January 28, 2026 - Regular Board Meeting

001call to order the January 28th, 2026 uh regular board meeting of the Santa Rosa Board of Education. We're going to move to A1, public comment on close session agenda items. Is there any public comment? >> President Casten, there are no public comments. >> Seeing no public comment, we will be recessing to close session. Uh we'll be considering items B1. This item has been withdrawn. B2 SCON expulsion cases. Case number 2025 D- slash26-13 public employee dismiss uh discipline dismissal release B3 B4 is conference with labor negotiator Vicky Xans for San Rosa Teachers Association CSEA San Rosa 75 and Teamsters Union 665 and B5 public employee performance evaluation with the listed titles At this point, we will recess to close session. All right, we are reassessed. Tanner Rosa Board of Education to session. If everyone can please

002stand for the pledge of allegiance and then stay standing for the territorial land acknowledgement. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Trusty McN will now give the territorial land acknowledgement. I acknowledge that Santa Rosa City Schools is on the traditional territory and homelands of the Pomo people, traditional territory and homelands of the Coast Miwok people, and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. This land acknowledgement calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to better how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit. By offering this land acknowledgement, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold Santa Rosa City

003Schools more accountable to the needs of American Indian and indigenous peoples. territorial gratitude administr See, administr Afroivos. Thank you. >> All right, we'll move to item C3, reports of actions taken in close session. There are none. Uh we'll now move to item C4, uh items considered in close session for action in open session. We do have one item on this. Uh do I have a motion on case number 2025 26-13? I move to approve. >> Moved by Trusty Jenkins, >> seconded by Trusty Kirby. Roll call vote, please. >> Trusty Jenkins. >> Hi. >> Trusty Kirby. >> Hi. >> Trusty Dator Tory. >> Trustee Medina. >> Hi. >> Trusty Pra. >> Trusty McN. >> Hi. >> President Casten. >> Hi. And as is our practice for uh when we're in this venue and the microphones don't

004work as well, I'll restate the vote after each vote so everyone can hear. And so that pass with six eyes and one no. Uh the no being uh trustee crack. Uh we'll now move to statements of abstension. Uh board members, are there any statements of abstension? Okay, seeing no statements of abstension, um we're going to move to adjustments to the agenda. I have a few to announce first before we uh proceed. Item F15 is going to be pulled for discussion uh before action. Um item F6 uh which is the bond contracts item is going to be tabled uh until a later date. And then um at the request of the assistant superintendent of human resources, we are going to be uh withdrawing a part of G4, which is the uh cuts that we're discussing and

005considering at this time. And the part that's being withdrawn is in regard to elementary PE teachers. Uh we won't be discussing that until there's an opportunity for further discussion with our labor partners. Um, so for folks knowledge, um, that's not going to be a part of the discussion. Uh, fellow trustees, are there other adjustments to the agenda? Trusty Jenkins. >> Um, I'd like to pull F8, 9, and 10, please. >> Which part? Uh I just to clarify trust trusty pra asked me to clarify about the PE teacher part of the item. That means that we're not ready here at the board to talk about it because our um our folks specifically uh Vicky Xans our HR um lead wants to have further conversations with our labor partners uh before it comes to us and we

006want to make sure that input has been heard prior to it coming to us. So what it means is those conversations are going to happen before we have it before us as the board. Um I have items F8 9 and 10 in addition to 15 that have been pulled for discussion. Any others? All right check. All right. All right. With that, we're going to go ahead and move uh to item D1 for our reports, and we'll invite up the representative from the California School Employees Association, Santa Rosa 75. >> Good evening, President Casten, members of the school board, and interim superintendent August. A new year brings a newish face. Um, my name is Jason. Hold on one second. We're going to hold your time here. >> Okay. >> I didn't get it. >> Emergency. >>

007You just heard the emergency alert. >> Uh we will do our best. Um and so we're going to restart the public comments. Sorry. We heard an emergency alert and my suspicion is that it's someone's phone getting it because of the gas leak in the Ron Park area. Um, so we're gonna uh we're going to restart. So I welcome you to give our the CSEA report. Good evening, President Casten, members of the board and interim superintendent August. Um, you may have seen me around before. My name is Jason Andrews and as of this month I am the new president of chapter 75. Um I'm also the guy who turns the volume up so I'll do that when I get off my report. Um I am uh working uh closely with our past president Mary Layman. Um

008this is uh not a great time for us to be going through a transition of leadership. Um, so we're going to try to sail our boat straight and work collaboratively with our partners and labor siblings. Um, just briefly about myself, I've been working with the district since 20 2002. I've been a technology assistant since 2003. I've worked at practically every single school site in the district. Um, so I think that gives me a little bit of a unique uh perspective. Um, past president Layman used to speak to you guys here about um, how we were all community. I would like to emphasize that many classified employees are also our parents. And yes, the sound guy is being asked to hold the mic closer. Uh, so I would like to emphasize that many of our classified

009employees became classified employees because they were parents of Santa Rosa City Schools students. I myself have a graduate from Montgomery High School. Um, and many of us started working at the schools our kids were students at. So when we speak about impacts to our communities, to our parents, to our classified, to our teachers, um we're talking to people who wear many hats as, you know, both employees of the district and as parents at the schools that are being impacted. Um many of our school communities uh were changed by staffing and student changes during last year's consolidations. New communities grew up by intermixing and we're going to be seeing more of that. Chapter members are also have shared their concerns with me and others about some of the challenges we're going to be facing moving forward

010as many of our supports that we've had for the last several years um drop away. Um we've always been here. We've been the backbone of the district. Um we're just going to try to move forward as best we can. Thank you for your time and I will hand off to our other partners. Thank you and congratulations on your election. I'll now invite up the representative from Teamsters Local 665. Uh one additional call for the representative from Teamsters Local 665. All right, seeing no representative from the team sers, uh we'll move to item D3, the San Rosa Teachers Association report. >> Good evening, Superintendent August, President Casten, members of the board, members of the community, fellow teachers in the room. I'm here tonight representing about 850 educators in Santa Rosa City Schools. These are 850 plus

011individuals. Many of them here tonight. They're expected to deal with the decisions that you're going to make next month. We're all eager to hear the discussions you're having tonight about the budget plan and about the Fikmat report and the fiscal health of the district. Um, I know that tonight the one minute snippets you hear tonight are going to be focused more on specifics. I would hope that you will listen as I bring you big picture worries that we have that I've been hearing. We know that Santa Rosa City Schools has to make cuts. We know the consequences of not making the cuts. Receiverhip and loss of local control. Um, but there's four things that I'm seeing that these cuts are doing to Santa Rosa City Schools. And I'm wondering how much the board has considered

012them and thought about them, the challenges that these cuts will create. Number one is safety. We have focused so much on safety in the past few years and we still need to focus on it. Student safety, staff safety. How will you uphold your responsibilities both in the contract of SRTA and in California ed code to keep our schools safe for students and staff? We have a plan for larger classes in grades 1 through 12. We have fewer teachers, fewer counselors, uh no counselors at the elementaryaries, fewer supports for our students with IEPs, fewer site administrators with fewer adults on campus. What's the plan for safety? >> Number two, big picture question is about mental health supports. They're being gutted. Again, counselors. Uh we rely on our counselors every day to support and guide students who

013are suffering. They're going to have so much less time as the job expectations of the MTSS counselors and the college and career counselors are shifted to the comprehensive counselors. How are they going to do that job? I have no idea. Again, no elementary counselors. And that's going to have a ripple effect upward as our students grow. Our school psychologists are expected to serve more students. I know the rationale is, oh, we have fewer sites, but I think that hopefully we have the same number of students at those sites and so that's our psychologist spread thin. That's not even mentioning the SBTs and the restorative specialists. So, I'm going to ask you with fewer or no mental health support people, what's the plan for student mental health support? Number three, larger class sizes, fewer supports for

014students with extra needs. Elementary PE programs maybe possibly eliminated. Sorry, I wrote this speech an hour ago and here we are. Um but and also the seeming decimation of our special ed services, closed schools, denials of transfers to school of choice, including special programs like the early college magnet at Piner, the continued overcrowding of our high schools, more overcrowding planned for the future. What in the world is going to attract families to Santa Rosa City Schools? Can we actually sustain a school district by forcing the families to stay? With declining enrollment constantly threatening to collapse this house of court cards, what is the plan to fight loss of families and students? Is there one? And I just mentioned the cuts to supports to programs. The increased expectations on educators, the collective impact of the loss

015of all these positions will mean increased workload for classroom teachers, for support providers, and indeed for every employee in the district, including our CSEA brothers and sisters. Even educators who are notorious for giving more, doing more, helping more, will hit a breaking point. many of us are already there. I will add the increased admin site site admin ratios with a loss of four site admin across the district plus the intent to stop paying for induction for new teachers which is a minimal savings of $106,000. What in the world's going to attract anyone to come to work for this district? A seasoned teacher or administrator can find better comprehensive pay and benefits and better working conditions in most of the 40 districts in Sonoma County. A brand new teacher fresh out of teacher program will now

016need to subtract the cost of induction when looking at our salary schedule and deciding where to work. We already have trouble filling positions. This is going to make it worse. What's the plan to keep the teachers we have? What is the plan to attract new teachers to Santa Rosa City Schools? What's the plan? So, this question seems to be a hot potato. The board doesn't make implementation plans. That's up to the administrators. The administrators can't tell us what the plan is because Santa Rosa Teachers Association has the right to bargain the impact. SRTA can't bargain the impact of a decision that hasn't been made yet. And the board can't make informed decisions if they don't know what the impact is going to be. So I I think you're catching on to the problem here. Um,

017the district can't tell you what the impact are going to be because it hasn't been negotiated and you as the board can't negotiate with SRTA. The district can't tell us what the plan is, any plan, right? There's in fact so little plan for the PE teachers at elementary school that you've taken them off the agenda because there's no plan, right? What happens if the board approves a cut that creates an impossible situation where there is no plan that does not violate ED code, the contract of SRTA, or both? Where does it end? How does it end? There's no plan for that either. I remember when I would come to these meetings and SRTA would ask the board and district staff and I've been coming to board meetings for about 20 years now and the district

018st we would ask the district staff to help us make Santa Rosa City Schools a destination district. But those days are long gone. We're quickly becoming a district of last resort, a designation these cuts will cement in the minds of the entire community of Santa Rosa and Senova County. But there is one plan this board can make and should make. That plan, read the Fikmat report and act on it. Starting with examining the those in leadership who perhaps didn't get us here. certainly have done nothing to address the past practices of lack of processes and accountability that would have and could have kept this fin fiscal crisis at bay. Santa Rosa City Schools is failing because of leadership, not teachers. Until the board acts with transparency, accountability, and real reform, cutting classrooms and student supports

019will only deepen the crisis. Educators didn't create this crisis. District office mismanagement did. Stop. Stop punishing students and staff for leadership failures. Stop making cuts that directly hurt students and start cutting the leaders who have failed us. >> That that is a plan I can get behind. Thank you. We'll now move to item D4, superintendent report. >> Thank you, President Casten. Just a moment. My apologies. I want to thank our community and our partners for showing up, for sharing your thoughts and fears and worries as we move through this really challenging time. I want to start by saying that I stand with our board holding firm a commitment to the long-term fiscal health of our schools and the well-being of our students and staff. We are here tonight to discuss the harsh fiscal reality we

020must face and the changes necessary to serve our students and school communities. The board will be presented with our with the second part of our fiscal stabilization plan, our budget solutions proposed to eliminate our approximately $15 million structural deficit and replenish our emergency reserves. Our discussion and process for bringing this plan forward aligns our limited funding to preserving academics and enrichment opportunities. Many of the students and many of the supports and services being brought forward were built using one-time funding given to schools not only following the pandemic but prior to that. We understand even with that that the needs of our school communities have not changed. With these funds no longer available and facing rising costs and declining enrollment, we have to look at further leveraging and expanding our collaborative work with community partners, both

021private and public sector. I understand that it may be difficult to see a path forward. This challenge requires collaboration from every member of our community, staff, and leadership. We are up for the task, and we will walk the road ahead together. Santa Rosa City Schools is committed to doing better for our students and planning for the future in a way that is fiscally responsible, strategic, and innovative. With so much focus on change, it's for us all, it's important for us also to take a step back and recognize the things that we love that will continue. Our students will continue to learn. Our gyms and fields will continue to be home to athletics. Some things to recognize are Elsie Allen High School football team received the gold resolution from Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Corsy. The highest

022level of recognition that can be given for their contribute contributions to the community. The programs that make our schools unique. Some of the programs that make our schools unique I'll I'll talk about here in a moment, but it's not an exhaustive list. So I want to make sure that's key here. The IB program at Montgomery High, the University Center at LC Allen, Piner High School Geospatial Technology Career Pathway, and the many CTE pathways across the district. Tomorrow we will have all of our comprehensive high schools together here at the SR at the Santa Rosa High School auditorium for the Wil William Barkley Memorial Scholarship Concert. Looking really looking forward to being here for that. and our community's reliance on us will continue. We will do what is necessary. We will endure and we will move

023forward together. Want to thank you again and appreciate our board for the difficult task ahead and our staff for doing the work. Thank you. >> Thank you, Superintendent August. uh when I move to my report as the board president, I I also want to address the big picture because a a lot of tonight's agenda is on details and for many months now um 13 for me and being on the board uh for 13 months in a couple days here uh a lot of our conversation has been saying and there's still big things to come. There's still things that are going to be really unpleasant. There's still it's been gen general and the agenda tonight definitely makes it very real what that meant about how significant the 15 million structural and the other elements of this

024budget crisis um are cuz we now see what that means. We're not talking about the locations of where now we're talking about literally the what we're doing for our students. Um in in that light for me looking at where we are today and there's lots of things that we can look at in history that might have led us here today, but the biggest one is that we are receiving less money from the state and from the federal government to do what we do. And a lot of the things that we do and you do on the campuses for our kids every day have gotten more complex and more difficult. We have increases in needs, not decreases, but the dollars we have to do it with have disappeared. Um, in light of that, a lot of

025what I have been doing for the last couple of weeks is working to talk to and communicate with local and state partners about how we can actually get more funds. So, as folks know, I have a request on behalf of the board and the superintendent in with the board of supervisors for more funding for mental health services from the public health department in the community because we cannot be the primary provider of mental health services in the city of Santa Rosa and still sustain our education services. But that doesn't mean that we don't need to continue providing those services on our campus. We have not received any promises or guarantees because that work is still ongoing. But not funding things from the school budget doesn't mean our community doesn't need the things that you are

026all articulating to us are important. And all of us up here as parents and folks that are also in the community, we feel that with you. So, you know, I just want folks to know that the time between these meetings where my focus has been has very much been on the how can we actually have more resources for our children instead of looking at just how we're going to tackle the challenge of where to put what few resources we're being given right now. We don't have the power up here to increase revenue. we only have the ability to administer the revenue that is given to us by the state, federal, and other governments. Um, and that's just an very unfortunate reality of this position and what I consider a very limited amount of local control

027that we are given. Um, when we say local control, we don't have all of that local control and revenue is a big part of what we don't control. I also want to note that it has been a very trying time nationally and I felt a lot of uncertainty myself as many of you have probably reading the national headlines and there is much that this district has done in order to do everything we can do to make sure that everyone feels safe and is able to come and attend school and receive an education. I will say one thing that Superintendent August uh and I discussed last week and is currently in development is making it easier for families to if they have any reason whatsoever to need to have their child not in school be able

028to request an independent study plan online. um in order to get an independent study plan for the short term right now you have to go get a physical application from an office and take it around to the teachers and we want to make sure that everyone is able to make that request um for whatever reason they may have and so that's still in development but it is in the works and we will have an ability for folks who wish an independent study plan for their students to be able to make that request without having to come to a physical location. Uh, and I also hope that we recognize that if we're keeping our kids out of school, even for a medical appointment, that loses we lose revenue um because of that absence. This tool should

029hopefully help for even the one or two day absences for us to be able to make sure that we're providing the education for uh students and that the district is also then able to have the revenue to support those students learning experiences. So, look for an announcement soon. Um, everyone's working very hard on a lot of things. It will be uh more information will be forthcoming. With that, I'm going to move to item D6 and invite my other board members to provide reports and I'm going to start. Um, Trusty Medina, would you like to start? >> Sure. Um, first off, uh, as, uh, Superintendent uh, August indicated, the students at, uh, LC and the football team were recognized by the county board of supervisors. I had the privilege of being there for that moment. It

030was awesome. Um, I think one of the good things that also happened is that all those uh players uh sat there through um an observation of civic engagement as a lot of people showed up that weren't necessarily anticipated and got to they got to hear a lot of people talking about ICE and and what's going on in our nation, our community. And I think it was a good experience for our students to hear so many people standing up for students that often times um are are their families. But a special thank you to Supervisor Corsy for his initiative and leadership in recognizing um these students. Um secondly, uh this week I think on Monday I found out that um the Eliana High School marching band has been invited to uh perform again at at Disneyland.

031Um so congrats to them. Um they'll be they're invited to attend in June 10th. So, I hope they're able to make it and there's going to be a lot of money that needs to be raised for that. Um, I think the other thing that I'd like to just really address that there's definitely a lot of change happening in our district. Um, but I think for me it's the the students that keep me motivated interactions with students and and knowing that they need us to do our best. And you know, I'm thankful for all that sta all the staff and teachers that show up every day and have a huge impact on our students regardless of all these difficult things that we're doing. Um they benefit from us and they appreciate us and and you you

032see it when you're there with them. Um as we deal with all of this, um I'm continually working to meet with people in our community partners to continue to develop relationships. Um, I've had conversations with a lot of folks at Cinema State as their leadership is constantly changing to make sure that we maintain relationships and folks with nonprofits to figure out how we can collaborate better um to provide opportunities for our students and to address some of the issues that will face um uh President um how u mentioned you know some of the concerns around safety um and how do both from the mental health perspective perspective and also the security perspective and these are some of the things that we need to figure out how we could do better as we have less adults

033on campus. Um so looking at at ways that we could address that using our community partners and building those relationships I think is important. Um, one other thing that I wanted to highlight is, uh, Santa Rosa City Schools is part of the Sonoma County Adult Education Consortium and, um, one class that is being offered through them is a residential plumbing clinic that's going to be offered at the Elon High School campus um, from February 16th through March 11th. It's basically on Mondays and Wednesdays. Um, so I I I love that it's being offered on one of our campuses. Um, SRGC is another member of that consortium and speaking with uh, vice president of academic affairs uh, Robert Hulcom over there. You know, they've expressed interest in potentially doing more things on our sites that I

034would hope would help to make our campuses um, more attractive. Um, if people are interested in that, they could go to soo adulted.org to learn more about um, the classes and the programs that are offered through there. Um, but I'm excited that this is one that's going to be offered on one of our campuses. Um, with that said, I think I'll leave it at that and, um, just thank everybody for, you know, being here with us today as we deal with all of this. I know it's a lot difficult, um, but hopefully collectively we'll all get through it and, uh, yeah, and our kids will benefit even though we're going to be in a tough situation. Thank you. >> And thank you, Trusty Medina. And it is a little um hard on this end to

035hear. So if you do something with your microphone, I think we caught most of your comments. So uh other trustees, trustee. >> Thank you, President Casten. I'd like to thank the community for being here with us this evening. Um and continue to reiterate um that we again are having difficult uncomfortable conversations and discussions and we need all the information possible uh to help direct the district in positions to best put forth the best educational opportunities we can provide, the best resources we can provide. um and ultimately what we can afford, what resources can be invested in the proper places uh to not only um provide those opportunities but have those opportunities be sustainable. As an elected official, is it incumbent upon me to um honor my duties of not only bringing my thoughts and opinions

036and lived experiences to this position, but those of my constituents as well. So, I will continue to stay engaged with the community. I'll continue to stay engaged with our teachers and our staff and be a listening vessel as often as possible to ensure that the questions get where they need to get to find the proper answers. I don't have all the answers alone. I'm fortunate enough to sit on a board with six other um partners that are making these decisions. It's not something that we have to make individually. It's something we need to make collectively. Um, we need to continue to partner and work together and collaborate as a community. And the best thing way to do that is, um, holding ourselves accountable, showing up with composure, and listening to understand and not listening to

037respond. So, I thank you for being here tonight and taking this time to share your concerns with us and what you're reading and what you're seeing so that we have the information to question the district and ask what's available, how can it be done, what can we do, um, and how do we continue to move forward with local control of this district to provide the safe opportunities, the abundant opportunities, and to provide spaces that our students want to be at and their families want to send them. So, our emails are available. You can contact us. Um, I will continue to make time to engage and listen and we will continue to have these difficult conversations together and hope that we come to the best agreements possible to move forward. >> Any other trustee reports? Trusty

038Kirby and then Trusty Pra. Hi, good evening. Uh, just quickly in the last couple of weeks, um, I was able to do a site visit to Hidden Valley and got to look over their campus and some of the changes that have been instituted even since the last year when I was there. Uh, some of the classrooms that have been moved around. Got to observe uh, some deaf and heart of hearing classes. um and uh just kind of look at the layout of the campus and where the new um portable buildings are going to go. Um so it's nice to be able to do a visit there. Also attended the budget perspectives workshop uh at the uh which was held at SCO. A lot of the local um other superintendents and um representatives from all the

039other schools in our area were there for the workshop talking about the governor's uh recent uh budget with concerns to education. Uh it was good to have some uh conversations with these other uh districts and some of their board members uh to get their perspectives on our uh our difficult situation that all of the all of the schools all the districts are uh currently undergoing in this uh time. And lastly, uh, next week I'll be attending the, uh, Puma Boosters crab feed, um, to enjoy that. Um, so, anybody that wants to go get some crab, come along. Thanks. >> Thank you, Trusty Pra. So, the best part about my job or my position as a school board member is I get to go and visit schools. It's the best part of my week. I wish

040I could do more, but my full-time job gets in the way of that. But Friday, I got to visit Steel Lane. And it was so welcoming and I got to see the kids which is why I'm here is what I do is just to be be here for the kids and I just wanted to thank you guys for uh welcoming onto your welcoming onto your campus this past Friday. So hope to see you guys soon. Trusty Jenkins, >> I have nothing prepared. However, since we're talking about what's happening at the high schools, um, a couple things that I have done recently is, uh, we had our CCAT, the chief's community advisory team meeting with the police department, um, this last week, which was really productive, discussed, um, the recent shootings this year, as well as

041uh, the conversations around um, ICE. And I do highly encourage folks to make sure you are checking out the um police department's website to stay informed about how our local law enforcement does not interact with federal ICE stuff. Um and they are here to protect peaceful protests. Uh, additionally, um, I attended the or I was working, uh, the Montgomery Education Foundation crab feed and we've got the alumni palenta feed coming up. And we have some other thing that I'm forgetting right now, but coming up next year, we are doing a big golf fundraiser for boosters. So, keep an eye out for that. I know there's a lot of alumni of Montgomery, additionally to the rest of the our schools as well. We've got a lot of um alumni in general. So if you're not in

042Montgomery, please uh get involved in the alumni groups wherever you went to school if you went to school here. Oh, and I participated in a steering committee um conversation yesterday around mental health in with youth in Sonoma County. >> Thank you, Trusty Jenkins. I want to move to student trustee CO's report. No report at this time. All right. Uh we're now going to move to item E, which is public comment on non-aggenda and consent items. I want to note a couple of things about public comment for tonight. One, we'll be doing 60 seconds, so one minute for public comment, but we will not be restricting the amount of public comment. So, everyone will have a chance to speak. Um, also as a change of process, I've asked staff to read the names of the folks

043that are going to be doing public comment and upcoming. I will still thank you at the end of the 60 seconds in order for us to be able to move to the next person. Uh, but that will also help me hear what you're saying and be able to take notes while you're giving comments. So, I want to thank staff for being willing to step up for that part of the process. Uh with that I think we will move. Uh and so with that we'll go ahead and move to public comment. >> Thank you President Casten. I'm going to go ahead and start with the non-aggenda or consent items. Um again there'll be 60 seconds. I'm going to call three names and if you can please make your way to the podium. The first name is

044Romina Cortez, followed by Isa Lamco, followed by Olivia Sevilla Kilamakco. So, we're going to have you stand next to it so they can see you. You have to really close. Dear school board members, I am writing to you about the decision to close on my school, Steel Lane. I think Steel Lane should stay open. If this school closes, it will hurt most of our future. I feel more seen, safe, and heard here because I've been to this school for 5 years. There is 422 students in Steel Lane. Where where will they all go? Not only does Steel Lane help students with learning, but also helps by doing food banks every Wednesday. Steel Lane has many programs other schools may not have. We did not do all we did not do this overspending. We shouldn't be

045the ones paying for it. Imagine being a Imagine being a student in your favorite favorite school and suddenly there's news that your school might close. It's very It's sad. Very very sad. It's sad because it's your favorite school. >> Thank you very much. Next is Isaiah Clamco, followed by Olivia Sevilla Clamako, followed by Alicia Sevilla Claco. >> Hi, my name is Isaia. So, please don't close my scoop because I've been working so hard and I love that school and also it's important for my future. >> Thank you very much. Next is Olivia and then Alicia and then Carol Cranstrom. >> Hi, my name is Olivia. Um, I go to Stain. Um Um Um, I love Stain cuz we all have fun and all of us made new friends and we all share kindness to everybody.

046I love stealing. >> Next is Alicia Sevilla Cleco followed by Carol Cranstrom followed by Danielle Porto Lucy. >> Hi, my name is Alia and I go to stealing. Stealing is really important because it helps people's brain. So it is mine. We learn a lot of things. And I don't want stealing a close because it's kind of important school to me and I love my teachers, Miss T. Thank you very much. Next is Carol Cranstrom, followed by Danielle Borto Lucy, followed by Angel Diego. >> Hi, my name is Carol Cranston and I taught at Steel Lane School for 25 years. It's an incredibly beautiful community of children, teachers, and parents, and I love you all so much. I hate the thought that this school is being closed. It needs to stay open. The money is there.

