Special Board Meeting 5/15/25

001Thank you for coming in. It is 6:01. We're going to get this meeting started. All right. Um, roll call. Esparza here. Lyer here. Lopezino, Medina here, Kenyon here. Thank you. Lovely. Okay. Um, let's stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. Next, we have public comments. The board will take no action or discussion on any item not appearing on the posted agenda except authorized by law. Individual speakers are allowed three minutes to address the board on each non-aggenda item. Speakers are not permitted to yield their time to another person. The board limits the total time for public input on each item to 20 minutes. Do we have any public comment? We have one. Allison Hoover That was the last comment. Thank you. Um consent calendar. All matters listed on the consent calendar will be act enacted

002in one motion in the form listed below. Prior to approval of the meeting agenda, there was an opportunity to request placing consent calendar items in the discussion action. Did I skip? No, sorry. Uh discussion action section of the board meeting. There will be no discussion on these items prior to the board vote. I'll motion to approve acceptable consent calendar items unless otherwise noted. Second call for the vote. Medina, yes. Esparza, yes. Kenyon, yes. Lopez Aino, yes. Liker, yes. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. Um, next we have the asset management superintendent advisory committed committee, pardon me. All right. Thank you. So, this item is coming to us um after a very long process. Uh this is a processes that has gone on for about two years. Um and one of the things that that I'd like

003to say about that process is that no one on the board, no one in our district signed up to have to consolidate schools. No, no one has done that. It's very difficult. It's a very difficult decision and it's not a decision we have taken lightly, which is one of the reasons that it's taken this long because we want to make sure that we're doing our due diligence. We're looking at the experience of other districts. We're looking at any research that's out there. We're looking at um you know different options so that when the decision is made we are doing the very best that we think we can do for our school district as a whole. Now, my hope when we started this process and and I'll talk a little bit about how this process started,

004but my hope was when we started this process is that we would come together as a community and say our district is facing an enormous challenge. An enormous challenge. I was looking today to try [Music] to try to confirm that our district is one of the districts that's lost the highest percentage of students in California. And I cannot confirm that to be true right now, but I can say that some of the other districts, some of the highest ones I found were at about 28%. When you think about our district, that is 40, what was it, Michael? 43%. That is a huge difference. And that has an impact on how we can serve students in our community and how we can serve the community. So my hope when we initially started is that we would

005come together as a community and look at this this challenge and say how can we meet this challenge? Now I'm not a young person anymore. I've I've had a lot of different experiences and I know that those hopes when we start out are are idealistic, right? That is very idealistic for me as a superintendent to think, hey, we're all going to come together as a community and we're going to really work together to meet this challenge. That's very idealistic. I also know that anytime you start talking about consolidating schools that communities are going to come together in those schools and they're going to fight to keep their schools open. Unfortunately, part of that fight is that we take information and we mislead. We we we we say comments out there to mislead people. And that's

006unfortunate because all that does is it hurts our community. It hurts our community when we purposely take information and put it out there like it's the truth when in fact it's not. I am very proud of the process that we've developed because it was a process that is super transparent. We have put everything online. We have held multiple town halls. We had a committee of community members to look at the issue and try to come up with different ideas. So, I'm really proud of that process. And I hope that moving forward the recommendations that we're going to bring today for discussion I hope that moving forward we can understand that yes this is a this is a very difficult very difficult process. This is a very difficult decision for our board to make and for

007our community. And it's going to have an impact. It's going to have an impact. There's there's no two ways about that. And we're going to have choices to make. We can either come together as a community and try to figure out how to lessen that impact or we can continue to misrepresent what's happening and then have to deal with those impacts. At the end of the day, we're going to move forward doing something. And I hope that everybody looks at the process and understands that everybody had an opportunity to give their input. So I will ask again, I hope the community can come together, look at our challenge and realize that we have to do something. Whether it's this plan that we have that we're going to we're going to recommend or whether it's a

008different plan, whatever we choose, there are going to be impacts to those choices. A district cannot continue when they've lost that many students doing the same thing they've always done. We just can't. And if we choose to do that, if we choose to go forward in a totally different direction, that is fine. But then we have to discuss what does that mean for our district? What does that mean for our students? What does that mean for our staff? Okay. Early on, a couple years ago, we came up with a with a process called reflect, redefine, rebuild. And the way we looked at that process was really after the pandemic, we had an opportunity to really look at how we were serving the community and think about how well we were doing that. We already knew

009we had some some challenges. So the idea was let's really reflect on how we do everything that we do as a school district um and you know consider whether we can improve some of it. we can continue with whatever we're doing. U just really looking at it reflecting how well we're doing uh what what we're supposed to be doing. The second part of that process, the second R is redefine. Once we think about how we serve the community, then we had an opportunity to redefine success for our students and for our district. And so, you know, naturally when you think about how well do we, you know, transport students or how well u, you know, does our our food nutrition, uh, how well, you know, do we serve lunches? Anytime you have that opportunity just

010to consider that, then you also have the opportunity to say, well, if if we're doing it this way, is there an opportunity to redefine what success looks like there? Whether it's students learning in the classroom, whether it's the way we're transporting students, whichever whichever that is. The last R was rebuild. So once we think about how are we doing, how can we redefine success, then we rebuild whatever we thought about. This process led to a lot of different things in our district. One of the things that it led to was really understanding our reality. Right? We have a reality as a school district. How are we doing? That's our reality. Uh and we were a we were able to identify some strengths and by far the strength in our district is our staff. We have

011amazing teachers. We have amazing classified staff and we have amazing administrators dedicated to serving the South Bay Union community. That is definitely by far, hands down, our strength. We also identified some areas we needed to improve on. Declining enrollment. It's the biggest area. It's the biggest challenge that we face as a community. Student achievement. That is a huge, huge challenge that we face as a community. Facilities needs, we have a lot of facilities needs and long-term financial planning. This work, this process, and specifically the the work around declining enrollment led us to the SAC committee with the goal of looking for innovative ideas to address declining enrollment and its impacts on our district community. When I met with the original group, that was my cha my charge to them. Think outside the box. look for

012other ways that, you know, look for ways that we can we we can address this this issue. Um, and so from there, we're going to go over some of that process and I will call up Mr. Regal Lara uh to to start going over that. test. Oh, wait. All right, here we go. Uh, good evening, President Liker, board of trustees, superintendent Espinosa, community and staff. At this time, um, Mr. Michael Taylor will come up and begin the presentation and then I will kind of tag team um, the the information that we provide. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for the opportunity to assist you all in this very complicated initiative. Superintendent Espinosa, thank you for those opening comments. As you mentioned, we've been at this now for almost two years. A lot of

013information has been gathered, a lot of analysis has occurred, a lot of meetings have occurred. And I just wanted to remind you of the four fundamental questions that we are seeking to answer and they're in front of you. The first question is how many schools should the district either close or consolidate over the next five years? As Superintendent Espininoza just mentioned, the district has experienced significant declining enrollment. And we'll go over some of the data just to kind of remind you how steep that decline has been. The second question, and not just focusing on facilities, but also asking the question, what can we do? What can South Bay Union School District do to improve the academic performance of its students? Question number two. Question number three, along with academic achievement, what kind of specialized programs

014should South Bay Union School District be looking at to attract and retain students? And last but not least, question number four, what about Nester? a very impressive program, a very successful program, but it has some facility issues. What do we do about Nester? So, those are the four fundamental questions that we're going to try to answer tonight. And we're going to come back to these questions and the answers to these questions at the end of the presentation. And what you will see is the superintendent's recommendations on how to answer each one of those questions. Again, as Superintendent Espinosa just mentioned, this is a hard subject. This is not easy. And whenever you talk about school consolidation, school closure, it's a difficult subject. It becomes very emotional. It becomes very personal for people. Understandably so. This

