-week program in which those children came to train at Barbara Webster. And I do say train because we did have some fun, but they mostly trained from 12:30 to 4:00 and then if you were a wrestler, you stayed till 5. So, they trained at least, considering all the silliness that went on when you practice, three solid hours, six weeks, and I saw kids physically transform to the point where I think we're going to be ready this year to have one of our sixth graders, a girl,
129compete in wrestling, if not some of the others. So, I have to do a better job of bringing you guys out. Like, for example, we're going to do this again. We did this last year. We're going to have a takedown tournament uh in December with some of our kids. We we did one last year. It was really cool. And we're going to have a BJJ tournament in the spring. I need to invite more people. I need to tell you guys what we're doing. We also do at the end of each of the sections. So, when flag football lands for the city league, we have our own inter mural league and we have our own championship. So, we had our football championship, we had a basketball championship, we had a soccer championship, and we had a
130track championship. Each one of those was cooler than the next where we invited the community to come out. I had all the kids come out because they do it during the day now. So, that all the kids are screaming and it becomes this giant community event, but what it really is is showing the younger kids, uh, you can do this. Your friends are doing it, your older siblings are doing it. You can do it. You can be a scholar athlete. Um, lastly, this year I want to start Mighty Mits. So, I want to bring all of that to first and second grade so that they start young and we build them up slowly so that by the time they get to sixth grade in five years, I have multiple kids running the mile at incredible
131times. I have multiple kids knowing how to play on a team and understanding that. One last piece today I did meet with um our coordinator because I had met with the coaches and I have in conjunction with STAR created um evaluations for all of our coaches. So our coaches are going to be evaluated in December and I have a clear um method for doing that. I worked with Lalo Alvarado before he left and I know you know if you don't know Lo he runs a very large a very large soccer organization in the community. He gave me his um evaluation. I worked on it. I shared it with STAR. I shared it with our coordinator. I share we shared it with the coaches. And those coaches are going to get evaluated in December and in
132uh January based on things like the two big ones are player development and um success and success is through winning. So those two things have to be balanced. And then I also created an evaluation for our coordinator. So the coordinator is going to be evaluating people and I and as well as the chief star is also going to be evaluating the coordinator. So again, thank you for letting me do this. I've learned a lot. There's a lot more to it and I promise you I will get better at inviting you all out there. Are there any questions? >> I have a question. Just curious how this program could tie into some of the recent um changes at the federal level, specifically the the president's uh physical test, >> physical fitness test. Um well, I think
133it could tie in because our kids are in really good shape. >> I think we'll pass it fairly easily. We did that before. Um I've seen that test. It's very baseliny. I mean our kids, you may not know this, in PE we our PE is structured so that for the first 15 minutes the kids do calisthenics. I got that idea from a very successful school in Modesto. If you go on the internet or on YouTube and you look up Kennedy in the 1960s had a presidential challenge to all schools to have the kids get in shape. He and a couple of other people in the task force put together an entire program to guide PE people. There was one school in California still doing that program. We went to go visit it about a year
134and a half ago and we adopted the calisthenics portion of that program. So you can imagine kids all in line. Kindergarten through sixth grade does this. They come out, they get in their lines, they run back and forth in between the two cones and they do calisthenics or body weight exercises on either side. So they do push-ups, they do lunges, they do squats, they do jumping jacks, and we've gotten so good at it that it can basically run itself at this point. So we are basically doing that part of the presidential thing. The only thing that I try to do that I was unsuccessful at doing because it was probably too ambitious is the grip strength. I wanted them to be able to hold on to the bar for a long period of time, but
135it just takes so long to be able to do that with the kids that I just had to reluctantly let that go. So our kids are in really good shape, and I think they they're going to do really well on the PE test. They always do. Thank you. >> Um, a few questions. Um, how does this uh contract um that relate to the contract that we have with the city um for those sports programs? >> So, in the past, Barbara Webster had we had two leagues. So we had a what I called the Friday league in which we had our own kids compete against only each other and then we had the Saturday league of the Saturday teams and those same kids went and competed on Saturday. It got very confusing though so I combined
136the two. So now if you join the Barbara Webster afterchool sports program you will train during the week have an inter mural game on Friday and then those coaches who are coaching them will show up on Saturday and coach those kids on Saturday. So we mimic our PE program and our after school program. The curriculum mimics or follows whatever the city does. And I have different than the other sites. I have structured coaches. I want to call them semi-professional coaches who come and coach them. And they I come from a wide range. We have a soccer person. We have a football person. We have a track person. I've tried to hire folks and we had we've had females. I try to hire folks that are more representative of a broad array of people to go
137and coach on Saturdays and on Fridays, but now it's going to be Fridays and Saturdays. >> Um, one thing I noticed in the contract, right, was that it says the anticipated number of students um, total of 500. Last I know, >> Barbara Webster doesn't have 500. >> I think what he I think he made a typo. I didn't catch that. like over the course of the year we're going to have a 100 plus kids be in all of the programs. >> So I wonder if it's on duplicated. Yeah, I wonder if it's >> I think that's a typo. >> Yeah, if it's an unduplicated. Yeah. So it would just be it would nice to have that clarification in a board. >> No, that's okay. Um, and uh, on the evaluation, you know, one of the
138things I think would be that you should think about putting on that evaluation is um, you know, sportsmanship. >> Yes, I got that on there. >> It is. Okay. >> Pretty long document. I got sportsmanship. I got team cohesion. I have your ability to motivate kids. What I want to see is >> this is where it gets hard where I have to I still have some things to learn. >> Winning matters. And I've said that now. I didn't say it the last two years. Winning on Saturday matters, but secondary to that or what should lead to that is player development matters. If I go to a basketball game at the beginning of the season because I go to most of them and I see certain things that are deficiencies in our kids or they haven't
139learned them yet and I go to the last game and I see those same deficiencies, that's going to be on your value. I'm going to be telling you that the coordinator has been told she needs to be talking to them. We need to see that development in all those areas in skills and sportsmanship and teamwork. All of that is on there and it's super clear now what we expect of our coaches and how we expect our kids to progress. >> Oh, first of all, you are correct. Bar Webster Elementary is the best kept secret of intera county. I would know and my family would know because we've all attended Burough Webster and we've all completed our elementary education at Burrow Webster Elementary. Um I made sure Borrow Webster it was the first school I visited
