SRCS Regular Board Meeting - May 28, 2025

001Now opening the May 28th, 2025 meeting of the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education. We will begin with public comment on close session agenda items. The agenda items are public employee discipline dismissal and release, conference with labor negotiator, conference with legal counsel, anticipated litigation, student readmissions, and public employee performance evaluation. Um, I have a few blue cards here. I will call three names at a time. So, when you hear your name, go ahead and line up behind a podium. You will have two minutes each. First is Jennifer UNE followed by Katherine Howell followed by Monae Bell. Do I start? Yes, go ahead. Okay, awesome. Um, hello members of the board. My name is Jennifer Yukan. I'm a first grade teacher at Bella Elementary School. I um am a special agenda item for your close

002session today and I emailed each of you personally to share the details of my situation and ask for your careful consideration. Thank you to everyone who responded. I really appreciate your time and thoughtful responses and I'm really here today to introduce myself and give you a face to the name and to ask you in person to please make an exception to the emotional support animal board policy in my behalf. I absolutely love being a teacher. It's my favorite thing. I have dedicated myself to my craft. I was recently recognized as Soma County's teacher of the year in 2024 and I'm also a lead teacher at my school. I'm bilingual in Spanish and English and I'm working towards my national board certification. I've taught for 11 years and I've worked for Santa Rosa City Schools for

003the past nine years and absolutely loved my experience and I really need my emotional support animal to continue doing the work I feel so passionately about. I really hope that you can vote to support a dedicated educator and her emotional support animal. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, President McN. We have the timer going um over here. I'm sorry it's not showing on the um screen, but we are keeping track. Okay. Thank you. Next is Katherine Howell, followed by Monae Bell. Well, podium. Uh, good afternoon. I'm Katherine Howell. I am here to uh fully support Miss Yukin in her request. SRTA supports the waiver of this policy in this incident. uh she is a absolute benefit to her students, to her school, to this community, to Santa Rosa City Schools, and uh

004has done everything she possibly could to meet the criteria of the policy and has been unable to. Um SRTA supports asking for this waiver. We hope that you will be able to give it to her. And we would also support um periodic check-ins, making sure that the emotional support dog is properly registered and everything is still kept up to date, as well as periodic check-ins with insurance policies to see if they could be increased. Um, but she has done everything she possibly could to meet the standard of the policy and has been unable to. So, we're asking you to just please keep all that in mind plus the email that she sent and know that SRTA is in full support and encouraging you to make this this exception on Jen's behalf. Thank you. Thank you.

005And next is Monae Bell. Hello, I am Mona Bell and I teach at Montgomery High School. First, I just want to say that I thank you that I feel like um most of what you've heard from me in the past has not been very good. We haven't seen eye to eye, but I see a change. I have hope. Um, I am happy with some of the decisions that I've seen come from this board. Some decisions that we thought were never going to happen. Um, so I thank you and I thank you for the support of my school. Um, what I am just trying to again request is that please consider or reconsider uh keeping Mercedes Thompson for next school year as an admin at McGomery High School. We have been down one admin for at

006least the semester and then we just had another one go on vacation. Uh, Mercedes has been invaluable. again, she has the po support of Slater and they're going to be merging with us. Um, we need her. Uh, I can't even tell you how many times I've had to call her or talk to her, even just today. And she's there for us. She's answering the phones and she's coming when we need her. Um, the other thing I want to say is Alisa Haley. Oh, thank you for sending her to us. She has been awesome. Um, again, thank you for your support of Montgomery and again, please reconsider Mercedes Thompson. She stood up. She's been there and she's amazing and you can talk to our staff. Ask Alisa Haley. I just They had to They've been working

007together. See what she says. Please, please, please. We need her. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other blue cards? There are no other blue cards. All right. The board will now recess to close session. Now reconvening the May 28th, 2025 meeting of the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and then remain standing for a territorial land acknowledgement. I acknowledge that Santa Rosa City Schools is on the traditional territory and homelands of the Pomo people, traditional ter territory and homelands of the Coast Miwok people and honor with gratitude the land itself and the people who have stewarded it throughout the generations. This land acknowledgement calls us to commit to continuing to learn how to be better stewards of the land we inhabit inhabit. By offering this land

008acknowledgement, we affirm indigenous sovereignty and will work to hold San Rosa City Schools more accountable to the needs of American, Indian, and indigenous people. All right. Thank you everyone for being here tonight. Um I know we have a lot of recognitions and celebration to get through to. Um but first uh report of actions taken in close session. So the board voted 6 to approve student readmission cases 202425-07 and05. and the board voted 51 to approve student readmission cases 202425-09-20 and -2. Um items considered in close session for action in open session. There were none. Statements of abstension. Are there any statements of abstension tonight? All right. Seeing none, adjustments to the agenda. Um, we will be pulling items G6 and G7 until the June 25th board meeting. Are there any other adjustments? Uh, Trusty Jenkins,

009I'd like to pull F7, please. Okay. F7. Trusty Delator, I'd like to pull F12, F-13, and F14. Any other adjustments? Trusty Kirby. Uh, pull F8, please. Any other adjustments? All right. Now, we have special presentations for students of the month and certificated and classified employees of the month. Uh, first we have Brook Hill Elementary School. Do we have Principal Sto here? Thank you very much. Good evening, parents, students, board, President McN, uh, Superintendent August. My name is Hector Sto. I am the current principal of Brook Hill Elementary School. Today we recognize an exceptional student whose leadership talents and character have left a lasting impression on our school community. Madison. Madison is everything we hope to see in a student leader. Confident, determined, and unafraid to speak the truth even when it's difficult. She carries herself

010with strength and maturity. Always willing to stand up for what's right and encourage others to do the same. This year, Madison served as the secretary of our student leadership team, a role in which she truly truly thrived. She brought organization, initiative, and thoughtful input to every meeting and project. Whether she was planning events, helping make decisions, or motivating her peers, Madison approached her responsibilities with dedication and a clear sense of purpose. She also played an important role beyond leadership meetings. First grade teacher Miss Cumby shared that Madison helped plan game night this year and assisted younger students during game club last year. In both instances, Madison was incredibly helpful, hardworking, and dependable. She stood out as a role model and mentor not only to younger students, but also to her peers. Academically, Madison has a

011clear passion for learning, particularly in mathematics, where she not only excels, but genuinely enjoys the subject. Her enthusiasm for problem solving and her consistent effort reflect a strong work ethic that extends across all of her education. She also brought her creativity and focus to the music room where she played guitar and band class. Her involvement in both academics and the arts shows the depth and balance of her abilities. Throughout the year, Madison has consistently demonstrated responsibility, compassion, and integrity. She doesn't just complete her assignments, she leads by example. Her presence has helped create a more inclusive, spirited, and supportive school community. Staff agree Madison has a bright and promising future ahead. Her leadership, her heart, and her me her many talents are already making a difference, and this is only the beginning. We are recognizing

012a standout student today. We are celebrating someone who has already shaped shaping the world around her. Congratulations Madison. We are proud of you. It is my pleasure to recognize someone whose contributions this year have made a lasting impact on RSQu community. Our classified employee of the year, Vanessa Vargas Mendes. Throughout the year, VNS has shown a strong commitment to supporting students, staff, and families in a variety of meaningful ways. Whether it's helping parents navigate online school platforms or providing translation during phone calls home, Vanessa consistently steps in to make sure communication is clear and accessible. She led the organization and administration of the state ELPAC testing, a responsibility that requires coordination and attention to detail. She also managed the English learner reclassification process, attended all PFO and ELAC meetings and facilitated a beginning of the

013year parent workshop to ensure families felt welcomed and informed. Vanessa played a key role in planning and supporting school events such as the fall festival, winter concert, and open house, and worked alongside our leadership students as they developed and carried out their own events. One of the qualities that stands out most about Vanessa is her flexibility and willingness to help in any area. No matter the task, whether it's stepping in for daily supervision, translating for staff, or offering a hand wherever it's needed, Vanessa is dependable and ready to support. She also maintains a strong rapport with students, families, and staff alike. Her approachable nature and steady presence have helped create a sense of trust and reliability across our school community. Vanessa, your work this year has touched many areas of our school and your willingness

014to go the extra mile has not gone unnoticed. On behalf of the entire school, thank her for all thank you for all you've done. Please join me in congratulating Vanessa Vargas Mendes as our as our classified employee of the year. Drink it. It is a true pleasure to stand here today to recognize someone who embodies dedication, compassion, and the heart of the Brook Hill community. Please join me in celebrating Miss Bolf, Brook Hill Elementary certificated employee of the year. Miss Budolf wears many hats and somehow she wears them all with grace, determination, and an unwavering focus on student well-being. Whether it's providing tier 1 and tier 2 support, leading small group and individual counseling sessions, and delivering classroom guidance lessons, she is consistently at the forefront of socioeotional learning on our campus. She doesn't just

015talk about creating safe and inclusive environment, she builds it. As the safe school ambassador leader and trainer, she empowers students to be the voice for kindness and positive change. One of the year's most memorable highlights was the kindness week, which included the incredible kindness carnival, an event led by our student ambassadors during recess and lunch that brought joy, empathy, and connection to every corner of the campus. Throughout the school year, Miss Bidolf has also been a steady, compassionate presence for students during one of the most emotional transitions of all, the upcoming closure of Brook Hill Elementary. She has been there listening, supporting, and guiding students through their emotions. Through schoolwide assemblies and one-on-one conversation, she's helped them understand the process, this change with hope, resilience, and a sense of unity. Her support doesn't stop there.

016She plays a critical role in crisis management, particularly relating to mental health, and offers students essential help through behavior support, conflict resolution, and family outreach. She meets every challenge with compassion and professionalism, always focused on the well-being of the whole child. Beyond her counseling and student services, Miss Bid is an incredible collaborator. She works closely with teachers, staff, and parents through consultation and team planning, and helps drive schoolwide initiatives like our schoolwide Bobcat assemblies, book vending machine, and recognition of life skill winners. She's also a creative force behind meaningful, memorable experience from organizing and hosting a schoolwide career fair to teaming up with staff for unique projects like painting tables with students from Montgomery decorated with logos of Brook Hill, Montgomery, and Slater, or coordinating with Miss Sandy on a magical end of the year

017glitter bottle art project for every student. She leaves a lasting mark on our campus culture. It is no surprise to any of us that Miss Bidolf has been chosen as this year's Brook Hill certificated employee of the year. She she exemplifies everything this honorary represents. Leadership, compassion, innovation, and a commitment to making our school a better place every single day. On behalf of the entire Brook Hill Elementary community, congratulations, Miss Bidolf. Thank you for your heart, your service, and your tireless dedication to our students, families, and staff. Congratulations to Madison, Vanessa, and Jessica. Next we have awards for Maria Korea High School Principal Whis. It's Western Wednesday today at Creo, hence the outfit. Be lucky it wasn't toes out Tuesday. All right, my speech is over. Okay. in glasses. Callie, Callie, Callie. All right, Miss

018Ritter. It is with great pride and admiration that we congratulate Cali Ritter on being named the student of the month for Maria Creo High School. This reward is reflection of the incredible leadership, dedication, and positive influence you have had on our school community during your time here. As senior class president, you have exemplified what it means to be a servant leader, always putting others first and working tirelessly to create a memorable and meaningful experience for your peers. From leading the creation of senior week events to organizing fundraisers to helping plan the myriad of events on campus, you have demonstrated exceptional organizational skills, responsibility, and dedication to your fellow classmates. Your efforts have helped foster a sense of belonging and school spirit, making this past year one to remember for all of our students. Beyond your

019role as a student leader, your commitment to advocacy has been truly, truly inspiring. As vice president of the advocates for sex education club, you played a key role in ensuring that mandated sex education was offered to seniors who missed out during the co 19 pandemic. Your work in this area reflected your strong sense of justice and your desire to ensure that all students have access to vital information that empowers them to make informed decisions. Your leadership and advocacy extended to your role as a representative at board meetings during the consolidation process. You were not afraid to speak up and advocate for Maria Creo, ensuring that the voices of your peers were heard. Your courage and dedication in those meetings were essential to the preservation of our school and your thoughtful, consistent voice made a significant

020impact. Inside the classroom, your teacher shared that you have consistently been a standout student. As team captain in the calculus Cup competition, you showed a perfect balance of leadership, creativity, and collaboration. Whether leading your pieard team with positivity or starring as John Mlan in the math video project, you have brought a sense of fun, innovation, and enthusiasm to everything you do. Your natural curiosity and drive for learning have been evident in all of your academic pursuits from AP govern economics to your thoughtful contributions to class discussions. Cali, you have a rare combination of intellect, kindness, and leadership that has made a lasting mark on Curio. Your commitment to making our school a better place, whether through academic leadership, advocacy, or simply being there for your peers is a testament to your character. You are not

021just a leader in title, but you are a leader in action. always stepping up to make a positive difference. I've had the privilege of witnessing your growth over the past four years, and I can confidently say that you leave Maria Creo a better place than you found it. Your efforts, both seen and unseen, have helped shape the future of this school and will continue to inspire those who follow in your footsteps. On behalf of the entire Maria Creo High School community, we extend our warmest congratulations to you, Cali. We're incredibly proud of you and everything you have achieved and we look forward to seeing your continued impact and what you will do in the future. Congratulations. Okay. So now you take that this and then you're What? Oh, hello. Okay, here we go. I forgot

022to say good morning or good evening to you all. Good evening. Um, today it is my great honor and pleasure to recognize an exceptional member of Maria Creo's high school community, Lisa Greenstein, our classified employee of the month. Lisa is our office manager extraordinaire and truly the backbone of our school's daily operations. I want it to be known that she is accepting this honor under protest. When I told her that she was going to be the classified employee of the month, she told me, "No, I am not." I said, "Yes, you are." She told me, "No, I am not. I do not want to be the employee of the month. I do not want the attention." I told her, "Too bad. I'm the principal and we are celebrating you." My peeps behind me will testify

023that when I came in here, what was the first thing that I said? "Where's Lisa?" because I wanted to make sure I was afraid she wasn't going to show up here today. She might actually still be a little mad at me and I am a little nervous about what tomorrow will bring, but we're going to celebrate her tonight. Lisa's role goes far beyond managing the front office. She is the vital link connecting families, staff, and administration. As the primary liaison between families and the principal's office, she consistently fosters clear, compassionate, and timely communication that builds trust and keeps everyone informed and supported. This includes fielding and problem solving the thousands of calls that she receives throughout the year from the community. Lisa is particularly skilled at alleviating the eyeire of heated community members. She kills

024them with kindness and professionalism as they share their concerns often loudly about how a flag is or isn't being flown. How students and sometimes parents display their less than stellar driving skills in our neighborhood or how loud our spirited pumas are when our aging neighbors are trying to take a nap. Lisa alleviates their concerns and leaves them feeling grateful to have had a friendly ear who has listened. Her organizational skills are nothing short of remarkable. She juggles multiple responsibilities with poise and professionalism from coordinating communication with the district office to managing logistics for events and meetings. She ensures that everything is in its place and running smoothly behind the scenes. She co coordinates with our parent association to organize meals for our staff during meetings. She makes sure everyone has a key to their room

025and to the bathroom. She makes sure our guest teachers know where to go and who to call in the case of an emergency. She makes sure that I don't forget the all-important student of the month lunchon. and she always checks in to make sure that I am drinking enough water and getting some sort of protein into me daily. If I make the mistake of telling her I forgot to bring lunch, she looks at me with a pointed stare, holds out her hand, waits for me to give give her my credit card. And then she promptly turns on her heel and heads over to Oliver's to get me a sandwich. Some of the things we as an entire staff love most about Lisa is that she is the model of level-headedness and intelligence, able to calmly

026navigate the multitude of complex situations that occur in our campus with thoughtful problemolving and sound judgment. Her respectfulness and kindness set a positive tone for the entire school, making her a trusted confidant and collaborator to all who work with her. In the many years that I have known Lisa, she has consistently demonstrated an unwavering commitment to excellence and to the well-being of our pumas, their families, and especially our staff. Her work often goes unseen, but it is absolutely essential to the success and smooth functioning of our school. We could not operate as effectively or as warmly without her dedication and professionalism. Please join me in celebrating Miss Lisa Greenstein for her outstanding contributions and welldeserved recognition as our classified employee of the month. Lisa, we love you. We thank you. We appreciate you. Congratulations. We

027got to get your picture taken, too. As we take her photo, I want to embarrass her a little bit more. Amy, thank you for insisting on her being here because as being one of those passionate parents since 2009, I may or may not have a dedicated chair in her office. Lisa, office managers are the backbones of each of our campuses. You've been through several administrators, several families, and you've been student driven every day you step onto that campus. And we cannot thank and appreciate you enough for your service, for your commitment to the campus and your community, and exemplifying what a true office manager should be, has been, and will continue to be. Thank you. is a good thing that those are here. Okay. Okay. Seated next to me I have Simon Trill. Today, instead

028of our usual teacher of the month celebration, I have the solemn honor of paying tribute to one of our most cherished cherished educators, Trish Terrell. She's dedicated 19 years of service to Maria Creo High School. Her passing earlier this April after a brief illness has left a profound a profound void on our Puma community. Trish was much more than a teacher. She was a fierce protector and advocate for every student, colleague, and family. Her commitment to giving back to our community was unwavering. Throughout her years at Maria Creo High School, she served with dignity, strength, and enduring spirit that inspired everyone around her. For many of the teachers in the English department, Trish was the first person to reach out to our new hires. One of her colleagues shared that in early June before my

029first year at Maria Creo High School, I was fresh out of my credential program and Trish invited me to her house. She gave me cookies and copies of assignments. She wanted new teachers to feel prepared and supported both on a practical level and on an emotional level. This is who Trish Terrell was. In recent years, our Maria Creo High School community has endured extraordinary hardship, particularly during the Tubs fire in 2017 and the Glass Fire in 20120. These disasters devastated our region. With more than 200 of our staff and families losing their homes in the aftermath of both fires, Trish Terrell emerged as a beacon of strength and compassion. She worked tirelessly, often behind the scenes, coordinating resources, organizing support, and ensuring that those impacted were not navigating their loss alone. Following the Glass Fire,

030Trish was the very first teacher to reach out to me in an email literally the day after the flame started, not with questions about logistics, but with heartfelt concern for our students. She wrote, "I'm just wondering if there's been any outreach to check in on the kids who are affected by the most recent fire. Do they need books, school supplies? Do we know if there are in housing and need household items? That message captured the essence of who Trish was. Someone who always led with empathy, who thought first of others, and who instinctively moved to action when her community was in need. Her deep care and immediate response reflected the very best of who we strive to be at Korea. During the difficulty of the following year with the pandemic, Trish was vital in bringing