047If you look at where the money goes in the Santa Rosa city schools, it goes a lot to the top with experts and administration. It needs to stay in the schools. I support keeping steel lane open and I hope you have the heart to do that too. Thank you. Next is Danielle Border Tooi, followed by Angel Diego, followed by Claudia Lombber. Hi. I I don't know how to follow all those kids. That was amazing. You can see that the culture at Steel Lane is thriving. I'm the mother of two little kiddos that go there and if it stays open I'll have my third there next year in TK. My oldest is there on an IEP and the school has been so inclusive and supportive. She has progressed into general education. She is thriving. All of

048my kids are. And that's because Steel Lane is amazing. It's worth saving. I know that this is a hard decision. It's financially driven with what you can do with the budget. Trust me, I think we all understand budget issues in today's economy. But I really, really hope that you look at what you're doing with the money and where it's being spent to see if we can put it into steel lane and keep it open um and continue to let these kiddos grow. Thank you. Next is Angel Diego, followed by Claudia Lombber, followed by Phillip Sander Snider. My apologies. >> Hi, I am Angel Diego. I'm a formal uh I formally communicated with the United States Department of Justice and I'm in current communications with the California Department of Ed. Before I start talking, I would

049like to show appreciation to the world's best board member, Mark Kirby. Anyways, onto civil rights. I see that this district is trying to lead the special education local plan area to have local control. But how can other special education students and myself, an innocent special education student, trust this district with a local plan when they can't provide faith and follow my individualized educational plan? I'm also confused that Vicki from HR seems confu seems confused. last meeting when one of the trustees asked if she had something to say regarding what Kirby said to to which she said to which part like pay attention when he's speaking by the way John Fischer a nurse is a budget is a budget wish list for the future my individualized educational plan needs to be followed now I also encourage

050Mark Kirby to visit me at Santa Rosa High I have two seconds thank Next we have Claudia Lombber followed by Philip Snder followed by Samantha Kim. Hi, I'm Claudia. I'm going to read this for Steel Lane Elementary. Okay, the first time I step inside Steel Lane Elementary, I feel so welcome from the office staff all the way to the classroom. Sorry. We have been in seven different schools since my kids started to go to school. And for the first time in my life, I felt what the sense of community really is by the way the staff and the teacher treated us. Still Lane Elementary has a really powerful team. The staff and the teachers really care about the kids and it shows. They go above and beyond to accommodate kids individual needs with patient and

051kindhearted care. We are going to be forever grateful for all the staff and teachers in Steel Lane and Elementary. We are so deeply sad that the district decide to close our school. It is a shame that >> this beautiful and power is going to go disappeared with the closure of the school because our community needs them. Our kids need them. Next we have Philip Snider followed by Samantha Kim followed by Matthew Men Menchek. >> Uh Trusty Prack, thank you for coming to see us Friday. We do we do appreciate it. Um I my name is Philip Snyder. I am the basketball coach at Steel Lane Elementary. We are uh halfway through our season and just talking with some of these other coaches and realizing the opportunities that our students aren't going to get to have

052when they go to some of these other schools. I just I would ask that you please just keep our school open to make the community a better place. Provide opportunities for these students to have leadership skills developed in programs like basketball or robotics or chess or PE. We've got a phenomenal PE teacher who Linda, I listen to you outside of my room and I I want to go out and play. It's it's awesome. Um, but I I just I ask you would please just keep keep our school open for the community, for the future of these students, just to just we can shine a light in these dark times. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next is Samantha Kim, followed by Matthew Memchek, followed by Christopher Martinez Castillo. My name is Sam Kim. I no

053longer work for this district, but I am still deeply invested as an education foundation member and as someone who refuses to stay silent while this board and district leadership continue to make detrimental decisions. I am here tonight to strongly oppose the closure of Steel Lane and any more of your schools. Frankly, the pattern of closing schools under the guise of fiscal responsibility while ignoring the damage being done to children is disturbing. You are proposing uprooting children, forcing them onto unfamiliar campuses, and putting many of them on buses for hours each week. And I bet you expect the teachers to make it work with over 30 kids per class. That's not support. That's called neglect. Let's be clear. The students, families, and staff of Steeling Elementary School are not disposable. Steeling Elementary School is not a

054problem to be solved, nor a school to be discarded. It is a deeply connected community rich in family, history, love, and care. It's not where you dump the problem, kids, nor should it be treated as expendable. Once again, >> thank you. Next is Matthew, then followed by Christopher Martinez, followed by Lesbie Santos. >> Hello, I'm Matthew Menchi. I teach at Steel Lane Elementary School. And uh I want to read a bit out of our uh mission statement. equitable access providing highquality rigorous academic social emotional support for all students regardless of background. It makes me feel when I read that that in this crisis we're all in the same boat. And but when it seems like we make decisions, it always breaks in the same way. away from high schools towards elementary, away from charters towards

055public, away from the the affluent sites to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged. Closing Steel Lane makes no sense. Last year, we were the highest second highest enrolled elementary school in the district with close to 500 students, um, larger than some middle schools. After this, the district shrunk our footprint. Um, we're we still top at 422 students. We have the heart the highest intake of all schools. Next is Christopher Martinez Castillo followed by Lesie Santos followed by Aurelia Flores. In reality, I don't think it's really fair that they're closing steel lane because uh since second grade, I've been over there and over my experience. It's been like a really safe school. I had a satisfied education and I've made overall like many friends over there. I don't think it's fair that they're going to close a

056school that I've been doing really well and many others are too. My little brother, he's in third grade. He's also in steel lane and he's having a great time. He's learning. He's making friends and it's overall like really safe. It's a nice experience to be in Cain and it's not fair that they're closing it. It would really be a shame if they close the school and not give the same experience that I once had. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Next is Lesie Santos followed by Aurelia Flores followed by Eduardo Luna. is Santos. Familia don't close. Good evening board members. I'm a mother of a student in Steel Lane. I'm writing to you with the request not to close the lane since it is a safe place for our children. The decision to close

057the school both affects sorry I'm writing to you with a request not to close steel lane since it is a safe place for our children. The decision to close the school affects the learning of our children both emotionally and psychologically. The teachers are from steel lane. They are a fundamental part of our children's learning and my daughter's name and our family don't close dealing. Thank you. Exchange. Good afternoon board members. My name is Orielia Flores and I am the mother of a girl at Stain. I'm here to ask you not to close it. This is the school where my daughter is learning to read, where families feel safe and connected with the staff and teachers. Closing it not only moves the children to another another building, it affects learning, increases class sizes, and puts them

058in an overcrowded classrooms at different schools. They talk about numbers, but our children don't deserve to pay for other people's mistakes. There are other solutions. Demand that the people who made the mess be held accountable. Make cuts in the district office, which is where the overspending occurred. Families need to be heard, and we don't want our school to be closed. Thank you. Next we have Eduardo Luna followed by Yona Hercules followed by Daniel Sylvester. >> Members of the board, my name is Eduardo Luna and I am an alumni from Steel Elementary while also having a younger brother that attends there. This school shouldn't even be on the radar for closure. This school is where students are connected to one another and teachers have a great connection with the students being there side by side helping

059them. The staff here also have a great effect on the students by giving them the support they need to get through the school. This is a safe haven for students and families while also having conflicts at home. They shouldn't have to uh deal with your guys' problems and the overspending. They shouldn't have paid the price. They should have the experience as a kid and a student. They are not going to get the same education if you send them to somewhere where they are clumped up. Many students find solitude, fortitude and comfort in and outside of the classrooms they have. I have volunteered there for many hours and they don't deserve this. Thank you for your comments. Yoni followed by Daniel followed by Jesse Jimenez. >> Hello board members. My name is Daniel and I am

060in second grade. I like my school where I learn how to read, make friends, and believe in myself. My teachers help me when things are hard and they are making learning fun. If our school closes, I would be sad. This school feels safe and feels like home. Please keep our school open so kids like me can stay together and keep learning. dreaming and feeling like we belong. Thank you for listening me. >> Thank you. >> Next we have followed by Jessie Jimenez followed by Heather Benson. Johnny, Good evening board members. My name is Johnny Erles. I'm a mother of three children. Uh Stephanie Castro, she graduated honors last year and was also student of the year. Emily is fifth grade with excellent grades and Etica is in a daycare at Steel Lane. As a mother,

061I ask you to take into account our community since in Steel Lane there are 422 children of which the majority speak Spanish. Do not punish us by closing our steel lane. We have an amazing uh green field, excellent teachers. The whole team at our school deserves to continue as a work job for throughout the whole years. Thank you. >> Next is Jesse Jimenez followed by Heather Benson followed by Karen Taylor. >> Hello board committee. My name is Jesse Mennez. I'm a former Steel Lane student and I've currently have siblings at Steel Lane. I've grown to connect with my teachers all throughout the years in Steel Lane. And Stilling has a community community like no other. The support we have there is incredible. Please reconsider closing the school and helping these kids continue their education at

062home. They're still lane. They need stability at times, especially like these. Thank you. Next is Heather Benson, followed by Karen Taylor, followed by Kim Peters. Good evening. My name is Heather Benson. I have taught in Santa Rosa City Schools for 18 years. For nearly two decades, I have taught about genocide. I have told students never again. Yet it happens again and again. I often thought of the good Germans, the teachers who watched through students sent to death camps but said nothing. I come to ask you to take a stand and declare that you will support your students and staff, my community, and protect us from ICE. Your current policy, while well intended, does not reflect the reality that no one will bring warrants or follow the Constitution when they come to our town. I appreciate

063that you have thought about it in advance and have come up with an independent study packet to allow students to go into hiding, but what if they come to our school? Will you stand with me? I will put my body on the line. Will you join me? Thank you. Next we have Karen Taylor, followed by Kim Kim Peters, followed by Andre Sylvester. Hi, I'm Karen Taylor. I'm a parent of a ninth grader at Santa Rosa High Art Quest. My husband, son, and I moved here two years ago for the Art Press Quest program. That program is so unique. We looked all over California and the country for programs like that and we have seen you slowly tear it apart. That program can get people to move to Santa Rosa. Please do not pull it apart.

064Also, you have to go to Santa Rosa High to go to Art Quest. Why? Why can't you open it up to other districts and give art quest kids the opportunity to get their public education elsewhere in a more co calm setting, a smaller school environment while still attending art. >> Thank you very much for your comments. >> Next is Kim Peters followed by Andre Sylvester followed by Cindy Sanchez. Uh, good evening. Um, I'm writing to just respectfully urge everyone on the board to ask questions um about everything you hear. I've heard Sarah Jenkins ask questions and then I've heard the cabinet turn around and not answer your question. Um, Donna Pra, I've heard you bring up the steel lane closure um and then it kind of got turned down because it was already a decision.

065But I feel like from the perspective of those of us working at sites daily, many of the district's decisions do not clearly align with how schools actually function. We're struggling to understand how decisions will work in practice because we do not see a realistic implementation plan. When explanations do not make sense at site level, it raises the concern that the full picture may not be clear at the district level either. Um, if something doesn't make sense, it's likely because it hasn't been fully thought through or with or clearly explained. So please do not assume that all the presentations from cabinet tell the whole story. Ask for clarification. Ask for specifics. Ask for examples. We cannot continue to make final decisions without a concrete plan for how to get there and implementation. Making decisions first. And

066thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next we have Andre Sylvester followed by Cindy Sanchez followed by Yuranni Rios. Hi, my name is >> Hi, my name is Andre. >> I am a kindergarten. >> And I am a kindergarten. >> I still lame. >> I like my school. >> I like my teachers. >> I like my friends. >> Please don't close my school. >> I love my school. >> I like my school. >> Thank you. When I start programmers important. Um, My name is Javier and I really like this school and some people and teachers don't know where to go after the next school they go too. And there my teacher might lose her job cuz this school is closing and I really make good friends and everybody is kind and we really need a school.

067Thank you. >> Thank you. And we'll receive a translation of the previous comment. >> Good evening board members. My name is Yanni Rios. I have two kids in stu in steel lane. Please don't close the school. It is important for an emotional help and other programs that are also important. If you decide to close the school, it would be a negative impact on the students. I have two kids that need the education. Thank you. Next, we have Emma Thompson followed by Elizabeth Turner. Lane organization. Okay. >> Good afternoon. My name is Cindy Sanchez. I am a mother um of a student in Steel Lane for seven years. The oldest graduated Steel Lane and is a very good student. Um, steel lane has been a very good school for my kids where they have learned and

068had plenty help and programs that they had that has helped them as English learners as it's a big community where many students can fit in. It's not it's not fair that steel lane has to close its doors. Please, the kids need the kids don't need to pay for the bad organization. Um, please don't close the steel lane. Thank you. Next, we have Emma Thompson, followed by Elizabeth Turner. I just wanted to come up here tonight and thank all of the students and families for being here. So, gracias Next we have Elizabeth Turner. The students of Steel Lane would like to sing Here Comes the Sun for You. >> Come closer. >> It's been a long cold winter. Darling, it feels like it's all >> the smiles returning to the faces. The returns here. >> Thank

069you. All right. Thank you all for your comments and that was a really really great job. That was amazing song. Thank you. We'll now move to the consent calendar and I'm going to be looking for a motion on Fs 1 through 7 and 11 through 14. >> So moved. Moved by Trusty Medina, seconded by Trusty Kirby. Roll call, please. >> Student board member Curio. >> Trusty Medina. >> I. >> Trusty Kirby. >> Trusty Jenkins. >> Hi. >> Trusty Pra. >> Hi. >> Trusty McN. >> Hi. >> President Casten. >> I. That passes unanimously. Uh we'll now move to F8. Uh Trusty Jenkins, I believe you pulled this for discussion. Oh, sorry. You didn't get to vote. Uh, did we not call Trusty Deator? >> Oh, we are. Well, I'll just call it. Trusty Deator, your

070vote on consent. >> I All right. It still passes unanimously and we'll make sure we'll make sure we update the document for the next vote. Uh, with that, we'll move to F8. Uh, Trusty Jenkins. Yes, I pulled F8. Um, mostly just because of the wording both in the resolution and the item. Uh, because I appreciate the additional document attached for consideration. Unfortunately, the resolution does state that the board reviewed qualifications of applicants and that is not true. Um, I understand that the board president did. uh but I wanted to uh clarify that in the resolution if possible >> and we can do that. We weren't able to update on the agenda because of the posting guidelines. So I believe the request is for a motion that accurately represents our board policy which is this committee

071was appointed by recommendations from the superintendent to me as the board president which is the procedure we followed and it's the procedure under board policy. It just wasn't in the resolution. With that note, is there a motion for this as amended with that language? >> Yes, I move that. >> Moved by Trusty Jenkins. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Trusty Kirby. Roll call, please. >> Student board member Curio. >> Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Kirby. >> Trusty Deator. Trusty Medina. >> Hi. Trusty Pra. >> Hi, >> Trusty McNal. >> Hi, >> President Casten. >> I That motion passes unanimously. We now move to >> Yeah. Yeah. Started with Medina. Um and we will move to F9. Uh Trusty Jenkins. Yes, I pulled this also for um a technicality. So with the documents that are attached

072the um uh the current documents um say current 2425 and I understand that that is because we're using the scales from 2425 in the current year. However, so that we are clearly transparent to the community, um I really think that those documents need to be updated when we are making adjustments each year. Current should go with the school year um at the top >> superintendent August. >> Thank you, Trusty Jen. Cler Jenkins. Uh we've actually discussed that and we'll be bringing annually just the date revised on salary schedules even if there is not a change. >> Do I hear a motion? >> I move to approve. >> Moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trusty Kirby. Roll call, please. >> Student board member Curo. >> Trusty Jenkins. Trusty Kirby. >> Hi, >> Trusty Deator. Hi, >>

073Trusty Medina. >> Hi, >> Trusty Pra. >> Hi, >> Trusty Mcnal. >> Hi, >> President Casten. >> I That motion passes unanimously. We'll now move to F10, approval of new course proposal. Uh, Trusty Jenkins. Yes, I pulled this one because while I'm very much in favor of new classes coming to our students, um it's not clear. It's not quite clear enough for my brain uh as far as where the money is coming from. It says the CTE grant is to pay for instructional materials. Um and but in each of the proposals, it lists four chunks of money. personnel, instructional materials, services, which tend to be on the higher side, and capital outlays. I understand that personnel comes from the general fund, instruction materials come from CTE grant. I'm wondering about the services. >> Dr. Castro

074and director Cardardoza reporting. Um, >> thank you for the question. I'll turn it over to director Cardoza. >> Thank you. Thank you for your question. um services could include anything um around industry certifications. So for example, CPR, first aid, OSHA 10, that could be covered by any CTE grant. That's an allowable expense. We also sometimes have um equipment upgrades or um servicing that's needed to maintain our equipment and that also is an allowable expense through RCTE grants. So, is it safe to say then other than the personnel cost for those courses that CTE grant funding will cover the rest of them? >> I know it goes back and forth. Sorry. >> That is correct. >> Thank you for that clarification. >> Absolutely. >> Do I hear a motion? >> I move to approve this. >>

075Second. Moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Roll call, please. >> Student board member Curio. >> Trusty Jenkins. >> Trusty Kirby. >> Hi. >> Trusty Deator. >> Trusty Medina. >> I. >> Trusty P. >> Hi. >> Trusty McN. >> President Casten. >> I. That motion also passes unanimously. We'll now move to F-15. Um, I pulled this item. It was on our previous agenda. We did not have a full board at the time and the motion uh did not have four votes to proceed. So, it's back now because we do need to take action in one way, shape or form. Uh the recommendation before us is to adopt the minimum wage consistent with the Santa Rosa local minimum wage ordinance. And is there discussion? >> Move to approve. >> Moved by Trustee Medina. Is there

076a second? Seconded by Trusty McN. Is there further discussion? Seeing none, we'll go. All right. Trusty Kirby. Just to clarify, as it's written, uh we're voting on to approve it to the local minimum wage, not just the state minimum wage. >> Trusty Medina, is that consistent with the motion? >> Correct. um last meeting nothing was approved. Um we're required to approve at least to the state minimum wage, but the proposal in front of us is for the local minimum wage, which is what I'm moving to approve. >> All right. The motion before us is for the local minimum wage. Any other questions? Roll call vote, please. >> Student board member Curio. >> Hi. >> Trusty Medina. >> I. >> Trusty McN. >> Hi. >> Trusty Jenkins. Trusty Deator. >> Hi. >> Trusty Kirby. >> Trusty

077Pra. >> Hi. >> President Casten. >> I. That motion passes 52 with trustees Jenin and Kirby. No votes. We'll now move on to item G, discussion items. Uh for discussion and action we have first up our G1 approval of revised resolution number 2025 2649 criteria to determine certificate personnel who shall be exempt from the order of layoff by virtue of their credential assignment or certification otherwise known as skipping criteria and Dr. Vicky Xan's presenting. >> Okay, now it's blue. Love these microphones. Um, okay. So, we are bringing a revised skipping criteria to the board today. The reason being there are two updates. The first is to update the skipping criteria for TK teaching qualifications. And this is to align with um ED code that says that um all teachers have to have 24 semester units

078in early childhood education, a bachelor's degree in child development, or three or more years of full-time teaching experience in TK. The previous skipping criteria did not include the 24 ECE units. The second addition to the skipping criteria is was a request to have all teachers who hold a specific certification in the international balora program be part of the skipping criteria. And just to clarify, all teachers who will be using that credential in the year, following year, >> yes, they need to hold it and be scheduled to teach that course or courses for the following school year. >> We do we do have public comment on this item. So, questions from the board first. Uh, Trusty McN, >> did the district pay for our teachers to receive that certification? That certification is either paid for through

079the district or through site funds to have teachers that are teaching the IB to go to training. So, was that opportunity offered to all teachers or only to Montgomery High School teachers? That opportunity was offered to all teachers who were needed to teach IB. At this point, IB is only offered at Montgomery High School, although it will be going down to the middle grades at Montgomery Junior High. >> Any other questions? >> Trusty P. >> No, they automatically shut off Hi Vicki. Um, so should I certification be included as a skipping criterion and how will Santa Rosa City Schools ensure this does not create an inequitable protections for one site while others lack access to the training? So currently it is only being offered to teachers at Montgomery High School because they are teaching in

080the IB program and it is a necessary requirement in order to teach in the IB program. There are other ways that we can look at it. Um, we could look at it as a skipping criteria poss or not skipping tiebreaking criteria possibly, but right now it is one of the few um programs that requires a specific certification. Thank you. And then um I'm not smart enough to think of these questions, but these were emailed to me, so let's not that smart. Uh, how are skipping the criteria decisions are student centered and systemwide equitable rather than driven by sight specific interest? I guess you already answered that. Um, and how does the district handle comparable training requirements with AP training within skipping criterias? And what is the consistent policy logic? If IB was not used as

081a skipping criteria and teachers were involuntarily transferred to Montgomery and needed to teach IB, they we would then need to incur the cost of sending them to IB training. This is slightly different from AP as there is no required certification to teach AP. You need to have a degree in the subject area most often, but there's no specific certification that you need to teach AP. >> Any other questions before we go to public comment? Trusty Delatory, >> what is the threshold of financial savings to the district if we were to include the IB skipping criteria to protect those teachers positions? It's difficult to say right now only because when we do layoffs we have to go through a process of seniority and tiebreaking criteria before we see which teachers it is that are indeed being

082laid off and at that point we would know how many more teachers we would need to train because of the layoffs. So unfortunately I don't have a dollar amount for you right now. Trusty Jenkins and then we'll go to public comment. >> How long is the training for to get certified? >> Some trainings are fairly short um several hours online. Others are part of a workshop model where you would go over the summer similar to AP training. Right, let's go to public comment and then we'll bring it back to the board. >> Our first speaker is Ashley Bell. Ashley Bal Santa Rosa High School. Um, the idea that my training and experience only matter that when I teach at a school that is attended by a board member's child is offensive. I fully support my

083colleagues who've received IB training. However, it should not be a skipping criteria. Why not AP? Why not ethnic studies? I went to a five-day training for AP. I have spent years in ethnic studies training. What about our other programs on of all the campuses, ECM? What about ArtQuest? What about all those trainings? How come only one seems to matter? My students and their access to me being a trained professional is just as important as what happens at Monty. And creating a two-tiered system where one school has skipping criteria over everybody else is unethical. It's immoral and it's gross. This should not be considered. It needs to be removed. And it is completely inappropriate that someone in a position of power would do this to protect their own child from having not had a teacher as

084described at a board meeting weeks ago. Students at Santa Rosa High didn't have a math teacher for three years. For three years. And so we're going to do this just because your kid didn't have a teacher for seven weeks. Please. >> Thank you. That's your time. >> We do. >> If we can get the >> We have one more. We have one more public comment. >> Yeah. If we can get the timer up on the screen here. >> Oh, absolutely. >> Thank you. >> Just so everyone can see their time. >> One moment. Can we get the timer again? It's probably Moderator one. Moderator one. Our next speaker is Emma Thompson. There are teachers at LC Allen who are also slated to teach specialized courses that are only at LC Allen. Without those teachers, we

085will not be able to move forward with those classes, many of which are through the CTE program, which has been pushed forward by the board and the district. So if we move forward with IB, would it not be fair to move forward with these oneoff classes for those teachers at any site as well? >> Any further comment? All right, there's no further comment. We'll bring it back to the board. Uh Dr. Sans, >> did you have additional Yes. Um I've gotten a little bit more information some of the questions that I was not able to answer. Um, so the IB program qualifies for title one and and this is because IB is seen as a way to engage disenfranchised and at risk youth and um the it is IB schoolwide as opposed to AP which

086um sometimes is not open to all students although we are trying to move in that direction where there's no gatekeeping. And if you could also, we're we're talking about the IB because that's not what was a part of the resolution previously, but could you use all the skipping criteria just briefly that that are in here so that we have the context amongst the other elements of the skipping criteria? Yes. Skipping criteria is possession of a single subject credential in Spanish with that would be a B-clad or andor French. Possession of a single subject math and/or single subject science credential. Possession of a special education credential. All teachers who are assigned to the dual immersion program at SRFAC. all teachers are who are assigned to teach Spanish to teach in Spanish as part of the dual

087language immersion program at CCLA and then the additional two that we added and school psychologists and speech language pathologists holding a bilingual certification. >> Uh other questions or discussion from the board? Trusty Kirby, >> just to clarify, the the ones you just went through there, uh, skipping criteria four and five also apply to only single sites. Is that correct? >> Yes, they do. They apply to SRFAC and CCLA. >> Trustee Medina. Thank you. I would like to move to approve the presented resolution without the whereas on um IB and removing the seventh special trainer experience on IB and shifting the eighth one up to be the new seven and also direct staff to um negotiate with our labor partners about making IB a tiebreaking um criteria. restate this so I understand it. Uh >> so

088the motion is to >> approve the resolution as presented without the whereas that's related to the IB program and also removing the special training or experience line item number seven which is all teachers who hold international bachelorette certification and shifting the eight unschool psychologist up to be the new seven approving that as the resolution. and directing our staff to negotiate with our labor partners on making the IB criteria a tiebreaking criteria. >> So just for me to summarize the revisions related to the transitional kindergarten criteria that would be new are part of the motion including what was previously approved and your motion excludes the IB certification. >> Correct. >> Okay. And then >> and that's the direction to staff on the tiebreaking. >> Yeah. and we'll we'll leave that to the negotiations process, but I

089think the sentiment would be expressed. So, that's the move in the second. Is there discussion? Trusty Jenkins. >> So, I did not personally request this be agendaized, but I am in agreement that IB certification w should be a skipping criteria. The signature program in Montgomery High School is international baloria IB. My understanding is that the certification um can take quite a substantial time. It varies sounds like um and the district has financially invested in this. Additionally, IB is expanding to include the junior program in the future and IB forall was recently implemented. That does not mean that every student earns an IB diploma, but that they are taught in a way that focuses on critical thinking, which especially in today's world is needed. Adding those who possess an IB certificate to the list of skipping

090criteria ensures that teachers who are already well-versed in this way of teaching will continue and can support the teachers who are starting out in the program. Other trustees, trustee Delator, is there anyone that can confirm that the certification is required to teach? Um, some things have been brought to the table that if you go to their website, it is not a requirement to teach in the IB program. So, I just would love to have confirmation of that either way. So we knew >> when I checked into it on the website it did say that certification was necessary. >> So yes it is required. Further discussion >> trusty pra >> I just have a question because it's email that we got from the SRTA and putting their notes in the agenda. The blue comment is SRTA

091members insist that it is unfair to grant skipping to I to teachers who have been given an opportunity not available to other teachers. IP training has been only offered to select group of teachers from a single site. Is that true? >> Hold on you guys. I'm asking Vicki. >> Sorry. Sorry. >> It is true that currently IB training is only paid for by the district for teachers who are teaching in the IB program. It is also a requirement of international balora that teachers that teach the courses that lead to an IB diploma be IB certified. Their uh accreditation as an IB school depends on it. >> For the other skipping criteria is training for all of those things offered by the district. >> The other things are parts of credentials. So for example, your B-clad

092would be part of your credential as well as we are calling out specific single subject credentials such as foreign language, math, science, um, and special education. >> And do we do we pay for and offer that to all teachers to get that as a support them in getting that as a part of their credential? When we have teachers who do not come to us credentialed, meaning they have a bachelor's degree in that area and have received their teaching credential and they go through an intern program, then we do support them in that. Um, most of our teachers come to us already credentialed. >> Trusty McN >> Trusty P McN. >> So, how do we support them? like do we pay for them to go and get more um certified or credentialed in other programs or

093how does or I'm still learning. When we have a teacher that's in the intern program, we pay for them to get their credential. Typically, they already have a bachelor's degree in the particular subject area. Sometimes when we have hard to fill positions such as special education, we may and usually do pay for teachers to participate in an intern program where they're earning their >> quiet in the audience. We need to be able to hear up here. I'm sorry I had to talk over you. Please, if you could repeat your last sentence. Yes, there are times where we do pay for teachers to go through an intern program for a special education credential. Not typically for other credential, not typically for other single subjects but to get their credential. So for example, a person may have

094a degree in math but not have a teaching credential and they will join the intern program and we will pay for them to go to the intern program to earn their credential, not specifically the degree. Trusty McN. >> So the other items on this list like B-clad, math, science, special education, those are things that have always been difficult to fill. Anyone, any teacher, anyone working in education knows that those are difficult to fill, which means that if you are in those subjects, you have more job security. Teachers have known that. they have had the opportunity, the choice to go into one of those subject areas if they want that job security. The IB program, this is something brand new we're trying to add to the list right before a significant reduction in force. Teachers did

095not have the opportunity to decide if they wanted to pursue that to further their job security. this when this first came up it it rubbed me the wrong way but I couldn't quite put my finger on it but having now heard from many of our SRTA members I don't think that we should add IB to the criteria um so I support Trusty Medina's motion >> any other discussion >> I think I just want to add um >> Trusty Medina >> I'm sorry just because uh it was brought up I think from everything I could find right Now, um, being an IB school doesn't require teachers to be I IB certified. It does require them to have IB training. So, that's what I've been able to see just cuz that was mentioned. So, I think as

096a district, we we should get that understanding and clarified so that we know exactly what that means. But, um, with that said, I'll call the question. >> Well, I'm going to add my my sentiment in here, uh, and comments on this. So for me the skipping criteria is important um for two reasons. Uh one is so that we have the folks that we need in order to be able to teach what we need to teach. Um and now in the light of where we are today. So this is not speaking to the the past process for us getting criteria has been established. I see us needing to move to a place where we're also using it to make sure that we're not creating um additional costs and that we're able to continue to once we've

097invested in and um paid to support the certification of teachers in in these specialized areas for special programs that we're investing in. I want to see us um use skipping criteria to then keep the folks we've invested in in those programs so that we don't each year incur recurring costs for those changes. My my vision on that is broader than IB and I think for me a part of the concern is it's just IB that we have before us that we've been able to identify because of this stage of where we were able to kind of apply that thought process. um you know so from that perspective I can support including it in the criteria but I also can support the motion of using it for for a tiebreaking and seeing if we can pursue

098that conversation with our labor partners while we figure out a more holistic way to approach using this in the future for more than just IB but for all the places where we're making deliberate investments and need to make sure that we don't incur costs um by having to spend and by losing that investment in the next year. So, um I I I honestly can go either way on today's motion, but I want to see us be more deliberate in the future about making sure that when we're paying to invest in certifications and if we can figure out a way for the specialized trainings that have been mentioned to also be, you know, recognized and when we're paying to invest in teachers who spend the time over the summer going out and doing that professional development.

