031324 Board Meeting

001from that place. Hey. Hi. Feel like saying good morning. When I walked in, maybe just cuz we're like happy when I walk in the door. Got the Gang So good evening. We are again. Okay. So, it is 6 o'clock and now we are opening our meeting. I see that we have four members online. Four members in person, one online. So we are ready to start uh with that. I want to start by acknowledging our translators and reminding everybody that this meeting is being recorded and that is also online. So that please the translator give the instructions from to the people. Yes, good evening everyone. Zoom interpretation feature will be used in this meeting for English and Spanish support. All participants on this call must select their language of preference by clicking the language when the

002host turns on the interpretation feature. This is found in the world icon located on your feature panel and interpretation for this meeting will be conducted simultaneously. Thank you for your attention and collaboration. support. Perfect. Thank you. So now please Oh, sorry. No, he's done also in Spanish. Okay. So, with that, please join me on the pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. And now we're going to have our brief acknowledgement of land and life. Senator School District is located on the ancestral and insided land of the river of law tribe who have peacefully honor and care for this land for thousands of years. We recognize that every member of the son

003community continues to benefit from the use and occupation of this land. We acknowledge our responsibility to learn from the wisdom of the people and to consider how we might work to repair injustices and to move forward together in honorable ways. With that, we move to the approval of the agenda as it is. So right now, perfect. The board wants to Okay. Is there any comment I think from the community about approving the agenda? No. With none then we move board is there a motion in approving the agenda as it is right now? I move approval of the agenda as listed. Oh second. Okay. All the votes if you are okay with this please say I. I. Okay. With that the agenda passes as it is. And with that we move to item three of tonight's

004story session which is an update of our strategic plan and for that we have our wonderful guest bag. Very well done. That was very well done. Thank you. Uh good evening everyone. Nice to be back. I want to begin by thanking you all again for the chance for my team and I to assist you in your strategic plan together. It's going very well and we're approaching the uh deadline. The final approval is scheduled for May 9th, I believe, and I think that's our midappril uh checking with the board, but it's going really well. We have uh two additional meetings which I'll touch on in a few moments. What I'd like to to do this evening it's could be a very short meeting will be to um update you on the draft plan but begin by

005just reminding everyone of the context you see it on the screen the let's see this is so fancy how do I advance Okay. Will it work? Okay. Great. Great. Thank you. So, we've come quite far. You may recall that one of the uh core principles of our approach to planning is that planning is about getting all of us on the same page going in the same direction. And one of the ways we do that is by embracing the diverse voices of the uh commitments of interest in Sunnyale. I think about we've had about 24 25 community engagements. The most recent one was just this afternoon with uh district staff and we have about four more before we hit the um early May date for formal board approval. Uh it's it's evolving fast. In fact, the

006draft of the four page the four page draft that you have which we sent out on Friday has changed twice between Friday last Friday and now because as each new group gets a chance to vet it you keep adjusting it and that's going to remain until the final version comes to you in early May. Do excuse me do we have one more working session with the board or no? I think we do. Yeah. April April. Yeah. Yeah. That's two hours. It's a good Yeah. Okay. Yeah. into uh this is a graphic organizer of the finished product. We think of it as three main sets of recommendations in what we call circle number one. It's all about students. You know, our values, our promise, our goals, our measures, all of those things that relate directly or

007most directly to outcomes for students. So that's circle number one. Circle number two, it's about the strongest driver of student learning and that is instruction. And that's work that we've been doing on the side. so to speak with the teaching and learning folks at the in fact we met this afternoon just before this meeting and then something number three is the uh infrastructure or the key strategies we call them signature strategies that we can implement that we must implement achieve the goals uh let's see so let's take a quick walk through I think we this was sent out earlier to all board members I presume uh they have I don't know if they do they have hard copies or just Song the song. You mean on email today? No, no, no, no. It was sent

008on the packet. Yeah, it's in the packet. I think it was should have done that on Friday. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But the um Wait, sorry. So, we were given one We got one in the packet that's online. That's the one. And then we got one that was we got another one that said this is revised March 11th on Monday. Um, correct. [Music] And then this then you go back to and this one is different as you can tell from the uh you know cover page. It's part of the logs successive iterative process. I will point out what's different between what's on the screen and what you have in a few moments. If if you look on you attached it to the board agenda, didn't you? Is it it's March 11th updated? It's so it's in

009it's in the agenda packet. This one's in the agenda packet. And we also have one. So if you have the agenda open online, you have the newest one. Okay. Do you have the version with the musicians on the cover? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. You up to date then? Yeah. Perfect. That's great. That's great. Okay. It's evolved some um we sort of diversify the pictures on the cover page a little bit but but more consequentially the the difference between what you probably received on Friday and what you have in front of you goes back to some really strong feedback strong positive feedback from parents of special ed students. Uh it was the most highly attended of all the community forums and family meetings. We had about almost 40 people at the first one and about 14 16

010people at the second one just a few weeks ago. And during the uh discussion they uh they were initially concerned that these uh qualities and attributes wouldn't work for special ed students but the more we talked about it the more they felt like yeah it would that you know I want my special ed student to be a resilient learner to be a critical thinker to be responsible and so on. We did ask give them the opportunity though to think through how the attributes the bullets under each one of those four big buckets how they could be different from for special ed students and they came up with their own set in a not entirely u 100% change but a few areas where they feel that uh we need to make adjustments. So we we have

011pivoted though from thinking about portrait version just for specialized students to integrating those ideas that they want and having them as part of the one for all students cuz after all our you know first preference as a school system is to have all students be included in the in the regular programs. Let me point out a few areas that they have highlighted under uh quality number one critical thinker and effective communicator. The last the first bullet the last three words other modalities uh came from them and this is an attempt to accommodate what they recommended. So uh critical thinker column bullet number one. Okay. under the second one, resilient learner. The last bullet came strictly from the special ed group. And then the more we looked at it, we said it makes sense for all

012students. Also, they were the first ones to bring that up to raise that as a as an attribute under uh healthy mind and body. The multiple modalities phrase in the second bullet also came from them. And under effective collaborator the fourth column the second bullet from the bottom response appropriately to personal and social cues. That was a big deal for them but the more we talked about it say it makes sense to all students. So we ended up again with you know one document uh what we recommend is that we actually because they all haven't seen this version compiled that we will send this out to them and just get feedback from the community. Well, it was very well attended. The the meetings uh with the special effort was very well attended. I'm going to

013pause. Any questions, comments? Yes, please. In the I would like this to be printed in black instead of gray in the future. Which one? The everything under the blue in the little boxes. It's kind of harder to Oh, I see. You mean the bullets? Thank you. But thank you. zooming in. I can relate. Other comments. I think that feedback's really important and I'm I'm glad that you were able to receive that and they were able to provide that feedback. Um it's um I think easy for us as people of, you know, neurotypical privilege to overlook those other modalities and that I'm glad that we're um including this within within with They were really enthusiastic group. They they did really really good work and they showed up three times. Good comments. Okay. On page two, no

014substantive changes. Page two is about the four goals we want for students and the indicators of progress for those goals. There's uh a couple of suggestions in an email from the board that we can incorporate. But again, no major changes that we we want to highlight. Um, can you move on to page two? Oh, yes. Thank you. That one looks like page 20. Oh, I'm sorry. Can I have the um fourth page, please? Thank you. Yes. Okay. So page two again is about the goals and measures. No major changes since the last revision. Page three. So for page two, just page two. Yes. Nancy, did you have a question about page two? Yeah, I did have a I'm trying to see. I have to toggle off of my other one because page two isn't on

015on this. Um I think um I'm wondering more about the measure for student engagement. The third bullet um for student leadership across all um groups. Um I'm sorry. Which goal are you referring to? Um excuse me here. Preceding. Yeah. 3C. Okay. Please go ahead. So, how are we going to be So, how are we going to be measuring that? It's just making sure I understand what it is that we're that we're um looking for. Are we looking for it? Are we looking for numbers that Yes. You go ahead. So Nancy, I think this is from the day I think there was a governance team day that you weren't at maybe um and this is from that and we were talking about equity um representation across student groups. Um, so like if you were looking at

016whether it's student council or whether it's um what do they call the CMS one the um you know like the web kids or all the you know the different kinds of groups that are student leadership um uh clubs and things like just that we would see that there would be representation um of you know all students would be represented as participating in student leadership of some sort. Okay. I that's what I thought, but but it wasn't clear to me if we were looking at more equity rather than um a num uh a number function because or or whether we're looking. Yeah, I think I I think I know what you're saying. like student groups, we mean different diverse groups or do we mean student council and web? Like that those are two different groups, too.

017So, I think it's the first it's the first one, but I'm just saying there's different kinds of student groups. So, like we're we're hoping I think that a lot of the across student groups language was like it's not just like we have kids participating in leadership and they're all just affluent all year, right? I I Yeah, as long as we're um making sure that we're inviting additional opportunities rather than looking at the traditional limited opportunities that all kids are competing with when it comes to leadership. Thank you, Br. Comment. No, I just was going to say um I can save my comments for after. I don't have any clarifying questions. Thanks. Great. Thank you. Before you go on, I just wanted to say um with regards to the student groups, the it is the diversity

018around that. There's currently what we have, what we should have, what we need to have that might be missing. So, it's looking across the space. Just wanted to clarify. Will it be helpful to put the word that diverse before group before student across diverse student groups? My comment for that whole area that whole all the that whole section is just saw the language needs to be jelled up. Okay. Is that kind of what you sent in some of those comments? Yeah. I just And one of those comments was like, I don't know what the answer is, but I just feel like Yeah. It just needs to be there needs to be a little more own for description in them, you know, like just them up. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We will. We'll bring it back. I've

019never heard that word spoken out loud before. How do you say it? Yeah. Sorry. Okay. Anything else on page two? We good? Okay. Uh page three will be uh this one is focused on the most compelling things we can do to advance each one of the goals on the previous page. And um I'm going to open it up to your feedback and comments. I think I think right now we're just doing clarifying questions because we have to have public comment and then we'll we I'm sure we all have stuff. Okay. Well, during study session I think we can. Yeah. Oh, we can. Oh, then I got comments. So, okay. Don't be shy. Okay. No, I like say sessions. I I forgot that. Okay. Uh so um my thought on this one is that um I'm