015is a tough subject. But when you look at the sustainability of operating under enrolled schools, it's not financially sustainable. And also, are we offering the best educational opportunities for our students in underenrolled schools? And we're going to talk about that in just a moment. So again, a difficult subject. students. We've talked about a lot of things in the superintendent advisory committees, whether it's budget, whether it's staff, whether it's facilities, whether it's community, all those things are important. But what we ask the committee to do as you are wrestling with different options, ask yourself this questions. Is this qu is this particular option best for students? and what can we do that's best for students? Always keeping that at the center of all of the options and all of the the conversations that we have. And

016as I mentioned, the importance of when you have underenrolled schools, the opportunity for staff collaboration is limited as opposed to when staff is in a in in a school that is enrolled at capacity or overenrolled. And then also the additional services, whether it's counselors, coaches, clerical support, all of that is limited when you start operating schools that are underenrolled. Let's take a look at the data. And you've seen this before. We went all the way back to 1112. And there you have it. Going all the way through 2026, the district will have lost 2600 students. That's about 43%. That's a pretty almost 50% of the student population has left. And I think it's also important to to recognize that when students leave districts, there's a huge loss in revenue. And when you look at the

017students, just taking the data from this year, the district will be losing about $5.5 million in ongoing revenue, that's a pretty huge loss in revenue. So that's one of the consequences of declining enrollment and that districts lose a lot of revenue. In our committee meetings, we also looked at, well, where is a majority of this decline happening and we noticed it's in the middle or the central part of the district. And so that's just a data point and can't really fully explain the reason why, but that is where a majority of the decline has happened. So, as I mentioned, the financial sustainability of operating schools that are underenrolled. Let me just provide you with a hypothetical school. So, usually the students generate about $10,000 in revenue per year. Now, when you actually look at the

018the actual calculation, it's a little bit higher, but we went ahead and took out supplemental concentration grant funding. This is just for base. $10,000 per student. So when students show up, it has a perfect attendance. The district gets $10,000. To operate a school, you have fixed costs and you also have variable costs. So all of those costs essentially get thrown under what's called operating costs. And so we'll take a look at a break even scenario. This particular school has 600 students. 600 time 10,000 equals $6 million. And the operating cost for that school is about $6 million. So what you have there at an enrollment of 600, the operating costs and the revenue are essentially equal. You're offsetting your cost with the revenue generated by the kids that attend. Now, let's take a look at

019a situation where the school is underenrolled. And if I direct your attention over to the left hand side of the uh the graph again, you're taking enrollment at 200 200 times uh or the operating costs are 3 million and 5 million at an enrollment of 200400. And then you look at the revenue generated by the kids at 200 you have 2 million. And what you see there is the revenue generated by the kids at 200 does not offset the operating costs and the same at 400. So but also conversely if you're overenrolled you're generating more revenue. So let's go back to the left hand side of the chart. So you're upside down essentially to a million dollars in both scenarios, right? The school is still operating, but where does that million dollars come from? It

020comes from another part of the general fund budget. So instead of bringing in new programs, you're not going to be able to do that. if you want if you're looking to put more dollars on the salary schedule, that million dollars is coming from another part of the of the general fund budget. So that's what we mean when we say when you have underenrolled schools, you can get by, but it's not sustainable long term and it does eat into other parts of the general fund budget. So, I just want to really make that point clear and again this is a hypothetical and we're going to look at some actual district data here in just a moment. Also, the the converse is also appro uh uh appropriate here is that if you're overenrolled, you're generating more revenue

021than what the operating costs are. So, I just wanted to give you that as a comparison, the left hand side of the bar of the chart and the right hand side. So this is some actual data that we looked at back in 2023 and this was every school in the district. And what you see here is based on the base revenue for each of these schools, each of these schools is operating in a deficit situation. And I know this is a lot of data and the same thing here except you got the two charters the dependent charters that are actually covering their costs. So there again you have this underenrollment at your regular TK through six schools that is contributing to this um this this deficit as far as the operating costs are are concerned

022at each of these schools. So what is the average? And again, this is the average revenue and expenditures. And this also includes the two charters. So you're operating at about $300,000 in the red just to operate the schools. Um, again, as I mentioned, this information is a a bit dated, but if we were to run another query, I don't think there would be much of a difference. So, let me just hit pause. Any questions at this point? And I know you've just received a lot of information in a short period of time. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about process. Uh these initiatives are very time inensive and take time. And so they also have a lot of moving parts and in order to make sense and keep track of all of the things

023that need to happen, we break the process up into three phases. Phase one, we do an analysis of the enrollment data. We establish the advisory committee. We come up with initial options for consideration. Phase two, we review those options and we continue to analyze data. We have our town hall meetings and we make a final recommendation. The superintendent makes a final recommendation to the board. Once that decision is made on school consolidation or school closure, then we're in phase three where the district has to decide what it wants to do. with any potential vacant property. So again, just to give you a sense as to all the things that need to happen on a school consolidation initiative, communication. One of the things that we learned early on is that communication is extremely important and just

024when we think we've communicated enough, we need to communicate some more. And then once we've communicated, we need to communicate some more. Again, this is a very tough subject, a very difficult uh situation for a community to have to absorb. So, communic communication becomes a very important aspect of a school consolidation initiative. the advisory committee. The advisory committee was put together to tr to to to help to advise the superintendent to provide the superintendent with some recommendations on how to mitigate the impact of declining enrollment. And it's important the advisory committee serves or has served in an advisory capacity only to advise the superintendent on specific options to help mitigate the impact of declining enrollment. And we tried to essentially make sure that we had a good mix of the community, a good mix of

025the district. We actually had two versions of this. We had version 1.0 0 and version 2.0 and what we heard after version 1.0 we did not have enough parent representation. So we made an adjustment. We need to ensure that we get more parents engaged and part of the superintendent's advisory committee. We also allowed guests to attend the superintendent's advisory committee to observe the process so that they could see how the process evolved and also hear the conversations in the breakout sessions. So just a quick timeline as I mentioned, we started in 2023. We had a workshop a year ago in May which essentially ended the school consolidation initiative 1.0. We had seven superintendent advisory committees. We had three town three town hall meetings and uh we had a board workshop the way I mean very

026similar to what we're doing right now and at that workshop the board gave the superintendent direction to continue with the process and we're going to walk you through that in just a second. Just a quick summary of version 1.0. know their recommendation on the left hand side full central elementary school. Recommendation number two, move Nester to Mendoza and then have the Mendoza students distributed to surrounding or adjacent schools. Recommendation number three, swap Nester and Mendoza, i.e. moved Nester to Mendoza and moved Mendoza to Nester. So on the right hand side you see the two town hall meetings. The first one was at Mendoza, second at Nester and the third at central input results. What did we get from those town hall meetings? Improve the process improve the communication. The perception was the committee wasn't or

027the process wasn't transparent enough on central the closure of central elementary schools. We did receive comments. Every one of those comments I think is is posted on one of the boards here. So mixed uh comments on Central Elementary School, but one of the big um items at Central is that the modernization cost for Central is almost $50 million. That's a pretty huge cost to modernize the school, especially with the with the district's current bond authorization from the community of about 125 million. Nester Mendoza got mixed Nester to Mendoza where Mendoza students would be distributed got mixed responses. Nester Mendoza swap the responses were we prefer not that was from the notes and the comments from the community potential savings from 1.0 know and we we've established a a cost model and that cost model gives

