December 8, 2025 Board Meeting

001Call the meeting to order of the San Union High School District Board of Education regular meeting Monday, December 8th, 2025. Roll call, please. Terry, >> please note Miss Sheab is not present. >> Thank you. Stand for the flag salute. So, at this time, everybody's, I'm sure, had a chance to look at the agenda. Is there a motion for approval of the agenda? >> I'll motion to approve the agenda. >> And I'll second. >> Thank [clears throat] you. Roll call, please. Cherry. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Noble. >> Hi. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Hi. >> Mr. Leamini. All right, >> the agenda is approved and now we can move on to the superintendent reports and presentations. >> Hello and thank you. Nice to see everyone. >> Um well it's December crazy the year

002has flown by. So I first want to talk about um an A speech contest that our students were involved in. They were excited to share some wonderful news from the sectional FFA public speaking contest that took place at a Royal Grande High School. Of the 12 students who represented our school, five advanced to the semifinals, an outstanding accomplishment and a testament to their hard work. Jonathan Serrano um took first place in the senior division and is moving on to the region. Travis Ramirez in the job interview category took third place. Um finalist and moving on to the region, Stephanie Hackett and Creed speaking finalist moving on to region Casey Kaplan prepared public speaking semi- finalist and Laurian Rodriguez in the job interview semi- finalist. So great job to those kids. Really good job. I also

003wanted to make sure that everybody knew that Brooke Felin made it all the way to state for CI for um cross country and finished 39th. >> Wow. >> So great great job by her. I wanted to make sure that parents in the community are aware that PTO is doing their food for finals drive. [laughter] Sorry. Um they have been um sending home emails to parents about donation and helping with food for finals and finals are next week. happens fast. [laughter] >> Excuse me. >> It's all right. Thank you. >> Goodness. I might have have to have somebody else read my students of the month today. [snorts] >> Maybe we could have Tori read them. Usually I read it, Danielle, but I don't want to have a coughing fit through the whole thing. I was fine

00410 minutes ago. Danielle, come and stand up here. We're going to talk all about you. Okay. It's my dry run read, so be patient with me. All right. So tonight we celebrate our Elks Club sponsored student of the month program which honors students who excel academically and serve their communities. The Sanz Valley Elks Club uplifts local youth by fostering a commitment to community service, a core value of Elk Scholars. We are proud to support the Elks mission knowing today's scholars can be tomorrow's leaders in their communities. It is my privilege, our privilege to introduce our December Elks student uh Elks Club student of the month chosen by our office staff and administration, Danielle Highland, a senior at Sanz High School. Danielle is an exceptional student whose academic drive, leadership, and compassion make her a standout

005in every setting. She is an only child who was adopted from China at the age of three and a half, and she has proudly called the Sanz Valley home for many years. Danielle speaks warmly about her close-knit family and the steady support she receives from her parents. Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with her two dogs, Tilly and Bailey. And she brings a wide range of talents and interests to everything she does, from seven years of dance and violin to basketball, track, and eventually discovering a true love for tennis in 8th grade. Danielle's academic accomplishments are truly impressive. She currently holds a 4.2 2 GPA. She has completed five Alan Hancock dual enrollment classes, two Silicon Valley courses, two honors classes, and two AP courses. Her favorite area of study is science, especially kinesiology,

006because she loves learning how the human body works and how knowledge can be used to help others. Danielle also credits the Pirate Academic Center for helping her achieve academically. She is a frequent visitor and loves the tutoring and guidance she receives there. One of the achievements Danielle is most proud of is her leadership as president of the SYV medical club. She recognized that students interested in healthcare didn't yet have a space on campus to explore careers, connect with peers, and learn from professionals. So, she helped build that community herself, organizing projects and guest speakers, and creating real opportunities for students to envision futures in medicine and service. Danielle's commitment to helping others extends far beyond the classroom. She is a tennis co- captain, a CIF individual competitor, and a member of last year's CIF championship

007team. She also works as a waitress at the Copenhagen Sausage Garden, balancing her job with school and athletics. Perhaps most remarkable is her nearly 200 hours of volunteer service at Cottage Hospital, where she has been able to observe healthc care professionals firsthand. Those experiences have strengthened her desire to become a nurse and reinforced her passion for caring for people in meaningful practical ways. Danielle credits her grandmother [snorts] as one of the biggest influences in her life. Someone who taught her to find joy in what she does and encouraged her perseverance. That spirit clearly guides Danielle today. She describes herself as goal oriented and disciplined, motivated by high standards and a deep sense of purpose. She works hard, stays on top of her responsibilities, and reminds herself that her future goals are worth every effort. As

008a student and as a person, Danielle strives to live with integrity, motivation, passion, and persistence. She continues or she contributes to our school community by leading through her actions, staying positive, and making sure new or transferring students feel welcome and included. She is the kind of student who quietly makes the people around her better. After graduation, Danielle plans to pursue college either beginning at SBCC or attending a 4-year university such as San Diego State, Cal State San Marcos, or Cal State Long Beach with the goal of entering the nursing field. She is excited to build a career where she can help people, comfort those in need, and make a real difference in her community. And if Danielle could share one piece of advice with younger students, it would be this. Don't let anyone stop you

009from believing in yourself. Have confidence. Stand up for yourself. Give yourself grace and remember that perfection isn't the goal. Growth is. Danielle Highland exemplifies what this award represents. Outstanding scholarship, meaningful leadership, and a genuine commitment to serving others. She is a Santa Pirate in the best sense of the word. Bright, resilient, compassionate, and driven. We are honored to recognize Danielle Highland as our December Elks Club student of the month. Congratulations, >> [applause] >> Yay! Um, and I'm going to ask Miss Martinez to just stay up here because the last part of my superintendent report is um, her presentation about our data dashboard. >> Good evening. Apparently, Dr. Shihan and I both take turns like not being able to speak appropriately at the right time. So I don't have laryngitis tonight. We're doing good for a

010large board presentation. Right. Good evening. So Tori Martinez, principal for CNN. High. Um I'm here tonight to just review kind of our dashboard results. I know some of that has been shared more publicly. Um but I want to go over basically what the dashboard means to us currently, where we were at at the end of last year, and what we're doing moving forward. So tonight we're going to give an overview of the 2025 dashboard results. Those went public mid November. Um we will use the 2024 data as a comparison of sorts and to be able to look at that as kind of where we are going next um and where we were, right? And then identifying current strengths, some identified gaps and then also next steps, a lot of which are already in motion, right?

011because we get our data based off of last year um in November officially from the state. So it gives us colors and some percentages, but we also knew that most of that information. We knew where some areas of strength were. We had an idea that overall students had done better on assessments. Um and so really a lot of our dashboard results validated work that had been happening all last year and it confirmed that a lot of our trajectory related to professional development is the right direction. So that's felt good when we saw the dashboard. It was a good reflection of what we had self-analyzed and where we knew some growth areas were and helped show us that let's just keep going in this direction. Um to start with uh we'll start with kind of those

012academic indicators which are typically ELA, English language arts, right? and then math. And then now we also have science, which is now an indicator that not just has a score, although it's a very different score than ELA and math, but it has a color, although it is still information only, which basically means that we will account for that data in things like our LCAP, but it can't put anybody into larger assistance programs. We wouldn't have had that problem anyways because our science looks pretty good. Um, but I it's still considered this asterric information indicator because on year like seven of trying to have it, we're still figuring it out. So, which is totally fine. Um, I like where we're starting in that. So, for English language arts in 2024, we were sitting below standard. Math

013and English both do um show their data about being above or below what the state determines as standard, which is basically the lowest threshold for a passing score on CASP. that's kind of there. Are you how much above that are you on average and how much below that are you? And so we were sitting below in orange which was an indicator that we've got some work to do about how we treat these assessments. Um and for 2025 we were 19.2 points above. We had a large jump right we increase 42.6 point standard. Um and we are super happy to see that for math we it's basically an area of growth across the state. What I like about the increase we had whereas in 2024 we were 66 points below standard. Um, we were only 58,

014which still sounds large, but in general, if any of you have read anything that's been out in the news about math this year, there was a lot of stagnant scores and dropping scores. And for us, we had an increase. So, that in comparison, it's the right direction. There's a lot of work in math all across the state and in this valley specifically. Um we are also at a point where K8s are just now receiving the uh newly adopted curriculum approved from the state. Uh K8s actually have to choose from an adopted list. 9 through 12's do not. But what the K8s do or what we receive, right? So um most of our feeder districts are in the process of adopting or going through adoption this spring based off of the newly approved lists of approved

015curriculum. um many of which have been looking at what we currently use because it's was expected to be on the approved lists to try to help us do more alignment because it's hard when you come we have students coming from so many districts and then we spend time just trying to calibrate and then we still need to get through multiple years of math before we get to these assessments we get to algebra 2 we get to a throughg right there's just a lot of layers um and so I've been uh at math collaboratory through SBCEO to look at instructional materials s and we've with a department chair and also one of our algebra 1 teachers and so we've taken some of that time to really look at what do we need to look at for

016our own math and really make sure with the math framework that came out a couple years ago is are there any tweaks or adjustments we need to make and are our instructional materials meeting all those needs. So that's work we've undertaken as of now. >> Can I ask a question? >> Please interrupt with questions. It's far easier to ask in the moment. So, when it comes to math and the other districts and I see we're way below and I'm sure that the grammar schools are way below as well, I'm assuming. >> Yeah, it's a little it's a little bit varied. Again, if we pull like um a Ballard, it looks a little different than if we pull Solving or Buin, right? It just depends on the sizing and the sampling, but in general, we're all

017relatively in line. There's not something that's shining through so much that we're saying grab that. Um because this is honestly math is kind of the conversation piece across the state. It has been and continues to be. Yeah. It doesn't mean we don't stop pushing, but it's just it's hard. We've got to figure it out. >> So to add to that question, it do they um do the grammar school do the grammar [clears throat] schools discuss with the high school, you know, what are your expectations of these children when they come in as freshmen? >> Yes, we are starting to have those conversations. We began having them last year and we are um also having the conversations that we can't raise this math performance indicator unless we have more students completing algebra 2 by the time

018they take this this test. >> They take the test in their junior year. And the way that our math is aligned with our elementary schools is they aren't taking algebra in elementary school. So they need to start with algebra here. So luckily this year we have three or four kids >> on our campus that are eighth graders that are taking algebra on our campus. And there is the goal of moving and accelerating students at our feeder schools through algebra and possibly even geometry so that when they get here they are starting in geometry or algebra 2 and we can get them through the material before they ever see this test. >> And if we move those students who are more accelerated through so they're starting at the appropriate levels. It also gives time for those

019students who are struggling to spend the time and attention on them to help with those gaps and those pieces because sometimes our teachers are dealing with and it's of no one's fault just the reality they're dealing with basic math facts that they're still having students struggling with. Um and if you do the math of like okay our current freshman that's my student is a current freshman they she was in third grade when they went online right so when co happened when basic multiplication and division was really at the heart of what they were doing it was online for almost a year and so that those pieces it doesn't excuse it but it just means we have to acknowledge the realities of where those pieces are and our feeders have had to do that every year

020since and now we're receiving those students so what's next and how do we do a better job um really meshing what we do and planning together? >> And I was going to say those numbers are actually pretty good when you consider the when they were freshman or eighth grade, it was during that co they were losing out. So we're now hitting that point where they've they're learning in person again and so the numbers should continually grow. And on the flip side, I love the idea because I know in a lot of schools, geometry kids are coming in starting freshman year with algebra 2, which is crazy, but it's wonderful that that you're thinking about that and helping the feeder schools look to that. >> Yeah. And I think there's a lot of different ways it

