001We're good. I'm going to call the June 11th, 2025 meeting of the Santa Rosa Board of Education to order. We're going to move to public comment on closed agenda items. Our closed agenda today has these items. Student readmissions, student expulsions, conference with legal counsel existing litigation, conference with legal counsel anticipated litigation, public employee discipline, dismissal release, conference with labor negotiator and public employee performance and valuation. Do we have any com public comment cards? There are no public comments. All right, there are no public comments. We'll go ahead and recess to close session. I'll reconvene the June 11th, 2025 meeting of the Santa Rosa Board of Education. We can all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I'll ask Dr. Lucelena Perez to do our territorial land acknowledgement. And if everyone can still stand, I'm going to
002read it first in Spanish in honor of my proud immigrant heritage. Territorial 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 contributing to learn 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 Schools more accountable to the needs of the American, Indian, and indigenous peoples. Report of actions taken in close session. The board took action on readmissions for case number 202425-10. The board voted to not remit a student and extend by one semester. For case
0032022 23-10, the board voted for readmission. And for case 2022 23-31, the board voted for readmission. Each of those was unanimous. for items considered in closed session for action in open session. We'll start with expulsion case 2425-21. And if I can get a motion. I move to approve the U expulsion of case uh 2024- sorry 20 2425-21. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Roll call, please. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Deator. I. Trusty Jenkins. Hi, Vice President Casten. I for case 2425-33. I'll open to a motion. Move to accept the expulsion for case 20 202425-33. Second move and seconded. Roll call, please. Trusty Kirby. Hi. Trusty Deator. Hi. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Vice President Casten. Hi. That will take us to statements of abstension. Are there any abstensions for tonight's agenda? Seeing none, we'll move to special
004presentation uh for 2024 2025 San Rosa City School retirees. Vice President Cast, there's uh adjustments to the agenda. Not on my agenda. It's not on there. Sorry about that. It's okay. It's uh it is actually missing on the paper. We're just missing six. So, let me get over to the electronic one. Uh we will take up adjustments to the agenda. Any adjustments? Trusty Jenkins. No, me. Uh let's see. I'd like to pull F1, F5, F 17, and 18. Any other adjustments to the agenda? All right, with that now we'll move on to item seven, which is our special presentation for 202425 San Rosa City School retirees. Uh, Superintendent Miss August, members of the board, and members of the audience that are here with us, those listening online, um, it is my honor to recognize those
005that um, those staff members that have been able to retire over the course of this last school year. Um, I do have to say on a personal note, I'm extremely jealous that they get to retire, but um, we're going to honor them nonetheless. And, um, this year, over the course of the 2425 school year, we have had 52 retirees. Of those 52 retirees, they represent over a thousand years, 1,083 years of service to our students, our staff, and our community. So, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you for their dedication, their passion, and their service, and would like to acknowledge them each by name. Although um not everybody RSVPd that they would be here tonight, I think it's very important that each of them still be recognized by name whether they are here or
006not. If you are here, I'd like to ask that when you hear your name, you come down to receive your certificate and then please stay down here with us so that we can take a group picture at the end. Okay. The list um is alphabetical by first name. So the first person on the list is Adele John's Deal, Anjanna Hya, Anne Hopkin, Beth Lewis, Brian Deler, Catherine Payne, Cheryl Miller, Chris Bertoy, Dana Alexander, Don Baskin, Dina Costello, Dorothy Burge, Edward Bimbo, Ted Sesh, Frank May, Gustavo Martinez, Heather Hecker, Jacquellyn Crowe, James Sanders, Jan Fryfeld, Jennifer Pickle, Jill Jackson, Karen Gilroy or sorry Gillery, Carl Thmama Nong, Katherine Norris, Kathleen Bassini, Kimber Early coffee mccay Lena Hoyos Berios Lindel Nelson White oh sorry Lindy I'm not wearing my glasses Lorie Clark Lynette Casey Mara Haron Mansanares,
007Matthew Beaton, Michelle Doss, Matthew Beaton is here. Michelle Doss, Mike Ericson, Nikki Winovich, Pamela Whitaker, Paul Fleer, Philip Marshall, Rachel Kerosone, Robin Prince, Rosemary Gueretta, Rosemary Haron, Sandra Dees, Sandra Peterson, Susan Farcus, Susan Figoni, Teresa Swenson, Teresa Gillardoni, Teresa Gucci, Sega Johannes Casa, Sega A Mahari, Victoria Paulina Cerna, Wendy Eberly, and William Emmen. on the ha on behalf of the entire board, I want to congratulate all of our retirees for this year. Thank you for those of you that were able to come in so we could meet you in person and thank you for all of your service to our children over your many years of service. We're going to move on to item D reports and our first report will be from our California School Employee Association San Rosa 75 uh unit. Is anyone
008here? Present. Good evening. I think we'll wait a few minute more minutes for people to leave. Good evening, Vice President um Casten, trustees, interim superintendent August, and everyone here and everyone listening. Congratulations to all our graduates last week. May they enjoy the life and experiences ahead. Tonight we honor our retirees who together represent more than 1,000 years of service. CSEA had 25 of those retirees she just named. Thank you for all of your hard work with our students, their families, and our schools. Enjoy your welldeserved retirement. We started the move. The timelines are shared. Classrooms are being boxed. Libraries emptied. Staff caught in between. And while the timelines look organized on paper, the lived experience is anything but. It's messy. It's painful. And it's real. Everyone is exhausted. This isn't just a facility shift. It's
009a seismic one. And it's happening in real time with real people under real strain. And in the middle of this, just under a 100 classified employees were laid off. People who kept our schools safe, running, fed, open, and supported are now being told, "We appreciate your service, but you are no longer needed. The budget must be cut." But the work didn't disappear. The people did. And while those layoffs happen, at the same time, administrative job descriptions are being revised and reposted with added layers of supervision and salary increases. This is difficult to comprehend, especially for the classified staff, taking on more without recognition, stretched thin without relief. Our teachers are moving with their students and the office staff are being released and their workload is being distributed to those who already have eight hours of
010work. They are being asked to do additional work without additional compensation. We want to be part of the solution, but we're not invited in. The LCAP, the plan for our students, was emailed to us. no discussion, no collaboration, a formality, not a partnership. And yet, we're the ones delivering those student services every day. We are the human infrastructure of this district. The district is facing a $25 million structural deficit with reserves projected at -4.61% 61% this year, dropping further over the next two. When you cut from the bottom while building from the top, you leave the foundation unstable. And for those of us in the middle of this move, classified staff are juggling involuntary transfers, bumping rights, emotions, and uncertainty. And we're being asked to stay resilient in a system that often forgets us. The
011district is moving more than boxes. We are moving histories, identities, school cultures, and uncertainty. Still we show up. Still we care. Still we work. Include us. Not as an afterthought. Not out of obligation, but because we are essential. We always have been. We are not the noise behind the work. We are the work. We keep the district running quietly, daily, without fanfare. And if we're going to rebuild and restructure, then let's do it together from the foundation up with courage and compassion. Thank you. Thank you. Next is our report from the San Jose Teachers Association. President Hal. Yeah, I'm here. Sorry. I just like to keep it, you know, keep it moving. Um, good evening, Vice President Casten, uh, interim superintendent August, members of the board, members of the community. I'm Katherine Howell, SRTA president.
012Um, I want to say congratulations to our retirees tonight. And, um, yes, that number, you heard it for the third time now, 1,083 years of expertise combined in all of our retirees. I'm wishing them all well in the next chapter of their lives. And at the same time, I can't help but wonder if the chaos of the last year. The uh that's that kicked off with the hiring of an unqualified superintendent. We had closures. We've consolidations. Got the 712 model that we're still working on. We had principal pinball and movement of dozens and dozens. And I'll add another dozen educator and staff. I'm wondering if these decisions had been a little less disruptive. Perhaps some of this 1,000 years of expertise wouldn't be leaving right now. Just something to think about. Um, I also want
013to say thank you tonight for all the educators and staff who are back at work again this week in our summer programs that are getting underway. Um, I'm really glad I am not one of them. Uh, not working summer school because I can't imagine rolling back in this week after just a weekend of rest. Um, thank you tonight for approving some of the job descriptions that we've been working on. Uh, the lead teacher job description and department chair job description. Um, not a lot of changes, but some that we thought were important. Um, also the multilingual learner facilitator, job description, and instructional strategy support specialists that were pulled. Thank you, Trusty Jenkins, for a more thorough conversation about those. These are needed positions, but SRTA is really concerned about the large amount of what looks
014like administrative duties that these people are going to be doing while being paid as SRTA members. um some of their some of the things in the job description lean a little towards evaluative which we brought up and so we're still concerned about that. We're also concerned that the way these jobs were addressed is we dismissed our EL specialists, our EL TOSA, and now here they're coming back. Um, these new jobs nearly identical, but those people are in different jobs now, right? They've already been moved. They've already been shuffled. They can apply for them, which will cause more movement and more shuffling and more vacancies and more wondering about where people are working. Same is true for the title one instructional strategy support specialist. Um you know what in order to fund this position there were
015a lot of sitebased title one positions that were unfunded and people moved and people disrupted and communities disrupted once again. So we're wondering how we can possibly come up with a better way to do that. Um, same is applied to the LCAP, right? I want to thank President Layman for her words about the LCAP. It it's, you know, getting it emailed to I got it emailed to me and then was like, "Hey, we we give we're going to give you like two or three days to make some comments on this. There was no real collaboration, barely a consultation." Um, and then all of a sudden there's a bunch of jobs in there that we didn't know were coming that we didn't really have any heads up to. And what they're going to do is replace
016a bunch of people that already lost their jobs. And now we have very nearly identical jobs being created in the LCAP. I know that we have the contract, we have ED code, there's a lot of stuff going on in HR that limits the way we do these things. I also completely understand the need to, you know, restructure and move things into LCAP and positions, but at the same time, I can't help but be upset, angry, um, and just truly truly not okay with the way the counselors, the family engagement facilitators, and other the EL specialists all treated like liabilities and things that just cost money rather than individuals that have expertise, right? A thousand years of expertise are walking out the door and probably about a thousand years of expertise are being relocated to jobs
017they're not experts at so that these new jobs can be created in the LCAP. Even if we'd known a couple months ago that this was a possibility, we could have sat down and planned for ways to keep the qualified people in their positions rather than now these are going to go to, you know, whoever applies, leaving vacancies behind them and in the position of the counselor jobs. Um, some really tough jobs being created in this LCAP. hard interventions with eth and ninth graders. They're going to go to the people that are still remaining on our rehire list. Good counselors, great counselors, but maybe not the counselors that would have wanted those positions, right? So, I don't have a solution, but I have a request that you know, next time you create dozens of jobs in
018the LCAP, maybe give us a heads up so we can talk it through before June 11th. Thanks. Thank you, President Help. We'll move to the superintendent report. Uh, Superintendent August. Thank you. Uh, Vice President Casta next to me here. Okay. Um, well, I wanted to talk about a few things. Um, first I wanted to give a little bit of a recap on um, well actually I'm going to change the order a little bit of my report to first acknowledge and um, recognize the difficulty in this year's LCAP process. um not only the LCAP process, but all of our um prioritization for funding such as title one and you know other issues um with budget and just the delayed beginning of our conversations about that and the compressed timeline that we had to work within and