140uh when I became trustee because I wanted to see how it currently is doing. Um what leadership it's under and what kind of culture it has. And I'm excited to say that it has a very positive culture since I've been there. The school looks amazing. It doesn't look like it's wilting anymore. our infrastructure investments really paid off, especially with our kitchen, with our painting, >> even with our grass. It doesn't look like it's wilting anymore, which I think is fantastic. Um, and you're and I would definitely like to be kept updated about the events and what transpires because I would love to see student and parental reactions because what a lot of people don't notice is Bar Webster feels like it's its own community. It it feels like it's a bit more independent compared to
141our other school sites. Um, but when you meet with parents, when you meet with students over there, there's just a level of excitement you don't see. And I see that this is a large investment. Don't get me wrong, but it seems like a worthwhile investment because, you know, again, I have cousins that that have benefited from the your sports program. One of my cousins, she did basketball. She was the one of the first girls in our family to actually do basketball. Um, when I was attending Burough Offer, sports were unfortunately not an opportunity for us because the community center was on the other side of the town and they only had three sports offered were which were tennis, gym, um, gymnastics and I don't know what the other one is. Um, so again, physical education
142was practically out of reach for borrower students in the early 2000s. So this is such a huge major U-turn that will be such a huge benefit for the community because again this level of knowledge and education was not accessible a few years ago and that's hard to believe but that is the truth. Um so again I'm very excited to what what you have envisioned. I'm very excited to see what's executed but please please publicize this and let us know so we can be there to support you. It's very important that the board and our DO staff are just there to support you to show our community that we are interested in what's happening at Bor Webster and we want to make sure we do our part to make it successful. >> Thank you. >> Yeah.
143And just a little note, when I came on board, one of the things was for our community and everyone else to know all the good things that are happening in Santa Paula. And it was important to me to have a well her title isn't social media, but it's more of >> Communication coordinator. And that's Julisa. So shame shame for not using her. >> I've used her a couple of times. I just another gear. >> So sometimes it's it's it's really just a quick you can text her, you can send her the photo, you can have delegate to your staff. >> She comes out. I'm I should >> No, no, she doesn't have to come out. But anybody come out. I'm taking pictures. What I mean is, I'm sorry to interrupt you. I gota I need
144like Barbara Webster should have swag. Like we're a sports academy. We should have I designed a logo, but I haven't gotten to the point where we put it on shirts. I need that level of My dream was always and it still is that people will see what's happening at Webster. They'll see this kid who ran that track thing and they'll start coming from private um traveling teams to recruit at our school. That's the level of exposure that I want to get to. >> Yeah. Well, like even logos, we do this for FFA, our kids. They create their logo, their design every year. They vote on it and that's our shirt for the year. Um, the city used students an art contest to come up with a visioning. This was 2000, so I'm dating myself. And
145we used that logo for our visioning for the city when I worked there. So, you have high school students in graphics. You you you have to you you shoot out an email. I mean you have wealth >> of of talented people. >> So delegate delegate. >> Yes. >> You know >> in terms of the publicity I mean I think it's something that that we all should do better at. Right. For sure. Um, you know, I know the Santa Paula Times would love to have a schedule of events coming up, right, in the school districts because, you know, Peggy wants like content, right? So, that's an easy one for us and we should be sharing it out with uh the city too so that they can get, you know, we can put things on the through
146their website and social media or whatever because, you know, we can do it on Parent Square, but that's the parents that we have. We want the broader community to to to see what we're doing, too. So, um, you know, just one last question, though. Like, this program is open to to everyone, right? You don't have to be an Aspire. >> No, it's school, >> right? So, >> yeah, if you're aspired, then it makes it easy because we can just you're right there, but every non-inspired kids do it. >> Yeah. I mean, I would like to most see, and this is I mean, I'm glad that that's working for your academy. I'd like to see like every academy have those kind of opportunities after school, right? that any of the students, right, can can do like
147for the art, you know, contract that I recuse myself on like I would like to see that opened up to any student that wants to do it. Um because that's what ELOP is supposed to be for, right? And it also shows the state that we're offering it to everyone, which means that if we have a balance, we can also start using some of that ELO money um from seven on up, >> right? So, you know, that just should be a goal of the the district is that anybody, right, any kid from TK through six has an opportunity to do whatever enrichment opportunity that they can. So, um more than happy to support this and are we >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> No, I just want to just I'll be really brief, but but I I
148got the had the opportunity to visit the school yesterday. Um and Mr. Madre, it's it's refreshing to see such uh passion in you and I love it. I love it. you're speaking to someone who's athletic, someone who understands that if it wasn't for athletics, I would have never gone to college. >> And and it's through athletics that I got to excel, you know, here in Santa Paula, you know, and and for those who don't know, I was I was born and raised right in front of Barbara Webster School, went to Barbara Webster as as a student, but also had the opportunity to work there for for about 18 years. So I I I see it. I love it. I know what it means when you talk about it its own community in itself. So, uh,
149just thank you for your your passion. Please don't ever lose it. Um, because I'm sure your staff and your your, uh, your community, uh, feeds off of that. So, thank you. >> And they do. I did speak to one of your staff members and they just they commented how energetic. So, keep it up. >> Don't even drink coffee. >> Imagine if I did. >> Don't start. Yeah. >> Well, with that said, is there a motion? So moved. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second it. >> It's been moved and second. A preferential vote. All those in favor? >> I I >> passes. Board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. >> On behalf of the Barb Webster kids. Thank you. >> Item four, approval of contract with 360 degrees for special
150education services for the 2526 school year. >> Good evening. Um I I do have contracts on here tonight for service providers to fill current vacancies that we have. Um they're not new positions. They're filling vacancies. Um also transportation contracts and um VCOE contract for service providers that we share with other districts. So this first one is 360 degrees um for speech and language pathologist and a speech and language pathologist assistant. So, do we have a motion for approval? >> Actually, I just have a a question real quick. I I was looking at the contract and unless I missed it, um it was referencing a couple exhibits and specifically in exhibit A that would describe the statement of services, but I didn't see that. Is it >> um It should be in the description. >> Okay.