031colleagues together through a professional development initiative titled building a community of well-being, a teacher resiliency development. Teachers and admin who joined her in this program read and met online to reflect on books and wellness. These sessions created a safe space for teachers to share openly, listen deeply, and build trust, strengthening our schools community, school community's sense of belonging. A unique and impactful component of this initiative which Trish loved was the incorporation of ecquin therapy to promote emotional healing and resilience. Trish was a lover of animals. She would often try to convince us to meet with her on a Sunday evening saying, "What's better than hugging a horse's butt?" Whether she was a mentor to new teachers, the empathetic role model, or the bringer of food to sick teachers, Trish generously shared her knowledge and offered

032comfort and guidance during difficult times. Our staff shares that she embodied a true heart of gold, endlessly generous with her time and her resources. Losing Trish is a heavy blow to all of us. We deeply miss her laughter and her unwavering spirit. Yet her presence remains deeply felt and her legacy of kindness, strength, and advocacy will continue to inspire us. Please join me in honoring Trish Terrell today, celebrating her 19 years of dedication, her incredible impact on our school and community, and the indelible mark that she has left on all of us. Thank you. You don't Thank you, Principal Whis, for helping us honor such an important educator. Um, and congratulations again to Cali and Lisa. Our last school tonight for awards is Montgomery High School. I believe we have Vice Principal Thompson here to

033present. It's not I'm not presenting the first award. Mr. Le France is presenting the first award. Great. Thank you. It's already been an emotional day following following that CO that that is makes me even more emotional. I'm probably not going to make it through this one myself. I'll do my best. It's a pretty awesome kid standing sitting next to me. Um, first of all, thank you Santa Rosa City School Board of Education for continuing to take time out of your busy agendas to recognize the amazing students and staff that make up this district. With all the challenges our district is facing, it would be easy to push this aside. And I'm thankful you still make this a priority and time for it in our board agenda. Tonight, it is my honor to recognize the Montgomery

034High School student of the month, Lulia Bay. To honor Lulia, I hoped it would be appropriate to read some of the highlights of the letter of recommendation I wrote for her a few months ago. So, here we go. Hope. During a career, every teacher has those students who they know are special. Not only reminding them why they became a teacher, but also having as large of an impact on us as we hopefully had on them. Louis Yay is one of those students. Not just a student is one of the top of her class, but one of the most amazing students I've had in my 30-year career. One look at Lilia's transcript would demonstrate her academic prowess. However, her true impact cannot be measured in grades or test scores. She cares deeply about her school, community,

035friends, and family, and has demonstrated her dedication by becoming involved in leadership at all levels of our community. Lulia joined our ASB/ student government class her sophomore year, serving as VIP in our culture committee. This group works with clubs, student senate, student of the quarter recognitions, and our annual unity week. But little did we know that during our first year, the trajectory of our entire school would change. As we all know by now, on March f 1st of 2023, we tragically had a student die on our campus. And Jaden's death still haunts us today. Trauma can create a fight orflight response, and I know this board has seen both from the Montgomery community, and understandably, some families chose to pull their students from our school. Lulia's family did consider having her transfer and as she

036commits from Windsor each day, I would not have blamed them. However, Lulia chose to stay and our campus community directly benefited. In addition, not only did she choose not to transfer, she decided to run for a larger role in ASB the following year, becoming the director of our ASB culture committee, hoping to positively influence our school. As we reeled in the aftermath of a student death, Lulia leaned in. She joined community advisory and safety committees. She attended meetings at our county office of education, city of Santa Rosa town halls, and began speaking at Santa Rosa city schoolboard meetings and with board members. She developed relationships with our mayor, superintendent, and school board members, all of whom came to know her by name, with some even giving her their personal cell phone numbers. She was articulate

037and professional, but unafraid to speak the truth and stand up for the acute needs of our school. Though we were not able to bring Jaden back, Lulia directly influenced our campus climate as we have or had increased restorative specialists, campus supervisors, and seen incredible amounts of construction to address ongoing issues with our facility. I could go on and on about Lilia's impact, but it goes without saying she has demonstrated she can achieve and impact culture. On a personal level, I've struggled with the ongoing stress of our on our educational system. fires, more fires, COVID, Jaden's death, and now school closures and personnel movement are taking a daily toll. However, when I consider walking away from it all, the Lulas of the world renew my hope. Remind me there are still so many reasons to continue

038to move forward trying to do bright by the students that grace our halls. Luliet, thank you for being one of the most transformative students I've had in my career. There is no doubt in my mind you're going to be the agent of change that we want to see in the world. Sorry, there's official actually shout out to Mr. Lef France. Thank you for all of your work in Montgomery and the community. Well, it's hard to follow that. And and I don't have my classified employee of the year with me, so I'm just going to read what we wrote about her instead. Um, thank you to the board. Good evening. Um, it is my true honor to recognize Jessica Andrade Burnaby as McGomery High School's 2025 classified employee of the year tonight. Jessica currently serves as

039our incredible counseling secretary, but anyone who knows her knows that Jessica is so much more than a title. She is the heart and soul of our counseling office, a bridge for our multilingual learners, a mentor for our students, a support for our families and staff, and a true leader on campus. Before stepping into her current role, Jessica served as McGomery's family engagement facilitator, a role in which she didn't just thrive, she set the bar for the entire district. Her commitment to authentic family and community engagement was and continues to be a model for what that work should look like, personal, persistent, and powerful. Jessica is a consmate professional. She is the first to offer translation services and support, help a student troubleshoot a Chromebook or navigate the stress of school, and lend a listening ear

040to a colleague, which a lot of people visit her every day. But she's also the one who will step up to have the hard conversations about equity, access, or support because she knows that genuine care means speaking up, not staying quiet. Her connection to our multilingual learners is something special. It's not just that she speaks the language is that it's that she understands their journey. She often helps them feel seen, heard, and valued before they even know how to ask for help. For so many of our students, Jessica is that trusted adult with whom they check in, not just because they have to, but because they want to. And she looks like she's like 18, so they really feel like they can trust her instead of us old people in the other offices. While she's

041doing all this supporting students, staff, and families, Jessica is also pursuing her dream of becoming a school counselor. She earned her degree from Sonoma State while working full-time and supporting her own family. Now, she's attending attending Chico State online, continuing to move toward her goal while maintaining the same standard of care, commitment, and excellence she's known for. Jessica embodies what it means to be a Viking. She leads with grace, strength, and heart. As a Latina, she models perseverance, professionalism, and purpose for our students who often feel unseen. She shows them their success is possible, service matters, and that they matter. Montgomery High School is a better place because of Jessica Andre Burnaby. We are endlessly grateful for her and so proud to honor her as our classified employee of the year. You're next. Now I

042get somebody to sit next to me. Come on down. Wait. Okay. So, this is Morgan Schmidt. She's our certificated employee of the year. Um, it is with great pride and deep appreciation that I st sit before you to honor Morgan Schmidt, Montgomery High School's 2025 teacher of the year. Morgan is quite simply the kind of educator every school dreams of having. She's an outstanding math teacher, a committed cheer coach, and an unwavering advocate for students. But above all, she is a person of incredible heart, integrity, and purpose. In her classroom, students find a space where they are not only expected to succeed, but empowered to. Morgan's students will tell you she's strict, she's clear, and she demands the best from them. But they'll also tell you without hesitation that she gives them just as much

043in return. She teaches, she retaches, she breaks down barriers, and she makes math make sense. And if you're struggling, whether it's with factoring polomials or something personal, you can always go to her. There's no judgment. There's only care. as a coach. By the way, she's um 2025 spring cheer team coach. They got the cheer team of the spring cheer team of the season, excuse me, cheer team of the season. Morgan builds more than routines. She builds confidence, leadership, and community. She teaches her cheerleaders what it means to lift each other up on and off the field, and they're really amazing. As a colleague, Morgan is repeatedly described as hardworking, dependable, kind, and generous with her time and knowledge. She shows up early, late, and on weekends if needed. She leads with equity, ensures every student

044is seen and heard, and consistently centers her work on what is best for students. Her dedication does not stop at the door. She checks in, follows up, and never gives up on anyone. In a world where the work of teachers often goes unseen, Morgan Schmidt stands out, sorry, and shines. She exemplifies the best of public education, a fierce belief in young people, and an unrelenting commitment to helping them grow, succeed, and thrive. On behalf of the entire Viking community and the countless students and families she has touched, it is an honor to celebrate Miss Morgan Schmidt as McGomery's High School teacher of the year. We are so proud of her and we are so grateful that she is a Viking. Congratulations. Oh, so next Congratulations to Lulia, Jessica, and Morgan. Next up, we have a

045couple cheer awards. Um, recognition of the Maria Coreo High School Cheer Team Award. I believe Director Deator has something prepared. Yes, please. Can I get my Puma Cheer Squad down on the floor, please? sad. Okay. Hello. Good evening everyone. Uh I am trustee Delator, the seventh district trustee, and I am Marie Crew High School's trustee. So it is with great honor and is with me immense pride and excitement that we gather here today to celebrate the outstanding achievements of the Maria Crew High School cheer team. Their dedication, spirit, and teamwork have not only elevated the school spirit, but have also set a new standard for excellence in our community. At this time, I am honored to present the Murray Crew High School cheer team for their exemplary performance and distinguished achievement in earning the United

046Spirit Association High School Spirit Nationals Award. Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education proudly recognizes this achievement and are grateful for your experience, your time, your commitment to your sport. And we're very proud of you guys. Thank you so very much. And I do believe you ladies have something you'd like to share with us. Yes. Good afternoon. My name is Gabriella Mendoza Mandragon. I was the captain of the 2425 season. Um we'd like to take a moment to um thank the board for this incredible honor. Um after the 125 practices, we are so happy to um see that it all paid off. We'd also like to thank the board for um taking on this incredible challenge this year. We've had a very rocky year to say the least. Um and we'd like to show our

047appreciation for all of the incredible work you guys have done. Um, I'd also like to take the moment to urge the board to reconsider um, classifying cheer as a sport. This sport has opened so many windows, so many doors. Um, this sport has opened so many new windows, so many new doors to all of the girls behind us. um it has opened new opportunities and we have all of our seniors last year um got scholarships um for school and more than half accepted those and our juniors are currently being recruited. Um if they're not they will be very soon. Um but I'd just like to um honor these girls for all of the hard work that has paid off. Um Cheer has opened a new home for us and we'd just like to um honor

048that and continue to do what we love. Um, and we all think that cheer deserves to be a sport. All of the girls behind me are athletes. We put in work day and night and we had we would love to continue to do what we love. We are working at such a high level. Um, we're working higher than our junior college and Sonoma State. and to um excuse me and to earn this national title at the advanced level feels like we are making history and we would like to um honor that and appreciate all of the hard work from not only our um athletes but also our coaches and our parents who have supported us through all of the Rocky challenges. Um so thank you so much for taking this for honoring us this year

049um and celebrating this incredible moment in history. Um, thank you so much for your time. Thank you and congratulations again. Next up, excuse me, but we will now be um heading over to practice. Thank you so much. Okay. All right. Next up, Trusty Jenkins is going to present the Montgomery High School cheer team. On. Are we on? Yes. Come on down. Cheer. All right. So, there they are. Hi everybody. Um, my script is identical to Trustee uh, Deatorries. So, I'm actually just going to go off script and tell you what this award says. And I am a proud cheer mom. I'm such a crier. It's just a crying day. U, but I want to uh, present this certificate of acknowledgement. Uh, the Santa Rosa City Schools Board of Education proudly recognizes the Montgomery High School

050cheer team for their exemplary performance and the distinguished achievement in earning the spring 2025 cheer team of the season award for May 2025. So, great job you guys. I have been cheering with you in the stands all over the season so far. Thanks. You're welcome to say a couple words if you'd like. Don't have anything to say. We're gonna prepare anything. Yeah. I just want to say thank you. I really appreciate um you guys um looking after the cheer team. I know cheer is not considered a sport. Um but we do appreciate you guys um acknowledging us and also Maro as well too. Congratulations on your guys' wins. Um I just think I'm going to go off of them. Cheers should definitely be a sport. Um I know we work harder than a lot of

051sports out there. Um and definitely pushing for So, thank you for your time. I appreciate Congratulations, Montgomery Cheer. I'll wait a minute while folks file out. All right. Our next item is a special presentation for outgoing student board member Zuniga Omeay has been representing the student voice of SRCS for the past school year. So we want to take a minute to thank him and recognize his work. Um maybe each board member could say a little something about OM. Omar, do you want to start? Sure. Oh, man. Uh, I I gotta say that it's been awesome to have you on the board. I I seen a lot of students and I I must admit you have been one of the most actively engaged. It's been awesome to see how much you've interacted with students. I think

052you've done an incredible job at representing the voice of the students and listening to the students and um being a part of getting the the the council going and started. I think that's been incredibly helpful and something that hopefully will live on with the foundation of the legacy that you started from the energy that you've put into it. Um, I know you're a senior. I think you're going to is it pitcher? Pitcher College. Congratulations. I hope it all goes well and I wish you nothing but but success. Remember Hey, I you know like the other new members I it's a shame I didn't get to know you more uh and interact with you more but I was again also impressed by uh your interaction with the students particularly you know with Dr. Morales helping to

053get the student uh council set up and and getting them involved especially during the uh consolidation process and and getting to hear their voices and I I really appreciate your work there and wish you all the best in college. Thanks. Hi. Um I kind of echo a little bit of what Mark is saying. We haven't had a much of a chance to get to know each other. Um but I appreciate your advocacy. I appreciate your community involvement. Um, I appreciate you see seeing you in the stands with all your school spirit. Um, and I know that you'll take that on your next adventure as well. And I wish you the best of luck in your entire life. who may a former seatmate. Uh greatly appreciate all of your contributions helping raise up student voices that

054came in here. You know, bringing forward um discussions around waste, environmental justice issues, as well as advocating for students throughout what's been a very difficult year and uh asking tough questions and just keep engaging. And I I am just so impressed by your advocacy and your activism at your age. I wish I was like half as cool as you are when I was your age. Um and I think I think it started even before you joined us on the board. You were coming to public comment. You were you were doing the work. Um so I'm really proud of you. I'm really excited to see where you go. Oh may s see yoursa extremely proud of you. Um inspired by you um challenged by you um given opportunities to do my work and see my work

055through a new lens and another perspective. Um the utmost respect for you. There are people that you come to meet throughout your life and some at a young age that you're really excited to a few decades later say I knew him then. And I'm very proud to say that I'm going to be able to share I know Om Zeniga then um when he was a young man getting started and finding his growth and his found foundation and your passion for your culture um the environment, the love for your family. Um you exemplify all the great amazing things we hope for a Sanity School student to be. You have been really excited and looking forward to your college career and everything you do after. So, thank you so much for everything you've brought to this board,

056to this community, um, and that you bring every day. Oh, may I just want to thank you and echo what all of the board has said. Thank you so much for your leadership with the superintendent's student advisory council. You've done an amazing job. I know I just got to join that group, but you've really set the set that on the right track going forward and again elevating student voice. You have done so with grace and amazing leadership in difficult times. Thank you. And look at that. We got through the C items in less than an hour. All right. Reports. Um, California School Employee Association President Mary Leman. Can you hear me? Good evening, President McN, board members, interim superintendent Lisa August, student board member, cabinet, and everyone joining us on Zoom. Thank you to everyone

057who showed up tonight. As well, on behalf of CSEA, we want to recognize the students, teachers, and classified employees from Brook Hill, Maria Creo, and Mon Montgomery High School that we're honored tonight. We also want to remember Trish Terrell from Maria Creo High School. Her passion for teaching left a mark and she will be missed. A special thank you to our amazing classified honores. Vanessa Vargas Mendes, the family engagement facilitator at Brook Hill, Lisa Greenstein, administrative assistant at Maria Creo, and Jessica Andradi Barnaby, counseling secretary and registar from Montgomery High School. They are passionate about their work. We see them and we thank them. After tonight, there are seven days before the end of the school year. It is a time for thank yous and farewells. It is a time for reflection and gratitude. We

058are here to honor and thank our many, too many co-workers who are leaving, laid off, or retiring in June. While we can't thank each of you by name, we want to thank you all. You have been part of the public education that prepares the next generation to think, to speak, and to lead in our democracy. You have helped our students learn and grow. Your work mattered. Your presence mattered. We appreciate the time you spent with us. May the value of your time and efforts continue to be with you in your future endeavors. A special farewell to OM, our student board member. Thank you for showing up, for listening, and for your voice. And we support the addition of the new student representatives from Ridgeway and LC Allen High School that will join us next year.

059I know this is a night of recognition and farewells, but we also need to talk about reality. How is it that we're adding new administrative positions? We're talking about salaries, $120,000, $135,000, $151,000. And some of that money is coming from LCAP, money that's supposed to support our most vulnerable students. LCAP and grant dollars being used for admins instead of aids. Classified staff have taken on more with less. We've been laid off, reassigned, and told to wait. We cannot keep asking staff to sacrifice while the district office grows. The board approved a fiscal stabilization plan. Adding high cal high high salary positions undermines that plan. It risks even more layoffs down the road. In this financial climate with deferrals from the state, rising special education costs, and minimal reserves, the district must prioritize studentf facing positions

060and essential operations. Adding administrative positions when we're in a structural deficit not only contradicts fiscal stabilization, but risks the trust and stability we desperately need to rebuild. We are already making sacrifices. Let's not undermine the progress. Let's align our budget with our values. The most innovative strategy we can invest in is simple. Put more caring adults in front of kids. We ask this board to lead with courage. Lead with care. We don't need more layers of leadership. We need boots on the ground. We need a budget that reflects and pays the people doing the work with compassion. Thank you. Thank you, President Neon. Next is our Santa Rosa Teachers Association report. President Katherine Howell. Good evening. I think President Layman has said it all this evening. Um, but I'll I'll put my two cents in

061there. Um, good evening, President McN, interim superintendent August, members of the board, members of the community, fellow teachers. I do want to add my congratulations to everyone from Montgomery High School, Brook Hill Elementary, and Maria Creo High School. um especially Trish Tarella who I've spoken about before from this podium and um what an amazing and wonderful p person she was. Um I also want to throw in I I think the young women spoke very well for themselves but really why haven't the cheer teams been recognized as a sport, right? They work hard. They're athletic. They proved that they winning awards. This could be a sport very easily. As easily as perhaps you made flag football a sport, you could embrace one that already exists and is already successful for the women in our high schools.