021can look. Um I think we're at a point in this valley where um we've got a lot of people at the table where they're like, we've got families who have desires and wants and needs and we have students who have abilities and let's get creative. And I think like our algebra one this year, it was a creative very it came last minute. We it had come up. It had kind of bubbled and then all of a sudden it was a couple weeks before and we're like let's figure this out. And I I will compliment Sarah Gandalfo. She's done an amazing job. We're like hey there's going to be some eighth graders in your class. Um and I actually my own student is in that class with those students. To be honest, my student's super thankful

022when she's at the table with one of the eighth graders. There's a reason. So she's like, "Yes, this is my group today." >> Yeah. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Gandalfo has um shared that the eighth graders are not struggling. >> Yeah. No. >> Well, that's what I was going to say. Those are your higher students that want to learn. They're going to sit there quietly and so excited >> and this is their strength, right? This is this is where their strong point is. And math has so many different course offerings that can happen in so many different ways. So, it's opening up a door for us to really explore. Um, and I think what I've had a good conversation with a lot of people in math about is I think we do a good job with the

023middle-of the road kid where the traditional sequencing fits them. I think it's those high kids where we need to really think creatively because we're still a small school. We're still limited in sections. I still keep having year-over-year increases of single sections and a master that's slightly painful, but we've got to figure it out. How do we help them? And then also our students who are struggling, our special education are just lower skills in math. Our 504 students, those are also conversations we're happening because those students are really struggling when they get to algebra 1, which we would expect struggle, but how do we find success within that struggle and that's what's difficult and but it's the work, right? That's what we have to do. >> Well, especially those algebra, they have to complete algebra one.

024So, you have to get those kids to graduate. So, that's that side. And then to lose our potential kids that will be math science majors, you have to excel it. And I want to say the one word I you keep saying that I love the most is using creativity because that's the best thing for our school that you guys do. >> We have to I I mean we just do. We are extremely lucky for the programs we're able to offer our students given our size. Um I credit a lot of that to the community that's in the school and around the school. We keep finding ways to get it done. Um, but we've got to keep driving forward and figuring out um, as we certain pieces fall off, what comes in after that? How do

025we keep meeting needs of students on all ends? And I think that's really what's risen up in my a lot of my wonders lately is what comes next because it can't just be, oh, we got to raise our math scores. It's not that easy. Our our math teachers work their tails off. They've done more work in professional development in the last seven years, I would say, than any other department with very targeted small groupoup professional development. A multitude of different things. And so, it's not about training. It's not about will. It's about figuring out what works and what does our program need to look like and how can we best support that and work together. >> One last note on algebra. I had the pleasure last year of going into the algebra class. I last

026year the year before and the kids were up on the board. she has around the whole room >> building thinking classrooms. >> Yes. And it was just brilliant because the [snorts] kids aren't sitting there taking notes and being bored. They had to get up. They had to work together. And it was just wonderful to see math in action. >> Yes. Yeah. I I would totally agree. It's it's they're working their tails off. And so um and again seeing I was really happy to see an increase when I read about scores all across the state and what was happening with math and kind of the plateaus and dips. um that made me feel good about what was happening in our space. And so um we just keep chipping away and trying to figure out what is

027that what do those scores mean because I I don't think it tells a whole story but it's a helpful piece of the story. >> So that [clears throat] brings me to might be a dumb question but I've got to ask it anyway. Um this is not an average but what what does it mean? What is the standard? >> Yeah. So when they say um a above or below standard, they consider the standard at the very lowest score threshold for a three on the CASP test because basically if you get a three or a four that's meeting or exceeding on the state test and so they say the standard is the lowest score which is like a random number 1 and something where that score is and it they take and kind of average out those

028scores. They also do a weird waiting and averaging related to the California alternative assessment. So the students on special education assessments get figured in two, but basically like a weighted figuring of them in there, too. And so I could pull up that exact number, but it means barely anything to me. Um, but I'm happy to share No, but I'm happy also I can just in general share out um the information about how those scores work. There's some good documentation that the state puts out about how do they get to those scores and it's just helpful information of of what that means because when you see standard we think like the written individual standard and here they mean like the standard of you're good or you're not good >> that actually might be helpful and there

029could potentially be people in the community that are wondering okay what does this actually mean >> yes so add in science that's totally different it's a whole other beast yes so I think absolutely we can share that >> but also the color codings off also because on the start on the test if you get a green like yellow isn't that above so it's they don't even match with the cast colors. >> Oh, and there's a great the [laughter] >> we're just keeping it spicy here really. That's what's going on between all the different numbers and all of that. The idea of the dashboard is for transparency but it's difficult to interpret the transparency sometimes. Um, I also appreciate that they found a way to give visuals, right? Because it's not just about your raw score.

030It's about did you have growth? Are you making progress? Are you maintaining if you're already high? Like, we're not going to ding you for that. So then they look at that against the state. And there's all these different mathematical formulas with people far more brilliant than I am with data that plug it all in and make it work. Yeah. Again, I'll take growth. I'll take growth any day over no growth. um science as I mentioned information but also there um so that we get to start off in the blue which is great and we actually spent some time within science department looking at comparative schools within the county um both in Santa Barbara and up in St. Stabbispo County and we were we're even starting to do some drill down of like what's taught in

031the courses how do we do in certain areas of the test to better understand um are our course sequence our courses that students are taking is that aligning to what the expectation is that they know by the time they are done with their three years of required science. Um so it's we're talking about all those important things. I'm I'm curious to see next year. I will say because um we with the changes in sequencing for science because students are not taking that physics in the universe freshman year. They're taking environmental if they're in the traditional science sequencing. So we will it's hard because I won't be able to look at 2026 scores compared to 2025 without that playing in because this will be our first junior class with that and that will be a helpful

032data point. So, I'm more looking towards next spring's data as information that's guidance on program. It's important for us to really take a look at that to identify if our sequencing is doing what we intended to do. Um, and so, but we were a we increased over last year and we are above the state and we had um some of those subgroups like students with disabilities and socioeconomically disadvantaged we had gains. So, we were happy to see that. Okay. So, those were the academic indicators. Now we start going into things like our college and career indicators. You have a supplemental paper. I've talked about this before with you all, but basically this CCI indicator. This is really a good I was talking with staff today about this. We talk about CCI. This is really a

033good indicator for program. Are we offering students what we say we're going to offer them to help them access whatever it is they want to do next? Because if they are coming, if they are showing up to whatever they do next and they have ticked this box of CCI, that means they have done work here that has completed some kind of program sequencing um or course completions that will help them do something next. and whether that's being A throughG completed, whether that's CTE pathways, um dual enrollments, um our state syllabi literacy, which I love that that helps uh tick that CCI box, um AP um classes and assessments, and then the CASP assessments, too. Um and so this just kind of gives how we get our CCI indicator. And we had a big jump this

034year. Um I a lot of that I attribute to just great things that are happening and we have we've continued to have a lot of data cleanup. I've mentioned this before. Uh Selena who does our data is a magical data unicorn and she has found a number of things as ARIES and the state change things over and over that just weren't talking to each other in the right way. So, we've cleaned up some things related to our CTE pathway completion data um and some other areas where I expected to see a bigger jump this year because that data got cleaned up. Um I would love to see that big of a jump next year, but some of this was related to data cleanup to be totally transparent, but other things are just intentionality behind programs.

035Um also, as our concurrent enrollment offerings increase, I would expect to see this score increase also. Um, >> so I just wanted to interject. When I first started here, I looked at this college and career indicator and the CTE pathways and I saw all the CTE courses we were offering and I was like, there's a disconnect. So, I took that year's graduating kids who I didn't even know and I printed all of their transcripts and I [snorts] looked through them and I thought, why aren't we getting credit for this? Well, some of it was that it just wasn't coded on the back end properly. >> So, for example, if you took a completer course, but it wasn't coded properly, you weren't getting credit for kids finishing their CTE pathway. >> Just like some of in

036some of our other areas, we're finding that code we're not backend coding those things properly. and Selena who's doing an amazing that very year and thank goodness now she's you. So some of that is we are our counselors are pushing kids into you need to complete CTE and or A throughG >> right you can't not do like you should do one at least one or the other but also so so they're doing a good job of getting kids into those courses but also coding it properly was huge. >> Yeah. Um, and Kathy, as you mentioned, kind of that on the other side of COVID, right? We're starting to see data that's far more comparable to that precoid. Um, and which is really encouraging to see. Again, we're getting to get back to some baselines where

037we can then grow from there and we're not dealing with these external pieces that create so much uncertainty and gives us the ability to kind of be like, oh, it's just because of that. Well, no, we can do better. Um, so all of that is good. The other thing I want to say too is when it says that we are the state is 51.7% and we're at 72.8, we should celebrate that, but really that's where we should be. >> Yeah. >> I mean, we should be that far a above the state average. >> Oh, yeah. So, so yes, we should celebrate that, but um but but that that is exactly where we belong. Yeah. >> If not even better than that. So, And I would say this is um our dashboard this year feels like

038far more of a reflection of where we're at after a lot of recalibration. And and so that's helpful. Again, things like science where I'm like, I know I need the 26 data to really have a better idea. There's a couple areas like that, but it um is far more reflective of where we're at and where we need to grow from. So >> just a clarification for the um the bottom numbers the equity numbers are three. So is that because there's not a represented group >> for which ones? >> So I always see different numbers like so there's two. >> Yeah. So anything because that's so small, it's because if you have less than, so if you're just dealing with like your senior class, if you have less than 11 st students in any represented student

039group, it will not populate to the >> numbers. So when we talk um when we get to things that are cohort specifically, um it's hard for us because like discipline, we get a lot more categories because that's the whole school. when we deal with academic indicators and CCI um and even grad rate because grad rates like four and fiveyear cohorts uh we will not ever have all of the boxes as a school our size. So because if a junior class is around 200 students and we have two students represented in a student group it won't be there. We can pull up that info individually and often we do just to take a look to see if there's some trend that's sitting right below a threshold. Right. Um but yeah, that's also why typically we don't

040do a separate report on Rafuho because Rafuho, the vast majority of it doesn't report to the dashboard because often the whole enrollment can be less than 11, let alone tested student groups. Great question. Oh yeah, that gets super confusing. You're like, how did that one have like seven different groups noted and this one has like three? Um A throughG and when we just to A throughG is tough because we had growth which makes me happy and we should be higher. Um, but then I also look at things like where our CCI is and that also shows there are positives in what we're doing to prepare students. I do think we have a a strong CTE program and so we see more completing in there. But when we break down our A throughG, we have students

041go to great schools. Um, we also have a lot of students who choose to go to Hancock and they choose to say I want to do other exploration, other electives, other things rather than finish all my A throughG. But I still don't love that less than half of our students are prepared on paper at least to go to a 4-year university. I think far more are actually leaving prepared for it, but they don't have the courses to do that or the grades in certain circumstances, right? Because A throughG requires certain courses that have C or better. And so this is an area of focus um that really has to look at where are those on-ramps and off-ramps for A throughG. Um there's with the adoption of our California college guidance initiative which took the place