099um how we honor that by also making sure that we keep them in our classrooms after we put that investment in them. Uh so those are my thoughts on it and I wish it was not just IB that was a part of the discussion because I think broadly this is a really good concept. Uh and I will if there's not any further comment or motions to amend by the board I'll go to a vote. Seeing none, we'll go ahead and go to a vote on the motion before us, which is the resolution without the IB language and a request to staff to pursue discussions on tiebreaking criteria. >> Student board member Curio, >> hi. >> Trusty Medina, >> I. >> Trusty Deator, >> Trusty Jenkins, >> no. >> Trusty Kirby, >> no. Trusty >> P.

100>> Trusty McN. >> President Casten. >> No. Motion passes 43. uh which means that we are adding adding from our previous action uh to include a new skipping criteria related to transitional kindergarten criterion. Uh we'll now move on to G2 second read and approval of board policy 5141.5 mental health Director Desidair. >> Good evening uh board interim superintendent uh August. Um we are here from wellness and engagement. I'm going to introduce director Eric Lofty to discuss a second read of uh board policy. Now it's on. Yeah. Good evening, President Casten, interim interim superintendent August and members of the board. Tonight we are bringing forward the second read and approval for board policy 5141.5 on mental health. As you recall from our first read, this policy is required to comply with Senate Bill 153, which mandates

101that all California school districts adopt a policy on referral protocols for addressing pupil behavioral health concerns in grades 7 through 12 by January 31st, 2026. The policy before you is based on the California School Board Association sample policy and incorporates the specific requirements as outlined in the education code. These include clear referral protocols for students experiencing behavioral health challenges, integration with our existing multi-tered systems of supports, requirements for staff training on youth behavioral health, procedures for parent notification, and communication of student access to mental health resources. This policy establishes a framework for identified students in need and connecting them to available resources both on campus and in our community. Anticipating tonight's approval, we have invited our bargaining unit partners to engage in a stakeholder group to develop the administrative regulations that will outline our specific

102implementation procedures and identify the most effective referral pathways given our capacity and resources. questions and we do have public comment on this so we'll hold it to questions go to comment and then have discussion not see trusty medina trusty mcn um the trainings mentioned um cultural compet competency training to support lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer and questioning individuals and then also the youth behavioral training. Are those is that just part of the um you know the beginning of the year all of the online everything that teachers have to do or is that in person separate trainings? >> Um both there is new training that is part of the newly adopted um required trainings annually. Um, specifically we use the Prism program that is the culturally responsive training for supporting the LGBT students in our community.

103Um, for the training on youth mental health and youth mental health first aid, we have a number of different options. Uh, there are SCOVE trainings that are conducted in person. There is also a um a series now being implemented this year for free that is a virtual training through the office of behavioral health health. And so these programs are already in existence. We are able to participate in them without cost to the district, but we will need to be working collaboratively with our stakeholders and our bargaining units to develop that implementation roll out. >> Trusty Kirby >> about halfway down. Um, and this is regarding the the posters that need to be created. It says each school site that serves students in any of the grades. Is it just a typo there that says 6

104through 12? Because everywhere else it says 7 to 12. >> Yes, we noticed that as well. And what that essentially that is not a typo. And so we we already have a lot of mental health posters in our schools that probably comply with the majority of these things. Um they're readily available. It looks like, oh my gosh, how are we going to make posters? But I don't think it's going to be that heavy of a lift. See no more questions. We'll go to public comment. If we can please have the timer on the panel. Our first speaker is Chris Burch followed by Debbie Beecher. Right. This proposed addition to board policy BP5141.5 mental health is a perfect example of the disconnect between the certificated DO staff school board and who is currently providing these mental

105health resources on campus counselors. The proposal, the proposed addition to this policy is being discussed on the very night that the the DO and the board is discussing cutting another 14 counselors, eliminating whole programs of support at our elementary and our elementary school, which is sixth grade. A reminder, 40% of Santa Rosa City School's counselor workforce was laid off just last year. Who is going to carry out this shiny new mandate? Teachers, classified staff, administration. This policy states these professionals are now competent to do this life death work because they were given a one-hour training. To say that this policy is tonedeaf would be an understatement. It's pure idiocy and dangerous. I can't help after being a counselor in this district for over three decades to call out the blatant disregard blatant disregard to not

106only work tirelessly to help and keep our students and staff safe, but to all parents of our students in SRC SRCS who are actively being misled by this BP. This policy is a prime example of our district wanting to convince the outside world that all is good. We are still the best choice for your students health, personal growth, and education. This and past district office personnel have been pulling the wool over the SRCS school board and its famil family's eyes for too long. If the past decade us SRCS school board members would have listened to staff and families or at least done their own due diligence, we wouldn't be taking risk taking the student state takeover or making egregious cuts hurting our students today. The actions of this board and board are speaking their truth

107on the topic of mental health by continuously cutting back on counselors and gambling the city state funds that will come in and save them from themselves. This is not going to happen. The city's residences are fed up with the district's mismanagement. >> I have one. >> Our next speaker is Patricia Torres. My name is Patricia Torres Fuentes and I am currently the TA at Maria Creo High School's Wellness Center. As someone who is able to see the work these specialists do firsthand, we cannot call Korea or any school a safe, supportive campus if these buildings do not have a wellness coach as well as a school-based therapist on site. One thing I will say with confidence, attendance and reported student mental health will drop. You have been extended an invitation to visit our wellness center,

108but we have not received a response on that. These students are not numbers. They are individuals that will someday lead this country. They must be treated with the empathy necessary for them to grow into leaders. Something that we need this generation to become and mentally foster them through people such as Megan Mayor, Vanessa Jelson, Laura McBade, and the many professionals that make the center on campus a safe haven for many. I ask the board to please reconsider retaining the mental the wellness centers with the current staff not only at Coreo, but the entire city district. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no other comment, I'm going to bring it back to the board. And a couple of questions for clarity. This policy proposal is coming from CSBA because of legislative changes. >> Don't hit the

109buttons at the same time. >> Yes. Senate Bill 153 requires that every district adopt uh policy 5141.5. It is our latitude to develop the administrative regulations that discuss the how. >> And as a part of the Senate bill, when was it passed and when did it go to effect? Well, >> I don't have the date it was passed, but we need to have this approved by January 31st. >> Okay. So, it's this it's going to effect this month. And then as a part of this, when the state mandated us to pass this policy and develop these procedures, did this mandate come with any funding to support these uh procedures? Yes. So, there is free training um through a CDE partnership with Blue Shield of California that we'll that we'll be able to use when rolling

110out some of the staff training. There is also legislation pending that is um allocating additional funds for the provisions under this. It has not been approved or allocated. >> Okay. So, at this point in time, there is free training available, but the other mandates from the state for a policy they're mandating that we need to approved by the 31st of this month have not been funded. >> That is correct. It does designate in this policy that the referrals can be um made either by district staff or by community resources. So this will require our continuing to build, develop, and enhance our community partnerships. >> Other questions or comments from the board? Trusty Deator and then I'll go to Trusty Medina. So two pieces here just so it's continuing to be heard. This is legally mandated.

111So we're trying to abide by the law and get within legislation. Um, do we have a good vision yet of the how? So once we get this resolution in place, how we're going to properly be able to implement these at a time when we are considering reductions with many of these positions that would be required. So there are aspects of this because it really falls under four different criteria. The first is a referral process um to identify and connect students in need with resources either at school or in the community. The second piece that is required is communication with families at least twice a year. The third is to ensure that um there are the posters that are both approaching cultural relevantly um inclusive messaging around the importance of care, self-care and mental health and

112the training the training expectation needs to be implemented by 2029. So we do have some time. However, the training is the part that in terms of allocating the resources for the training, that's the one we are the farthest along on. And specifically the challenge is um which staff are required to be trained because in the language it is 100% of instructional staff 7 through 12 and 40% of the um classified staff. and the implementation roll out of how we're going to move all of our staff through that training between now and 2029 is something that we must work collaboratively with our community in order to develop. So we have till 2029 to fully implement. We would like to if we approve this would be rolling out by the end of the month. No, >> if

113we approve this when is this in effect? >> The policy would be approved at the end of the month. The a that would then triggers the development of the reg regulations. >> So development of the regulations which we then have a three-year window to develop. Do we have any forefront and vision to be ahead of that curve due to the importance of what this resolution would be asking? I think it's really important to stress the importance of partnering with the stakeholders to develop this. Um, if we came up with a process to accomplish this in one office, we would not have the support that we would need to implement it. So, the the the board policy as drafted by the the CSBA is the one that's being approved tonight. The AR is really where the

114rubber is going to have to hit the road. And I think that we're going to need to through um a very robust interaction with our stakeholders over the next few months. We're hoping to make some really good progress on that. We've already invited CSEA and or CSEA to participate and um uh SRTA. We are expecting to roll out more invitations to other specific groups so that we can get a broad enough rep, you know, representative group to put something together. And I I think that the timing is both agreeably the timing is inconvenient of this, but it also may be a really important time for us to be coming together uh to do everything we can to support the services for our students. I think the word's unfortunate with as far as the funding. Correct.

115Yeah. Um Trusty Dei then Medina and then P. So really appreciate I I want to be legally compliant just as much as everybody else and I appreciate this being brought forward so we can help that along and really appreciate um your thoughts and efforts on um making sure that we are continuing to have those talks and discussions to fully support these vulnerable communities and make sure they're are educated and engaged and feel seen and heard. So appreciate the effort you put into that. Not waiting till 2029. >> Trustee Medina. >> Thank you. Um first question is um so all of this language is the CSBA recommended language. >> Uh the indication is yes from staff. I'll speak on some people's behalfs just to speed things up. >> All right. The the next question is um

116so there's the section about the twice a year um you know we got to provide notice on how to initiate access um from as as we look at implementation and providing some of these services um I know we're looking at our community partners and providing some of those services one of the issues that I think we've faced both in providing services here and now as we interact with our community partners is the collection of insurance information for adequate billing. Um as as you all develop the ARS for this. Um I think we really need to do as part of this notice and information an effective job at collecting that information specific especially at the beginning of the year. Um, I don't know how we do that as we have less people to do that work,

117but I I I would like that as staff works to do this. Um, that we could do a better job at getting that information and and that we could collect it from everyone and work with those that don't have insurance. maybe work to um with our community partners and or other agencies to help folks obtain that coverage so that we can provide those services most effectively and have it funded somehow so that students have access to it when in need. Um is there work being done on that and is there a timeline? Um it is important to recognize that the work that you're talking about the collection of insurance information is absolutely an important element so that we can further develop our participation in the California children and youth behavioral health initiative. Um however this

118is specifically looking at the identification and communication of the um access to mental health and that is separate work that is designed to talk about how we can capture reimbursement. There is definitely crossover and we will be looking at the intersection between those two but that may not be a large portion of the AR on this work. I I I I guess the point is in initiating access um does everyone have access um if if it's being with some sort of community partner or would there be roadblocks based on coverage? It's kind of like the question that um I would hope gets addressed. you know, I don't expect you to have answers, but I hope that it's considered in the process. Um, because that's some of the information that we have to communicate how people

119access it, but things that they may need to know that might be roadblocks if they are in that access. >> Thank you for acknowledging that. And we are actively at work not only within our own community of educators, but we are actively working with our community partners in behavioral health. Just last week, we met with a group of providers in Santa Rosa to talk about that exact how do we address and identify the gaps. We are going to follow up with you around this work. And and the other thing is that I would really like to see um at some point maybe shared with us and this may be part of the AR or just the implementation of this as it relates to the professional development like a timeline when it'll happen, how it'll happen.

120um so that we can make sure that we meet the requirements um and you know we could um as a board make sure that the district is in compliance with this and make sure that everybody's getting the training that we that they're required to have. >> Trusty P. >> Hi. Um I just had a question. So, I know that I just want to make sure that the wording is okay. Like who's considered the designate with the superintendent when um the beginning of lost my scroll um where the superintendent or design shall develop strategies and can can you guys hear me? The superintendent or design shall develop strategies and services to reduce the stigma like who's helping the super like it says designate. So, who is the designate? >> Superintendent August. The designate is typically somebody

121who's um anybody within the kind of the chain of command who works with particular areas. For this one in particular, Stacy currently is leading that work. Stacy and I'm sorry, executive director Desidair and and director um Lofty are currently leading that work in the with the current organizational structure. And there's transitions that will happen as we move to the reorganization for additional work. So that will then next year move under uh executive director Fiser um and his team. So we have a continuum there that that works with together on that. >> Okay. >> Um so a a designate would be anyone that I that I designate to work on a particular project for various things or a lot of things within our regulations or processes that say that say that. Okay. Um, but since this

122stuff is is in our school, is there room for collaboration with like certificated or classified staff? >> Actually, under the law, I think there's a requirement for collaboration. The the the spirit of this and the actual letter is that we want to do this in collaboration with the sites and the community as well. >> You have to One day, one day I'll remember. Um, at another question, uh, I think it's one, two, third paragraph. The district saw focus on preventative strategies which increase students connectedness to school, create a support network. >> Trusty Pra, if you can slow down just a little bit the diction here. We're having trouble hearing. >> Oh, okay. Um, the line uh to create a support network of peers and trusted adults. So, I know a few months ago when I

123first joined there was the board policy. I think it's board policy 4400 with the student teacher or adult relationship board policy. I think I don't know if that's the right board. I don't know if that's the right board policy, but just with the connectedness that not that I have concerns, but it's just making sure that there's no confusion between what's appropriate connectedness with the child, you know, just covering your legal bases. >> Paragraph three of the current resolution is what you're where are you pointing? >> Paragraph. Yes. is you're looking at the language around to the extent possible the district shall focus. >> I I do think I understand what you're talking about when we talk about healthy adult relationships and trusted adult relationships that is within the framework of supportive structures within the school.

124That might look like tiered interventions. That might look like our trained student safety advisors. That might look like your family engagement facilitators that are helping recognize who the students are and connecting them to resources. >> Okay. Thank you. Cuz I didn't have a problem but just with the board policies. And then my last question is um so like two of my four children struggle with anxiety and anxiety and depression like severely. I have to give one of my kids mental health days throughout the year. Is there anything that we can do to like kind of include if there's something to include that language that it's okay to like have that be a part of a I don't know not solution but um an allowable excuse. I don't know if I'm asking my question right. The

125um attendance language under California Education Code does allow a family to call in either for a physical illness or for mental health, both of which qualify as excused absences. So while that is not necessarily in the language of this policy, that has been an update in um education code and is reflected in our district policy. Trusty Creo. No. Trusty Kirby. >> Move to approve uh board policy 5141.5 mental health. >> Uh moved by Trusty Kirby. I'm going to give that one to Trustee McNal. On the uh 2nd, I do want to take a moment to recognize Carrie Castro, who's here from CSBA uh as we've been reaching out for more support from other organizations uh with the cuts that are facing us. CSBA's help in developing policies like this is something uh that we will

126be seeing more of um and that they do regularly. And um I also want to recognize that Carrie from CSBA also took the time to attend our meeting today. Uh with that, roll call vote, please. Student board member Curo. Hi, >> Trusty Kirby. Hi, >> Trusty Mcnal. Hi, >> Trusty Jenkins. Hi, >> Trusty Deator. Hi, >> Trusty Medina. >> Hi. >> Trusty P. >> Hi. >> President Casten, >> I. That motion passes unanimously. We'll now move to item G3, education items. uh for this agenda. We've done this in the past, but I do want to call that we are using a a concept of a a calendar. Not a lot of folks see this when we do a consent calendar, but we can also do calendars for other items that are similar in nature. And

127because of the amount of content we had tonight, we did that. So, we have items 3, A, B, and C tonight under the education items calendar, we're going to receive those reports and ask questions. At the end we'll take public comment and then we can take one action um or if any member of the board requests separate action we can take separate action on those items. Uh with that I will be starting with uh Dr. Castro for uh to present. >> Thank you very much. >> Sorry Dr. Caster. Let me just for the clarification we're going to receive the presentation. and we're going to talk about it and ask questions and then we're going to go to the next one. Then we'll receive public comment on the batch of them and then if we want

128to pull any of them separately because we have more discussion we can do that but the intent is that we take the actions together unless there was more need for deliberation on something individually. >> Great question conversation together then we'll move to the next item. We'll get through all three, receive public comment, and then if there is deliberation on one specifically, and we're not ready to take action on all of them, then we'd pull it and have that one be separate. Dr. Castro. >> Yeah. Thank you, President Cton Casten. Um, superintendent, um, August, members of the board, student, staff, and community of Santa Rosa City Schools. The school accountability report card is an annual report required for every public school in California that provides data on school performance environment and resources. It's actually mandated by

129Proposition 98 and serves to inform parents and community about schools progress including demographics, data, safety and student achievement. I understand the board wanted to have a discussion over um the school accountability report cards and some of the information held within. I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to executive director Dr. Barelli. >> Oh. Oh, good evening everyone. So when you think about the school accountability report card, it lives in between the space of accountability and direction. And by that I mean accountability from the state board of education for us to meet their eight priorities that uh pertain to us and from our work um you give us direction through your priorities and our work should show through the results on the SARKC right and so when you think about this as a document

130um it lives in within these two spaces um as Dr. Castro mentioned that this was included in proposition 98 uh meaning that uh SARS have been in place until uh since 1988. So it's been a long time since we have preparing them. The document has evolved over time but is also kind of remained the same. So um it's now has become one of the accountability pieces that CDE has. Uh the other one um is the California school dashboard. Right. And so a lot of the data that you see reported in the SARKCS in the school accountability report cards are also reported on the dashboard as well as pulling data from all uh other data system such as Kalpads includes results from our state um uh standardized assessment CASP and ALPAC. Um and then it also

131uses some fiscal information from SAKS. Um the SARCS have four sections. So um and they follow the state priorities. So a section A is what is called conditions of learning. Section B is pupil achievement. Section C is engagement. ND is other SARC information. So anything that doesn't fit under those three gets put into the fourth section. Um all the data um SRCs are prepared in two ways. So uh the way that we put it together is by pulling data from the data systems and just using it. So things like class sizes are are calculated by CDE and we just report what CDE prepared for us. Other things are uh reported by our principles and other staff and usually those are the narrative sections that you see in this arcs. So there is data that we

132don't really control. we just you know collect it all and put it in SARC and there is other data that instead we produce kind of like um the narrative parts the facilities uh inspection reports and so on. >> So part of it is that narrative part that um executive director Bardelli was talking about. So what this overview is actually between all of the Sarkcs of the elementary. So pulling what was like vers versus what is different from each. So really an important thing is the focus of instructional strategies and supports that are listed within each one. Talks about literacy with it in each one. Um data dies that are happening for student achievement at various sites. It has the various enrichment opportunities. For example, many of our sites offer outdoor education. Some do science camp.

133Some do something called IUBI which is called in our own backyard with the uh land pathways and some offer athletics. There's they all talk about safety in the essential five and admin meet to actually align um practices. So twice a month the elementary principles all meet together to really try to align practice in practices within their schools and that does include the charters as well. And another um uh talking point is the extended learning that happens the ELO the extended learning that's after school and during the summer months and during when spring and winter secondary you're already there. All right. Um in secondary we did that same um look through to see what really aligned and it really is the implementation of the new math framework and really developing training um on math big ideas

134and building thinking classrooms. Also the expansion of ethnic studies. A lot of um staff have attended the professional development for equity grading practices offered through SCOP. uh ongoing multiple mo multilingual collaboratives, a lot of restorative practice training, a um the beginning of instructional rounds as well as the literacy focus um that San Rosa Middle School is really heavy on of the reading, writing, speaking, listening across all learning spaces, which actually targets our multilingual students as well. All right, I'll bring to the board for questions. And I I just want to start one of the reasons I wanted to make sure this came out as a discussion instead of as it has in the past on consent is that when parents are looking for information on our schools, these report cards are some of the most

135easily accessible and consumable uh pieces of information that they can find. and having read through all of them um for this item, you highlighted several exciting things that we're talking about, but when you look at the general scores where things are at, it um it doesn't tell a very pretty picture of of education, how when you look at the comparisons to the state, when you look at the the programs are cited in there as having had progress like the math one you noted, um I've heard a lot of very positive things about the training for equitable grading. When you when you look at those, how how does the success of those translate in these reports? Are we how are we seeing progress because of those things? >> So, a lot of the scores that you're

136seeing are a one-time snapshot. And that's what I really want to clarify because that's not what's happening every day within our classrooms. Oh, sorry. within our classrooms, our teachers work diligently and the staff that help to support to really make sure that the students are getting what they need and what they deserve. So that is not always shown on a testing platform. Um at the elementary level we do have various assessments. So three times a year we have something called I Ready, which does math and um English language arts. We also have the state mandate of the MC class which is kindergarten through 2. We actually do it through sixth grade and we also have benchmarks tests for math and writing that is um paper pencil as well. So that's all aligned. So when we

137look at data we can really see what's happening and then address student needs. You won't see that in the SARC because that's once again the day-to-day and all the work that's happening all year round. Do we have an opportunity within the circ to describe some of that in the written text? Because when I go on to the I mean I have the app on my phone, right? They it's so easy that you can get an app. So you can literally look up any school and this is the data you get regardless of whether we believe it's a whole picture. So is there a way for us to provide a better p a better description of what you just talked about? I would say >> sorry I clicked you go and then I'll jump in. >>

138So I would say not normally I think um >> conventionally the SARC is not something normally that is um used I think or accessed as much as or used as well as you're using it. I think Emanuel and Dr. Hardelli can get into um all the different ways that it can be used. This activity that we went are going through right now has given us the opportunity to take some very dry information that's compiled in this arc and is required and posted at um for the different school sites and do those like two big takeaway um slides that really show the um the different um unique flavors of Santa Rosa City Schools and some of like the the real work that our teachers did, some of the things that that um executive director Haley highlighted.