020having assessments as a separate thing. Um like you know I I really think that assessments of student progress like I feel like that's part of the other two things in that group, right? Like I feel like that's part of our educ way that we're educating best practices and I feel like that's part of our data informed collaboration because you can't do any of that without assessments and like regular assessments and I don't feel a lot of joy around assessments personally. Um so I just feel like assessments maybe having three things in that one and then like one thing in goal three yeah doesn't make as much sense to me. And then my other question is like, you know, this page, okay, this is like my favorite page of the the book in part because this

021is like what I think parents would look at as signature strategies like, hey, my kid goes to this district, this is what they're going to see. Yeah. Right. And so I feel like um I don't know that they're going to see studentled conferences like maybe that's aspirational. Maybe that's one day. And I'm not trying to say like I know everybody's doing a lot of work, but I was when I think about like students demonstrate responsibility for learning like I think of the things like if you walk into any classroom like I would expect to see like Overboard says measures like student engagement and setting setting and monitoring personal goals. Like maybe that's something we could see kindergarten through 8th grade. Yeah. Or TK through 8th grade. So like our little peanuts are making goals and

022they're checking in on themselves and they're learning how to do it when they're little tiny people and then when they're getting ready for high school they're still doing it. Yeah. You know and so like when I think of signature strategies that or maybe it's or maybe um like another one I was thinking of my other feedback is goal to um in school intervention and enrichment. Honestly I just see a lot of intervention. I don't really see a ton of enrichment. It's like small tier 2 instruction, subject focused teachers and instructional blocks, extended day formalized tutoring. Like that's all an extended day. I don't know if that really counts as in class, but still it's like on site. It's like an extended day thing. Yeah. But I really don't see the enrichment in there. And like

023that's where like your front the front cover page has kids playing music. Uh we have um steam at every school. Um, we send every fifth grader to science camp. Like we have things that are very enriching that that are signature strategies that I think should be included there because if I were a parent, I'd want to go, "Yeah, my kids going to science camp, fifth grade." Yeah. You know, so that's kind of my feedback for this is that um I just don't I don't like assessment and I just had a question about and that's to see the one about academic enrichment that you were pointing at uh to on the third page. It says C it's like two goal two the first two it says in school what we're going to see is a signature

024strategy and then it lists a whole bunch of so for that area you're saying like on the such as you want to include some of the enrichment such as not just interventions that's what you're saying yeah we should there's no it's not it's not necessarily enrichment beyond core curriculum well it says over here student participation in academic enrichment and intervention programs. So, but then as we're talking about equity in an equitable way, not that page. Oh, okay. It's very Yeah, that one. Okay. So, like it says in school page three in school intervention and enrichment and then it just lists intervention. Yeah, there should be some I think we can fix that. Yeah. I don't don't think that's a hard what and what you say about assessment. I see that we keep talking all the

025time about datadriven teaching and everything is about data now and all the principles of sort of where everybody's going what are the holes everything is about numbers and data and I think that's that's assessment but data may move towards something else that is not a particular assessment or it's not a standardized assessment thing it can be anything I suppose So maybe that's a good option or I don't know if they're saying the assessment is data driven. Well, I just I just don't know that we need a whole thing that that's our signature strategies that we assess everybody like crazy. Like I think I don't know. I mean, it's it's a tool that we use to align our instructional well to, you know, it's one of our instructional best practices, but I don't know like I

026don't think it's one of the most most important measures to know where a kid's at to how to improve them. Well, I think isn't that in I feel like that's in instruction. I think feel like that's in instructional practice. And I feel like if you say like like I mean who is this facing, right? If this is facing parents and we're going to be like, "Yeah, we're going to assess your kids." Like, I don't know. I I feel like it's obvious you want to assess them. So, it's not I don't know if it's pagew worthy. Okay. Yeah. Like I I mean, I count my cookies carefully and I I feel I don't know that this I would give this one. I mean, I feel like this could be rolled into the other stuff somehow. We

027can do that. That's my feedback. You guys Yeah, I see. take it to the teams instead of that going the team of teachers this afternoon actually wanted they made a case for it to have assessment yeah just the whole principles principles yeah mostly right I want to pull it out without a further discussion I don't think no I know I'm just and that's what I think because what what we're doing well is definitely we're assessing them for that but it's working out the data that we get from those assessments ments and then changing the teaching depending of where the kids are at each stage. So it's more it will be more important to say that we are into the science of teaching or the data driven something instead of there's the professional collaboration I feel

028like yeah maybe this is another one of those yes there there is there um it does say data informed but that's with the clause of professional collaboration so maybe that's something that again the language which could be tightened up. So are you saying you want the data informed piece to be part of the instructional best practices maybe like just like condense those three into something a little bit tighter? What I'm saying is is in data informed professional collaboration. Yes, it's talking about a culture of continuous improvement through consistent staff engagement in collaborative cycles of inquiry i.e. data cycles that include six to 12 week instructional planning and data summit at the end of each assessment cycle. Like there's a lot of assessment in that already. So I don't know why we need a whole another

029thing about saying we're also going to assess student. So you're almost saying like combine two and three together. They're Yeah, they're really close. I have a different Hi. That's what I'm saying. I'm not saying get rid of it. I'm saying yeah, Nancy wants to say something. Hi. I I have a different perspective about what assessment is. you're thinking of tests. Assessment is observation. Assessment is um is broader than just testing. And that's why I think it's important to talk about assessment in a broader in a broader context. If you're just thinking about um a data point on a test, um that's very limiting. But assessments, we do a lot of we do a lot of things that are not um strictly um testing. I understand that, Nancy. I know what formative assessments are. I understand

030what you're saying, but that's not what I don't I don't think that it reads that way in its current form. Yeah. And um that would be my that's my feedback. and they can this is a public facing document and I I'm I'm sort of holding by because a lot of depends on what how people will respond to it. So if people are going to receive assessments and think of state test then I say don't don't have it don't put it in there embed the idea or the intent of assessment in the first one or the second one uh it all really depends on what will attract people to the document and you can stay in if you feel most of your folks will be attracted to that we can take it out as a major

031heading but with the definition we can work in one one of the two statements but this validating data driven is a more attractive word in the area but other than that it's it's four times in that document so it's quite important but then climate or environment is only one and then we don't have the word reading math or science anywhere I don't know if that's important but I just wanted to point it out that actually that's important We can work that in on page two actually. Okay. Yeah. On the on those measures or stem either. Yeah. Steam stem and steam both none of them are there. Yeah. I I Yeah, those can go on rather making them uh uh implicit on page two. We make them explicit. Okay. Yeah. You know, part part of the

032challenge too is about grain size. I want to go back to your examples. Uh Bridget, uh this page three is not what I will see when I go into the classroom. That's the next level down. So, uh take the the portrait of the graduate of the learner. Yeah. Now, we take what's on page one and then we say between K2, what will I see if that's happening for my kid? Then 3 to five and then 6 to 8. So, that next level of detail, it won't be in your four page document. All right. It's it's a it'll be final grade size. Sure. But I just mean like these are things that like if you were trying to say to to parents and families like if we only have one signature strategy for um for students

033demonstrating responsibility for learning and that doesn't really exist yet. I mean it exists in some in some grade levels at some schools. Like that's I don't Yeah. The principles kind of said the same thing this afternoon or something similar. Yeah. Yeah. So I I'm I'm guessing that we have other things that could go there hopefully or maybe that's a work in progress like maybe it's we we're developing it you know well this is the aspirational document if we're going to go there we should put it we should work it into the document okay yeah so I want to be clear about some takeaways um one thing I'm hearing is that it'll be nice to have two strategies for go all right so that's one the um ben consensus is to uh not overplay assessments. Okay.

034As that's and then the uh third idea is on the en enrichment piece to really build that out. Okay. Okay. I would say on the assessment on the assessment piece though I would like it's a tricky as as people were talking and then as you shared too right I was thinking about it's tricky because this is a public facing document right and so but there are lots of different groups right that right like yes there's the parent piece and I so if I'm just thinking about parent piece I totally agree with what Bridget's saying about that space right but if we're thinking about this is a document that all of our staff is going to use and If our principles and instructional leads are saying that should be in there, then I would support it

035being in there because if it's going to help drive our classrooms, which is the most important space. So that's where I'm a little bit tor on taking that out. I would be dependent on how principles and instructional staff. If they feel like it's important to be in there, then I would say let's put it in there. But my my challenge is my challenge is with that is that I don't think we we should because the way it's just standing alone there assessments of student progress. It sounds like we're assessing for assessment's sake. And I feel like I'm totally cool. I love I love formative assess assessments. I love more formal assess assessments. I love datainformed um conversations and differentiation. So I appreciate that. I just don't want to say like even to someone come and

036work in our district and you're going to be doing assess you're gonna be doing assessments and assessing all the time. So you yes you can see it very positively but if it if it just stands as assessments for assessment sake I don't think it's as necessary it's still it still should be there like it's part of what we do and that's how we drive differentiation and that's how I that's why I say that it's not assessment for assessment is because we're going to do something with that and that's the difference between the term inform datadriven whatever we do because it's we're using it to improve the teaching specialized for child everything is personalized for each child. So it's different to use have tons of where you see this or something. I just I'm sorry Nancy.