019I know that that was difficult and uncomfortable and caused a lot of angst and did not happen in the way that we like to work and I know that that was frustrating for our labor partners. But we just want to acknowledge that and that um you know we want to do better um going forward and we don't expect next year to have as many complications as as we had this year. So thank you for your partnership because I know it was a compressed timeline and I know that we had to have some rushed conversations or we started conversations months ago that we weren't able to actually bring closure to until this last week. So thank you So now I will turn to some happier um positive news and that is a recap of some of
020the things that have been going on. Um I'm pleased to um present or discuss the fact that we had a district-wide meeting with leaders and coordinators of some of our signature programs um across the district um last week. Um, we're excited that we're going to have a collective effort to promote all of the amazing opportunities available to students who ch to students whose families choose Santa Rosa City Schools. Uh, by focusing our resources at each site for their areas of specialty and signature programs, we can provide more indepth more depth in programs versus trying to replicate specialized programs across all schools. Some examples, I'm just going to list one from each school site. So, please know there are many more. I'm the early college magnet at Piner High School, art quest at Santa Rosa High,
021IB at Montgomery, sports medicine at Montgomery at sorry, Maria Caro, and public and community health at LC Allen. Again, each school has more than one special offering or CTE concentration. Um, but I wanted to make sure that we mentioned at least one from each. We also um had some great events going on the last few weeks as we were wrapping up the year. I got to attend the STEM STEM symposium at Piner High School which was fabulous. Thank you to our board members who were able to attend that as well. I also had an opportunity to um attend the Slater celebration and it was bittersweet. It was definitely um filled with memories for many people um that were there and want to recognize that. and also it was such a great celebration of the history
022of the school and um just thank you for that lovely event. Um had an opportunity to go to the pride parade which I know is not a school affiliated necessarily event but it was a great um event that day. We had the I was able to attend the Ridgeway and Piner graduation ceremonies um which were fabulous. And lastly, I want to just touch on a fi another finance item which is related to our bonds. So, as we mentioned in May and there was action taken, we are issuing our second series of bonds for measures C and G and there's been as as we know a lot of financial news. I do want to share that we actually came in under the projected interest rates um as compared to what was presented in May and even
023slightly better than what was uh presented um what we're looking at in our pre-pricing call yesterday. What this really amounts to is a savings of approximately a million dollars um for our taxpayers from yesterday's call when we were pre-pricing to what happened today. Um all of our bonds were were sold. So that was great. So, at the elementary district, we have a blended borrowing rate of 4.87%. And at the high school, um, on the high school side, we have a blended borrowing rate of 4.83%. So, issuing $130 million in bonds combined for less than 5% and this market is is good. So, just wanted to give that update. What that will do is it will provide us the cash flow um for our reconfigurations um that that are happening districtwide at our sites um to
024be able to complete projects. So, Thank you for the report. Uh for the board president report, uh I had the opportunity to attend and uh be a part of the Ridgeway and San Jose High School graduation ceremonies. Uh, I have to say that it was a great way to bookmark a day. Great time seeing the students cross the stage. Um, receiving their diplomas and the all the families being excited and it was a reminder of why we're all here. Um, and so I just appreciate everyone that's been a part of helping our students get to that stage and that we were able to have such a great day for so many students across the district. And I want to recognize our retirees and the teachers and the staff um that are continuing on into this
025next year uh and that have helped while not continuing on with us make this transition possible. We've had a lot of people working very hard that have retired or are leaving that put their all in to make the transition that we're going through um possible even though they knew they weren't going to be coming back next year. And I think it's important for us to recognize uh everything that those employees did uh in order to make next year a success for our students as well. So we we've talked a lot about the reconfigurations about the transitions and as we're breaking for summer as we've started the break for summer. I think it's important to recognize that this process of continuous improvement over these last 3 4 months has brought us to a place where we
026are more stable. Are we as stable as we want to be? No. Are we more stable than we were four months ago? Yes. Are we going to be able to do good and great things for our students next year? Yes. Is it going to be as good as great as we want to do the year after? Are we going to continue improving? Yes. We're going to continue improving every single day and every single year, even when we exceed our expectations. And so, I think we all need to recognize the people that have brought us here, that have enabled us to get to this moment. thank them for everything they've done and at the same time recognize that we're going to continue doing better every single day as we move forward. With that, I'm going to
027go ahead and go to any other board members who have reports today. Trusty Deator. Thank you, Vice President Cassen. Um I cannot emphasize enough the gratitude that needs to be expressed to our staff, our teachers, our administrators. Um every piece of the puzzle that has gotten us to today um would not have happened with all the hard work and dedication and support and the relentless um trials and tribulations that we had to go through collectively. Uh so thank you very much. I had the distinct honor to um graduate my son this year. And that was something that was really special and endearing um and something that if any one of you get the chance to do coming up, Jenkins and Casten might be a few more years, but I really um encourage it. The the
028fact that I got to hand my baby um his diploma for all of his hard work and and speak to the graduates of a very unique class. These students from 2025 have literally been through everything the county could throw at them and they made it. Um so to take part in Ridgeway and Maria Curo's graduation ceremonies um was a very beautiful positive thing. to take part in celebrations that ended the year like the Pioneer STEM symposium and spring showcase um and the Slater celebration with my wife who is a Spartan alum and just to walk those halls one more time and have those conversations and celebrate the history and the great things that had happened as we prepare and continue to build the great things that we want to happen um as we go into
029summer. Young minds, do not put those books down. Find books that feed your soul. Find books that you want to open and you want to read. Find opportunities to go outside and live life and find your joy and be involved. Um, just because the academic year is closed doesn't mean your learning stops. And we have this really beautiful unique next 2 and 1/2 months to find ways that you want to learn and grow and thrive. Um, so I just look to our community to stay involved, stay positive, continue to ask those tough questions. Um, I also had a beautiful opportunity to march in the Pride parade this year with several of our student clubs and staff that celebrate Pride Month. Um, and I would like to continue to ask that we have a larger presence
030as a district next year and do it more collaborative collectively. Um, there was a pretty large contingent I marched with through the parade, but I know there were other clubs and groups that had marched in the parade as well. Um, and it's just really important that we continue to show up and represent and be seen and heard so that those conversations can be had. Um, that we're standing behind our resolutions and we're not just signing papers, but that we're showing up and we're being visible. Um, so again, thank you for the opportunities. looking forward to rolling up our sleeves and continue to work through the summer to build these new opportunities for next school year. And we continue to be here to be conduits of information and answer what we can, how we can, and
031ensure that we're looking into the things that are important to our community. Trusty Jenkins, you guys are so good at just talking and looking out. I have everything written down so I stay on topic. I'm not good at that. All right. So, just a report out from the last two weeks. Um, I have attended the last two SCO collaboration meetings. Um, still trying to determine how to report out to the board and public about this. Uh, things that have stood out to me are continued concerns around finances, of course, um, and the next year's cash flow. uh how to best address safety concerns in light of budgetary restraints. Uh looking into safety, security options as an alternative to SRO's uh with the focus on first responders being at the at the forefront. Continued conversations about
032training, implementation, and follow-through for sight staff to ensure that policies and procedures are solid. And then additionally, there's going to be a report out at our next board meeting um from SCO including an in-depth including in-depth survey results to capture decision-making trends, demographics, and more. Uh I attended a training through CSBA on AB2158 uh which is related to ethics. It's required for all trustees um regarding a lot of stuff around conflict of interest. I'm hoping that in an effort of transparency when trustees have a conflict of interest they will be comfortable sharing sharing that they have a conflict when each subject comes up. Um this seems to be this seemed to come up quite a bit during the closures and consolidations but it wasn't clear what the issues were and that could just be me
033as a newbie. Also I attended the Montgomery graduation which was very special and such an honor to be part of. The week prior, I attended Slater's farewell party, which was also lovely. Something that came up while in attendance was that uh the current high school students are looking forward to seeing many of their middle school teachers on a regular basis. It provides a large group of trusted adults of whom have made significant connections to the youth navigating high school and all the nuances of it. Um, yesterday an event popped up in my regular work email regarding the school-based behavioral health interest group. Anybody heard of this? I had not heard of it. Um, and the focus was on a youthled empathy interview report. Um, I'm going to try to get my hands on the slides.
034and we had some representation from San Jose City Schools, uh, but but pretty little considering that we're the largest um district in the county. And this was, excuse me, I missed a whole line in my writing. It happened in Montgomery for the um entire community in partnership between SCO and SCBH, the Sonoma County Behavioral Health. Um, let me see where else I was in here. I was just kind of surprised that we didn't have more representation both uh staff as well as parents or students um since it was for the entire county. A couple takeaways that um that I got from this was to center and the focus was centering student voices around mental health and wellness. Um and the two big takeaways to me were making sure that we have physical spaces for students
035to discuss mental health and wellness um such as wellness centers and then connection with others uh resulting in individuals being seen which provides emotional spaces to speak up and this can be through peers and trusted adults. Today I well today it happened but I'm part of a a trauma transformed group through work and we just launched one that started called principles to practice and our focus this month was on understanding trauma and stress uh the relationship between resources and stressors specifically identifying that stress is important in our everyday lives. Um, however, when stressors and resources are out of whack, it becomes um an overwhelming threat. And so when when stresses stressors and resources are kind of even, it's a manable manageable challenge. Um, but it gets tricky when we don't have the resources to offset
036those. And then in closing, I just wanted to share two quotes that came up today. Um, one is that safety is not the absence of a threat. It is the presence of connection. I thought that was so wonderful. And the other one is that I can't see you until you can see me. Um, just kind of reminding us all to know ourselves so that we can um really connect with others where they're at as well. Thanks, Trusty Kirby. Thank you. Uh just real quickly, um I also had the honor to attend the um Pioneer High School STEM symposium. Really great seeing uh the displays that the students put up. Got to uh ask several of the students about their projects and I got to hear from them. Uh really really uh great program they've got
037going there. Uh I then had the honor of accepting the graduating class of Ridgeway High School. Uh really great seeing uh the big smiles of those students uh come across in front of us. Um and then later in the afternoon got to also attend the Santa Rosa High School graduation. Lot lot more hands to shake there for sure. Um yesterday, uh Wright Construction and uh Director Odin got to uh take a take me on a tour of the new building site at Montgomery. Um really excited about the uh the project going on there. It's coming along really great. Uh got the walls are up. Um ceilings are in. You kind of really see it starting to take shape out there. and uh it's going to be u going to be a really really great um
038space. Uh lastly, I also want to extend my personal thanks to all of our classified and uh certificated uh retirees for their great service over the years. Thanks again. That's all I got. Thank you for that. Uh we'll move on to report six, our school reconfiguration report. Superintendent August Thank you, Vice President Casten. Um, as usual, we are starting um with the discussion of the impact on our teams. So, again, this is a reconfiguration of our entire district. And in our design team meetings, we've been talking about what that looks like and what that means and what it feels like to everyone when they're showing up to new spaces. um and they maybe don't know somebody at that site or their administrator is not there that first day when they show up. So, this is