042a score that's kind of our application we're using that was legislated through the state. I shared about it last spring. Counselors are using that to help students in doing some of that college and career planning earlier on. They've been in freshman classes already. Um they're doing the academic planner with students in ARIES in our student information system starting freshman year. We just piloted that last year. So, there's very intentional work around students really understanding what you're planning on taking and your why and to be able for them to visually see those on-ramps and off-ramps, but we also have to do program and course analysis and where where those points where students are off-ramping and so it's tough. >> I had a question. Um, I thought not all of the academic classes are A throughG. >>

043Yeah, sometimes they don't need to be, right? So like uh a concurrent enrollment class is not A throughG because it's already a college class and so that isn't but it's because it can't be both. Um there are some other courses that aren't A throughG. Um like we have a third-year math class that's not it won't meet the requirements for A throughG. Um and even if we did make it meet that it if it supplants algebra 2, they still have to complete algebra 2 to be A throughG ready. So it goes back to our math conversation that algebra 2 is one of the biggest juggernauts related to A throughG in any school. And so we have work to do. How do we help more students find success in algebra 2? Um but how do we make

044sure they're coming into us where they have a clear pathway to do that? And how do we support them if they're coming in with gaps and struggles to still be able to do that? So if we have two sections of senior English that are Allen Hancock CCAP that doesn't count in our A throughG. >> It doesn't count in our A throughG rate. No, but those count in our CCI another way. So um and often those students are still A throughG completer like it does it weird. It won't count it towards this part of it, but it'll still the student will still be A through G fine because they've done these college classes, but the way it ticks there gets a little bit fun. We have 236 kids in Alan Hancock class. >> So, and it

045may Oh, actually, let me I want to take that back. I want to double check because I don't think it tries to penalize us in here, but the breakdown makes me think that it's still going to struggle to capture >> because this is per the state, not actually like our data in the sense. If we were to break down the kids taking A through G, all of them that are going to a Cal State or four-year university have to have A throughG coursework. So it would be higher I would imagine >> in our data kind of. >> Yeah, it's there again it's so >> it's so nuanced too. There's also when you talk about A3G there's validation processes too. So a student we could show earlier on that they've offramped but then they take a

046class by junior year that validates multiple years back and it'll count for that. But like in our analysis we're looking they were off track they were off track and all of a sudden they come in from a summer and they're like back on track and we do get it counted. So, we'd really have to dig in. And I think this is some of the work that's coming our way. Um, right now I'm in the course offerings process of what are we because we're going to have students starting to sign up for courses in like very early February. Um, our feeders are actually coming here in January to start getting to know electives and and those things. So, we moved everything up earlier. So, I'm in the thick of that. But, there's work to be done

047specifically around A throughg and understanding kind of who are those students, who were those 44%. And again, similar to what Kim did two years ago, looking at where were those offramps and what was counting versus not. So, I'll look a little bit more in depth because again, I think the way they pull it is always a little funny and you have to kind of dig into the CDE. >> Yeah. One question. Um, I'm really glad to hear that the counselors are working on on this and I'm a little disappointed in this in the score. Um, because I some of the students and parents I've talked to go, "Well, my my kid has changed their mind." At first, as a freshman, they, you know, or a sophomore, they really didn't want to go to a four-year

048college, but they they visited colleges with their brother and sister, and they're like, "Well, I think I really want to go for this." And, you know, I'm now s more successful than I thought. their self-confidence is increasing and they want to go for that. And um you know I I'm all about choices. I want every kid to have the choice, you know, whether they decide once they graduate from high school to go on to four-year or a two-year or a technical. But I I hate to hear that, you know, really early on they've made a a choice that >> the two barriers for most kids in completing A3G are not completing algebra 2 >> or not completing Spanish 2. >> Those are the two barriers. >> Yeah. >> So, language and math. I mean, it's

049>> So, they all complete four years of English. they all complete their fine arts because those are all graduation requirements. But when you go beyond the graduation requirements, algebra 2 is hard. And it and so if you aren't set up for that success, which I think will help us when they're starting to have these math skills at a younger age and gain more confidence in math. I think that will also help our A through G completion rate because algebra 2 will be something they're set up for success for. If you're a junior or a senior in algebra 2 and now you not only have to pass algebra 2 to be a through G eligible, but you have to pass algebra 2 because it's your last year of math to graduate. A lot of times kids

050go, I'd rather take like um entrepreneur math to ensure that I'm going to graduate because if I don't do well in algebra 2, you're you're this will mean nothing to you. It'll mean graduation. >> So, so math and Spanish 2 are the barriers. And especially when we talk about seniors, right, when students are, especially in that fourth year and they're making those choices. Um, we also are very lucky to be in a community college district that has the promise where students are getting two years of community college free. And so for some students, they're like, I'm already planning on doing that, so why would I do these? And some of that, too, is us helping them understand what are the benefits of doing some of these courses now so that you've seen it and you've

051been exposed to it because you're still going to have to take math in college. Even at community college, you're still going to have to take some of these classes. And so, if we start doing some of these things now, it's going to be a lot less painful when you have to do it for school you're choosing to do. Like, help us do help us help you do the have to school so that you're ready to do the want to do school. So, it's there. This is this is a number that bugs me, but I also it's a really layered picture. And so I know I don't have all the answers but that it's we have fleshed through a lot of other pieces to be able to dig into this more in the coming months and

052year. >> Just a comment on that. It seemed that those numbers don't bother me probably as much as they bother you because there's a lot of kids that probably choose not to do that because they are not going to a school. So these numbers are based upon one guideline set for that. This is the slide we're want to talk about, which I like the jump, but I also don't love this either, right? And um I it's a huge jump. I I like where I see it. I also think there is work to be done with our CTE pathways. We have as a smaller school, some CTE courses, we have a wide offering, but not all are sequenced that complete. And that's some work we have. Sometimes it was very intentional for master schedule purposes. They

053kind of broke a pathway. So something that was like a concentrator and a capstone course, they just made them both concentrators so students of any grade could access them. So they were getting some of that initial exposure, but they weren't completing the pathway. And so there's some work I have planned for next year to help clean up at least in one pathway. Um but also sometimes I'm glad at least you tried it. I'm glad you did that and you took that year and maybe you didn't take it the next but okay. And this is where that work that um Kim mentioned related to counseling and that we've told our freshmen as they've come in, our freshman have seven classes, right? So by their senior year, they may be able to take five, but if you're

054not A throughG or you haven't completed a CTE, we're going to look at your classes. You're not leaving early. We've got more work to do. And I don't I feel the same in that I don't care which one you do. I just want you to do it. But for the amount of students who are going off to schools and they are going and being very successful or going out into industry, I think we have program work to do to make these numbers reflect. I will say the jump on this, although we did add CTE courses and I think that that played a part. A lot of that was data cleanup. It was stuff that was not ticking correctly on the back end that needed to happen. So, I would not expect that much of a

055jump next year, but I would hope we would continue to increase with intentionality. And other things too like we have changed that um for a science we used they used to kind of teeter in and out between each of the grade levels between agg and traditional and we've put some stop gaps of like if you after freshman year because that's an intro class if you're wanting to go to traditional or go into a okay but between sophomore and junior year you've already committed because a bio is a concentrator a chemistry is a capstone so you're finishing that pathway like we're in this. Um, so some program guardrails that are helpful and then we have the dual completers. Um, again, just clean up of data, fix that a lot. A lot of that was in the

056a pathway we had clean up. So, and then graduation rate, we sit high. We bumped into blue. I would expect us to pretty consistently tick with um green or blue depending when you're already high. It can be hard with the colors sometimes. They don't always acknowledge where you're at. Um, and a reminder too for graduation rate, we're talking about four and fiveyear cohort. Um, this could also be students sometimes that, let's say they leave us freshman year, they are out into the unknown and they never enrolled in another school, even though we tried our hardest to get them to go. If they never enrolled in another California public school, they will count on our dashboard after like year four or five. So that's why we work really hard of students when they're kind of falling

057off. like we want you to enroll somewhere. Not only because obviously we want you to have your education. If this isn't a fit, then let us help you find a fit. I'm a I I am thankful for school choice. I'm thankful we have options that can fit lots of students needs. That's fantastic. And you got to go to school. Also, let's move off of our dashboard because it's not reflective of what we're doing with our students when they're here for four years, right? It makes it difficult. I appreciate that they're holding us accountable for our students that you can't just like skirt somebody off and like it not count, right? they can disappear and you're not held accountable, but also it can be difficult and like we have our students with disabilities was our lowest

058category there. But also I can name exactly which students that was and why they ticked and where and it was again students who needed to come back for a fifth year often that were choosing to not. And that's a really tough cell when sometimes students need more time, but it's hard for them to do it. And sometimes we try really hard to get them to at least look at adult if this isn't where they want to be, but they don't always do it. Sometimes years later, we get them too. I love sharing that transcript, but it's tough. Um, suspension rates, again, we as a school are in the green. When we put Rafuio in there, it popped into yellow, but mostly because it was just a static maintain. We had made a ton of progress

059in from 23 to 24 already. So, I'm not unhappy with any of this. Um, our socioeconomically disadvantaged students is the one category where we've kind of remained in the orange. That's just an area of like data dig, just work we need to do within student services and within admin for us to just look at are there trends or things we can be doing. And then EL progress indicator. This has come up before a little bit. I expected a drop. It's not surprising because in 2023, if you remember, it was like 0%. So last year was a catch-up year. This year it bumping down. We only had, I think, 18 English learners last year. So then the group was smaller, which made the percentage differences bigger. Um, and I appreciate we've been doing very targeted ELD

060um, professional development with help from SBCEO. For all staff, we've done two trainings with designated ELD and integrated. We've done multiple training days. We still have two more in the spring. So, we already have been addressing some of this in just intentional instruction, professional development. Um, but the thing that was nice to see here was, um, when we look at overall on LPAC, um, the threes and fours on ELPAC, so threes are like almost there, right? We had more than half of the students were almost there. And we did have a large group of kind of beginner those kind of level one students last year in our EL1 courses. So, um, my hope is that that goes up this year. There's really intentional work happening in our EL1 and two courses. So, I'm crossing fingers

061that that translates this year. Um, if not, I would expect us to start at least making some more progress on that to get an idea of what that baseline really means to us and where we should see ourselves because last year was it was great in writing the LCAP. I was able to talk about all these great things, but it was also it was an inflated number because we were playing catch-up. >> Um, real quick on that is um do you know where our scores are with our feeder schools coming in? What the e and what you know >> we pull that as we're going into it? Yeah, I mean we end up with about half of our students are long-term when they get to us their art, which is kind of the trend of

062the state anyways. Um, and most of our English learners come from just a couple of our feeders. And so, yeah, I think there's more collaborative work. there's been structure changes not just here but at many of our feeders with how they um their programmatic structure for their English learners. I think we have more work to do in that area and could be more intentional. But we get about half of our kiddos that are sitting multiple years in um already by the time they get to us. And often there's lots of reasons why. Um but it's it's never just oh their language isn't there. There sometimes are other pieces that can be really difficult especially related to potential learning disabilities that's come up and it's really hard the language can preclude and just makes it difficult

063but yes and not enough so we can do more um strengths I've already talked about these in some fashion like we have lots of bright spots this year again it feels like a better reflection and our ELA growth I was very happy to see that's far more reflective of the program being in the blue for multiple categories um and increases in CTE and A throughG, but then our challenges in A throughG um sustaining continued growth, especially when we talk about areas like math and ELA, how do we keep moving? And our English learner progress and growth, that's one we're watching very closely. And like I said, in the suspension rates, that's really the only group where we it was disproportionate and it stays um pretty stagnant for a number of years. So, just an area