062Um, I want to say thank you to uh, trustees Medina and Kirby and De Laator for coming to some of you more than one of our um, little informal gettogethers that SRTA is hosting with board members. This is an opportunity to be open and have candid conversations. Trusty Casten has attended as well and Trusty Jenkins. So, we've gotten most of you there, but not all of our board members have come. And this is not a chance for us to yell at you. This is a chance to have a really nice conversation um and make sure that, you know, our view is being seen and and that we can be heard by the board. So, we're going to continue to do it. We are going to continue to invite everyone and we really hope that you

063will continue to attend. Um I also want to just quickly say thank you for um starting on time. I know that your close session meetings can be really intense, but it is also very respectful to get out here for the crowd and especially with all of the families that were here tonight. So, we are just a handful of days away from the end of this school year. The teachers are absolutely exhausted and part of our exhaustion is of course watching our schools and our co-workers and our traditions and our history slowly disappear. Um, we're losing our support. We're losing a lot of our support staff. We're losing colleagues. We're watching dozens and dozens of people being shuffled and redelt. Like, it's as easy as playing with a deck of cards. And it's heartbreaking and it's

064exhausting and it's it's adjectives that I can't even come up with um to make this really really really hard. Uh, normally at this time of year, I'd say to, you know, people are going to be able to rest and recuperate and recover, but I don't think so because they're going to be moving and packing and trying to figure out new schools and new colleagues and new administrators that they've never met before and it's not going to be restful and it's not going to be relaxing. Um, I am going to say thank you for pulling three new job descriptions from the consent agenda. Um, we hope that means you're going to look closer at them. We hope that means you're going to look at ways to use these funds for students rather than for administrators. Um,

065I get it. The positions are temporary. At least two of them are listed as temporary. They say grant money and LCAP and Title One and Title Three. And we all know that all of that money can be used in the classroom as easily as it can be used on more administrators. How do we spend this money so that it's affecting the students rather than an admin to coach other admin? How about a counselor or a student engagement facilitator who's going to work directly with students during our transition? rather than an admin to organize more professional development, why not just give teachers some time to do some professional development they are experts at that can have a direct and immediate impact on their students. Um, it really is worrisome to see hundreds of our fellow staff

066people, both CSEA and SRTA, moving on and disappearing and the cuts to the district office being basically reversed in one fell swoop. Uh, I want to mention just really quickly the student board members. Congratulations, OME, for your fabulous year. Um, we've never actually talked to each other one-on-one, but I know that it's a good experience. We're glad there's going to be two students. I'm a little concerned about the rotation chart that's in today's board agenda. I know that there was discussion about balancing it, rotating it, yet you look at that and there's one student from Santa Rosa High School in the next 10 year next 10 kids, one of them is from Santa Rosa. That's not balanced. That's not that's not an equitable rotation. So, I would really encourage you to look at that before

067you approve them. And I also want to say thank you to Dr. McCarti, who I'm happy to see here in the audience. Again, he's bringing up conversations that we need for our next steps. He's talking about the emotional needs of the staff. We're we need to move past thinking of teachers as cogs in the machine and and people that just cost money and how do we save that, but and start thinking about the core human needs. And I have this fancy little chart that Dr. McCarti gave us that talked we talked about it last Friday. We need to focus on that. Hopefully it's been brought to the ad hoc committee as well. Um security, inclusion, power, order and control and competence and justice and fairness and thinking about our educators now as humans rather than

068expenses and that's what I hope we can achieve and that's what I hope we need to work for in the future. Thank you. Thank you, President Howell. Next is the superintendence report. Going to keep it brief this this evening and stick with the the um mood of celebration and talking about all of the great things that we have going on as we're closing out this year. We have senior awards nights. We have amazing celebrations for some of those transitions that you know we are going through with the closure of some schools celebrating their history. Um we have graduation coming up uh tomorrow night. We have like I said some senior awards night as well as the exploratorium event at um sorry the planetarium event at at uh Piner and on Friday our Native American graduation.

069So, just some great events coming up. Looking forward to all of that. Um, I'll speak a little bit more um actually with to tag on to what um President Howell said when I get to the um reconfiguration report. So, thank you. Great for my board president report. I really have nothing to report. Happy to be here. Happy to see everyone. I am excited to be at the graduation at Pioneer next week. Um other board members go Jenkins then Deator. Um yes so I don't have too much to report this week but I have attended two of the SCO ad hoc meetings since the last board meeting and find them to be very helpful to see open and honest conversations between the two organizations including feedback and datadriven support pointing out specific areas we can improve

070on. I'm seeing our admin team taking that info and hitting the ground running. I'm hopeful we can steer this bo this boat in a successful direction over the next few months. Um this is the last meeting before the end of the school year for our students and all of those who support them. Uh just a congratulations to all. The Slater farewell is Friday from 5 to 8 and we say so long to four campuses within our two districts. Um, I just want to point out to continue to be thoughtful in communications with the community members as we all navigate these transitions. Uh, and as a reminder, all feelings are valid. Um, there's a lot of feelings right now. We have many current students whose elementary schools and middle schools have closed either in recent years

071or this next coming month. U, that being said, there are, as we've been talking about, so many celebrations this weekend next. Don't forget to pace yourself. uh finish strong and um watch out for the summer slide. Uh shameless plugs to the library summer reading program. It's for adults and children. Get some free books, read lots of wonderful things. Uh as well as the um center of police department, their youth experience, community police experience is accepting applications for their hands-on summer program. All of those things are free. I love free things. Another plug about the libraries. They have a tamalei making class. I did it last year. It was amazing. Um, so highly recommend. And for those who are moving on from San Jose City Schools, I wish you the absolute best on all of your

072next adventures. Trusty Dator. Thank you, President. Um, I'm going to start with some business first. um because we have not had the opportunity to um transparently do a lot of reporting out from our Hadok meetings with SCO and there's some good information in there that um you guys need to know. Like Trusty Jenkins said um it's been a very uh wonderful collaborative effort to get some minds in the room that are working on the same problem together and collaboratively and finding the right solutions to properly transition and move forward. Um last week's meeting um touched on FitMac working on site with our team. Um special ed continuing to strategize and communicate and assess needs throughout both sites. Um communications meeting what met with the PD last week to report out on some of the transition

073plans. Um and continuing to support positive connections and stories throughout the public. So, we're lifting up all the accolades that our students and community are doing and not just a negative story. Um, when propositioned, transitions teams feel really good about where they're at. Um, progress has definitely been made on both sites, identifying classrooms and spaces and listening to the needs of those teams on how this is going to be successful. Uh the current enrollment for McGomery High's junior senior program is a total of$,759 465 at the junior program and 12294 at the senior program with 58 of those students coming from the San Jose French American charter school enrollment. Santa Rosa high schools currently at 2013 463 with the junior program and 1550 with the senior program. Um, something that we have talked about with

074trustees is what can we do to be better representative during this transition and help these teams. And something that came up was if there are opportunities for trustees to attend an empower and design meeting um if nothing else just to have enough respect to show up and listen and be in the room for those very difficult conversations that um are finding growth and opportunity on how to lead to success. Um I know some trustees had attended those meetings and all the members of those teams said that was very helpful um and empowering for them to be involved. Uh a big thing that last week's meeting focused on was um surveys and reports that Dr. Gendler and his team had worked on um identifying surveys and interviews with campuses of LC Allen, Santa Rosa High School,

075and Montgomery um around safety, how the students and community are feeling. Um, and some good data and information came out of those reports. Um, some stuff that our team's already working on and some stuff that our team was able to identify, including what's working well, what is positive, what's providing, what our students and teachers need, and ensuring that we are lifting those up and supporting those programs on our campuses. Um, I had the pleasure of attending all of our elementary school open houses last week, including the bittersweet parties held at Brook Hill and Bella. Um, an open house and a back to school night are a very unique opportunity. They're near and dear to my heart. School was the safe place to be. So, school was open at night. It was really exciting for me

076to go as a student. I never attended with a parent to any of those events to the 14 schools I went to, but I went to every open house and back to school night. And when I was at open house last week, there is nothing more cherish than to see the kids dragging their parents onto campus wearing their school t-shirt, bringing ear to ear to share experiences and art and opportunities that they wanted to showcase for their day and their year at school. Um, so just so much love and pride in those opportunities, for those open houses, for the teachers, for the extra work and the time and the commitment and showing the true relationships they've built with these students and how cherished they are. Um, for more information on Friday night, it is called

077Spartans Forever, a celebration of over 70 years of Spartan spirit. So, if you're ever a student, a teacher, uh, involved with Slater, uh, please go Friday, May 30th between 5:00 and 8:00, and it'll be a great time to collaborate and go over history and look through old yearbooks and just honor and celebrate that campus at its closing. Um, this been a rough year. There's no other way to say it. So, thank you. Thank you to our community. Thank you to our families, our students, our teachers, the tireless efforts that the cabinet and district staff have been going through to get us through this year and get us to where we need to be to find a better tomorrow. We have been doing better. We will do better. And it's something that we continue to work

078and push forward through. And I just want to thank everybody for an amazing year and want our graduates to really enjoy their last week of high school next week and make those connections and say goodbye and thank yous to your teachers and staff that got you where you are. Um, and really enjoy the milestone of walking across that stage next Friday. Thank you, Trusty Medina. Yeah, just uh real quick uh first off uh thank you again to SRTA for the invite to engage in conversation. I really appreciate that. Thought it was productive. Um I also just really simply wanted to remind folks that the application is open for the trustee area 6. It's open till what? June 13th. Um just go to src srcschools.org. And there on the main page, there's a button you could

079click to find out more information about trustee area 6 application process to fill the vacant board seat. Thank you. Any other board member reports? Student board members. Thank you. Um, okay. So, we had our last super incident superintendent student council meeting of the year last week. um and we welcomed um Miss August to come and um be our interim superintendent and leader of the council. Um, and I'm super super excited for what's to hold next year and what's going to what's going to happen with the council and I have um amazing ideas of what could happen and I'm totally confident that it's going to just bloom into something super beautiful um from the work that we did this year. Um and yeah, I am so thankful to have had this privilege of serving behind the

080dis with you all. Um it has been an experience that I will never regret. Um I almost missed this. My principal came up to me at break one day and he was like, "You should you should sign up for this." and he handed me a packet and I looked over at it and I did it during lunch and then I turned it in and I had no idea what it was like what it entailed um or that I'd become uh a representative during one of the craziest times in my life um and in my community. But I did um and it's taught me so much. It has opened my eyes to a new world, new levels of complexity. I learned how to read board policy. Um, and it actually is really interesting. Um, so I

081I am super thankful for that and I have uh so much excitement for the future board members. Um, now that they're two, now that there are two, um, I've met them. They're amazing. They're super cool and they're super ready. Um, so yeah, thank you so much. I will be uh running for Pomona Pitzer next year, D3 national champs like five years in a row hopefully. So, we'll be top 10 there. It's going to be fun. Um, I'm going to be majoring in environmental studies. Um, hopefully with like a a focus on environmental law. And then I plan to go to grad school, work on policy there. So, thank you for teaching me how to read policy because I I really like it. Thank you so much. Great. And we have our school reconfiguration report. Well,

082at this time, um, our teams, as we're as we're nearing the end of the school year, some of the things that we're really focusing on are identifying the timelines for all of the things that need to happen over the next couple of months. There's less to report out on a regular basis. So, you won't necessarily be hearing full reconfiguration reports regularly, but when there's something new to share, we'll be we'll be sharing that out. Um, our empowerment teams are breaking into smaller groups, working in subcommittees to talk about to address specific issues. Same thing in design. We're really focusing more in on specific work. We're also not losing sight of the fact that yes, we have schools merging this upcoming year in a reconfiguration with with Slater and Montgomery and Santa Rosa Middle and Santa

083Rosa High, but we're also preparing for the following year and we're starting the um when we come back in the in the later in the summer um starting to work with the Pioner and Comtock teams and working on the redesign for LC Allen with their um 4x4 modified schedule. Um a lot of exciting work happening and it is difficult work for the heart. Um I want to acknowledge that that these are not easy transitions. They are not quick transitions. We go through many stages and I want to echo um what President Hell said as far as our appreciation for the collaboration work with uh Dr. Dr. McCarti and I want to speak a little bit um about one of the models that he brought forward that our wellness and engagement team let our administrators um

084in an exercise with to help us connect with what our school sites are going through in the different stages. It's not just the school sites. It's our entire district is going through an upheaval, a reconfiguration with staff moves, with department changes, with all with all of it. So, um I appreciate that endings um transition starts with an ending. This is paradoxal paradoxical but true. This first phase of transition begins when people identify what they are losing and learn how to manage the losses. They determine what is over and being left behind and what they will keep. These may include relationships, processes, team members or locations. And I think that that was a really powerful place for us to start from in those conversations. And it's something for us to keep in mind. So I just

085wanted to acknowledge that there's the next step is the neutral zone. So that's where people go through an in between time when the old is gone but the new isn't fully operational. That was something that was me mentioned um with Mary and with Katherine. Um it's when the critical psychological realignments and repatternings begin to take place. We have to get move through each of these stages. And so just as a reference, it's called the bridges model. So thank you Dr. McCarti for introducing us to that. And also just want to make sure that we are as we are going through all of this keeping the heart in mind and remembering that we are all here going through this together and we appreciate the work very very much. Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent August. Right. Next,

086we have public comment on non-aggenda and consent items. I will call three names at a time. So, when you hear your name, please line up behind one of the two podiums. You will have two minutes each. Um, I received one student card, so I'll start with that one and then go to the non- studentents. So, first is Dean Jansen, followed by Cara Fitchet, followed by Alex Cone. Am I good? Okay. Hello, my name is Dean Jansen. I am a student at Santa Rosa High School and a proud ArtQuest theater arts graduating senior. I wanted to say one more time to express the importance of performing arts education and to continue to harness the programs we have here in the Santa Rosa City School District. In a study by Dartmouth University, theater develops highly transferable skills

087that employers value across industries such as communication, teamwork, and problem solving skills. Beyond that, theater builds confidence, empathy, and leadership. It grows students just like me a place to grow and be and be heard. Within our district, we have amazing award-winning programs at Montgomery High School. Their stage graph program allows students to have access to state-of-the-art technology that is used in professional spaces such as such as Broadway. Encore theater at Maria Coreo creates industry level productions preparing students for theater after high school. And at Art Quest at San High School, students are given personalized lessons on how to become more developed as an actor. These programs matter. They help students find their voices, their confidence, and their future. Overall, performing arts in our district is some of the best in the state. I'd like to

088thank the board for their growing support of pro performing arts throughout this school year and urge this board to continue supporting these arts throughout the future. Thank you so much. Thank you, Dean. Next is Cara Fitchet followed by Alex Cone followed by Michael Converse. Am I next? Yes. Go ahead. It's my first time. Sorry. Okay. Good evening, members of the board. I am here tonight to express my concern and disappointment over the involuntary transfer of Melissa Baker from Montgomery High School. While I understand that declining enrollment and budget constraints force difficult staffing decisions, I urge the board to consider the human impact, particularly now that a counseling position has reopened at Montgomery due to her retirement. It is both baffling and heartbreaking that Mrs. Baker is still being moved despite the vacancy. Melissa Baker has

089dedicated nine years of service to the students of Montgomery High School. In the past three years that I've known her, I've witnessed her relentless commitment to students well-being. She is firm when needed, compassionate always, and consistently present for students who often face challenges beyond the classroom. She makes them feel safe, seen, and valued. Santa Rosa City Schools strives to be student centered. I am struggling to understand how removing a trusted effective counselor from the very students who rely on her is aligned with that vision. How does further destabilizing a school already facing major changes in the best interest of our students? Miss Baker is not just an employee. She is part of the Montgomery community. to move her against her will when a role she's more than qualified to fill remains vacant, defies logic, and

090undermines student trust and leadership. I respectfully urge the board and district leadership to reexamine this decision. If our focus is truly on what's best for our students, then the path forward is clear. Let Melissa Baker stay at McGomery High School. Thank you. Thank you. Next is Alex Cone, followed by Michael Converse, followed by Kristen Real. Hi, my name is Is? My name is Alex Cone. I'm a resident born and raised in in Santa Rosa. I have two young kids who I'm hoping to send to school. Public school would be nice, but I won't do that unless some things change. I took time away from them this evening to come talk to you and try to educate you on an issue that you might not even be thinking about and that's RF radiation and the fact

091that it's a neurotoxin causes behavioral problems learning problems memory plot problems the WHO just found with metaanalysis that it causes cancer which takes years to develop but you're obviously having some uh violent and behavioral problems in your schools which parents now aren't comfortable sending their kids to schools and uh you're struggling. So, I I suggest that you address this issue and get it on your radar. No pun intended. Cell phones out. AB 3216 phone free student act gives you guys the right to get the cell phones out of the schools. You need to do that. If they're going to have their cell phones, they need to be on airplane mode. All three antennas, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and the main antenna. Wi-Fi. This will take time, but you need to hook them up to Ethernet. No more

092radiating Wi-Fi over kids' heads. Work with your IT to wire up the the tablets and and whatnot. Cell phone towers, no new contracts, any existing contracts, any cell phone towers on schools need to be taken off when legally possible. You need to do your best to make that happen. Smart watches, no need for those. and an earbuds or whatever you call them, the wireless headphones. Kids don't need those. Between the five of those, it's a crap storm of EMFs in the classroom. And it's harming the kids. I'm telling you, it's harming these kids. And I worry about their future. Give me a second here. I'm just going to show you. Can you hear this? Sorry, sir. Your time is up. Can you give me 10 seconds? I have to stick to the time limit. Thank

093you for sharing. Next is Michael Converse followed by Christristen Real. Go ahead, Michael. Good evening. I'm Michael Converse. I teach living earth and earth science over at Piner High School. Um, didn't really have a planned speech tonight. I'm just going to share a personal experience with you that I've uh had this year. It's 2025. I've been teaching for 30 years now. And an incredible thing happened this year and uh simply put, I didn't have to send a single student to the principal's office this year. And that doesn't happen. Now, I would love to take credit for this all by myself cuz I'm an awesome teacher and I've learned how to defuse situations. And part of that is true. But the truth is the big reason for this is because we have an awesome restorative specialist

094at Piner High School. We have two very awesome family engagement people working in the front office. Um, we have wonderful campus supervisors and behind the scenes they're diffusing a lot of situations and things run very nicely at least from where I'm seeing at Pineer High School and I'm hearing tonight on many levels, you know, we're celebrating uh different staff members and teachers and classified staff members and I'm hearing in the reports we're reshuff shuffling the deck and I simply as a teacher give a really really heartfelt request. Please do not move these people at Piner or at any other school. They are sorely needed where they are needed. And in the CA, as they said in the CEA report, we need boots on the ground. Thank you. Your time is up. Next is Kristen Real.