151>> Um >> can you just expand a little? I mean, I know you touched on it briefly just now, but could would you mind >> explain speech and language um speech and language services for students who receive speech and language services through their IEP? So, that has to be um given by a speech and language pathologist that has a specific lensure and credential. Um and so we have vacancies for um those positions in the district. And so we do have to fill some of those with a contract and the contractors have, you know, meet the credential and the lensure requirements in order to provide services to students with IEPs. >> Okay. Thank you. >> So, it's one of these contracts that we're hoping will go away with. We can fill it with with our own
152people >> when we when we hire our own staff. And and with that, I mean, I think I know it's going to be a long-term um you know, you know, goal. Well, the goal would be is as Dr. Sano pointed out to to move away from from the contracting, but you know, I I'd like to maybe see the plan. And I know we've talked a little bit, we've talked a little bit uh in the past about how we can, you know, best meet the needs of our students, but you know, I I I want to keep that conversation going. >> Um, you know, with recruitment, what what do we need to do in our end? What what can we do better as as trustees to support those efforts? Um, please come forward, you know, please
153let us know. But yeah, I mean, this is what it is. >> And I think it's a partnership with with human resources as well. um you know, we have an obligation to bring in our own staff. Um but when we also have IEPs that we have to implement, um you know, we really are are kind of forced to look for for people who can provide the service and sometimes that has to be a contractor in the moment. >> So that was one of actually one of my questions. So let's say we do bring someone in come October. >> Does that mean that you can you can hire that person or are you bound by this contract? we can hire that person and then we have um there's language in the contract where we have to
154give them notice >> um but we would give them that notice that that's required and we would hire them on. Yes. So we we continue to keep these positions posted even though they're filled with contractors. We don't pull them down because our obligation is to hire our own staff. And speaking of what we can do as a board, um there is talk on Capitol Hill that there's an interest to expand funding for special education, if you can believe it, in a bipartisan manner. So we can go out there and make sure that, you know, we're advocating for that. So, you know, it's one of those things. Um now, this is a little bit of a digression, but it does relate, right? The CSBA has the annual coast to coast, right, in the spring, you know,
155where you do go to Capitol Hill and you meet a variety of um legislators, right, from both sides of the of the aisle. So, might be something that we think about um to help in this regard. >> I did I last year I did share um a Google doc with a lot of different legislative updates and ways to be involved and ways to advocate um some different question and things like that, I can reshare those and I'll continue to share those with you as those come up. But yeah, I I appreciate that and thank you. >> So yeah, questions now. Is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and second. Preferential vote. All those in favor? >> It didn't stop. >> I Oh, this
156is staffing contract. So, no. >> Sorry. >> Yeah, it's in a gray area, but I would say no. >> Apologize. Thank you. Um, board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes 5-0. >> And item five, approval of contract with AYA Healthcare for special education services. This is the same type of contract but with a different agency, I healthcare. It is for a speech and language pathologist and two occupational therapists. >> Have any question? >> Same scope of work that I described. >> So move. >> Second. >> It's been moved and second. Um board vote. All those in favor? >> I I >> Thank you. Item six, approval of transportation agreement with Filillmore Area Transit for Special Education for the 2526 school year. If none, is there a motion? >> I I just had one
157question. I So, it looked like this was a multi-year agreement, correct? That was that was signed. >> It's a three-year, I think, agreement. So, we're in year two of that three-year. >> Yeah. And in the agreement, it looked like there was some amounts there for years one, two, and three. And they're based on escalators like CPI and all of that. And I just noticed that this amount looked like it was a little bit more than the amount that it was stated in the agreement for year two. just making sure that we're okay with that. And is there a reason for that? Is it is it service levels? Is it just costs? >> The costs are going up. Um and so I know when they do the three-year agreement, they do estimate, you know, and and
158those increases. Um but the costs have gone up. Okay. Um some of that due to insurance requirements, other costs, um compliance costs and things like that. If you want to add anything, >> but keep in mind the amount that we bring here often does it is a little higher than the actual cost that we've calculated. Um, you know, to account for anything that we might go over, but it's not the exact amount. >> Thank you. >> Do we have Do I have a motion? >> I'll motion. >> Okay, it's been moved. Is there a second? >> I second. >> So, it's been moved and second. Uh board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes 5. Thank you. Item seven, approval of contracts with Ventura County SULPA for specialized support services. >> So these are
159contracts that we have with SULPA that we share um with other districts. So these are providers that provide services for um you know what we call low incidence um disabilities or services. Um so we have physical therapy. What we require right now is about seven hours a week. So we share that person with another uh district. We have a deaf and heart of hearing specialist that right now we only need about four to five hours per week. So we share that and adaptive PE which is about 10 hours a week that we need all based on the services that our kids um require through their IEP. Yeah, me again. Um, so similar to I think maybe some of the other questions that I had with some of the other exhibits, it was a little hard
160to kind of correlate just the grand total of what the agreement was to sort of what the line item, you know, for the services that we were getting. And so like the information you just shared at the DAS is it was great. I would have loved to have seen that just even referenced somewhere as an attachment to this exhibit to to see that sort of you know I guess detail behind what the what the costs are. So >> So each of those providers the the physical therapist deaf and heart of hearing they each have a separate contract that should be attached that has their hours and and the amount for each separate provider. >> Gotcha. Maybe that was just missing from it but um but good to know. Good to know. Thank you. Are you