064for us to look at and see what else can we be doing. So our next step, a lot of this is it's really what's already happening. Um the professional development related to Steve Ventur and cycles of inquiry for teachers to evaluate are their instructional strategies really accomplishing what they mean for them to do. Um our ELD professional development been very lucky to work with Melissa Garcia at SBCEO on that. Um so she'll be back in January and February and doing walkthroughs and in classrooms. So that's great. And our profile of a graduate work will continue that. We've been doing that with staff. Um I hope to come with you in late spring of where that's at and kind of an overarching district draft. Um but departments are doing departmental specific related to our qualities that

065we've identified and then um continuing to evaluate our course offerings. Are they doing what we want them to do? And refining discipline systems when applicable. That's we're constantly looking at it. We were looking at one policy in the last couple weeks. We're bringing that back to department chairs um on Wednesday. Uh that's just an ongoing process. And that's the dashboard, which is the vast majority of our data in one place. What other questions can I answer for anyone tonight? >> Thank you, Tori. >> Thank you so much. [cough] [clears throat] >> Do you have any does that conclude? >> That concludes for me. >> So, that'll conclude the uh reports, superintendent reports. And now we can move on to board comments and correspondence. >> Oh, I have a comment. Um, and it goes [clears throat]

066piggybacks on to Tori's presentation and the dashboard and what Chris said. um something that I think is tremendous because I see such growth in our academics here and our classes and I know we're limited um with staff with our population of students and whatnot. But I think now and this is something that I've really is true to my heart is looking at beyond CTE but looking at the trades and having um programs. I know I've mentioned this before, but I know CTE is part of the dashboard and it also aligns with A throughG and all of that academic thing, but the story I heard of them welding the uh volleyball courts outside and a kid seeing that and got hands-on and now is potentially going on to become a welder or those hands-on type of

067things. And I know that in our community, hello community, um that we have so many people of in the trades that would probably love to have students come in as um apprentices or in any way just to come to see if they like that field with a hands-on um program. is something that I would really love for our school to focus on or get if there's uh community members out there um some kind of foundation or committee or something out there to help our students after school on the weekends or come in. I mean, I I know we have the career path day, the career day, which I think is wonderful, but I think letting the kids actually, oh, I want to, you know, do electrical, and then they realize that's not for them, but

068they'd rather do culinary or something, which we have here. But the CTE is great, but it's limited in it's hands-on, and I know that that should be a broader conversation. So, I don't know what everybody else thinks. >> So, I guess one of my questions, I can pose this to you. the in CTA the CTE pathways is there a way to integrate something like Kathy is talking about. >> So there are construction pathways there are different pathways that we can um explore it is finding the teacher with the CTE credential. Um I have been talking to um Pete Robbins I I believe was his name. He's part of the San Nez Rotary and he is um he has a group of gentlemen in the valley who would like to help our students either build an

069ADU. The the two of us I I was speaking to him on Saturday. either build an ADU and then auction that ADU off to the public or we have a structure on campus that we're talking about possibly rehabbing and we would use our existing structure with a with um if we could find a CTE credentialed teacher and the structure would be something that um we could pull community members in on when it goes to rewiring that structure or then plumbing that structing the structure and then drywalling that structure and and all, you know, flooring for, you know, there there's there's somebody in the valley that would do each and every part of that and partner with us. And so there's four gentlemen through um through him that he's working with to rally and um we

070are looking at an actual project on campus and we'll be talking about how is it possible that is it a is it a volunteer? Is it a weekend thing? Is it an apprenticeship or um if we can't find the teacher and we can't have a course on campus? But yes, we're starting to go down that road for actual um experience like that. >> Well, and I know I had a HVAC guy come to my house and he was 28 years old, young guy, and his dad has a business here and he had told me a couple years ago he would love to have kids because that's how he started. He followed his dad's path and whatnot. And then I know with the the tiny homes like Santa Barbara's selling them and we could do Habitat

071for Humanity or do it so it's even something that's giving back to the community for seniors or something too. And I think doing that real life experience and it goes to algebra 2. My oldest daughter was a math major and is an engineer. My second one just couldn't do it at all. But if she saw the real life application of why you have to have algebra or you have these um uh formulas and it makes sense, then you're more apt to want to learn that um academic skill as well too. So I think that's tremendous like having it on campus. question on that is a CTE credential is that I know the California credentiing thing is that a different requirements for CTE. It is a different requirement. It takes industry standards and it takes um

072it like like um Gary Submergian has a CTE credential because he ran a successful automotive business and then went and received the necessary um requirements to gain a CTE credential. So there are a lot of hoops you have to jump through. [clears throat and cough] >> The other piece about Yes. So, CTE credentials um to teach a CTE course, you have to have that CTE credential. The other thing that's interesting about CTE credentials and is sometimes limiting is if you only have a CTE credential, you can't teach anything but those CTE courses. Whereas, if you have a traditional single subject teaching credential, you can teach some general electives like our focus on success course um and other electives that don't have specific credentials tied to it. Whereas if you have a CTE, let's say arts,

073media, and entertainment, you can only teach arts, media, and entertainment courses. And so, as um a smaller school, and as we've talked about our hiring, sometimes it can be difficult because can we fill um five sections of a teacher if that is what they come in with? And typically a a lot of the CTE teachers um they will not be able to earn a traditional teaching credential because they haven't done the teacher preparation programs in the same way that would allow for that even though they might be great. >> So we would look for like moving forward potentially if there was a candidate that had academic uh single subject credential but had a CT attached to it that would help our school that would be an extra bonus. But then also I thought when I

074was looking up CTE credentiing it's a pretty for someone who has so many years of experience like um the automotive or you know whatever Gary that um there is only some you can do the classwork and it's only like two or three classes. It's not like a methods to get your CTE. >> If you are a if you have experience in industry a CTE credential is not an extremely difficult thing to do. It does take time. It takes coursework. Um, it takes some methods classes and some teaching classes. Um, and a lot of paperwork with Terry. She loves it so much. Um, credentiing is a really fun process. So, that part's not is not necessarily um, the trouble part. And I will say as we hire, the first thing we look at is are people

075coming in with multiple credentials. That's what we've been prioritizing especially in the last few years because I have all these I want a music teacher who can teach computer science who can also do like I've got my dream list. um we are in an area where it's hard to get people with even just single subjects. >> Well, and on the other side too is that uh the California dashboard is something it's its own beast for this the uh for California and criteria. I mean, like you said, it's good to have like to know where we want to shoot for. But on the flip side, it doesn't have to be a CTE teacher if we were to do something where we have people with experience coming in and if it was on a weekend and it

076was elective type coursework, but the kids are still getting the hands-on training. so that we could separate the two that it was >> especially outside of coursework. Yes. And just opportunities and exposure. I think our pirate pathways has been really laying the groundwork for a lot of this. I know the desire for internships, externship and apprenticeship is something out of our college and uh career center. That's been a desire um as we've continued just starting to dabble in that this year um and bringing those pieces on. We've had at least one pathway each month this year and we expect a bigger one around the um our career fair in the spring which is great. And so we've been laying the groundwork for exactly this and it's figuring out which pieces we also have where within

077our a department over 50% of our students are involved in agriculture and the multitude of supports they do for students in getting to dabble in industry related to a it's huge especially related to welding. Um and they we have our a mechanics a welding like those courses which are great and then that also aligns with a lot of the welding that Gary's doing within auto Mr. Submerge in too. And so there's been pieces of it was figuring out how do we make this something that's accessible to more students and more areas of interest. >> Yeah. How about a work study program where you're earning credit and >> working in the trades. >> Yeah. And often that ties with courseworks like that happens with our restaurant CTE because typically it has to tie in with a

078teacher who's credentialed in the area for them to be able to give the credit in it. So we're able to do that in some and looking at other ones related to our pathways and where that could happen. There's no reason we couldn't expand. >> But I think you're talking about like where like a work like if you had a job you get a you get >> Yeah. And that's what I'm saying. Even the work experience has to tie to a teacher with the credential. Oh, >> like still has to >> there's again it doesn't mean you can't get creative and it can't still happen other ways. But I if for that specifically there's a like that's why we have it within our restaurant program because it's tied with the teacher who has the credential who

079oversees that and signs off on it so that we don't get dinged for that. Credentiing is extremely nuanced and most problems can be solved um by looking at what problems are we wanting to solve. But there's no reason we can't continue to explore. And I think >> I think it'd be nice this spring when the people uh the different professionals come to our school to bring their business cards and say, "Hey, if you want to come in and Saturday and see my, you know, or whatever or if maybe they can get time off if it's during the week or something so the students can see what that job entails rather than what they see in the movies or on TV." >> Great. I would say too I what I would like to suggest because I

080know this was just a board comments and we need to you know we can agendaize a bigger conversation but sharing what's been happening in the career center and related to what the plans are for spring and maybe a little bit deeper into spring once we're kind of in the thick of um what the career fair and all that's looking like to share the opportunities. We've got a group of students going to look at welding programs in a couple weeks and partnering with um local unions and local colleges and all of that. There's so much that's happening. it's just hard to capture it all. Um, and so I think I would suggest that we share all the things that are happening so that you all have an idea of what are those career exposure and experience

081opportunities students are receiving. >> Does that sound >> That sounds wonderful. Okay. >> Yeah, I think that's great. I and I was a part of the career day uh not this most recent one but last. >> You get drawn in quite a bit. We appreciate it. >> And and you know what? It's it's fantastic. And and I think that just doing that breeds uh interest with the students >> and they get to discuss talk to us about what we do and we >> share that and the more that happens I think that's going to help even though they're not going to get credit for coming to work for me. They come but >> they come. Yeah. >> Yeah. They show up. It's great. >> Absolutely. Yeah. So >> Okay. >> And just one last thing

082that Danielle, the young lady that we honored that I loved was her medical club. I wrote a note down that we could have a woodworking club. Why these kids could start their own and maybe that's where mentors can come in on the backside without being credentialed or something. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. Thank you, Tori. Anybody else have any discussion items they'd like to talk about? >> Okay. Um, so we will not have public comment as I have no public comment cards. We can move on to the next one. Uh, let's see. elections. Well, this is the annual organizational meeting. We do this once a year. Uh the first one that we will uh go for is a nomination for the president of the board. >> I'll do it. I would like to nom can

083I [laughter] I'd like to nominate Chris Johnson for president because I think that you've just done a fabulous job and you've directed you've helped keep the ship the pirate ship going in the correct direction and so I would love to see you continue being our president. >> I will second that. I think you're doing a great job Chris. >> Well, thank you for that. Um we will Lucky you. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Actually, you know what? It's been my honor and I and I appreciate that. So, I I >> especially when I call him [laughter] loves it. >> It all depends. Depends on what day that is. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Um and I guess we'll roll call, please. Terry. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I >> Miss Noble. >> Hi, >> Miss Grace Velasquez.