095Go ahead. Good evening. I'm Kristen Reid and I teach English and psychology at Montgomery High School. I just wanted to point out that the one site administrator we have right now is also one you fired and deemed not a good fit for our district. Mercedes Thompson has been busting her tail to do everything she can for our school. And as you saw earlier, with one arm strapped to her side, despite the fact that repeated pleas for her reinstatement have been met with a negative response, and that she has had to face searching for a new job, she continues to show up for the students, the staff, and her admin colleagues in a powerfully committed way. Her energy is an excellent compliment for our projected admin team next year and she would provide much needed stability

096as we continue to muddle our way through the 7 to2 consolidation with which we have been tasked. Give this new Montgomery a chance to be successful and bring her back next year. Thank you. Thank you. Are there any other blue cards? There are no other blue cards. All right, then we will move on to our consent items. Me get back to my agenda. I'll move F1 through 7, 10, 11, and 15. Sorry, 1 through 6, 10, 11, and 15. Second. What about nine? Nine get pulled. Seeking a motion on F 1 through 6, 9 through 11 and 15. And 9 through 11 and 15. Second. All right. Moved by Trusty Casten, seconded by uh Trusty Medina. Roll call vote. Student board members ina. I. Trusty Casten. I. Trusty Medina. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Kirby.

097I. Trusty Deator. I. President Mcnal. I. Motion passes. All right. Um, is there discussion on F7, approval of the student representatives to the board? Trusty Jenkins. Yes. So, I am in favor of appointing the um the recommended student trustees. Um but I request that we uh revisit [Music] the however you say that rotation in the next couple that we revisit in the near future the rotation of the next couple years so that it's even evenly distributed between the schools. Trusty Medina. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Again, I'm supportive of approving the two students. Um, it seems like uh they might have in the rotation gone with the the east west sample, which was the original proposal, I think, but um that was taken back during the the presentation. I didn't see any any of it in

098the minutes. I've been looking at it. Um but um I think it'd be good to go watch the video of the meeting just to confirm what happened. But yeah, it shouldn't this cycle is probably not the way that it should be. But Ridgeway and LC, yes, this round. Other discussion, Rusty K. So, just to be clear, we're we're going to vote on F7, the amendment that we're going to re reook at the uh rotation uh for next year. Does that sound We're only voting on the student reps. We're not voting on the rotation. Yeah. Correct. More importantly, is is this rotation actually something that needs to be revisited or is it just incorrect? We will review and and find out and we'll if it needs to be revisited, we will bring it back. If it's

099a correction, we'll notify you. All right. Is there a motion on this item? I move to approve. How do you say this correctly? I move to approve F7 with the understanding that we're revisiting the rest of it. I'd like to say this correctly, but it's not going to happen. That's that's my attempt. Second. All right. Moved by Trusty Jenkins, seconded by Trusty Casten. Roll call vote. Student board member Zeninga. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Casten. Hi. Trusty Kirby. Hi. Trusty Deator. Hi. Trusty Medina. Hi. President McN. Motion passes. All right. And then F8, approval of revised job description for vice principal. Someone pulled this. Trusty Kirby. Yes. So, um, had a few questions um, in reviewing it. So just I maybe you guys can give a little background on how you came to the new

100description. Was it just a combination of the AP and VP? It doesn't seem to be that way but um in particular I guess first off maybe you can comment were the were the current site principles and vice principles consulted or did they have any input into this new description at all? And then those are my first two questions I guess. Um first of all I'll preface by saying that um over my last 26 years in education I've worked in believe it's four different school districts. Some are larger like San Diego Unified and some are much smaller like Lemon Grove only had 3,000 kids. But this is the only school district where I have ever worked where there was a delineation between an assistant principal and a vice principal. In every other school district, it's either

101an assistant principal or a vice principal. Um what we have found is that by delineating it some of our administrators are moving on with a gap. So they're either hired as a vice principal and only have experience in the things that were included in the old vice principal job description or they come in as an assistant principal and then move to a principal position and don't have experience in some of those areas. So, by aligning with um what the majority of districts in California do, this will give all of our administrators the ability to hone all of their skills in areas ranging from student discipline to Wasque to master schedule. Um so there's a lot of reasons to do this. The job description was not built with um we did not consult with the principles

102and the current co-administrators. However, the way that it's delineated is based on the different facets that are included in the principal job description. So each of those categories for example vision and communication there are certain things that fall under the principal's job description and what we have here is how the co-administrator would provide support to what the principal needs to do. Okay. So yeah that that may be part of the issue I guess that I have. It's just that we haven't seen the principal description yet. So, it's hard sometimes to know where the gaps are or or are not. Um, just a couple things you brought up, Wasque. I mean, that used to be under the old description, but it's now not. Um, I'll just I'll throw a couple things out there just that maybe

103you can speak to. Um they were let's see there's no mention of implementing or facilitating the MTSS intervention procedures and also about um just coordinating use and care of buildings and grounds. I guess that's used to be an AP thing. I I don't see that anywhere uh in the VP description. So is is the principal now doing that or that was that just kind of is it falling to someone else? No, all of all of these things fall under the principal's job and then it's delegated out um to assist the principal in supervising, but the principal is the main person that supervises each of those different things. Okay. And I guess one other I I look at this description obviously on our campuses that are that are big. Um there's no way that one person

104could handle all these obviously. So how uh is it left going to be left up to the principal to decide for example which vice principal is going to handle AP testing which one is going to handle discipline or um because obviously one VP is not going to be able to do all that. I mean how is that is that going to be left up to the principal and that's within the principal's job description I guess. Yeah, it would be left up to the principal. I would hope in consultation with their co-administrators um leaning to their strengths and also helping them build capacity in areas where they're not as strong. So, I would envision that it would be um a collaborative conversation. Ultimately, yes, it's the principal that makes those decisions, but I don't envision any

105one person taking on 100% of the load. Okay. Um, one of the things that was missing out of there that was in the previous one, I know it's a generalized statement, but there was no mention of implementing the district mission, vision, and strategic plan. Um, and maybe, you know, I I would probably like to see that in there. I know it's kind of a generic thing, but uh I think that obviously it should be in the principles uh I hope in their description and that the vice principal would help them implement our plans. I I could see that and I think that would be an acceptable addition to the job description. So, I have some concerns when I hear it's up to the principal to decide what's done by who because that leaves an opener

106interpretation that each principal might make a different decision on who's going to handle what. Um, so I really like us to look through that and make sure that's going to be a best practice for us forward opposed to us setting a district standard of this is what we expect out of our principles, this is what we expect out of our VPs. So we can offer support in those decisions opposed to having each principal make their own decision per site because as we know a lot of our principles have different levels of experience um, and what the needs may or may not be. Um, so there may be some more support that would have to come from the district level to ensure that the variety of these tasks are properly covered. Um, that's my two cents.

107Agreed. And I think some of the areas where it would be at the principal's discretion would be things like who's spearheading AP testing because that's like a thing that one person would oversee and if more than one person is overseeing it, it gets really confusing. At least that's been my experience. Um so there are certain things that yes it would be a person is responsible for this but I could see needing um some direction or guidance from district leadership on how to distribute the duties and ultimately I think mainly a checklist or guidance of ensuring that nothing is dropped or missed making sure that all of these things are taken care of. Um, my next piece is, is this best practice for us forward to elevate everyone up to a VP opposed to delineating these

108task appropriately across what was known as an AP position. Um, I just want to make sure we we thought that through and we feel this is the best practice forward to elevate these positions to VPS opposed to ensuring that the AP we already had was um doing as assigned. Uh we do feel as cabinet that this is the best way forward that um we want to be able to build capacity in our leadership team and be able to um promote from within. And it's really important that we make sure that all of our administrators have the opportunity to hone all of those skills rather than being pigeonholed into one specific thing such as discipline. Trusty Medina, then Trusty Casten. Thank you. Um, just really quickly, I think uh I I I don't object to anything

109about the principal, you know, having the flexibility to delegate tasks. I think it's makes sense to um have assistance and BPs, I'll be BPs. Um, I'm curious as to, um, is there any urgency and time for approving this where maybe it could be brought back at the next meeting where some of these concerns from board members are maybe incorporated into this? I guess the answer to that is yes and no. Um, we currently have vice principal positions that are vacant and we can't move forward with posting those positions without an updated job description. The current job description that we have for vice principal does not incorporate anything about discipline, anything about running facilities, any of those jobs that would also be included. So without the new job description, we can't post to hire for those

110positions. The longer we wait, the smaller our pool will become. Trusty Casten, I'd just like to express uh comment on a couple of the concerns and see if we can make sure we have a way forward tonight with this. I think one I think this is the right direction, more flexibility, especially as we're moving to specialize our schools and enable them to have their own identities, their own programs, their own themes. We want to give more flexibility for how the personnel are able to be acted on and I would hope and expect that anyone that we're hiring at a principal level is able to manage a team of this caliber. Um these are not positions that should be or need to be micromanaged. Um so I I strongly support the direction of making these more

111flexible, giving more flexibility to the principal and uh having the vice principles be able to work in all these different areas and do a combination of leading into their strengths and learning and being able to grow. so that they can be principles in the future. Um, so I really support this direction. I think we've been talking about it for well since the beginning of the year. It's leading to us being able to reduce cost savings while still being able create cost savings while still being able to address important aspects of what needs to be administered on each campus. Um, you know, so I think I think this is the right direction. I agree with adding in executing the mission and vision and strategies because I think that kind of captures any other concerns we may

112be talking about here because at the point where we're talking about implementing all the strategies that we adopt as a district. If you can't fit something under that in a job description then we're not doing a good job of splitting those hairs. Um, but we also have in here assist the principal in general administration of the school, which I think can also address any of those concerns or anything that might be missing or not specifically delineated. So, I I I think we should move forward. We're already really late in the hiring season um, you know, for next year and I wouldn't want to see anything delay us uh getting those jobs posted. I think this board has had a tendency to be a little bit in the weeds with things like this and I want

113us to step back from that. Um I think everything Dr. Zans has presented is perfectly reasonable. Um but I be happy with that amendment. I do want us to approve this tonight. Sure. So I mean I would just recommend under under vision and communication uh just add um assist principal in implementing the district mission vision and strategic plan. I'll second that is the motion for this job description. And just with a a further caveat before we vote, I would it would be my hope that perhaps before we do the principal uh job description, maybe you could reach out to our existing site principles just to get some of their input um for that. I I think that would be worthwhile. Yeah, I can do that. All right. So moved by Trusty Kirby, seconded by Trusty

114Casten. Roll call vote. Student board member Zinga I. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Casten. Hi. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Deator. I. Trusty Medina. I. President McN. I. Motion passes. All right. So now we have F12. Although I'm kind of imagining that the conversation about F12, 13, and 14 all goes together. Yes. Um, Trusty Jenkins, was it you who pulled this? No, Trusty Delator. Delatory. So, I just pulled these so we can have a discussion and, um, ensure we're providing transparency as to why these positions are necessary, where the funding's coming from, um, and ensure that we are making the right decision on these tonight. Sure. Um uh to start with the first one that uh the director position I I believe that was brought to us actually we're um fulfilling a request from the board and

115on that one um that's that one is 20% funded out of LCAP. It's 80% funded out of a grant A throughG which is a restricted resource. the second um one and I'll just go over them really briefly and then we can get into the more more of the specifics that the second one is also new. That one is um funded out of completely restricted resources. So that doesn't actually affect either our general fund or our um LCAP or LCFF. And then the third one is not um actually a new um a new position at all. That's actually we used to have two coordinators that that um manage our required state and federal programs and we had to we reduced one of them. It's actually kind of a strategic thing because one of them was actually

116funded out of the LCAP. So we basically we're smashing them together and we're going to have to find somebody that's going to want to like supervise like seven or eight state and federal programs at a lower level than a director at a coordinator um level. But these are mandated programs and that's going to be come covered out of um restricted resources. Um I have to double check on that one, but I believe that one's still going to have a small portion out of LCFF and um restricted resources. And so the the first two are new um positions. The last one is a um basically a consolidation of two positions for required programs, state and federal programs to include migrant education, Indian education and um native education, like I said, state and federal programs. It's going

117to oversee the thefts and a number of other things. Um I can get into the specific um duties of these programs if you'd like of these positions if you'd like to as well. And if I could provide a little bit of clarification on the first one as far as it coming forward, that has to do with the outreach to our feeder schools and specifically working with the um sites on their specialty programs and marketing um across the not only our district but other districts locally as well as a focus on attendance and enrollment. um looking at trying to centralize the efforts around getting kids in school actually expected to generate revenue through that increased um attention. I think it's actually a very strategic use of A throughG in that um it does actually focus on

118building and focusing on those specialized programs now that we're really trying to refine and focus at the different um junior seniors and as we start to move LC Allen for example toward that model this individual could really focus on that um those specialized programs look at recruitment recruitment and outreach efforts work at um the feeder schools work at the feeder work focus on feeder districts and work on um enrollment numbers. So I do think it's a strategic use of the A3G resource that we have um a couple more years to spend and um minimal impact on LCFF like I said 2 Jesse Kirby. Okay. specifically on F12. Then, um, is there did you look at any possibility of incorporating that into an existing job at the district? And secondly, is there any what are the

119ramifications if we don't approve this position tonight? uh this one in particular since I um hadn't considered the position. I I think um this work would continue to fall back on the existing individuals who um if I'm going to be completely transparent. We're doing kind of like double work like focusing on the junior seniors this year and they would continue to have to like do that. they really were um taken away from a lot of the support of the schools in focusing on the empower teams and then they would have to continue that work and like really focus on um building up and preparing Elsie um Allen focusing on the the working on the preparing comtock to become a junior senior with pioner for example it's a lot of work in addition to the work

120that individuals are doing on a daily basis um overseeing schools with the professional development supporting um all the rest of the work that the executive directors do and we no longer have um directors that were supporting them because both of those are eliminated. So in terms of who else it would fall back on we've we lost you know almost three positions and so there aren't too many individuals that it wouldn't fall back on anybody except for those same people. So, and and I think actually to add to that, there's a strategic component to this position that's new, which is really focusing on building um these programs and strategically outreaching and trying to build ADA, bring people to the district. That's something new to to this position that I think is really makes it interesting and

121possibly making it could pay for itself hopefully. That's that's the hope. Trusty Casten, I just want to build on that. I think a lot of the the other thing that this helps do is our support from SCO expires in September and a lot of the work that we're seeing in that SCO subcommittee and is going to be coming up to the board and once we get the full reports uh identifies the strategies we need to be implementing to actually outreach and work with our feeder districts and work with our our special programs in order to meet the the things we're starting to see as being the patterns of what we need to accomplish. to have students and their parents want their kids to come to our schools. And this role will and I don't want

122to claim it's a silver bullet that's going to resolve everything, but it's a step in a direction for us to be able to fill the gap that's going to be left when the SCO supports expire um in order to keep that momentum going and actually follow through on um on on that work, especially the work of being outside of our district and working with the feeder districts and and the in those. So, um, you know, it's I think it's a a creative way to make sure that we have the resources for it. And I think I and I just if you could comment a little bit just in general on all these positions and what happens at the district office when we have like a week like this one where we have a lot of

123school administrators out on different leaves. Um, and and the other benefit of having these positions if you Absolutely. um and happened today. For example, we're um short um we have one administrator at a high school and we don't and we're down um two at the central office which basically leaves like me and one other person. And so I basically set up my office at the high school with one of our um executive directors because we need to support the high school. They're they're down to one administrator. People have things to do. we either have to cancel a professional development, cancel a meeting that one of our coordinators may be have and doing a training um for example, our A3G training um our MTSS coordinator is at a training or trying to conduct a training. He

124either has to cancel it, which I had to do earlier in the week with um our CTE coordinator to cover a school or um you know the school doesn't get coverage, right? So, and we really want to be able to do that. So, and and there are going to be circumstances between now and the end of the school year, which is only another 8 days or so. I know for certain we're going to need to be at a school site. We already know that we're going to have to have a meeting tomorrow morning where we're going to have to be able to have two or three administrators covering at school sites. And I don't have a plan yet because we don't have it that we know that we're going to be down at the central

125office to about two or three people. So just even having individuals at the central office at least I can have them double up and say I need you to take your work and do it at the at the um at the at the site. So it also helps that way. These roles are able to support that function of the district office in part because we're not also always able to rely on uh substitute administrators and in those types of replacements. That's a very good point actually. We are rarely able to because we have a very small pool from which to draw and their days usually expire within a few months from the beginning of the year because of the um the law that basically says how many days they can work um every year based

126on their you know calsters. In addition to that, something I think is important to mention is these are the individuals that evaluate and support and train our principles because we hire um we have as a rule our coordinators and our directors have to have served as principles and so and that wasn't always the case. I came I instituted that because I want anybody coming as a coordinator or as a principal to be able to support and provide um guidance to our principles and our vice principles moving forward. So that's also an important component um of anybody that's working at the central office and at services. Is there an opportunity or future practice to have conversations about these positions with our labor groups? Um so it doesn't feel like such a slap in the face that

127we're bringing district positions forward when that funding may have found a space closer to the classroom. Absolutely. Um uh some of these like we mentioned we cannot be like for example title 2 it's illegal to use it actually on students. We have to use that in professional development. We can and I'm actually I I am totally open to um any um use of that to support professional development in any other way. So I that that stands and I would love to um continue that discussion in terms of um what other ways we can use for example title two as um a way to support um our teachers and in a manner of professional development. when it comes to um these restricted resources, it should be known that moving forward, one of the thing things that

128we did I think is very exciting is that with the staffing ratios, we are redoing the way that we're supporting our sites to be more intentional and more efficient so that we're using restricted resources in a more um um like I said, efficient way like this. So we can free up monies that are um unrestricted to use in ways that um um are more flexible with more variety and our restricted resources. We can do things like with the second position actually put support back into the classroom, supporting um teachers and building their capacity in a way that we we weren't able to do before when we cut, for example, the AL specialist who were funded out of unrestricted resources. We're going to try to put that support back in using restricted resources now. So, but

129yes, to answer your question, absolutely. Um I I have no problem with it. That's yeah um we are working on one of those trunk a lot of truncated schedules again this year but um always open to that another example shared the LCAP today with both of our bargaining partners this year's just been a matter of timing but totally open to that can that restricted money that's that has to go to professional learning can that be used to pay our staff our teacher leaders to develop professional develop yes absolutely and I I've Actually, but yes. Yeah. Um on F12 specifically, this is one that was temporary, correct? Uh innovation. Okay. Temporary being how long? Um a temporary you review it every year. Annual. Correct. Correct. any temporary position is subject to funding um each year and

130it would have to be you know they receive a temporary contract they receive a a notice of that they're being released from the temporary contract and then if it continues they would be re you know continued in that position and initially this actually came to me at the idea completely um funded out of the LCAP and it was actually I thought about it and I realized A through G like last for two more years, why not actually take this off of the LCAP since it's going to be temporary anyway and release more money back to the schools in the classroom? And um since it's a temporary position anyway, why don't we do 80% on um A throughG? It sec secondary anyway. That's the whole purpose of A throughG. Um so let's go with it that

131way. It fits the purpose of the grant perfectly and since it's a temporary position, it seems to make sense. I think from from the get-go like the thing that I'd like to see specific to this position um I see well I see it as a potential like revenue generating position right so um kind of like some metrics as to where we are with like attendance figures and kind of like seeing quarterly progress has to you know what are the deltas year to year based on the actions of this position. Same thing with en enrollment, anticipated enrollment, if there's any way to kind of gauge what our current expectations are or where as outreach begins where feeder districts are with families thinking, are they going to send people to our schools or not? And then later

132on at the end of the year as we well as this position markets and promotes our programs um maybe a measurement or metric at the end that sees kind of is this position having a positive effect or not. I think that'll be um important to gauge especially as we see what kind of fiscal impact it's also having. Is it having a positive impact on that level? Um so just things to consider that I would like to see. what we'll do. Taking notes on that. All right. Is there a motion on 12? I'll move approval of the job description for director of school innovation, engagement, and strategic outreach. Second. Moved by Trusty Casten, seconded by Trustee Kirby. Roll call vote. Student board members Zinga. I. Trusty Casten. Hi Trusty Kirby. Hi Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Deator.