139And another one of the things that we can highlight as a district and it really makes us stand out as a district is for example the ethnic studies work that our teachers have done over the years and the three cohorts and we are the vanguard in the state. We have 16 courses including a middle school course. That's not the sort of thing that really stands out in a sark, right? But when in in this activity we can really highlight something like that and you could do it in in a SARC but it's not because it's um something that is so old and it's not really it's or it's a compliance item. It's not something that's really used for that, but in this activity, we elevate that sort of thing and it's the sort of thing

140that we can really bring to the four that um shows how we shine and how our teachers shine. That um kind of work and the kind of work that our teachers did in coming together and really um building math identity for our students in the math redesign are the sorts of things that we can um highlight when we do an activity like the these two slides with the big takeaways. And I can let Dr. by going into more of the specifics on how the circ can be used to do that. >> And when we talk specifically um to the states um assessments and achievements um again you know these SARS were developed in the late 80s early 2000s where uh there was this focus on proficiency. uh since then at the state and you know

141the federal government at large has moved away from that and is considering both achievement and growth and those are the two metrics that you actually see currently on the California dashboard but that's not included in the current SARKC documents and so you know like that's that's where SS are not catching up to where we are so you know like when you say for example you know achievement you know proficiency is not where we want to be yes but then if you also go on school dashboard you see that we are making progress towards and so now uh we really focused more on growth alongside um you know proficiency not just proficiency as is reported on SARKC that is more like you know 20 years ago >> okay and I have one more question I'm going

142to go to trusty medina um when we're looking at these um when we're looking at what we're seeing in here and there's a lot of conversation of some really interesting interventions is the walk to read um at Abraham Lincoln. Uh you know I we see some very bright spots with certain curriculum methodologies to not call out accelerated charter for having an 88% math proficiency. Even if we look at the small student population and potential concentration that's I mean there's something happening with that model. Um, how do we take that those insights and that information from this and then look and then make sure it's happening in more places? >> Well, that does take um >> if you could go ahead. >> So, don't turn it off. it'll be turned off automatically by the next person.

143>> That there's nothing um unique about um the habits of mind training there except for it would take the resources and the investment and the commitment of us as a district to um proliferate that kind of um um professional development and the investment in teachers and support to be able to expand that sort of program throughout the the district. It it would take an a pretty um heavy investment though. Yep. But yes. Well, so like the walk to read intervention, is that additionally funded or is that just a a a technique that is being used? >> That's an that's a that takes additional funding. We won't have that anymore. >> Now I can go. Okay. Um so it is taking those bright spots and really talking about when something is happening at a site how

144can that is successful and we see someone on their site that is really interested and says I I need you know what can we do those are the times when you can really talk about things and that's when the administration really do um at CCLA there is some wonderful things happening right now especially with essential standards where they're picking out what is really um their area of focus And so when they're talking about it and listening to when for me when I was listening to them talk about it I was amazed because I thought oh this is all these agreed upon um essential standards that are teacher driven which are so important because they're taking charge of what they feel is essential. It's not you know that top down and it's coming from within because

145they are the ones inside that classroom every day. So it really is um something that we're all talking about right now and we talked about the other day at a um elementary principal meeting that how do we replicate that? So it's taking those bright spots saying you know attendance is up in a certain school what are you doing you know other things um you know lack of you know there's low suspension rates at a school. So it is looking at the bright spots and trying to replicate and we don't see that always within each individual SARC but it's something we can talk about as a group and >> I saw a lot of bright spots in this art I mean reading them and having this discussion I think really brings to light a lot of

146the work even if the topline numbers aren't there I for me the important thing in this discussion is to ground us because while we may not have resources to invest and we may be looking at drastic cuts we do still have discretion about what we preserve and what we see as having the highest impact that we would want to see resources go into. So, you know, I I in this time of cutting, we need to take those bright spots and focus on those um with what resources we have. So, I do appreciate the work that went into this presentation. Uh Trustee Medina, >> thank you. um in in in the Sarkcs well in October the governor signed AB1454 as it relates to the Golden State Literacy Plan and the requirement for evidence-based you know um

147materials will will >> Trusty Medina I'm sorry I think on your end we're getting not a very crisp um your words are coming through in a way where we're not able to understand each of them. Can can you move closer to your microphone? I can't move closer, but um >> uh just don't worry about it. I'll I'll submit my question to email. >> Can you try one more time? I'm actually you you speak. I'm going to read the closed caption and then I will restate the question. I just want to know if the SARC is scheduled to um indicate whether schools have materials uh based on the AB1454 that was signed in October. Um that's going to require us to have instructional based materials that are evidence-based. So the question is regarding the SIRC and

148relationship to AB 1454 as far as having structural based materials that are evidence-based >> back to the Golden State Literacy Plan. Yes, that is actually it within the SARKCS all the curriculum that we use and we are in compliance with the Williams Act and we always make sure that well we're we're required to make sure that all students have what they need inside the classroom um and that it is provided and we do bring it to the board as well in I want to say uh September every every year to discuss and to be voted on. >> Trusty P. Trusty Kirby. >> So, I appreciate you guys bringing this forward uh for us to be able to discuss it. Uh I do echo President Kassen's uh uh comment earlier that you know if you just

149look at the some of the data is not necessarily favorable when 80 to 85% of the students are not meeting the standards. That's a problem. And I appreciate you saying it's a snapshot in time, but it would be great if I don't know if it's even available at the state level or even at our level. You say we're making progress. I would love to be able to click on something and say, "Hey, here's the three to five year trend that we've been going on these reports or even on our dashboard." Yeah, just it just taking a snapshot in time is very difficult to see the trends that are happening and progress being made because if I just look at this circuit board and it just gives me last year stuff everything went down but I

150know it's like the Titanic. It takes a while to and uh to turn things around and you mentioned that the um or in the report it mentioned that the new California map had been implemented. Can you just tell me is that very recent? Was it implemented five years ago? We're just now seeing that. How did that play out or how is it playing out? So it is actually the the framework has been a quote redesign. So a redevelopment of going through what is was the math framework and then it it changed a bit on um big ideas that it is is inquiry based and really focusing. It's not the standards really are the same. It's just how we get there that's a bit different. And so when we s say math redesign is really getting

151that different kind of focus of thought process and it's really within the students. So it is having students work together, having student work in team, being able to discuss and um synthesize together and hear each other's thoughts and challenge one another too on thought processes because there's one more way there's different ways to get the right answer. >> In addition to that, two different things there. So there's the California fra the math framework and then there's the math redesign the way we do math here. But with respect to what you were just speaking about before, you're you not alone on that, Director Kirby. I think the general population um was having looked at and dealt with the SARKC for decades. I think it wasn't helpful to them either. And that's why as a result of

152the um the LCAP and the change and the shift toward um local control, the California dashboard was developed and that actually shows growth and that's I think more helpful over the years. It actually shows whether or not a district and schools have shown a change in growth or in um they've actually shown you know the whether they've gone down and our district had actually been showing some increases over the first 22 23 24 25 last year wasn't a very good year for us but we had been showing some growth and that's where you had heard me before saying that we had had schools that had been in as a designation and they came out of that right That's what using the California dashboard, we were able to show how now we're not doing fantastic as

153a district. But that at least showed us where we had been growing as schools and as a district um as a whole. It also shows us where um we um have not only as a district, but where we have spots where we need to focus as an entire district. And that actually helps us determine and the um county office where we can receive what's called differentiated assistance. So the new way where we're measured, that's why the SARC is more or less of a vestage now. It's just a snapshot, but it's still a requirement because it's law where a lot of people really focus on using the California dashboard now because it's a lot more helpful in determining whether or not a school has made an has improved or declined over the last two or three

154years. >> Okay, thanks for that. And uh I know we mentioned it earlier that this data is available on our website um srcschools.org uhsarkcs you can uh everybody can see that the data for their school and that the I know that the Montgomery junior data was missing but hopefully it's now been updated because of this name change of the school. So okay um that's all I had. Trusty Jenkins, >> just to kind of piggyback off of what was recently said, um, we are using these broader like SARKC and the dashboard to compare growth, but elementary has a handful of assessments that actually tie it like funnel us down. Yes. Whereas secondary, we're still lacking in that. And I know I don't know how we would create these things at this point in time. However, that

155is definitely a need in our district so that we can further grow and improvements. >> Yes. Um you know like as we said at the very beginning there is this idea of accountability top down from the state but also direction bottom up from the board. So if that is a direction that the board would like to pursue, uh we are more than happy to um take the lead and do that >> and I think we're doing a lot of conversations around that in our academic uh planning. Um I I know it is a vestage of the past but it is something that is published and out there and so it's incredibly important for us to take it seriously. um it's a very lagging indicator and so everything we can do to even bring more commentary

156and discretion into the parts where we get to write our own language um I think we have things like this progress and other things to talk about in there so I appreciate that any further comments or questions trusty deleator so legal requirement the whole purpose of us going through this is for us to approve pro it to be posted. Um, and I think we just we've heard a lot tonight of understanding how subjective this one isolated report is that it's legally required, but it is one of the many pieces to transparency. Um, so important that the information is out there, but that we also um are being transparent and finding ways to can communicate all the other things, good, bad, and indifferent that are going on with our district. and we're not just stuck on

157this report. >> There's no more comments or questions. We'll move to 3B. And this is Dr. Vicki Zans. Uh, good evening again. Um, I am here to ask the board to approve a proposed job description for the director of secondary education. This job description represents the redistribution of responsibilities due to the reorganization of the ED services department that was approved by the board in December. >> If you actually want to go ahead and introduce uh 3C and then we can ask questions on both. >> Okay. Likewise, we have a job description for director of elementary education. Again, representing the redistribution of job duties based on the approved redistricting or reorganization, excuse me. >> Is there any questions from the board? Trusty Jenkins >> just providing the same feedback that I did about the other HR

158document um with the current with a different year in the title to get that updated for transparency purposes. >> And we do have public comment on our education items calendar. Uh so this is public comment on items 3A, B, and C. Uh, we have 60 seconds. >> If we can please get the timer on the flat panel. Our first speaker is Dearas Rodriguez. >> Okay, thank you. Thank you. Uh, good evening. My name is Amaris Cordero. I'm a parent of multilingual students. As a parent of multilingual students, uh I want to let you know that seeking their academic and emotionally well-being does not fall solely on a multilingual department which you also decide to close. The data does not reflect the reality that students experience every day in the classroom. insolation, depression, feeling like they

159don't belong at the schools and the teachers who don't want to reveal the truth about their struggles because they don't want to admit that there is not um master plan to help them when a student say I don't understand the language. Our students are much more than just passing an elac test and being reclassified. The data on multilingual students reflect that the district has failed our students. >> Thank you for your comments. >> That is all of our comments. Is there a motion on items uh 3, A, B, and C? >> Motion to approve items 3, A, B, and C. >> Moved by Trusty Deator. Seconded by trustee Jenkins. Roll call vote, please. >> Student board member Curo. Hi. >> Trusty Dator Tory. >> Trusty Jenkins. Hi. >> Trusty Kirby. >> Hi. >> Trustee Medina.

160>> I. >> Trusty P. >> Hi. >> Trusty McN. >> Hi. >> President Casten. >> I. Those items pass unanimously. Thank you. We'll now move to item G4. This is another calendar. This will be for our finance items. We're going to be taking public comment at the front of this item. Um, we placed it there because of the potential length of it and we wanted to make sure we could get everyone's public comments in in the event that folks needed to go home. So, uh, we're going to move to public comment first and then we'll start to move through the items. >> Thank you, President Casten. I'm going to call three names. If we can please also have the timer on the flat screen. The first one is Nissel Cecil followed by Megan King followed

161by Ashley Wood. >> Hi, my name is Nessa Cecil and I'm a student at SRC SRHS. Although I appreciate the effort put into the plans to fix our financial issues, this plan is not going to work. It's superficial like putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. Uh you already have cut a large number of staff members and you're planning to cut teachers, counselors, and site admin. The people who are running our schools. These people are basically the souls of our schools. You cannot have a school without our people. um you they're already overworked, but sure, let's add some more on their workloads. By increasing class sizes and reducing the numbers of teachers and counselors, you're adding even more to their already heavy workloads. Your plan does not account for the fact that we need to

162make money to get out of the situation. And to make money, we need to we need more students. These cut will deter new students and push away current students. I implore you to find a more sustainable situation solution to our to our issue. one that does not include cutting teachers, counselors, schoolbased therapists, and college and clear career counselors as these are important. Thank you. >> Thank you for your time. >> Next, we have Megan King, followed by Ashley Wood, followed by Megan Mor. >> Hello, I'm Megan King, 14 years over at Slater, now at Montgomery. And respectfully, but seriously, are you crazy? What is being proposed is not a plan. It's incompetence and negligence wrapped up in a fancy suit. We're planning on cutting elementary teachers even though they require they provide required prep time

163for the gened teachers. And then when asked how is that going to happen, the answer is we haven't figured that out yet. And that's the theme. We're eliminating code teachers in secondary schools, dismantling SDC programs in elementary, and then becoming a SULPA all at once with no staffing model, no timeline, no structural plans, just the cuts. Now, we're being told that increasing admin ratios is fine because we're modeling it after LA Unified because but they have deemed systems of supports that we don't have. Our administrators at Montgomery are running from fire to fire and we've had serious safety concerns in the past and you want to pull more admin. I appreciate that Lisa August has been on campus and it's really wonderful that she's there, >> but cabinet executives are never there and I encourage

164you to come and actually see what we do. >> Next, we have Ashley Wood, followed by Megan Mari, followed by Susie Kelner. I believe we are school-based therapists that transitioned into the role of wellness coordinators. We have launched swellness centers at three high schools with two additional sites in process. Our roles are more than a traditional school therapist. We have built and now supervise a fullscale wellness program. We maintain therapy case loads, conduct crisis interventions, provide case management, supervise wellness center staff and community partners, and design and implement wellness programming and prevention initiatives. Without our positions, the wellness centers will not remain open and these services will end. It is critical to understand what is truly being eliminated when cutting SBTs. We operate a comprehensive multi-tered mental health system that ensures access for all students.

165We oversee programming, serve as the as the school's mental health liaison, and ensure services are safe and responsive to student needs. Our roles have evolved from one-on-one support to schoolwide support. With performance cuts, only students in special education would be eligible for mental health support. The Santa San Rosa City High School Wellness Center has provided 969 services including 393. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Next we have Megan Mari followed by Susie Kelner followed by Linda Allen. This includes 393 self-regulation drop-in visits, 349 therapy appointment appointments, 33 crisis intervention, 200 to 256 students. This does not include the students that have participated in schoolwide events, presentation and lunch programs. Cutting the SBT position does not simply reduce staffing. It dismantles wellness centers entirely. They cannot function without with wellness coaches and community partners alone.

166It is unrealist realistic and poses serious safety and liability concerns. It also undermines the model that the district adopted from SFUSD that has demonstrated effectiveness for the past 25 years. Wellness centers require a licensed clinician to supervise staff, coordinate services, manage crisis, and act as a bridge between the school community and providers. The district plans to supplement mental health services with community organizations. You need an SB SBT. >> Thank you very much for your comments. Next we have Susie Kelpner followed by Linda Allen followed by Jelf Nielsen. You need an SPT that supervises these partnerships and coordinates all services. Removing these supports will decrease attendance, increase out of district transfers, and increase special education referrals. This will cost our district. Saving today will result in long-term financial and social costs. Funding one licensed clinician at

167each secondary site allows an entire schoolwide mental health program to operate and is the most costeffective approach to keeping services in place and expanding. SRCS has implemented the California fee schedule which has already generated over $100,000 and will increase as services expand. Once it is fully operating, it will significantly offset the cost of the SPT position. Cutting expertise now would be short-sighted and deeply harmful harmful to students and the broader school community. We are asking you to support all secondary students by keeping an additional five licensed SBTs to run each wellness center. We ask you to pause and thoughtfully consider the impact of the decision to cut the SBTs and ultimately wellness centers. >> Next. Next we have Linda Allen followed by Jeff Nielsen followed by Pam Karowski. >> Hi, I'm one of your physical

168educators. I teach at Abraham Lincoln and Still Lane. The plan? Eliminate elementary physical education. Yes, you are eliminating the program by eliminating the educators. Your solution? Oh, we'll just have the elementary classroom teachers do it. Their plates are already overflowing. Let's add 100 statemandated minutes. It's not going to be physical education. It's going to be recess. It's going to be running laps. It's going to be doing go noodle on the television. You have ideas about how things will look. Have you talked to the people who are actually doing the teaching or have you just talked to those people who are doing telling you what you want and telling you things are going to look great? The five of us elementary teachers have over a hundred years experience. We have a quality program taught by quality

169teachers, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. We structure our activities around the state standards. You are hurting our students and our teachers. You need to keep us. We are dedicated and valuable. >> Thanks for your comments. >> Next we have Jeff Nielsen followed by Pam Carowski followed by Johanna Perommo. Thank you. My name is Jeff Nielston. I teach physical education at Proctor Terrace and Hidden Valley elementary schools and I coach varsity volleyball at Maria Creo and eighth grade volleyball at Rinka Valley Middle. I am here because what you decide will ultimately change the future of our students. Eliminating elementary PE is not just a staffing decision. It is a direct hit to the health, development, confidence, and well-being of the children in our care. For many kids, PE is the only time in the day when they can

170move, breathe, reset, and feel successful. It is the only space where some of them experience teamwork, joy, or a sense of belonging that matters more often than we realize. In addition, the impact on special education students will be profound. These students depend on PE for things that go far beyond exercise, motor skill development, sensory regulation, and safeguided social interaction where students can practice communication, teamwork, and confidence building skills. PE is not an extra. For many students, including those in special education, PE is a lifeline. We can't talk about inclusion if we take away the very programs that allow these students to thrive. Classroom teachers are already overwhelmed. Asking them to absorb PE on top of academic instruction will not be a shift. It will be a loss. >> Next we have Pam Cowski followed by

171Johanna Pertomo followed by Quesa Wood. Good evening. My name is Pam Karowski and I am an elementary PE teacher at Luther Burbank and Hidden Valley elementary schools as well as a girls and boys basketball and track coach at Comtock Middle School. Elementary students need PE because it supports their whole development, not just their bodies. It inspires and improves their focus, behavior, and ability to retain information so they're better prepared to succeed academically. Kids need movement to learn lifelong health habits and need it for their mental and physical well-being. PE teaches essential social and emotional skills, teamwork, perseverance, self-confidence, and respect that directly supports classroom learning. PE promotes equity by ensuring all students have access to healthy activity. It's an investment in student success, health, and readiness to learn. Elementary PE does have a California mandate

172of 200 minutes of PE instruction. Please consider keeping us five teachers and the program. >> Next we have Johanna Perdomo followed by Kaish Wood followed by GMA Ramirez. My name is Janna Berdomo and I am the Grace program and MTSS counselor at Pioner and LC High School. I'm deeply concerned about the proposal to cut counselors and school-based therapists. These roles are essential, not optional. MTSS counselors manage 504 plans, which are legal documents with strict timelines and required meetings. If counselors if MTSS counselors are cut, who will take over this work? Especially with administrative cuts also being proposed. These cuts will also eliminate the counseling position for the Grace program, the only alternative education option at our comprehensive sites. These are our most vulnerable students and without dedicated support, they will fall through the cracks. Please

173do not balance the budget on the backs of the students. Cut away from students and save counselors. Next we have Ka Wood, followed by Gameo Ramirez, followed by Margaret Boon. I'm a 12th grade student at Santa Rosa High School, and just this fall, I've applied to almost 20 different colleges for mechanical engineering. So far, I've been accepted to multiple programs with scholarships of over $50,000 per year. None of this would have been possible without my college and career counselor, Miss Batchel. Throughout high school, she has been an invaluable resource in planning for my future, working around scheduling class choice challenges, accessing advanced classes at the college level, and writing and submitting my college applications. These resources are invaluable for students, and many cannot afford such resources outside of SRCS. Counselors are vital in helping all

174students access to colleges and jobs that are the right fit for them, and removing college and career counseling noticeably detracts from students ability to plan for their future. If counselors are cut, students will be hurt, especially those who are typically underserved. and for whom there are no other resources. With the changes and challenges education is currently facing, we are at a tipping point. Will education success continue to become more widespread and accessible? Or will we return to a time when education is a luxury reserve to those who can afford the entry fee? When you decide whether or not to cut public school counselors, you take your side. Please keep that in mind. Thank you. Next we have GMA Ramirez followed by Margaret Boon followed by Don Newfeld. Good evening. My name is Emma Ramirez and

175I'm a schoolbased therapist at Rinken Valley Middle School. The times we are living in are bleak and it is because of our current climate that mental health is more important than ever for our youth. They are not immune to the apathy and chaos occurring in our world. So, I ask you to think critically and thoughtfully about the long-term impact these cuts will have on our current and future students. Who will support these students when there there is no one left? Where will they turn to in times of crisis? Who will respond to campuses after and during community violence or loss? Who will conduct suicide risk assessments as they occur, not hours after the first warning signs are noticed? To expect the already strained amount of counselors and teachers to carry this weight is not sustainable.

176and honestly negligent to everyone involved. The reality is that many of our students are not privileged with private insurance or have families with the resources to get them to outside therapy services. That's if community mental health agencies even have the capacity to take them. You will be cutting off the people who make school feel safer, most vulnerable students. Thank you. Next we have Margaret Boon, followed by Don Newfeld, followed by Lisa Kleinwig. I'm speaking tonight for Paige Warmer, an SDC SGI teacher at Monty for over 20 years. I'm speaking tonight to raise urgent concerns about the district's current direction in special education. These concerns apply to both elementary and secondary settings. What is being framed as expanded general education opportunities is in reality a reduction of supports driven by budget cuts. That framing matters because

177it obscures serious risks to students, staff, and the district. Inclusion is an important goal, but inclusion without adequate staffing, training, and infrastructure is unsafe, educationally unsound, and legally indefensible. A push-in model alone will not meet the needs of students with intensive academic, emotional, or behavioral needs. Placement decisions must be based on whether IP services can actually be implemented with fidelity, not an ideology or staffing shortages. For years, special education has been chronically understaffed. While the district has continued bringing back high need students without first establishing the capacity to serve them safely. >> Thank you very much for your comments. Next we have Don Newfeld followed by Lisa Kleinwig followed by Shaina Kirk. Hi there. I teach English at Piner High School. My name is Don Newfeld. I just want to get things clear. So we're

178cutting all elementary school counselors. We're restructuring sped classes and shoving students who thrive in small groups into huge classes because we have to cut sections, therefore teachers. There will be no wellness centers, less school sites, less restorative specialists, less SSAs, all while all while adding more students to Piner next year and adding middle school to Piner. Uh we're only keeping academic counselors, but we're keeping A throughG for all. So, let's keep that in mind while taking away all pathways to alternative programs of success like ECM, Grace, the MTSS. Um, my own child has a 504 and I will be damned if I send her to a district who has posters but no counselors. >> You are making decisions that we will not be able to get back from. Do not cut. >> Thank you very

179much for your comments. Next we have Lisa Kleinswick followed by Shaina Kirk followed by Mel Dret. I am so lucky to serve as a therapist at Montgomery High School. It is a real privilege to provide psychotherapy to teens who need a safe space in this world. I work with incredibly strong teenagers who deserve care from everyone in this community. But and they deserve so much more. But this is obvious. is clear to everyone, right? I'm here to tell you many of our students will lose access to lifesaving mental health services when we are gone. Today, I'm also here to talk about the school counselors in our district. I work closely with the six school counselors serving 1,800 students at Montgomery High School. Even with me and my therapist colleague holding a combined case load of

180between 40 to 45 of our highest meet students and managing mental health emergencies, the counselors I work with are completely overwhelmed with need. They are already regularly conducting mandatory risk assessments for suicide, physical abuse, sexual assault, severe anxiety, truency, self harm, eating issues, and bullying, and much more. They can barely find time to do any of their other job responsibilities as it stands now. And this is with sightbased therapists. >> Children are endangered by the policies that you're putting forth. Next we have Shaina Kirk followed by Mel Dret followed by Tracy Batch Elder. Hello. So I didn't plan on making a comment tonight, but I started to reflect on something that occurred about a week ago. Um, I went to a meeting of the county board of behavioral health to see what I could find

181out what they're doing funding wise and if I could, for lack of a better terms, beg them to help Santa Rosa city schools avoid deep cuts to mental health services and staff. It was an emotional appeal really not knowing what the whole process is for those measure O funds. But I'm so grateful for what I do as a school counselor and knowing how important this work is for everybody that's here. You know, making these please as well. A woman at that meeting approached me to thank me for supporting young children in our schools. She said with tears in our eyes like my might have right now. Anyways, uh never to give up for advocating for this. her own adult son was approaching an end to conservatorship and he had experienced lifelong struggles. She wondered to

182me if his life could have been different if he had been able to access the same services that we have available in schools now. Early intervention and social emotional support are just so critical. So let's save these essential services and those who provide them. >> Thank you. Mel Dret followed by Tracy Bachelder followed by Priscilla Dendrinus. >> Good evening trustees and thank you for your time. The counseling enrich program serves students with a diagnosis of emotional disability who have experienced severe trauma abuse and neglect and have significant emotional, mental health and behavioral needs. These students are the most likely to be incarcerated, suspended, expelled, drop out of school, and be referred to non-public schools, which cost the district lots of money. We rely significantly and by definition on the program specific therapists who work with

183our students. I have worked collaboratively with the same therapist in my classroom for years. Years in which she has been able to cultivate rapport with students who have been hospitalized for suicidal ideiation and psychosis and students who have been in and out of juvenile hall. I have students who four years ago were working on developing coping skills to stay alive. Now they are on track to graduate high school and head to the JC. This is not because she's a miracle worker, although I'm convinced she is. The growth we see in students is due to years of relationship building, therapy, and trauma-informed care we provide as a team, and she is almost guaranteed to lose her job. >> Thank you for your comments. Next we have Tracy Bachelder followed by Priscilla Dendrinas followed by by uh

184Demetress Cordiero. Good evening. My name is Tracy Bachelder and I'm one of the three college and career counselors in the district. I work at both Santa Rosa High and Montgomery High. And I'm not here to advocate for my job. I'm here to actually fight for this position. The proposal from the district is to eliminate the three college and career counselor positions and replace them with classified staff. I'm asking the school board members to require the district to make the job description for these new positions available so it could be determined if it'll actually meet the needs of our students and families. Don't take the district staff at their word that this is a great idea. I'm asking you to ask a lot of questions so you can make an informed decision as to whether the

185savings by eliminating these positions is actually worth the change. The role requires extensive knowledge about college admissions, career pathways, much more also counseling expertise. Our students deserve to receive professional and informed advice and our already overwhelmed school counselors are very comments the boy. Thanks. >> Thank you. Next we have Priscilla followed by Demetrius followed by Marine Cecil. Multilingual emotion. particip. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Priscilla. The decision to dismiss the counselors and eliminate the multilingual um department rises serious concerns in terms of equity. These services are essential to ensure equitable access to education, especially for multilingual students, low-income students, and those who depend on social emotional support for academic success. In addition, this decision seems to contradict the spirit of the Brown Act, which requires transparency, meaningful public participation, and clear process before

186taking actions that deeply impact the community. Changes of this magnitude magnitude should not be made without open dialogue, comprehensive information, and the real opportunity for families and educators to express their concerns. I urge you to reconsider these decisions and comply. Next we have Dearius Gandereo followed by Marine Cecil followed by Ashley Bell. >> Thank you. My name is Amaris Cordero. Uh just thinking the situation of uh insecurity and fear that many students and their families are experienced right now. Your decisions tonight will affect students not only academically but also emotionally. Advocating for multilingual students has always been a challenge because we encounter many v barriers and doors are closed to us under codes 496 and 49428 which protect the mental health and multilingual students. I ask you to please not eliminate the counselor's position. As

187you know bilingual positions are scars and the decision will be another setback for our community. Many decisions are being made without considering the harm they already causing to students. You have never present solution or a plan for removing this program and this is alarming. Could you please clarify the funding request by to open a mental health support program in elementary school by hiding staff? Next we have Moren Cecil followed by Ashley Bell followed by Deborah Tap Tapia de Martin. Hi, my name is Moren Cecil. I've been here several times. I teach at Piner High School. I also have a child who is still in this district and if I had a choice I would have moved her. Um, at this point the board, please, please, I really implore you, audit the heck out of the

188district. They are hiding money. They're hiding what they're doing with it. It doesn't make sense. If you as a regular person can say, "What does this line item mean?" and they cannot tell you, there's something wrong. Our district keeps spending despite our dire situation. What about stop spending money? Do you not understand? What about state takeover? Do you not understand? If you're hiding skeletons, they're going to come out when the state takes over. Okay. Second part. Nine positions at the district office are $2 million. How about another nine positions and cut them to the bare bones that you're trying to cut the people who are in the classroom helping our children. Next is Ashley Bell followed by Deborah Tapia followed by Marcus Extravar. Um, Ashley Bell, Santa Rosa High School. I think I have two

189thoughts. One, um, elementary SDC mild mod being cut I think is the hardest thing for me to see. These are such young, vulnerable kids. Like, can we do anything to not cut there? You know, like anything for those little first graders, I just can't. The second thing, it just it blows my mind that the most creative thinking that we have to write this ship is cut the people who work here and like buy three fewer copers. Like there's legitimately there's nowhere else to cut besides humans and copers. I I don't do finances. That seems wild to me. Like there has to be other places where we can cut where we're not talking about like taking basic services away. Elementary, mild, mod, SDC. That's where we have to cut. Like, is that how bad things are?