039some work we've been doing specifically with our SRTA and CSE CSEA partners in the room with our different admin teams and support services. Just talking about what should that welcome back look like when we have classified who start at different times all through the summer. our certificated staff can come and pick up keys on August 1st. And then on the fourth and 5th, we have our administrators who will all be in a leadership launch. And then we have the site days when you know just leading straight up right before school starts. So the 11th when everybody is back on the school sites and that's the day for the principles to have their schoolwide meeting and then the next day for teachers to be undisturbed in their classrooms and things that could maybe be done to
040make those days a little more welcoming for them. So just making sure that that's really the heart of where we're focusing right now um in the later stages. In the meantime, on Friday, we met again with West County Transportation and we're finalizing the details for updates to routes, including the additional bus stop and bus stops and routes for the junior high athletics. So, just making sure that people know that that is at the forefront of conversations and we're on track for that. And also, teachers and staff are busy packing in preparation for moves. Classified staff have been have the opportunity to work extra duty as part of our moving teams. and our other teams, our support teams are are working to support those transitioning to other sites and other spaces within the same site. So,
041as President Layman shared, there's a lot of activity. It seems like it's, you know, all laid out on paper, but there's definitely um that emotional impact across the board. So, just want to be I want to recognize that and and give space for that those feelings and and those experiences. So, Thank you for the report. Before we move on to public comment on non-aggenda and consent items, I just want to make everyone aware that consent item six, approval of contracts bonds, is going to come to us without row one, which is the uh row associated with the Hillard Commtock Middle School TK project. So, that is not a part of item six. If that was going to be your comment. Um, with that, we're going to move on to public comment on non-aggenda items and
042going to alternate between our students and our non- studentents here. So, we're going to start with Liam Glenn and then we're going to go to Jenna Glenn and then we'll have Genevie Bigs. Hello, my name is Hello, my name is Liam Glenn and I just graduated sixth grade from Helen Layman Elementary. I have been going to the Boys and Girls Club for a long time. In fifth grade, I was the youth of the year out of my entire school. This year, I was youth of the year for sports. My favorite part about Boys and Girls Club is that the staff are really nice and they always have fun things to do. I've been very proud to represent my school and will miss the staff at the Boys and Girls Club as I move on to
043middle school. Thank you. Thank you, Liam. Next up is Jenna Glenn, followed by Genevieve Bigs, followed by Michelle Harry. Hello, my name is Jenna Glenn and my two sons, Liam and Logan, have attended the Boys and Girls Club at Helen Layman for many years. Liam, as you heard, just graduated sixth grade and Logan will be starting fifth grade in the fall. My husband and I are very grateful for the Boys and Girls Club as it allows us to be able to work our full-time jobs and not having to find alternative afterchool care that could cost us thousands of dollars a month. As you may know, most parents work 8 to 5:00, and having the security of our children being able to be in the program until 6:00 p.m. takes a lot of stress off of
044us working parents. Our kids are able to get their homework done and get the support they may need, play sports, which is very important to them, and be with their friends and peers in a safe setting. Being able to play with their friends that are not in their class, but same grade, gives them the opportunities to get to know more kids. Tammy, Alyssa, Brian, and Chris, just to name a few, have been so helpful and caring to our boys and our family throughout the years. Having the ability to also have the our children attend their spring break and summer camps really allows our kids to be with their friends and peers. When our kids come home saying, "Guess what my staff taught me today?" really shows how much the staff at the Layman Club care
045about our kids and how they in how influential they are. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll have Genevieve Biggs, followed by Michelle Harry, followed by McKenzie Satan. Hi. Hi. My name is Genevie Figs and I'm from a school called Hidden Valley Elementary. I've been going to Boys and Girls Club for more than 2 years. I've had a lot of experience with this club and all the staff. The staff there are very kind and respectful. They help you a lot when you need it and are always there if you need to ask questions. I like Boys and Girls Club because you can have a lot of fun, make new friends, and learn a lot. Boys and Girls Club is full with kind souls. When I first went to Boys and Girls Club for the first time,
046I was nervous. I didn't know what to do there, but the staff there helped me and were great. This is my speech about why I love Boys and Girls Club. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle Hury, followed by McKenzie Satin, followed by Niels Ericson. Good evening. My name is Michelle Hury. I'm chief operations officer at Boys and Girls Clubs of Sonoma Marin. Uh, and I want to thank you for taking the opportunity to listen to some of our club members and your students today. Um, I've had the opportunity to work in your schools since 2011 uh when I helped uh run the afterchool program at Lincoln. Um, but my story with after school starts long before that. I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee in uh an underfunded title one school. um my family did not have
047a lot of resources and in the fourth grade I got to go to an afterchool program and that program would have come here and talked to you about project-based learning and studentled design teams but all I knew is I got to go after school and have fun and I got to be with my friends and I got to do things that I couldn't do in the classroom and that small opportunity changed my life. Um, from there I got to go to an accelerated magnet school and that school paved the way for me to earn a scholarship to college, the first in my family. After school programs change lives and we love to be a part of your campuses. Um, these are unsettling times and we live in an anxious world where our kids are more
048and more isolated and y'all have many problems to solve, many that you didn't uh have anything to do with making. And um I appreciate your partnership and my ask is that um you let us help. We want to be a part of what makes your schools great and what makes your kids incredible. Um and I appreciate the opportunity to be with you tonight and for many years on your campuses. Thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Uh McKenzie Seatin followed by Niels Ericson followed by Colette Scafani. My name is McKenzie Satan and I go to Hidden Valley Elementary School. I have been going to Boys and Girls Club for over two years. I like Boys and Girls Club because they always provide fun activities, rain or shine. They help me with my homework during power hour. Power
049Hour is when we take an hour of club and do our homework. We even have a soccer league where we travel to different schools and play games. Sometimes we stay at our school for the games, too. But when it is sunny and or hot out, the staff get us wet if we want to. Sometimes at the Boys and Girls Club summer camp, they take us on field trips like the movie theater or skating. The staff give you give us snacks like bread or muffins. The staff are kind, caring, and supportive. I am definitely going to be up with the girls come next year. Thank you for the comment. Nela Ericson, followed by Colette Scapani. Uh, good evening. Um, maybe I've Oh, okay. Um, hi. I'm a a father of two children who will be in
050uh the Santa Rosa High School campus next year and um I have some concerns about the SRO program. Maybe you've already changed your mind about it, but um I'm here to be a voice for the community that entrusts you with the care of our children and the community that holds you responsible for their education and holds you each accountable every day for the well-being and safe return home of every child. Um, I think that the community is deeply worried about the plan uh to introduce armed law enforcement officers into the daily experience of our children uh over the classified staff whose professional training is quite literally to uh to be there for their well-being and to take care of um their their their health in so many ways. Um, this community has already had a
051robust discussion over SRO's and we have tried it. Um, I think our children have already suffered in that trial and I think the community has already rejected it and to be having this conversation again is just uh mind-blowing. Our children do not deserve to be abused in that way again. Um, I hate public speaking by the way. Um, given the research that you must have already done on this topic, um, you must know that the data shows that students of most marginalized groups suffer disproportionately adverse consequences from interacting with abusive people hiding behind a badge that says school resource officer. And I'm left wondering, we're left wondering what could possibly, you think, uh, make you keep you on board with this idea? I can't. It just breaks my understanding of morality to grasp how anyone
052could look at the costs to the children. Um like in Texas where they were tasered on a bus, in Connecticut where a child's image was disseminated by an officer. Um in Spokane someone a child was had their neck knelt on after after George Floyd. Thank you. That's your time. Thank Thank you for your comments. Uh, next up is Colette Scapani. Bonjour. I am Colette Scofani, the French teacher at Santa Rosa High School. This past year, I come before you one more time, maybe next month, too. Not sure. One more time to urge a reconsideration of phasing out the French program at Santa Rosa High for 26 2526. Some of the facts I just want to reiterate a bit. Um I in inherited a situation where the um French tenure French teacher went out on a
053medical leave in November of 2023 and never returned. From that time until when I I was hired in October of 2024, the students had substitute teachers. I was hired with the intent of getting the students to grade level objectives and growing the French program to what it was prior to November of 2023. Everything was going according to plan until midFebruary 25 when we all found out distressingly that the program at the district's insistence was going to be phased out for next year. Imagine my shock at hearing this and my students shock and dismay. We set to work immediately writing letters in support of keeping our program at Santa Rosa High School as it pertains to graduation requirements of two years of a world language. Diversity in the fact of at least having a two language
054program present both Spanish and French and also equity among curricular offerings where students have a choice in either French or Spanish. The board received my students letters at the April board meeting as well as um assistant superintendent of human resources Dr. Vicky Zans. Later that month, you all heard from Isold Gis, my um Santa Rosa High School's world language department chair, Cynthia Coleman, the parent of one of my advanced students as well as myself that night as to the importance of keeping Santa Rosa High School going. And I see my time. It's going. I'm really really hoping I didn't get to talk so I probably will come next month. Didn't get to talk about some of our projects but please consider guys give me a chance. Thank you for your comments. I have no further
055cards for public comment. We'll move on to item F, consent items. Uh do I have a motion for items other than two then five 17 18? I'll move second. Moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Roll call, please. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty De Laator. I. Vice President Casten. I. We'll now move to uh consent item one, approval of absent board members. And Trusty Jenkins, I believe you pulled this for discussion. Yes. I I have no intent of saying no to it. I am I pulled it because um I'm just curious what the parameter is around this and so I thought it would be good to bring it up in a public conversation since it is on our consents at every meeting. Um I Googled it and it said to reference our
056bylaws which I then couldn't find anything specifically in our bylaws. Um and so I just wanted a conversation Uh, Superintendent Augustus, can you give us some context? Yes, I will I will look for the specific bylaw. It may be that we provide some as an information item um in the future as an attachment. Um, but it does have to do with the um earning of the stipend um for board members when they're absent or not related to the education code 35120. Okay. And so it's if it's if they're approved for if it's approved then they would still earn their full stipend. Is that my understanding? I believe so. But I'll add we'll make sure and attach the information um on a subsequent meeting. Perfect. And then maybe this can come up in the um board
057policy subcommittee at some point just because it's you know I like how many can we miss in a year things like that. Um so that's great. So I move to approve F1. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call, please. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Deator. I. Vice President Casten. I. We move on to F5, approval of contracts. Trusty Jenkins. Yes. The only thing that um came up in contracts was in the CTE one. the contract itself had um a typo with the starting year listed as 2024. So, I just wanted to make sure that that did get caught and will be um adjusted. Yes, we will be making that adjustment in the executed agreement. Wonderful. Then I move to approve with the adjustment. Second. It's been moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trusty Kirby.