037I just wanted to add like I definitely hear like not leading with the assessment because I think that's what I hear you saying Bridget. So, I wanted to honor and respect that, but also at the same time being sure of what our obligation and the necessity is to know who each and every one of our students are and be sure we're targeting what they need, but also the enrichment opportunities for our students. So, I think we want to maintain that concept, but not lead with assessment just because it could be a positive perception by some and a negative by others. And so, let's not be in either bucket. Let's try to find terminology that allows it to be positive to whoever the reader is. I think that's what I heard. No, I'm not I'm not

038talking about Okay. So, I see what you're saying on page Are you talking about two assessments of student progress? I'm not even talking about that. I'm talking about on page three. Oh, no. No. Page three is what I'm speaking of. That is page two. Front page, second page, third page. Yes. Correct. for so page go for item two. Yeah. So where on page two where it's talking about mastery of core content areas wherever you want to put assessments this totally fine with me it's a big part of what we do and how we're getting there. I'm saying that on goal four, I'm not sure we need three bullet points because I feel like assessments are part of are part of a bigger picture. Whether it's trying to deliver like you know the term tailored instruction,

039right, that we're always talking about or improve our our teaching, informing our teaching, um continuously improve. I don't think it needs its own line there because I feel like I feel I feel like it's assessments of student progress like on its own like it doesn't it doesn't mean as much to me as when it's it's already in the other things. And you know if we looked at like how space on the page is going, it's two signature strategies for goal one, two for goal two, one for goal three, and then three for goal four. And when I read assessment, I see it as already being in the other two. Okay. As its own thing. I see. That's I have a I have a request for something for goal two. I'm not sure I go too,

040right? Yeah. Um the blue section. I'm not sure I think that intervention and enrichment should be married like that like in one bullet point. I feel like it would be beneficial to flesh out the enrichment portion more and to lean into that enrichment piece that specifically that equitable opportunities for growth enrichment piece and as a district to commit to spark joy um and with that enrichment for the kids. So both are important but I don't quite see why they're one thing. Okay. So we we should have an extra point there. One for intervention and one for enrichment. That's my thought. Makes sense. We're going away from twos. Yeah, we're all going away from twos. Why not? Yeah, it makes sense because one is about, you know, the happy thing you do on top, the cherry

041on the top, and the other one is the need to catch up and get there. Yeah. But I also feel like we're talking about inschool things, right? So, we're talking about how teachers and staff and principles and programming can weave it into the school day, right? So, it's seamless. Like whether it's FAME, whether it's working in the garden, whether it's a project based learning thing, whether it's science day, like it's there's a lot going on that we're doing that, you know, um that theater. Yeah. theater arts and things like so there's things that are happening during the school day um that it's not it's not like um it is teaching language arts. is um I think we had a convers and I had a conversation we were talking about like well um a few years

042ago when we said every every middle schooler should have an elective right like even if you're an English learner a long-term English learner and the the whole push back even then was well if you're a long-term English learner maybe you should just be learning English for that extra hour every day but it's like every every class that you're in if you're taking theater if you're doing art whatever if you're you're you're surrounded by lang language. It's not English is a foreign language. You're we're here, right? It's a different It's a different system. So anyway, I I um I fully support elaborating more on the enrichment. And Eileen, I also heard you. I didn't see any enrichment in that bullet point at all. So that's what I reacted to. Right. Okay. Yeah. All right. Would you

043be okay with a few more signature strategies? Huh? Would you be okay with a few more signature strategies? Yeah. Adding one more in in all two. That's what you mean? Yeah. More than eight. More than eight. [Music] And so let let's I hear you. Let's let let me work on it. Okay. We'll work on it. So So I have one more. Sure. Um with regards to assessment, instead of saying multiple assessment, it's more multiple pathways. because we're talking about different ways of doing it. Where where are you? So on goal four student progress authentic age appropriate multiple pathways to monitor student progress. So that takes it out of the just the testing traditional testing kind of modality that you were concerned about. There's a word you could use. So instead of multiple, there's multiple pathways.

044But your case is still to not call it out. Well, no, just move the you could just move the whole sentence to either the first one or it doesn't I don't think it needs to be its own big bullet point. Okay, that's okay. Yeah. And then I if if we're ready to move forward to the core values. Yeah. Erh I as a back page yes I I mean I I think it's very nice and we talk about this we talk we took out this like imagination and things about you know because I thought sorry what can you advance the the also in your simply app you have there in the agenda. So is h if we get it. Yes, I like it. But uh well, one of the things about the imagination when we had

045it before was you know that part about engineering and building things and being an artist too. Erh but I think other core values other than joy of course I saw that joy we talk about joy in the joy of learning and long life learning I know we have somewhere else that lifelong learning thing which is important but it's like joy to be there at school and learning and always and learning and teaching erh instead of joy on our life experiences. And then most of them we have you know except for excellence courage just that compassion that I think they could be instead of three things maybe two somehow and put more about academics and excellence and and being amazing and cool for core values. Well I like Okay. So we got rid of love you

046know apparently like a while ago apparently. So we're because love could be weird. So we're into joy. So that's great. Um but I yeah, you know, instead of like an either or like I would like it if we could add on to to joy. Joy, you know, joy and compassion like they don't have a lot written around them right now. But it's an excellence maybe should meet the rest of them and then compassion and justice maybe together. I don't know. my in my um unpublished uh packet comment, unshared packet comment was I think we should put imagination back in. I would like to see imagination back in um and I would like I think joy we should also have something in there about the joy of learning loving coming to school being welcome and just

047and then the teachers love teaching the kids. So the teachers learning and teaching. Yeah, that's good. Okay. So uh everyone okay with the imagination as a six idea? I I I love the part about imagination. It has Okay, to do with art. I think love got the big bummer. What's love got to do with it? Right. Here we go. Love has everything to do with it. But it just could be weird with you, Bridget. Yeah, I think so. We're getting out. All you need is that just once. All you need is our core values. Figure it out. I love the picture on this thing. Yes, it's a great photo. Is that Is that That's Vargas, right? It caused a little problem with the principal group because then everybody wants a rainbow hallway now. So, as

048they should that's not environmental. He was here. Yeah. I was told that the person before Grant is why not. Okay. Okay. Yes. It's his fault. Yes. Rainbows everything on the side. No, I think it's great and I I really love it. I I would just really love to get imagination back in the picture. I I think that's an easy fix. It's a powerful idea and we'll see if we can work love back into let's see what we can do. Maybe I don't think we need love. Yeah. And I think having right if you when you have too many things they're not your core values. Can they be can can we put a love of learning into joy? Yeah. That's very into joy. beautiful love of learning and teaching because you're also your part and then

049the kids learn to teach somebody else too. That's a good idea. Everybody and learning to the teachers also learn the kids like finding love in teaching and learning. Yeah. And then compassion I heard talking about welcoming. Say that again. with compassion. I I heard us talk about creating a welcoming environment. Was that in compassion or was that compassion? I mean different to school. It's awesome. [Music] No, but I think that you know so like in our I was looking through our boarding handbook because I'm like I know we had love somewhere and it's now missing right. So I I I remember for we we had a lot of discussion around um welcoming like creating belonging right and uh and so a sense of belonging I think sub belongs somewhere on the page um whether it's

050in justice joy compassion um one of probably one of those um okay kind of what what do you think about Isabelle's comments about weaving a little bit of like academic talk into this section core values. Yeah. Because what I heard her say heard you say see it again you you were saying a little yeah that justice justice courage compassion those are yeah definitely part of what we do and we lead with that but then excellence is the last one and joy I thought it would be more into the joy of learning because it's important that they are there to learn and to grow learning and keep learning forever and but then it's yeah most of It is is about a different message and maybe as an academic institution we should put a little bit more

051towards that we also want them to learn that that's that they should be coming to and learning and do great in school I just wanted to remind um around the joy of our students and our families and life of our students when they leave us so I definitely hear the piece about the teaching and the learning and the joy and incorporating that somewhere. But I want to also remind us about we talked about how do we equip them when we leave us. So I want to be sure we don't lose that component of how we send them off as well. I think we were talking about adding on instead of changing because we like that. I would not want to lose this piece because I care about the life experiences more than the because in

052my mind life experiences includes your time at school and your time out of school. Yeah. Yeah. But again, if you if you have joy while you learn, you're going to be picking up books all the time and learning more. That's what we want. We want them to keep learning forever. You're always learning about, I don't know, the manual of the microwave, whatever you do because you want to learn and you you are excited about learning that new thing and that's what we want to install in people, put in people. And also it might has a great idea that justice will be the perfect place to put the word environment and kind of honor justice. Yes. Again I I respect your copyright. Thank you. Great. Okay. Keep the picture. We like that's a great photo. Okay.

053Uh, anything else? So, we heard uh last time I think you said that the you felt like the equity statement was a little wordy, like a little wordy. Were you thinking of addressing that? No, this this looks good. This is okay. Yeah, we cut a paragraph out. Okay. So, that's what I was wondering. I was like, this feels like it looks different, but I don't know how it's different. There's a three paragraph that one has five. This one has four. Yeah. And we took out the world citizen that we have in that one. So what was taken out? Uh to go look at the poster. Yeah. I think it's the first paragraph. Yeah. There's no CDC in this one. So I'm trying to figure that one out. I don't need the answer now. Maybe just

054like either like if someone could just or just No, actually we didn't take anything out. The uh the light blue text has that first paragraph just shortened. So what was saying? Yeah. Okay. So it is a really powerful statement. Yeah. Mike, I know. Weren't you wanting to change it? Well, it's not just about me, but I think the idea was to if we could make it a little bit tighter and then include the concept of anti-racism. That was the that was the feedback that I received. Okay. The feedback we're going to Sorry, Nancy. The feedback he received from whom? Uh where have we received that? Teachers, parents, everyone. Yes. You've been saying it for a while. I know. Yeah. Yeah. It for a long time and if we're going to change it, it needs to

055change before we approve this. Yeah. So, I don't know if you guys want to do that, but that needs to be Yeah, we can bring bring it back to the board. That can be brought back. Yeah. Okay. It's great. Anything else? So well is just you are so patient and nice. You have great ideas. I do understand it. I mean actually I I want to give that back actually. That's the comment. My closing comment is um you know often when we have this chance with some boards it's a perform exercise. They really wouldn't have read it. They would have really processed it. But this was different. Yeah, I prefer this. You know, I mean, you you you made time to read through what people have to say and then you brought your own ideas in

056also. So, we'll figure out how to repackage. You know, it might take for three iterations, but this this made my job a lot easier. I rather have more ideas from you, what you think, or what you want than if I have to fabricate it. Okay. So, it's it makes it easier. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. So is uh 6:51. We can actually take the break before 7 this time and be back at 7. I don't know if it's p time or not. Time is better. Do we have plates? Can we get some plates? Okay. So, we're going to have pie time before we come back. So, why why are we having time? See if I can get pie time. I brought pie. It is only apple pie from Austin,

057but that's what they had. Why? Why? Why? Tell us why. Apple pie is to what it means. It is. It is pi day today. It is March 14th. It is a math holiday there. It is like surprisingly um contentious within the nerd community about Yeah. about whether um it should be considered today should be pi day because the calendar is not in base 10 um because maybe it's actually half tow day. Maybe instead we should celebrate other constants but today is pi day because there is a dessert shaped like a circle and it's funny and excellent. [Music] celebrated as a hybrid. Hybrid. Yes. Okay. See you here in 10 minutes. [Music] Isabella, regular agenda item and some sort of dessert. Actually, two out of five meetings have had dessert. Now, I was like in the