190We can't protect those little six-year-old kids. Like, there has to be a line. Like, that has to be the line. It's only a million dollars. Like, craziness. >> Thank you for your comments. >> Next, we have Deborah Tapia, followed by Marcus Extravar. >> Hi, good evening. I am um going to read from your LCAP summary. Moving forward, the district continues to engage stakeholders through transparent planning, thoughtful transitions, and data informed decision making to sustain momentum and ensure fiscal and instructional coherence. As part of this commitment, SRCS will continue its multi-year instructional initiative focused on tier one quality first instruction aim at ensuring that all students including English learners and students with disabilities receive consistent, rigorous, and culturally responsive teaching in every classroom. How are you going to continue this that you have in your LC

191and your LCAP plan with what you're about to do? Just make it make sense. This is what you have what your plan is. >> But I urge you to really think if your decisions that you're about to make >> are going to follow this. Marcus Marcus Extravor. >> Good evening. Thank you. My name is Marcus Extavore. I'm a resident and parent. I moved to the city in 2024 after living in Englewood, California for eight years. Uh I appreciate all the comments made this evening which I think 95% of which have focused on services or people being cut. I would like to ask about the other reason I think we're here tonight, which is that there's a $15 million hole in the budget as I understand it. I do budget management in my work. Uh for

192everyone, my fellow fellow neighbors, if you want a uh a vision into what a possible future of state takeover looks like, look at the Englewood School District. Every single one of the services we have been discussing tonight, counselors, mental health, uh athletics for kids, none of those things exist in the Englewood School Board. They have the same structural problems that we have here. I don't have a question. I have a request. Is it possible to produce a public table of all of the proposed uh changes to reduce the budget shortfall and next to it a number about how much money would be saved? If that information already exists, >> I'd love to see it. Thank you. That's all of our public comment. Let me transition back to my agenda here. All right. We're going to,

193similar to the last calendar, start with uh 4B. We are going to receive presentations, ask questions, and have discussion. At the end of 4 B through E, um, sorry, at the end of 4 B through E, uh, we will then consider a motion for action on 4 C, but we're going to stick with discussion in order to make sure that we're just moving in a timely manner. Uh, with that, we're going to move to item 4B, discussion of the governor's budget proposal. An interimm associate superintendent Kazer is presenting. >> Hit the button once they turn blue. >> Okay. Um, good evening everyone. Thank you for sticking around so far. We've got quite a bit to go. And we're going to start it off with the governor's proposed budget. Um, I'm going to highlight one thing

194before I hand it over to to to my partner here, Joel. And that's that it's important to remember this is a moment in time when it comes to the development of the budget. So, this is step number one. We're going to hear something some items about the risk associated in the governor's proposed budget as well as some of the dollars that the governor is proposing to bring our way. But I want to note we're not counting on any of it yet until we have a budget act, which will hopefully happen come June. Then we'll know. The next data nugget that we're really waiting for is the May revise. And so while we're going to hear some good news about some dollars that may come down the line, we're not counting on them because they're not

195real until we have a budget act. And with that, I'll hand it off to Joel Dontos. >> Thank you, Liz. Okay. Can is this on? >> It's not blue. >> This one. >> Thank you, LSE. Good evening, President Casten, uh, Superintendent August Hume, members of the board. Um, thank you for having us tonight. And, um, tonight for the governor's budget proposal, we'll be going over a brief overview of the governor's budget proposal. We will go over a brief overview of the state budget and the state economy. Uh, we will go over Proposition 98, which is the education budget. and we will go over how the budget impacts us locally here, move on to next steps, and be open for questions. So, as a government agency, our budget is largely impacted by the state budget, like

196President Casten mentioned, um quite pos I'm sorry, quite possibly um or maybe significantly more so than any local decision we can possibly make here. So the governor comes out with this proposal in January for the next fiscal year 202627 so that government agencies can start planning their budgets. the governor after the governor Oh yeah after the governor's budget comes out then the legislature which is the state assembly and the state senate looks at the budget because in June those bodies will need to agree on the budget and turn the budget act the next step will be after the legislature has reviewed the budget and negotiated with the governor we will come back in May for the May revision to the governor's proposal I will say uh a theme is the governor's budget is has been

197known to be more optimistic than the legislative analyst's office. Again, we're here in January giving the proposal for the governor's budget. So, I'm going to start with kind of setting the foundation of what is the state budget. The state budget is based on tax revenues that the state gets. The largest tax revenue is our personal income taxes. Inside the personal income tax is our um capital gains tax. So just want to start with that foundation and I'll go back to some highlights in the state budget. So currently um those revenues are significantly higher this year than they were in or they're they're projected in the 2026 27 proposal significantly higher than they were projected during this year 2526. Similar to our budget, the state budget has multi-year projections as well. One factor that is significantly

198impacting the state budget's revenue projections is the artificial intelligence sector. And again, those budget revenues are increased both by the legislative analysts and the governors. those those projections. However, the artificial intelligence sector of projected revenues from capital gains is significantly higher than nonAI industries. So now I'm going to go into how the state budget looks. The projection for the 2627 budget is projected to have a modest $2.9 billion deficit, but is considered to be a balanced budget. However, as we move in to 20, 27, and 28, the budget projects have a $22 billion deficit. And in 2829 and 2930, a $45 billion deficit. That's without considering an AI bubble burst similar to the dot where currently there's a lot of um news about how AI is going to be so beneficial to us, how it's

199going to take over. And if those thoughts don't come true, then we won't see the gains from those revenues and capital gains. And all this tells the story. So, I'm trying to get every point cuz it's the road we're on. It'll tell us our future here as of the governor's budget. Okay, so now that we've established that the state budget is largely based is on tax revenues, now we're going to move on to the Prop 98 budget. Prop 98 is the education budget section out of the state's overall budget. Prop 98 is unique. Prop n the the Prop 98 budget is unique in that there is a law that determines the level of revenues that Prop 98 is to be funded with by or for the amount. The funding is based on one of three

200tests. Test one is a scenario where revenues are very high like our current budget proposal for 26 27 are based on. Test two is when tax revenues are moderate and test three is when they're low and it's kind of a safety valve for 2026 27. The budgeters the governor's budget proposal includes a Prop 98 funding of $125.5 billion. Likewise, the LOA anticipates that to be $17.8 billion. However, there is one thing built into this year's governor's budget. He follows up this year with a similar thing he had in the budget last year, a deferral or a settle up of the Prop 98 in the amount of $5.6 billion. So what that means is well so one thing we need to one one important comment is that this governor using this sus the suspension or deferral

201the the law requ the law the legal means of doing that no I'm sorry the governor using the settle up or deferral the legal method of doing that is a Proposition 98 suspension. The important terms in the Proposition 98 suspension include it needs a twothirds vote to pass and it has terms on what to do with that money. However, with the governor's maneuver shorting that $5.6 billion, it doesn't have that And now I I want to add one con. So so so so I'm going to go into what so so we've identified that he shorted the budget by $5.6 billion and he's funded he's proposing to fund the Prop 98 at $125 billion. Now what is included in that $125 billion? 71% of that $125 billion is new spending proposed for core education and key

202enrichment programs. 29% of that nearly onethird of available funding is used to replenish the rainy day fund. So now just to make so now we have the established that 70% of the prop 98 that we did get is going towards what we can use locally and school districts 30% of that is going towards the rainy day fund. Now let's take in now I want to make another point about that $5.6 $6 billion. so included in that 70% there are different areas where the that money is targeted towards. Some of it is our local control funding following. I'll be jumping back and forth around here, but some of that is our local control funding formula. Some of those are categorical programs. Some of those are onetime money. If the governor decided to appropriate that $5.6 billion

203in our budget and if, which is a big if, he decided to put that in one time discretionary money, given that there's about a thousand school districts throughout the state, a little over that, which average which average about 5 million ADA, 5.6 6 billion divided by 5 million is about a little between 900 and,000 multiplied by our 11,000 or so ADA. That would be about roughly $10 billion additional revenue to us projected in 2627 which we're not getting in the governor's proposal as of January. That's why this is interesting. We'll see how this unfolds as we go towards May and what actually occurs in the budget act. Okay. So, so, so one other point in proposition 98. So with those higher tax revenues included in the governor proposal triggers the reserve cap at local districts

204at 10%. And the theory behind or the thinking behind that logic behind that is with the level of revenues where they are then it encourages districts to spend their dollars on the year that they're taken in. That's included in the proposal. However, that can be challenging considering what we mentioned, the $22 billion deficit the following year and the $45 billion deficits the future years. But that is the current status of the proposal. Okay. So that is really the story of the state budget, the state economy and Proposition 98. Now moving into how that um transitions to our local budgets. So the largest area of Prop 98 in our ongoing funding is the local control funding formula, LCFF. The funding method that the local funding department uses is called a COLA, a cost of living adjustment.

205And that is how the state determines how much they're going to increase our per ADA rate above the prior year. So that's not our we don't get 2.41 two okay we don't get the percentage of cola increased from prior year we get the percentage of cola increased based on one average daily attendance. So if our overall average daily attendance is lower for the next year, although we increase our LCF revenue by that cola, the actual dollar amount that we take in the next year will be lower relative to how much lower our average daily attendance is. Now, a couple of points to make about the COLA. The COLA is a rigid federal formula. The state has the option to augment the COLA and provide a funded COLA amount. However, the governor is proposing to only

206fund the COLA at 2.3% or I'll get into the rates in a minute, but at the COLA at the federal level, the statuto call with no augmentation. And part of the LCF funding formula was the governor they wanted to get the funding levels back to the amounts they were prior to the recession. So funding and also another comment I wanted to make about Prop 98 that I think is important is that the amount required by law to fund it is the floor not the ceiling. That's the minimum level of funding that they need to provide, but they have the op option to provide more funding. >> It's um just conceptually it's intended to be the floor like the minimum amount they that the state would be providing for funding for school districts and instead it's

207been treated like the ceiling. So instead of using it as the minimum floor that they can fund above, they look at that amount and said, you know what, that's the most we're going to do. So it's you can think of it like the minimum wage. It's the minimum what you can do. You can do more than that. And it's the same thing. It's minimum minimum guarantee. They could do more. They don't do more. So now we're looking at the COLA figures. So when we adopted our budget in June, you can see the line above that shows the cola. We projected a 2.3% cola which is in the act in the act budget and we're presenting this information based on the current board approved financial report which is the first interim. We'll come back in March

208with a second interim with updated figures. But this is this will give you show a picture of the impact and it should be pretty pretty close because you can see in the second section where so we so we go in so in 2627 in June with the governor's budget act the projected cola for 2627 was 3.02% 02% and the projected COLA in 2728 was 3.42%. However, with this January's governor's budget proposal, the COLA has revised to 2.41% in 2627 and 202728 3.06%. So, a lower cola for our ongoing money and that relates to lower uh changes in our projected LCF for revenues that you can see there. Yeah, >> this next slide shows some of the exciting pieces that I was describing earlier that I want to just be really clear like there's this is

209potentially exciting news, but we're going to hold on the excitement until we have an actual budget act. Probably one of the most compelling pieces here that's that's of interest is what's happening, what they're proposing with the special education funding formula. That's a notable increase. We'd like to see it, but until we actually see it in the budget act, we won't count on it. >> Next one. >> Yeah. So, the the budget does continue to fund programs that we have actually currently in our um district including the expanded learning opportunity program, university meals, prop 28, early childhood education um and the list is here. I won't go into every detail. So, the next steps as we mentioned earlier, this is the January the governor's January proposal. Um the steps are kind of with the legislature and

210the governor and they'll come then they'll come out with an update in May and then we will use our we will most likely use those um May revice projections along with our adopted budget in June. The state will also adopt the budget, their budget act in June and we will come back um 45 days after our budget adopted with any updates that go along with the state's adopted budget that may impact us. you've got listed in front of you sort of some of those key next steps that we're waiting on that are familiar with you at this point as we've we've been talking a lot about some of those key decision-m points. Um, and with that, happy to take any questions you might have. I'll just note a couple of just key takeaway points here.

211So, one, uh, there's there's risk associated in the governor's budget. volatile funding sources are sort of how they're proposing to fund some of the generosity that they're proposing to come our way. We appreciate the generosity, but just in the same way we need to solve our structural deficit. We need them to do the same thing so that we can all rely on funding that we can count on year after year after year. >> All right, I'm going to bring it to board for questions and definitely the microphone is uh think of it like a bullhorn. Um, I'm going to go to our finance committee chair, Trusty Kirby, first. Yes. Um, thanks for the presentation. Um, are we using um since they did pull back the money like you were saying the the uh 5.6 billion

212uh projected and it requires a vote from the state senate to approve that or congress uh from the state legislature. Um do you anticipate that happening again? Is that is that probably going to happen? >> I don't get paid to speculate. I I don't have a good guess. Um I will just say for our own budget. We were not assuming anything from the governor's proposed budget one way or the other. Standard practice is use the best information available and that's what we have before before this piece. But we're not going to count on anything coming our way that way. >> Yeah, thanks. I guess that was kind of my point. We're planning for the worst case scenario as if we're not going to get that money. Um, so I just want to make sure that

213every step that we've done in in our planning purposes, we're we're basically not not setting ourselves up to expect any extra cash from any of this. Correct. >> That's correct. We are responsible and part of being responsible is not taking that sort of risk. Um, and so the while some of those pieces are definitely worth paying attention to and we will keep our eye on them as the conversations happening are happening, we're not going to count any of them in in the budget. >> Um, one of the factors uh that was listed there talks about the proposed the way it impacts us. Um, I know additional funding is is available or or can happen if some of our schools are designated as community schools as where and maybe maybe this first superintendent I guess uh

214where are we on getting any of our schools designated as community schools. We currently have four community school grants. So, the implementation grants and those are five-year grants. Um, we can there's a difference between having a community school, which does you may or may not get funding for that, and it's more around the way that you operate with creating community partnerships and and the services provided. And there are grants available should we qualify, you know, should we apply and and qualify for them. So, we've been going through that process. Our secondary sites have not had a high enough unduplicated pupil percentage to be competitive in the application process. But our elementary schools have been very competitive, hence our our four awards. >> Okay, that's all I have for now. >> Um I I I've heard

215it said that the governor's January proposal is a vision document. Uh the May one is a planning document. June's 80% there and the trailer bills are when you finally get reality, which is hopefully before that you've already gotten through the year. Is that kind of roughly how you think about this? >> Yes. It becomes um more real over as time passes. So right now you have an aspiration. Okay. >> Other trustee questions on the state budget. Trusty Delator, >> are there things you would like us to continue to keep our eyes on or advocate for for different funding models or opportunities to advocate to our legislators for that might help these funding models. Obviously, not every school district is funded the same. Um but not a lot of community members understand that and know what

216we're receiving per pupil and why and why that may be different than um other districts in the area um that do receive more per pupil. >> There is the report I mentioned. It might have been the last time we were together. Um and I'm happy to send it along to you just so you can actually have it in your hand easily. that that's a critical piece for me. Like when when I hear people describe what makes them angry about the situation we're in, I point to that. That's what makes me angry for a school system, a school funding model to allow for those gaps that we have between community funded school districts and LCFF funded school districts where it's thousands of dollars difference from students. And again, I think I asked you the last time,

217raise your hand if you chose your parents, right? We have no control over it. Yet somehow that factor determines how many thousands of dollars we're either going to receive or not receive from the state based on its funding model. So, what makes me angry? That makes me angry. If you want something to advocate for, I I would suggest reviewing that that document and I'm happy to provide it as part of a Friday memo. Going back to the timeline actually one more time because I think this is a really important point. There is potentially more revenue for us in here, but because we won't know what it is until May and June, but under state law, we're required to actually make all these decisions, especially around staffing by March. Um, we have to assume that that

218money is not there. Then if it does come, then we have to undo a lot of Well, I don't want to say undo. Then we have that money, but we didn't know about it when we actually had to make the decisions. Like, can you just talk about like how out of sync the state budget is with our budgeting process? >> Yes. We're both required essentially to adopt a budget at the same time. So when we're adopting our budget, it's based on assumptions uh for at lay person right it's a guess and that's what I tell everyone. So on July 1, 100% of our budget is a guess. Should be a good guess, a sound g, right? Should be able to justify our assumptions, but it is a guess. Then once the state does its part

219and enacts a budget act is when we actually can solidify those assumptions and know what we're really going to have. Um, it it is out of sync. That that said, we have enough information to know how to develop our budget. We're going to have enough. The reason we don't count on these dollars is because these if if the governor's proposed budget doesn't come through as he's envisioned in this moment, those are the sorts of things that go away, right? So, we can't count on spending dollars that we don't have. We might think about it. We will absolutely calculate what the financial impact would be for us. We will think about what it might mean if we get those dollars, but we most certainly don't act on it until we receive them. And I'm going to

220stress in particular just given where we are financially. The it's I would encourage us not to tie our hands thinking about what we would do if those dollars actually come true. Your contacts today may not be your contact six months from now. And so if those dollars do come through six months from now, you might have other priorities based on what's happening within our community. And so I would just urge you don't don't tie your hands. Let's let's see what happens. >> And and my recollection from last year is that as we went through this process, our cola kept going down with each of those steps and the very variety of things started coming away. And so I I appreciate you reinforcing that. Any other questions or comments on the state budget element? We will

221go ahead and move make sure it's trust hands up. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Then we will move to item 4 C um acceptance of the 2425 independent audit report and corrective action. And I am gonna ask our team to stay up here. But uh do we have well who's presenting? >> We I believe our primary auditor is unavailable. He had a conflict that's just running late and so he's got a member of his team who is log who's logged on. Um Angela. So Angela will be presenting the audit for us this evening. Hello. Good evening board. I let me share my screen for the audit report. I I can I'm allowed to share my screen, right? Good evening board of director. I'm Angela. I'm representing Shafan and Associate. I'm the audit manager uh for the

222firm and I would like to present the audit result for Santa Rosa City School for the fiscal year 25 audit. Um the audit is complete based on four auditing standards. Uh the first one is AICPA statement of auditing standard. The second one is government auditing standard. Uh the third one is the uniform guidance of single audit federal compliance testing. The major program that we select for single audit testing for fiscal year 25 uh was uh title one program and also national school lunch program. The last um audit standard that we follow is education audit panel uh appeal panel that is the audit guide for the state compliance uh California program that we follow. Our audit objective is to provide reasonable assurance about whether the district financial statement are free of material misstatement. Uh we perform

223our audit testing by sampling. So we are not testing 100% of the sample uh 100% of the total population. We completed four phrase of the audit. The first phrase is about planning and risk assessment which determine that the scope of the audit and the materiality. The second phrase is the intram audit. We come uh for assessment of internal controls and we perform test of controls over significant class of transaction. Uh for fiscal year 25 we test payroll and cash dispersement and also during in testing we test federal and state compliance. The third phrase is the substantive testing which we come at year end audit. We we mainly test of detail for AP, AR, revenue, long-term debt, capital, asset, all those sections uh relate to the financial numbers. The final phrase is to draft the financial

224report um and follow up on any pending items. Uh I would like to give a few financial highlights on the uh on the audit report. Um first item is about the total net position which decreased about uh 6 million from uh net from a deficit of uh,000 to a 6 million deficit. the revenue decreased by about 3 million from uh fiscal year 24 to 25 for fiscal year 25 the total revenue is about 323 million the program expenses decreased by about 4.4 4 million uh from uh 20 uh increase from 24 to 25 about 4 million. So which is from 335 mil to uh 25 the total expenses is 329 million. The overall fund balance is uh increase by 61 million uh from 218 million to 279 million. The mainly increase is on building fund

225uh because of the uh issuance of the new geo bond in 2025. For capital asset uh it's increased from 24 to 25 about 39 million uh is mainly increased by the work in progress for 38 million in fiscal year 25. The long-term debt um have increased by about 100 million. The increase is mainly come from the increase in geo bond uh which is uh the uh increase from the uh 2025 gond measure uh series B. Uh we complete our fiscal 25 audit and we gave an unmodified opinion for the financial statement. That means the financial statement were fairly presented in all material respect regarding the internal controls over financial reporting and on compliance. Our audit did not identify any deficiencies in internal controls over financial reporting and that we consider to be material winners. Our

226test disclosed no instances of non-compliance or other matters that are required to be reported under government auditing standard. Um for the compliance of over major program we issue an unmodified opinion. The district is in compliance in all material respect with the OM compliance supplements. We issue a modified opinion on state compliance testing due to two state compliance finding. The first one um the first one is relate to uh the district uh unassigned fund balance in the general fund that has a deficit of 1.5 million uh which is a negative of uh.3% of total outgo and does not meet the state 3% minimum reserve recommendation. The district has already incorporate corrective action in round one and two budget solutions to restore the minimum 3% reserve for economic uncertainty and improve its overall physical uh physical position.

227The second finding is relate to the classroom teacher salary. The district were required to spend at least 55% of total expenses after subtracting override on classroom teacher salary. However, the district incurred only 52.28% of their to of their expenditure towards classroom teacher compensation resulting a deficiency of uh 5.9 million. The reason is the current expenses of formula ex extensive service outside the classroom including mental health um consult consult consulting uh nursing uh social emotion support and targeted intervention programs. The district is in the process of seeking a formal waiver from the county superintendent of schools. Except of t these two finding that I described uh before the district complies in all material respect with the compliance requirement of state programs. Um the fiscal year 25 audit have been complete and we did not have any

228significant uncorrect adjustment and throughout the audit uh we experience no difficulties and disagreement with the management. Um with that said um is there any question on the audit finding or audit report or any question uh that you you you have for me? >> Trusty Kirby I just wanted to uh thank you for the presentation. Uh and I just wanted to clarify you your firm began this process in March correct and and how long did it take uh when how many months were you auditing our district? Yeah. So that's two phrase. We start uh at usually March, April for interrum and we come to uh for final uh after the book is closed. So it uh it will be over like half a year uh from intram and all the way to uh to issue the

229audit report. Yeah. So the issuance on the audit report is on the date of uh so after we complete everything draft the report uh the audit opinion is uh issued on January 5th so this month >> so you've been working on this since March uh of >> that's correct that's correct >> this autumn >> um and throughout that that just the two state compliance issues were were the two things that you uh found, right? The uh not not not having enough of the 3% reserve and then not spending our uh 55% of our total revenue. >> That's correct. >> That was it, right? >> Mhm. >> I have a question on the 52.8% 8% um for that calculation are funds that we receive that are restricted to us for a use outside of the classroom.

230So not for teacher salaries or instructional aids. Are those funds included as a part of that calculation even though we don't have the ability to spend them in the classroom? >> Yes, they are generally included as part of the denominator. So even though we have those restrictions, we can't spend them in the classroom. they still get counted as a part of our hole. >> Any other questions? Trusty Jenkins. >> I think it's kind of related to what you just asked um with the 5552 bubble there. Um, is some of that contributed to say I know we have a higher special ed rate than the state average um and needing to pay personnel salaries to support those students. Does that does that fall within that area? >> Okay. So there are majority of the special education

231uh teacher salaries are part of this form ca for their example they're a function in a sachs account code structure at a 1000 which does include that but there are areas in the special education programs that are outside of that function which count towards the denominator. Trusty Kirby Sorry, just to follow up to that. Um, >> within our state, um, roughly, do you have an idea how many schools don't make that uh, cut off? Is there is that information available somewhere? I I'm just curious uh you know is there a huge penalty against us for not doing that or um >> yeah the information is available um I think we might have included as part of the handout I don't know don't know it off top of my head but I I'll say a couple

232of things on that so one we are not alone two the number of districts who aren't meeting that requirement has grown over the years and one of the reasons it's grown over the years is because together over the years we've placed emphasis on the services and supports of students outside of the classroom. So, as we start to do that, it means we're not going to we move away from complying with that requirement. Um, lastly, I'll note on that that the waiver that we we've submitted to the the county, we're not alone in that. Um, we're so not alone in it that it's it's a guarantee that it it's going to get approved. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We're in good company. Seeing no further questions or comments, uh we'll go ahead and move the agenda

233to item 4 D, which will be a presentation on the FICMAT uh management uh assistance team, fiscal health risk analysis. And I'm going to ask our team to stay up, but maybe go to one side or the other just to be able to help translate for us if we need it. one that stays on. Welcome. >> And I'm going to welcome up uh Michael Fine, the chief executive officer for Pikmat, as well as Robbie Monttobano, uh the intervention specialist. >> Well done. Okay, now I don't know how to make this work. >> And actually, if we move that mic that's on the far end there over here because that's the one's not always on. So, >> and then that one. That way you don't have to worry about whether your mic's on. Sorry this. >>

234Okay. I'm definitely going to use this because I'm have a low voice. Uh good evening. Uh again, I'm Robbie Montalbano. I'm an intervention specialist with the fiscal crisis and management assistance team and you know our CEO uh Mr. Michael Fine with me. Uh the plan tonight is to run through the presentation, present the report and then uh Mr. Fine will likely have some comments to add at the end. Um, so you have uh the report and the presentation. I I trust you've all read it. You've looked through it. Um, so the plan tonight is while there are 31 slides, it's not going to take 31 minutes to get through this. I have zero intention of reading slides to you. So, uh, I do want to start off with a huge thanks to, uh, district staff.