058Roll call, please. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Kirby. Hi. Trusty Dator Tory. Hi. Vice President Casten. I. We'll move to item 17, approval of job description for title 3 multilingual learner facilitator. Uh again, Trusty Jenkins. Me again. Um yes. So I with new uh my words fail me so often today. with new positions. Um, even though they are funded with specific monies, um, I just felt that it needed to have a little bit more of a conversation before approval. Uh, and comments about especially the second one on I guess it's 18 um, with the title one funds just a conversation around like what is the what's the thought process behind these? Um I know we have the information in the agenda but I I think that it um deserves a conversation. Any objection from member of
059the board for us taking up 17 and 18 together. I see no objections. Uh Dr. Rodrik Castro and Dr. Vicky Zans can join us down here and provide us with some context. All done. Sorry. Is this on? Yeah. So um as you know that based on our fiscal stabilization and restructuring of our uh finances we have over the last couple years had to eliminate the support that we provided at the classrooms in the way of the EL specialists and the TOSA that we're providing um support to our um classrooms actually by supporting um students pull out and push in students um seeing as a long-term solution a way to um both fiscally um be prudent and provide support to our classrooms. We've um derived this these two positions using restricted resources to actually build capacity
060in teachers. Um the title three position actually would focus on um English language development. Um one at the elementary level, one at the secondary level. Of course, we'd love to be able to afford a lot more of these. And the title one instructional support specialist position were we to have we don't even know how many of these we're going to be able to afford but we want to be able to pass this um position and have it ready is another position that's going to be ready to be able to provide general in intervention across the board to um capacity training for teachers also be able to build up their capacity to provide long-term support to the classrooms. And so the main difference in this is switching um the support from providing support directly to students
061to actually building capacity for teachers so that they would be able to do that long term. So that's more of a long-term solution and it also like I said um is more fiscally prudent because it actually uses restricted resources and so then we could separate that completely from the general fund um and it doesn't actually impact our budget so to speak in a way that um we can um balance our budget more readily without having to worry about these these positions. I like that. I like that we're bringing people using other money. Um I'm curious about the title one one specifically. I think that's 18. Um will they have the It sounds like it's a teacher support position. Will they also have the capacity to assist with students? Like I I I understand the need
062for supporting the teachers to increase their capacity but we also have a need to support the students directly. Yes. So nothing is going to stop them from actually modeling and helping an actual student. But the goal of this would not be to be working with students directly on a regular basis because then that actually wouldn't meet the purpose of building the capacity at the site of the teachers because that's what we ultimately want to do. If we have too many students that need intervention, then we actually have to just change our entitled instructional model. So we want to be able to try to build up the capacity and the teachers and we won't have as it is enough of these individuals to just be going around intervening with students. we have too many students that
063would need intervention onetoone. So, it's not a perfect solution by any means. We just want to be able to build as many different options as we can. Um, and this this position is one of those ways that we hopefully be able to build um back support to the the classroom where we had to remove individuals that were previously funded out of the LCAP. And then kind of a process question behind that is you mentioned not sure how many we would be able to afford. So this point in the process would be we're establishing this role and then determine if we can fill those. But this is the first step. Correct. Yes. We at this point we um we believe we could afford probably three at the elementary school level. But that's one of the good
064things when you're um you have a position that's based um with restricted resources based on um how much of the restricted resources we're left with at the end of the year, how much we're allowed to keep with carryover. Then next year we're able to make a projection of how many of these individuals we'd be able to have next year. Hopefully maybe four, maybe five. But we wouldn't um we're not tied to a certain amount because it is a restricted resource. And I want to caution us against talking about how many or budget items. We have a lot of that later. So, let's just stick to the job description. Any other questions from the board? I just have one uh question on the instructional strategy support specialist. And from a personal experience this year, um is
065this the type of position that would intervene if like differentiated instruction was needed for a student with a 504 accommodation? Absolutely. That's that's a good that's a good point. And this is um what when it comes to uh dividing what the community was requesting in the needs assessments for example. These are all um these these two positions are an example of really pulling and this is something was obvious also right that the teachers need additional support with students and in terms of building up their capacity and how to support students that are a couple of grades behind grade level. Yes. So any sort of accommodation differentiation which the differentiation exists on either side of the bell curve. So students that need um support below and students that would need support um above the bell curve
066as well. And from my personal experience this year it took the effort of multiple administrators and things in order to provide the uh differentiation for my son that was needed because teachers from other campuses needed to be contacted and things like that. So, I see this as a cost savings if we're able to move that type of function into a specialist role instead of having a lot of the administrators that went into that 504 work um here. So, I I appreciate this coming forward and hopefully we can fund it. Agreed. Any other questions or comments? Is there a motion? I'll move to approve 17 and 18. Second. All right. Moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trusty Kirby to approve both items 17 and 18 from the consent calendar. Roll call, please. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty
067Kirby. Hi. Trusty Dator Tory. I. Vice President Casten. I. Thank you. All right. We're going to move on to section G, discussion and action items. Uh, our first item is the public hearing for San Rosa City Schools LCAP. This is a public hearing. I'm opening the public hearing. We will receive a presentation from Dr. Rodrik Castro, Dr. Luzena Perez, and Alisa Haley. Mel, I'm going to need help again. I'm I'm logged on. I don't know how to um join. Thank you. Think so. Yeah. Before um I I get started, I think it's important um interim superintendent August stated at the beginning and being the the person that really marshals this work for Ed services, I also wanted to acknowledge the community that we've been through a really difficult year and um it's one that um
068I I like to spend like see the positive side of things. And one of the things that I've noticed is that for myself and for my division, it actually, even though it was miserable in a lot of ways, and I think everybody would acknowledge that it really pushed my team and me to work a lot more closely with the community than we ever had. We actually didn't even get started with this process. I I I counted it up six weeks later than we would have, but we had already been in conversation with the community because of the consolidation and closure process. And it was interesting how we were with back with the people that we were had been speaking to um just a couple of weeks before, if not the week before, because of how
069many conversations we had been in with the community. And it wasn't always um positive, but we were breaking bread with the individuals that we had just recently um seen. And and as a result of that, I think um even though and I do want to apologize to our bargaining partners that we did not get them sit down and were able to actually have like true consultancies with them, I I do feel that we had um in this process more legitimate, meaningful, profound and positive, I think dialogue than I think we've ever had before. we were um able to I think from the central office really um listen and understand from our community better than we ever had before. And I think that's so important because what we did this year as a whole and I
070think um this this LCAP really reflects that is we're doing something that a lot of people may have thought was impossible to do in a number of months. And um I think that it's a reflection of when we work together, we can do virtually impossible things in the service of students. And so I want to thank the community for its patience with us as a district, as a division. And um I feel very positive that we can continue to do great things moving forward. That said, um I want to also thank the two individuals sitting by my side. Um, we I think I affectionately call them El Capitana and Ali Ali CFF over here on the right, but that's just because we have lost our minds at this point. And um, we try to have
071fun with just about anything we can. So, I'm going to go ahead and get started with a very brief um, presentation. Okay. So, what um we're going to be reviewing today is just uh um the revision that we went through um of the LCAP. As you know that we have a three-year LCAP that was approved last year. And the what we're looking at this year is going into the revision for the 2526 school year, which is a result of the meetings that we had with our community. And like I said, I really feel this is a best reflection of what the um community actually asked um for in terms of hearing their voice that we've had before. Um this this revision of course really reflects some really critical adjustments, a complete reset of this district
072both restructured physically and fiscally than I think that it's had probably in a couple of decades. Um and because of that um you see as a result the the difficulties that we went through um complete um restructuring of our um fiscal makeup under re um understanding um what staffing ratios were which hadn't been set before understanding of what was based and what was not. um increase of transparency, alignment between resources and student needs and an increased responsiveness to stakeholders and community. The revision, this overview includes adjustments to schools to consolidations and closures, obviously improved clarity and transparency in resource allocation and the direct response to the input gathered during the input sessions. What you see in the LCAP is the detailed calculations that are now included. Remember, like I said before, we did not have
073staffing ratios actually um set in um Santa Rosa City Schools. And so now we have a clear picture of um how staffing exists across sites and a more equitable distribution of personnel resources based on this restructuring. In terms of the analysis of our expenditures, we have a recalculation. It's comprehensive. A distinction like I mentioned between what is base and what is supplemental. This took um lots and lots of conversations. Um thank you Dr. Pettz, thank you Alisa. Thank you um interim superintendent August and the business services office and executive director Dantos for really re reinventing the way that we do this at Santa Rosa City Schools in a way that hadn't been done before. This took a lot of conversations and then um really having conversations about how we target funds and then align them
074to support certain student groups. From this you see how we shifted things and thought strategically about how things that were previously funded out of the LCAP should be and more um advantageously and more strategically be shifted shifted into strategic resources for examp um restricted resources. And so today you see with those positions for example an example of that we focused a lot on stakeholder engagement. This year was a big year in stakeholder engagement. So, um receiving community input um really was important to us and we really focused on completely revising how we did our received um stakeholder input for our LCAP engagement process and then ongoing engagement that ensured continued alignment with district and community priorities. Now, was the timing right? No, it was awful. Our timing was awful. we everything was compressed and so
075um we could have timed things better but I don't see that we would have to go through such a compressed um timeline ever again because we've done this work this year for the um final passage of the LCAP you will see where the um actual calculations will be finalized and so you'll see an additional analysis and an expl explanation of the material differences and then a potential further review of estimated But um expenditures and other adjustments to final budgets and a budget overview for parents will be in the final version. If you have any questions this point just questions we'll move to the public hearing uh and then we can give comments afterwards. Any questions? All right. Seeing no questions uh this is a public hearing. I don't have any blue cards, but any member
076of the public that does wish to uh give us comment can go ahead and give us their name from the microphone. All right, seeing no one come up, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Are there comments from the board or further discussion on the ELCAP? Trusty Deator. Uh Dr. Castro, I just want to thank you and your team um for this work. As you express, it was not easy. Um there were plenty of ups and downs and hurdles and roadblocks that you guys were faced with and I really want to express my gratitude for where we've gotten to this point. Um I also just want to emphasize and lift up what you had said about collaboration um with our union partners and our staff and teachers and how important it is to ensure
077we're having those conversations to experience that and to have your your boots on the ground and have those face-toface direct interactions. um how much value was in that and what we can do to make that even better as we go into next year and and where we can have those conversations at what key points and and these are not negotiations. These are not to take things away or add things but it's more to have conversation for understanding on why things are needed, why things are needed where or to have better understanding of what's needed where and how we can make that happen. So, I really look forward to continued collaborative efforts throughout the community and our process. Um, and just cannot thank you enough for the efforts that got us to this point and we're
078able to put some final pieces to the puzzle that we're needed as we map out next year comments. I'm just going to add that I appreciate how difficult the LCAP process was, right? We turned our LCAP process into our school consolidation process. Um because that was the the road show was actually supposed to be about the LCAP, but that's not what the community was rallying to talk to us about at the time. And I think the comments that we heard were not exclusively about consolidation when we were going through that process. And what I see in here is almost a broader uh look at what our community is actually looking for in our local control plan because we actually have had broader input than we normally get in the in the LCAP process because it's
079not hiding behind acronyms and bureaucracy. It's raw and we heard what the desires were. And I see a lot of that in here. the um support in the counseling positions, uh supports for academics, athletics, um you know, I I see a lot of things that I think take the uh broader conversation we've had over the last 6 months and recognize that that conversation wasn't just about consolidation, but was also about what we want to fund. And I appreciate that you all distilled that into this process. So, um, I look forward to this coming back to us in at our meeting on the 25th. Oh, and we have one comment from Trusty Jenkins because I forget that the fall stuff was the LCAP and that was when I saw you and Superintendent August so often um,
080and on the front lines. And I think there just the one one bit of feedback going forward when we do the LCAP conversations possibly changing the title of how we are marketing people um so that they will show up because even after attending I don't know I probably attended seven total or eight total between the fall and spring um the acronyms are just a lot and even when we add road show it's still a lot. So if we change if we just we we have to continue to work on changing our wordage even even wordage isn't really a word um verbiage so that um even our students know what we're talking about, right? It's it's hard enough as a as a parent trying to figure out what all the acronyms mean professionally and personally and
081all the different hats that parents wear um to figure out what what we're doing. So, just that feedback to try to to change the the language to grab people um their attention and their input. Yeah, I I appreciate that. And that's um a big learning for me this year because you get stuck in the office sometimes even when you go out of the office you get stuck with that terminology because you're so used to reading it and hearing it and even when you share it with individuals in the community you're like I already mentioned it why are you not understanding it but it's because I'm exposed to it every day and they're not. So that we will make that change. Thank you. We're move on to item two, which is the I'm going to open
082up a public hearing for the LCAP for the Caesar Chavez Language Academy. We'll have Aayita Diaz and Dr. Rodrik Castro presenting. The LCAPS from the uh charters don't um necessarily have um a PowerPoint, but we will speak to them. Yeah. Good evening everyone. Ida Viaz, principal of Cesar Chaveis Language Academy. I'll keep it brief because um this is a revision year of our LCAP. So, we looked and we've been collecting data from our stakeholders throughout the whole year from students to parents to teachers, community members, and I'm happy to um report out that we were a CSI school um you know, so we had comprehensive um support um services and we got extra dollars to be able to move our school forward and in two years we were able to get out of that designation.