058hallway. They could hear you. Oh, they had the Well, yeah. And then they had like lava cake. They had a cheesecake that had And then I was like, "Okay, let me just try. I mean I don't want to waste the container if I'm talking I thought you were choking I think I think because of this like something [Music] like that. There's a Hollywood Awards um testing of the dinner, you know, like a taste testing of the all the food. Oh, you guys do a taste testing for it? Yeah, it was pretty great. And um she brought out like extra bread and extra desserts and we were like, "Oh my god." And I I want to be on that taste testing. I'll take that job. Are we doing it? Are we doing it over? [Music] All

059right. [Music] And then for me, [Music] And then we're going to as you know finally hilarious. [Music] [Laughter] Yeah, [Music] You're still like [Music] Don't worry. [Music] Sorry. All right. Okay. [Music] Maybe I don't Thank you. [Music] That was so good. At least it says pretty good. Look at all that. It's been a tough couple days. Actually, all good stuff. Thank you. Okay, we're all sugared off. is now 7:01 and we're coming back to session. So now that we finished item three, we are moving towards item four which are the comments from the board and superintendent. So we are going to Is Nancy here? Okay. Yeah, we're coming down starting with Nancy and then down the road to me. Yes. So, it was an exciting week and I appreciate the opportunity to participate in um

060the uh California Association legislation action uh week and it was um exciting collaborating with other uh fellow uh board members in advocacy for some key points that um CSBA would like to move forward this year. Thank you. Okay. Um I just want to give a quick um kind of report of board office hours today. And then if I miss anything, Isabella might have feelings I might miss a few things, but we were at Fairwood. We had like five to seven um parents mostly from Fairwood, but um one or two from other schools who came and joined us. So we had a great conversation. Um, I think it was it was great. One was kind of sharing about she's a a neighborhood parent. She had concerns at first and she was just super honest and open,

061but she coming to Fairwood and she's like loving her experience there. So, it was just great to hear her experience. Um, and then um some things that were kind of um talked about um was one was the math pathways to middle school. Um gosh, I had them in my head now. Hold on. Um and then what were the other there was like two other kind of main Oh um the TLD change. Oh yeah yeah that yeah. So the the biggest one was kind of the conversation about the change and having the elementarymentaries line up with on the Wednesday mornings and just how that's helpful for some families but it's be harder for some families and how we navigate that. We said, "Hey, at the start of next couple years, you're processing and you'll share out

062with your principles and district staff what's working, what's not working." Um, there was like one other I think there was one other main I guess we kind of went we went on some tangents related to Oh, grading. Yeah, we talk about the primal high school. We talked about our grading too. The the four point scale. I think those were the Yes. And that Yeah. There was also a bridge about breaking between our policies on all the way to college, how they change or reflect or why we do what we're doing. Okay. Um I didn't actually do that much the last two weeks, but some of the things that one thing that I've been thinking about a lot um is something that Mike said a few weeks ago about how public education is the bedrock of

063democracy. Similarly, something that Michelle has been advocating for, which is arbiting our students to fight against disinformation, like having media literacy and this is something that we talk about within our strategic plan goals. It is relevant to me currently because I feel like there is a lot of disinformation spreading in our community like in our immediate community, but also with our neighbors to the south and it is frustrating because we have all these rumors that we just aren't equipped to combat. Um, I don't know if the district specifically has a role in this or this is us as elected officials or community members, but I feel like one thing we can do and should do is arm our students or the future voters, the future people who will hear these rumors to be able to

064combat them, to be able to look up the information and say, "No, actually, I found this information." My son is nine and he is challenging in that he challenges me a lot. He says, "How do you know that? How do you know? Why do you think you know that?" Because I guess because I do it to him. And I guess that's where he gets it. But it's so helpful because, you know, I maybe I should question all my assumptions. And maybe not all children should be like that necessarily, but have some of that. And I feel that would be very valid. Thank you. I forgot I forgot to give a shout out about the ledge brunch that we had with super fantastic. Maybe one of you is going to talk about it. You can talk

065about it if you want. Okay. Um so I had a couple things. Uh yes, we had uh helped out and organized in fledge branch, but um I had some activities. I sent sent them all in, did some volunteering, went to some events, been super busy. Um, but I wanted to talk about a couple things. Um, one thing that I went to in the last week or so was the staff and um, teacher housing over at Mountain View Wisman and I saw people from our JPA were also there. Um, but there everybody all trustees and superintendents were invited from across the county. There are probably about 20 30 people there uh, going on the tour. their facility is not yet open because it is um still they're still waiting for the parking to get completed or

066signed off on or something. But um basically the the the thing that they did was they bought in with the developer and they basically have their own tower of about 120 something units um studios, onebedrooms and two bedrooms and they're about $2,000 per rental unit. Um and and they have all sorts of amenities that they can have because they're part of a larger complex. They did not take any um federal or county monies. So they they definitely they use bond money and um they don't have to share with other districts or random people from around the county and um their staff is pretty excited about it. So, um they might be doing a second round of tours, but they will be having at the next um SECSBA brown bag thing that that's going to be

067the topic and different um trustees who've done that are going to talk about it. But I'm I'm really hopeful that our JPA will start looking into I know there's a lot of explorations. We've gone to a lot of count I've seen Mary Beth at county things. um you know, I hope that we can do that because um one of the data points that we heard was that it's like 90% of the um recruitment that we're doing is actually based off of retention or something like it's you're trying to we're trying to keep people here. Maybe that was county or statewide. Okay. Um, the second thing I wanted to say was I'm I'm hopeful that I I'm reading that um we got an email from a parent about the schedule that you mentioned from Bearwood and

068you know for me I went back and I watched the video because I was informed by the district that we had the meeting we had a presentation and discussion in November. mber and then we approved it at the December meeting. And so um I went back and I watched the meeting and what I realized was in the meeting we did not talk about schedule at all. We were mostly talking about calendar alignment dates things like that and then when we approved this um calendar with the schedule change um it was came back on consent and so um that was also our organizational meeting. I believe Eileen had just had a baby and she was in two places. So you came in for the organizational meeting and then all of a sudden I'm watching this meeting

069and you're on Zoom. Like I mean that's hardcore. So, um I'm not saying we were slacking in any way, but I think that when I know when I was reviewing it, I did not catch the significance and like all the all the multiple things that have to change for us to go to an early start, particularly with the preschool um with some of the afterchool care program rooms being used for by preschool in the morning. And so, um, you know, I'm hoping that we can have a conversation about it as a board and see see more information about how that change is going to affect people and, you know, just to learn a little more about it and maybe it's a presentation. But I I'd like to have some information for if the public wanted

070to comment on it or something. So, that would be a that's a request that I'm making to Isabelle and Mike. And I want to let you guys know that that I I did go back and watch it and our I was off the ball on that one. So, um and I think it's fine, but we approved it. So, okay, that's my comment. Okay. Well, I has been extremely busy if not for couple of weeks. Yeah. Because among many things there have been the legislative action week and with the legislative also branch coming from the local the county organization and the state organization then the future trip to the federal talks about that legislation. Then we have with the something interesting that when we came to the League of Women Voters meeting, Cindy Chavez for example

071was saying talking about the budget and the fact that they are 250 millions in the red and with that we also heard the state and all everything that we learned from the new legislation that is coming that they're trying to borrow money from future Prop 98 in order to afford this Prop 98 which is our money and uh the way how like they are not they're even somehow shorttering more money in education because they're going to give it to other programs and but they're going to borrow it from the future. So I don't know that sets a really bad president which you know make us obviously way more fiscally responsible and we need to be more careful about many things and pay more attention to our budget and and learn more about exactly how each

072of our decisions that is what I've been trying to do for a while like how each of our decisions will change every penny and what it means is everything that we do as you say like there are other board members from other trustees from other places that they are devastated about each of the funds and they know exactly who they are supposed to be taking away and what exactly they are having to cut. Yes. So those are the you know the things that I always say like about or really what will be to understand every little detail about this. So that you know is just another refreshing thing. They're going to have uh they're going to have the their state bond coming for facilities educational facilities coming this November h with that. So it's going

073to be a very busy ballot. It was a good also a couple of weeks as we also had our election. So we look like we are going to be able to keep fixing our schools on one hand. That's always good painting schools and doing stuff in our school with this. Yes. and painting or rainbows. We are going to be able to do all and our programs they we are talking with them because with all these cuts, all this money and new programs that they open since the pandemic and they say that are forever programs that they stay forever programs. So we need to fight and keep all our health mental health new things that we got. We need to make be able to fight for keeping our TKs and the funding for TK program and

074we need to keep fighting for them to keep our universal meals which are all programs that are relatively new and are in danger right now. So that was also part of the legislation action talk points and with that we met with people all the way from Evan Low to the city and everybody was somehow in the same mode of telling us what it meant for them to lose all the money that they're losing this year and how they were depressed about that. So yeah women voters Yeah. Yeah. So, we talked last year when we started to change our calendar, we talk about maybe opening sometime this year, but again, it's like everything is a storm every every month. So opening a big meeting to talk with the community about the calendar and now we're going

075to explore like the week off for the Thanksgiving week and see how that works and yeah this is another thing that we should be you know have a big open meeting because it affects people and people have different needs work or not work and I hope that we are well I suppose a lot of us are going to SEF table mixer next week and I was wondering if a lot of us are also going to be learning about the wonderful things happening on the county on Hoffman awards so I hope that we also get a good representation the chair of the Hoffman award yes that also made thank you in May yeah so I hope that we all go there even though this time we didn't submit any projects. So that's why we didn't win

076because we weren't awesome because we didn't even submit. But that's it's the only reason we didn't win. Yes, we didn't submit anything this year. Yes, we did give that other people opportunity because we won last year. So and then again comments about from the community that maybe we should review the the ways how principles to see if more standardized or more open and in depth way how principles get to engage the their communities and open their schools to their communities etc. like how how successful they are and if something doesn't work, how much are they trying something different and I think that's it for today. Okay, thanks. Um before I start like you're absolutely right about all the things that at the state level they need to be concerned about cutting among them TK at

077the state level going to remind us and the community the state does not fund TK for community funded districts like Sunnyville school district at all and Sunnyville school district is actually a test case challenging the state on that policy. So we'll we should find out more about that soon. um cost us a lot of money and we're happy to support those kids. We think it's a really important thing, but we think out of fairness, the state should be supporting it. So, on to um more exciting things. Yes, the bond measure passed. Um it is no small feat that we're right at 70% um in an uh a a very low turnout election. Um that is I just couldn't be more proud of our community. And everywhere I've been going, I've been saying that it's really