235Uh, they were very accommodating while we were visiting the district. um were um great in getting us information as much information as they could at the time. Uh so that makes the visit and the the report go much smoother and we do appreciate that you have a lot of great people on your team. Um, so going through the presentation if I can make it work. There it goes. Okay. Sorry. Um, so just starting out, uh, there are a couple of slides in the presentation about who we are, fiscal crisis, um, and management assistance team. generally throw those in there for those in the audience who really aren't aware of who we are. Um but just a few slides talking about um uh how we came to be and um what we are as an external

236independent state agency. Um and really we focus on management assistance. uh we do fiscal crisis intervention and other services, but ideally we have management assistance to hopefully avoid as many uh fiscal crisis interventions as we can. Uh part of that management assistance is developing tools like the FH that we are going to go through tonight. Those are all designed to help um bring things to light and to help uh districts or eleas um avoid situations of fiscal crisis. So um part of fiscal oversight uh with AB1200 uh strengthened the fiscal oversight of schools um by pulling in the county superintendent as yet another oversight agency. Um, but I want to draw your attention to the fourth bullet there. The first level of fiscal oversight really rests with you. So, you're the first line of defense

237for fiscal oversight. Um, and you know, that's why you're all here talking about this. So, while the county superintendent is a secondary layer and is a go between or intermediary with the state, really all the decisions lie with you. So, a little bit about what the fiscal health risk analysis is. It's a tool that Fikmat has developed. Um, and it includes uh a number of the um factors, risk factors that are seen in districts that have um fallen into receiverhip or experience severe fiscal distress. So, it's a way to assess a district's risk for that. Uh there is no district without risk. There's always risk. Um but obviously it's a little bit like um I always say it's like a golf score. You want a low number. Um but this uh fiscal health risk analysis

238was developed for school districts really to do their own assessment of themselves to really take a look and take control of their own um assessment. But in 18 2018-19 uh part of the state budget act was an automatic engagement process. Um if there were certain um conditions present in a district uh listed on the screen you have them. In your particular case it is a lack of going concern designation by the county superintendent. A similar um situation would be if you had three consecutive qualified reports or a negative interim. Um I do know spoiler alert later we talk we know you f filed a first interim negative. It doesn't mean we'll be back right after that to do this again. We don't come right back if we've been here. Uh there does that it's not

239helpful. So, uh, there are 20 key areas that we've identified that most commonly lead to fiscal insolveny. So, you'll see a lot of these in districts. I think a gentleman spoke about Englewood earlier, but you have a couple of other districts in the state that um have entered receiverhip and these are the the the factors that are present in those districts. if they're present in your district, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to go into receiverhip, but it is how do you deal with those things um because they're all those risk factors that are present when a school district um needs intervention from the state. So, I'm not going to read them all to you. You've read them. I'm sure you're painfully aware of them at this point uh by reading that report. So,

240the overview, it was 138 yes or no questions across those areas. The no responses are really what gets your score going up. Um, we are a deficit model, so we don't really talk about all the awesome things you guys do here. We're only going to talk about the things that did not quite meet the standard. Um and then we do a short narrative about them so you can understand a little bit about that uh deficiency if you will. Uh the total risk score categories you can see them there. High risk is 40% or more um and then lower risk is 24 or lower. So this report is focused on the time of the uh lack of going concern designation by the county. So you're looking at the 2526 adopted budget is really the time frame

241we're looking at. So please keep that in mind as we walk through and we'll talk a little bit about subsequent events after u but keep that in mind when we're running through because where their changes have been made after that. We don't really comment on them unless we can really uh see that something's happening but it doesn't change the score. So if at the time period that we're looking at something is a I'll call it a deficit. Um then that's what we're going to record it as. You know uh staff take those um all the comments we make and they read the report also and I'm fairly certain that they're already at work on many of those. So uh the district did adopt 2526 budget with the projected negative uh 11 million ending fund balance.

242None of this is new to you, but keeping this in mind, these are the pieces that we're looking at when we do this at H. Um, one other piece in this is collective bargaining disclosures over the last few years have consistently stated that budget reductions would be necessary to maintain the long-term affordability and those adjustments have not been made. And a lot of that that everything on that slide right now is what's contributing to all of these no answers. So, you're going to continuously see these things over the next few slides um because they are the items that are causing the issues. Um cash flow obviously is a concern and I'm sure Mike will um uh supplement this, but um you know, running out of cash is not not something that you want to do.

243And that's really when receiverhip happens and the it's not really a state takeover so much as it's um you know they're the government they're here to help. So uh the they do you end up with a lot of rules and regulations and and interventions that um come with that very expensive cash loan. Um so you can have negative ending fund balance and you can have those negative certifications but it's really the lack of cash that will cause um the big as people call it a stake takeover. So we talked about that you the trigger was a lack of going concern. Um, so you're automatically going to have a high score and and as we walked into the district and we prefaced our visit that yes, you're going to have a high score because of the

244lack of going concern designation. It's important to see though that the calculated result is or calculated risk rating is also high. It's not uncommon for us to go into a school district that has three qualifieds or a lack of going concern and seeing a calculated risk lower than that. Um so I think it's important to note that the risk level is high. Um it's for all the reasons you've been talking about tonight, the reasons we've already talked about so far and the next um set of slides um will cover most of that also. Um so again these are the areas uh that pose the greatest risk to fiscal solvency that uh the district scored the highest in. I did not make a slide on every single one but there are a number of them that

245are very important. Um I'm sure that you already know this but that's what we're going to go through for the rest of this. And again I won't read them all to you. I may highlight a few. I know you've had the presentation and the report. So I know that you you've had the opportunity to look at that. So these are your big factors. So for budget development and adoption um obviously it's um you have your um at the budget adoption process. One of the things we look at is does the board have all the information and is it transparent? uh so that they can make the best decision with the knowledge they have. And what we see in a lot of these some of the the items we look at are the documentation. It doesn't

246mean the documentation is bad uh but it could have more information and having to rely on what's presented to you at a meeting uh and not given out in in very clear information. Uh that's one of the things we will highlight as a deficiency. Um some of the things that that are um that I want to point out, one of them would be like fiscal details of staffing changes um from estimated actuals to adopted budget for the multi-year. Um there might be a statement that okay, it changed this much, but there's nothing in the documentation when we read it as an outside entity that tells us okay, but what happened? Why? Why? Doesn't mean that it wasn't legitimate. it just that there's not an explanation so that you can make decisions going forward. Uh the

247fiscal impact of the reconfiguration and merger of schools was one that you recently had and it's just it's not super clear in the documentation. Doesn't mean that you did anything wrong. It doesn't mean that you know there's something missing. It's but all of that information may have been supplied to you in a presentation much like this. Um, but having all of that in your documentation is just it's a best practice that we recommend uh for school districts. Um, again, and I know that the district um was already starting to work on this, but had really not gotten a lot of traction uh much before we started when much before our visit, I'm sorry. Um, and that's position control. And I'll I know there's a slide later on position control. I know the district's working hard

248at at reconciling that. We we saw a lot of that when we were visited, but at that time for budget for budget development, it was not in place. And so having not having a formal process to reconcile position control and use it in the budget process is is a big one. Um and yes um that we saw evidence of that changing over time but at budget development it wasn't present for monitoring and updates. You can see the notices on the screen. Um again it's similar to um the budget documents for budget development. It's just having all that information clearly spelled out so that as a board you can look at it and say do I have every bit of information I need to make the decision. Uh you may have most of it and again

249it's not a question of hiding information. It's just it's a matter of making it clear and available. Um I'm not telling you anything you don't know. not addressing the deteriorating fund balance, ongoing deficit spending. There have been um statements or um letters from the county superintendent repeatedly requiring the district to come up with some solution. And at the time of our visit for this report, there that had not been satisfied. So, they're looking at wanting at that time wanting a fiscal stabilization plan. And I know you've done some things since then um but at the time it had not been addressed. Cash management we talked about uh cash flow uh projections are critical. Uh you don't want to run out of cash. Uh again that's that's the big trigger. Uh a lot is happening between

250now and then but cash is the big trigger. Um the we did get an o uh an update on the cash flow projections in October, but while it showed um some changes, it didn't show how you were going to address the cash shortfalls in the outyear. So that was one of the even though we did get an updated one at that time by first interim, you know, that changes again. So and we already talked about collective bargaining agreements. um you know the that they have statements that reductions need to be made in order to make it affordable over the term and they haven't been made. Uh deficit spending we've talked about already and you know the constant deficit spending is just eroding the general fund. So you already had your audit in the last item

251that you didn't meet the 3%. So all of this is it it's this um this big circle that's happening. All these things one begets the other begets the other uh fund balance and reserve for economic uncertainties. Again uh these are just reiterating the same numbers. Uh general fund for the current year. Again all of these things are connected. They're the they seem like they're the same things over and over again because they are and all of them are connected. So, um, looking at past documentation as one-time funds were expiring, um, we didn't see where there were remaining one-time funds. What are you doing with them? What's happening? How are you going to plan for the expiration of those funds? Certainly not alone. Lots of districts out there struggled with all of those one-time funds and

252how to move past those. Um, one thing we did notice is the district does not consistently charge full indirect cost to each restricted resource. It's not a popular thing. It's it's nobody loves charging programs, but there's a cost to doing business and um charging them all the same and full indirect cost actually helps the district uh support the the the administrative functions that have to happen in order for them to be there. Um the the one I usually call on because it hits people most is payroll. You know, um there's a cost to processing payroll. It's not sexy, but it's a cost. Um, and so by charging those out to all the restricted resources and other funds at the levels that you're allowed to charge, it helps support that, which then frees up money in

253your general fund, which then, you know, so you can see the circular thing again for multi-year projections. Um, again, a lot of the documentation just didn't have a lot of detail on step and column percentages. Um there was not a clear explan explanation of what the fiscal stabilization plan was going to look like through the MYP or the multi-year projection, sorry. Um so those are pieces. Again, this was at budget adoption, not necessarily today, but at budget adoption. And we have not looked at your financials today, so I I don't know that either. But um I just want to keep reminding you as if you're thinking, hey, we just did something last meeting. Again, it's not taken into account here. So the 2425 in 2425, so a year ago, you showed a significant structural deficit

254in the general fund and there was no addressing that. So it's just snowballing. um on top of it approving additional ongoing obligations. It it's it's it as if you didn't look at what was happening before you made a decision to take on more more expenses. Uh we talked about position control already. Um there isn't really a formal process for reconciling all that. Not everything is in position control. I the the staff was already they were showing us the the the changes they had made and what they were adding, but at the time that's that wasn't the case. Um, so we've seen that as well. Um, for personnel reports that come to the board, what we didn't see were specific funding sources. It sounds like I was hearing that tonight as you were talking. I didn't

255look at the board documentation, but anytime something's coming for your approval on personnel should have a clear funding source with it. Um, it it sounds like you were talking about that, but at the time when we looked at those board documents, it was not super clear. Um, so interesting that we saw newly created positions that required a new job description come to you for approval. But when there's an addition of full-time equivalent positions to an existing classification, those don't come until after people are hired. So, you don't actually have the opportunity to say, "Gee, are we adding more people? Why are we adding more people?" and you may go ahead and add more people. Um, that's all we can tell from the documentation. Um, there are times and and um, I know I've worked in

256uh, school districts and county offices. There have been times where you've had to say, "No, I I need this person on board long before the next board meeting." Um, but generally there are a lot of conversations long before something like that happens. Uh, job descriptions are made. It's an agreement that yes, we're going to get an FTE. Yes, we're going to approve an FTE for this. And maybe that person is in place before everything is done, but it's pretty rare. The ideal is that you're actually approving that prior to hiring people. So, I talked a little bit about subsequent events. Obviously, you've had your first interim, well on our way at a second interim. uh with a negative certification at first interim. Uh again, we won't be back to do the FH at this point,

257but it it doesn't show any significant change in those multi-year projections at first interim. And in fact, your deficit was increasing again in 27 and 28. I think the most concerning was the cash flow estimates reflected that you would have insufficient cash to make it through the 26 27 school year which seems far away but it's not. Um so again what you've done from them then them to now we have not looked at but that's what we saw for subsequent events. Um really you action by you is what it's going to take to maintain fiscal solveny and keep your local control so that you don't have someone else coming in and telling you how you're going to do things from here on out. Um you need to collaborate with the county. Uh they are a

258resource for you. uh while they are another oversight type uh layer, they're also a resource for you and you've got to address the structural deficit. You've got to monitor cash. Um beyond that, you know, there were a lot of items in the fiscal health risk analysis that are they're all important. They wouldn't be there if they weren't important. Um, but honestly, if you don't have control over your district, fixing some of those is not going you you're not going to get to do that. Somebody else is going to do that for you. So, really focusing on those big issues that I know you've been having a lot of discussions about. Um, I generally include this slide. I I I did absolutely steal it from one of my colleagues because I thought it was great. Um

259so just looking at districts that make a successful turnaround uh versus those that require more severe measures and it's really you know it it's kind of language we hear out there in in everywhere but you know recognizing you have a problem is the first step and not masking the problem but really it's also working collaborating collaboratively with your oversight agencies and taking advantage of their expertise. um you know what we see in districts that require severe measures is this just denying you have a problem resisting scrutiny. So um yeah it doesn't feel good to have an agency like us to come in and tell you hey you've got some deficiencies here. Um it doesn't feel good but what you do with them what you do with the report and the information matters. And you know,

260if you're combative with oversight agencies, and I'm not suggesting that you are, but those are areas where we start seeing, okay, I wonder if this one's coming back from the edge or not. Um, so I do like to throw in that slide. It just helps frame it for everyone. And I did absolutely steal it from one of my colleagues. So, and with that, do you want to make some comments? Sorry. Oh, you want that? Good evening, uh, Mr. President, members of the board, and Superintendent August. Um, my role, I think, tonight is to just emphasize some things. I think you're I'm on a path. I want to ensure that you stay on the right path. Um, my commitment, our commitment to you, um, is to see this through in a positive way. and our commitment

261to you is to do everything we can to avoid the need for you to ask for the state's intervention. While we are the guardians of that process, uh we put 90% of our effort every day in avoiding those situations. And I think Robbie kind of explained that in the prevention piece of it. um your earlier speaker that referred to Englewood's a great example where the process doesn't go well. Uh 13 years later, the state is still in Englewood. Um while they're making absolutely fabulous progress right now, they didn't make progress in the first six years of their receiverhip. And I want to address the issue of takeover. The state doesn't take over districts. you have to ask them to step in. And yes, sometimes you're forced to do that because you've run out of cash.

262So, as Robbie's emphasized cash, as LSE has emphasized cash, Joel, I'm sure with you has emphasized cash, um I need to emphasize cash management here. when you can't when you have insufficient cash on hand to meet payroll or a forecast of that happening because we can't wait for that to happen. So, we forecast if that's going to happen. That's the state's definition of an insolvent school district. A budget that's upside down is not an insolvent school district. It may appear that way to some of you. It may appear that way to your community, but that's going to contribute, especially when it's year after year, which has been your case. you've been frankly unresponsive to your deficits and so they are drawing down your cash and you have some serious cash issues far more serious than

263any other district in the state. I don't understand why you're always out of cash be honest with you now. We haven't done a cash forecast. We haven't been asked to do that. We're happy to do that as a separate scope of work. Um, we will do that. If the county, um, as they work with your team here, uh, believes your cash balance is threatened at a negative, then at some point we will have to do a cash forecast because that leads to that forecast of negative cash. And negative cash again means you don't get you don't have the opportunity to pay your employees. And that's the state's would be the concern by the state. Um, not to be um not to disregard all of your other obligations, but the state doesn't really care if you

264make your bond payments. They don't make care if you make your PG&E payment. Um, but they do care if you don't pay your employees. It's really that simple. And so that becomes the definition. I want to remind you, this is your job. Robbie had a slide in a bullet that said, "You're the first defense. Not the county superintendent, not us, not the state. You are the first defense. That's why you were elected or appointed to these seats. You have a fiduciary duty to the fiscal stability of this district. You have fiduciary duty to your employees. Most importantly, you have fiduciary duty to the kids in this district that you're serving. And the only way to serve them is to be stable and solvent. Uh so I remind you of that this is your duty. It

265is not easy. I have sat in that seat. I've sat in this seat for 30 plus years. Um and unfortunately many of those years I had to guide my boards through very difficult decisions. So I know it's not easy. The conversations you had tonight over skipping criteria, over tiebreaking criteria are not easy conversations to have. I fully appreciate that. I've gone through processes in districts where ultimately I laid off new teachers and senior more senior teachers that were my kids swim coaches that were um teachers my kids had that I think absolutely made a difference for them. Um, I understand that's difficult to do. Thus, it becomes critical that you adopt the plans and you have done that. While they're not not all reflected in your first interim report, we understand that you have made

266progress. So, I plead with you to follow LSE's guidance. I have every confidence in her. We've worked together for a long time. I have every confidence in her guidance that she would give you. Um, you follow that, you implement it with fidelity and not just the board. You must absolutely demand or change the superintendent if they're not implementing it with fidelity. And the team here is not implementing with fidelity. And it's your job to ensure that happens. And if it's not happening, then all due respect to the superintendent that needs to be her last day. All due respect to some other team member that needs to be their last day because the district is at the edge and I think you know that. But you are at the edge. I tell the legislature this. I

267told a group in Palm Springs this afternoon before I jumped on a plane and traveled here. Um that from any day I'm uncertain whether it's the Santa Rosa City Schools or Sacramento City. poor lose has got her hands in both um are first or second in vying for um running out of cash first and being in trouble uh serious trouble first. So you are at the top of the list. Um and thus following through um with the fidelity of your plans by implementing them is absolutely critical. Again, I emphasize cash. It's one thing to balance the budget. Fund balance is important. You adopted a budget with negative fund balance, uh, which has some consequences. Um, uh, but you must ensure that you have cash and you have cash forecasts that are just a couple months

268away with negative cash. What is the plan? I'm not going to put any of you on the spot and ask you what the plan is, but you better know the answer to that. And if you sat here tonight and you don't know what that answer is, I would schedule a special board meeting for with 24 hours notice for tomorrow and get the answer to that. It's that critical because that ultimately is your responsibility. So, if you don't know the answer of how you're going to solve your forecasted negative cash, that is literally days away and you don't solve these overnight. So, if it's in April or May, that is hours away that you have to take action. Literally, I can't emphasize that enough to you. Okay, that last slide that Robbie showed, I don't know

269who she borrowed it from, but it's it's a slide I created. It's my 12step process slide because every 12step process, whether faith-based or not, starts with the same thing, and that is you have to admit you have a problem. I think you understand you have a problem. Um, we're in districts that don't admit they have a problem when they have a very clear problem. I think you have finally got to that point. I think you were in that state of denial before. I'm not convinced you're in that state of denial right now, but I am concerned at the speed at which you're working at and so on. And I know you've got a plan. I understand that. LSE keeps me very informed. Um, but as part of that, your county has some oversight responsibilities, your

270county superintendent. So on that chart, one of the items of characteristics of districts that make um uh uh turnarounds is that they work with their partners, they seek assistance from their partners. Don't be resistant to that. Have clear, regular communication with the county. Be honest. Don't hide things. They are your partner. They do not want to see you fail because they come under scrutiny, too. Because the law would require us to come in if you fail and evaluate why their oversight didn't prevent that. Okay? So, they don't want you to fail irrespective of the law. Dr. Carter and her team do not want you to fail. They are your partner. They are your number one partner. They will bring resources to you if you need it. They've already done that before. They will continue to

271do that. We are available to you. Um other resources are available to you. You must listen to their guidance. You should follow their guidance or give a clear reason and work with them on why you don't believe that's the appropriate guidance. There is a progressive intervention process here that the county is responsible for. They have both the authority and the responsibility and they have um stepped up and begun that process with you. As you know, you have a fiscal adviser assigned to you, Robert Shimwell. Worked with Robert in a number of districts. um consider him very talented and and again somebody a resource from the county you should listen to and work with daily. Um that pro my best way to describe that intervention is you're familiar with MTSS. You referred to it earlier tonight.

272If you look at a map as I did in my Uber coming from Oakland airport tonight uh of the campus here to know where the auditorium was, there's a in big bold letters MTSS office on this campus map. Um it is an MTSS system. It's a multi-ter system of support and we do the same thing that we do that teachers do with kids in the classroom and that is the county is going to provide just the right intervention to turn the corner and get back to tier one best instruction or this case tier one best practice and solveny. And if you don't respond to that intervention through RTI, if you will, um then uh they are going to increase that intervention. Okay. Robert as your fiscal adviser has stay and resend authority over your actions.

273And I will encourage him, I have encouraged him that he must exercise those when you aren't paying attention. So, while he can't vote yes, he can vote no. And his no vote ultimately trumps, probably a bad word, ultimately supersedes your vote. Stay is to put it on ice. Rescend is to undo your vote. So if you take action that is inconsistent with the plan to get to a solvent position, Robert has the authority to stop that action. And I think it's important you know that that's the next step in this is active stopping. Every action you take, he could ultimately stop until you pay attention. Okay, that sounds sounds painful. It is painful. LS and I have talked about that in other districts uh several times. So, please don't get to that point. Um, as

274you work through this, it's important that you hire a permanent hire, a qualified CBO. understand you've got interims this and interim that, but you need to have your eye on that process coming up. Um, uh, that will be crucial to you moving forward. It's not a seat to leave empty. It's not a seat to be part-time. It's a full-time job in the best of circumstances. It's double-time job um, on most days to start with. I appreciate LSE's um, and Joel's presentation on the state budget. Um really the message there that there's some items there of aspiration it's too early to count those dollars but there are some things that you can count and I have every we haven't talked about it but I would expect they have done you need to use the new cola

275I believe that's a floor I think the cola could actually improve a little bit we do do forecasts of the cola we do the outyear forecasts as well Um uh we think it's a little light based on current data, but we're also worried about the honesty and the accuracy of the federal data which drives it to be honest with you. Um so counting that cola is important because the cola at first interim was actually higher. So using the new cola which will lower your revenues um needs to be part of your plan. Um, I would tell you if it makes a difference for you, you should count your share of the 509 million of special ed equalization money. Um, that is not a item that anybody's going to argue about except that it's too low.