161um just to make sure I'm following that? Are you mean do you mean that the four uh separate contracts there don't total up to the 219 or am I misunderstanding what you're >> So we're on item eight, right? >> Seven. Sorry. >> Seven. >> I was looking at my notes for something else. Okay. Okay. Is there a motion for approval? >> Some moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Who's >> And you know my question for eight. >> Okay. >> I'm sorry. >> So, who's who's a second? >> I I I think I second. >> Thank you. Okay. >> So, it's a second. >> Um board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes 5-0. Thank you. Item eight, approval of services agreement with Pioneer Healthcare for Special Education. >> This is for
162an occupational therapy assistant. So, we happen to have one occupational therapist right now that we contract with who's virtual. So, this occupational therapy assistant is in persons able to help provide those services that we need in person. So, it is somewhat of an extra cost because of some of the virtual um pieces that we need to have right now. um you know due to having a virtual OT we're we're trying to replace with in person or even our own staff um but that's the reason for the occupational therapy assistant so they they only provide services they don't attend IEPs or anything like that um that's under the supervision of the occupational therapist any questions if none is there a motion So moved. >> A second. Anyone? >> Second. >> It's been moved and second. Board
163vote. All those in favor? >> I >> passes 5-0. Forgot you had several. Item nine, approval of contract with the Ventura County Office of Education for transportation services for special education for the 2526 school year. >> So this is um a different transportation contract for our students who attend the VCOE schools. So it is an estimate um that they give us. >> And do we have that information? That's that they use for that estimate. I I know that they referenced in the agreement, you know, that that estimate is based off past costs, past service levels. That's the basis for the new estimate. >> How many routes that they have, how many kids? Yeah. >> So, do they share that with us? >> They do. I actually have that information. >> Okay. Um, and I have
164it in detail because I did um I did use that information to try to estimate costs possibly from other transportation providers um to see if any of those costs would be lower than what we pay VCOE, but um was not. So, but I do have all that information. I have all the routes. Um these are routes too that go to our VCOE schools. We have several wheelchair buses and things like that. aids on those buses. Um, so that's the, you know, the cost. >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you, >> Dr. Alarms. You may want to add that to your Friday update, >> a link. That way they if they're interested, they can look at it. If they're not interested, they >> So, is there a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I'll second. It's been
165moved and second board vote. All those in favor? >> I I >> I passes. Thank you. >> Item 10, approval of approval of service agreement with Sailor Davis for speech, language, and special education services for the 2526 school year. >> Yeah. These next two are contracts for individual service providers. Um they're filling positions for speech and language pathologists. Any questions or is there a motion? >> I'll move. >> Okay, >> it's been moved. >> I'll second. >> It's been moved and second. Board vote. All those in favor? >> I. >> Passes. Thank you. >> Item 11, approval of services agreement with Ellie Ruby Rickards Rickersonen for speech and language therapy and IEP case management. same thing as the last one. It's a independent contract for speech and language. >> Any questions or is there a
166motion? >> So, and I meant to ask it on the last one, but I'll just ask it on this one. So, um when we talked about case management, do our I'm trying to I'm trying to ask it the right way. Um, I remember Bickham case managers and I don't even know what that acronym stands for, but do any of our our own staff members case manage or so or what level of case management are we talking about when >> Yeah. So, all of our IEPs have a case manager. So, it's usually the primary service um provider on the IEP that case manages. So, they they facilitate the IEP. they're, you know, they're the ones in charge of kind of collaborating with if there's any other service providers on the IEP, they're the ones responsible for
167finalizing the IEP, any compliance pieces and things like that. Um, so, you know, for kids that have, you know, like specialized academic instruction, for example, the special ed teacher would be the case manager. Some kids have speech and language as a primary service. So, in those cases, the the speech and language pathologist would be the case manager. really only special ed teachers and speech and language pathologists are case managers. Those are primary services. Any others like OT, PT, deaf and heart, well, not deaf and heart because that's a teacher, but PT, OT, those are related services. So, they wouldn't be case managing, but they um provide a related service. They're still responsible for the goals and the services in the IEP. Um but they're not the main case manager in charge of it all. Is
168there a motion for approval? >> Um, >> so moved. >> I'll second board vote. All those in favor? >> I >> passes. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, we're moving on to business services item one donations. Yeah, I just did you were you going to do the donations or Okay, I wasn't sure. So, for the month of July, we have a few donations. We have one from Banaderia Lucero for the Santa High School Theater Club in the amount of $50 from Mariana Perez for Santa High School Theater in the amount of $40. Big brand tires and service for the Santael High School baseball team in the in the amount of $400. and VFW Post 2043 Mercer Prito to the Santael High School Choir Club in the amount of $200 for a total of $690 in
169donations. Thank you to everybody. And >> can I get a motion to accept these donations? >> So move. I'll second. It's >> been moved and second. Preferential vote. >> All those in favor? Thank you. Board vote. >> I I >> passes. Thank you. >> Item two, notice of completion. We are looking for um approval for the notice of completion for both the Santa Paula High School library modernization project as well as the Barber Webster Elementary School Kitchen project. You can only have it if we have uh grand openings for each. >> Yeah. My only comment is yeah, I want to see photos in a grand opening or we can pull it or continue this item. What do you guys want to do? >> No, I I just want to say that I I did attend
170or I did uh visit the uh library. Oh my gosh, I was blown away. I think one day we need to have a meeting uh in there. I just I from what I remember it as a kid to to what it is today. Uh really impressed. So thank you. Uh and then the the Barbara Webster kitchen. Um I was there yesterday just watching them in motion and it was awesome to see the the amount of space in there. I remember the days of Sue Carpenter and three other gals bumping up and and fighting it out. I loved it when when it was there. But it's awesome to see the uh these projects uh in completion. So, >> okay, with that, do we have a motion? >> So, moved. >> I'll second it. >> It's been