078a testament to um uh our community and the support for our schools. And um I'm just really excited about that. And so I'm going to pause for two seconds. And now I'm going to talk about the parcel tax. So, a board sometime between now and the end of the school year, um we we should probably make a decision if that's something we want to move forward to towards renewing our parcel tax. Um it expires in June of 2025. And so, um that's something we can consider. Um and it's 10 teachers more. No. Well, it raises about a million dollars for the school district. It's $59 per parcel. Um, it's different. You have to change all your thinking about how bonds work. It's $59 per parcel, which is one of the lowest, if not the lowest,

079in the county. Probably raises about a million dollars for the school district. Two things about Fremont High School District because they're part partners and I think we should support them whenever we can. May 11th, their 100th anniversary celebration, which is great. if we can be a part of that um attend that to show support and then also um their foundation. I think I sent you a note and I'll include it in the the update tomorrow um about their foundation spring for education um forgot to write down the date. Um I think it's the 5th of April. It's a Friday. April 5th is a Friday. That sounds right. That sounds right. At 5:00 um we might think about eight people. We can get eight people together like maybe have a district table. I think that would

080be great. So, let me know if you're interested in that. Um, and then of course, project cornerstone tomorrow, which is exciting. Now, the most exciting thing, I get to introduce a new member of our team. And so, we did a a comprehensive search. I was really proud of the work that Jeremy did. He um has a lot of skill with this, a lot of uh connections with this. We did a broad search. We actually brought in a number of very, very highly qualified candidates. Um, and we're for really fortunate in Sunnydale that we can attract the best and the brightest. And I'm 100% confident that we um have got Arthur Cuffy, the most qualified of all of them to agree to, um, be our next chief financial officer or chief business officer. So, u, if

081you want to come on up and introduce yourself, Arthur. Um, but you cannot sit in Lor's chair until she she loves sitting there. So, But when she's gone, then you can take her seat. Okay. But not not before. Well, thank you for having me. I'm Arthur Cuffy. Um, I approached this position with great gratitude. I wanted to extend my gratitude to Dr. Gallagher. Um, Sunnyville I've been around the Sunnyville team for about a month and I have I have seen in that month how amazing this team is and so Dr. Gallagher really has put together a dynamic team. Um, and I'm just happy to join. Uh, I I approach this position with passion. Um, I approached this position humbly and I'm fired up and ready to go. Um, yeah, I I just want to be

082a part of a a great team like this that um, you know, brings something special to to students. I I'm I am a product of a great educational system and so I really want to give back to students and help this district uh achieve its goals. So want to appreciate everyone and uh yeah I'll be seeing you all. Yeah. [Applause] Welcome. That's it. Okay. And with that, they were done with item four in your agenda. We're moving to item five. Comments from the Sunville Education Association. Do we have anyone from that body tonight? No, but we had a hand raise from before. Oh. Oh, okay. Yes. Well, we should wait until from before. From where? Which part of the internet? I think it was before we took the break. We can wait till comments from

083the public. Oh, okay. Yeah. Oh, for the study session. Okay. I think we did. I guess No, we didn't. Oh, okay. So, do we go when we get to comments from the public? When we get to comments from the public, it will be the first item. Sorry for that. So now we go to item well then we go to item six comments from the California school employees association. If there is anyone from that body who wish to talk to us about anything. Okay we don't. So now we know we move to comments from the public. So this time we're going to talk this portion of the agenda provides an opportunity for members of the public to talk directly to the board about any item of interest that is not on the agenda. And however provision

084of the brown out prelude any action be taken and any item that is not on the agenda. And at this time we're going to start with the person who missed the question from study session and then we're going to meet yes we have some persons here also in person so we can start with the online comments related to a strategic plan. It was Gita Golakora. Okay, please go ahead start by you you have two minutes and please start telling us about your association with the district so we can Hi, thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk. Um my name is Gita Golak. I am a parent of a first grader at Ellis Elementary and uh I've attended uh strategic planning meetings um um the um all board like all all parent meetings as

085well as both of the special uh committee meetings and um uh most of us parents are very concerned about the data uh the assessment data that was presented and I uh emailed uh the board and uh Mr. Galer uh about some format where we can have an understanding of the assessment results because some schools have performed well better than the state average and other schools are not doing well and I know we have an awesome uh and dedicated special team. So it's really important for us parents to understand how this data is coming up and what we can uh do for our children or what it is that the missing gap or like what's going on. We want to know more about it and wondering if there were discussions anything that we should know about.

086Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. H. So now we move to the do we have any online hands for this particular item which is not the strategic agenda but the comments from the public for items not on the agenda for any items not on the agenda. Okay. So with that we have three comments in person. So, please, we're going to start with Peggy Brewster. Hi, my name is Peggy Shamster. I have a third grader at Bishop and incoming kinder in the fall. I'd like to talk to you about school culture, parent engagement, inclusivity, and retaining qualified and exemplary teachers. Since I don't have much time now, please look for my follow-up email. I've attended every P3 parent participate, principal parent partnership and ELOC meeting at Bishop these past few years. Every one of

087these I'm one of two parents attending. Each meeting I've suggested different ways to for including more families, changing the format, looking at successful engagement models at different schools with similar populations. Month after month, nothing has changed. After a last site council meeting, our DLike parent shared about lack and suppressed communication about alpac support. I later heard that he and another of our five site council families are actively trying to move their children out of Bishop into private schools. It was an aha moment realizing in what way we parents do not feel welcome at Bishop. It's subtle. Most parents would not be able to chime into this because we generally stay in our own lanes. And the feeling amongst many families, especially those in Spanish speaking families, is unquestioned trust in our community and education. But

088I now see a nuance pattern that is not necessarily intentional, but very effective in appearing to care and tick off that box of family input and engagement, but not actually trying to engage us and work together in building a community of support around our students. Um, I do have ideas moving forward for opportunities. I will that'll be outlined in the email. Secondly, I want to talk about a true asset to our bishop community and deeper trend. I feel grateful to have been able to spend a 100 hours running leveled reading groups in his room and giving back to the teaching community by supporting a new teacher. He has grown in leaps and bounds as a teacher and as a professional. Mr. Bertrand is the only teacher I hear of parents wishing out loud they'd hope

089to have him next year. He's restarted student council, supporting students in their own leadership journeys. Kids come running up to him in the playground giving ready to give a elbow bump and kick a ball around. To us parents, he has been a breath of fresh air, fresh air. And yet, after first being told that he was coming back, our admin changed her mind and told him that he was not welcome back at Bishop. And as we know, he will not be allowed to apply at other Sunnyville School District schools this year. when he finally opened up to tell why he could not collaborate and why he eats lunch in his room um by himself every day. He it's it's because pure bullying among staff, a mean girl environment and orchestrated efforts to complain about him

090culminating in our admin's reversal of her initial decision to keep him next year. For us parents to have this inexplicable loss of the teacher that is fully engaged will be a shock and betrayal. And if we truly care about attracting and retaining quality teachers, we should not lose this teacher because my his workplace, my son's school failed to cultivate a community where he could thrive. I will send more comments by email. Thank you, Peggy. So now our next commenter will be Corine Johnson. Okay. Uh, my name is Courtney Jansen. I have a first grader at San Miguel Pinto program and another one who will start there hopefully in kindergarten in the fall. Um, I'm going to complain on an agenda item later on. So, I wanted to say thank you first on a different agenda,

091not agenda item, I guess. Um, so yesterday Ian's first grade class went to the Palo Alto Art Center and he had an amazing time. He came home and usually when I ask him how was your day, he's like, "It was fine." and he actually told me and he said, "Hey, did you see the pictures about the sushi artwork? Did you see me working on the art project?" He loves it. So, I wanted to say thank you very much for support. I know it's a lot of work to get the field trips happening. I know the schools and the teachers do a lot. Thank you for the board for supporting that and encouraging that all of our students get the chance to do field trips. He still remembers his one from Happy Hollow last year and

092loves that too. So, they have a really big meaningful impact. Um, and that's all I wanted to say. So, thank you. Thank you. And our next heart over here is Jessica Jared and the topic teacher living in day time learning daytime. Hi, I'm Jesse Jerki. I am a mother of a second grader at Vargas and a seventh grader at SMS. and I wanted to discuss the change of timings for the teacher learning days. Um, I have also written an email to you all about this. I'm concerned about how the change will affect parents where or families where both parents have full-time jobs or working single parents. Um, when I brought this up to school administrators, I've heard the phrase, "We can't accommodate everyone." And I completely agree. You can't accommodate everyone. Um, and I recognize

093that every family in the school has different circumstances and needs and that there are families that prefer this change. I've talked to some of them, but I'm a scientist at heart. So, if it was me making this decision, I would want to know the following. How many families prefer this current schedule versus the new one that's going to happen next year? Is it 90%, is it 50%? Is it 10? Like, where how many are we not accommodating? Um why why do families have these preferences? Is it simply a convenience thing? Is it child safety? If you don't have anyone to watch your child in the morning, that's a big big concern. Is it a free breakfast? We have a lot of kids that depend on free breakfast for their meals. How strong is this preference?

094Could the family go either way or is it just one direction that's monumentally more difficult when you can't overcome? uh what is the financial burden on these families? Like how easy is it to find someone to watch your kid and how much will it cost them? Or do you have to miss work and maybe miss a lot of pay so that you can stay home with your kids longer on those mornings? Um how are families going to deal with this change? And then lastly, what is h what do the most economically disadvantaged families within our district prefer? because schools in general are not set up for this type of family. And if yeah, we are accommodating a large group of people, but we're really hurting the poorest in our community, it's not a great policy.