083So, we've done a lot of improvements in our academics and social emotional wellness. Um, so we're going to continue working on that. Our one of our big targets in goal two was student wellness with um chronic absenteeism and suspension rates and how kids felt. And so looking at the youth truth survey and panorama, we've made great improvements on that as well. Our target was that by year three we were going to decrease our chronic absenteeism by 10%. We've done it in a year. So kudos to the staff, the teachers, the classified and everyone, the parents and the students that all have worked so hard at our school to um reach academic heights and feel safe and welcome at our school and just creating that environment. So we're going to continue doing that work. Any questions?
084Any questions? Right. This is a we'll do comments after. Uh this is a public hearing. Uh I don't have any blue cards, but a blue card is not required. If you want to speak on this public hearing, right, seeing no one, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Any comments from the board? Trusty Kirby. Um just a question, I guess. Um is it possible just for and Dr. Castro, maybe you can speak to this a little bit. Um for the general public people watching, is it possible to explain briefly the difference between uh the charter school and like our comprehensive schools as far as LCAP differences? How do we as a district control their spending at the charter level? Um I don't know that I would be able to describe very well how to
085how the spending is because um well our spending for two different ways. They're um an they're a dependent charter and so they are they can constitute their own LEA their own district. So it's a combination of the ways that they are funded. In some ways they um actually they are responsible for their own funding and in other ways there's actually a a bill back to the district for shared expenses. Um in terms of the the finite points of that um you'd have to um have somebody from physical services. I believe it's like a 15% bill back to the district for cost of like special education. I don't know if it's transportation and other items, but um that's one of the adjustments actually going into 2526 um that we actually right set that that hadn't necessarily
086been um the way that we had been operating before. Um so it's going to be an adjustment for the charters, all of them moving forward actually next year, but it's it's slightly different um with respect to how we operate in that for the schools that are within our district that are not charters, we fund basically everything. for schools that are charters. Um some of the funding is passed through, we oversee it and we um distribute it to them and other funding um like I said we cover certain costs and then we bill back a percentage um from all the charters. We bill it back and we charge them for it at the end of the year. Um interim superintendent August, I don't know if you want to get into some of the more specifics there.
087I think I'm catching you off guard there. Sorry. I Yeah. Well, before we go too far down this rabbit hole, let me bring us back one step on it and just say when we say they, we actually mean us. We're the board for the charter. Um it's a dependent charter to us. And if we could actually start perhaps uh Quincel Diaz, could you just describe your outreach process with the par the stakeholders that leads to your LCAP presentation? Yeah, and I'm sorry I was only using that distinction to be and for the conver conversational purposes to be able to denote that I was referring to the charter. So, um, just like the district, we do have an allocation our state local control funding that we are allocated per pupil count. So, that's based on our
088um, social economic disadvantaged students and foster youth and so on. So once we get that amount from the state or from the district then we have to go through the same process of gathering data looking at our data um looking at our indicators of our success rates and talking to parents talking to students and teachers and um collecting that data to then inform whether we're going to change our ch you know our LCAP or we're going to revise it or we're going to keep moving forward if it's working. So before Joel goes into more details, Jesse Kirby, does that answer your question or do you have specific financial questions? Um, not specific to CCLA, but yeah, this was more of a general question for all of our charters that Okay. people were asking me, so
089I thought I would Do you feel it's been answered? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any questions on the CCLA LCAP specifically? All right. Then we look forward to seeing you back here at the next meeting. We're going to move to item three, which is our public hearing on the for the Santa Rosa Accelerated Charter School LCAP. I'm going to open the public hearing and have um Daryl Corel and Dr. Rderick Castro presenting. Yes. And um Princip Corel is unable to make it today. So I will providing some highlevel um points on his um the changes in his in the LCAP for um the accelerated charter. Um three differences that you would see in the 2526 charter is increased funding for high need students um the inclusion of IRA assessment data which is new for this year
090and um a strong institutional commitment um to afterchool engagement and enrichment is going to be evident in this new document. um building on prior success and demand. The school continues to perform at an extremely high level, but it's a um not going to be a very complicated um LCAP and that they have somewhere in the area of about 100 students. All right, this is well before we go to the public hearing. Any questions on the presentation? Seeing none, this public hearing. I have no blue cards. Would anyone like to speak on this item? Being none, I'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Uh any comments on the Santa Rosa uh accelerated charter school LCAP? All right, we'll move to item four, public hearing for Santa Rosa Charter School for the Arts LCAP. I'm going
091to open a public hearing. We have Sarah Emperado and Dr. Rodri Castro presenting. Thank you. Good evening, Vice President. um Nick Custom and interim superintendent Lisa August. I'm very proud to put forth our um LCAP. Again, just like uh CCLA, this is our second year, so there are very few revisions. However, um this year, we've actually been designated as a recipient of Title One funds. And so, because of that, we were able to um partially fund our um an instructional assistant. So, that's one of the changes we were able to make for this year through that funding pot. Um and the the rest of it we are continuing with our ability to fund our um small group work specific for interventions and work with our VAPA program in order to promote learning through arts integration.
092Thank you. Any questions? Trusty Jenkins. when a charter goes from um not title one to title one, what are the impacts um to like did your LCAP increase quite a bit? Are you getting additional funding? So, we were previously not allocated um title funding and now we are. So, it was a a very small increase, but it did it does help us to allocate funds for our um our homeless, our um our English learners, and our foster youth. And so, it's a little extra to dive into that as well. Any other questions? Right. This is a public hearing. I don't have any blue cards. Does anyone want to speak on this item? Seeing no one speak on this item, we'll go and close the public hearing. Any comments? No comments from the board. So, we'll
093see you at our next meeting. Move to item five, public hearing for San Rosa French American Charter School, LCAP. We'll open the public hearing. We're going to receive a presentation from Evelyn Anderson and Dr. Roderick Castro. Good evening, Vice President Casten, interm president uh superintendent uh August and board members and community. I am Evelyn Anderson and I'm the principal of the Santa Rosa French American Charter School. And at our school, we're really proud of the work that our staff and students do to continue growing um in our program. And um this is a continuation of our LCAP. And um we haven't seen a lot of need for big changes because when we look at our outcomes um you know, we really feel pretty good about what we what we're doing. Um, for example, you know,
094it takes time, we've noticed, for the students to really click into what they're able to um present on CASPs testing, for example, because their l their education is primarily in French. So, even the math, they're being asked word problems in English, and it takes time for that to sort of catch on. So, we really look at our sixth graders. And in 2024, for example, our ever EEL students, the sixth graders who had some time in their educational career been designated as English language learners, 91% of them were um met or exceeded standard on the CASP in 2024. And then in addition, 100% of our sixth graders passed the French proficiency exam, proving that they also were proficient in French. And so all of that we feel really reflects that what we're doing is working and
095it's of course the hard work of our teachers in the classroom and ah uh so we were ATSI um stat in ATSI status but in 2024 we were success we successfully exited that status and that is primarily because we cut our uh chronic absenteeism in And of course that leads to more learning time, better outcomes, all good. So we're going to keep working on that attendance. Um, also and as you'll see in the LCAP, we also just are looking at social emotional supports and continuing to support our students in every way. Thank you. Any questions from the board? All right. This is a public hearing. I don't have any blue cards. Does anyone wish to rise to speak on this item? Seeing none, we'll go ahead and close the public hearing. Any comments from the
096board? Thank you, Principal Anderson. We're now going to move to item six, which is our public hearing for the San Jose City Schools 2526 proposed budget. This is a public hearing, so I'm going to open the public hearing and we'll receive a presentation from Superintendent Lisa August and Executive Director Joel Dontos. It will take me just a second to get to the slideshow here. Thank you, President Casten, members of the board, and our Santa Rosa City Schools community here in person and online with us. Want to just Here's our list of items we're going to cover tonight. There aren't a lot of changes between third, interim, and budget because the the governor and legislature are still working through their negotiations. So, we'll hit just on the highlights of any updates that have been made or
097things that we expect to come down the pike. Again, just where we are right now, we're on the LCAP and budget adoption. This is really the hearing piece of it. At the next meeting, the um budget and LCAP will come to the board for action. Just a reminder that all of the assumptions used are the in the development are those included in the governor's May revision and the budget does have to get to the governor by June 15th. So that's the legislature. They did just adopt their budget proposal and now the negotiations begin and then the final budget deal between the governor and the legislature has to happen by June 30th. After that is signed into law. we have 45 days to bring back an update to the board. So, in at the August meeting,
098we'll be providing an update on the actual um impact to Santa Rosa City Schools based on the adopted budget. And so, specifically, this slide should look familiar. It's one that was included in the third interim. Uh what I will share is that the information um that was contained in the legislaturator's proposal today there are some differences. So they do um include the 2.3 cola. So that is kind of a done deal. We expect that it's going to be the case. The learning recovery education block grant um that actually does look like it is um the same. So, we do have a projection of about $2 million in that area. That's a very likely that is restricted to specific um purposes and you have to have completed a needs assessment which we have already done. So,
099that's a good sign there. Um that will certainly help us to achieve some educational goals and um again all of these are subject to change as they start moving things from other places. So, it's why we didn't want to actually we don't plan to put these into the budget when we bring it back for adoption be because we really want to make sure that we're waiting to count our chickens. So, uh let's see here. The discretionary block grant is in here. Um in our projections based on the governor's proposal, it would be an additional 3.7 million. Based on the legislaturator's proposal, it's 500 million. sorry, 1.7 billion um at the state level to 500 million. So that's um we'd be looking at maybe a million dollars there. Um that is discretionary, so that um would
100definitely be or discretionary within reason. Uh so that would help to offset some of those um costs that we would see in our unrestricted funds. Uh the TK add-on that does look like that would happen. However, it looks like it there's a delay potentially in the implement. No, sorry. The TK add-on looks like it's probably about the same or close um to what's in the governor's proposal. And then the ELOP um the expanded learning opportunities program, which is how we fund the um all of those things we were talking about earlier there, the um inter session and summer school programs. um that there's an increase proposed but there is a delay proposed from the legislature for the implementation of that until January. So we expect it to be somewhere probably about half of what was
101included as a possible here in the yellow is kind of our best guesstimate based on just the information that came out today from the legislaturator's proposal. Could be anywhere from none of this being included all the way up to the 6.2 2, but I'd say that it's likely to be around the, you know, 40 to 50% range of the 6 million. And I will hand it over to Joel from here. Thank you. That was good evening, Vice President Casten, Superintendent Superintendent August, and members of the board. That was uh I thought that was interesting update from legislator. Thank you. Um so now we're looking at what is included in the um 2526 proposed budget uh assumptions and we continue uh the assumptions that we had in third interum in 2425 through 2627 but now with
102this budget we add on the the uh 2728 year. So you can see the assumptions that we use in those out years. We do show a continued decline in enrollment. Um and 3.42% cola 3 years out is tough to uh assume what'll be that in 3.42 now is a pretty healthy cola. Um and then stirs and pers and um cowpers rates. So as part of the 2526 budget includes the 2425 estimated actuals. So we looked at the third interim uh 2425. Um there was some changes that occurred in the areas that don't have any incumbrances or any um strong indicators. Um and some of those were in the supplemental uh a areas and some were in oh and then the other area was in the revenues. So some of our revenues that we don't have