171moved and second. Um can I get a preferential vote? All those in favor? >> I >> passes. Board vote. All those in favor? >> I >> passes. Thank you. Maybe on a Friday update we can get some photos for those who can't just make it there. >> Sure. >> Thank you. >> I'll bug Doug for a visit. Okay. Um item three, approval of change order number two for the Barbara Webster Elementary School kitchen project. This is a change order for $4,574. Um, this was due to a steam table modification that had to be done and it was also um the power that needed to be put to that steam table. So, that's the reason for the increase of the $4,500. Um, any questions, comments, or is there a motion? What is a steam table? >>
172It's a really good question. >> I want one in my kitchen. >> Wouldn't it be where you put like all the trays and there's like the steam to keep it warm? >> It's probably like a warming type of >> the warming like more of a >> his water bath in the bottom and creates steam to keep the food warm. >> Interesting. bit steam versus anybody know >> they don't just have the the aluminum trays and the sterno underneath. They do a little bit more professional than that. >> Okay. >> Well, when there's the uh grand reopening ceremony for the kitchen, someone's got to point out the steam >> the demonstration. >> Just add the at the photos and the Friday update. Let us know what it all does or we can Google it. Thank you.
173Good question. >> All right. I'll I'll move to approve the change order. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. It's been moved and second. Uh preferential vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. Uh board to vote. All those in favor? >> I >> passes. Thank you. >> I wanted to vote with you guys. >> Let's see. Um item D, human resources. Item one, establish one 5.75 hour instructional assistant bilingual at Barbara Webster. Good evening board members, Superintendent Weinstein, cabinet members. Um this is a um position uh due to having to add a um or getting to add an additional TK class at Barbara Webster. Um our our TK numbers have um come in higher than we were anticipating, which is great. Um, so we added a TK class at Barber Webster to now
174they will have two again and um for that class we need to add the bilingual um uh instructional assistant for to be with them for the rest of the for the whole day. >> Okay, if any questions. >> Is there a fiscal impact associated with this at all? >> Yes. Um there is. Um, and we've been working with uh Miss Tom's to kind of let her know when we need to do these. Unfortunately, um, because of the enrollment numbers, we we were at capacity in all of our classes. >> That makes sense. >> And all the sites as well like Mckva everywhere. >> Yes. Um, Director Bergman has been working really hard to monitor enrollment and so, uh, we make sure that we're all working together and there's not any new classes opened unless we
175are completely maxed out. >> But then the enrollment, >> we've had we had more TKs enrolled today and we're already at max capacity at every TK. So, it's a great trend that we're seeing in the TK classes. Um, we've had a lot of TKs are rolling >> and just for the port's uh knowledge that it is a different uh ratio, right? We have to be 20 or 10 to1, excuse me, and that was a new requirement as of this year because it had been uh 12 to1. So it just means we have >> Yeah. You know, we're getting ADA, you know, absolutely. But it means we do have to staff a little bit higher than than we did in the past, too. >> I I like the idea that we're hiring within and we're not
176contracting up. >> That That's >> Yeah. So move. >> Okay. It's been moved. Is there a second? It's been moved and second. Um board vote. All those in favor? I >> I passes. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Item eight, consent items. So, consent items are considered routine and will be enacted by a single motion. None of the items will be discussed unless a board member requests discussion prior to the vote of the motion to adopt the consent calendar. I had a question. >> Go for it. >> Um, on a couple of the contracts, uh, it looked like, well, one specifically, there was an amount, um, I'm trying to find it. The contract with, uh, the county office of education um, for the migrant program verification of eligibility for students. The funding source was NA
177Thank you, Gina. >> Sorry. So, um the migrant education is run through VCOE and they get all the money. So, we um let's say we are going to pay for a custodian. So, the district um then builds them back and then they pay us back the money. So, it's never we're not um spending any money from our district. It's all being spent from what they're allocated to us, >> but we outlay and then get money back. >> Yeah. Only only for uh only for um the bus transportation and the custodial support. >> And then for the other three contracts on page two, um the fiscal impact was NA, the funding source was NA. Is that just because there is no cost associated with those or we just don't know yet? They'reus >> those are those
178areus but you can explain >> which you're referring to islands California State University. >> Uh correct there is no cost associated with this and um this is we work together mutually with the um universities to make sure that everybody has the right uh the correct um coverage in case of any issues liability wise but there is no cost to the district. Um, and in fact, um, there is, uh, language in the contract that does say that we do have the right to build them up about, I think, $150 in case we incur any cost. Um, but this is a good way to also build up our our teaching staff for when we do hire. Um, we are hiring people that we've seen within the school year in the classrooms. >> Great. Thank you for uh
179clarifying. >> Thank you for those questions. So, if there's no additional questions or comments, is there a motion for approval? >> Uh, I approve motion that we uh approve the consent calendar. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> I second. >> It's been moved and second. Board vote. All those in favor? >> I passes. Thank you. Moving. Moving on to item nine, board member comments, requests for future agenda items. Um, let's start with our student trustees. Asher. Um, well, I am definitely very glad to be back um with the board. Um, I actually Googled it, Mr. Kumazawa. Yes, a steam table is um used to um keep food warm. So, what it does, it boils water in the bottom. The steam keeps the um trays um warm. So, it's usually it's used at a
180lot of buffet lines. Um, you know, interesting little tidbit. Um, I am excited for this new and upcoming school year. I'm excited of what um Santa Paul High School is doing. Um, they are definitely changing and shaping the cultures, especially as we heard today um with some of the presentations from Mr. Richard Castinido. Uh, I'd also like to give my sincere condolences to the Pacheco family and to the Mckv community. Um it is a tragic and heartbreaking loss. I was uh given the privilege to work with uh Miss Pacheco last year. She was an amazing and sweet um woman and it is excuse me it is uh it was too soon that she was um taken from us. Um other than that that is all I have for this week. Thank you, Natalene. Besides surviving