133No. Trusty Medina. Hi. President Mcnal. I. Motion passes. Is there a motion on F13? I have questions on this one. Sure. Um, so on this one, um, I I guess one of my questions is in terms of like what is there a void that we're trying to fill? Like are there concerns around curriculum, professional learning that we're not already um doing? I mean, how much professional development do we have like calendar? um how will this position improve upon what exists especially given our budget restraints? Yes. Uh thank you for that. Um yes, I'm actually I am trying to fill a void. Um an example of um what we've been able to do when we intentionally um implement a professional development is seen in our math redesign and in our scores and in some of other

134areas. um the individual that we had that built I think a model that I would like to generalize with respect to um being able to bring um teach um cohorts of teachers and training and um generalizing um professional development to scale that um two of those both of those positions were eliminated. And so for me, I see um that we have I want to be able to provide a team of individuals that then are able to build um capacity um and support teachers in the classroom, not only um first qual quality first instruction, but the reintroduction of um EL best practices. as I know that even though I've mentioned a lot that every teacher does have the um authorization for it, I do understand that um this is something that may need some time and

135some training and some additional support. Um there you're going to be seeing in a couple of weeks that we're going to have some sea positions that are coming that are for me a replacement of the EL specialists um going into the classroom. and the coming back like I said using restricted resources title three and title one to provide intervention support training to teachers and in all um uh different content areas and specifically in EL this individual would be coordinating that um for all of the um the the schools because those individuals were um taken from the the schools and so we're looking at um it's at the CSEA level a couple of individuals funded out of title three and several individuals hopefully funded out of title one that will all be coordinating this sort of

136um training to build instructional capacity or in um capacity and the teachers. um this individual would be the individual that the central office that would be coordinating those individuals to help build alignment and coherence the datadriven improvement site-based instructional coaching and basically the implementation of new initiatives and since this individual is now even though the both of the directors were funded mostly out of the LCAP this individual will be funded out of um title two which is the professional development and recruitment and retention and title one, it's a restricted completely restricted resource and so it doesn't impact the general fund or um supplemental and concentration LCFF. And so for me, I thought it was a good idea. However, that said, if we have somehow a concerted effort and agreement that we could get um a

137group of teachers together and do this sort of work, I'm totally fine with that. This is the kind of work that we've had like our professional development days. we get some great stuff happening there, too. Um, so I don't have a problem with that. It's just that for me, we I I would love to have somebody that's able to support this kind of work from the central office. We can't usually get teachers to leave their classroom to be able to do that during the day and say, "So, this is what we're working on. Can you set up a professional development and hold it?" So, I have no problem. But if we could pay for sub coverage for them to do that. Yes. Yeah. I have no problem with that either. Yeah. And I I also

138don't want to have to like give back title two. You know, we've had to do that sort of thing in the past because we'll say we'll do something and then we don't it because we don't get around to it, right? So, yeah. Are we able to pull this opposed to voting on it tonight and have the discussion with our labor groups prior to moving forward on this specific one tonight? I I I mean, that's definitely your call. I just I would I would love to have a commitment on on this sort of work because I I find it so important that we be able to do this. Um and just a a thought because I I agree that it that I know teachers learn best from other teachers. I I absolutely understand that. I also

139have concerns with if we're asking them to be out of the classroom and we're providing a sub then our best teachers are not there with the students. So it it is a bit of a conundrum that that we would definitely need to work through with our labor partners. Yeah. Yeah. I hear you. It's just my my personal experience as a teacher. I see professional development and I think no thank you. Uh Trusty Medina, you had your hand raised. Yeah. I I I think that's that that's kind of like the question where you know I've heard a lot of we have these professional development days. There's a lot of people that just don't show up. Um again back to my question was you know when is this happening? We have I think generally it's two professional

140development days that we schedule like when would all this professional development happen? Is this separate specific to different positions? like is this position part of what I thought I heard was kind of like creating capacity within our teachers to do professional development. Is it getting away from like hiring consultants to do that? Absolutely. And um it it also sees um you know this also oversees the um the residency program. This person is going to oversee both of the residency programs because we don't have anybody that does that. that that that director that was overseeing that that was eliminated that position was eliminated. So, and is this also a temporary position or anything that is funded on restricted is going to be Yeah. Because what I'm thinking right now is like okay like maybe approving this

141position but with like this commitment that we move towards working with our labor partners to figure out some sort of plan to do this without this position as we transition forward. um because there seems to be a lot of concerns and especially teachers feel they have the capacity to do this but but I think from what I've read and kind of what I've heard is that like we need to have like consistency and alignment throughout and that's kind of part of what the goal of this position is. But but I think we do have to build like a better plan that I think that allows us to have better relationship with our labor partners that really taps into the talent that we that we have the remaining talent we have. Um yes. So I think

142that's kind of like the direction that I would like us to go. Jenkins, is there a possibility to have it as a.5 FTE and then distribute and then reook at the getting teachers teaching teachers? So 0.5 kind of organizing and doing the the leg work and then looking at it looking at the other part separately. I mean I suppose you could create a um a 0.5. I don't know that we it would be more difficult to find somebody to fill that position. I think yeah the the 8 through G fund you said that's two years that we have. Yes. That's not this position though. Okay. Okay. This is title two and title one. But yeah cast if we're not heading towards agreement on this position. Could I just suggest we bring it back agendaized with

143the actual PD program? So instead of talking about the position, we can talk about the program so we understand what it is the position is going to be implementing. I think that would help the conversation. Sure. Yeah. I would also really like to be able to discuss this with SRTA. Um absolutely commitment. Yeah. So so moving on from Yeah. Um unless there's nothing to postpone because we haven't made a motion yet. So why don't we go to 14 if we could. All right. Is there a motion on F-14? And this is the one that's just combining two existing positions. Yeah. I'll move approval of the job description for coordinator multilingual and equitable services. I'll second. Moved by Trusty Casten, seconded by Trusty Medina. Roll call vote. Student board members ina. I. Trusty Casten. I. Trusty

144Medina. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Kirby. I trusty deatory. I President McN. Motion passes. All right, moving on. Thank you, Dr. Castro, Dr. Xans. Um, moving on to our discussion items, discussion action, our G items. We have a resolution reaffirming support for the LGBTQIA plus community. Who Who do we have? Superintendent August. It's listed as me, but I'm actually going to introduce uh our wellness and engagement executive director Stacy Desadiri and an advocate and parent Shaina Kirk. So, thank you uh Superintendent a acting superintendent August. Uh members of the board, uh we appreciate your continued commitment to ensuring that our district um serves all of our community without barrier, without prejudice. And so it is an honor to be able to come here tonight introduce our parent and colleague in uh the support of all

145of our students, Shaina Kirk. And um my only comment on this I will save until after sha. So good evening to the board to interim superintendent August and to all who are listening still. Um as you know my name is Shaina Kirk and I'm a fierce advocate for mental health and LGBTQ rights. I'm a community member, a parent of three children in the Santa Rosa City Schools. I'm also deeply invested in the future of our schools. Watching what's unfolding with the current administration and their specific targeting of our most vulnerable and marginalized populations has brought about great concern. So, it's an honor tonight to see Santa Rosa City Schools recognizing how important it is to acknowledge the existence of, to affirm, and to protect the rights of all students in our district. Students who experience

146a more safe and inclusive environment undoubtedly have better learning outcomes and enjoy improved mental health. We sometimes grow complacent, especially living in California, that thinking it guarantees inclusion and safety from some of the issues facing other parts of the country. But this resolution couldn't be more timely with some current news stories unfolding in other parts of our state threatening the rights of transgender students to participate equally in sports and activities with their peers. In my experience and from speaking with many parents of queer and trans youth across multiple districts, even in the Bay Area, many are urging their districts to pass resolutions like this or even to send out statements in strong support of LGBTQ students. So, I'm thankful that even amongst the challenges that this district is facing now, they're willing to lead by

147example in prioritizing the well-being of our LGBTQ students and specifically even noting transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive youth, not just because it's codified into state law, but because it's the right thing to do. And with that, I'm happy to introduce this resolution tonight. And thank you. And my only other comment is how proud I am to be in a district that sees resolutions like this as not something that you vote on once and renew annually. But this is actually paired with action with steps taken such as honoring the flags in front of our schools in ensuring that our um written policy about students needs and student information systems are constantly evaluated to ensure that the um student is centered in these actions. that speaks to this being more than just a written policy that this

148this is coupled with action. So, thank you for your uh hopeful vote tonight. Rusty Deator, thank you both very much for presenting this. Um, thank you for being here. Um, thank you for the work that this district continues to do to align and support and protect this community. Um, is a community that I love and align and support with. But as with all resolutions, my question is always um what more can we do? Um I have brought this up for the last two years now and unfortunately I haven't heard anything before Saturday, but why are we not showing up at events like the pride parade on Saturday and showing a district representation so that our students and families see district leadership supporting and loving and providing safe space for this community. Um I will be

149there with my family on Saturday. I will marry my name badge proudly, but it would be great for us as a district to have representation, whether it be a booth next to our other community partners in the uh town square or other opportunities just to continue to be a presence in the community so that we can be seen and heard and show the respect for the opportunity to listen to others that need our support. Trusty Medina. Thank you. Thank you for presenting. I did want to uh share a couple things. Um first starting off with something I always bring up the the ACLU tracks anti-LGBT bills in the US at any moment. As of this month, right now, there's 588 anti-LGBT bills in the US, which just emphasize the the importance of us creating safe

150space because there is that negative energy in those attacks on the community. Um, I'm very proud of us for emphasizing flying the flag last year. Um, I was a little moved one day when we got an email from a parent concerned because the flag wasn't up one day. And to me that meant they noticed and that it meant something and it was significant to them and it represented that it was a safe space and and so it was important to me that they noticed that it was missing. I think custodian was gone or something. They weren't able to put it up that one day but um people see it. they recognize it and it has meaning and I think it's important that that we send out that message that our schools are safe space. Um,

151so I'm completely supportive of this motion. Continue to um support what um Trusty Lator just mentioned that yeah, we should do more whatever we can to make sure that people know that this is a stance we take, especially right now in times where where school funding is being threatened for support of of trans students and things of that nature. I say we stand strong and make our LGBT IQ community feel seen, heard, and safe. Thank you. Is there a motion? Motion to approve resolution reaffirming support for the LGBTQIA plus community with all of my heart and all of my capacity to continue to show up and give space with protection and love and support. Second. Moved by Trusty Deator. Seconded by Trusty Casten. Roll call vote. Student board members ina. I. Trusty Deator. I. Trusty

152Casten. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Medina. I. And President Mcnal. I. Motion passes. Trusty Kirby is absent. Sorry. Thank you. All right. Next, we have a discussion, an update on our career technical education programs. Dr. Castro, Dr. Perez and Debbie Cardardoozo. Thank you, President McN, interim superintendent August, members of the board, and staff, community, family, members of uh Santa Rosa City Schools. Tonight, I'm gonna have turn it over to illustrious director of CTE programs, Korean College Readiness, Debbie Cardardozo, to provide an update on our CTE programs. I love when technology works. All right. Good evening, members of the board. Interim superintendent August. I am very excited to be here tonight to talk to us everybody about everyone, excuse me, about uh CTE. I'm very excited. I'm already mixing up my words. Um, I want to

153start by acknowledging and appreciating the individuals on our college and career readiness team. Uh, CTE grant funding has enabled us to have a CTE teacher on special assignment, a CTE counselor on special assignment, and a coordinator position which are 100% CTE grant funded and the CTE senior secretary is 50% CTE grant funded. uh together. I'm very excited about the work that we've been doing this year and we've been building systems and structures to expand, enhance, and improve CTE, which you are going to learn more about tonight. So, I want to first ground us in the definition of career technical education. As defined by the California Department of Education, CTE is a program of study that involves a multi-year sequence of courses that integrates core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge to provide students with

154a pathway to post-secary education and careers. In CTE, there are elements of a highquality CTE program that guide our work. In your board agenda, there is a description of each of these elements in more detail. Annually, our CTE program teachers complete a self-re status of the CTE program, identifying both areas of strengths and growth on which to focus on for the next school year. Based on the self-review for this school year, areas of strength included CTE center delivery of services, equity, and leadership at all levels, which really addresses our career technical student organizations like FFA and HOSA, FCCLA. Um, and areas of growth include sustained investments and funding and strong partnerships with industry. Local, state, and federal initiatives connected to grant opportunities provide additional direction for our work in CTE and is leveraged to expand,

155enhance, and improve our programs. Um, as you know, we are fortunate to have a very strong partnership with the CTE Foundation of Sonoma County and have leveraged grant funding to support the whole school transformation work at LC Allen High School and offered the Sonoma Corpse program at Ridgeway High School this school year to support students with additional work-based learning opportunities. Annually, I apply for Perkins CTE incentive grant and work with our agriculture programs on the agriculture incentive grant to support our CTE programs with leveraging funding uh to meet the 12 elements of a high quality CTE program. Um, as you know, I've applied for and secured five college and career access pathway grants to expo to support expansion of dual enrollment opportunities in each of our comprehensive high schools. Again, this year I submitted two

156more CCAT grant applications, one for our district and one for Ridgeway High School. I'm still awaiting to hear notification on those grant applications. So fingers crossed that we will secure those as well. We also applied as a consortium with the Sonoma County Office of Education as a lead for a K12 strong workforce program grant to support the development of the education program at Elsion High School. Uh last year I applied for and secured Golden State pathway program implementation and planning grants to support the development of healthc care focused integrated pathway programs which connect core academic and CTE classes embed early college credit opportunities student support and work-based learning opportunities at each comprehensive high school. We are also part of a skill consortium GSP grant. The total amount of grant funding that is currently being leveraged

157to support this work is over $4.3 million. So, I'm very excited about that. Thank you. Um, and ultimately, we are being very intentional in braiding initiatives and grant funding available to support this work. Santa Rosa City Schools offers a variety of CTE programs to ensure that students are meeting the workforce needs of local and regional employers, to support relevant and meaningful learning opportunities for our students, and to prepare students for post-secary training, continued education, and future careers. Currently, we have 20 CTE programs representing 11 of the 15 California CTE industry sectors. In addition to the high school CTE programs, this year we have reestablished the exploring college and career course at Santa Rosa Middle School. Uh this course has a college and career readiness lab component or also known as a CTE wheel that consists

158of a 10-day focus career modules to explore multiple industry sector sectors which are also aligned to high school CTE program offerings. This year we also partnered with Magnolia Project to provide students with work-based learning experiences embedded in this course such as mock interviews and um industry mentorship mentorship experiences on and off campus. Although we are seeing a decrease enrollment um in our district, we are still seeing a slight increase in the students enrolled in the CTE program. Last school year we had 1,793 students enrolled um in our programs and this year we are up to almost 1,900. So we're excited about that. Uh the data as a whole correlates to our district data in comparison with the exception of representation of males and females in a CTE program. Uh currently we have more males enrolled

159in a CTE program and we are working on this um in our outreach materials with being really intentional in representing non-traditional students in our CTE program. So, for example, uh females in a construction program or manufacturing program or males um represented in a um in a culinary program. Um and then we also offered, as you know, our women in construction camp uh just recently uh to really focus on that as well. We have a strong partnership with the Santa Rosa Junior College and have expanded articulation agreements where students can earn early college credit in their high school CTE class through a credit by exam process. The past three years we had 124 students earn college credit through a credit by exam process in agriculture, auto, culinary, and manufacturing. And we are still in the process

160of collecting outcome data for this school year. A CTE completer is a student who has completed a state approved CTE pathway consisting of a minimum of a twocourse sequence and has successfully passed the capstone or otherwise known as the final course in that program sequence with a grade C minus or better. Increasing this number has been an area of focus for our team and we are starting to see a slight increase in our CTE completer rates. I also want to highlight uh the impact of CTE on graduation rates. And as you can see on this screen, um students either taking just one CTE course or completing a a complete CTE program has positive outcomes. This year, we've also been focusing on um expanding our college and career access pathway opportunities, which is another form of