028you one number but it's dependent on the on the inputs. Just to be to be clear, usually the savings associated with a school consolidation or school closures will come from management reduction and classified staff reduction. For example, if you combine two schools, do you need two principles? Do you need two custodial staffs? Do you need the clerical staff? So, that's where most of the savings comes from. And so, what we've provided is a range as opposed to just one number. And then, and that's what you see in the middle of the chart. On the right hand side of the chart under facilities, you see the costs in order to modernize each one of those schools. And those those figures came from the district's facility master plan. And so with Central, it's really not I guess

029you could call it a savings, but more of a cost avoidance. If you decide to move forward with the closure of central, you would be avoiding the modernization cost of central and the same thing with um the Nester Mendoza distributed option. The last option, the Nester Mendoza swap actually would not save you any money. actually probably cost you um it would cost you a little bit not a whole lot but it there would be a cost associated with that. So, um, again, last year it was on May 20th, the board was presented with the recommendations that you just saw and superintendent introduced an alternative concept and the board directed superintendent and staff to move forward with exploring that alternative concept. So essentially, thank you committee, thank you superintendent for those initial recommendations. However, let's explore

030the superintendent's alternative concept. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Superintendent Espinosa to explain that alternative concept. Thank you, Michael. Um, and you know what? We we have talked about this concept already. So I'm not going to talk a lot about it. What I'm going to say about the concept is that it it this concept address the four areas declining enrollment, student achievement, attract and retain families and students and the Nester facilities. And the concept took into consideration the recommendations of the SAC committee as well as the input from the town halls that we had. Um and what it did is it provided a complete picture of what our district would look like if we followed all those four areas. That's okay. And and again here just want to show you the

031the alternative concept central for closure schools to be potentially closed central bar and sunny slope. And then there was also a grade configuration change at each of the schools. And the grade configuration change included a TK through three option and then a four through six option. And then Nester would be split. Nester would be a TK through three option and a 4 through8 option. Hence TK through three, Nicolof through6, Mendoza 4 through six, Emory TK through three. So that essentially as Superintendent Espinosa just mentioned is essentially the gist of the alternative proposal. So timeline. So back in May, last May, you provided the appropriate direction moving forward. So we had we established a I would say a an amended committee or committee with more members to include more parents. The committee met met six times

032to essentially review the alternative proposal that was just shown. The committee made a recommendation to the superintendent in February of this year and then we had two town hall meetings, end of February and beginning of March. And I'm going to walk you through the results of that of those town hall meetings. And here we are May 2025 conducting the board workshop. So on the left the closure recommendations from the committee. Yes on central, yes on Emory, no on Pence, no on Barry and no on Sunny Slope. academic achievement, no grades span configuration change, specialized programs, programs determined at the site level. And we're going to walk you through the ultimate recommendation here in just a moment. This is the SA the superintendent's advisory committee and then on Nester use bonds or bond funding to help

033or to assist with the facilities at Nester. And then there was a recommendation to downsize. On the right hand side, you have the town hall meetings and the results February 27th and March 4th. Input results. Declining enrollment. Close central. Do not close Emory. That those comments were repeated themselves loud and clear in the in the uh um in the comments in in in the notes written. academic achievement, no configuration changes, programs determined at the site level, Nester, use bond funds, do not downsize, move to Mendoza. So those are the recommendations from the committee and also the comments from the town hall meetings. Let's take a quick look at potential savings. And again, once you do one of these uh cost models on potential savings, again, it's where the savings where you realize most savings are

034with the reduction in management and classified staff. So depending on the staffing levels and how many people you have, the the number the potential savings will change. So hence you have essentially ranges here for each of the um each of the proposed closure um each of the schools that are being proposed for closure. And then also on the right hand side potential facility fund cost avoidance if that closure actually occurs. I think it's important to I know this these are a lot of words here. There has been recent legislation as a lot of districts in the state of California are wrestling with declining enrollment especially districts in the coastal areas. AB Assembly Bill 1912 essentially spawned by the school closure initiative at Oakland Unified School District. And the the the point of AB1912 is to

035make sure that that certain kids, certain demographics are not disproportionately affected by a school closure. And so the legislation recommends that a school district look at nine metrics and definitely consider nine metrics before moving forward with a school consolidation or a school closure initiative. For example, what is the condition of the school that's being proposed? Are there transportation needs accounted for for that recommendation? What about the receiving schools? are they equipped and do they have the capacity to absorb the schools I mean the kids the students from a school that is closing. So this becomes very important and the district gave a lot of thought to this and hence what you have here those check marks each one of those metrics has been considered moving forward. So this brings us to the superintendent's recommendations. We've

036shared with you the superintendent's advisory committee recommendations from both versions of the initiative 1.0 and also 2.0. We shared with you the town hall comments from version 1.0 and also 2.0. And so what you're going to see in the next few minutes are the superintendent's recommendations which are essentially a combination of comments from town hall meetings and also the superintendent's advisory committee. So back to that the questions the four questions that I outlined at the very beginning and that question was how many schools should the district consider for closure or consolidation over the next five years and again superintendent's recommendation and what you see here is a phased approach and this phase this phasing happens over a number of years and it happens to be sequential. So in phase one which would be essentially next

037year school year 2526 close central 2526 would be a planning year and the execution or the closure of central would occur in 2627. And I I I can't emphasize this enough. It's important that you give yourself a long runway and don't try to do this fast because there's a lot of a lot of planning that has to go into place in order to move kids from one area of the district to another. Phase number two, 26- 27, there would be preparation, a planning phase for Barry Elementary School and you would execute on Central. So you're giving your plenty you're giving yourself plenty of time to plan and also plenty of time to plan and also allow the community time to adjust. Uh phase number three that would be where you plan for Sunny Slope and

038execute on Barry and then in that last year in 2829 there'd be no preparation period or planning period needed and you would execute on Sunny Slope. Now when you look at this recommendation, a lot can happen between now in 28 29. We could have different board members. A lot of things could happen. So what this plan does, it gives you the flexibility to adjust and it also allows you to have a nice balance of schools throughout the district i.e. the western part of the district, the central part of the district and also the eastern part of the district. So I got that written down at the very bottom. And also one of the considerations that came out especially during the committee meetings was how much is it going to cost to modernize that particular school

039and and and central was just far and above the highest cost. So again, superintendent's recommendation on question number one, how many schools should the district consider for consolidation or closure over the next five years? Let me bring up Mr. Lara to talk to you about the distribution of kits. So what you're about to see in the next few slides, it's it's some initial thinking and what is possible. Uh obviously like how um Mr. Taylor mentioned is there is still a year of planning. So there's still a lot to consider. Um one of them being our boundaries. Obviously we need to revisit the boundaries and look at at modifying them uh during that planning year and possibly over the next few years, not just do that once. Um but again, we're going off just information from

040today and what is possible. Um and what you're going to see right now is where we see um well you're going to see that there is space in other schools and where students can potentially go. This is an initial thinking like I'm saying and things can obviously change and during that planning year we'll have a a more of a clear um path for students. So let me back up. So what you see there on on the left side is Laura I I just want to just emphasize what we're seeing right now are just possibilities once we get to a planning stage we are going to reboundry and the idea of the reboundary is that we are going to balance out students into those schools right if our schools are going to cover the district that's