095And if so, I'm asking, do you know this information? Have you are you making this decision that's the best because you've looked into this and you know or did you hear from some families thought it made logical sense to match up with the middle school and went ahead with the policy and hope to figure out how to fix it? If it's the latter, were these people that you heard from representative of the community in general? Overall, I'm asking if you would run a short survey of the community to ask how this is affecting people so that you can make the best possible decision because I'm happy to never talk about this again if it is really the best decision based on data. Thank you so much. Thank you. And that was our last Oh, we

096have two more. These are on agenda. Those are on agenda items. Oh, okay. Good. So, with that, we move to the next agenda items and this is presentations and we are on topic eight and 8A will be a report on maintenance and operation department of updates and forest. Thank you, Mr. Burns. Of course. Good evening board. Good evening, executive cabinet. Good evening, members of the community. Um, tonight I get the opportunity to go over uh department updates for both maintenance and operations as well as forecasting for the next couple years. Start. Thanks, There we go. Hey. All right. So, tonight we'll be going over at a high level the report provided to the board in the packet. Some of the items that we will touch on our key performance indicators for our department work order

097analytics, our maintenance project list, as well as finally reviewing our budget. All right. So, working in this district for the last eight years, um it was mentioned earlier as well, um data and analytics drive a lot of the decisions. I've seen a lot of the departments here um make well-informed decisions based off data and analytics. And I knew that when I was given the opportunity in this role, finding data and analytics was going to be something that I was going to rely on. In order to do that, we've uh made an integration into a software platform that provides us these data and analytics. Once we knew we were going to have the information in order to start making informed decisions, we wanted to come up with key performance indicators to evaluate our departments. These four

098may seem relatively basic and generic, but I do believe they speak volumes to how well our department is functioning or allows us to see focus areas that we need to improve on. Now, moving forward, we will adopt new key performance indicators every year at the start of the school year. Um, we will share that with cabinet and Dr. Gallagher, superintendent, so we can provide updates around this time every single year for the board of education. The first one we wanted to review was facility use. Um, looking at facility use over the past couple years, we noticed inconsistencies in regards to the application process as well as the application of fees for interested vendors using our facilities. So, you'll hear this a few times tonight. We uh integrated a software platform to make things a little

099bit easier, a little more streamlined, and a little more transparent for our community members. What that has led to is a consistent practice applied across every school site. It allows vendors and interested individuals that want to use our facilities a one-stop shop where they can fill out an application, provide all the required insurance that we require and pay any and all applicable fees. Um, you can see the difference in the revenue on the last 3 years here. It has also seen an uptake in facility use. I do want to be very clear. The revenue increase is to cover direct costs associated with these facility use and to pay for overtime for custodians for the after hours weekend work. Now this slide here I wanted to provide just because no matter how interested our community members

100are in using our facilities, our campuses are first priority. They're always first priority on our own facilities. So the big swath of red you'll see on this pie diagram is all the applications we have denied because they would have impacted school functions or other events that the school site was going to be putting on. All right. Another very key and critical KPI is workplace safety. Every year all of our employees in operations, maintenance and transportation go through safety training. Uh we make this a priority to start the year off with and we do refreshers during professional development days throughout the year. I thought this was going to be a great metric to try to reduce this year from last year. Unfortunately, we've seen an uptick in this area of days missed by workers by employees

101being hurt in jobreated accidents. I will say a data point is a data point and I recognize that. This is not an excuse. But one of the reasons why this number is inflated is due to an accident that was no fault of the Sunnyville School District employee. Albeit, it's still an area we need to show improvement on moving forward and we'll make sure to do that. Was it like a 50 person accident? No, no, no. Just one. Just a lot of days vehicular accidentally missed a lot of days. Yes. Yeah. My question like is this like one person missing 150 days or like three or four people? Four to five people. Oh, okay. Um the next KPI that we're going to be looking at is overtime. Um overtime is a great indicator on how well

102a department is functioning. Over reliance on overtime could show maybe a um uneven balance of staffing. It could also show that we are unplanned if there's an absence of a custodial staff member or a bus driver that needs to cover a shift. We also have other contributing factors to overtime. Um, as you can see them on the screen there. This year we've increased the amount of overtime in regards to our facility use. We've given our custodians opportunities to take on overtime um to earn a little bit extra money to cover some of the facility use things that fall outside of ours. During construction projects, we also run into many overtime opportunities as we're constantly having to move teachers in and out of classrooms to accommodate the next phase of construction. We didn't include any metrics

103on this because we're still parsing through all of these overtime opportunities that I just mentioned lived in one overtime category. Um, the help of Lori, we're going through the overtime and parsing out to make sure that we can identify the real overtime opportunities that we've um taken as an operations department. Meaning, I want to make sure that they're not facility use related or construction related. Want to focus on the ones that involve our staff members having to work overtime in order to accomplish the regular work that they would otherwise be scheduled. All right, so Arthur gets to see me get excited for the first time. Um, this goes into like the work order analytics. And one of the reasons why this whole section excites me a little bit is because it tells stories. It tells

104multiple. One, we can start to measure our customer service. We can see how well we're responding to work orders on a campus. We can also take that information and start to plan from a facilities and maintenance standpoint projects. We can see those trouble areas. We can see the HBAC units. They're constantly acting up. And we can start to plan for replacement ahead of time. Um, I do want to say that the KPI for this section was the average work order time two years ago was 33 days. We wanted to decrease that to 15 days this year because of the efforts of our entire team Ricky, Ron, Sammy, Jorge, Josh, Dion, and Gary provided by the leadership of Jeff and operations manager role. We've decreased that to nine days, which is a huge accomplishment. That's awesome.

105That's fully a testament to all those guys. They understand the importance of customer service. They've bought into making sure that they're communicating through this platform with the sites and this is the result. It's not perfect. Um I wish we could get there someday, but but it's a great first step in improving customer service across the board. All right, drilling down a little bit further and this goes a little bit towards planning. you can start to see how many work orders are submitted by campus to see where the potential troubles are. I do want to point out that Ellis is the outlier on this one. The majority of those work orders are attributed to construction that are going on on the job site and I would fully anticipate a large reduction in work orders as we

106start the new school year with a brand new campus. Sorry, but those work Oh, sorry. Sorry. And but then those work orders are like related to the construction but still on our side because inside the construction it all belongs and their liability belongs to them to the construction. Correct. So even if there is an issue in a classroom that's occupied say a door closer stops working properly. The site will submit us a work order that work order gets passed on to the contractor. So that's why we're seeing a large large increase. And last one on this. So this new platform was new for for our department as well as the site admin teams. Um it took them training and they had to buy into this as well because this is added steps for them to

107be totally honest. They have to drill down on what type of work order this is because bad data in leads to bad data out. So they have to be very careful when identifying the work order that's submitting so that we can properly plan and take a look at what the information is telling us. So I did want to say thank you to all them as well. They've uh they've dealt with a lot of my changes and aspirations and they've done so at least seemingly happy and done extremely good job at it. And the person who submitted is the administrator or the the janitor or somebody that is from your team on the site? Administrator. Um I would say n somewhere in the 90% it'll come from the front office staff. Uh all right so the

108takeaways from the work order analytics one we want to continue to improve on our customer service and response time and communication. Those are all things that everybody at the school sites has constantly said that they want to see um continued or improved and that's communication and transparency for maintenance and operations and transportation. This work order platform is the first step in improving that. We also want to make sure that we're taking this data and making use out of it. Um data is data unless you actually make change with it. And so that's one of our goals we'll get into a little bit later. Um lastly, we just want to make sure that we're getting good information in and good information out. All right. So, now on to maintenance projects. Um, these are projects that are

109anything from routine repair, restoration, or replacement. Um, with proper planning and identifying these areas ahead of time. Our goal will be to decrease our dependency on bond funds to accomplish maintenance related items. Um, it allows us to strategically plan and some of the information we'll lay out here shows exactly how we're doing that. So these are some of the projects coming up this summer that are maintenance related in nature. Um we have digital marquee installation. These are replacing old outdated mares that are past their useful life. Um we have slurry code going over existing blacktop. That is to extend the longevity of our blacktops to make sure we're getting the best value out of them. And lastly we're replacing existing playground ting matting. um that is maybe a little past planned. It's a little past

110its useful life and needing to be replaced. Very short slide on what you can anticipate when we're talking about maintenance related projects. Now the next two slides are where we get down into the weeds just for a second. So these are four maintenance related projects that we know are coming up. The reason we know is because the data we have received when we've done a facility assessment. We've taken that information and we can now plan out the next 1 2 3 5 10 years. So some of those bigger picture projects Cumberland HBAC reaching the end of its useful life this year and next year. We also know from all this facility assessment that the painting is passed due and the flooring is needing replacement. With that information, we can start to plan bigger projects instead

111of peacemealing these one at a time. We also know from all this data that the Columbia roof is at the end of its useful life and the carpet there also needs replacing. We have two covered canopies in the district. We sorry not in the district, we have two covered canopies in the district needing to be replaced. Uh one at Cherry Chase and unfortunately we have to rip out the rainbow one and we will not be going back with rainbow at the campus. I'm totally kidding, Bridget. I told him to do that. We do. We do have to replace them. We do have to replace a rainbow canopy. Wait, where? I was just thinking where's the rainbow canopy? Walkway. That's not a canopy. No, that's a hallway. I there's a canopy on top. So these are

112all the types of projects that we want to accomplish from a maintenance lens. Like I said, looking to decrease the dependency on the bond. That's our goal. Now diving into Cumberland a little bit. This and and you're probably going to get a kick out of this stuff too. This we have for each one of our school sites. Now what this does is shows every single year for the next 10 years all the maintenance costs that we are planning on from window replacements, carpet replacements, HBAC replacements. What this is allowed to do is now we can start to plan. In the next slide we'll get in a little bit on the budget but year 2024 year 2025 each one of the buildings out at Cumberland identifies a total value of maintenance related projects. You add all

113those up. we can put rough ideas, relatively accurate ideas in regards to how much these projects are going to cost. And just a quick question, I'm assuming like those numbers like if you go out to like 11,000 at Cumberland CDC in 2032 that there's an inflation. Yeah, that's not that's the estimated current cost then, not the current cost now. Yeah. And then so I have we we have inflation calculators in here. So right now this is all set at 5% inflation which is for this year a tad high but this was all being developed over the last few years. Yeah. And so and we can make changes at any given time to the inflation rate. Okay. So I showed you the previous slide to talk about this slide. Our budget our maintenance budget. Um thanks

114to the leadership in the district with Lori Van Go and Dr. Gallagher, we were able to go over each one of those sites and look at the maintenance costs for the next 10 years. What you're able to show is that there's a large, extremely large delta in the amount of maintenance projects in the remaining maintenance budget. Every school district, you're going to have to correct me if I say this wrong, every school district gets 3% contribution to their routine restricted maintenance account from their overall expenditures. Is that right? Yes. Now, what that led to is $3.9 million annually and $400,000 in rollover, give or take. After looking at all that data and information, we were able to make a contribution of 1% more to the RMA account. That is what it does from a financial