084>> Hi, >> Mr. Leaming. >> Hi. >> Okay, so I will remain the board president. Now we'll move on to the election of the clerk. And are you good to be a clerk? >> Good. >> I would like to nominate >> Sherry Sher Sher Noble. >> And I I'll second that. >> Roll call, please. Terry, >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi. >> Miss Noble. >> Hi. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Yes. >> Hi. >> Mr. Leamini. >> Hi. >> Miss Sher Noble will be our board clerk. And uh we will appoint the secretary to the board. >> that would be Dr. Sheen. >> Dr. Sheen. That's right. >> Right. That's our secretary to the board. >> Do you accept our appointment? >> I accept. >> Thank you. [laughter] Um >> we need a we need we

085need a second >> first and a second. We need a first and a second for that. Um, I nominate Kim Sheihan as our secretary to the board. >> I second. Roll call, please. Terry. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi. >> Miss Noble. >> Hi. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Hi, >> Mr. Leamini. >> Hi. >> Congratulations. [laughter] >> Okay. And then the next one is the election of a representative and alternate to elect members to the county committee on school district organization. I would like to nominate Todd L coming up and slaughter his name. >> Leami [laughter] >> Leamini. Okay. So, um and I will second that motion. >> And we need an alternate as well. >> Yes. >> So, I will nominate Miss Grace Velasquez to be the uh alternate. >> Yeah, I'll second. >>

086Okay. [laughter] Roll call, please. Terry. Mr. Johnson. >> Hi, >> Miss Noble. >> Hi, >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Hi, >> Mr. Lamini. >> Hi. >> Thank you guys. That's awesome. >> So, now we'll move on to the board meeting dates. Did you guys all get an opportunity to take a peek? >> Obviously, it's fluid. >> Um, I went through the whole calendar, so I mean, it looks clear to me, but things happen. So we can make that a discussion to be in between board meetings. >> Nice. >> Good for you. You already planned it. >> So make sure you tell the board that date. >> No, we need a [laughter] week and a half. I'm really in between. >> Okay, perfect. [snorts] >> So do we need to we need to vote on the

087Yes, we do, don't we? Uh I will uh make a motion to approve the proposed board dates for 2026. >> I'll second. Thank you, Todd. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Noble, >> hi. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Hi. >> Mr. Levini. >> Hi. >> Proposed meeting dates approved. Um, [clears throat] so that is our organizational portion of the meeting. Now we can move on to the consent agenda. And is there a motion for approval and consent? >> I motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I'll second it. Further discussion? No. Okay. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Johnson, >> I. >> Miss Noble, >> I. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> I. >> Mr. Leamini. >> Hi. >> Consent is approved. >> Personnel was on uh consent. >> Yeah. The only thing

088is one of the headings for the nurse and the psychologists were flipped on the job descriptions. I think >> I'll switch it. Thank you. Just a >> Okay, good. Now we'll move on to our action agenda. Um number one is >> resolution 202526-3 authorizing delegation of governing powers, duties, and certification of signature page. So, this is technically um a tail end of the reorganization meeting where every year you all just have to approve who can sign for payroll, who can sign for checks to come in, who can sign the checks with the county, and those types of things. We don't have any changes from the previous year. So, it's just reauthorizing. >> Is there a motion for approval? I'll motion to approve the resolution 25263 author authorizing delegation of governing powers. >> And I'll second

089>> um roll call please sir. >> Mr. Johnson >> I >> miss Noble. >> Hi. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> I >> Mr. Levine. >> Hi. >> Motion approved. And now we can move on to the 2025 2026 first inter interim budget report and 202526 through 20 728 multi-year projections. steps guys. Okay. So in front of you tonight, I have provided you with a gray little file folder which has like the presentation printed out big so that you can look at it in front of you as well as some of the documents that we'll go over like the um fundo1 multi-year projection and the analysis of changes just to sort of help um do a little bit of a review this goound since uh Mr. L is new. So, I just kind of want to

090dive in a little bit more to some of the documents and how to read them. So, I've provided them in front of you so you can follow along better than just looking at a screen. And again, like Tori said, please feel free to jump in and ask questions as they come up. It's much easier to address them in the moment than it is to go back. So, tonight we're going to look at our budget reporting documents. We'll review the assumptions the budget is built upon. We'll review the changes in revenue and expenditures, ending fund balances and reserves, our multi-year projections, and then the considerations for future year planning. We will start by reviewing our budget reporting documents. So, with every budget iteration, there are two major documents that help you navigate what's going on. The

091first one is less helpful, but it is the required one known as the Sachs documents. And those are the documents that kind of roll all the numbers together, put them where they're supposed to be for state reporting, and those are the numbers that get sent to the county and the state. Those numbers will tie out to to the budget presentation we give tonight as well as to the analysis of changes that we'll go over as well. It's just a less easy to read format. So, we'll start by reviewing the SAX documents. The SAX documents are there's one for every fund. There's a number of different forms. It's like over a 100page document with each budget that gets sent to the county and the state. But the ones that really matter for review, you'll see in

092the top corner it says fund or form title in orange. That tells you what fund are we talking about. And at the very top in the teal, you'll see what accounts are included in what we're talking about. Are we talking about restricted, unrestricted, or combined? Because that matters like dramatically when you're talking about is there a deficit? A deficit in restricted is generally expected and good. A deficit in unrestricted generally not not good. So you want to pay attention to what accounts are included in what you're looking at. The budget reporting period is at the top. Are we first interum, second interim? Is it original? What is this? And then if you go down on the right, you'll see the approved budget in green is the first column of numbers. That's like the one that

093we approve in May or June for the next year. That is like the least accurate budget. That's where that column goes. In the navy blue, you'll have the previous budget projection. So, because this is our first interim, our previous is also our original budget because we don't we haven't had any revisions. It's not that there could never be revisions because something could, you know, something catastrophic could have broken or we could have changed something or whatever the case may be. So much so that we think we should have brought a revision. There could have been a revision, but in general, you won't see one with first interim that differs from original budget. In the lilac or purple, however you want to call that, is the current or the new budgeted numbers. So the budget numbers

094for the period we're talking about right now and then the numbers the columns I believe I am so blind but columns E and F in the pink those are the difference between the prior model and the current model numbers both as a dollar figure and then as a percentage. So all of that helps you figure out where were we where are we going and what is the difference between the two in the sax forms. Another important thing to note in the SAX forms, SAX is really particular with how you code expenditures. We have some expenditures that are ongoing routine expenditures that happen in our restricted maintenance or for our debt services in another fund where we are not allowed to pay the debt services bill out of fund. We have to transfer the debt services

095money to the debt services fund fund. I want to say it's 51 or 56. I might be confusing them, but whatever. We move it from fund 01 to the 50some fund and we pay it out of the 50some fund. So when you look at expenditures, it's not included in section B expenditures. It's included at the bottom under transfers out or contributions. But for us and for most districts when they're in that situation, these are ongoing expenditures. So when you're trying to calculate or tie out the expenditures, you would tie out the total expenditures with the total other uses for expenditures. So other contributions out or or those types of transfers that have to go to other funds. So does everything kind of make sense on the s on the sax documents. Okay. So again that's

096the less pretty version. That's the one that like we do because we have to. So the one that I use that I use for pretty much all of my reference that I use to build the presentation that's much easier to read is the analysis of changes. In the red, you'll see the categories are labeled with letters for organization. So the letters at the top A B C D also correspond to the notes at the bottom ABC D so that you can follow the line and then the explanations for the figures above are below and they are all marked and labeled so that they match. If you look at the first box of numbers, that is the previous budget figures. Whether it's original budget, original budget like it is currently for this iteration or next time

097that will be first interim, it's just whatever the most recent approved budget is in there. The next one pointed to in yellow is the current budget figures. And then all the way to the right in the green, those three boxes show you what is the difference between the two budgets in unrestricted. What is the difference between the two budgets in the restricted and what is the total difference both in dollar and percentage so that you can see and then I went further because I'm a visual learner and green means good, red means bad and in revenue bigger numbers in green are good and expenditures bigger numbers are in red because they're bad. So that just helps me when I'm looking at things from a bird's eye view. Red good, green or I mean red bad,

098green good. Like I can see quickly without even looking at the numbers. Are we moving in the direction that we want to be moving in? And I will say like with expenditures sometimes red it's still good because we're doing the things we need to do. It just denotes that the the expenses increased. Doesn't necessarily mean bad in that respect. It just means expenditures increased. Any questions on the analysis of changes? And like I said, you will get one of these with every budget iteration. It's also posted on our website. If you ever need to go back and review it, I post the analysis with every iteration on our budget website. Okay, so that gets us to how do we build our budget? The first thing is we use budget assumptions. So every single budget is

099a moving target. And when I create the budget, it is already old news by the time I present it to you. And I can tell you that even tonight, like I'm in here and I'm telling you, okay, we assume that negotiations aren't settled. We assume we have this. We assume that's all changed. Negotiations are tenatively agreed upon. We'll bring it to you next month. So, it's old news by the time it gets to you. And it's technically old news by like the next week, sometimes even the next day, sometimes even the next hour, depending on what pops up, what changes. Oh, hey, guess what? you have this money coming or just kidding now you don't have this money coming. So it is a moving target. So just keep that in mind that like what it

100is today it will not be next month. It will be somewhat close but as long as we can understand why it changed and the rationale for it that it's totally normal. Yeah. So our budget assumptions for our first interim budget are that if you recall our original budget is based on guesses. Guesses where we'll end last year. So therefore, guesses where we'll begin this year. The first interim budget is the first budget where we are not guessing where we began. We have our actual beginning balance numbers. We also for first interim budget no longer have to guess what our property taxes are. We are now working off of the guess from the county assessor's office. And their guess is pretty darn close to what it's going to be, give or take a little bit. So

101it's less of a guess than what it would be if we were doing it. if that makes sense. So, it's still a guess because it's not set in stone, but it's much more accurate and uh it's something to be relied on. We also know all of our carryovers for both our revenues and expenditures. So, last year as we were finishing up the year, we were like, "Hey, we're going to spend X, Y, and Z." And by the time June rolled around, we were like, "Oh crap, we didn't spend all that." Or, "Oh my gosh, we spent more than we thought." So those carryovers or rollovers have come into this year. Whether it means we budgeted it for in this year and we were able to do it last year, we've made those changes. We also

102have updated state and federal revenue allocations posted to the CDE that we use and we know that our classified as of the time of this presentation, our classified bargaining agreements were settled. So those were included in the budget. We knew what our reserve set by the board was supposed to be. And we knew that in terms of planning, like long-term planning, that we needed to save, excuse me, $50,000 for tech infrastructure upgrades that would be necessary in 2030. So, those are the major moving parts and how we built our budget for first interim. Looking at the changes, the overall revenue increase was between restricted and unrestricted, an increase of 4.3% which equates to about $784,271. Looking at the detail for that, we split it up between restricted and unrestricted. And again, the restricted is this

103comes with rules. It comes with rules as to how and as to when you can spend these dollars, whereas unrestricted still has rules, you know, with state and proper spending and such, but it's much more free. You can spend it pretty much in the education world, we consider it without rules, so to speak. Um, so our unrestricted revenue increased 3% or about $520,000 and much of that is related to property taxes coming in 3.2% higher than our conservative projection of 3.5% which was included in our original budget. So if you'll recall historically for like 30 years we've never gone higher than like 2% in our budget projections 2.5%. We have seen the last 10 years that that is more than conservative. It's just definitely not keeping up with the trends that we've been seeing. So,