161early college credit for our students. So, as I shared in the previous slide, we have a strong partnership with the SRJC and we've been trying to establish more agreements to offer students dual enrollment courses taught on our high school campuses during the school day. As you can see on the slide, we had two CCAP dual enrollment courses offered this year at Elsion High School and we're working closely with the SRJC to expand to offer hopefully 10 CCAP courses next school year. And again, this is pending as the SRJC is still in the process of hire hiring faculty and we're still kind of shaking out the enrollment because we have to have a minimum of 22 students enrolled in the SRJC class in order to fly it. In collaboration with our staff and industry partners, we

162have developed a work-based learning vision, scope, and sequence, which you can see on the screen, and teacher resources, and have provided teachers with professional development to support work-based learning as an instructional strategy. Attached in the agenda is a more detailed explanation of the different types of work-based learning activities. I'm very proud of what we built and happy to share that our scope and sequence has been shown in the county as a model and so other districts are looking um to us and how we are framing this work and um utilizing our resources to support their students as well and build upon that. Uh this year we have focused on developing internal systems to track our local workbased learning data. So annually we report state a state state data which includes internship and student led enterprise

163data. Um but we don't have a mechanism or we didn't have a mechanism but now we do to track our local measures. Um so we're excited to report that we have figured that out and how to do that in Aries. Um and then we've also developed a community partnership workbased learning database to track our industry partners um with the intention to support expansion and student participation in workbased learning opportunities next school year. As an important component of CTE programs are career technical student organizations which teaches student leadership skills. So you're probably familiar with those blue corduroy jackets for FFA. Um we also have a strong FCCLA program at Piner and Coreo and as you guys know they compete in state competitions and uh we have students going to the national competition soon in Florida which

164is awesome. Um, we also have a Skills USA chapter at Santa Rosa High School. And then this year, the public and community health program at Elsion High School established a HOSA program, which is really great. Three years ago, I reinstated the district CTE advisory committee, and I'm very thankful for the industry partners that you see listed on the screen. Uh, this year, I'm also very excited to share that we were able to have a student participate on the committee. So, that was a goal of ours last year to get student representation. Um, we have one I'd like to expand to include more, but I'm I am sure excited to have um Cole from McGomery High School participate in this committee. He's been really um instrumental in helping guide our work. Um it's been a great

165addition. Um the committee's purpose is to strengthen our CTE programs. And at our last meeting, we re we reviewed the high quality CTE program self-reviews completed by our CTE teachers as well as other uh data. And I've been and will be continuing to work with the committee to inform our plan to develop stronger partnerships with industry as that was identified by a need uh by our teachers this last uh self-review year. All right. So, what's next? I have big plans and I can't wait to share them with you. Um, so next year we are going to continue to expand early college credit opportunities connected to our CT programs. That's a huge priority area. If we can bring dual enrollment opportunities onto our campus that provides greater access to our students um and sets them further

166on the trajec trae trajectory thank you man I'm stumbling today trae trajectory uh for continued education. Um because it's important to note that CTE is not just for students not going to college. I am a CTE student, former CT student, former CTE teacher and so that's something I'm always going to continue to uh message and also provide our students with opportunity to continue their education because that's important. Um I also want to increase workbased learning opportunities for students. Um, I would like to do a industry orientation. Now that we have a really strong foundation for workbased learning, scope and sequence, a database to collect our industry partners, I want to do some major outreach around getting our partners into the classroom. And so, um, the way I envision that is working closely with the CTE

167Foundation, um, because they've been really taking leadership on internships and making those connections. Um, I would like to dig in a little bit more on some of the other areas in the continuum. So, we've surveyed students to see what they would like to see most um to start and uh we'll work with our advisory committee on the best approach to roll that out. So, you'll see um I'm anticipating an increase in industry partnerships and workbased learning next school year. Another priority that happened uh that we were hap that we happen to focus on this year is uh securing A throughG approval for remaining CTE courses. Um, so all but four of our CTE courses are either approved or in the process of being A throughG approved. Um, one course is a business co-op work experience

168course. And so I'm not exactly sure how we will get that A throughG approved. Um, if I can't figure that out, then um, one of the areas that we're looking at is connecting to the SRJC work experience program. So if we can't do A throughG, we'll do early college credit. Um, the other three courses are construction courses. So currently Santa Rosa High has um a cabinetry focused program and we have been working towards moving that to more of a construction tech with industry input and so we've been revising those courses and we'll be bringing those to the board uh for approval in the fall. So we're almost done with those and then we'll be all A throughg. Very excited. Um we are also focusing as I mentioned on increasing CTE completion rates and graduate response

169rates rates. In looking at our data we have identified a need to develop CTE roadmap for students and families and staff that essentially reinforces that CTE courses are not standalone electives but pro but programs of study that support students with being prepared for post-secary training, continued education, future careers in life. So, I'm just pulling data just to kind of get a little bit more information about the story of CTE in Santa Rosa City Schools. And one of the things I noticed is that we for whatever reason have been enrolling um like 12th graders in our introduction courses. And if you know it's a CTE program, so in order for them to be a completer, they have to be able to go through all two or three courses. And so I've been working with sites to

170rectify that. Um, and so I'm I'm slowly seeing some shifts around that. But that's one example. When I was pulling our data, I'm like, man, why don't we have very many CTE completers? I that was one of the the findings uh that I looked at. And we'll continue to dig into our data more um to inform next steps. Uh the state also requires that we collect CTE completer data to determine what our students are doing after they graduate um and if it's connected to a CTE program they took in high school. Annually I call and survey students and their families to collect this data but our response rate has been traditionally low. Uh this last year it was only around 16%. And so in collaboration with our CTE department chairs, um we have designed a

171local survey and I've requested all CTE teachers to administer it this year to their students to get additional uh contact information to increase response rates um and get also additional information about what our students plan on doing after they graduate. So I'm trying a different avenue to collect that data. Uh currently, um our CTE programs offer various industry certifications, OSHA 10, CPR, food handlers, just to name a few. We want to expand those. Um we're also working at developing integrated pathways uh where we connect CTE courses with core academic courses uh where teachers work together to develop cross-curricular projects. And this summer we have teachers attending uh teacher teams attending uh trainings to support this work. and I've been working with site admin um administration to support master scheduling with cohorting students. Um, we also

172have CTE grant funding um to establish uh additional college and career readiness labs and we are going to be establishing those for our middle school uh students and a new lab will be established at the McGomery Junior High next year and I've been working with the teacher on uh picking the modules and so we're very excited to roll that out for seventh and eighth grade students um and we'll continue to roll those out in future years. And then finally, one of the big things I'm working on is expanding CTE promotion and outreach efforts, which includes designing CTE website pages for each school site, in our district website, developing new publications, and then one of the things I've been working on and thinking about is, and you just actually spoke to it in our last item,

173was how do we get out in the community more? And so, we've been doing more community events. Um if any of you and I know um director de laator I saw you there um attended the Wednesday night market. We had our CTE culinary food truck there uh which was really great and and just watching the students in the truck and then also seeing our teacher and the students interact with our community and also making additional connections, you know, for down the road. It was it was beautiful. And so we just have a lot of really great things going on um in our programs and in our district. And so I really want to dig in and figure out um how to get that information out there. So thank you Director Cardoozel. I just want to

174add that um when that this reflects I think at Ed services our commitment to whatever student you are, we are going to be responding to your diverse needs and your interests. That's really important with the pandemic in the rearview mirror. Um we want to make sure that we every year and with every every opportunity we have our um belief is that educational success should really be defined by opportunity and choice not limited to just a single postsecondary trajectory. And so for us we want to be able to provide as many opportunities and choices as we can. And whatever student you um may be when you get to Santa Rosa City Schools there's a place for you. So I think I always I'm always reminded of that when I hear the CTE presentations. Medina Deator Jenkins.

175Thank you. Um so much to say. Um but thank you for the presentation. A lot to absorb here. Um few questions on the securing the ATG approval. Um, is that just as electives or is there any ability to make any of the courses like in the biotech area or anything kind of fill some of the like science requirements or anything? because it seems like electives is also an issue in terms of students being able to complete. We clearly need some more technology CTE programs that I need to participate in. Um most of our uh A throughG courses are do meet the G elective. We do have a few uh that meet area D uh science and so but most of them fall currently in the G elective and going back to the lack of electives

176in terms because I think I've seen some students aren't able to move on because they don't have enough available electives. Is that something that we're able to address or in terms of the completers and and also how many of the programs are two-year versus three years? Yeah. So, could you repeat your question about the electives? I'm not I want to make sure I understand it correctly. Well, do students have the capacity to actually complete three years of a program? If let's say they mess up English one year, then they have to really redo that. I see what you're saying. Yeah. So our uh our programs mostly consist of two core sequences. We do have a handful that I want to say there's six of them that are three core sequences. And a agriculture has multiple

177pathways. That's kind of um something that's a little bit confusing. So and agriculture for example at Elon High School they have a three core sequence in agriculture mechanics but they have two core sequences in like a floroculture pathway strand and a couple others as well. Um it can be challenging. um most um mostly if a if a student does miss you know an actual a graduation requirement or or something along that lines. What is opening that up though is Elion High School is is looking to implement a 4x4 schedule which allows greater access to not only CTE programs but other elective opportunities. And so I think that the more that we can look at systems and structures to support those types of models that allow a student's schedule to open up and be able to

178take more courses, I think that that's beneficial as well. Um I do also have a board policy and administrative regulation that is currently in cabinet review. uh looking at the industry concentration option. I did a revise for that and that's being reviewed and that is another way in which our system is looking at um honoring and highlighting students that are completing a CTE program and waving certain graduation requirements if that is what they choose to do. So, so there are definitely some things in the works with that. And in terms of the continuum, I think the the very beginning part is the career awareness. I'm wondering is part of this plan like is I haven't seen a solid plan as to how the whole CCGI system is going to be used and I think career

179awareness is a big part of that and I'm wondering how's that incorporated into all this. I love that you asked that question. And so one of the new positions that we had this year uh that was leverage ili or that we leverage grant funds to offer as a CTE counselor on special assignment. And so what that position um part of their responsibilities this year was mapping out the different CCGI um lessons extension activities, right? and then also incorporating counselor on the move lessons that have been provided by SCO braiding those two to ultimately develop an implementation plan for CCGI and counselor on the move. Um she has been developing um additional counselor on the move which are like quick push-in lessons um that are more career focused because the ones that are currently developed are

180more college focused which is great but we want some more that are tailored to our CT programs and career readiness. So we have essentially this map for grades 6 through 12 that includes counselor manuv quick push-in lessons that also is um connected to CCGI extension activities in the platform that we have designed. And then at our most recent counseling meeting, we asked our counselors to prioritize the top three that they would want to implement for CCGI next school year per grade level because we know we just can't just implement a a new platform and just say, "Okay, choose whatever you'd like." And so we've been very intentional in building um a strong foundation on what that roll out uh will look like next year with the intention uh to do full implementation in the fall.

181And so currently right now we've been um I guess like playing with CCGI, learning from it to try to figure out like you know what works best uh with the intention to have uh this very thoughtful and collaborative plan that we designed um with the counselors um and we'll bring to the side administration for how to support roll out not only with counselors but with teachers too. So it's a systemwide approach uh next school year. I think that touches sounds like there's maybe already more work in ensuring people know how the system works because I think a month or two back I had asked people and they had only heard of a presentation of CCGI but they hadn't known more but it would be good to see like a plan like what the roll out

182will be and is that only at 9 to 12 or is there a focus in the seven seven, eight as well. Yeah. The the plan that we have built out for CCGI that incorporates counselor on the move is grades 6 through 12. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. And the other question as we move towards the end of the continuum um training I'm wondering if with the collaboration with SRGC if there would be opportunities to use uh work experience college credits as maybe students transition to internships or whatever. I know the CT foundation's working on implementing some of that. What would you know is there any of that in the talks or in the works? Yeah, absolutely. Um the only tricky thing right now is our CCAP grants. Uh they cover all the the costs for students, right?

183It's free for students to take uh SRJ JC courses that we have an agreement a CCAP agreement with. Uh for whatever reason, I'm I'm not sure, but I think there's movement. The work experience department is not included in those CCAP um agreements. And so we actually have a meeting with the SRJC, gosh, I think it is next week um to talk a little bit more about that. um that is an area of focus. I do want to see students um doing uh you know more internships, work experience uh types of activities and so if if they can do that coupled with early college credit that's a win-win and so that's something we're working on and then as you mentioned the CTE foundation of Sonoma County is also been collaborating with SCO to work on that

184as well. I'll just do one more question so then other people could ask. Um, in terms of it, it sounded like there was work to like reach out to like graduates or whoever to see kind of where they're at. Um, I'm wondering does the district have any sort of agreement with like Cinema State or SRJC to hire um federal work study students that I I know last time I talked to Cinema State, they're like we'll cover all their wages if there's like work for them to do to maybe potentially do some of that work that seems to be just calling and getting data. Do we do we know if we have anything like that anywhere? Not to my knowledge, but that's something I could definitely look into. Thank you. Yeah. Uh first and foremost, thank

185you. I love hearing everything about CTE. I love how passionate you are about it and all the hard work you do to put into this. Um it's very much appreciated. Yes, I was at the Wednesday night market with the Creole culinary team. It was delicious and just that experience of prepared meals and selling them to the public and interacting with the public um in a food sale preparation and cell environment um was really uh encouraging and empowering to see. Um, CT often gets tied to electives and I always bring up special education because in high school there are a lot of our IEP and 50 students that um take the very much needed directed studies class and a directed studies student has no electives freshman and sophomore year. So when you're looking at a two

186course, three course CTE opportunity, they might not have an opportunity to have their first experience until a junior or even senior level. um and it's really limiting and a lot of these students um could benefit from these opportunities and just have different experiences to encourage them to CTE is fun. CTE is exciting. It's one of those great opportunities that kids want to be at school and they want is this tangible result of something they did or built or designed or experienced. Um, and we we need to continue to have conversations with SPE special education about that and see how we're partnering and working together um to like Dr. Casher so beautifully said is finding opportunities for all of our students and ensuring that they are leaving our campuses um on a path of success for

187whatever direction their life takes them. And that's ultimately what we're trying to prepare them to do. Um, quick question, what do you need from us as a board? What can we do to further support and be involved to lift up CT? Yeah. Um gosh, I guess I mean I think that you are doing it. I I I think that and and I've I've shared this um just with close friends. What I appreciate is I feel like this board of education um is advocates for CTE programs. I I feel that and so just that sheer support and advocacy around CTE um and messaging I mean you all are very connected individuals and so the more that that you can share um you know all the wonderful things that we're doing in CTE and that it is

188for students that are you know continuing their education I think that that is um incredibly powerful and appreciated. Um I would be remiss to say that if I didn't say um that as you as you saw or heard um you know we do secure a lot of CTE grant funding to support these programs um and and those are intended to supplement um not supplant um you know funding. And so the more that you can continue to support um like my position is not grant funded. We have other resources that are allocated towards CTE. Um, so the more that if if that is something that the board values, um, that I would, you know, welcome that support as well. Um, but I mean you guys are doing everything that I I just appreciate the support. So

189I don't know if there's anything else. Yeah. No, I mean I think basically she's saying one position gets like 4 something million dollars that she brings in. So it's well worth it. But I've seen all of you really support that and that makes a difference when you're down at the schools, I think, and showing support for these programs. It makes a difference. It shows um um the community and it shows students that this is a legitimate pathway through school. And I don't know um I actually wasn't raised that way. I was raised that you had to go one way and that's it. And um and that's not fair to a lot of kids that had my upbringing because um it you know for a lot of reasons, but just the fact that there are adults

190out there supporting these programs makes a big difference. And so when you show up and when you're there, that's really big. So we appreciate that. Thank you. And then the labor force, the backbone of this country that farms and builds and repairs and constructs, um we are still struggling and finding replacements for that workforce. in that workforce has a lot of um opportunities for very high earners. So, there's some great opportunities and the more we can earlier we can introduce that and ignite some of those passions, the better off we're going to be moving forward. Yeah, I'm I'm excited to share we have on that note I am we've been working with the North Bay Trades Introduction Program to offer the women's instru camp the last few years um uh Trades Women Inc. secured a

191grant um to offer 18 camps in Marin and Sonoma County, they came to our women in construction camp to learn as a model and um and during that experience and when they were there, I was like, "Hey, we'll we'll do some camps if you would be willing to partner with us on that." And so I'm working with them to offer some camps uh through Santa Rosa City Schools. And so to your point, exactly like we we need to continue to prepare students for a variety of careers and and leverage our partners in order to help provide those training opportunities even beyond our CTE programs. Thank you. And director Cardoza is one of the directors that supports schools and goes and covers when their administrators missing. That's a classic example right there. And if they need

192any sites for sheet metal work and gutter repair, we might have opportunities. Great. Thank you. Yes. Uh, thank you. And, um, I'm excited about the one of the questions was about outreach and how things are being messaged out. I know stuff is going out to the students. Um, but I'm always like, don't forget the parents uh, so that we can help support them and get them on the right track. from a personal standpoint, like I have two sophomores who are still two years, but they were entering into the district and into middle school right after co like, you know, coming right out. So they didn't have the same experiences as like a CTE wheel where there's a lot of options and and so when I hear things like it's CTE isn't a standalone elective and

193yet in my head I'm like but we need those standalone electives and those um exposure points even at you know 10th and 11th grade um because everybody's situation is different. And so I just I'm really excited about all the CTE paths. Um I'm I'm hopeful that the distrib distribution of um resources is being distributed across the campuses and not specifically um to certain ones. Um, but then also just making sure that we're not forgetting about there's a couple years of kids in there who who didn't get all the exposure. And I know that we're we're correcting now for kids who are coming into that age. And we've got another age group really good, but there's there seems to be a couple kids who are um in that middle group who I just want to make

194sure we don't forget. Yeah. Thank you so much for your work. Yeah, thank you for that. um to talk a little bit about resource distribution. Uh one of the things that I implemented is um I created the I modified the state self-review tool uh so we could utilize it locally um and make more informed decisions, make it a little bit more user friendly. And then what our CTE program teachers do is they utilize that self-review assessment and then they submit um a local grant application to to me um and then I gather all of that information and then CTE department chairs and I come together and we look at teacher requests and so collaboratively we look at what uh teachers need that are connected to the self-re uh results to allocate resources and so uh

195so that's how we do that annually uh primarily with our Perkins and our CTE incentive grant. Those are kind of our two largest uh that are uh uh kind of encompass all of our CTE programs. And of course, we have specialized grants that are targeted like the K12 uh strong workforce one for education and things like that. But um that's how we allocate the resources, which has worked really well for us. Do you do it um sitebased? One thing that I've been noticing is that sometimes depending on like the leadership at the sites or the even the staff who if they're very seasoned, you know, you don't know what you don't know till you don't know it. Um so making sure that and this kind of ties in with like the uh teachers teaching teachers.