115standpoint. It increased our budget to 5.6 and estimated increase of $2.1 million in rollover. What this does is allows us to either accomplish projects that year with this money straight out of maintenance or roll over a year or two so we can take care of larger projects all at once from this budget. The goal of this when we looked at the facility master plan is we took this into account. That is why we didn't ask for as much money as we could have in the facility master plan or during the measure C bond campaign is because of the commitment leadership made into the maintenance account so we can accomplish these projects with our own money. Um see oh lastly it shows our district's commitment into one of our not one of our the most expensive

116asset in the district and that's our facilities. Um, I think that is all. But I will say that this is is my first and my last um annual report with Lori as a CBO. So, dang, I told myself I was going to do this one. Just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for making all the changes you have. You're leaving this district with a lot of positives. Before I cry, any questions? No. Brance actually never leave. [Music] [Laughter] Any any questions? So yes, before we go to our questions, we're going to move uh to public questions. So if there is any member of the community who wish to speak or have any questions on this particular item, item eight of the agenda is report and maintain operation department

117updates and forecast. This is the moment to talk and you may raise your hand online your electronic hands or you can give me a card if you're here with this specific item. Okay, see none then we move to our board questions. So we can start with the board. You want to I have a question? Yeah, I have a couple questions. Okay. Um, okay. So, uh, my questions were, you know, just in talking to you and then in looking over the rest of the agenda, we have some other agenda items coming up. And um you know when you're mentioning the um slurry and the putting the things under the playground and kind of reinvisioning our playgrounds you know my just general question is is like um are you you're obviously using the master plan right and

118then um I think in the master plan we had like talked about you know I think there was like a discussion around inclusivity there was discussion around um you know burning things up quite a bit. So when you were when you're looking at the when you're putting those projects together, are you referring back through the master plan to do that? Yeah. So so and I'll say oftent times yes. Um when it comes to like strict maintenance related items like if we're just talking about slurrying or just talking about replacing existing matting and not making modifications to something generally we'll just be like it will not be associated with the facility master plan but okay and then uh congratulations on the bond that's really exciting and I think all your work and the organization that we

119did with the facilities master plan and like you said Lor's work with um getting the budget together and the the district putting it having the um additional support for maintenance fees really made it a lot easier to go out and talk to the public about how much we were borrowing because it wasn't like we made up a random number. It was like this is what we need. This is how much um this is how much we're putting into it out of our general fund and um all the grants that you've gone out for for some of this stuff too. I think I think it's just made a really compelling story and um it shows by the 70% voting that's coming in. So, great job and um I'm I'm like I know everyone else is going

120to say great job too, but I'm I'm like really um excited about the the work that the whole team is doing. So, thanks. So, did you say in the package question, how many HBACs are going to be replaced this summer? Um, zero this summer. Oh. Oh, okay. So, because it was on your report, but that's not for this summer. No. Yeah, that sorry, I should have. It was 2024 and beyond, I think, is what I called it. So, those were the beyond ones. Sorry. Okay. So yeah, there were yeah quite a few things that we did on the master planning and we were talking a lot about green points and about doing screening as possible. But I thought that also like say as we talk about the black tops not being as black anymore. I

121I thought that was already the direction that we're going to take instead of replacing it because then it's going to stay black top for many years. So I was very worried about why we still have black tops at all instead of having white tops or green tops or whatever tops that we can use that is less less hot for everybody. Yeah. Um can I respond? Yes. Um, yeah. So, so and we'll we can get a note in the the 10 BNC items, too. But, so this year we're trying out street bond for the first time. That is the colored paint that you're referring to in order to try to decrease the heat being reflected back up off the black top. Um, the reason why we haven't gone all in on doing colored slurry basically on

122the entire asphalt is one, we have never installed it before in this district. Um, I'm not entirely sure on the commitment from a maintenance standpoint. And the cost delta between just black slurry and the street bond. Um slurry roughly like a$130 a square foot. Street bond roughly 9 to10 a square foot. It is a large cost investment. Not saying that that's something that um we wouldn't consider in the future. But we wanted to start out in a smaller scope to make sure that this was something that yes, we want to make this financial investment into. So like all of the basketball courts, four squares, teller balls, those are all colored asphalt now. And then why then why do we need because I see that in the sections in the plants that you put is quite

123a bit of black. Is more than 60% black. So then maybe we don't need to bounce balls around. Maybe they just don't have hard surfaces at all. If it's just going to be a black frying pan instead of that having something else that is because we want to get rid of the black tops for the kids to play on. Yeah. Well, the if we we can make them as much as we can in the play areas white or green or blue or happy colors or the periodic table as we had in a little bit. If we can expand that and minimize the fry pan that is a black top that will be great and most of the sides are 60 or more 70% black asphalt. Yeah. So we're putting more so so an alternative. So

124so slurry is something you do every 3 to 5 years and that's just to maintain longevity. So, I hope I hope the board knows that even though we've done black on these black tops now, um doesn't mean that in 3 to 5 years when it's up for another maintenance cycle, we couldn't consider something else. Yeah. And I've been feeling terrible since my kids were in kindergarten. Every three years I feel more. So Isabelle, you're saying you would want to spend the nine or $10 more per square foot on everything to do it now, even though we don't know like the maintenance. Like I mean, we're probably talking millions of dollars. Okay. How how much how much is a square foot? Because we never get I mean that's another thing like we we don't really get

125specs on any projects, plan views. This time I asked and I got it like the plans and we just approve and everything after all is approved by the board. So we live with it. But we don't get exactly then what is the difference with these prices then what is exactly the the how much is the square footage of one against the other one and so we just end up making these decisions among all the other decisions but I I would like to see like how much is that $9 or are we talking about $20,000 or we talking about $250,000 and then that will make the difference between one or the other. So, I will do a rough calc for you while we're continuing to go. You guys can keep asking questions. I say I don't

126have any questions. I just this was we haven't really had a I don't know maintenance update presentation. So, that was great. And like you do great things and we're digging it. So, it was just it was it's like space that we don't necessarily need to know all the details on things, but it was interesting to like see some of the stuff and the know the analytics like I know you like you nerd out on it so it's fun for you to like it's fun for me to like read like oh that's some interesting like data cool and yeah that was I was I was hoping for feedback because you know this was the first one that I know exactly um what the board would like to see or want to see so thank you um

127the the plans for the campuses were very interesting um I appreciate having that like bird's eye view these aren't campuses that I'm intimately familiar with Vargas and San Miguel Um I I to Isabelle's point, I do think that a lot of the San Miguel um campus is those or black top area is those uh those play areas, the um the basketball court is a significant amount of that square footage. Um I I do see your point. It is more than 60%, but it's it's there there's got to be a lot of color here like just on that. Yeah. Yeah. So, I'm curious what the results of your your math will be, but um I do think we're moving in the right direction. I also have this like question that I'm struggling to figure out a

128phrase. So, the work orders, most of them are submitted through the front office staff. Correct. What if you don't have front office staff? How does like the bus driver submit that? Do they have training in that to submit the their vandalism tickets or something? Um, so that was a phenomenal question. So, usually like since our transportation is housed with our operations, they'll let Jeff know and he'll put a work order in or they'll let the mechanic know. So, like if the seat gets slashed like will be notified and then we'll submit a work order that way. I had a feeling that's why the DO was like really a higher number because that's where operations is. So, they probably Okay, that's what I was thinking. Unless it's like my calling all the time. No, get over

129here. And for this first year, we've asked we've asked all the departments to put work orders in, you know, consistently the best of that, like anytime that something needs to get moved, like put in a work order. So, we have documentation that helps with the transparency process. And I love the report format. Thank you. Yes. Great. Very readable. So, I have less questions because of that. So, to the to the cost delta question, I think if I remember correctly, one of the campuses had about 75,000 square feet of black top. If you guys are looking at the plans, you can correct me. Is it 715? I think in the top well and I can get back to you all too, but so say it was 70 75,000 square feet and you would have done street

130bond, you would have been paying $675,000 to do the entire black top for one canvas. And the slurry would be Oh, sorry. Did you say 600,000? Yeah, 675. Okay. And those are right by the buildings, the black parts, because there another thing is would be the price of putting some shading in that area, some wings or something. But if they are very close, then it's a fire hazard. We cannot get there. Correct. 20 20 ft is the distance you're allowed to put shade structures in. That's $97,500 if you just do. Sorry. Okay. I there is um and I I'm I was a little bit interested also because of controversies. There is a company that might do an analysis for free. Oh yes, Nancy. Oh, um I I was just going to be giving feedback that

131I appreciate that the maintenance is um working smarter with the analytics and that you can actually demonstrate um that you more responsive to the community with your work orders. And I think that will go along towards building confidence in capabilities that we have. So I app so I appreciate that the um micro analytics. I look forward to next breaking up. Yeah, I think so. Thank you. Good. So yeah, maybe we can. Yeah, as you say, we're testing this slurry, black slurry thing. We can keep some data and between then and and then also there is this company that I mentioned about a month ago uh that they do free assessments in indoor and outdoor quality air. So we can also test all these assumptions. They knew for free because they can sell us stuff when

132they find something that we take and think about it. You know the name of the company? Yeah, I had the car. Yeah. Okay. But they can just they can also measure this. There was a presentation about them somewhere, right? Oh, that's we were asked like the PTSA or PTA council thing or I don't know. I got it. Yeah, the council. Yeah, I remember that presentation. I have a question. Yes. So maybe um like I don't know if they would be possible but it seems like you know we're getting some community feedback but also I think there's an interest on the board of like um I mean that's my impression is that like we've when we were going through the master planning project of like sustainability and greening things and I know like as a district

133that's that's in a lot of places. So, like would it be appropriate to like have a maybe a study session or something or something where we really talk about like what do like when I think of a greening like moving towards a greener planning environment like how how do what do I mean versus what do you mean versus like what is what is when we're thinking about it and then if if it's very different from what we have right now how do we make moves to get there over time because that's like you know we want to maintain what we have but Maybe the answer is like ripping some stuff out and going a different way, like redesigning things, you know, differently. Um, so I mean, I'd be interested in because not not as a

134deciding thing, but just like more of a visioning conversation, as an extension of the mass facility master plan maybe. Yeah. Because a big part of this facility master plan was, you know, and we have some visions and mission statements about how we're going forward. But we shouldn't have to wait until we tear one school apart and put it together to make it greener if we can do something in the middle. But yeah, I understand again that we need to get things done and we don't have gold mines anywhere to get the money out of. So, but we're just saying I mean Yeah. And I'm putting Well, I can hear it. I putting a we've been talking about putting some policies in general that are re relant to this and you said hasn't been completely approved