041the strategy that we have schools that cover the whole district and I'll give a quick example If we had selected Bayside and Central is also going to close, it would be really difficult for the students on the west northwest side of the district to have a school that's close to them. So Bayside would be that school. That's why Bayside wasn't selected. But when you reboundry, you're going to redraw the boundary lines to ensure that because we got to look at where students live and where it's going to balance out our population as evenly as possible through the schools that are left. That's the idea. Okay. So on the left side, you see currently um the number of central classrooms that are needed and where our current uh space availability is at at several schools, Mendoza,

042Emry, Onian, and Bayside. And again these are numbers that some initial thinking obviously this will change but you can see there we can send six classrooms to Emory and that still leaves one um classroom available classrooms going to onian and you see the impact that uh current um space available at oniana and also at Bayside if if classrooms were to go to Bayside this is not to say that students cannot go to Mendoza there's obviously space at Mendoza and once we look at our boundaries and take in um and use that year to plan, kids may be able to attend Mendoza. Again, we're also showing you uh that there is space in what is possible today and this is based off enrollment today. So, if this were to happen in 2627, then we look at

043the following year at Barry. Now, we don't have all that space at Emory on Bayside. Right now, we have one classroom potentially available uh for the students at Barry. Yes, that's a very clean move of keeping all the Barry students um in one place and and having them attend Mendoza. We're just showing you again what's possible. Some initial thinking there was how can we keep that Berry community together and have them attend Mendoza. And even there you see there's a lot of space still available at Mendoza. This would be a um Barry closing in 2627 and those students attending other schools. Year three, Sunny Slope classrooms needed 15. Again, updated classroom space at Mendoza, Emory, and Emery, but we're now including Pence and Nicolov due to the proximity of those schools to Sunny Slope. And

044again years from now this number of students needed and classroom space and classrooms need at Sunny Slope will obviously be different but you can see the space and the impact at other sites if if classrooms were were moved to other schools. Now Sunny Slope is a DI school right they have DI program so does Nicolof. So there is an idea that at that we can look at during that planning year can we move student um the DLI program to Nicolof. So it's a nice um transition to a site that already has those programs and those programs would not be impacted at Sunny Slope and those students that are currently in that program or at that time uh continue to have those programs again uh years from now a couple years from now but it's some

045initial thinking that would require more than the four classrooms that you see there. Um but that can easily be modified when the time comes. It was mentioned that our sup the superintendent's recommendations was a combination of a variety of um input sessions uh the sack recommendations and some of our own internal thinking. Uh when it comes to the other questions asked around academic achievement, we want to continue to focus on the work that's being done now around standardsbased instruction um which is under the direction of our assistant superintendent of leadership. Now this is not to say we do not want to move forward with specialized programs. We do but we want to solidify that piece first. give us some time then to look at how do we then implement the specialized programs at each site

046and we would re revis re revisit that in about three years and we would want to do that collaboratively with the site. So we would want site input but we need to follow a process a very clear process uh led by by um our teams and working with the sites to to create those specialized programs at each at each of their schools. And again, specialized programs intended to attract and retain students uh starting in 2829 school year. A recommendation coming your way that year is flexible, but that's where we see us really um moving towards those specialized programs because that's when we anticipate um the the schools uh closing and the kids moving to new schools. So ladies and gentlemen, this brings us to the last question. The first question, just as a reminder, was

047how many schools should the district be considering for closure or consolidation over the next five years? You got an answer for that. Mr. Lar just went over what are some of the best ways for us to improve the academic performance of our students. The second is what kind of specialized programs should the district actually be implementing? And the last question, how do we move forward with Nester specifically with its facilities challenges? And so the recommendation is use bond funds, but also use funds from the SC or the school's general operating budget. So, a combination of bond funds and also the funds that that are generated by the students at Nester. And last but not least is also to get a clear guideline from the state on the appropriate acreage and size of what the school

048should be. So, California Department of Education has some guidelines, some very general guidelines. If you're in elementary school, your your your your property or your not the property, but the acreage should be around 10 acres. If you're a middle school, you should be around 20 acres. If you're high school, you need to be at 30 to 40 acres. And again, it's because of the activities that would be occurring at each one of those grade levels. So, with Nester and how it's grown over the last few years, is Nester actually on the appropriate size or does it have the appropriate acreage? And so the preliminary information or feedback that we've gotten back from the state is that it's the district does have discretion, but at this point we haven't been able to define or get any

049clear guidelines on what the appropriate acreage should be at at Nester. But again, at about a thousand students, that's a size of a middle school. And so we need more guidance and a clear guidance on what that acreage should be at Nester. So this brings us to the end of the presentation and any questions discussion that you want to would like to engage in and be before we have questions I I just want to I just want to emphasize the point that this this plan was built on on some some I you know some some information that that we're really, you know, that that is not a perfect science, right? Some projections. We're projecting that enrollment's going to continue to decline, right? So, that's why it's important that this plan is phased in. At each

050phase, we're going to look back and say, okay, what does the data look like now? Right? What does the data look like today? Do we still need to move forward with this phase? Right? What what are going to be the impacts right now in two years in three years? Whatever whatever it is, every time we go to a new phase, we're going to continue to ask those questions. Uh because again, a lot of this information is projected. This is projected data. This is the best data that we have right now. But what we don't have is the luxury to just sit back and say, "Well, we know we've been declining 43%, but we're not going to do anything about it." Right? That's what we don't have. So, this is a planning document intended to plan

051for the future. But within that planning document, there are that that's why we've broken it down in phases because we want to check in on that data at each phase to say when will this start? Uh and then I will add the Nester part. I don't think we we added that part. Um for Nester, Nester was their own uh you know they had they have their own special challenges. Uh their success is actually one of their challenges because they have so many students. Um but their plan is they also have a planning year to figure out um what is a campus classroom maintenance, replacement and improvement plan moving forward. Right. We need to have a a clear plan so that we don't get into the situation again. Right. Um we shouldn't have to fix however

052many portables all at once. I don't districts don't usually operate that way. They usually operate in in cycles. We'll fix five this year. in a couple years we'll fix another five because generally districts don't have a ton of funds laying around to just fix 30 portable classrooms at once. So we have to create a cycle where where we know who's responsible for for maintaining maintaining that that those buildings. um you know and and and part of that um and this is not to point fingers at anybody but I would say as as a district community we failed to maintain central we failed to maintain Nester and that just cannot happen right if we are serving this community we cannot fail to maintain the buildings to where we get into a position where central really didn't

053have a chance. And so I just wanted to highlight the fact that this a lot of this is based on projections. The phases are intentional so that we continue to look at that data. Data could change. It could. So we just wanted to highlight that that fact. Thank you. U thank you Mr. um Taylor for your presentation. Um it's pretty thorough. It's I understand the this is just a a proposed red recommendation by the committee and it's you know even though it's going to be affecting a lot of families um the districtwide displacing you know one school kids going from one to other um so it's important for me to understand that because the importance of transportation which we briefly talk about it you know we need to provide transportation. And I know transport we're

054getting three new buses and so uh we have a policy on transportation not really but we need to facilitate for those families that are going to be uh affected by the change. Uh any considerations for that? So transportation it's one of the metrics associated with AB1912. Last fall, I personally had some long discussions with our transportation director here at South Bay and we looked at all of these potential closures and the question was can we provide transportation to these kids whether it's central whether it would be Barry whether whatever the school was and the result and and it actually was it was we presented that data in one of our committee meetings the district is able to provide transportation to those kids especially at if you mentioned central central kids would receive the appropriate transportation