276Um, I wouldn't count anything else. Um, I wouldn't count the block grant. I would not count the $99, I think is the number Joel put up there, which I'm familiar with, of the 5.6 billion. Um, people will sue over that and debate that for months, but the state will do it one way or the other. They're not going to send you that $99. Okay? whether they choose to use the suspension that you guys brought up which is the constitutional way to do this or they use this new process they have identified um those funds aren't coming they are part of the governor's risk mitigation to the outyear revenues and ultimately I believe while I may not agree with the the mechanics of what they're doing I agree that they need to provide that risk mitigation

277and what that does for us is it means that our core programs will be safe. So new things growth in things may may not be come about but that our core programs that we have today will be safe because they mitigated some of that risk. Um, Robbie highlighted multiple times position control. I know you're making progress with it. Um, but it's critical. I say this all the time. Um, we have a lot of controls over purchasing, right? Takes 20 signatures to use title one money to buy a dozen number two yellow pencils with erasers that cost $2.19 a dozen. The title one person must be in the audience. I I think that was them laughing. Um but 85% of your budget is spent on people or thereabouts. And without position control, you have no control

278over that. So your controls are frankly misguided. They're in the wrong spot when you ignore position control. It is critical. It answers lots of questions. Um, and not only to have it, but to have it influence your budget. The last thing I think I want to say, and then I want to make sure that you, why I'm here, that we have the chance to talk about the receiverhip process if you want to. Um, I don't think you get there. I'm that's the goal, but I think it is important you also understand it. So, how do you respond to the report that we just delivered? Um, Robbie highlighted in her presentation the highest risk areas. You have problems through all 20 risk areas. She highlighted those with the highest scores. Focus there. Balance though your time

279and effort and balance the time of your staff and consultants time and effort between making process improvements and policy improvements which is what that report highlights that deficits in and deficiencies in. Balance that with the time to solve your immediate issues. Okay? If you spend all your time being able to say, "We checked off all the recommendations or all the concerns in the report, you'll be ignoring the most critical things and you're going to run out of cash." These will help you on the long term. So, balance that both again your energy and the energy of the folks you will task with doing that. Um, otherwise, you're going to kill everybody and we're not going to make progress. You're going to kill yourselves and not make progress. Let's briefly talk about receiverhip. Receiverhip. Sorry. Sorry,

280I have to interrupt you for a moment. Can I get a motion to extend the meeting? >> Oh, I'll move to extend till, drum roll, please. 11:30. >> Second. >> I moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trustee P. Uh, any opposed? Right. We have one opposition. Uh, that motion passes. 51 with Trusty McN absent. Please continue. >> Thank you. The this the process starts and I've already alluded to this. I'll be very quick about it in um given the time. The process starts with that cash forecast. Again, you can't wait till payroll hits and you find out you have no cash. We have to forecast that point because it takes time um to address it. You then have to make a decision. Can you do this on your own? What are you going to do

281to solve the cash problem? Or do you need to turn to the state to give you a I'm going to call it a loan because that mentally starts to make what it what it appears to most people. It's actually not a loan. The state has no constitutional authority to loan you money. What it is is it is a emergency advance on what the state owes you in the future. They're going to advance that payment to you is what they're going to do in cash so that you can pay your bills in exchange. They're going to charge you interest. I was absolutely determined to retire before we had a district go into receiverhip. Um, so it wasn't on my watch, but that unfortunately happened last June 27th with Plymouth Unified School District going into receiverhip. The

282interest rate in law is over 6%. Plumis has some unique characteristics, but while they have approval for 20 million, they've only will probably need about eight and a half. It is because of their unique characteristics, it will take them 30 years to pay that back. The payments on 8.5 million will be over 18 million. It's a very expensive process. Plus, you're going to be paying somebody to run the district that is not the superintendent. I'll get to that in a second. You're going to be paying us to oversee the process and to do reviews on an annual basis. It's very expensive. Those are funds that need to be spent on your kids, not on anybody else. This is an adult problem. You need to solve it as adults. Once you ask for assistance, the legislature

283would act on that. We will guide that process um through with them. Um and the day they act on it, you lose your authority to govern this district. You're locally elected, so the state doesn't have the authority to remove you. County civil grand jury can remove you, um but the state cannot remove you from your seats. But they can take your authority to govern the district away and the superintendent is dismissed that day. And then we go through a process with the county superintendent for them to for us to identify and vet somebody that will come in and run the district. Um, and the county superintendent makes that appointment. So your authority in essence is shifted to the county superintendent and then we would help her identify the party to run the district. They will

284be faced with making the same decisions you're faced with. It's better for you to make those decisions as tough as they are because it won't be somebody that has connections to this community. It won't be somebody that lives here, right? It'll be an expert. And for those of you that may be familiar with federal bankruptcy protection, it pro it follows that same the person put in place to make those decisions just looks like a federal bankruptcy trustee and a federal bankruptcy judge where it just takes one person to make every decision. Okay? And as I've already said, it is expensive. So with those comments, Mr. president and board. Um, thank you for the the time to do that. I'm happy, Robbie's happy to answer any questions you may have. Um, you've got somebody that I

285think is working with you that I think is absolutely the very best. Please listen to her. Um, you need to do your job. You need to question her. um and all those good things, but please carefully consider the advice she gives you and follow it unless you have a good reason not to um because that will make a difference. Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Before I bring it for questions, I just want to say very clearly that we absolutely recognize that we have a problem. Um, I believe that loose being here in that position is us recognizing we have a problem and intending to do something about it. Uh, and a lot of the conversations we're going to have after this is very much about the details of that. Um, I heard one thing

286in your comments that stood out to me because I very much don't want us to turn down any help that we can get or ask for. And so, Loose, I wanted to ask you, um, I heard about a further cash flow analysis that FICMAT could be asked to provide us. Um, is that something that we would want to right now jump on? Um, where are you at with that? >> All right. You can't hear me? Um, yes, we're actually working with FICMAT. Now, I think the target date is for end of January. We um we hired Figmat to help us with the cash flow projections for the other funds that we were going to rely on to ensure that our general fund is in place. And so, we've already got that in place. Um, and

287yes, we can certainly um use the support of FICMAT to do the general fund as well. >> Thank you. I I never want to >> sorry I just for many districts frankly don't do cash flow casts for the other funds but you're in a position where you are absolutely dependent on the cash availability in those other funds. There are legal restrictions on that borrowing. There are timing restrictions and amount percentage restrictions. So nailing that down for you becomes so much more important than it does for many other districts. Right. Um and so that's why the focus was the other funds. So the non-general funds um your child development funds, your food service funds, uh your capital funds, various capital funds, some of which we would never recommend you borrow from. Um uh but um but

288nailing that number down is critical for you because it becomes uh the technical term is it's an alternative liquidity source um to your general fund. I'll add one more piece. We actually had Figma support us with that. Figma supported us with the general fund forecast. I believe that was started with third interim and so we had that support and so it was a natural to then ask for additional support this way and so we're we're definitely good partners in that way >> and and the period for this report was the development of the 2526 >> the adoption your adoption >> the adoption so the development adoption so that was June of 20 in that budget did things like adding a position control position. Um the partnership that we executed with SCO that included Fikmat's interventions.

289Uh the work of the finance committee including reviewing our audit process. All of those things came after that. How long if we were to use this report as a baseline for us to then go back and reassess ourselves with this report? How long do we have how long should we wait to be able to do that assessment to kind of quantify that? >> Sure. >> You and your staff are the best judge of that. If you believe you've accomplished it, then um sit down and have an honest do an honest evaluation and a report, you know, have staff report back to you that this is where we're at. Um and and so on. Um, I think we've tried to highlight and Robbie certainly verbally has highlighted those things we know about because we saw some

290evidence or in our interviews we heard people refer to it so we knew there was there was something started. You want to get across the finish line with each of those items though, right? And so position control is critical. Um, I honestly don't know how you go approach a layoff process without position control. So, I'm a little concerned about that because that, as you know, is right before you in a matter of days. Um, uh, so, and you certainly can't do an accurate budget development for next year without position control. That's one of our criticisms already of last year's process and historical process for you. So, I think you just task your superintendent with for each of those items. um giving you a report. Um maybe it can be you know that's your your choice

291obviously as a board maybe it can be a written report as opposed to taking time but if but an account some accountability for what you approved in the direction you gave. So I think we obviously have no interest in delay in that. I I know you're already talking about a plan. Can you advise us as to what when that is happening? >> Uh yes. So, it'll be a part of our conversation on Monday the 2nd, the 2nd at our finance committee meeting. Um, the I I will note the there are probably two items that are at the top of my list, although I recognize I'm saying this for the first time. I haven't discussed this with with the superintendent yet, but position control is at the top of my list and the budget monitoring piece

292is at the top of my list. So those are for me the two where I want to see us develop the plan on how we're going to get those nos to yes. Um the the the question on the timing of when do we reassess. I think part of the re reassessment process is not that we've done it but we've done it and it's sticking right like I would rather take two steps forward and know that they're going to stick than try to go half a mile forward. those two steps matter and they have to stick. >> Um, and I would say that the timing wise, I like doing it over the summer. The summertime it slows down just a little bit. We can do it over the summer, do the reassessment, and then every every

293I'm saying every summer, so every summer you're redoing the assessment to see where we land, and then you're picking the next two priorities that you're focusing on for the next 12 months. But that way you're always keeping yourself um you're holding yourself accountable with what is happening and not happening within the system. And is it the best practice since we now have this baseline of this report for us to consider in policy making sure that we are doing that reassessment each summer each year or is it more of a practice that uh that and I say this in part because looking at the fmat report was is it in policy is it written down is it something that's that's clearly transparent is that the type of process that we'd want to consider saying we're doing

294this every summer >> we And you can certainly develop it as a policy. You could also just develop it as expectation. Right? So for the CBO, this is part of the work they do. Part of the evaluation is every year over the summer we're going to reassess ourselves and then determine what are the priorities for the next 12 months so that we're on a continuous improvement plan. >> And then and one other question on best practice. So I'm going to have opportunity for my colleagues obviously ask some questions but the comments made on the labor agreements that was I read it not as a criticism of the recognition of what our labor partners needed but of us not actually following through on the cuts that were identified um as being needed to fund those agreements

295at the time they were passed. Is it a best practice to require that the cuts are actually identified at the time that the agreements are passed? Is that the type of thing that we would should look at for policy so that when those come forward, we are we are requiring that it so I'll just be blunt. It's the law since 2004 in AB 2756. You have government code and education code that sets requirements. Um, it's also morally wrong in my opinion to bifurcate your decision to approve a tenative agreement and not address how you fund it. Um, kicking the can down the road on the second question for 4 months means that your community, your your employees and their association that you negotiated in good faith with um, isn't informed about the impacts of that

296agreement. And that's what the the what's commonly referred to as AB1200 disclosure. Um but there are state forms that you fill out. You approve those. Um in our report, um we noted that you approved them without the superintendent and the CBO signing them. Although when they were ultimately submitted, they were signed. But the se those two signatures in the law are critical to tell you to tell your community to tell your partners to tell the county superintendent that this is affordable by your two leading experts. And so, um, those missing signatures are a big deal to us, um, because it tells us that they may not have been behind this deal, um, but they signed it after the fact, maybe reluctantly, maybe under pressure. Um, we council CBOS all the time who don't sign those

297because they truly don't believe it's affordable. Um, most of the time the council is dust off your resume and move on because you know then while I appreciate your position the board your employer may simply disagree. We don't have an issue at all as an organization or phil philosophically um with whatever decision you make in the tenative agreement. I personally believe our teachers are grossly underpaid. So giving them a 10% raise is fine, but you better know what that's going to cost you. And there's no evidence in your process that you know that ahead of time. We call that a presettlement analysis. It's highlighted in the report. And when you do the disclosure, it's the not just the front pages of the disclosure which talk about the costs, but it's the back pages. And I

298think it's section is it GH and I or J? I don't hold me to that, but somewhere in that those sections of that same disclosure document is how you're going to pay the bill. What are you going to cut to pay the bill? And when you separate those decisions, you create absolute havoc. Um, and it's just not fair to anybody. So, just put the two decisions together like the law requires. That's the whole point of the disclosure. And even on those forms, those schedules in the back, you there's a spot I think still to put the resolution number that you passed to make the cut. So in part, we're operating from a place where most of us were not present for most of that. But I say it from us hearing this from you and

299being able to internalize it as individuals for us moving forward is different than us articulating in structural policy change to make sure it never happens again. >> Yeah. >> Even if we're not sitting here, is there is there a best practice that we could do to make it so that it's not an arbitrary decision of who's here that separates those two things? But we're really clear that this district will always make those decisions together. >> I I'm not a huge believer in saying you should adopt policy that is word for word what the statute says. But if you feel like you need to do that, then adopt board policy that and uh reference those statutes and just state it's the board's responsibility to ensure that disclosure form is fully complete, all sections are complete. You

300know, this could be a fourline, five line policy basically, right? with a reference to the statutory requirements. >> So, I'm gonna now turn over to my colleagues for questions, but again, I just want to reiterate, we have a problem. >> Yeah. >> And the medicine is really not going to taste good. But I appreciate you being here to support us and everything your organization's done over the last several months, um, even before it was official that you were supporting us to support us through this. So, uh, Trustee Kirby, if you have your questions ready, I'll turn to you as chair of finance. Ah, thanks for that. Um, yes, we have a problem. Um, I don't want to, uh, let me I'm going read from your list here. I don't want to sound like I'm resisting

301scrutiny or that I'm res being competitive with oversight agencies. I'll lead with that. Um, a lot of us being new to the board, uh, and not having dealt with Big Matt. I I just had and I'm kind of sometimes I get into minutia and they'll all tell you about that, but I just want to know a little bit about the process that you went through because I I obviously I hope we never have to go through this again. But you guys were here for three to four days. Is that correct? and a team of how many people? >> So, we were on site, I believe, for three days and then we did a day of followup uh the week after uh for people that weren't available and we needed some more time with some others.

302Um, one person we spent a lot of time with was Joel. He was extremely helpful and had a lot of information and the time we had with him while we were here, we just needed more time with him. So, some of it was like makeup because people weren't available and other times just so we could get a little bit more time with staff. Um, so that was the process >> and and uh normally do you send I saw you send five people I believe it was. Is that normal? Do you send >> So we or less? Normally um we are two and we had four. The reason we had four in this particular case is we had two and I call them newbies. Um that we wanted to get some exposure to the process. Um

303but it's not uncommon sometimes for us to have three just depending on workload and everything. Mike can speak better to workload assignments, but in this specific case, we had two people that were newer that we wanted them to have exposure uh to the process. >> Oh, that's great. >> I I want to take a step back why we maybe only here did you say three or four days? Three days with a day of follow-up. we first so this process and and just so we're clear this is on this tool one of many tools is on our web page you can use it as a self assessment so in your conversation here that you just had about following up the tools there the 138 questions are there it gives you the list of the documents you

304need to answer each question and there's a crosswalk between question and documents and um and kind of decision. So the tool is used as a self- assessment tool for many uh our experience is most people aren't really honest about their own work. Um so the scores are a little better, a little lower when they do a self assessment. But so that's first we make a document request that's more than 100 documents. Oh yeah. >> And these guys responded to all that. They uploaded all those documents into our system before our team got here. They reviewed all those documents. They kind of already had answers to many of the 138 yes or no questions, but they used the interview process to affirm things. And we are big on triangulation of data. So we want to see

305evidence and we want to hear somebody multiple people describe to us that's how it happens so that there's affirmation that and we didn't just hear it from one person or see it on one report. So it's a process that starts with those documents, review of the documents, interviews to affirm things or confirm or learn more and then there's a whole set of analysis that comes usually four or five days of writing or review and then writing those short snippets because we only write to the no answers in this using this tool. Now we write 700page reports in other cases, right? Um but in this tool we only write to um the no answers. Okay. So that's the that's a little bit bigger proc of of the description of the process not limited to a couple

306days. >> No, I appreciate that. And I I noticed that the questions are are weighted towards no. You basically have to prove a yes. Like it each question could >> you could have nine of the 10 things on the one question. If you don't make 10 out of 10, then it's a no. >> It's a no. And in this tool, the 20 sections each have their own weight as to risk and each individual question has a weight within the section. We don't disclose the weight. Those calculations are done in the background. Um, and then just so you know, we review this tool annually. We do an item analysis. We sit down with our staff. We just recently did this. We spend hours at it. Um to ensure consistency. Are we asking the right question? Are

307we getting the answer we're looking for that really identifies what the risk is? So there's some calibration of the tool on an ongoing annual basis for us. Um and the tool is specifically referred to in the ED code. uh it is the um in 42127.6 it speaks to that part it speaks to the the thicknat indicators in the tool. Okay, thanks for that background information. I just I kind of wanted to know about more about that. Um yeah, I took a lot of the notes here. you know, position control. I remember that coming up in multiple of our meets when we first got on the board that we were also surprised that, you know, how that wasn't being uh utilized, I guess, in the district. Um but, um boy, I I've got a lot to

308uh chew on here for the uh subcommittee meeting on uh Monday. So, um anyway, that's all I got. to trust you. >> Really, really, really want to thank you for your time this evening and um the expertise brought to the table. um the the historical value of the lived experience and doing what you do and ultimately trying to save districts from themselves um from positions that they were put in. Like the position we are in is a problem. It's a real problem. None of us are denying that. And it's a problem that we took 10 to 15 years to get into. This didn't just happen overnight. Uh we cannot just fix this overnight, but all seven of the members of this board are fully committed to repairing this and repairing in a way that's sustainable.

309Um we owe that to our staff. We owe that to our community. And as each and every one of us, including you, have said, we owe it to our students. And not just today's students or yesterday's students, but tomorrow's students. if we want a viable, productive community available for students tomorrow. Um, my question and it may be more Lisa to you or to lose at this point, have we opened every door and ask for the help that's available? because I'm hearing a lot of help's available and we're right up against it and I just want to make sure that every door has been opened and every ask has been asked and we are not relinquishing or hoping we're going to figure it out. Um, but that we've got some experts stepping in to help us

310ask the right questions and look at the right angles um to ensure our community the path we're on is true. I would say that we have worked through our relationships with SCO, reaching out regularly with updates on where we are and I know loose can speak to her interactions and support with Sarah. I have meetings individually with Amy. We've had some meetings with the four of us. You know, Joel and team work regularly with them. Um, you know, we have Felicia who supports us directly over there as well. I think that we can come together as a team and see if there's any additional support that we can ask for. I think when we look at what our process has been over over the last year, um we definitely have areas where we've brought people

311in to help when we think of our school closure process and bringing in the experts from school services trying to make sure that when we when we don't hold that expertise in internally that we are reaching out for that again the mention of working with SCO with our collaboration with VicNet helping us specifically was incredibly helpful with the cash flow piece on there. There's there's a lot of outreach around that, but I'll I'll let Luc speak to her feelings around that as well because if there's something I'm missing, I'm happy to hear. >> Take it back for me. >> This isn't work. Oh, it is working. There we go. the um I'm going to give an example of cash just because that one is very high priority, right? So before I arrived, we'd already made

312use of Fikmat um to help us with the cash flow projection in the general fund at the point that I then arrived and saw the the cash problems. The we we did a few things. So, one um worked very directly with the county office of ed down to the point of as I developed if you might recall that the the protections of layer for the general fund cache, right? So, there are some of these layers that I don't typically use and stay away from. One of them is fund 13. Um that's a nutrition services fund and contacted the county county saw that they saw this is what I'm thinking. This is what I'm seeing. So they knew the layers of protection that we had um and got confirmation from them on this is appropriate. we

313could do this um all the way down to the the fund 13 one because for for me the child the cafeteria nutrition services fund like that's that's not one we typically touch and the county was kind enough to actually um Sarah reached out to the state to get confirmation from them letting them know this is what we were thinking here was our here was the why and got confirmation from them yes you can do it this way right so that's how closely we worked with the county on cash to ensure that um actually I I revised our slides for the next item a little bit because I want to just remind us of the cash protections. So we were at that point anticipating a $2.1 million problem in the month of June and we were

314able to get ourselves to over $16 million of cash and other funds to be able to ensure that we would have what we need in the general fund. Um so that's I I give that as an example because cash is critical, right? There's a reason we say cash is king. The it's so critical and that's how closely we were able to work with our partners at FICMAT over at the county office of ed to ensure that what we were putting together was going to be appropriate and and keep us we want to regain local control. So, moving forward, as we've experienced tonight in several of our meetings and pretty much every meeting since I took my seat in May 2023, is um the emotions that this is going to bring to the forefront each and

315every meeting. And we love our community. We love the people. We are attempting to humanize this painful situation. But we need true data. We need transparent data. We need accurate data. We need facts laid in front of us so that we can remain resolute and composed and hear the emotions. Each and every one of those concerns is valid. We do not want to lose any position, any teacher, any program, but we can only afford what we can afford. And we need to make cuts surgically to make sense to actually stabilize and right side our budget to move forward. And it's just that's got to stay in the forefront with each and every one of these meetings because they're going to get tougher and tougher. But we have to listen to the expertise data that's being

316brought forward to us. And that data has to be true and accurate so that collectively we have the opportunity to make the right decisions uh to make this work. Trusty Jenkins, thank you very much for the presentation. Thank you very much for Oh gosh, if I get emotional, it'll be the first time tonight. I'm so proud of myself so far. Um, but thank you very much for being so direct. I h I feel like so I've been on the board now for solid year and centers of City Schools does have a history of butterflies, unicorns, and rainbows. Um, so I look at I look at our list and while we don't deny we have a problem currently, we try to resist scrutiny from outsiders, like we we're trying to do those things, but the community

317views us as districts that require severe measures. That's that's what I hear in the community. So part of us, part of our recovery from this is not only doing the hard work financially as a board, but then also getting that message and rebuilding the trust with the community. Um, and I like I personally wish you would have given this spiel a year ago when we were talking about closures and how important it is to make those hard deep cuts one time because the community was saying it and we thought that we made the cuts and then we it like things change, right? And so some of the things that you said that I just want to like continue to yell from the rooftops is that like we have to get the information that's clear with

318all of the pieces so that we can make those informed decisions and that we do have to do things to fidelity and like it's kind of just like basic parenting, right? Like do what you say you're going to do. It's all the systems are all all the same pretty much. Um, but I I just really wanted to say thank you for the directness. Um, and we do have some work to do even in this last slide. Um, and I think it's, you know, it's obviously our responsibility to do as much as humanly possible. Uh, but I hope that like the the district staff hear it loud and clear as well. >> Mr. President, if I can respond to that, I I'm going to be a little crude here and gross. Um, but it's really painful

319to cut off part of your arm. Why do that multiple times? If this is where you need to cut, why why do you cut here and then cut here and then cut here and then cut here? If you have a clear forecast of where you're headed and a target, yours is in the low $40 million range. While you may not need all that now, making those tough decisions and saying when you will implement those, so you spread, you may spread the implementation out, but you make the tough decision. Um, we the two of us in Oakland have talked many times about school closures. Sore subject. I get it. I would go ballistic if my school district closed my local elementary school that my kids went to that my wife taught at for opened and taught

320at for 20ome years um in in that community across the bay. They bring the topic up, then they don't act on it out of reaction to the community and they say, "We're not going to do anything." And then a year later, they bring the topic up and they go through the same and repeat and they hold this they they basically hold this dark cloud over the community that whole time. It never really goes away. And it's the same thing. Some of the things I heard folks make, I haven't looked at your fiscal stabilization plan in detail. Um, but some of the, you know, folks that came and testify, I I get it completely. They're delivering great services to kids. Um, tough decisions, but you've got to follow through with them. And, you know, just doing

321it a little at a time is repeating that very painful action each time. Um so uh your action to implement a plan um with an implementation schedule but your decision to do that all upfront is actually very helpful and it is a clear path for everybody to know right you're being very transparent about it then this is what we're going to do this is what we'll do we made the decision now this is what we're going to though implement this year this is what we'll implement next year this is what we'll implement the third year Now, if you can really afford to wait, see, on your budget, you may be able to afford to do that. On cash, I I am again, I'm not sure you can afford to delay things um on cash. Um

322you are perpetually out of cash, and that troubles me because there aren't really districts in the state that are perpetually out of cash. Um, I there's something here and it gets a little bit I'm going to say this. I'm going to use a word that I probably shouldn't use. Don't. So, I probably should not use it. Um, it it it's this deal with the county treasur that advances your property taxes almost seemingly to you. um is a bit of a cover up to whatever the real problem is of why you need a cash advance on your property taxes literally every month. I I I'm it's a it's a red flag to me and because we haven't delved in deep on we we did last spring a little bit to to help kind of get over

323an immediate hurdle but somewhere we need to answer that question. Why are you perpetually out of cash? Um because you're almost getting into a cycle where you're borrowing to pay off borrowing. And guys, that that's forget the state's definition of insolveny. That's insolveny. Uh for for anybody else, that would be insolveny. Okay. So, um I appreciate those comments, but you're you're right. It's very Why keep repeating it? Um >> and and let me go back to a comment made earlier when the state budget item was being presented and the idea that you know after the the state adopts its budget code already requires you within 45 days if you make revisions as a result of that to disclose those to your community. Um there may be more money after June 30th. There could be a

324couple billion dollar block grant that's proposed in the governor. It's five if it's straight P2 ADA allocation equal amount per kid uh per per ADA. Um it's around $515 a kid. Uh the legislature will weigh in. They don't like straight P2 ADA. They want to factor in unduplicated counts and things like that into it. Uh the governor's proposal though, you'll see on Monday the allocation method um would expect it to be straight um straight P28A like this year's grant was. But that doesn't mean you bring back a position because guys, that position is a recurring expense and that block grant is a one-time revenue source. So, you're going to put yourself in, you made the difficult decision to eliminate a service, eliminate or reduce a service, particular kind of service, and then you turn around

325a couple months later and restore it, but you've only restore it for a matter of a year or a few months and you're back at making the same decision again. I I think through that very carefully. I mean for frankly for your own sanity and the community sanity, your employee sanity, um the start and stop of service, you know, can be difficult. I think that's an excellent place for us to end as we move to the next item. I do want to state for everyone to remember that hold on one second. I do want to state for everyone to remember that as a part of that um we are board that has also now adopted a 10% reserve policy and specifically to address the fact that 3% is less than two weeks of payroll. >>

326That's right. >> And so a part of the cash flow problem is quite simply we do not have reserve funds to cover payroll. So um I'm going to go to trusty medina. I'm going to hold us to three more minutes on this item. We I want to remind everyone we do not have a legal ability to extend this meeting past 11:30 because we've extended it once um and we must get through the rest of these items. So, Trusty Medina and then we'll move the move the agenda. >> Thank you. Um I hope you can hear me. Um a few things. First of all, Mr. Fine, thank you for your presentation and all your insight. I believe I've learned so much just from you speaking today. Um there's a lot of things that have come up

327aside from my stress right now. Um I think first off I I just need to highlight that loose I think from the get-go has highlighted the cash flow issue. Um I think one thing that you mentioned right now that to me is um important to know is this idea that we have an issue with the county borrowing. Ever since I've been on the board, it's always been that that's what we do. And for me, it's oh, that's just the way things are supposed to happen is what was the understanding. So, this is very insightful in that sense. Um, I think the other concern that you brought up is the issue with our bargaining agreements and always having like um things that will need to happen in the future, which I think all of our one-time

328funds kind of delayed those actions and everybody knew we were going to have these cuts coming at some point. Um, but we never did them because of those onetime funds. And and I think my concern is in those agreements based on what you've stated is that I feel like maybe these things should have been flagged when our bargaining agreements went to the county superintendent and I'm worried that they weren't. Like I feel like as a board member I wish they would have been as as as he mentioned. Um it's something that shouldn't happen in law. So, so I I think this is a learning for for me having been on the board the longest. Um, the issue of position control. Um, I I know that's something that was highlighted by Superintendent Morales when she first

329started and she's like, "How do you guys not have that?" And um I I am curious if maybe staff could address um how because I know after the bringing up a position control, we developed the the staffing matrices which were then used in the conversations for school closures and I'm curious to know how those staffing matrices are related with the idea of position control and then also just for future I would like to get a better understanding on what position control means and how we do that and how we implement that because it sounds like something that's very necessary for us to do. Um, and yeah, I think I'll leave it with that question. press once. >> Okay, there you go. Gotta be patient. The with position control, the the district has taken some some

330steps to to get control over the positions. I would say it's I would describe it as a work in progress. Um, and this is one of those um this is one of those concepts where I'm going to push on progress over perfection. We eventually need to get to perfection. what I describe as perfection. It's when the budget office, payroll, and HR can complete each other's sentences for every position we have. Right? That's how tight we should be working together. We should be able to complete each other's position, complete each other's um sentences. We're not there yet. Um the the is just time timeliness of this. Um I think it was just yesterday or maybe it was today I sent off an email to some of the folks on the team to say hey given the

331results of what the FH given some of the questions that I've had as hiccups in trying to get to our our budget solutions um how about we meet and we start figuring out our standard operating procedures. Right? That's that's a key part of having position control is a written document that says for every new position here's what we're going to do and how we're going to do it for a replacement of a position here's what we're going to do and how we're going to do it and those three units HR uh budget and payroll should be meeting regularly right so at one I would say where we are about now it's going to be more like every two weeks eventually down the line as we as we refine refine ourselves and and get better at