103in encumbrance for we we took in. But all in all the um the the sum to our bottom line difference was about $60,000 for 2425. So we could we if we want to move on to 20 Oh, you're in 256. Okay. So then moving on 2526. Um again very similar to what we looked at at third interim. Um it's about again a $6,000 difference in the beginning balance and then roughly about um you know a a small percentage couple hundred,000 in the ending balance in 2526. And this is the same thing with the uh and if we want to go look at the multi-year projection similar 2627 is looking pretty within a few small percentage points of the third interim but now again we're looking at 2728 added on to this multi-year projections the first
104time we're seeing 2728. So um you can see uh you know we have implemented in 24 or in 2526 fiscal stabilization measures including school consolidation and closures and we're seeing our um operating uh net increase decrease lower this year and even more lower in 26 27 with the additional items that will be um coming in that year with the and school consolidations of the um additional um middle schools and things. And and then in 2728 you see that um um again a healthier decrease in our uh operating deficit because we are starting to see that revenues that are increasing our expenditure decrease. And as we move on in the future years, you know, again, we're hoping that there are some possible uh neighboring district uh charter closures that'll add on to some of our enrollment
105and add additional revenues. Um so those are some of the kind of some of the major things included in our multi-year projection. again um very similar to what we saw in third interim and even back to what we saw in second interim and first interim with some of the farther out projections. Um so again if you you want to take a look at our components of ending fund balance again very similar to what we were looking at at third interim um now with the addition of the 202728 year um and and I do want to add one more item. Um I get a little nervous folks speak so I forgot to start off with this. I meant to start off with this. Um I want to recognize uh Tammy Montero. She's actually on the panel
106right now with us. Um she's our Fickmat partner and uh we collaborated throughout starting in the third intern process. Um we I just was so impressed with her um ability to um communicate complex terms with to me to where I could understand it and and our physical team and um we were able to really dive into um the multi-year projection tool um called projection pro that Tammy that that is the latest and greatest state software. So, I think this is probably the strongest um multi-year projection we've had. Um, it has a student data component that we put our student data in and it um gave helped us project our enrollment and it helped us um project more of our dive deeper into the details of our um of our expenditures in the future years and
107so many more things. Um and again she looked at our current 25 20 24 25 budget with us. Um like I mentioned at third durham, it's a massive budget. So for her to really get into the weeds and really look at those things, it would take a lot more time than we had. But the collaboration we had in our 25 24 25 year was was excellent. I think that you know throughout hashing out back and forth I think she felt really comfortable. Um and and um actually I uh wanted to just say a couple words and just tell her how happy I was. And she's actually on the panel now if she wanted to um you know make any comment or say anything to the board. Tammy, are you there? Yes, I'm here. Yes. Um
108good evening. Thank you for the introduction, Joel. Um I did enjoy working with the staff at Santa Rosa. started with a meeting um with like um it was let's see I think when I met Lisa she was still the CBO and not the superintendent at the time but um we um she kind of gave me some direction. and I met with um Joel and Simona and we tracked out our plan what we wanted to do and they were both very eager to use our proprietary software for multi-year projections called projection pro and they both you know being brand new to it they both just just jumped right in and um did an amazing job and I would say that my purpose in this process was to just kind of be that person that was questioning
109uh Joel along the way okay now tell me a little bit more about this just kind trying to extract out um you know the questions that I think maybe um Sonoma County office might ask or maybe interested members of the public might ask just to be that second set of eyes um for him during this process and and kind of in some ways okay you said that now prove it kind of a thing and he was a great sport and um we did make great progress with um vetting out different assumptions and factors which you've seen on those previous slides he He showed you the enrollment projections and the related um projections because of those enrollment projections and we talked about other other pieces of the budget together. Um again as he mentioned we primarily
110focused on getting your estimated actuals that were part of the third interim together. Um but we did also collaborate on the multi-year projection which the second year of your um multi-year projection at the third interim becomes your 2526 budget. And so there were a lot of things that we discussed in that preparation that led um paved the way for the budget preparation that you're looking at tonight. So again, I want to thank the the Santa Rosa staff for just the willingness to endure my my questions and the willingness and desire to want to get into this software that really does, as Joel said, it gives such a greater visibility in every single funding source that comes into the school. Um, and a better way to track um, what's happening for you fiscally. So, thanks again.
111I' I'd love to say thank you also, Tammy. Really appreciate you helping us get set up for success going forward. Um, I think that, you know, our team has given some great feedback about um the time that you spent and just thank you because it was a heavy lift for us. And I'll pull the presentation back up for you, Joel. Just a sec. Thank you. So continuing with the components of the ending fund balance, um we do show a negative ending general fund unrestricted 01 balance and we also show on this slide the amount below the required minimum 3% reserve for economic uncertainty and that continues to be very in line with what we had at third interim now with the 2728 um year added. Um so we talked about work to do but um
112again the the factors that um interim superintendent August shared with the um um governors may revise hopefully come through with about another few couple maybe close to $4 million. But okay. So, and then before you go on to the next slide, if you can go back just cuz that was a very large number there. Um, and I just want to confirm this is the number that includes uh expenses that we are um saying that we've that we're making, but then the next year rolls back into our balance. Is that this item? I mean, you're looking at me confused, so I may be mistaken. I so are you talking about the spending down of unrestricted funds that I mean of restricted funds the and then we have to reflect the carryover so yes that kind of
113happens every year in there however we are spending down those restricted funds as we can and so this is where again as we've talked about that cash flow is the most important factor so some of the things that we'll be looking at are is we will be determining expenses in general fund if there for areas that would qualify for reimbursement from some of the other funds um as well. So that's a piece of it and making sure that we have that cash flow between the funds. That's that's the difference between us going into a state receiverhip which actually is managed by the county office rather than the state. But receiverhip versus not is about the cash flow more than about the budget. And so they're both important to monitor and watch and we have to
114continue our diligence in identifying where we are right sizing again all of our projections. We are looking at being as cons as conser we are being prudent in our conservative assumptions. We hope that things will come in better, but we would rather present what we believe is not. I mean, you never know what worst case could be when we think back to 2010 and when the bottom fell out of everything. However, we we have the the right structures in place to make these adjustments going forward. So, we look forward to the re-implementation of our fiscal stabilization committee. There's also our fiscal stabila stabilization advisory committee as well as the continued work of our board subcommittee on finance and continuing to rightsize. If we end up with better projections than what we have included here, that
115is fantastic. However, if we don't, then we need to con, you know, if we come in around these and we don't see an improvement in the in the budget fiscally, we'll have to continue to make adjustments, which if we continue to have declining enrollment, that's something that we need to do anyway is that continued right sizing. So, this would not include right sizing past what has already been identified. So when you think about those ratios, we have that in place and those triggers do happen as we go into the next couple of years if those ratios if those um if the enrollments don't increase. And just so everyone the public is clear, we're not move this is going to come back in two weeks. We're going to talk more about it there. Um, and then
116we're not saying in two weeks that this that we're adopting a budget where we know we're going to end up at $17 million under our 3% reserve. We're identifying that and it's going to get solved. Yes, that is exactly the intent. This is the with the information as we know and our assumptions at the time. So again, we did not include any of those extra financing measures. That that's a piece of it. As we close the books, there are restricted funds that we have to reflect as fully spent out. Um, when we're looking at federal, we have to reflect them as if they're fully spent out and then add them back as far as carryover in the fall. So, that's a piece of the component. There there are several different pieces to it. And so,
117again, this is budgets are always fluid. They're based on the information we have at the time and they are always going to be different. The only time that our numbers are solid, final, and real is in September for the prior year. So that's that's an important thing to to remember. Yes, we need to be cautious. We are in in a very very tight situation. As we've talked about before, we are on the razor thin edge making sure that we are counting everything, making sure that every dollar we are spending is spent in the most effective way. and also looking to continue to right size. Before we continue with the presentation, any of our trustees have questions since I stopped us here. Jesse Jenkins, I appreciate all the work that you guys have put into this.
118And when I see a number in the red of $50 million, I understand there's a little bit of balancing between restricted and unrestricted. And then numbers in the red of $29 million that and I I do understand also that the assumptions are not in here and there's a little bit of balancing, but I'm like, okay, well, can we just reuse everything and no candy and you know, all of the little things like where on earth can we tighten our belts that's away from student education and away from the things that are so incredibly important like the hooks for kids, um, athletics, CTE, VAPA, all of the things that hook them into an education. This is just another one of those lovely terrifying moments. I'm so excited to be a board member. This is so that's
119so it's not a question, it's a comment. It's just reality and we will get through it. I think we can all share some of that fear with you. Any other questions? All right, let's continue with the presentation and then we can get further into it. I I will point out that so yes, this is the amount those larger numbers that you're seeing at the bottom, those are the amount below the three including our deficit and the amount below the 3%. This is the actual amount projected as the issue for the ending balance which is again where we have other funds that we expect we do we do expect those to look better but right now that's what the projection is. Um previously we reflected borrowing in the ending fund balance when we were looking earlier
120in the year at say second interim. We're reflecting this without that. Okay. Does that help? Okay. Yeah, we want to be as transparent as possible. And one thing that can also kind of be confusing about the multi-year projection and kind of complicated at say more is that it's ongoing. So if you have cuts in one year, they're cumulative over the three years. So if we did find the 11 million solution, it wouldn't be 17 million in the next year. It would be 7 million. This is somewhat can I mean it it is a heavy load lift but that hopefully helps some perspective and it's and when we're looking at you know a 2040 million overall budget percentage- wise I mean we do have work to do and again we're trending towards the balancing and in
121those out years if we do get those charter schools so there are some things in the horizon if we just can get through this. And so the next slide is so we can we can have a negative ending fund balance, but we we can't have um a negative cash. Um and this slide shows that through next June, the entire next fiscal year, we're looking at um coming out with a projected uh positive cash end balance. um that is utilizing the tools that we use um throughout the year with our um inner fund borrowing. And then after we've utilized our inner fund available reserves, then we would we do have a a line of a line of credit with the county treasury that we establish and Okay. And then and then included with the budget is
122all of our funds. So these are all of our um funds that we have in addition to the fund uh 01 general operating fund. Uh you can see they have these projected ending fund balances. I do want to say one thing a couple things about a couple of these building fund 21. So to budget that for the whole next year was a heavy load. So we did have about $1.2 2 million budget. That's a rough budget. So to say that we're going to end up with $1.2 million next year would be uh you know there's a lot of that goes into it. A lot of people a lot of moving parts that does not include the um we just went through. Yeah. So, I mean, um, and then I think that's probably the the biggest
123kind of thing to mention in the other funds. Um, you know, our fund 09 is our charter school funds. Uh, that includes both unrestricted and restricted sources. Uh, I will say if I was to say the charter schools, um, I think the French American charter had some, uh, concerns. I think they've turned it around. I think they're probably looking pretty healthy financially now. Um I think CCLA is pretty similar. I think Accelerated Charter is is it's an it's a program that operates pretty uh consistently. Um Arch Charter has some areas that um I mean they're in a challenging situation where they have a lower unduplicated pupil count, so they don't get a lot of supplemental concentration grant funds. um they had and they they didn't their their their enrollment wasn't what it has been before.