055to the schools that they would be going to. So there is capability within the district to provide that transportation support. So I was looking at page 22 where's the uh map alternative concept? So looking at Centro, it's pretty much in the center, you know, in all the surrounding schools. It's kind of far away, you know, it's it's kind of uh maybe some families may not want to go to some of the schools that they want to go to. So, but this I think is one of the challenges that, you know, probably going to be faced. Sure. and Trusty Esparzo, something that we're considering and want to make sure we we we make happen is provide uh drop off and pickup bus um transportation um areas at the sites um so that families that don't who

056live close by their that current school can easily walk to that bus um you know whether it's drop off or pickup area and not really they're they're still taking that same walk to the school site. The only difference is now the the bus is transporting them to a different site. Um, but our goal is to provide that at any of the future schools that may close uh for our families. And in addition to that, we we have to we have to remember that all the families at Central don't don't live at Central, right? They live in the surrounding areas. So there's a boundary where they live. So some families may actually live closer to Mendoza just because of the boundary. And so they may choose or they may actually be closer to Mendoza, right? Um

057so we we just have to keep that in mind that the boundary is going to change where you know where those families it depends on where the families are located, right? Thank you. Staying with the subject on transportation and boundaries, thank you superintendent for bringing that information forward because I think that doing our boundaries should be a top priority uh before we move uh a thousand plus children. Our boundaries I think they were last looked at when uh we we did something to Westview. So, uh, which empowered our one of our charters and I believe took children away from Bayside. So, I think trustees that we should look at the boundary map first and transportation. Uh, I grew up around the street from Barry. I walked to to Emery. I walked to Emry. So, we'd

058really need to look at our walking distance for those children because uh we wouldn't necessarily bust those children. So, that's another piece to the transportation piece. Anybody else wants to talk about transportation? And trust, thank you for for bringing that up. Um the state does have a recommended um distance from the school uh in order to provide transportation. Michael, do you happen to know what that is? We did look at that distances. Not to put you on the spot, Michael. I'm sorry. I know you're not a transportation. Yeah. But there is a recommended the state does have a recommended distance from the school um in which you should provide transportation or not. and we we will of course use that consider. Yeah, we have a policy there. I don't know what number it is, but

059it's there. Um but again, I walked it and I walked home. So, um things haven't changed on that road except for they have a crosswalk now. Um so if I would to shift my thoughts uh Madame President um we really need to address the academic achievement piece and moving in three years a third of our enrollment is a heavy lift. I'm not counting the charter numbers. So that's the third. Over a thousand children of that number, 3,00 something have IEPs. So we're really really looking at a smaller number or a larger number than that. Um so academic achievement, um I sat at the committees this past 2.0 know and what really rose to the top was academic achievement superintendent and uh and a lot of frustration came out there in conversation about what are we

060going to do? How can we um improve our academic achievement? How do we retain and keep uh uh and encourage families to come live here? So those are all questions that we need to answer. Um, I'm very pleased with the I Ready assessments. I would like the last two assessments be brought forward next time we meet because if we have a higher performing schools and I look them up today and um, thank you mom from Emory. You were the highest in our district. Thank you. Right. Go Eagles. No, but really. So, uh those are important ratings when uh we're attracting families to come live here because that's the first place they're going to look. Okay. And so, um that's important to me to get the assessments um because our teachers and our schools have worked

061really hard at parent engagement um professional development, ensure that our students get in their seats. So, I I would like that data if we could. Um, moving on to specialized programs. I I agree, superintendent. Each school site has a dream and and that encompasses the school community, parents, children and uh I'd like to highlight at this moment Oni and how it's grown into the leader in me and and because of the school community. Um so uh I would like to see those programs. We do have programs. We just need to invest in them. like Mendoza's BPA, we have millions and millions of dollars in hard inventory there. We just don't have as children. And so, how do we attract children? We go out and we um uh recruit, we open our our borders to all

062those children from Chula Vista that would love to come to our BPA program. We uh provide a professional development to bring our teachers up to to um to support the VPA program. I agree that Emory needs to come back to Gate. Eight years ago, we didn't have enough students for a second grade classroom for Gate. My grandson graduated out of uh Emory as a Gate student. He is now a history teacher at East Lake High. Thank you, Emry. And the teachers, um, high achievers. We do have high achievers. So, they should be um recruited. I don't know if we're still testing at the end of the year for GATE. uh we don't get that information, but I think we need to return back to that and open up those classrooms there at Emory for a

063gate program and encourage other children and families from other districts to enroll in gate because that was they were a distinguished school and I would like to see that again. Um regarding our sped kids, we have failed our sped kids. Really? I don't I don't need an applause. I think hard on this. I work hard on this. I have my notes from two years ago, last year, this year. Um today, our sped kids, over a thousand of them, 111% below standards is unacceptable. I would like to make Barry a hub for all our special ed kids, the 18 classrooms, so we can re so not tomorrow. Um either that or Barry's going away. I would like to uh have those resources um there at Barry so uh our staff doesn't have to travel between one

064school and another uh in a in a situation where they can all be together would maximize our uh staff and support for our special ed um children that need them every day all day. um special life program building capacity for Nicolof. Um I would like the district to uh to uh look at Nicolof South and North because we used to have over a thousand children there. The North End can house seven eighth grade children. Is that going to take money? Yes. But will that improve the program? Yes. Will students outside of Nickeloff area want to go? I think so. So, I'd like some information about that, too. Um, I think that's I covered that. Madam President, thank you for the time. Sorry, I have a question about like the process. Um, do we have numbers

065on how many parents attended and provided input during the town halls and the overall process? An actual count we do not have, but I'll be happy to provide that for you. What do you what you do have in front of you is every single comment but we can easily calculate that and give you the number of um well and it's also broken down by community member staff member so we can um provide that information as far as community input uh by count. Yes. Yeah. It'd be great if we can have like the numbers of parents that participated, how many teachers uh participated, how many classified staff um and did we get input from students also about this process and how many students gave input as well. Yeah, we did. Um because one one thing that

066I noticed in the comments is that a lot of the comments was like, "I don't want this to happen. I don't want this to happen. This is a horrible idea. Cut the superintendent's pay." Right? Over and over it was just like, "Don't do it. This is bad. What the hell are you guys thinking?" But there was not too many comments that said, "I think this would be a good idea." Right? Or this is what I would like to see. Um, and I mean I expected this place to be packed just like we've seen this place be packed in se last several weeks. So I'm just curious to understand more like where are all the parents who were part of this process because I think this would have been a great opportunity for them to hear

067the the results and you know the outcomes of couple years worth of work. Um, so I was a bit disappointed um to not see more parents here. I'm grateful for all of you who are here today. Um, and I'm excited to hear the public comments after this. Um, for us to continue to, uh, figure out how do we get to a place where, um, you know, we're going to be able to put our students first and make sure that we have, you know, that clear input from our teachers, from the classified staff, from the principles. Um I personally feel like there's still more work to be done. I feel as a board member I haven't had an opportunity to meet with all the stakeholder groups. Um and I think for something so big, you know,

068we don't want to rush into it. So I do appreciate the phasing process. Um and I look forward to um seeing what we can do in the next few years. Like um Trusty Kinones just mentioned like how do we attract more people, right? Can we get to a place where we're not just um bashing the district all the time, right? Where people are not just, you know, scaring people away, but we're actually thinking together as a team. How do we actually promote the school? Because there's a lot of great things about this district that we should be talking about. And I don't know if there's a committee or we can create some sort of committee made up of all the different stakeholder groups to think together, how do we bring more people in um to