104we have increased it a whole 1% to 3.5. I know that sounds not that crazy, but from a budgeting perspective, changing it 1% moving forward is is it's a big number for us. Um, so in our unrestricted revenue, we also decrease our transportation reimbursement based on the decrease in overall cost. So it is always a year behind the transportation reimbursement that we get and it's based off of the previous year, you get 60% of what you spent in the previous year. So last year, our previous year included some um repair work that needed to be done on the buses that we split with the bus company because everything was getting started. We don't have those big expenses last year. So the transportation reimbursement will be less because the expenditures booked were less. Correct. Correct. All

105gened. No special ed concerns at this point in time or or [laughter and clears throat] comments. On the restricted side of the house, we had an increase of 38.7%. And again, because the restricted side is smaller numbers, you know, if you notice, like a 3% increase in unrestricted was 520 and a 38% increase in restricted was 263,000. So, just keep in mind we're playing with a lot less money in restricted than we are in unrestricted. Um, we had a one-time student success and professional development block grant of $234,899. That given the um track record of being told we were going to get a million dollars and then next month having it taken away and then the next month giving it back and then the next month taking away and now giving it back. We don't

106or I have chosen not to book or project any revenue until it's actually posted to the CDE and they have a deadline by which they're going to start allocating the resources to districts just because we had it and then we didn't and you never know. So, we've added that in and that is 99.99999% of the increase in the restricted side of the house. We also have minor increases for the projections of title one, title two, and Perkins simply based on um the three-year rolling ADA average just was a little higher than I expected. So, the ADA used to calculate those revenue streams is just a little bit higher. Not even enough to warrant putting the number on the screen, but uh an increase nonetheless. We also took $65,000 of capacity grant revenue that I thought

107was supposed to be um characterized as 2425, but they wanted it characterized as 2526. So, we moved it out of 2425 and into 2526. It is the same $65,000 of the total grant that we received. It is not new money. It is just characterized in a different fiscal year because according to their grant rules, it had to be allocated in certain fiscal years to the ELEAs that they awarded it to. So, we had to move it into the correct fiscal year. Moving on to expenditures. [sighs] Similar to revenues, our expenditures increased 4.2% or about 757,989. And the reason for these expenditures, when you look at the restricted side of the house, the total increase was 18.7% in expenditures. A lot of those expenditures were because we did not have our Prop 28 budget that we

108get money for every year included in the original budget for two reasons. one, it is extremely heavy on the rules and the supplement versus supplant rule is a big one and because we did not know what our master schedule was going to look like with regard to how many art classes, how many FTE of art teachers are we going to have music, which is the two things we can spend this money on. We did not put a budget in there because I'd rather have it show as money we need to spend in the unrestricted as a worst case scenario and then say happy surprise we now know we can spend this out of restricted so it moves those expenditures which is what we're able to do now. So the increase in the restricted expenditure is

109because when we got our master schedule we saw that there was an additional period of art with another uh we hired another art teacher. So, we had an additional period we were able to pay out of this grant. So, we were able to move those dollars. We also had the bonus pay and some portion the $25,000 of our bonus pay comes out of the restricted routine maintenance account for those employees that are paid out of that account. So, the total bonus was much more than that, but the majority of the bonus was paid out of the unrestricted. The restricted is only those maintenance employees. We also had $42,000 increase for an additional one year of Chromebook purchases. And this was done to avoid tariffs and also to allow us to unify or uni make uniform

110the devices that students were using prior to uh test testing. So, we got rather than every year the freshman get Chromebooks and we phase out the Apples, we were able to do freshman and juniors this year and they'll be getting those devices when we return in January. I think it's the seventh or eth, but don't quote me because my brain's a little mushy, but right around there, they'll be getting their Chromebooks and we'll be replacing their um Apples. >> Can I ask you just a quick question? There was something that said but they can purchase those but not for two years. will they not be obsolete by then or or will they get to hold on to them for those two years? >> So technically there's a number of reasons for that decision. Um one

111being that technically they're not obsolete until next year which is when we would bring them to the board. And then the other thing is having students have multiple devices. If you were to ask any student whether they would rather have a Chromebook or a Mac, most of them are going to say, "I would rather have my Mac and I would rather use my Mac rather than the Chromebook." Because the Chromebook gives us more control into what they're doing in class. The teachers can live see what they're doing, stop their what they're particularly. And if I was a student, I would totally get it. Like, I don't want you seeing what I'm doing and controlling it. And if they have those devices and they buy them now, they would most likely use those devices and not

112the Chromebook. So it is both we are being mindful of when they are actually obsolete and also trying to mitigate issues that could arise and just helping them be successful and make good choices. >> Yes, correct. >> Um so we are also uh adding $30,000 in budget added for textbook adoptions. There's a couple of classes uh I believe science and what was the other one? >> There's two science. >> Okay. So, we have some textbook adoptions that we're looking at this year. So, we added in that budget and we're also spending down grant funds in our restricted side of the house with regard to educator effectiveness block grant and instructional materials and supplies block grants. Minimum things that didn't fully end up being spent last year that that [cough and clears throat] were moved into

113this year. On the unrestricted side of the house, we have an increase in expenditures of 2.8, or 460,649. $360,000 of that increase was the bonus. So, it was an intentional increase because the the ending fund balance increase to such a point that we wanted to do something for staff. So, yes, we we saw that increase, but it was also an intentional increase. Um, we also had $31,554 in classified increases related to the settled negotiations and how they right-sized the ship for their salary schedule and moving everybody where they were supposed to be. So, that was already included in previous calculations, but it just wasn't reflected in the budget. We also had a $189,51 increase in instructional supplies budget. So this is a as a result of having to bring back restricted expenditures that have for

114the last several years been in the arts and music block grant and the instructional materials block grant and things. Some of those things were one time and they were not brought back. Those that were ongoing things that we used to ease the budget while we were going through our deficit reduction plan have been brought back. We also recoded um expenditures that have been coded let's say like to English or to math or to science that are actually being used by multiple departments such as I want to say it's called Gizmo. It's like a a software thing for teachers and it started maybe in the science department or the whatever math department but now multiple departments are using it. So we recoded that from departmental budgets to the general instructional budget. So it's the same dollars

115being spent, but it's just being coded more accurately because it really isn't just science or just math. So we try to keep the department budgets really just those departments and if it is a multi-ep department thing, then it's in the general budget. We also spent about 20 $23,000 in one-time funds or I mean in a onetime expenditure for charging stations. So since we are doing all the onetoone and students tend to forget to charge their devices, we were having students being sent to the library to go get a replacement for the day because theirs wasn't charged or to go get a charger because they forgot it or whatever the case may be. Having these standalone charging stations in classes so the teachers are able to say, "Cool, now plug it in here. You don't have

116to go to the library and waste 30 minutes or whatever." So strategic. Strategic. >> Yeah. [laughter] Correct. And then there are a number of things that are rotational. One of those is Moroi. And Moroi is the I'm going to butcher this and it is going to be mad, but basically they are our cloud subscription provider that runs all of our everything. Our cameras, our internet switches, our >> It's that it's what she said. It's technical stuff in the background that makes it all work. And we pay for the subscriptions. We get a much much much better deal by paying for five years at a time. So, while it looks like a big number, it's actually much cheaper than it would be if we peailed it and paid for it yearbyear. So, that's every five years

117we pay for that. We also um added so we have already been doing the student incentives, but they started last year halfway through the year and they weren't added into the budget. So we added the student incentive budget into the budget this year for first interim. So that is in there. >> What are the student incentives? >> So go right ahead. So we have our academic uh rallies now where we um where we recognize students with for GPA and students for attendance and um they are given so we have one in the fall and one in the spring and if you have a 3.5 and above you're given like I think it was a water bottle this last time and then the um >> the attendance was the slides and so that'll be happening again

118in Jan. January and we've already ordered the two incentives and huge hit for kids. >> It really >> Yeah, they they pick the incentives and what they want and I think they're really going to like them this time. >> It's amazing what >> it's it's not a secret. Um >> it's totally a secret. Don't lie. It's totally a secret. >> Keep it secret. The kids really They get really excited secret. It's not a secret for the kids that helped you pick pick it out, but it's correct. In general, it's >> they they will love it. I I'll let you know. >> Yeah. So, it is it is quite a motivator when you see the other students with the wristband getting to line up and get stuff, it becomes quite the motivational. [clears throat] >> So,

119Lisia, I have a question on the uh Moroi subscription. >> Yes. >> So, if that's for every five years, is that split up for five years? In other words, that's what 11,000 a year or something >> is. But we pay it just once every five years. >> So is that only going to be in the budget every five years? >> Correct. Yes, >> it is. Okay. >> Yes. >> Okay. So that if this would work Oh, one moment please. Okay. So that brings us to the unrestricted ending fund balance. So what I can tell you, we'll start with some of the positives. Our deficit reduction plan is working. And if you were to look at these numbers right now, static as they are, you would say, "Hurrah, we're done. The deficit reduction plan worked. We

120do not have a deficit. We are good to go. We are golden. Look at the ending fund balance. We have $151,000 left over after we pay all of our bills. We're good. We did it." Yes and no. Yes. Yes, we did it. Yes, we are making progress, but we did it without knowing without including some of the things we knew were coming because we didn't know what they were. One of those being negotiations. And when we include negotiations back, it brings us back where we already knew we were going to be in our plan. This year is not the deficit reduction payoff year. We knew it was not going to be. It's too early. We just didn't have the numbers reflected in the budget because we didn't know where negotiations was going to be. So,

121what this tells us before we enter all the negotiation costs and all of those things is we're doing the right thing. We are on the right track. We are moving forward in the right direction. But what it doesn't show is the things that have already changed since the publishing of these numbers. One of them being, you know, negotiations. Um, this just tells us we need to continue with the deficit reduction plan. We are doing well by balancing the needs of the district and those of staff with our reduction plan. Lowering our deficit reduction plan from requiring 4% for the district every year to three is a very positive. Even though it's a little less conservative, it's a positive move in that it allows us to take care of staff a little bit uh more hardy

122more heartily. Is that a word? So, um I think we're doing the right thing and we're on the right path. Don't be surprised though when I come back at second interim and say we have a deficit now. we expect it. It should be here now. We just didn't have the numbers. >> And and you're saying this is because so that um with taking into account whatever negotiations that have been negotiated um that we're being um I know frugal or wise with >> because the staff does deserve um the work they put in deserve to be paid for that. But then also considering the deficit, you know, you're being mindful of all of these factors coming in that each year the property taxes we can assume there are assumptions but not, you know, not line items.