181your first meeting, comments. >> Um, I'd like to say that I'm really glad to be here. I think this is like a really amazing opportunity and I think I'm going to enjoy being here a lot. And also, as Asher said, I do think that for Santa Paula High School, there is a lot, especially in the culture, there are a lot of positive changes that are being made. and I've heard a lot of positive feedback about the library and just a lot of the new things in the high school. So that's all I have. >> Thank you, Trustee Gonzalez. >> Yeah, thank you. Um yeah, first off, also just want to acknowledge the uh the unfortunate uh passing of of Mrs. PCO. I didn't know her. Um, but obviously I can tell that she had a
182a big impact uh on the community and not just the the school district. Um, yeah, I mean, not much more than I can I can say about that. Um, I want to talk about the strategic planning meeting that we had on August 2nd. Um, you know, it was I thought it was just great discussion. Um, I could tell that there was an eagerness there. Um, but I also have to say I I couldn't help but feel that when I left the meeting I was like, "Okay, what's next?" And I don't know if if if staff felt that too. Um, I know that we have a strategic planning committee. Um, and I was curious just, you know, thinking to myself how that committee kind of intertwines with, you know, what was discussed on on that Saturday.
183Um, you know, my understanding is that the district does not have a a formal strategic plan. Maybe I'm wrong there. Um, maybe that's a goal. Maybe that was a implied goal of of that discussion and trying to get, you know, this cabinet and this board start to think about that. Um, but I I would love to hear what's next. I I don't want to lose momentum as we've talked about. you know, it it took a lot of effort to get people there on on their Saturday, especially, I think, the week before school. Um, and so, yeah, I would just love to hear what's next. And whether that comes, you know, from that committee or from staff, um, I I don't want to lose sight of that and I don't want to lose sight of the
184discussion and the purpose of that. Um and so yeah, whether that's a future item, I'm not asking for something at the next meeting, but again, don't want to lose momentum. Um and then similar to that, um regarding the budget, I'm sorry I can't help but stay in my lane. It's just why I do what I do and who I am what I am. Um I would like to see a plan from staff about what the budget process looks like. Um and I I have a document that I like to put on screen. um just to kind of give some context um to what I kind of am thinking and this is something that we have from the county um not saying it's the the standard or the gold standard and to give you some context
185you can see that there's the bullet in blue so this was presented by our CFO um and our budget director during the budget hearings at the county and so this was presented on June 3rd um and the reason why that bullet in was in blue was because that's where we were at in the process And why I think this document is important um and and why I'm referencing it is you could see it lists all these things that happened before. And I can tell you from personal experience, professional experience that this is there's a lot more than that, but this is meant to be very high level. And you know, again, what does this show? Well, the budget is the finish line, right? And there's all this work that happens before we get to the
186finish line. And so being mindful of the tone I I think of, you know, how we've talked about the budget, you know, here at the district, just in the short time that I've been here and also in the meetings that preceded me when I was doing my research about the district in in pursuit of the seat. I would love to see something from staff. um if we don't already do this already. I don't know if we do, and this is why I'm I'm bringing it up. I would love to see something from staff soon um about this. And it doesn't have to be, you know, set in stone. It doesn't have to be these exact budget, these bullets, right? Because these bullets again are reflective of the county and our process about what we get
187to the budget. But, you know, again, thinking about some of just the things that I picked up in the short time I've been here when talking about the budget, I think May is a critical time period. And if I remember correctly, May is a critical time period because if we are talking about reductions, we are contemplating cuts. We have to let the unions know and we have to let certain folks know that those are planned in May, right, for the upcoming March. So, even more. So if it's March, if that's a bullet in March, well obviously we got to start working towards that soon, right? And if that happens in the budget committee, if that happens through special meetings, if that happens in regular meetings on an agenda item, I I would love to again
188I would love to see us put together pen to paper. Okay, if this if we're doing our budget in June and we have to do something in March and we have to do something else by January and we have to do something else by December, lay that out just for you my own edification. Um, I think staff would appreciate that to know that this is what our board's priorities are and and the public would know and I think it would highlight, you know, when some difficult conversations are probably going to have to be had um in the coming months. And I think if we have this as sort of our framework and our high level process, it will even better inform the budget committee about things that we need to talk about, right? Because again,
189we know that these deadlines are coming. And, you know, and again, I I know I'm new. I know some of this is probably secondhand nature to you all just because you've been doing it so long and you have these, you know, probably already in your head. Um, but I don't and and you know, as a newcomer, um, I know I would appreciate this kind of clarity. Um, and I'm I'm guessing if if I would appreciate it, the public would appreciate it. And again, I think staff would appreciate it, too. So, you know, again, not something, you know, sup superintendent for the next board meeting, you know, and again, if this is something that, you know, maybe we even develop in the budget committee, you know, totally open to that to-do, but I again, I just
190wanted to get the discussion started because again, if it's not obvious, I think we've had three or four regular meetings since I've been a board member, and I think I've talked about the budget every time. I I think, believe it or not, I think about the budget all the time and um and I know our our business officer probably thinks about it, too. And so, um I'm with you. And yeah, that that's where I'm at with that. And again, would appreciate it. Thank you. >> No, great comments. As Lori knows, she has our support. >> Happy board meeting everyone. My deepest condolences to Miss Pacheco and her family. I didn't know her that well. Um, but again, seeing the great impact she had while I was a board member, it was tremendous. It was amazing.