069this district? How do we start to change the narrative of of what happens in this district? I just want to say thank you for adding to your presentation the clarification on how um schools that are small schools are how is the district actually helping those schools to survive like adding the from general funds to pay the maintainings and everything because they're under enrollment. Thank you for adding that. Thank you. Um I'm just going to start at the beginning of my notes. Um when we talk about the prep for students and families that uh their schools would be closed. Does that include like having um our our kindergarten classes, our first graders like before they even start or TK have choice of other schools instead of having to start off at a school that is scheduled

070to no longer be in a few years um and have an open enrollment. And when we look at a specialized program and [Music] um here it says creating a process which this process here has already taken two years but in 2028 to begin to start the process of specialized programs that seems way too late. Like we already have like being a coastal community, having the border here, like we are not centrally located and have reasons for people to come towards us. Like we're I I always thought of Imperial Beach as its own little island. Like people don't generally just come here and especially now that our water is in such a bad condition and all that, we have so many things against us. And I think that 2028 starting the specialized program it that just

071sounds ridiculous. Um and trusty liker if I can a clarification point. The idea here is to have possibly the specialized programs in place in 2829. But we believe we wouldn't wait three years to have that process. It could possibly begin it would begin maybe prior to that to begin those discussions to try to get a program programs in place in 2029 if that makes sense. I don't now that still may be too late for the board and that's why we're providing this opportunity. We are going to welcome all the input that you have regarding that but I did want to recognize I did want to just small clarification there. Thank you. I love clarification. Can I can I add to that? Um the the part of of that that recommendation is the academic achievement part.

072We believe that we are doing some really good work in terms of academic achievement right now. And so the idea was let's focus for the next three years on a purely academic achievement and then phase in any new new new programs. We already have some programs. We have language academy I mean dual language uh academy. We have uh you know instrumental music at at Mendoza. Um we have let's dance kids. We just had an amazing showcase yesterday at Mendoza. Right. we already have programs. Um, so it's not stopping programs, it's not starting new programs until we finish focusing on the academic part. And that academic piece is a huge lift. It is a huge lift. And so that was the conversation in the committee like how do we just focus on this for now and

073then layer in new programs within three years. Understandable. Um and um all due respect Jesse Canes when we talk about our special ed programs that we need to do much better by um we want them in the least restrictive environment when they're where they're around kids that they're and adults that they're going to be around for their whole lives, not have them in their own school separated from everybody. Um, and and and these are things that because I'm I'm currently in the classroom and I'm currently working at schools that I see the changes of of of thoughts and practices that are that are um in motion. So that's that's where we're leading to is is giving um all of our students to work together, live together, being accepting of each other, um building each other

074up, um celebrating differences, and and our our our students need to be together in order to do that. Um so, and then when we're talking about our um our specialized programs and um I'm and thinking of academic achievement. I'm thinking about like our uh reading difficulty screening that is coming that I mean is now in place which I know it's starting off with the little ones and that in itself bothers me because we have so many older students that I feel like need to have opportunities with this program but I've heard that there's schools like in North County that focus on dyslexia focus on literacy folk have these programs and if we're having student if we're one of the first South Bay schools or districts to like have programs that are specifically for our students

075with reading difficulties. I think that would give us a huge um uh the upper hand to have students come to us to have students come to Imperial Beach. So, I hope that we can really look at that and if we're going to attract families, literally considering that this is a law that students are going to be have to be screened, we could be the first ones to to support those um students. That would be an amazing thing. And and I and I I appreciate that when we talk about um these plans, which are so it's this is hard. This is really hard for everybody. We all have connections to these schools and history and families and um and um knowing that or having a little bit of hope that if we do do something different

076that maybe in five years or four years all of this doesn't happen. that when we're we have new buildings coming and new families coming and cleaner water and different programs for literacy like maybe we can attract people to come to our little island of um Imperial Beach. That's all. Thank you, Madam President. Um speaking about um staffing, overstaffing, not enough staffing, uh people that drive back and forth between schools and sharing their time. I think that's what the superintendent is talking about too. Uh when we're looking and thinking about things is that uh our smaller schools are being staffed like they're big schools and that cost the district a lot of money. And in the long run, it's the students that that are at the small schools that are really not getting everything that um

077they deserve in even at our big schools. Um the enrollment doesn't allow for um u different types of resource teachers because there's no room. So those kinds of things that you know uh looking forward and imagining our district I think that um where we really need to start is that the boundary uh map and um because I think shifting like that and keeping our schools together would uh the enrollment would would increase to Bayside to uh Mendoza to Barry. Uh just by shifting a little bit, uh Barry could go up to 400. Uh Mendoza could go over 700 just by shifting that boundary. Bayside 500. Those schools are built for 500. So, um, just by looking at the boundary map all weekend, I think that's where we need to go. I I I'm not in

078a position right now, superintendent, to you say yes to anything. And and right now, we're not asking for you to say yes right now. We're asking for any questions. This is going to come back in a couple of weeks and then that's when the board will will get to vote. Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you, Madam President. And and so when when this does come back in a couple weeks and we have these questions about boundaries and programs and this and that um like the the things that we've all shared, transportation, those things will be addressed. Yes. Thank you. Um you mentioned that majority of the savings comes from like um getting rid of principles and classified staff and all that. Do you have the numbers of how many principles we'd lose, how many classified staff

079we'd have to lose? What happens with the teachers we have right now? So that question usually gets asked um what happens to the people because there's also a human aspect to this and the question is along the lines of what you just asked. What happens to those people? Are they just going to be given a pink slip and asked to leave? Usually what we recommend there are usually retirees retiree positions. There are vacant positions. And so all of those folks that might fall into the category of not having a job because of a consolidation or school closures could be absorbed by those by backfilling those retiree positions or vacant positions. That's that's one way and that's usually the preferred way. Now, does that capture everybody? probably not, but it could capture a majority of the

080people affected by the school consolidation or closure specifically to your question based on the schools that have been identified and there's three. So just think of three principles and then each of the staffing custodial staffing is probably a little bit different at each of the sites. The clerical support is probably a little bit different. So there'll have to be a decision. How many of those folks do we need moving forward? So at this point I can't give you a specific answer but there will be people affected. Let's take central for example that staff will be affected. The other thing I think you also mentioned teachers. Teachers usually follow the students. However, if you're moving kids to a school where your staffing is at 22 to one, 24 to one, and you could be at 28

081or 29 to one, a lot of those students could be absorbed in the classes and the grades at that receiving school, and then you have to ask yourself, do we need to look at our staffing? And again, I don't know what that would look like, but as I mentioned, usually the the the teachers follow the kit. However, districts also need to look at their staffing, the new staffing at those receiving schools, whether or not, and ask the question, are we overstaffed? Are we understaffed? And usually, if you're overstaffed, you can probably receive those kids without bringing along that corresponding teacher from the from the other school. I hope that gets to your question. I I wanted to circle back around um the boundaries and I apologize I apologize if I misunderstood. Um I heard that

082when we change boundaries it's possible that changing that boundary will increase the number of kids that can attend another school. Uh which could be cor um accurate. Uh but that doesn't mean we have that many more kids. That just only means we're taking away from another school where that enrollment will decrease. potentially. And if it's a school that's closing, then that's fine. Um, and again, I apologize if I misunderstood, but I just didn't want it to seem like then the number of kids increase as far as total enrollment. It just means a school will have more kids, but it's still the same number of kids that were that are moving around. It's not increasing our enrollment. Again, I apologize if I misunderstood, but I just wanted to make that clear uh for everybody. Um, that