196Um just making sure those communication lines are open so people don't know what they don't like they're informed about what they may be missing. um so that the equity line is there. Yeah. Yeah. We do it um by sight by CTE program. And what's been really beautiful and I don't know if it's just I'm just lucky in in the CTE teachers that I work with is when we come together we'll have one big purchase for one program one school year and then the next the following school year that program or the teacher representing that department chair representing that program will say hey we got taken care of last year. Let's take care of X. And so it's been really um pleasant and wonderful uh to look at how we allocate our resources and ultimately support

197CTE as a whole um in the district. So yeah. Hey. So um luckily quite a few of my questions got answered. I had about 12 here. So um we made it through quite a few. Um, so most of the grants that we get are matching grants, correct? Is there a spot that we get to where we say we don't have the money as a district to match those grants anymore? I mean, are we close to that or we um I guess are we close to that? Yeah, great question. And so most of our grants uh do require a match. Um not all though. uh but uh most of them do and so I work very closely with our fiscal department to um essentially see how much um we can match per the grant um cycle

198and what's really nice is that the grants are on different cycles and so I'm able to kind of look at what we have available um and then some grants actually you can use other grants as a matching source and so um so to that point again I I love our fiscal department they are absolutely absolutely wonderful um and have been very collaborative in figuring out really how much we can ask for because we're going to ask for as much as we possibly can um every time we submit an application. So yeah, so and our the cycles are different and so so far we're Okay. Good. Okay. That's good to hear because obviously we want to maximize that as much as possible. Absolutely. So what I kind of heard you saying was like yeah I could

199use a grant writer to help me out at some point. I know it may sound weird, but is there a grant to fund a grant writer? You know, um, not that I'm aware of. You know, we did one. Yeah. Yeah. I D Cardo is our grant writer. Yes. I And I I I enjoy it. I I I enjoy securing funding for our programs um because I know that the impact it has and so um so yeah, but I I appreciate that. Okay. Um you mentioned uh looking at new pathways and you you asked the students about that. Uh after that how do you choose what a new pathway particular might be for us in CTE? Yeah. So we look at um facilities that the program or that the school has. Um so um for an

200example if if uh LC Allen wanted to offer an automotive technology program I say ah that's great because auto row is right there but unfortunately we don't have the facility to do that as an example and so we look at student interests but also um most importantly we look at industry need and so what are the major sectors in our area what are what are the workforce demands and how do we design programs in response to that and so we know that healthcare is a high priority area not only in our area, but across the state, I mean, across the across the nation really. And so, when we went for the Golden State uh pathway program uh grant funding, that was where we we dug in. Um but also too with intentionality that we don't

201want to have five patient care programs offered throughout the district. And so, uh we have our health science and biotech at, um at Piner High School, or public and community health at LC. We have a sports medicine focus at Coreo. We're building the patient care one um at McGomery and originally we had um we were looking at doing another patient care at Santa Rosa High School. We're in a planning grant for that. Um but since then I've shifted our focus to um do one on uh mental and behavioral health. um mostly because we want to differentiate but two we heard from industry as they were looking at all the CTE programs in the healthcare industry um with the CTE foundation at the table um and they said man that's the one we're missing why are

202districts not doing that and I said we will so uh so we're going to look at building that um in collaboration with Santa Rosa and just saying and looking around you know and getting feedback from our schools you know our strong VAPA programs you know and and the exist This is of art quest in my mind. I know I brought this up before, but the art and media CTE pathway is right there to implement. And I think if we can get our teachers certified, you know, in that, I think that'd be a great pathway and a big draw for our community. Art Quest already is. And we could just build on that, you know. Yeah, I definitely think there's an opportunity to explore um looking at transitioning um some of our VAPA into the arts,

203media, and entertainment industry sector. Um one, if we can get teachers the appropriate CTE credentials so they can access uh the grant funds, but two, with Art Quest, we're going to have to figure out um the uh the application process because you cannot have an application um for CTE programs. It has to be open uh to everybody. So there really can't be any sort of screening. So we'll have to work through that. It's it's something that we could definitely explore. Yeah. Thank you. Just a couple more things. Um first off, uh last week I was at the SRJC's, uh graduation for their CTE certificates and all that and I was like wowed by the number of individual programs that they had. And I was like, our students should be able to see all these different

204opportunities. And I think a career day or something as part of like the exploration in partnership with SRGC would be awesome. Not just like a regular college day, but they're very specific programs would be so eye opening. I think um I did want to ask about obstacles and particularly teacher shortages in terms of our programs. where do we stand, you know, where where do we have voids to fill? Um and what can we do to address some of those issues? Yeah. Um I think it it it can be challenging to get the appropriate credentialed teacher in um some industry sectors more than others. So for example, healthcare is really hard um because there's five um CTE credentials and then there's um where it's just like the general credentials. So like agriculture, business, home, home to

205do culinary, indust industrial trades, things of that nature. And then we have uh teachers that can go and secure a designated CTE subject credential. So if they have industry experience in healthcare for example, they can get that verified in additional to other requirements, they go through SCO and they can do that. And so I think that that is uh definitely something that we have to look at, especially as we're looking at teacher retirements um or transitioning to other school districts. Um and then we're also currently looking for um agriculture teachers at Elon High School. So, agriculture mechanics is traditionally really hard um to hire for. Uh the good news is is being a former agriculture teacher. I'm very connected and so I've already reached out to the my contacts at the CDE um to let

206them know that we have these positions available. So, not only is it posted on our Edjoin, but also in their uh database as well. Um and then just again being connected I I you know it's been beneficial in agg um for me to to reach out to different folks. So and then on the position of the new position on innovation and outreach engagement whatever it is um what would be the collaboration between your department and that new position to really understand these programs and then be able to market them? Um yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think we'd have to sit down um that person would have to sit down with um director Cardardozo and see where are some natural places where they would be able to dovetail and connect and um and say where are some

207gaps where they'd be able to support you and go from there. And I and I think that the I've seen a lot of really good well well produced videos from the CT Foundation about some of the different programs and as we market can there be further collaboration to maybe have them help produce some videos about a lot of these programs that help us market? Yeah. Uh um I didn't want to get into the particulars, but that is actually part those um outreach and those materials in terms of marketing and branding that is that is actually written into the job description. Yeah, you're right on. I just meant the funding part where we don't pay, they pay. Gotcha. That's all. Yeah. Thank you. And a lot of my questions have been addressed. Um, I wanted to

208kind of come back to where Director Kirby left off on Art Quest and also our special programs. Um, I'm concerned when I hear because I' I've heard now several times that the reason we haven't invested or attempted to create a CT track for our request is because of the admissions program. And my understanding is that there's already been a plan presented that would meet those requirements by having the CT classes offered in the 10th and 11th grade in order to have the two years and that we could pursue that and then enable students who didn't come into our quest in 9th grade um but wanted to be able to access them to do so if they were able to meet the the the level for those classes. So, what is it that's preventing us from

209actually investing in this program? Because a lot of the folks in Art Quest are feeling like we've disinvested and removed their supports. And this seems like the way for us to move back to actually embracing the students in that community who for lots of very valid reasons don't feel like they're being embraced right now. Yeah, thank you for your question. And I would I would need to talk to ArtQuest to understand that model a little bit more to make sure that it is in alignment with how we do CTE. Um because I I want to make sure that we are not um I'm trying I'm I'm drawing a blank for the word, but I I want to make sure that we are in compliance so we can continue to access all of our grant funding.

210And so I don't want to jeopardize that. That's the word I'm thinking of. Um so I'm certainly open to the conversation. Um, I do also have some questions and and we need to have some conversations around um the double block uh because you know if they have other CTE programs at Santa Rosa High School and so if Art Quest is double block but some of our construction programs or auto or manufacturing are not those are some things that we have to work through. Um I I don't think that there is resistance to transitioning to that, but I definitely think that it has to be a conversation uh to make sure that we're in compliance uh with the way that we do CTE and then also ensuring that all CTE teachers or all their teachers would

211have the appropriate credential as well. Um, I I do wonder though how that looks when you only have part of the program CTE and part of the program not and and how that kind of you uh reconciles itself. And so I would need to have some additional conversations with them uh to sus that out. And I think part of the challenge right now is what it looks like is we're disinvesting and not supporting a program that's been successful for 30 years. and we need to find creative ways to pursue supporting it even if it looks a little weird. Yeah. So, thank you. All right. I have two public comment cards. Um the first one I can't really read the name something for Chris Forsia may have gone home. Um and then Edwin Alan Torresa, you'll

212have two minutes. You can go up to one of the podiums. Hello. Yes. Go ahead, Edwin. My name is Edwin A. Torres. I am currently a 12th grader at Santa Rosa High School and over there I am in two CTE programs, wood shop and uh manufacturing. Um I'm here today to speak about both these two CTE programs and how they how both programs have not only showed me a career choice a way but also life skills I could surely on in the future I could pass on to family members friends and show others. They're both really great programs. They really showed me many ways of what I can do and what I'm capable of. how to work heavy machinery. And I just also want to say that DCT programs not only to show you life

213skills, but they give you career choices of what you can of what you want to do in life. And for me, something I really wish I could have done if if um in ninth grade was joining these CTE programs younger to learn even more. That's something I really wish I could have done ninth grader, but now I'm a 12th grader. I'm graduating this year. And the CTE programs really brought in something into my life. Showed me really, really helpful stuff. Stuff that will be really helpful throughout my life. and just everything is amazing to the projects to the to the teamwork that I have in my classes to these great people I was able to meet during these CTE programs to push me through my limits to go into those shops every single day and

214to push myself of what I thought I couldn't do to to show me myself that I I can do this and I just wanted to speak about these CTE programs today. Thank you very much for your time and have a good night. Thank you for sharing. Thank you, Rodri and Debbie. We will move on now to Joel. Come on down. Tell us about the budget. All right. Okay. Good question. I'll tell you how right now. Good evening, President McNeer Superintendent August as well as CBO and the greatest boss ever and members of the board. So, next slide, please. So, I'll go ahead and get us started and then I'll kick it over to Joel. Um, so just a quick overview there. We're going to skip through several of the slides just because there's a lot

215of detail there. That's really great information and I'm going to let Joel speak to ones that are the highlights, but just want to give a reminder of the fact that the budget is cyclical. This is it is everchanging. There's only one time a year that it is real. And the difference at each of our interim periods is that we get to provide an update based on the newest information available at that time. And the third interim report is a condensed version of it's an update between second interim and the budget. So that's it's required whenever we have a qualified certification at second interim. and then you'll be hearing again from us in a month or actually not even a month, a couple of weeks. I'll hand it over to you Joel. Thank you. Thank you.

216Okay, so tonight we'll start with uh overview of the May revise and go into our third end of report. So we'll take a look at the state budget, Prop 98 budget, which is the education budget, and then how that impacts us locally here. So, back in January, the state projected a balance budget. Things have come to fruition or come to light here with the May revise and now they're looking at an estimated $14 billion deficit. They've got some proposals on how to address those deficits, but um in in cost cuts, uh spending shifts, and some funding delays. So what why is the state um facing a 14 to billion dollar bet deficit now? Uh largely because of uh the updated capital gains or personal income tax related to capital gains. That's the most um impacting

217factor as you can see. Why does the state have updated projections for personal income tax related to capital gains? because of the the way the stock market was affected by the tariffs imposed by um the federal government. Again, major state there's other state uh factors to consider um areas outside of the TK through 14 budget in the state. Those are volatile um the assumptions might not come true. And then there's another tax filing extension for the Los Angeles County fires uh in LA through January 25. Again, um more federal government um uncertainty, some um lawsuits at the California level, and then the big three revenue projections. So, that's basically an overview of the state budget. I mean, and then but now we'll look at Prop 98. Now, Prop 98 is fairly insulated from the state

218of California budget challenges um because they have these three tests that determine what funding that uh what what the state funds Prop 98 education funding through. And it's kind of um of note to say that the legislature um inappropriate less than the constitution guarantee with the 2/3 vote. The LA that's only been done three times and one of them was in 2023 24 which brings in to play this um maintenance factor obligation which we'll go over in a minute. it. So, what did Prop 98 come out come out with? Since January, they had did notice a 4.3 um billion dollar lower Prop 98 projected funding level. Um now, the governor maintains most of his January proposal items through some deferring of payments to 12 to to schools. um community in community colleges utilizing the entirety

219of the Prop 98 reserve um withdrawing or reducing community college proposals by about 400 million and he's maintaining the January proposal to underappropriate the Prop 98 minimum guarantee by 1.3 billion which is updated from the $ 1.6 billion January proposal. Again, this is deferring these payments. So in essence, it's a deferring these is a no interest loan back to the state and um it it it is approximately about 214 per TK through 12 per ADA. Um again a lot of um organizations are lobbying the governor to um not use this maneuver or um there's a lot of different names for it. bench rebenching. But so that's something to keep in mind moving forward. I one thing of note that we I think it's important to share is out of the Prop 98 there is the

220EPA the education protection account which is a tax that is now um that is expiring in 2030. if it's not re-uped, then the state is going to have to find the um additional revenue to offset the loss of that EPA revenue. And so again, Prop 98 is is um a great method for funding school districts, but the state's got some challenges. Okay. So, how do those um impact us locally here? So some of our our largest revenue source is our local control funding formula. Um in January we projected a cola of 2.43% and that's a statutory cola. So that now is already in um in law which it is at 2.3%. with in the May revise the governor proposes to fund the entire 2.3% cola. However, now he is using one-time monies to fund that.

221Again, continuing in the May revise is the proposal to refund the learning recovery emergency block grant. And here you can see those figures that would the amount that we would receive. So that's, you know, looking like roughly $2 million that continues to be in the May revise. Again, the transitional kindergarten ratio LCF add-on continues to be in the May revisal. You can see here we have the the rate is about $3,148. The add-on would be about $2,397. You can see that would be a generate another four little over $400,000 for our district. Again, the governor continues to include in the May revise the student support and professional development discretionary block grant. This is discretionary one-time money. You can see it's a fairly healthy amount for our district based on our P2 ADA and the rough

222estimate of per ADA that we would receive for that. He has some updates for educator investments. Um some shifting of those funds um turning into um maybe a $10,000 stipen on a first come first basis basis pro perspective educators. there's some eligibility um requirements involved with that. Then he has um maintaining the expanded learning opportunities grant program. So, I mean, this is a really important slide because we went over some pretty healthy uh proposals that are included in the May revise and and and they were included in the January revi January proposal included maintained in the May revise. However, there's risk levels. So, we work with um School Service California. They're an organization that helps us um decipher this information. Our Sonoma County Office of Education and the Yeah. So, I was going to start

223with acknowledging our Sonoma County Office of Education and um our uh Fikmat, the financial crash financial crisis management assistant team. As we all know, they are working with our district in a collaboration through um and one of the big components is collaboration and a team working with our fiscal department and we've had um a lot of great work that's happened and I'll get through the um the um May revise information and I'll go into more of those details before I start the third inter but as you can see with the these items that affect us here locally that were included in January and maintained in May these organizations are still um letting us know that there's a high level of risk with these items. So they have suggested and we have conformed with this that

224the 2.3 cola is is is is safe. It's very has a very little risk factor. However, that learning recovery emergency block grant that we showed a fairly healthy amount for us. They say that's that's that that they advise not including that in third interum budget projections and but however the risk level is lower then they suggest that TK ratio add-on um they don't suggest including that in your third inter financial projections and the risk level is high with that that discretionary block grant same story teacher the and the teacher preparation and professional development Again, that was where we kind of went over some of that shifting, but they also say that that is not um advisable to include in your projections and the risk level is high. And then the ELOP, they say, you know,

225those in additional items, they say don't include those, but the risk level is lower. And if I can add the um words, the LRBG additional funding where it says subject to negotiation, that's that negotiation that happens between the governor and the legislature. So over the next month, so again, just to touch on another way that the governor is um maintaining the level of Prop 98 funding is through budget deferral. I mean through deferrals of of uh cash payments. So for example, this year from June to July, we'll get a deferral and then next year from July to August, no, June to July. Yeah. Okay. So again, local things to be aware of. Um federal education budget. Um, we're looking at possibly eliminating Title 3 and migrant education. Not huge revenue sources for us, but something

226that we definitely invest resources for our students for. And like like the governor, the president has given that in his budget proposal as well. Again, just another overview of where we're at. January governor's budget proposal comes out. We're updating it in the governor's May revision. When we pass our budget in June, the state will also pass their budget act in June as well. Then we'll do a 45day budget update with the information that is what is passed by the budget act. Again, just another So, what could possibly happen in the future with regards to the federal um policies is is we have to keep be mindful of that and the horizon. So with that now we'll go into the third interim and I will say so for this financial report we did work with um

227fiscal crisis management assistance team Fikmat um Tammy Montero was our um partner with Fikmat and it was just a great experience. I mean she's so knowledgeable, so friendly. um she was great support. Um some kind of the areas of scope that we worked on was we did look through our uh 2425 budget. Um and she looked at um we we looked at kind of local revenue, some utility stuff. Um um we looked at I mean it's tens of thousands of budget line items, but we really looked at a lot of the areas. Um she did give positive feedback that she felt really good about what she saw. She's um and and we so then we took that information when we finished our current year 2425 estimated actuals and then we were able to import that

228into a multi-year projection software that Fikmat has and Tammy is an expert and not only at the software but at um training and giving um tutorials on how to use it. And I mean I she was able to speak on a you know level that I can understand and and my team we were able to import and use this software effectively. Um the multi-year projection includes a enrollment tool with an enrollment projection um component which we have included in here as well as um a really good tool for utilizing um assumptions and building your multi-year projection. And we worked with the and the other component it has is a cash a cash flow module. So we were able to work with cash flow and we worked with SCO and Sarah with the cash flow as

229well. So we really got really excellent support. I feel really great about this third interim and moving forward. Um we got some challenges to overcome but so with that again the so we did use the assumptions. So here's what are some of the items included in our third third assumptions. So our revenues are largely based on average daily attendance which we use our um enrollment projections to um have a projection for. So, we did update those enrollment projections and that is one area that the Sman County Office of Education did mention to Fikmat that they wanted to help that they wanted us to look like look at with us and help us get uh enrollment because of some of the challenges with our district and some of the maybe possibilities that we won't know until

230we see what happens next year. That's just the truth. So, we worked with Emmanuel, our uh data information data director. He gave us so much support. He got into projection pro and worked in it. And we came out with projections next year. They were they were kind of more based on our actual known information and not a lot of hope that a lot of improvement we made. There's a very good chance that it could be made, but that's what we did. And then the software has what's called a projection that uses a cohort survival method. And these are the updated enrollment projections. We got you can see it's it's it's reduced about 327 enrollment which is about 337 ADA and the following year and then in the third year 47588. Now we do maintain our

231three-year average. So, but those are updated with this third interim. And so, I just want to reiterate what Joel is sharing, and that is that we're using incredibly conservative numbers as we're making the projections. So, we are looking at all of the guidance from school services as far as not including any of those additional funds that some of that is likely to come out in this next month in the negotiation piece as well as looking at even reducing what we were looking at for our enrollment projections again to kind of look at a worst case scenario. And so, just being really really conservative in that. will be updating over the next month with budget. So don't I I just want to clarify that that that this is because we are working with SCO and VicNet.