124Uh great program, great people, but I think that if if you were asking me, we need to pay attention to the finances in that fund. But I think in that in that I think out of all the other funds, I think there's probably nothing too significant to mention again you want. Yeah. So I'll let you Thank you. Yeah. just, you know, again, the work that we already I think we already spoke to this a little bit as far as kind of next steps and what needs to happen. Um, and then again, all of these areas to monitor. Again, things are very volatile local, state, and federal level right now fiscally. So again, we want to be conservative in what we're recommending. And again, the the budget will actually come back to the board for action
125on the 25th. Are there any questions? Christy Jenkins. Um, for the fiscal stabilization advisory committee, is this different than the one that we just had? Is this the same group of people? Can more people get involved? How do people get involved? Since the community is already very wellversed on it does not follow the same process as the school consolidation committee. It's the fiscal stabilization advisory committee which was formerly known as the budget advisory committee. One of the things that um we've talked about and and are looking at is how that should be kind of expanded because we've had the same small group and it's kind of dwindled as you know people have had their students graduate out. We don't currently have a lot of parents and so that is there will be some outreach coming
126out and over in the the month of July and hope to have that actually start back up in August. Is there any way that we could do some additional outreach through like parent square maybe? I know something that comes up when when stuff goes out over summer is people are like, "Oh, and and we have had a lot of outreach about it over the last few months because we've been mentioning it." So, I actually have a list of parents who are interested um that we'll definitely um reach out to as well. And we want to involve students. It used to have students um in the past and I since I've been here that hasn't happened so I'm not sure when that kind of fell off. Again, this is an advisory committee to the superintendent. So
127the way that works is they make their recommendations as the fiscal team um which'll be odd for me not leading that that team um in this upcoming um year. And then they bring those recommendations to the superintendent. or kind of talk through those. Typically, we walk to talk through those in cabinet about what's doable, what isn't, what would we recommend, and then we kind of make those adjustments, and then that comes forward as um a plan to the board, and the board then has the ultimate decision as a yes or no what to include. Um, additionally, since we have site admin and kind of design and empower teams, all of the teams um, already kind of up and running, our budgetary um, ideas going out to them as well as not the wording tonight is
128not working. Um but questions to those teams as far as what do you guys think you can tighten up? Um is it is are questions being posed to the sites? Typically there is site representation um or representation from some sites on that fiscal stabilization. We also have input sessions throughout the year when you think of LCAP. there are other outreach things that we can do a little bit better with that we'll need to be um looking at what that plan is. Yeah, I would just um I think it may be a good idea to uh you know once this is approved um it's so scary uh to just float it out to the community um and and have the communication strands, right? So people communicating up to site admin and then coming to you or
129you know vice versa to to get those conversations going ahead of time instead of like at the LCAP road show. We don't want to relive last year. So we this I believe should be part of our strategic planning and um part of our communications um efforts. Any other questions? Jesse Delator. So, we all agree with how scary this looks. Um, but this is the reality we're in. This is what's on our plates. And it doesn't matter how we got here, we're here. Um, I really want to lift up and show my support for our financial team. Um, Joel, Lisa, uh, Tammy, thank you for your help and support. Thank you for our partners at SCO that have really dug in. Um, Nick pushing forward the the budget committee with the board and getting enoughies. These
130are all positive steps in the right direction of dealing with a really big problem in front of us. Um, are we actively having discussions because we're public education. We get funded by students in the seats on how we can continue to grow and attract further students into our schools. Yes. And you know, part of that is um I I do want to thank the board for the approval of the director of um school innovation and student student engagement and outreach because that's a big part of what that is is really coordinating especially how we market and showcase our specialized or sign. I love that way that Dr. Perez coined it as a signature program um for for our schools. really looking at marketing across all of the great things that we have going on here.
131I mean, we we really do there are some amazing opportunities and the depth to which we're able to implement those by focusing our resources, you know, to to narrowing where we offer, how many times we duplicate a program will really actually help us to improve those programs in the long run and make them much stronger. Um, so really getting the word out about what that looks like, how how students can get involved, how parents can choose us. And so, yeah, absolutely. That's a a big piece of it is how we market ourselves and and make sure that we aren't no longer should we be on the defense about what's, oh, we've got this wrong or we have that wrong. We need to be touting the amazing things that are going on. We have fabulous staff,
132wonderful teachers. we have so many supports for students and engagement opportunities and I I don't think it's widely known. Um and you know as as Dr. Bardelli said today you know at 14,000 families choose us and I think that's something that is often not mentioned. I absolutely agree with that. Historically we really haven't tooted our own horn enough with all the positive things that this district brings to light. Um, unfortunately, these are really big numbers and really big red numbers. I understand the concern. And when you see numbers at that size, um, we're not at a point where where do we tighten our belt more? Our our cupboards are already bare. So, we really need to be having active promotional conversations of how do we bring more revenue in? And that really is student driven
133and families trusting us and bringing us their students for their educational experience. So when we talk about signature programs, are we also having active open conversations on how to lift up and grow our charter programs? So the district as a whole, including charters, all of that are those are all things that we need to to look at um how we can really bring the bring those families back that have chosen to leave, those who haven't chosen to be with us. And we need to also focus on improving the attendance um and the knowledge base of our community about the importance of having their students in school. How it does impact their education of course, but that also impacts the resources available to provide the education and the additional engagement and enrichment opportunities. We had a
134lot of powerful conversations around that this year, especially with the medical community and not understanding even an excused absence and what that relates to. So, um, a lot of good work's happening. This is scary. Thank you for presenting with us so we have that information. And if there's anything you guys need more from the board or different direction, please let us know because this is a really big problem that we're all looking to help be a part of the solution. I think if I could add just one more comment, I wanted to add just the partnership with uh Dr. Castro, Dr. Perez, and Alisa Haley, and um, John Fischer in special education. I mean, I I wish I could do them more service as much as service as they do for our fiscal department. Just
135really appreciative. Thank you. I go to our final comments from the board. I'm assuming there's no more questions. Uh this is a public hearing. Any blue cards? Is anyone here to provide comment? Not seeing anyone. Go ahead and state your name for the record. Uh, thank you board members and uh, staff. I would just say would as a member of the public, I'd really like to know where the school closure savings are coming into that number we just saw presented before us because I don't know if the media is going to dive in and do a deep dive and understand that you have you've programmed in a number of very difficult choices with with savings associated with them and how they're going to eat that number down to something that is more reasonable because so
136maybe in two weeks when that comes back there's a way to make that a little bit more clear. I would just ask for that. Thank you. Could you please state your name for the record? Thank you. Jim Lenny. Anyone else wish to give a comment for the public hearing? I don't see any. Go ahead and close the public hearing. Uh we do have time for final comments. Trusty Kirby, do you have any comments? I I would just add kind of building off the comments that we were having earlier, the two big factors here that solve this without cuts and consolidations and those types of changes need to come forward again is our ability to track back students and our ability for our students that are currently enrolled to show up to school. um as long
137as we're enrolled based off of attendance but have to staff based off of enrollment um you know actually showing up every single day is a big factor in paying for the classrooms and for the teachers. So I know there's lots of conversations during consolidation about how 1% better attendance rates 4% better attendance rates can solve these problems and you know that momentum that we had with the parents that were engaged and organized is really important going forward. I also think a lot of the decisions that we have before us around the LCAP and some of the things that are happening um and what we've seen tonight and we'll make decisions on our next meeting can also help attract students back. Um I was having a conversation with a family that was talking about transferring up
138to Windsor and it was because they weren't able to find the athletic programs and support that they wanted. we're out at a baseball game and I was able to talk about the things that are happening and how, you know, there is reinvestment in that type of a program. I've had the same conversations with folks in VAPA programs. Um, they're, you know, concerned about where our investment is in that. And the same thing with academics and I think what we're sending a message on is that those are important things for this district. we're choosing to invest in them and that they should put faith in us as a district that is going to care about things that are important to them. Um, and therefore they should keep their students here. And you know, 20 students staying
139with us in high school is over $200,000 in new revenue. You know, 200, we're talking about 2 million. We have 2,000 students under the demographic, you know, surveys roughly that we know live in our district that don't go to our schools. So that's a big opportunity for us to solve this by just offering the programs and the academics that our families and students are looking for and I think we're moving in that direction and I appreciate that from tonight. So thank you all. Any further comments? Trusty Delator, as we all know the old adage, a penny saved is a penny earned and and that's really what we're dealing with and that's why crunching these numbers is so vital. Um, and not only is it a penny saved, a penny earned, but it's how we choose
140to invest the funds that we do have. And that speaking to what Director Cast is talking about is investing wisely. Investing in our teachers, investing in our programs, investing in our opportunities. Those investments are we're going to pay the dividends necessary to get out of this financial crisis. So, we'll continue to be proper stewards and push this forward and have these active conversations and continue to collaborate with the other groups within our community and district so that we're all on the same page and looking for the same thing and how we can assist each other. Um, better days are ahead. It's just we got some more digging to get there. Right. Thank you. We're going to move to item seven, approval of an addendum, addended memorandum of understanding uh reached with San Jose City Schools
141and San Jose Teachers Association regarding SRTA 2425 number two LCL senior high school instructional 4x4 block schedule. And we have Dr. Vicky Zans presenting. Thank you. Um I h also have here with me Casey Cunningham from LC Allen High School to um answer most of the questions that you're going to ask me that I won't be able to answer. So here he is. Um so good evening board. um Vice President Casten, Superintendent Lisa August, and board members, members of the community that are here with us. Um what we are presenting today is a memorandum of understanding that was reached um in May, May 29th between Santa Rosa City Schools and Santa Rosa Teachers Association to allow LC Allen High School to move from a 7-day instructional model, seven period day instructional model that was going
142to be a six period day instructional model to now a 4x4 instructional model. Um, by doing this, it will allow students to gain more opportunities to meet the graduation requirements. And it also is going to save the district money in that by doing this schedule, LC Allen High School is actually using three less FTE um full-time equivalents, which is about almost $400,000 in savings compared to if they would have done a six period day. Just to confirm, that is in addition to the $1 million savings that was realized by going from a 7 to 6 period name. Yes, that is in addition to the $1 million savings. So, it's a $1.4 million savings. $.4 million savings by going to a 4x4 schedule. Okay. Any further questions for Dr. Zans? Thank you for doing that. Um,
143I am just curious how I've been hearing 4x4 and LC, but I where did it come from? Like how did this come about? Was it just to problem solve the finance piece? Wasn't selling. Good evening. Hi. No, we looked at this in terms of our students and over 60% of our students need a support class, whether that's special ed, ALD, um, and we found that a sixth period day would not allow those students to have their electives, a lot of them, as well as the push to enhance our CTE and go to wall-to-all pathways. What this allows our students to do is still get their support class and then get into have their electives so that they can have their CTE pathways. Um it not only does that but it opens up opportunities um if
144they get into their pathway earlier in their career that as a senior dual enrollment taking classes at Sonoma State taking classes at the JC in the trade getting into internships. We're working with community uh businesses that uh we've connected with in our health pathway. We're looking for our farm-totable pathway. Um our a mechanics pathway. We're looking to get our students out and into those trades or into college earlier. Um within the dual enrollment, what the 4x4 allows us to do is our students are going to be able to get an entire year of college before they leave high school. So, um, we want our students to leave our high school not just prepared for college, but above the average, as well as if they're in a trade, not just that entry level job, uh, we're