083regardless of what boundaries look like, it's still the same number of kids. And then I I wanted to add something um to Trusty Lopez Aino's question. When we're looking at staffing at this point, given that our district is spending more money than we're bringing in, we have to look at staffing anyway because our general fund is about 90% of our general fund is on staffing. 90%. Right. So, we have to look at that. Anyway, um I've shared some information with the board around we have looked at if we wanted to run teenytiny schools, what does that look like, right? And I've shared some of that information with the board. Um to uh Trustee Kinona's point, uh we if we wanted to do that, we can't staff small schools like big schools, right? So So we're

084going to have to look at staffing regardless of or or the board can choose to continue to deficit spend and that's not going to lead us anywhere, right? Well, it's going to lead us to Figment coming in. That's where that's going to lead us. Okay. So, either way, right, there's there's a tough decision to make either way. There there's not a you know, unless somebody's got a money tree behind their backyard. We can shake it and, you know, try to get some more funding to come down. I mean, it when you lose that many students, you got to do something, right? If I could add one thing there. Um, back in the day there was only one secretary in the office who did everything. So, um, you know, we're lucky we have two. That's what,

08516 hours, labor hours in the office, eight hours in the library, uh, custodial staff times eight. Um, so all those those are labor hours. Um that that probably add up to the expenditure list here that the over cost and um so I thought one thing that was really interesting that um Tristia Esparza had asked many meetings ago when we were looking at these um facil master facilities plans was how long had it been since anyone had done that and the response was 20 years. And so it appears that even when we talk about we talk about things that didn't happen before us and didn't have us happen before us again and now it's like what's going to happen if if there's no changes done then we're going to sink further [Music] into disrepair or whatever.

086if if if significant changes are made and I get it like not us wait for wait till my kids are graduated but once those kids are graduated then there's somebody else's families that are affected and it's not it's not um it's not about my kids that go to this district it's about everybody's kids it's about everybody's children it's about my neighbors that I don't even know It's about everybody and looking at the long-term um possibilities, the long-term possibilities because things were avoided for a long time and now it's it's time to make some changes and make the best of it. The public comment Allison [Music] Hoover, Allison [Music] Hoover, Veronica Dworth Good evening. I actually was not expecting to speak tonight, so forgive me for being a bit unprepared. Good evening, President Lyer, board of

087trustees, executive team. My name is Veronica Dworth and I am a teacher at Barry. I have a question for you. Is it equitable to close a community like Barry which serves a high density of lowincome housing in a in the district one of the highest low income housing Barry supports families from V Vista Lar Rosa 240 units and Lancaster Manor 248 units directly across the street. I'd also like to mention that Sunny Slope also has high net population of low-income housing with 312. These two schools have the highest low socioeconomic housing, affordable housing in our district. Is it physical phys fiscally responsible to turn away funding when the state is giving you funding to help offset some of the SC costs that would specifically support our Barry community? I don't know if you're aware, but

088Barry was awarded a community school grant worth 1.2 million to continue the good work Barry has started. That would give us $250,000 a year in a community that served socioeconomically disadvantaged community. Budget priority number one for five years. We would get that money. and you're going to we don't we just heard we don't have a money tree, but the state the state of California is willing to give us that money. We don't have to pay it back. It's a grant and we're going to turn it away. It can't be assigned to another school. It's designated for our community, Barry, as it stands today without the changes you want to make and make it something else. So, I don't I would look at that. Um, also, why hasn't in all of this planning, why haven't we

089talked, I talked about it last time I was here, about a real plan to recoup chronic absenteeism. Other districts are doing the hard work of recouping ADA by extending after school time. San Diego Unified has Saturday school. Yes. For elementary school students after school. They recoup that money. ADA. There's actually a bill. Please look into that and direct our superintendent to work on that plan because until you do that, we're going to be in the same position. Thank you, Vanessa Bura. Good evening, trustees, executive team, colleagues, and community members. I stand before you once again with a clear and urgent message that we must commit to keeping every single school um every single one of our neighborhood schools open. The very foundation of a strong community is a thriving public school within its reach. To

090even consider closing these vital institutions sends a damaging message to our community. That some neighborhoods and by extension that our children in our neighborhoods are less valued than others. Every child deserves the opportunity to walk down the street to their public school to learn and grow in their own community with their own neighbors. School closures frequently hit the most vulnerable students the hardest, including those from lowincome backgrounds, students of color, and students with special needs. These are precisely the students who depend most significantly on the consistency and resources offered by the local school. Barry, Sanop, and Central exemplify such schools. Given that Barry just received a community schools grant, the superintendent's proposal to close it seems particularly baffling. We're going to give up money. We're going to give up the resources that that specific community

091needs and that the state has awarded them to. Doesn't this action contradict the need for greater investment in our schools and our commitment to supporting our most vulnerable students? Research on the negative impacts of school closures is extensive. I've shared that with you before. Have you done your own research about what that means for our students? There's more negative impacts than positive. Beyond the direct impact of students, school closures have a devastating ripple effect on the surrounding community. Schools are not just places of learning. There are community hubs providing a sense of belonging, stability, and connection. When a school closes, that hub is lost, leaving a void that is difficult to fill. Trusty Lopez Aino, you asked, "Where is everyone? Why aren't they here?" Let me tell you, it's because they don't believe that you

092are listening to them. They don't believe that their voices are being heard. So why be here when they sound like a broken record and yet we continue to have the same conversations? Close schools. Closing schools should be an absolute last resort, a failure of our collective responsibility. Again, Trusty Einho Aino, we offered suggestions in the past. You said, "Where are the suggestions?" I've stood up here multiple times and offered Can I finish? Multiple on multiple occasions. I've stood up here asking you to invest in our students. I've asked you to bring back the programs that were successful. Music. The superintendent said that our students at Mendoza get music. Just those students at Mendoza. We used to have a district-wide music program that was successful that gave all students across the district the opportunity to participate.

093Bring that back. The Mendoza VPA program, we were extremely successful, over a thousand students at one point. We used to feed into the charter school that is in San Diego Unified that focuses on the arts. A few months ago, I ran into a colleague from that school and they said, "Why aren't you guys sending us any more students?" The STEM program at Bayside. Up your final question. I will. Thank you. The STEM program at Bayside, it has a name, but we're not investing in it. It's everything that just the teachers do. The dual language at Saniso, invest in it. That's what you were elected to do. to do what's best for kids. So, please do it. Good evening board members. I'd like to clarify. Are you asking questions regarding the number of available classrooms at

094each site from this presentation? Cuz frankly, sorry, the numbers presented seem completely inaccurate. For example, the claim that Nicolof has seven available classrooms is simply not true. It is unreasonable to suggest such availability when we have an ed specialist for adapted PE who supports the highest number of special education students at Nicolola. She lacks a consistent space to work with them and no proper area to store critical adaptive materials. Additionally, with Nicolaf receiving now the community schools grant, we are already facing challenges identifying accurate adequate space. To say we have seven available classrooms to accommodate students from Sunny Slope is not only unrealistic, it's impossible. And don't get me started with the limited restrooms for our students. Currently, that's an issue. Thank you, Leo Carral. Good evening board. Good evening, superintendent. I wasn't prepared to

095speak either. Every time I come, I feel like I have to make a comment. Let me start by addressing the speech that uh superintendent had at the beginning. He said is our biggest asset were the teachers, but I'm pretty sure that they don't feel that. Second, uh Mr. Taylor uh showed a lot of numbers and he projects, you know, that we're going to lose principles and we're going to lose custodians if we merge schools together. But how can that be? Because now we're going to have more people in one uh site. So, there's going to be more need of the custodians. There's going to be more need to manage the people that are at those sites. So once again, the numbers are not right. Like we spent all that money on Mr. Taylor, but to