191It was beautiful. Also, my deepest condolences to my neighbors who were affected by last week's fire as well. Um, and just to piggy back off that comment about the fires that occurred in that apartment complex. You know, those were the Beatas apartment complex. Those were very historical. One of the first affordable housing units here in Santa Paula. Um, and it speaks a lot to the culture of this city. When I talk about culture, I don't talk I don't mean positives. I don't mean smiles. I don't mean all that fun stuff. I mean the whole culture. The ugly parts. The parts we don't want to see. The parts that cost us money. The parts that don't give us the best grades, that don't give us the best attendance record, all parts. So when I want to
192invest in our culture, when I want to invest in our students, when I want to focus on our students, I want to focus on their whole lives. And I've said this before in every board meetings. Yes, we can't control the home. Yes, we can't control the weather. Yes, we can't control a lot of things. But if we can control the culture of our schools and move the needle, I mean, we had an um we had amazing speakers brought to us before. Um and we have to listen to them and we have to invest and we as a district and we as a board have to start asking them what they need from us. That is so important. We ask them a ton of questions. We give them a ton of suggestions. Sometimes those suggestions are
193actually orders. We need to take a step back and listen to our experts and really just understand what they need from us to be successful to ensure our kids are successful because we have some awesome teachers out there that are practically case managers now and we are not experts at case managing in this board. So we need to do our due diligence and listen to our educators, listen to our professionals. And another thing, you know, I was excited um by our high school requirements. I saw ethnic studies on there. Um I just realized we didn't have that presentation on ethnic studies last semester. You know, I would really like to see that presentation done either this upcoming or the next board meeting or the board meeting that would follow because I definitely would like to
194see our community's reactions to our ethnic studies program because it is a direct investment in our culture and I would love to see their reactions to that. Um, but other than that, thank you for attending our board meeting. >> Thank you, Trusty Sandival. >> Um, yeah, it's been a rough way to start off a school year, you know, the loss of a student over the summer and then now a principal. um you know with that you know I was able to uh go to Mckvit on Monday morning um and welcome people you know into the school right on the first day of classes and it was it was a it was great to do that um you know I that community's that school is going to need uh a lot of time to heal right
195and um we'll try to give as much support as we can to them um I also uh went to Bedell to yesterday. Uh and you know, a little bit more joyous, right? Uh and gosh, these kids are little. Um so it was just nice to see elementary the the elementary students. Um I had attended the new certificated staff orientation, dropped in there for a little while. Uh nice to see new faces right here at the district. Uh I was able to attend uh the leadership retreat for a certain uh some amount of time. Um and it was great to see our uh leadership, you know, get together and um start talking about, you know, what we're going to be doing this this year. Uh to echo um trustee uh was always a strategic plan um
196discussion there. You know, again, I agree, right? Uh we haven't had a a a formal strategic plan since I've been here. Um it's important to me. I think they're valuable. So, you know, I'm hoping that, you know, the work that we did in the first committee meeting uh in May, right, and the work that we did at that board workshop will kind of combine, right, and be forwarded. Um, again, we'll need to kind of see what that looks like, but, you know, I would assume it would come out of that strategic planning committee. Um, so anyways, we'll we'll see more on that. Uh and then finally on Friday I was able to uh go see our high school summer sea perch program. Uh the last day of that program was at Fathom Works um which
197is at the Port of Wine. Um and it was great to talk to, you know, not so much the students this time. Um, I was really talking to their mentors more and it was great to see the partnership that we have with Cal State Channel Islands and Ventura College in and them providing those mentors, you know, and what they get out of it too because some of those mentors were our students. Um, and so it's just a it's a great program. I love it and it was nice to see it in action. Trusty Fruas. >> All right. So, my catch word I got to get myself back into teaching mode. Uh, it's partners. Um, definitely I want to welcome back everyone to to, you know, a challenge year, but hopefully a very positive one. Um,
198I was able to to be uh there at Mckvitt School, uh, Santa Paul High School, Barbara Webster, Isbel, uh, for visits for the first two days. I plan on visiting Gracedale and Bedell, uh, Glenn City, and then Blanchard. My goal is to get to each of the school sites. Um, but it's just it's awesome to see why we're here and and it really always comes right back to it's our students. They're our partners. They're the reasons why we do what we do and and I appreciate that. Um, going along with that, I I I just I want to give a shout out to Dr. Ramirez, Miss Bergman, Miss AOA, and I believe there was another Santa Paul staff member there that attended the PLC training at BCO. I attended as a teacher from Briggs, but