332this. It can be once a month. During budget development, we're back to every week and so it will vary, but we're we're we will say it's it's we're we're far from perfect on it. We've got we've got quite a bit of work to do on position control. A key plus for us is we now have a position that's dedicated to position control. Uh but we do have work to do to get the the control on the position part solid. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you very much for the presentation. >> All right. Before we move on to 4E, I'd like to ask the board's consent to clear some action items where I am believe we may not have a bunch of discussion. Um, so suspending the agenda, if we can get an immediate motion

333item 4 C, the acceptance of the independent audit report. >> Moved by Trusty PR, seconded by Trusty Jenkins. Roll call vote, please. >> Trusty P. >> Trusty Jenkins. >> Trusty Dory. President Casten. >> Hi, >> Trusty Medina Storm. >> Hi. >> Yeah, >> Trusty Medina. >> I that passes unanimously. Suspending the agenda. Moving to item five, board policy subcommittee. Do any board members have questions or discussion on this? Can we move to action? Have a motion? Moved by Trusty Pra, seconded by Trusty Jenkins. Roll call vote, please. Trusty Pra. Hi, >> Trusty Jenkins. Hi, Trusty Ker. Uh, Trusty Deator, Trusty Medina. >> I, >> President Casten, >> I. That motion passes unanimously. I'm going to move to item G6, public hearing regarding California School Employees Association Chapter 75, Sunshine Proposals for contract openers with San

334Rosa City School District for 2627. Uh, opening the public hearing. Do we have any cards? >> We do not have any cards. >> All right. Seeing no cards, I'm going to close the public hearing. We'll move to item G7. Uh board members, I believe we've all had an opportunity to review the uh materials. Uh are there any questions for staff or can we move straight to a motion? Moved by Trusty Pra, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Trusty Kirby. Uh just to mix it up a little bit there. Uh with that roll call vote, please. >> Trusty Pra, Trusty Kirby, >> Trusty Jenkins, >> Trusty Deator, >> Trusty Medina, >> I. >> President Casten, >> I that motion is approved unanimously. We'll now move back to item 4E and uh we will likely extend this conversation to

335the end of our time. Okay. Um, thank you so much. The team's joining us up here. One quick question. Am I able am I allowed to add a slide to the deck that's already posted? just label it as new and we'll reupload it. >> Okay, I'm going to go ahead and just add it into the slide deck um that's going to be presented. It's on the cache piece and so I just thought it's pertinent. Got it. Thank you. Okay. Um as we get the slide deck up, um just want to make a couple of opening comments. One, fiscal solveny is not an option. It's a requirement. We we have to do it no matter how painful it is and it will be painful. It it's not an option for us. It's a requirement. Um we

336are on track. I'm not losing sleep over us being on track. We are on track. This is now when the big decisions are going to be coming. So tonight's discussion, next board meeting is action. And so that really is where we will be asking the board to to show that we can we can take care of ourselves and we can take care of our district on our own. Go to the next slide please. Um going to give a little bit of context just I guess we had quite a bit of context so maybe I'll go a little fast here but I think the context is really really important for us. So as of first interim, we self-certified as negative. Right? That was our judgment of ourselves. It didn't take an outside entity to tell us

337we were negative. We self-certified as negative. With a negative self-cert self-certification, we are noting that we're not going to be able to meet our financial obligations in the current year or next. Right? So that's what's our most important financial obligation. cash flow, >> payroll, right? Payroll is our more important most important financial obligation. The and what we saw was if we maintain the status quo, if we do nothing, we saw where we were going to end up, right? So that's why we we sort of self-certified ourselves as negative because we hadn't take the taken the action yet that needed to be considered. Um, at that point, I just want to be really clear. So, we have a negative ending fund balance that we're solving for and we have a negative cash in June that we've

338been solving for. And that requires us, we have to fix our structural deficit in order to take care of cash, in order to restore reserves and maintain them. And so, that's what we're aiming to do. If you can go to the next slide for me, you can see there that bottom row shows us that we have a structural deficit. We take everything that comes in minus everything that goes out. We have a structural deficit and that deficit is maintained over the three years. You go to the next slide for me. I want you to see that bottom line again. That was our negative ending fund balance from 21 million minus to - 34 to -49. That minus 49.3 is what we've been solving for. Right? So, we heard the importance of take care of the

339problem. Don't chop off bits at a time. If you know you need to cut the arm off, you're cutting the arm off. And so, that's what we're doing is we're solving for that $49.3 million problem. Go to the next slide for me, please. This is our cash, right? And just to connect the dots, our structural deficit led to an ending a negative ending fund balance which then leads to our negative cash right here at the end of this at the end of this fiscal year. So at June, we were projecting a minus $2 million um cash balance at the end of June. If you go to the next slide, I can't even look at it for very long um because that's how bad the cash situation would end up if we didn't take action. Right?

340So, I want to be really clear. It assumes the status quo. It assumes we do nothing. We know we're not going to do nothing. We're going to take the actions that we need to take. Um if you can go to the next slide for me, the this is where I wanted just a little refresher, right? That question came up of like and what are you going to do if you don't have enough cash? We came up with a plan. Our our whole the negative ending cash as a first interim was minus two million. We were unsatisfied with we were dissatisfied with it being just solutions for the 2 million. We identified over $16 million worth of solutions for us to lean into to avoid insolveny to avoid an emergency loan or a portionment. So next,

341as we're thinking about context and we're thinking about solutions, you can see we spend most of our dollars on people. We're in education. It takes people to educate others. And so that is where we spend most of our dollars. And so yes, we will impact people who are currently employed by having to solve the problem that we have to solve. So fiscal solveny is not an option, it's a requirement. And this is what it's going to take for us to ensure that we can regain local control. You can go to the next slide for me, please. So here's a summary of just high level of where where we are with our solutions that are coming before the board for action next next two weeks. The ongoing solutions total 15.8 million. They will address the structural

342deficit. They will restore our unrestricted reserves and they will help restore cash. These are critical ones and these are the ones that hurt the most. These are the ones we're going to feel. These are the ones where we have services and programs today that we're not going to have next year. The one-time budget solutions total 19.9 million. They do not address that structural deficit. They will help us restore our unrestricted reserves. And you know the as I you've heard me all say the the hole is real and the hole is big. um and they'll have varied impacts on on cash balances. There is additional information um just for I know you know this but for the audience there's additional information for each of the budget solutions that's included as part of the packet. And so

343earlier we had a question like can we see a table? Absolutely. The tables are in the board packet. There's one for the one time and a second one for the ongoing with additional details and um information regarding each item. Let's go over the ongoing solutions first. Back in December, you already approved 1.9 million. After reviewing the restructuring and the redu reduction to the district office, we've identified additional clerical support that we can reduce. And so that's a new item that's that was added to the district office um batch of solutions about 90 $92,000. We are also we've got a batch of solutions that are about reducing the district office based support staffing that's provided to the school sites. I I don't want to sugarcoat this and I don't want to trivialize this like this is

344significant. It is going to be a significant difference between from the way we're able to serve and support kids today to what we would be able to do next year. I don't want that to get lost in the conversation. I don't want to minimize it. It is significant. Um, and it's especially hard to think about those changes when we're living in a time where what feels like a federal government intentionally terrorizing certain populations of us, right? So, we have that happening and here we have support and services that we need to adjust because we can't otherwise afford it. That said, we recognize that and so staff has been working very hard at figuring out what can we do to mitigate those impacts. We recognize a need is still there. It's not going away, but we

345have and we have to be able to to rely on ourselves to be fiscally solvent. And so there there you are, Stacy. I can um Stacey's been working hard with her team to figure out what are some of those spaces and places we can lean into so that we're not just relying on ourselves but we can rely on others for supports. >> Um so thank you. I have to recognize and I know that this has been repeated over and over tonight. um these proposed reductions are going to impact and reduce our ability to provide service on campus in a substantial way. So just like what Miss Casaris was saying, we are not minimizing, we are recognizing the impact of this in order to um help mitigate this. We are looking at strengthening our community partnerships

346because that is one thing that we do have and we have established relationships. We're working with some of our community partners and this is not an exhaustive list but just to name a few. Keystone therapy services side by side TLC and umad. These are programs that already currently have relationships and working partnerships on our campuses and with our students and we are going to continue to work with them. Many of these services can also utilize the CYBHI um billing reimbursement program on our behalf. They are providing the services for our students. they are processing through CYBHI to support the work that they are doing with our students in our in our community. Additionally, we are going to continue to have CAPE services. CAPE uh likes to prioritize prevention and crisis intervention in addition to risk

347assessment. They already have weekly services that are being provided on many of our secondary campuses. So again this is an already established relationship and for the emergency services we have a very healthy partnership with in response. So those are the emergency risk assessments that can be done. This is not in any way a proposal that says that this is sufficient. We recognize that this is a reduction of what we are currently able to provide and we are looking for ways through ongoing partnerships with other behavioral health programs to amplify those partnerships to help us get through the lean times. some additional >> actually if we could take a m can we trade mics here please >> thank you for that all right the some other less c less I'm going to skip that one I'm

348going to go to the next one um we're also making some significant changes to school site staffing it includes includes changes to special education programming. It would include the elimination of co-eing at our middle schools and high schools and the elimination of mild to moderate special day class in elementary schools. And so those are significant changes to our special education programming. There's another batch of solutions that's about tightening our staffing. So we we have formulas that we use to allocate staffing, general education staffing to our schools and we are proposing to adjust them at the high schools um for what we call free seats at the middle schools and high schools for students who are on IEPs who aren't taking general education classes all day. Um and then at the elementary schools for TK23 making

349some adjustments there as well to align with our collective bargaining agreement. Um I know there was a question raised about the potential loss of income if we weren't at 24 to1. The the concern is that we would lose it if we're not at 24 to one based on on law and legislation. That is accurate and incomplete. And so it's accurate in that we do want to be at 24 to1 and that's where the state has incentivized us. They have allowed us though an option of you're either at 24 to1 or you have collectively bargained something different. And so that's a safety net that most school districts in the state of California negotiated into their collective bargaining agreements when when these rules came about when they if you recall we were originally like 25 years ago

350we were at 20 to1 and then the bottom fell out of the market we went to the great recession and then we all went to like 30 to1 and then the state started to incentivize us to go back to 24 to1 20 to1's been lost right like that's no one remembers 21 anymore I'm aging myself the but it is I just want to be clear like it's it was they were correct but it was incomplete. There's this other part of it that allows us to do this without losing any dollars and so we didn't consider the loss of income because that wouldn't apply to us. There's also an adjustment to the formula for vice principles um that we have proposed as part of our ongoing solutions. Um, one item that didn't make it to to

351this list is actually uh it's included as part of the the the special education adjustments is we would be reducing um some costs of contracts for our non non-public agencies um for PAR professionals. And so that's another savings that also plays into the ongoing solutions from the adjustments that we're proposing for special education. Go to the next slide for me. We'll start with the one-time solutions. Uh these total 19.9 million and these are going to help us restore that negative $40 million plus that we saw. That's what we've been solving for. One of the strategies we're using is to maximize the use of restricted resources. And so what I always tell folks here like a dollar is worth a dollar, but we always prefer a dollar with no strings. So, if I have a choice,

352I'm going to prefer one with no strings attached that I can to decide what to do with versus a dollar that has strings attached where someone else has determined what we're supposed to do. So, this idea of maximizing the use of our restricted resources means you're spending that restricted dollar first. And what we've what we've identified are some opportunities to use those restricted dollars first. So, we have some existing fund balances from prior years that have accumulated that we're interrogating as to how do I make the best use of this and we have identified $12.8 million. Um, I will I want to note this so that we all get the right. The hole is real and the hole is big. Right? That's what I keep saying. The for solutions to cash flow in the general

353fund, I had to go and look at a lot of other funds for potential solutions. I've not had to typically do that. Same thing, same practice for finding those prior year ending fund balances. I'm usually just looking within the general fund at our restricted balances. I had to go look at other funds to find balances, right? That's the condition we're in. That's the problem we're trying to solve for. And so, we've identified some um I've talked to our auditors about the big ticket items already and they're they actually had a better idea than I did on on how to solve for some of it. And so we are in the process now of writing up our proposals to give to the auditors to say this is what we're planning on doing. It's better to get

354permission than well it's I know that's the opposite of what we usually say but our auditors right they're they're our friend they're the friend who always um corrects our grammar and so we just want them to make sure that we're we're going along together with this and so we will be preparing those in writing for them to say yay too. Um, we're also looking at current year awards and seeing what opportunities might we might have there to shift expenditures. I I'll note um in working with with Rodri and team, there's $700,000 in um our supplemental funds that we were able to stop spending and save. and we are in the process of identifying what we're going to transfer from unrestricted into that $700,000 and that $740,000 and that was all in supplies, materials, and contracts,

355right? So, when you hear folks say you're not cutting enough, we are. We have stopped spending in those areas and they stopped so fast that we're able to identify $740,000 to move into and take advantage of. There's the a big part of this for us are some new dollars that we received in the current year that were one-time 3.6 million of the student support and professional development discretionary block grant and.7 million of the learning recovery emergency block grant. Those are similar to the block grants that are being proposed for next year's budget. And I I don't want this to get lost in translation. What we're proposing to use here is what we have now. So, we were allocating these dollars this year. We've received we received 75% of the cash in October. We're projected to

356receive the other 25% in February. So, this is this year's and we're counting on it. It's in our fund balance already. The portions that are discussed for next year, those we're not relying on. So, we're only relying on what we what we have, what we know. Um, one other one-time solution that we've added is an ask of management and confidential and unre unrepresented employees for two days of to shorten their work year by two days next year. So that's in addition to what's already happened this year. And so that's another one-time solution for us that we get the benefit of. If we think about on the next slide the the total impact of those um we have our ongoing structural solutions that's 15.8 million per year right so it's important to recognize the the benefit

357of that in that it's $15.8 million plus right every year. So across those two years right we'll get the benefit of 31.6 six and avoid the cost of step and column and avoid the cost of health and welfare. Right? Those changes make a world of difference in our MYP. The 19.9 million, it's obviously a bigger number than that 15.8, but it's to help us restore what needs to get restored on a one-time basis in our reserves. the total impact across. So if we think about our my we've got the current year plus the next two we get the benefit of the 15.8 next year plus the 15.8 the year after plus that 19.9. So across these three years it's it's $51.5 million against that $49.3 million problem. Right. So, we're there, right? We've identified the

358solutions that will get you to fiscal solvency. And I know this is hard, and I know this is painful, but we're there. The work has been done. The next significant steps for us, and these steps really do matter, are for us to plan out for you how we report back on the action you take, right? Whether it's through Friday memo, superintendent reports, there's lots of communication vehicles that are available. But that part where we're then reporting back to you the status of the implementation and letting you know that we are implementing and implementing with fidelity because the first step of the really hard work is for staff to come up with the recommendations. The second step is for the board to take action. And the third really hard step is for us to implement and

359to implement with fidelity. And so that's where we can help hold each other accountable to ensure that we're implementing the solutions that staff recommended and the board approved. You can go to the next slide, please. We are in the process of revising our budget for second interim. we're going to start budget development and here are some of the solutions that we're continuing to look at as we're going through this process. So, I guess I what I want you to take away is we're not done. We've got these solutions and we're going to keep at it because maintaining fiscal solveny and regaining local control is of critical importance for the community. One highlight here I want to note is we've um we're going to take an approach that's called zerobased budgeting. It's a modified form for

360our supplies, materials, and contracts. It's an opportunity to really think about what it is we add to the budget. Um, it's no one's favorite way of developing a budget, but it does allow folks to really have to justify and rationalize and provide some data and evidence that supports this is why we need this contract. These are what this is why we need these materials. You go to the next slide. Um, here you have just the next steps we're going to be going through over the next couple of months. um critical ones here, board action um on these budget solutions. On February 11th, we will have then second interim and what the second interim my will include will be all of the budget solutions that we're able to implement on our own, which is most of

361that 19.9 million, as well as what the board approves. And so staff's recommendation will be that you approve the full amount that we've proposed to you on the ongoing solutions and that's what will get incorporated into the my first interim I I was originally not saying this aloud and then I started saying it aloud but I'm I'm aiming for for positive. >> I'm aiming for self-certifying as positive. We can we're on track. We've got the work that needs to get done. we can get it done. I will self-certify positive for for the school district and we'll absolutely fight for that. It is 11:12. So trustees, we're each going to get about four minutes here. So trusty Jenkins and Dator, >> I'm going to hold most of my questions for whenever we come back, but I

362have two specific questions. one with the one-time funds that we're kind of like taking from other places. Are we borrowing that and then have to give it back? >> No, the dollars are ours and we're going to take current year expenditures and transfer them in. >> Beautiful. The second question I have is I tried to write it down so I got this I can say it clearly. Um, with the secondary admin ratios changing, I don't think that I personally understand how it works currently. So, it's going to be a long question, but stop me and fix whatever I'm missing. Okay. So, personally, I I really struggle with this um specifically because of the 7 to2 model with two programs on one campus. But my question is um blah blah blah I can so I can

363see this being successful if there was one program at each cost at each campus. Um but that's not the case for the 712s. Um the admin on those sites are spread so thin as it is and we like I don't think that we can possibly ask more of them if the middle programs went back to the middle blah blah. I'll talk talk to you guys about that later. My question is um so so my understanding of the ratio currently is that say we had with the one to 500 say we have a thousand students at one school they would have two VPs so far so good oh no sorry you're correct two VPs so it' be a principal and two VPs I thought you meant two total >> I got Um, I'm hearing that currently

364we are not adding another VP until it gets over,500, which means that the ratio currently could hold at 1 to 7 and 749. Is that technically correct? >> That's technically correct. I'm gonna move to Taylor if >> I just want to make sure that >> because if that's the case and we're asking to increase that to 1 to 700, that means that a campus with a thousand students would not get a second VP until they had more than a 1,399 students. And if that's correct, then the the ratio it just it just doesn't make sense to me. So if if we do want to move forward with the 1 to 700, it to me it seems like it should be the other way around. Like once we're at 700, we get a second one 7001,

365we get a second one. So that was I just wanted to clarify what we're doing now and the impacts of the 1 to 700 going if when this is approved. Actually, Dr. Z, what I'm going to say just to make sure we each get a chance to say something in the next 15 minutes, um, is let's put these out there and make sure they're in a very detailed way responded to in writing to each of us. Um, cuz anything you say is not actually going to help me understand all that math. So, we'll we'll go in that direction. Uh, Trusty Da and then Kirby. So, ask my questions and get a written response. >> Unless it's a really quick one, we'll expect our responses in writing. So, some of these might be quick. Um, first

366off, are we charging who we can charge? >> Are we charging who we can charge? Um, >> Michael had mentioned something like there might be some things we're not charging fees for. Are we charging who we can charge? >> Yes. So, a couple things. the one um indirect cost rate is not charged to all of our restricted resources. That is absolutely something that's on our list of things to do during budget development. Um there's also possibly opportunity to look at um other grants, specifically ELOP. It's our afterchool support dollars. We've not been charging them for some of the things that we can charge them. And so that's on the list of maximizing um the restricted resources solutions specifically looking at um ELOP to see how do we charge them for utilities custodians and custodian uh

367custodial supplies. >> Um the student support professional development block discretionary block grant. Um, are we using that fidelity if we're cutting so many of those positions or requesting to reduce so many of those positions? That kind of doesn't add up in my mind. >> Which grant? >> The student support and professional develop discretionary block grant. Like that's we kind of got that earmarked for a big chunk of money to use. But if so many of those positions to use that grant um we are considering reductions. How does that balance out? >> Right. So, that is some of the new one-time money that we've received this year as part of the budget act that we can counted on. This is one of those pots of dollars where the state is providing it because they recognize that

368we're in declining enrollment and we have need. And so, the way the grant is written is it's for student support, professional development, or anything else. And the anything else that they emphasize is the increasing cost of offering a program. And so that's where we're going to be focusing on those dollars. >> Um this one I'll definitely probably expect a written response, but um I have to also express real concern with how we go about the mild to moderate special ed class um reductions um how those will look differently. So, you can go ahead and send me something in writing, John, or send it to the whole board to have a better understanding of what that might look like because I do agree those are some very vulnerable students. And um maybe that's something we don't

369look at. If we can look at something else, but if we're looking at it the right way, maybe it works. Um, and then my last piece that's just really needs to be said out loud. Something I need to know before I can make a vote in February is as we're looking at these reductions, I need to have a better understanding of the implementation model. How are we going to survive without these positions? How are we going to serve our students with these reductions of such critical positions um that we are obviously all concerned about? I I need to know the how and the implementation if we can truly make a vote in good consciousness. >> Trusty Kirby. Um quickly I'll I'll ask I'll ask more questions on Monday's meeting since will be there also. But

370um I just want to express my also concern to the cabinet just about the uh reduction in the VP uh the VP uh staffing. I I think we need more discussion on that. >> Well, that worked really efficiently. So, I'm going to say my comments and then if we have some time, we can add a couple more in here. Um, first I just want to say that this list of reductions includes people in positions that have been vital for the success, the growth of students and I think it is not overstating to say in many cases the literal survival of some of our students. I think we need to recognize that the impacts of this very likely could be that these supports are not present for someone who needs them in a time of crisis.

371And that's what is going to happen if we don't find a way for the community to find ways to fund and support services that we've been providing that were created in a lot of ways as onetime funds. But I I think I speak on behalf of all of us that these are not good ideas and if we had money or if we even had the ability to raise money, we would not be looking at these. And I want to make sure that everything and everything that we're keeping is of high value um and that that high value is seen in all directions. So, what I'm going to ask you to look at is additional things on the items considered list that I've heard that we might want to consider moving or putting onto the cut

372list when it comes back. Thinking of that from the philosophy of having more funds at this point in time with where the state budget is, um, we don't know what we don't know. when last year we didn't know about $5.5 million in changes to special ed funding that took us from a $12.5 million savings from everything that we did to a $7 million savings and that's a big number and you know we're rectifying some of that with ideas around SULPA and actually having control over that not having outside districts do whatever the heck they were doing last year. Um, and we're looking at it from how we can control the state law and other things how to fix that. But we don't know what we don't know. We do know we don't know that all

373of that though. So, um, I would like to see specifically the elimination of the centralized certificated support, the ISS uh, specialists put back into consideration. And there's a conversation that happens with SRTA and our labor partners around those positions because if those are positions that are not seen as valuable within the um campuses and sites and the teachers, then we should figure out what is valuable and if there's a savings there that can be used in order to support that. So I'd like to see that considered. Um, and then I think that is actually everything that was on here. So I think everything else that I heard about the things that were considered and not moved forward on uh for written followup, it doesn't need to be on this one. Um, we received comments on

374the coordinator position within wellness and engagement concerning status and management around it being a certificate or not certificated position. Um, I think we need clarity on the status of that position. Will it be certificated? Is it resolve the issues that were identified? Um, uh, in order to make sure it's able to support uh, folks that I'm sure I said something complex in there that needs a lot of uh, oh, okay, I'm getting thumbs up. So, I want to make sure that that support is the support that we need. Otherwise, I'd like to see that also considered on the cuts list. Um, that does provide us with six more minutes. So, I will go in for another round. Uh, Trusty Jenkins, did you have anything else? You got two minutes this time. There we go. Um,

375so like my the biggest thing that I have a problem with personally is the safety aspect, right? So, I really echo a lot of what Katherine How said earlier. Safety's always been my big thing just in the life that I am in. But I I see all of these things as great things to to streamline when we're looking at a budget individually, but them combined both in the secondary and the elementary is terrifying because it feels like at what risk? Like how far can we push the system before something goes really wrong? We've seen things go really wrong. We've had huge groups built to make sure that that safety piece doesn't fall through the cracks. And it feels like with what we're producing and taking away um the people who are doing the so much

376of the safety stuff that's that part is really really hard for me to wrap my head around with the increase of um shootings, the all the lovely ice that and so that is sarcasm. Please don't take my words, but the the terrifying ice stuff. Um the safety piece is is really hard for me. The ratios at elementary is really hard for me. Um but everything all at once is just extremely challenging because it doesn't feel safe. just as we are looking at reductions. Um I also want us to keep in mind we've spent a lot of money to get to this point and I'd like to see that money as investments. So it's really hard to see some things on the reduction list that the district spent a great amount of investment into creating such

377as co-eing. We made a huge investment in professional development for co- teaching to work and now it's one of the things that we're considering removing. So as we're going through these just keeping that in mind trying to protect the investments that we put into the district what makes sense and doesn't make sense. Um this is a numbers game and we're trying to continue to do this with some humanity. Um and we don't want the bankruptcy judge to come in and do all numbers for us later down the road. we want to do it correctly. Just keeping those things in mind as we're trying to be presented with these um recommendations so we are making the best decisions possible. Trusty Kirby. Um, just to follow on on what director Jenkins was saying and SRTA and in

378part getting our community partners involved, you know, with the safety aspect. I just want to keep putting it out there. I know we have our MRU with the SRO's and I would love I know we can't afford them, but I want to keep that going, that conversation going to see about getting them back on campus. there's some way we can work that out. I think it would be very very helpful for our community and for the for the schools to help them feel safer on campus. I'll just add that the discussion also needs to now be moving towards not just the impact on our services and on our campuses of these cuts, but we need to recognize that we're the largest mental health service provider in the city and as far as we can tell

379in the county. and that sort of period at the end. There's no caveats there. Um, this week I had a meeting with Chief Kan specifically about discussing what those downstream impacts are going to be. You know, what is the increase of things that we can expect to see in our community as a whole. So, as we're engaging with our community partners, it's not just about engaging with them about what can happen on our campuses, but also starting to contemplate the consequences that we're going to see throughout the community. And you know I am going to reiterate my commitment because a part of this also is is there funding and I don't mean one time is there you know funding that we can identify and we do have four or five things we are working on

380that could come through with that um and specifically in these areas we're talking about community partnerships. So um we need to do what we need to do to be fiscally solvent. A part of that can be revenue, especially if it's other people stepping up in order to take responsibility for things that because we are not just the school system, we're a part of that broader community. Loose, I will give you 60 seconds. >> Next to come action. So, I really invite you ask your questions, send them in, you can give me a call, send me a text message, whatever it is you need to help you feel like you can make the decision on the 11th, I invite you and encourage you to reach out. >> All righty, it is 11:29. I am going to

381adjourn us. Thank you all.