096me as a parent, I'm a parent from Emory. I don't feel like that money was well spent. Everything he has said doesn't give me any confidence that the right choices are being made. Two, uh you guys address the gate program from Emory. My son scored a perfect score on the state testing in sixth grade. He's a seventh grader now. he wasn't involved in the uh the program because it wasn't there, but I feel like he he would have gained a lot from that and he didn't because it was taken away. Um board member Gino, you mentioned the town halls. Why were you not at the town halls? I went to all the town halls. If I was a board member, I would definitely be in that audience listening to the comments being made at those

097town halls. I would be doing the work to make sure that I'm serving the community that voted for me the way they expect me to serve them. Thank you, Susan Connors. Good evening, President Micer, superintendent, board members. I'm not speaking as my usual self. Um, I'm speaking on behalf of being a grandparent of a special education student who some of you know, some of you don't. Um, she's low vision. She is on the spectrum. She's autistic, but she's very high functioning autistic. And to have her at one site with no other regular classrooms would not have served her at all. She went through the gate program at Emory and she is now at Calpaly Pomona, just finished her first year um and entering into pre-law. So just so you know, special education students can really

098rock it. They can do so much with the proper supports and with the proper guidance, but they need to be around other students that are a variety of different spectrums, if you will. um just so that they can help learn to function in the real world. So that's I I wasn't going to speak, but when you made that comment, I was like, "No, no, no." Because she would not have the success today if she had not been granted the opportunities that she had. So just so you know, Janette Sanchez Um, again, I wasn't going to speak either. I was just jotting notes as the meeting was going on. Um, I wanted to just ask a couple questions myself, maybe questions that I see, maybe you don't see because you're not at our campus or in

099our classrooms. Um I do agree that I don't think that we should have special education students isolated to one campus and the reason being yes they would have access to more support and services but I I 100% agree these children are of our highest needs and they need to be with their peers. Um I think there is a better solution to supporting them. Um, looking at the notes on slide 29 where we're looking at central and where the students are being shifted. Um, there was a comment about there's a lot of space and then we have Emmery having seven classrooms and I'm thinking, okay, well, I'm at Emery every single day. I should know how many classes there are. I listed them and I I don't know where these seven classrooms are unless I haven't

100I know we have one empty classroom that is being used um next year for the parent volunteer center. But I mean we've already said this before. We want our parents to have a space to work, a space to come and feel comfortable in and you know just where they can even have a coffee and just socialize and you know volunteer and have a a space. Why would we use that room for something else and not have a little hub for them? So, no, I don't see the seven classrooms. Um, so I that's a question of mine is um and out of the very bottom it says this is available classrooms and classrooms needed are based on fiscal year 2425 enrollment. Our enrollment that I know of is maxed out. I have close to I have

10129 students in my class. My cap is 32. So, I'm right there. uh all my other class um my colleagues are as well. So we don't have the classrooms that are listed here. That was one thing. Specialized programs, you spoke on academic achievement. I'm going to rush because I have a minute left. Can we start with red reducing our class size? I think for me as a teacher, I I know that I can do so much more with my students and really target their individual needs because like I said before, I have students in my fifth grade classroom now who are working at a fifth first grade level. And I know this because they just did their I Ready assessment that you're going to receive that date on. So tell me how I as a

102fifth grade teacher teach first, second, third, fourth, and fifth in one day to all these students. If we could start by reducing class size, I know that I could spread myself not as thin as I'm already doing now and I can support these students with small groups and intervention and I know that there is a lot of stuff coming our way. But how do I implement it if I don't have the time or the arms or you know I'm one person. So that would be my suggestion to support academic achievement because I agree waiting 3 years to start something is too late. We need to start now. We should have started a long time ago but we're here nonetheless. Thank you. Vanessa Velasquez. Good evening, board of trustees, superintendent, and everyone here in attendance. Um,

103I wasn't planning on speaking today, but based off of some of the questions that were brought up, um, I have I have to speak on behalf of our classified members. Um, Cheryl Kyonis, you mentioned about looking into our custodians and our libraries. Um, and you were pretty much naming jobs that are eight hours and looking into it. How about you come and join us for a day or two? Come join us during lunch when our custodian is being pulled in five different directions on having to separate trash and going and opening doors. How about you come and volunteer in my library when I'm being pulled in 20 different directions and having to see classes and deal with technology all at the same time and dealing with behaviors? Why don't you come in uh sub in

104our offices on minimum days or on days where we only have one person? Why don't you come sub when um in our IIA classes, you know, in our sped classes where, you know, we're we're down on IAS. There are some classes who don't have enough support. So, I challenge all of you. Come and join us. Come and and not just for a day and not just for an hour. Come join us for a few days. Come see what we do to support your students. Come see what we do to support our teachers and our parents and our communities. We do way more than what some of you think. The times are changing. We have way more on our workload of and our cases than you guys really think. So instead of looking at those who

105are quote unquote on the bottom, why don't you look at the top and stop giving them raises? Stop giving them raises for a few years and then focus on those who are at the bottom and then really support those who who support your students. Thank you. Thank you again for coming. Um, we do we do our best to listen. We do hear what you're saying and we appreciate especially when you're bringing your your individual perspectives to to things that we're otherwise not um aware of. So, thank you so much. Does anybody else have any? Yes, madam president. Madam President, today was a steady session. Thank you so much for organizing this and thank you board for coming tonight and investing your time. Uh it has been a two-year process. Um one that we have walked

106together in one that we have gone to town halls for the last two years. all of us. They might not have seen us in the room because we're not sitting up here. We're with them. But we were at every town hall meeting and hearing everyone's perspective. Um Janet and I were part we were picture on the wall at the sack committee this year. We sat in the back. We heard heard heard uh many thoughts. Okay. which I included in some of my information today. So, um you know to to think that I don't know the worth of a classified member is ridiculous. I have been everything uh for 32 years and for someone to think that I don't respect their work, it hurts. It hurts. And when I talk about uh labor hours in the

107office or library, um it's because of the small schools. Okay, that's something that the district will look at. Not me, not me. Okay, not me. Everybody has worth everybody. Excuse me, President Ler. The agenda the agenda has adjourning after public comment. All right. Thank you again. Sorry. Point of privilege. Can I do that, Madam President? Yeah. I just wanted to say that um for all the hundreds of parents watching us on YouTube and everybody who's here today that we are listening. That's the reason that we're here today. Um, and I really appreciate everybody who spoke today because a lot of the comments that were mentioned, I know is guiding the direction that we're going to take whenever we take this direction. So, I encourage you to keep on coming um because I did not sign

108up for this position to make decisions based on what I thought was best. I signed up to do this to take in the input from the community um and make the decision based on that. So, every decision that I've made on this board has been thanks to the public input and the feedback I've gotten from the teachers, the parents, the classified employees, um my son's friends at Nicolof. Um so, I really appreciate you all being here. It is not a waste of time. Keep on coming. Um and thank you to my colleagues here because we're taking this very seriously. We all care a lot about this district and we're going to keep on working hard to get us place where we're all where we can all be okay. Thank you. And sorry, I just did

109want to say that I was at the town hall. I might have not had a mustache. Um and I probably wasn't wearing a tie, but I was at the that the town hall. Thank you again for everyone everyone for coming. It is 7:59.