232We want to be very we want to be mindful that we are all in walking in tandem in our um assumptions not to not to be overly optimistic and to plan for the worst and also be ready for the best. Joel, I'm really glad to hear that you're having a positive experience with the FitMax specialists. Um, working directly with you and as we're looking at these projection opportunities and and different data points really gives you some numbers to sink your teeth into. Um, another piece of that ad hoc go um is a commitment on there and of investment they're making into um projections of enrollment and surveys and data so that we have an opportunity to see where students are going and why and help correct um course within our district to um have opportunities

233for these numbers to go up if possible. So, it's all happening in conjunction together and really neat to see this was a new tool introduced Are there any other questions or comments for Joel? Oh, you got more. Okay, go for it. Because we're I just wanted to make sure that as we were looking at assumptions that that was a clarification. Okay. So, so those are our assumptions that are included in the third interim and we'll go into some more assumptions there in the my but now we'll take a look at the current 2425 revenues. So, we did we show these what are updated from second interim. So, we have a couple items to address here. One is you see there's some other state revenue. Um now we did update two grant revenues. One is our

234Golden State Pathways program and the second is our dual enrollment opportunities. So that is those equal to 830,000. Now those both revenues now are included in the restricted ending fund balance. So that's where those go. Um then we did look at our other local revenue and our other local revenue is less um based on enrollment or certain data that is a prior year. It's based on our local revenue. So what was some of the impacts that update this revenue are um we did apply for an rate. We applied for a healthy rate and we anticipated receiving that rate. We not we were notified that we received a portion of that rate and that we and they deemed the another portion of that a rate as unallowable. We did appeal that and we are going to

235progressively or we are going to um go after the rest the the total amount but that will be through an appeals process and that won't be um known this year. So we've updated that. Uh we did work with um our wells and engagement and updated our thirdparty billing program um rates. Um we updated there was some final uh resig return of equity and some other items but those are the major impacting areas of that and those are kind of the highlights for the revenues. So moving into the expenditures you can see we had an increase in classified salaries. So those are from restricted grants. Um we did have a uh CSEA negotiated settlement this this year. We really updated our unrestricted sources and everything. But we um when we when those salary schedules were entered

236and all the actual um retros were done, then then really there's restricted grants like title one um the IDA grants um uh special ed workability mental health related services um and our routine restricted maintenance account which has a fair amount of classified salaries in it. So that is what is included in that. So the other area I think of note here is our um services and and other operating expenditures. So, we did update another um special ed uh non-public agency contract um that was uh um Inspire came just with this month in May and said, "Hey, we've increased we've we we've increased our hours. We need to have an addendum." And the addendums were fairly healthy. So we've since then our special ed department and fiscal department have met with inspire and we're working on

237better processes. I mean we've been working on these for a while and it seems like at these financial reportings we have special but special ed is something that um yeah so that that was the probably the largest impacting factor of our expenditure increases. We did increase we did look at some utilities at the end of the year. We chewed up our utilities and there was some change in that area but those were the main contributing factors to the expenditures. So now here we want to look at our fund. Oh and one thing of note this is a new slide. So we haven't so we we're evolving. So, since I've been here, we've really utilized uh this uh format of slides. And with Lisa, we we talked and we said, "Well, we want to add this

238slide because this is a it's a really great slide." And as I look at it more, I think there's so much great information here. Um so, this is an overall picture of our current 2425 with our unrestricted, restricted, and the combined sources. So you can relate the combined you can you can show the combined sources back to some of the other um slides but you can see how you know we have our unrestricted sources which is mainly our LCFF revenues and then some other state revenues and other local revenues really other state revenues are like unrestricted lottery um but and then some other local revenues are um are facility use fees um and so on but predominantly a large portion of our LCF revenues. You can see our expenditures. Now you you can see our

239unrestricted excess deficiency over expenditures for other finance uses and contributions is a surplus of about Yeah. Do you have a little highlighter? Maybe I could point I should I wish I had a You can see our our ending excess deficiency is about $30 million in unrestricted sources and you can see in restricted sources which restricted sources our revenues are about 22% of our overall general fund. So that that 40 50 million out of 180 million. Now, when we restricted sources are a lot of one-time grants, other straight grants, but they're also are um ongoing um special education sources. Um and you can see like for example, a lot like about 17 million of those other other local revenues, $17 million of those local our a lot of our special ed um revenues from our SULPA.

240our SELP as our Sonoma County education local education local plan area. Is that right? I think close. Um and they do have a funding model that we um that they decide locally. So, and then you can see there's a few other state resources, federal resources, and then LCFO sources that is our special education property taxes. Um so at the end of the day our restricted um excess deficiency revenues over is about $62 million. Now that is drawing down on a number of those one-time grant resources but you can see we do have a contribution from unrestricted to restricted sources in the amount of $53 million. And I can tell you that about 7 million of that is our mandatory 3% contribution towards our maintenance, our routine restricted maintenance account. The the remainder of that is

241our contribution towards our special education um services. and and and that's kind of the challenge of having um these special education services being federally being federally and locally mandated, but those federal and local federal and state sources not fully funding those mandates. So you can see how that impacts our unrestricted sources is with some of those items that we updated in the um third interim that we went over. We are ending at a where at January we were looking at a out of balance budget. We are looking at a at a balance a budget a ending balance about 2.9 million under under zero and we and then in our restricted sources we are going from a beginning balance of about 18.7 million to 9 million. I just don't want to interrupt for one moment here.

242Could I ask that we suspend the rules, move to item 8, and then consider a after we do that a motion to extend um the meeting so we can go back into close session? I' I'd say move to extend the meeting first to I want to suggest 11:55. Nope. That's a part of why I want to see how quickly we can get through these others to to figure out the timing. 11:45. Uh we still got a lot to get through on the agenda and close. So that's why I even don't think that's enough. But I hear you. Can can we do the suspension of the rules and move item G8 and take that action item up because I don't think there's a lot of discussion on it. I I I don't want to like stop

243in the middle of this. I got questions I want to ask. I mean, personally, so that's why I'm just like, all right, y'all do whatever. We we have some mandatory items that we need to get through tonight, including this this item. Yeah. So, I want to do GA because I think there's no discussion. We can get it out of the way. Then we can use our time and then we'll have a sense of how much more time we need. I I think we need to do this one then move G8 up and then as far as I know everything else on the agenda could be pushed until our next meeting. Move to extend till 11:30 p.m. I'm just I'm let y'all know like I will have a panic attack and just leave before then. Um,

244oh, could somebody guess something so we can move on? 10:30 second. All in favor? I I I opposed. Nay. Okay. 10:30. Um, let's finish with the um the interim budget. So, just move a little bit of this as well. So just a reminder that IDA is was originally set to you know cover most or a good portion of special education. It does not. That's what um Joel was sharing that between the federal and state resources does not cover enough of our of our special education support. We are not suggesting that we don't provide services. It's that we need to be very mindful as we are as we are moving through this and continue our systems conversations. Okay. So here again we have some more assumptions built into 2526 and 2627. I don't think it's it's

245just continuing from our prior um projections with the update that we did get the updated um final riff and PKS for next year. Um then so here's our multi-year projection. Again this is combined sources. Um so if you want to go to the next slide I think it's maybe better to talk about. So we're going to end with um again the current 2425 restricted and unrestricted amount. Now then we move into 2526. So this does not include any of the items that was shown currently in the May in the governor's May revision proposal items which there a good amount of funding there. Um this does not so this also does not include any um transfers or other funds or any items. This is just showing the raw ending balance of the uh fund 01 and

246it includes our updated enrollment projections. So just to clarify this does not include transfers that we had talked about previously. We want to just show a clear fund 01 and then there will be reimbursements and and transfers that would information would be coming in budget but we want to show a very clear budget a clear representation of what fund 01 looks like without any of that. So, so again the unrestricted ending fund balance can be negative but the cash flow balance cannot be. And here's our current cash flow projection. You can see so why is it going up and down? Well, the the major contributing factors in that is because so we have our LCFF funding. Now, we are a state aid funded school district. Like a basic aid funded school district would get 100%

247of their property taxes. However, the state has set a minimum level of funding. And if your property taxes are below that, then they give you a state aid school district that gets the additional funding. Um, we are a state aid district. Our property taxes are roughly $123 million. So our total LCFF is approximately $165 million. So about 74% of our revenues come from our local property taxes. And we only get our local property taxes well for most part. We get our local property taxes every year in December and then April. So you can see we we um we we maintain our cash reserves and then we start spending every fiscal year and then we get those property taxes. So you know we have a we have a cash flow tool that we use each year.

248It's our line of credit with the county treasury but more so it's our inner fund borrowing. So we're going to continue to use those tools throughout this year and throughout next year. and we don't project any special financing. Now, what happens after June 2026, we go back on the next year's borrowing against our property taxes. However, it's going to be a more challenging after that 2026. There's likely special finance will be needed, but we have time to address that. and here. So, we'll reconvene this fiscal stabilization advisory committee um start doing the work of um addressing some of the challenges in our in our budget and you know areas to monitor again similar to what we look at in um the second interim um you know and then next steps. So we will go through

249um again bringing a budget here in 2 weeks which will add that uh 2728 year on it and um then the state will adopt its budget. We'll come back with a um you know we'll continue to work in July come back in August with that 45day budget update. Thank you. Any questions? Trusty Medina. Thank you. Um, my concern right now is looking at why we're so overbudget this year. Like the the first thing that I see I think is salary and benefits. I think we were at 187.2 million. It was budgeted. We're at like 192.8. I know we didn't budget the CSA increase, but at, you know, we're like at 5 a.5 million over. Um, that's one concern. Um books and supplies were about 2 million over what we budgeted. Um I think service and

250operating expenses were we're what we're like 11 million over. I understand part of that but in terms of salaries and benefits books and supplies why are we so much over budget? Um I think so that's I mean that's a good question. We do address if we look at first interim we did address the kind of increases since budget and at second interum we address the first the the increases since first interim. Um I mean there's a lot of factors there's just um again yeah I I don't know specifically what you're referring to. I can give. So I'm just looking at last year's approved budget versus these 24 25 figures that we have. So if like if we passed a budget, oh, we're going to be around this figure. Like you mean we're so much over

2515 million to me is a lot. So the budget we passed in um June of 2024. Yeah. I mean I would have to go back and get exactly those specific details that we reported at first interim. I mean we are about 6 million over in revenue which is good but I think we're still so much over which then leads to um you know our 2526 projection. We were at uh 189 million for last year. We're 177 for this year which is about 12 million decrease. not quite what we were um hoping to achieve, but also um we were at 4.7 million for books and supplies and now we're we've increased that amount to 6.4 million for 2526. um whi which I guess the point is if we're needing to be cutting and we're going up

252from what we're expecting. I think we're obviously as we can see by the figures we're headed in the wrong direction. My concern is where we might end up and why aren't we kind of like trying sticking to where we need to stick. Like where is that falling through the whole like these books and supplies money? Is it where is it coming from? Is it restricted? Obviously all that restricted spending is way over restricted income. Quite a bit does happen when we we we we adopt our budget in June and there are so so if there are changes to for example a 10,00 object code which is certificate of salaries. There could be examples where, you know, our budgets includes school site discretionary budgets where they have a budget they pass in June and they might

253want to reallocate funds out of a 1,000, move them to 2,000 or reallocate funds out of a 5,000 or 4,000. And that happens not only with schoolside discretionary mons monies, it happens with a you know a number of grant monies. You know we and then I mean that's one example of many factors that go into um superintendent August has an answer. Yeah. I also want to address with the restricted funds that's often carryover that we actually can't budget as revenue or expenditures until we get into that into closing out the books and and showing what is. So, we have to show in one year that we are spending it all even though we know we aren't but because it's the way that we have to reflect it and then it gets added back in when

254we go when we do that first interim update. So there's always going to be a big shift when we're looking at the restricted funds. That's always going to be the case. Also, as we are looking at when we close out the the funds, we shift anything that we can out of unrestricted into restricted um during that closing process. So that's a piece of it. Also, as Joel shared, when you know a budget plan is always what you expect, but there's always shifts in there. Um, it's usually carried forward as far as from what we expect sites to have spent on say a staff member in one year, it may get shifted and spent on supplies the next or something of that nature. Those are some of the shifts that you see in there. We can

255always do better in our projections, which is part of why we're doing the work with VicMat and SCO and why we're really appreciative of that of that time with them. Again, as a reminder, we also have to adopt our budget for spending and for revenues prior to actually knowing what we're going to be receiving. And so those are those always impact it. We don't know. It's always a plan. It's a budget. It is not um it it again one time a year that our that our numbers are actually final, which is in September for the prior year. So, so just that's where you're you see those big swings and yes, we can continue to to improve and we're working on that process. And I' I'd just like to also add that's and that included in

256the certificated and classified salaries is our supplemental payroll. So, it's not just possessions, it's what we decide to um authorize employee overtime and it's also all of our sick leave, like if a teacher like how much our substitutes cost. It's all it's all of our [Music] um like if a if a employee if a if a classified employee goes on vacation or not and we use substitutes there it's it's so so those are some of the factors that really do evolve and come um more known with actuals. So first interim is is updated budget with actual information through October 31st. Um second interim is updated budget with actual information known through January 31st and third interim is updated with actual information known through April 30th. I guess the point is that you know with expenditures

257we expected to be at 226 after about 20 million in savings we're going to be at 241 which in effect is maybe about four or five million in in savings from that number. My concern is the trajectory. So and what that means for the future of this district. So, so one of our budgeting tools that we use is analyzing the available funds to sufficiently support the uh requested expenditure. And if they don't have sufficient funds, we look at shifting other funds. For example, if they want more future um supplemental pay, then we shift funds out of the fours or fives if that's available. And we do that. Um, so I mean there's just a lot that happens throughout the year and and I I don't know what our projected ending balance was at budget compared

258to what it is now. That's something that we would maybe see. Okay. Well, how did that occur? We were projected to have about 16 million. Here we have about 6 million as an ending balance. Okay. But look at those um components of that ending balance. what's restricted and what's unrestricted. So, I'll just leave it at that, but I'm just saying it's definitely something we need to like do better. It's not like I ever sleep at night. Not I'm not blaming it on you. I'm not saying it's you. I'm just saying as a district, these are like Yeah, it's it's definitely Yeah, you just take the numbers, you put them together, you show them to us. Um, but I'm saying collectively like there's many many pieces. We need to be really watching these numbers and keep

259in mind what this means for the district. Um, I'm really concerned and I don't know what to do, but we need to Yeah, I I don't know how we can do better, but we need to do better. And that's all I'm trying to point out. Yes. If I just ask, so the third interim that we take action on tonight, the purpose here is to accurately reflect the numbers as they stand now in order to inform our budget conversations. The budget conversations coming forward at the next meeting where we can schedule it a little earlier on the agenda and scope out more time to be able to go into these because I think we all share these concerns. Um, so with making what might have sounded like a question at the beginning of that as statement,

260I'd like to move that we adopt the third interim financial report. Second, any further discussion? Yes, Trusty Jenkins. Um, and this comes out of attending the LCAP meetings as me. Um, but as we are adopting an interim report, something that took me by surprise at the LCAP things at the LCAP meetings was that the board was choosing the worst case scenario. And it's not that we're choosing the worst case scenario in these situations. It's that we're adopting and accepting the reality of the situation just to correct. Yes. It's that yeah, not that you're choosing to to the worst case scenario. It's that we're recommending adoption of the most conservative assumptions. Thank you. Roll call vote. Student board members ina. Hi. Trusty Casten. Hi. Trusty Medina. Hi. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Kirby. Hi. Trusty Deator. Hi.

261President McN. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you, Joel. All right. If there's no opposition, can we move up? Um G8. What? I'm the speaker. You can acknowledge me. You would like I can share what it is. Sure. Go ahead. it is um because I do not hold an administrative credential. There is an education code which does allow the board to appoint me as an as a superintendent of a district. Um based on that education code and my experience move to approve resolution 2024/25-128 to appoint interim district superintendent without an administrative services credential. Second roll call vote. Student board members Aninga. I. Trusty Medina. I. Trusty Casten. I. Trusty Jenkins. I. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Deator. I. President Mcnal. I. Motion passes. Um, Superintendent August, would it be more important for us to do uh items

262four and five or to return to our close session items that we did not get to? I'm going to look to my team real quick. Any I do believe that we do need to go to close session. Um, that would be helpful. All right. I'd like to move to approve the district's school and site safety plans. Second. Any discussion there? Yes. Uh the discussion my contribute contribution to the discussion is that it's very important that they're updated um as things are approved. I understand they're living documents, but if we are approving school site things, they should have correct terminology, correct years, things of that sort. Roll call vote. Student board members. I. Trusty Medina. Hi. Trusty Casten. I. Trusty Jenkins. Abstain. Trusty Kirby. Hi. Trusty Deator. I President McN. Motion passes. Do do we want

263to do item five that quick? Move to approve the declaration of need for fully qualified educators. Second. Roll call vote. Student board members ina. Hi. Trusty Medina. I. Trusty Cast. Hi. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Kirby. I. Trusty Datory. I President McN. Motion passes. Uh approval of minutes. Second. Roll call vote. The first student board members. Hi. Trusty Medina. Hi. Trusty Casta. Hi. Trusty Jenkins. Hi. Trusty Kirby. Hi. Trusty Dator Tori. I. President McN. I. Motion passes. Uh board member request for information. I have one. Okay. Quick. Uh, I would like to know where we are on launching the alternative ed program that was discussed and approved in late 2023, early 24. Looking for an update on that, please. We will now recess to close session.