145preparing them to go beyond that. And so, this 4x4 was literally student first. And that's why uh, we did it. Was it based off of like where did the idea come from? Where's is it like are there programs that are currently doing it? Yes. So, Rancho Katat currently does it. Um we I mean as as a staff we looked at it. Um I can't necessarily say how it started, but it was like a light bulb when it happened and we just started kind of talking about it. Um it grew some legs. We started asking around. The district has been amazing. Uh Dr. Perez was from uh Rancho got us some great insight on that. Got us connected to Rancho. We started looking at the advantages that their students are gaining at Rancho. Um and so
146we started to see if we could do that here. The talk went around our staff. Um it was almost unanimous on our our staff wanting to do this. Um and then when we found out that it actually was less money than what a sixth period day was, um we put it in action. I guess an additional question would be for Dr. Xans. Um, as far as it sounds like this is an amazing structure that is very student focused, um, that has fantastic outcomes and is saving money. So, is this idea being I know we're just talking about LC tonight, but is it being discussed with the other high schools so that all of our students in the district are given the same opportunities? So the intention is that LC will share their successes and their
147struggles um with the other school sites so that we can see if this is something that we would want to expand or something that we would like to hold just to LC. Um, Katad Roner Park is one of the districts that we lose a lot of our students to, particularly the students that live in the neighborhood where they would attend Elsie. They're very close to Katy Roner Park. So, this also helps make us more competitive with Katy Roner Park. Um, but in answer to your question, I don't know. We're going to see how it works with LC before we start discussing this option with any other school sites. Trusty Deator. Thank you very much Dr. Zans and Casey for your time here tonight and this explanation. Um can you tell the community that's hearing this
148for the first time what does a 4x4 mean to a student day at school? Like what would that look like? So students will take four classes in the fall and four classes in the spring. Um they are block periods. They're an hour and a half long. Um, what it helps is that our UC students can get their 240 minutes, which is full ADA. They can take three classes and then they can take a class at Sonoma State or at the Santa Rosa JC. Um, when we get into these pathways and students are at a point of an internship, they are able to take an internship on in fourth period. And our goal is to go wall-to-wall pathways. Our goal is to um get all of our ninth graders into kind of a wheel introduction of
149of our pathways and they pick and choose so that they are done kind of with the pathway and then their senior year they can branch out. Um and in terms of seventh and eighth graders coming, uh we are excited and ready because this is just going to enhance the opportunities of these wall- to- wall pathways to get them in seventh and eighth grade and get them in introduced to our pathways. Um, in terms of our UC kids, um, they are going to have a greater opportunity to get more dual enrollment classes with this, um, because each class that you take in a semester is actually a year-long course. So, you're getting eight classes done in a school year. Um, typically at another school, you're going to get six. So when those add up, by the
150time you get to a junior and senior, you're having more opportunities to take courses um that you are engaged in. I mean, this is all about innovation and engagement, and we want to get our students excited about the courses that they take and we're hoping that this gives them those opportunities. Um but yeah, they will take four classes during the day. You are the same class every day. So if you look at what our high school was this year, you would take Monday, Wednesday classes, Tuesday, Thursday classes. You are you are in the class every day all week long. Okay. So how does that work for um PE and language requirements and other graduation requirements? If we got this four on four schedule, how would it work? Can you ask it again? So, like PE,
151you have a two-year physical education requirement to graduate high school. If you're taking, you know, career paths and four classes and four classes, where are we working those in for our freshman and sophomores to make sure they're meeting those requirements? So, what we have set up, um, and it's a little complicated, those are called AB courses. Um, PE would be considered all year long student 9th graders would have it. All nth graders would get it. So we're we're trying to get PE within the ninth grade at least. Everybody has one year done and then you know you can get your second year within sports and other opportunities and then we'll have the year two courses. What's pretty cool is this opened up an opportunity for PE to have a soccer class to have weight training
152classes and this gets them taking PE and being active every day. like I would have been in a lot better shape if I was in that kind of class when I was in high school. But um it gives our students the opportunity to complete courses so that it opens up better opportunities later down the road. I really love the innovation and the creative thought process behind that. Um, another question I have for um, the comprehensive high schools we currently have for students with IEPs and 504s and special educations. In high school, it's typically required for a student to take a directed studies period to get help with those services. Um, where's that directed studies landed? Because in a comprehensive high school, it's really limiting those students to have an ability to take an elective. Some
153of those students don't get an elective until their junior or senior year, and they may only get one because of that direct studies, which is really helpful and helps get them where they need to be academically. But for this model, where would that fit in? Yeah. So, directed studies would be an AB course, right? So, it would be directed studies one day, u PE the next. we we kind of match them with PE, but we're trying we're there's a few other models we're looking at. Um I know one of the conversations that we've had is building directed study classes that were subject uh concentrated. So if a student needed a directed studies for social studies, we would have that within our um schedule to be able to do that. The great thing about the 4x4
154is we actually have an opportunity to have 240 sections to be within the budget of a sixth period day. We are currently using 215. So there are so many ways to kind of be creative in in getting kids support. Um, we also want to push, and I know if some of our teachers hear this, they're going to roll their eyes at me, but I would love to see us get to a point where our special ed students are in all co-taught classes and more and more general ed classes and within our pathways. They are in our classes. They are our students. They should be within the student within the classes that kids enjoy taking and are engaged. They should have the same opportunity. um the directed studies model would then get to a more specific
155help in terms of situations. Um I'm hoping to that I'm hoping that we are able to limit some of those courses as much as we can but still get them the support that they need um in certain areas. Um, if you look at ALD, uh, we've looked at two ways of doing ALD and AB where it would be, uh, one part of the A and then a PE class, uh, through through a B or another elective or we get a, you know, AL classes where we focus it on the first semester and then we go into a model kind of like, uh, the Avid Edge um, Avid Emerge kind of thing that we're looking into where it would be now our ALD would be into our 9th and 10th grade English classes. Um, and so
156we're looking at totally all kinds of different ways to find support but keep all of our students in the same classroom. Thank you so much, Casey. I mean, I know a lot of these questions are coming off the hip and we didn't give you guys a list of this ahead of time, but really appreciating you being upfront and honest and transparent of what your process is and what your vision is and uh looking forward to learning more about this. Trusty Kirby. Yeah, thanks again uh for being here to answer the questions. I I'm really excited about this uh capability to expand particularly CE CTE programs at LC. I think it'll having this model will go a long way to to help um help grow those programs, you know. Um what to follow along kind of
157with the P and elective uh challenges do you see is is the A to G requirements are they going to be uh a challenge with this model or uh any hindrance to students completing their requirements? No, absolutely not. The A throughG C because we have so many sections available. The A throughG courses that hasn't even been an issue for us. Um I can say 100% that that's not going to be a problem with this model. Okay, great. Thanks. Two questions uh before my comments. One is just to be clear, um, this model will be accessible to other school sites if they chose to negotiate and ask for it in the future. We're not saying this is just going to be at LC. LC is just the group of teachers that have created this innovative idea.
158LC is the um group of courageous teachers and administrative staff that have chosen to take this on. And if there is another school site in the future that chooses to take this on, then we will support them. And in theou it says it's going to expire on June 30th, 2026. Um minor question just we're going to make sure that we get that back here in time to renew it if everything is going great. But a part of that item also says we're going to do a full review and an audit of the costs and effectiveness of the model. Um, audit's a big word and uh, review of the cost and effectiveness is a big scope. Um, and this is a one-year review that we're going to need to review receive the review on in less
159than 12 months. Uh, so can you help me narrow down what audit effectiveness and scope mean so we understand what we're going to get back before we renew this? So the audit in terms of um the cost uh was a concern by SRTA that um this model would in the end not be more cost effective. And so simply put it's just showing that we did not spend more on this model than we would have spent on a sixth period day. So audit will be confirm or deny 400,000 in additional savings. Yes. Not necessarily in additional savings, but that it wouldn't cost more than the than a six period day. So the equivalent of the 240 sections because there will be some costs associated with implementation and getting that up. But it still won't cannot cost
160more. That was one of the things as fiscal person um that I was all for moving forward as long as it would cost the same or less than offering a six period day. That that's the piece. So that is the scope of what we'd look for in the financial is same or less. And then when we say effectiveness, what are we saying when we say that? We will be looking at student attendance rates. We'll be looking at student um pass rates and um grades engagement, those types of things. And do we have baselines already established in agreement with the teachers on what those baselines are that we'd be judging effectiveness against? So, one of the things that we're focused on is a 4% increase in attendance, and that is going to be our event for
161the year. Um, we hope with these opportunities um that we can be successful in that. I do want to say that this is going to be a learning process and there are going to be some struggles. Um, but we will always be transparent and we welcome you on our campus any day that you want to come and walk through classes with us. I love the specificity of the 4% attendance school as being the target. So, I think if we keep driving towards a goal that's that clear, measurable, um, that really gives us a good place to be with this type of initiative. I' like I'd love to see that clarity more often even. So, I really appreciate that. Uh my general comments are I really support this initiative. I hear very often that there's just
162entire instructional styles that we cannot offer in our district because we don't have longer course periods and where we do have it there's lots of friction because it's not fully implemented or it's trying to jigsaw in with um other time periods and things like that. So seeing this seeing at this time in this district's you know evolution and also for the evolution of LC Allen as a campus and where it's heading um you know I just applaud you for moving this forward and I see this is really opening us up to being able to do a lot of the things that we keep uh talking about wanting to do. So um with that unless there's any other discussion I'd entertain a motion. Motion to approve. Second. Moved by clerk deatory, seconded by trustee Kirby. Roll
163call, please. Trusty deatory. I. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Vice President Casten. I thank you. All right. We're going to move to item eight action approval addendum addendum memorandum of understanding uh reached with Santa Rosa City Schools and San Rosa teachers association regarding SRTA 2425 number threeou organizing chair Dr. Vicki Zans presenting. Hi it's me again. Um, so CTA was given a grant I believe to have organizing chairs and um what this entails is a release of 40% or a point4 FTE of an SRTA member who would be released and CTA would reimburse us for the cost of their salary while they're released on this special assignment of um being a lead organizer for CTA. Uh theou specifies that the person can be on leave this point. 4 for four years and still have
164the right back to their same position at the same site where they left. And theou does expire next year only because we're not sure if the grant will continue and if the grant doesn't continue then the um would no longer be in effect. Questions trusty Jenkins? Yes. My question is um if they are guaranteed their spot back and the spot doesn't exist. If they're guaranteed their spot back and the spot doesn't exist, then they would be offered a position elsewhere, but they are guaranteed a position like a lateral position, right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Seeing none, I entertain a motion. Sure. I move to uh approve the addendum reached with Santa Rosa City Schools and Santa Rosa Teachers Association regarding SRTA 2425 number three organizing chair. Is there a second? I think
165so. I would assume that yes, I will second this movement. Moved by Trusty Kirby, seconded by Trusty Jenkins. Is there further discussion? I not seeing any. Roll call, please. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Deator. No. Vice President Casten. Hi. We're going to take a 5m minute recess. We'll reconvene. I just need to confirm my vote threshold here. Hold on one second. Go ahead. All right, we will reconvene. Uh we've conferred to confirm the vote threshold is a majority of trustees present in voting. Uh therefore with the 31 vote, the motion passes. We will move on to approval of the minutes. Do I have a motion for approval of the regular board me uh meeting minutes held on May 28th, 2025? Motion to approve. Second. Moved by uh clerk deatory, seconded by trusty Jenkins.
166Roll call, please. Trusty Deator. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Kirby. I. Vice President Casten. All right. We'll now move on to board member requests for information. Uh this can be request for information on future agenda or uh provided through documents. Any requests for information from any board members? This is such a silly one. I'm so sorry. But may I please get an information on specifically public hearings just like the background of it because I don't have that. We may be able to put that into the governance training, but if not, yep. So, any other requests for information? All righty. With that, we do have additional information items available on the agenda for folks to read. Please pose those and we'll move to item K, adjournment. We are adjourned at 8:45 p.m.