199it was awesome to see our partners there um taking on a a concept of of working with, you know, our um working, you know, with with with learning of looking at standards and and whatnot. Um in that time frame, I was also putting on my board role, uh talking with uh Vista Real. So, Dr. Santa Maria, we talked about this at strategic planning. So, I I uh I I look forward to meeting with you and sharing some information on how we can build that partnership with Vista Real. That was one of our our discussions last last meetings. Um along with that, I I did attend the new teacher orientation. Uh excellent job. Um Miss Donahghue, Dr. Donahghue. Um and and Jeff, I just want to say you you you did a really awesome uh opening
200and you connected it with our learner profile, you know. So, we all know that our strategic planning is is kind of new. And again, to to your point, Trustee Kumazawa, uh we have to get there, though. And I think that if we continue to use the language that we've all adopted, I think we're moving in the right direction. I um I also attended the sea perch uh summer program on Friday the 8th uh to you know to see our partners in actions to see our high school students working and then to see former students becoming mentors and to to work with the instructors uh and and their leadership and and seeing their excitement and wanting to continue to invest in in this program. Uh again, I just want to thank you know Dr. Ramon Flores
201for his partnership and guidance in this area and because I know he's he's he's doing a great job and and I want to give my my colleague here a shout out because I know he spearheads a lot of this. He's so wellnowledged. He has a lot of knowledge and background information on on C Perch and the engineering program and um uh I I I I continue I look forward to to continuing that partnership. Um, I had the opportunity to meet to meet with Adakus Reyes, a trustee out of Ohio Unified, but also a staff member for uh, Assembly Member Steve Bennett. And it's just it's refreshing to me to know that we do have um you know advocates in our community looking out for us. Looking out for us whether it's funding looking out for
202us whether um you know they reached out to us that I got a phone call the other day regarding uh the incident that we're going through with with uh the principal over at McKvitt School, you know. So again, that partnership just means a lot. And so I want to end with uh with with this with this last partnership opportunity. So on August the 21st, which is next Thursday right here 6 o'clock at Glen City School, uh the Ventura County Community College District will be having a meeting to discuss a possible ed uh education center. Um, we know that that's down the road in the future, but but I want to give credit to Latino Town Hall Rotary Club. We have Optimus Club. We have um we have Santa Paul Education Foundation. We have Filmore Unified
203School District, Filillmore uh um um uh city council members. Um we have staff members uh throughout our uh two communities that are mobilizing to to see this promise. uh fulfilled. Uh and I want to encourage our our our leadership team to be here on that day. Uh I'm going to ask Jeff if you would please stand with our uh other superintendents uh from you know with I I we're not sure exactly the details. We can go in to a little more but I understand that uh Miss Sherley will be uh will be giving a presentation. Um we have Miss Marlene Bautist over in Mupu Carlos Dominguez. were asking if you would stand with them in support of of this project and pretty much just reiterate the resolution that we passed back in uh 2023. Um
204the idea is partnership. It's uh just continuing to see what we can do to work and meet the needs of our our unique population. U oh yeah, one last thing. We had a we had a meeting today with uh with Supervisor Kelly Long and she offered her support. So again, um if if we can't get the community college district to see what efforts are being put into place and that we mean business through partnerships, I don't know what's what it's going to take. So I'm asking you all to to uh please support the efforts uh because it it means something really amazing for our kids. And with that, I I I just want to say thank you all for uh for a great start and let's let's have a you know, a great year this
205year. Thank you. >> So, um I'll just start off with hoping everybody had a great start of the week. I'm sorry it started on Monday and not today, Wednesday. Um maybe next year. Um, I also had the privilege to attend the new teacher orientation. Um, kudos to everyone who presented, Jeff, Vanessa, and I was only here in the morning. So, it was nice to, you know, just meet everybody. And now when I see the new faces around the different campuses, I'll know these are our new employees. So, actually, I did see one at Glen City, but he was far away and really busy with the kids, so I I I didn't want to interrupt. Um, thank you to all the board members for all your wonderful comments. We all bring different things. I I I
206know the budget is very important to all of us and I just happy that somebody brings it up every time and um just to for everyone listening that it's very important for us to be um fiscally sound and that you know we keep all our employees and that we that we're basically frugal with our funds and do the best we can with it. Um the it's hard for me to say when there's a passing of someone that you've met and that you've interacted with. Um, I was fortunate to have Miss Pacheco as my daughter's principal when she was in fourth grade here at Glen City with all her staff and then when she moved back to Mckvitt for fifth grade and you know, Miss Pacheco was just a very caring um, easygoing person that just,
207you know, just she she ran her campus smoothly and um, it's just a great loss to see somebody pass so soon. Um, and I know we're going to be dedicating this meeting at the end, but with that, um, I'll move on to item 10, which our future meeting is for August 27th, and we will adjourn. >> I would like to request that we have a moment of silence to honor Alice Pacheco before we hit the gap. Thank you everyone. So we will adjourn at 9:04. Heat. Heat. Heat up here.