123We're not going to put >> a balancing act, right? And when we instigated the deficit reduction plan, there were a number of ways we could go slash everything, freeze hiring, budget cuts, reductions, lay people off, do these things, increase class sizes. We could have been very dramatic in our response. However, we had a consultant come in who helped us lay out these plans. And one of the plans was, "Look, you guys, meaning us, the district, are very fortunate in that your property taxes historically increase enough that they will overcome your deficit if you stay as static as possible. The way to stay as static as possible is to ensure that no less, this is his words and not where we landed, but to ensure that no less than 4% every year for property taxes enters

124your bottom line. So when we looked at that, we said, okay, 4% is a little aggressive, especially as we see the recession type things and the slowing down of the house sales and that, but we can do a happy medium and we can say the district must have 3%. Anything over and above the 3% would be on the table for negotiations in a way that is um what is the word that is proportional and and equal amongst the or equivalent amongst the bargaining units. And that is really what we've been able to do the last two years and it has been very successful. And that has been coupled with not spending just because you have the budget. All the teachers being very um intentional with their spending. Yes, they see they have $5,000 in their

125budget, but if they only need three, they're not spending because it's there. And that kind of had been the culture in years past, not recent, but years past. Um, we're being very mindful with professional development. And we're being mindful when we get new revenue streams, specifically restricted revenue streams, that we are not adding programs that are unsustainable when that revenue stream is gone. and that we are using to the best of our ability those revenue streams to ease the burden on the general fund. Even though we know that it is temporary, it still allows the deficit reduction plan to catch up while we're still taking care of staff. So, it's just a number of balancing acts and and I think we're doing a good job of being conservative but also, you know, conscientious. Yeah, you're

126welcome. So like I said, we had a uh surplus at original budget. We show a surplus at first interim. That's fake as we know right now. You'll see at second interim, but again that being fake is is expected and where we expect it to be anyway. And the deficit will return once we add in everything from negotiations. But again, our deficit is being reduced regardless of the fact that it's still there. That's a huge win for us. >> I have a question concerning that. So, when we get to the uh the final review of the budget, >> will you uh I would like to see and I probably should talk to you about this on the other side, but I'd like to see where we are actually at. >> So, like year-over-year what the deficit

127actually is, >> how close are we to being to that end? >> Perfect. >> Because as a board, and we've already kind of discussed this, is changing that reserve balance, >> right? So, we're going to have to really think about direction. So, it'd be nice to know that. Yeah. >> True. >> I can definitely take a look at that and see what we can bring back to that would probably be best brought with unodudited actuals for 2526 and we can have the conversation then. So, it'll be around September. >> Okay. >> If that works for you guys. >> That's Yeah, that's great. >> Perfect. >> Okay. So looking at the unrestricted ending fund balance in regards to mandated reserves. So looking at the statemandated reserves, if you remember the state mandates based on our ADA

128size a 4% reserve at the end of the year. So the state required minimum fund amount is only 758,000. So the state determined excess reserve that we have is 6.9 million. The reason this is important to know is because our average monthly payroll and benefits is $869,159. If you look at our average monthly expenditures of $1.4 $4 million. The cash required to run this district from July through November until our first influx of property taxes, which in November we get a very small influx, a couple hundred thousand. And then in December, we get half of the total that we're guessing for the year, it's just over $4.3 million to to bankroll the district from July through November. If we were to carry the state minimum fund amount of $758,000, we would be unable to pay

129our bills. So that is an excessively important thing to know because people will say, "You guys have so much money." But as a basic aid district, we don't get paid every month. We get paid twice a year in general. So it is very, very important for us to be conscientious and prudent of the cash remaining in the bank at the end of the year because that is how we pay people. If we don't have that, it doesn't matter how much we love our staff, how much of an increase we want to give. If we can't pay it, that's a problem. So, we need to make sure we're balancing that. So, looking at our minimum reserve policy of with our ending fund balance, our minimum reserve is 3 million. Our district determined excess reserve is 4.7

130million. Again, 3 million is about 16% reserve based on the district. And the best practice for a basic aid district is between the 25 to 35%. And the total ending fund balance that we currently have with all the money is about 43%. So just keep in mind that we are getting to a point like Chris mentioned that we do need to address our reserve and it can be a thoughtful increase. It can be whatever it needs to be, but it definitely can't stay at $3 million because we're getting to the point where $3 million will not carry us until our first payment. So, we need to be mindful of that. Oops. Looking at our unrestricted, that does not look pretty on here. Looking at our unrestricted multi-year projections, um, we are showing, you can ignore

131the top, but it basically says our ending fund balance is at the top and our surplus or our deficit is the second number in each of those boxes. Given what we had to work with when we created the first interim budget, that surplus grew in 2627 and then shrunk again in 2728 based on expenditures that come in rolling expenditures, capital outlay, those types of things. Um, we do not have in these multi-year projections now our special education consortium transfer and consolidation costs. We don't have all of our negotiations even for 2526 represented, let alone for the outy years. Nothing in the outy years is represented for any of our bargaining units. And we know again that the deficit will return after negotiations are settled. We also have not yet come up with a spending plan

132or I'm sorry, not a spending, a savings plan for our bus replacement needs. and our bus company has reached out at the beginning of this year and said, "Your buses are reaching um reaching an age that you need, yes, you need to consider what you're going to be doing and how we're going to get there." So, we are currently saving, like I said, I believe it's $50,000 a year for our um tech replacement costs that we're going to need. We're going to need to look at doing something similar for our bus replacement needs. And buses are not a cheap commodity, especially considering we do not qualify for many of the rebates that are out there right now. And I'll tell you why. Many of the rebates are for replacement of old diesel buses with electric

133buses. Our district boundaries are so great that the range for the buses would not work for daily home to school transportation, let alone for the range required to get our students from here to all the different competitions that they go to with our buses. That being said, there are a few grant programs and opportunities available for I'm gonna butcher what it's called. clean fresh biodiesel or clean new biode something new biodiesel that is probably what we will look at and see if we don't qualify for something to that end because we will have to stick with a diesel bus because of the range issues so >> I know this is probably out of your [clears throat] out of what you do but shouldn't there be something for rural districts >> it's ridiculous I know there's

134a I know there's an association for rural districts >> yes we are a part of that and they advocate heavily for small rural dis rural rural districts but >> because that's that seems to me that uh our kids aren't getting the benefit that the other kids are in the cities. >> Right. Right. >> That's a problem. >> Our geographic boundaries are are a um >> I understand I mean I get the the reason that we can't do it. It makes a lot of sense but doesn't make sense that we shouldn't. >> Yeah. No, I would I would agree. They will just tell us, "Sorry, it's >> Yeah, >> you know, so we will work on it though. Um the bus company has said that they will graciously help work on grant writing and and searching

135for grants." So, two heads are greater than one. So, hopefully they with their contacts and stuff in the transportation world will be able to help us find and secure more grant funding. Even if it's just partial portions of a bus, it's worth it. >> Exactly. We will also know if we will be transporting our own special education students in the next month or so. >> Correct. >> So that'll play into this. >> But we will we will also get back 60% of that transportation fund straight. So >> there's [clears throat] lots of things that go into play here when it comes to transportation. >> Our second interim is going to be real complicated. >> Yeah. >> Double dipping. So if you uh right now we have two separate we have a consortium transportation and we

136have our transportation. Now we're going to be one. So would that help us with the bus purchases or you know >> it tends to be like okay you have to sp spend a million to get what 600,000 back. So it's like we're spending the money anyway. So yeah it's great to get that revenue back but it's not it's not enough to fund those things. It will help. I'm not going to lie. It will be helpful. It will increase our cost, but it will also increase our revenue, but the revenue doesn't defay the cost. So, it's really I mean, yes, we can say it's extra revenue, and yes, we can say we're going to divert it that way, but it doesn't take care of the extra cost. So, it's really like where do you want to

137put it kind of thing. Okay. So, considerations for future planning, we just kind of talked about a couple of those. Our minimum fund balance needs to be updated. We need to address bus replacement needs. Our consortium consolidation and transfer impacts on the budget. We need to get those in there. Uh our deficit reduction plan is continuing and it is working. So that's all a positive. And the negotiations impact both for this year and in out years needs to be considered. And that's it. What questions can I answer? >> Did I get >> You already got them. You you got mine. >> Okay. Perfect. Sherry, did we get all the questions you were looking at? >> Yeah, you did. You as always, you you cover them all. And you know, it's just the one thing and

138I know as we talk about special ed buses and it's a federal program. So, should we expect more federal money to help pay for those special ed buses? >> Yes and no. Not specifically for the buses. we will see an increase in some federal revenue, you know, peace meal here and there, but they they already don't pay for even a portion of what they require. So, I'm going to go ahead and go on a limb and say no. But, you know, we will see increases in revenue across random pots of money. It's just a matter of what, when, and how much. >> Yeah, I do have a question. I don't know how. Okay. So, the bonuses were one time, >> correct? >> And that was where did it Okay. The lease sale. >> Yes. And

139so, technically, it all just came out of our savings account. At the end of the year, everything sits in our savings account. And we use the excess in our savings account to pay a bonus to staff. >> Okay. >> And that excess in the savings account came from the sprint sale, the sprint lease sale. >> Okay. Okay. Because in the other I guess in the audit it's different but okay. >> So the audit the audit compares numbers. They don't tie out specifically simply because the calculations that the auditors use and the valuations that they use take into consideration other things like fair market value that is not real money and other things. So, while the audit is accurate and a an accurate accounting reflection of what the district is doing, it's an actuarial and like

140like an audit perspective versus just dollars in and dollars out. >> Okay. >> If that makes sense. Okay, perfect. Is that it? Okay, >> thank you. Uh so is there a motion to approve the 2025 2026 first interim budget report and 202526 through 2728 multi-year projections. [laughter] >> I motion to approve the 202526 first interimm budget through 20 2728 multi-year projections. Give me >> a second. I second that. >> Thank you, Sherry. Roll call, please. Chair. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Noble. >> Hi. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Hi. >> Mr. Leamini. >> Hi. >> Motion passes. Now we can move on to the public hearing on excess reserves for 2526 through 2728. So, as a continuation of the first interim report, we have to by law call out and document all of

141those excess rever reserves over and above that 4% as I described in, you know, the end of our um presentation. As a basic aid, we are not subject to the mandatory spendown of reserves like an LCFF or a state funded district would be, but we are still required to report out what those reserves are, their dollar amount, and what the rationale or reasons behind those reserves are, which we have done on the excess reserves attached. >> Thank you, Alicia. Um Todd, are you are you uh fully versed on what that is? >> Can I I'll try I'll try. >> Okay. >> So LCFF they [clears throat] our funding model is completely different. I know you understand that. >> I understand that. >> So the state um pays those schools on a monthly basis if I'm

142not mistaken. So they're getting money monthly for attendance. So their percentage is so much lower than we have to do because we get our money in huge chunks. That's the major reason that we have to report out the uh excess reserves. >> They also say that because LCFF districts are funded by the state and the state gives them money every month. There's no good rationale for them stockpiling money. So they're saying that we give you all the money you need to run your program and every year we give you increases. So give us a good reason why you have more money at the end of the year than we say you need. Whereas as a basic aid district, the state does not give us money. We do not get money every month and we are

143subject to the volatility of the market. So the state has said, okay, we we understand that you could be subject to not paying your bills if this money doesn't come in. So you have a good reason for stockpiling. Therefore, we'll allow you to do it and we won't require you to spend it down if we meet our financial triggers at the state level. But you still have to tell us what they are so we know what you have. >> Make more sense. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, if this if we don't have reserves, they can take control or is that >> No. So if if we're a statef funded budget, let's say that the state pays us monthly and we have a million dollars more than they say we're supposed to. If they reach what is

144called like it's like a trigger for them in their financial budget, the state budget unrelated to ours as a school district. if they meet their trigger, so to speak, they can then say, "Okay, all you state funded schools, you have to now use your stockpile of money because we are not going to give you more money when we're struggling when you have money." So, it's based on their budget triggers unrelated to the school districts, but they're saying basically, we're not going to go broke because you're stockpiling money for whatever reason. And for basic aid districts, they're subject to, you know, different um risks. So that's why they say, "Okay, it makes more sense for you and you're not giving you're not getting money from our budget, so it really doesn't hurt us if you stockpile."

145Make sense? >> Okay. So, did I need to time the public hearing? Okay, it's open at this point at uh 7 is it 24? >> 7:24 and we'll close it at 7:24. And now we'll move on to the approval of the 2025 2026 through 2027 2028 excess reserves report. >> Just the same thing we were talking about. Is there a Is there a motion? >> I saw that given to someone else. I'll do it. A motion is to approve the 202526 through 2728 excess reserve report and I will second that. >> Thank you. Roll call, please. Chair. >> Mr. Johnson. >> I. >> Miss Noble. >> I. >> Miss Grace Velasquez. >> I. >> Mr. Leini. >> Hi. >> Motion passes. Uh, now we'll move on to the San Valley Union High School District 2024

1462025 annual audit report. Okay. So, we don't generally go over our audit report in detail. We have it attached here for you to read. As I was explaining to Mr. Lefam, A or E, Lefamina. Okay. Um, the numbers in our audit report are accurate. They are an accurate reflection of our net position and those types of things. But the way that they are calculated with regard to auditors looking at like I said the valuation of money versus the actual dollar amount in in the account. The um gazsby accounting things where they're saying like oh your uh your liabilities are really a million dollars because you have all this sick leave that never shows up in our budget. But for the auditors they're saying you have this liability. So it gets in it includes things that

147are accurate. We do have the liability for vacation or sick leave or whatever the case may be and they're reflected in the audit numbers, but that is just not something that's reported to the state. Therefore, it's not something that we include in our budget. It's only done for purposes of the audit that, you know, once or twice a year when they come in. Um, it's really nice that it's not included in our budget because some of the new Gazsby accounting things are so convoluted it's crazy. They are making us take all of our software subscription contracts and counting those as liabilities. They it Yeah, it's it's um pretty interesting the number of things we have to do for the audit report that just don't make a lot of sense. Another one of those would be

148and I'm sure it makes sense to some actuarial person somewhere, but like we also have something called the fair market value. So, if I have $100 in the bank and they're saying the fair market value of that $100 is $110, they make us book that fake $10 and then it looks like the ending fund balance has $110 just for us in the next budget year to reverse it so that it's really only the $100 and vice versa. If they're saying you have $100 in the bank, but in this market it's only worth 90, they will make us book that which is really annoying. And if you like forget to do it or whatever, it inflates or underinflates your but it's just a pain in the you know what. But those types of things are included

149in the audit. And that's kind of why we don't go over the actual numbers in the audit so much. What's important to note is that the audit reflects and agrees with the increased positive net position in the district. It in it agrees with the reduction in the unrestricted deficit. It agrees with the decrease in the pension liability and there are no findings. So really the most important thing for any audit is are there findings? And findings could either be you did your accounting wrong or there's some internal process that is not good or not accurate or not holding up to standards. Some of those findings equate to penalties. Some of those penalties are legal. Some of those penalties are financial in nature. And almost always school districts with active or large ASBs tend to have

150ASB findings. So every year I make it a point to highlight my literal 1.2 employees. So I have two employees in my office that help with business stuff. One of them is almost solely responsible for ASB and the other one helps, you know, support her as needed. The fact that we have an ASB that has over 200 to $400,000 in and out in a year with no findings is a miracle. And those women deal with a lot of of uh negativity in enforcing rules and having to be the gatekeepers because nobody likes to hear no or sorry I need 7 million forms of ID to give you anything. They don't like doing it. Staff doesn't like doing it. But it is a very thankless hard job and we have not had findings in ASV for

151several years at least. And it is very very much attributable to the dedication of the staff in my office. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So is there [clears throat] any further discussion discussion? >> Okay. This is off. Do we we so we have to pay for these audits? >> Yes, we are required. >> And we have to do every year. >> Yes. >> And what about what do they charge? I'm just >> I know it's >> 35,000 or so. ish and some years it's less and some years it's more depending on like the years that we got lots of co money it triggers additional audit requirements which trigger additional fees >> and and added extra time for you and other staff. >> Yes. >> Okay. Well, I appreciate the work that you have put into this.

152>> Thank you. We have great auditors. We're very lucky. Is there a motion to approve the annual 2024 2025 annual audit report? >> I'm Oh, go ahead. >> Yeah, I'll make the motion to approve the uh audit report, the uh Sanz 2024 2025 annual audit report. >> And I will second that motion. >> Thank you. Roll call, please, sir. >> Mr. Johnson. >> Hi. >> Miss Noble. >> Hi. Miss Grace Velasquez. >> Hi, >> Mr. Leamini. >> Hi. >> Audit report approved. Now we can move on to our discussion. Uh, board policy 5145.5, mental health first reading. >> So, as part of the district's ongoing efforts to update board policies, we continue with the process. Um, board policies are driven by new state or federal laws, revisions in existing state or federal laws and are

153at the direction of the board. A school district cannot make policy changes that are contrary to state or federal law and policy recommendations for updates are brought to the board as part of a two-step process. the first which is tonight which is a reading at a regular board meeting followed by the opportunity for a second reading at a subsequent regular meeting that also includes recommendation for approval. So tonight it is um board policy 5145.5 mental health first reading. [clears throat] >> Um we we don't have to read the whole but I can say that there's um there are a couple paragraphs in here that we are going to run past legal that our family code. We we understand that we need to have ed code in our policy. We're going to look at if we

154need to include family code. Um, at first glance, it having the family code in there offers an additional layer of transparency because it's something we need to do. So, do we put it in writing? Things like that. So, we will be asking um our attorney, does family code need to be part of our policy? Um, and um it can we just have our policy state the ED code? that that's one of the things that we will bring back um after this reading. >> Okay. >> And so I will have an answer for you before the next board meeting. >> Okay. >> On that. Any other questions on mental health? [laughter] >> No. Thank you. >> I you got some time. Yeah, I got so the tella health we have rooms for obviously the >> we

155do have rooms for teleaalth. It's been very successful for students. Um it um has broadened our ability to meet student needs by using teleaalth. >> I've had another question. looking for where it was the classified staff requirement for the training. >> So, um Tori could also speak to this, but we all have to by June 30th, right, Terry? We all have to have been through the mental health >> um all certificated >> cert. >> So, yes, but the classified are for 2029. So, we got >> we're just we're we're ahead of the curve on that. >> And I guess why would um wouldn't you want a hundred across the board that would encounter or is it just because [clears throat] I guess you have night workers would wouldn't >> Well, you have Yeah. your nighttime

156custodians wouldn't need to do it. Maybe other custodians wouldn't need to do it. So, those like maybe in the front office that deal with contact all the time. >> Yeah. Okay. might be a you know >> a benefit. >> So there's um this policy in front of you specifically um addresses some um changes in ED code related to communication of policy and specifically named that 40% of classified staff that is in direct contact of students um has to basically have like mental health training. Um, we have all of our resources for that we do for all of our faculty beginning of the year in rotations too, even beyond. And then there's other trainings that are related to specific mental health that's been added on as other requirements because we just like to add requirements on

157requirements. Um, but with that what we prevent present for staff, we'll be able to easily duplicate that for those classified staff we we need to include. And for us um next year again if we keep going down the trajectory we are that will include like our aids right and our behavior techs and those um special education staff where that very much applies um some of our office staff that's in direct contact like our registar that's dealing um actually it's kind of a conduit to counseling supports and services quite often. So we have staff there where it would be what we would do anyways. Um incident it'll naturally meet that requirement that's naming that funky little 40%. Um it is very explicitly named in updates to ed code related to training and so we had just

158gotten some updates related to by January I think 26 2025 you had to update your policy and include that language very explicitly. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So we have some good vessels. I've worked with Miss Pñena on this specifically on making sure we have a plan for how we duplicate that in a classified realm. >> Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I guess I would think that all that would have any contact would want that training or you we would want that training for liability. >> It's there. Again, I think we have some people on campus that don't have really student interaction and student facing like let's say um in general when we talk about like a night custodian that may look different in reference for that because their interactions look different but it doesn't mean

159it wouldn't be accessible to all. It's us having to document that they have completed it. it's always available to all of our staff and I think we can look at to what what are the best vessels for that. Um, but we had had that conversation in reviewing the policy very specifically because that's a little bit of an adjustment out of some of the training Claudia Pena is responsible for. But the vessels we currently use will work fine on as a layer on top of the parts that are coming down for some other required trainings in the next few years um per other CDE requirements that run parallel. So so many [snorts] >> yeah we try really hard to carve out the time that's required for it because it is professional responsibility so just planning very

160strategic >> I think I think for [snorts] teachers now there's about six They sort of rotate around too. Some are every other year, some are used, but there is about six that are mandated and some kind of go. And you're right, it is a onetime thing, but we do have staff that continue to [laughter] >> Yeah. >> Interesting. >> Yeah, it's good. Uh yeah, I mean, I noticed the county safety is not responding to high schools as frequently or they're phasing out. Yeah. So, safety no longer exists in our county. They've condensed their services through behavioral health under CARES, which was already servicing the community in the same capacity safety did. Um, and so they are being stretched thinner. Um, but they have responded. Um, we are very lucky in that we utilize our SRD

161sometimes to make direct contact and help us expedite when we've needed to. Um we have our own protocols and procedures related to risk assessments for students that we follow that as an integrated staff process. We have um protocols for all of that. We have our processes after we have safety plans related to that. Um we have the highest level of assessments happening with the highest skill staff too. And so um we I'm really thankful that when we were reviewing it talks about this the model protocols, right? It mentions this model protocols from C from CDE that they've put out. And I sat down with Claudia Pñena and we actually read, okay, this is what it has to have. This is what it has to have. What are we doing these things? And it was like,

162yes, yes, yes. Other than the world's most dense poster that we need to make. Yep. Claudia is working on that. I will make sure we will share that with you all once she's done. It has to include the entire world, 12-point font or larger, mind you. And so we're trying to figure out how this isn't like a Peewee Herman sized poster. Like I don't understand how we're doing it, but she is working on that so that we at least meet that. That is the only part of the requirement that is not currently in place related to all of it. It was everything but that. And we actually have that poster amongst like three different posters. We just apparently need to condense down or like tape the three together. So she will be working on that

163and I would expect to have it finished by January. >> And and you get to put it in all the different languages, right? and and for us the only language that typically we are responsible for we don't even hit thresholds for students but just for families we would have that in English and in Spanish which thankfully I will say there are online resources that help with that so much and our wonderful staff that um help support uh bilingual translation they will double check that it actually is um coherent in communicating clearly what we're trying to communicate and also Claudia Pena is bilingual so that is the best part too it gets to start from a bilingual lens Um so super grateful for that. But other than the poster, every other part of those model protocols

164are completely in place here. Um the work that's been happening over the last six years related to supports for students with mental health issues and in crisis. Um it's substantial work. I credit Claudia Pena and so many other support staff on campus in making sure that um students are receiving what they need and extremely grateful we're in the situation we're in, which is further along than many other places, and making sure that this is happening. So we're like, "Yeah, this is all what we do." So it's good. >> Thank you. >> Okay. So we're good with that discussion. Okay. We'll move on to uh board matters and our next meeting date is January 20 January 20th. We good with that? >> No conflicts this point. [laughter] >> That could there could be a lot of

165conflicts with those. Okay. So, we'll we'll [laughter] leave that uh that. So, that was on our list. >> So, I just wanted to make sure that's our next one. And now uh we can move on to close session at 7:42. >> 7:41. >> Oh, yep. 7:41. Okay, perfect. >> Would you like to take a little break? >> Okay.