135by the legal guys but the idea would be coming together and having that written down about our intentions our green intentions and and you know taking it more seriously as much as we can. Yeah, I was just going to say I think this exercise is really good. Um, and actually the community input that we've received in terms of our process. So I mean, you know, we know we're on 10 items 10, B, and C are um approval of bids, right? So that's like the very end of the process. And I think what we all need to commit to do or I want to commit to do is at the beginning of the design, I think that's what you're saying. Um, making sure that we're really explicit And it's great because the board hasn't I don't

136mean necessarily this board, but historically boards haven't been as um as interested necessarily. It's been more routine. So it's perfectly fine that we're more intentional about that. Um I don't think we want to get into design at the here, right? But so we could come up with a process um where you know whatever projects are coming up Brandon and his team and maybe me can meet with the subcommittee of the board and look through them. we could be thorough about it and um because this was a relatively the ones that are coming up were relatively routine like one of the summer projects were just resurfacing the black top right so yeah but then again like that's one of the things that just two years ago we talk a lot about it and I know that

137we are doing an improvement and we're only lowering about 40% of the black fried pan we have there but because it is what it is right so that's exactly what I'm saying so it is we're moving forward. But then there's the thing that is a little frustrating that we get a lot of the things that we don't get to see. And I know that not everybody Okay. So that that's what I'm saying. So at the beginning of the process from now on, we we I'm saying to you, let's commit to um we'll go through you what we have in in mind for design. Again, we're not going to design I don't think we should design it in the boardroom, but ahead of time so we're more intentional about it. And again, this was a traditionally

138very very routine. We're going to replace the matting underneath, you know, play equipment. We're going to um reseal the black top like for 60 years. That's just like you just do that very simply. It's great that we're more alert to it now and like we're all in. So, let's we need to make sure our process reflects that. So, we'll start that earlier. That's our commitment. I know he's gonna raise my hand for the subcommittee and that's great should be on it. Yeah. When when do we when did we approve the facilities master plan? I think it was before my time. I just found it online but this is really cool. It is. It is. It is awesome. Yeah. We base our our measure on that one. So we like Okay. So anyway, thank you again.

139I I know that you're the guy with fingers in every project pretty much. I mean, I don't know. I always end up talking with you because you're doing in a good way. You're doing so much at the time and handling so many, you know. Well, I now I don't want to say B in there, but I wanted to so many things at the same time that it's it's great that you put it together and you're coming today with this presentation and we're very grateful and yes, you you keep deserving your photo on the wall of the year. Then he walked away. That was good. I'm glad you brought it up. Okay. And with that, we move to the next item. We are now on item nine. And this is 9A is going to be the

140review and discuss of policy 5148.3 preschool and early childhood education. For that, we're going to have Dr. for dean to present to us. Okay. Good evening, board. So, this is an update on um for our policy. Um and fortunately for us, it's really just to reinforce what we are as a school district are already doing when appropriate to do so. But just ensuring that um our TK age um students who might need additional care would be able to utilize our preschool programs. But fortunately in Sunnyville, we have um full day um programming. So this is not as relevant but nonetheless uh we are updating our policy to reflect the p practices that we actually have to support our early learners and so this is for um you to review and discuss and ask any additional

141questions regarding this particular policy. Is that also Oh, sorry. With that, we go to the public. If there is any questions about this particular item from the public regarding item 9A, please raise your hand now. Okay. Seeing no, then we move to board comments and questions. So this one also regards the weeks at the beginning of the year when kindergarten only has partial days. Uh yes and no. So we have since we do have after school programming and um most of our students are able to access what they need with that after school programming. And then we also are looking at some things this school year um to actually expand potential opportunities for after school support for DKH students. Good. Thanks. Any questions? Huh? I said I'm good putting on consent. Okay. Thanks. No questions

142or comments. So, as everybody else is giving you a go to put it on consent agenda. Thank you. Thanks. Now we are moving into item 10 and we are starting with item 10 A the approval of the second interim fiscal solveny report and for that we have our CBO Lang welcome again go ahead thank you very much I apologize in advance for my voice since I ran my last half marathon I've had some serious respiratory issues and I can't talk very well Dr. Gallo would be the first to tell you I should not run half marathons anymore, but that's not going to happen. I don't think you ever should have. Okay. Okay. So, here we go. So, before I do, second interim, Dr. Gallagher asked me to say a little bit about Prop 28, which

143is the arts and music in schools that's coming to us very soon. So there's a list of things there that are applicable to spend this money on. In addition, we can also spend it on computer coding classes, animation classes, music composition classes, costume of design, film, and video. Our projected entitlement is 7 a little over $753,000, which is based on our prior year enrollment with a supplementary add-on for our free reduced percentage. 80% of this entitlement must be spent for salaries and benefits, which is approximately $63,000. All instruction should supplement each school site's art curriculum and music curriculum, and these funds should be used to support new ongoing programs. We have three years to spend the first um entitlements, so we have a little bit to consider. We're still in the planning stages with this

144money. and the remaining funds can be used for um other program supports and services. We're currently, as I said, in the planning stages to use these funds, but we're what we're currently discussing is the hiring of four teachers, two music teachers and two drama teachers. And teaching and learning is going to work with each individual school site to develop their plans because each school site gets an individual pot of money. Okay, now on to the fun stuff. So here's our major revenue assumptions for second interimm. Our property tax revenues projected to increase by 7% over 2223 which is approximately $7.4 million. Our LCF whole harmless amount remains the same at $2.9 million. EPA is projected at 1.1. Our partial tax revenue is also projected at 1.1. We have onetime funding which is part of the

145governor's corona virus relief package but it also includes the expanding learning opportunity program which is sp and all of that funding is projected at $4.7 million and this funding is to be used to expand our after school programs extend learning time to in close instructional gaps and textbook adoptions based on the latest projection from the county office of education special education is projected with no cola and our federal revenue is projected at the 2223 3 level restrict unrestricted lottery are $249 per ADA which is approximately $1.3 million and based on the P1 estimate from the county office our RDA revenue is projected at $5 million and based on our current leases our lease revenue is budgeted at $6.2 million. So this is an overall look of the look at the general fund revenue. Property taxes

146and state aid projected at $12.9 million which is a little over 80% of our general fund budget. Property taxes and EPA combined are 2.2. So that's just shy of 1.6%. Our lease revenue, as I said, is $6.2 million and that's 4.47% of the budget. Our onetime revenue at $4.7 million, 3.39% of the budget. Federal revenue is $2.3 million, which is 1.66% of the budget. State revenue is $8.3 million at 5.95% of the budget. And our local revenue is $3 million, which is just a little over two 2% of the budget for a total revenue budget of 139.6 million. These are the major uh expenditure assumptions built into the second interim. Our certificated FTE which includes SEA certificated scamp units has increased by one FTE over first interim for a special education teacher. Classified FTE which

147includes CSEA and classified scamp units has increased by.5 FTE for a PAR educator. Certificate and classified compensation changes including step and column increases as well as negotiated salary schedule increases have been included in the second interim budget. The 2324 stir rate is projected at 19.1% which is in line with 2223. PERS is projected at 26.68% which is a 5.2% increase over 2223. And based on the 2024 health and welfare rates, United Healthcare has increased 10.5% over 2023 and Kaiser has increased 12.2% over 2023 and all carryover funds are budgeted included in the budget which includes categorical and local funding. [Applause] So this is an overall look at our general fund expenditure budget. 116.6 million of our expenditure budget is for salaries and benefits which is approximately 83%. $4 million on books and supplies which is

148approximately 3% of the budget. $20.1 million for services and other other expenditures which is approximately 14% of the budget. Included in this category is the extra support needed for child nutrition and state preschool. the transfer to the special reserve fund for technology upgrades, TK and outdoor learning equipment, software licenses, the replacement of the child nutrition freezer, as well as contracts for special education services for a total expenditure budget of 140.7 million. This is a multi-year look at the ratio of revenue to expense. Our 2023 revenue, as I said, is projected at $139.6 million, which is a decrease of $95,000 over 2223. Our 2324 expenditure budget at $140.7 million is 13.5% higher than 2223. The 13.5% increase in expenditures over 2223 is being driven by salary schedule increases and increase in the contribution to other funds,

149equipment purchases and maintenance projects. And based on second interim, our uh expense is projected to outpace revenue by 1.1 million. This is a multi- look at the general fund beginning and ending balances. Our 2324 ending fund balance is projected to decrease over first interim due in part to increases in the expenditure budget for contracted services, equipment, purchases, and maintenance projects. Salary and benefit savings for vacant positions have been recognized and incorporated into the budget. And these factors combined contribute to the 2.9 decrease in the ending fund balance of our first interim. This is a look at our reserves which is a combination of the unrestricted general fund and the special reserve fund 17. 2.25 million of the special reserve fund is set aside for free technology upgrades. $634,000 of the general fund ending balance is

150set aside for stores revolving cash and non-spendable assets. So, our total projected reserves at second interm are $44.4 million. Sorry, could you say that again? What do you say about technology upgrades? I didn't hear the attitude. We're we're saving money essentially. We're do we have a a long-term savings plan. I contribute $375,000 each year from the general fund into the special reserve fund and let it sit there and gather interest and then when Jeremy needs it for technology upgrades, it's there available for him. Yeah. Thank you, Lori. Specifically, this is for network infrastructure, firewall services. These are the large capital network projects that we need to save up um uh over for the lifespan to replace access points and those. Thank you. That was a clarifying question. Can you explain us again what is the

151funds one and 170? What's the difference between each of them? Fund is the un unappropriated and any fund balance and unrestricted general fund. So it's it's our savings plan essentially and fund 17 is a special reserve fund which we are required by echo tab and that's where I'm contributing money from the general fund into fund 17 because it's the highest interest yield account so the district earns the most interest there but combined we can spend it on it's our reserve lose my voice. I apologize. So, our unrestricted ending balance is $30.2 million. Our special reserve ending balance is $14.8 million. So, our total unrestricted reserves combined are $45 million or 32%. And we have positive ending balances in the multi-year projection and we will maintain our basic expense. [Applause] [Music] Okay. So that's it then.

152Going to keep moving forward. Okay. Now with that we would like to ask the community if they have any questions or comments about this particular item. This 10A the approval of the second interior physical solution report. So if you have any you can raise your hand real or electronic and uh this is the moment we okay see none then we move to our board questions so we can start I think has some questions. No I I got mine answered I think if we're voting I make a motion first. Okay. So, anyone want to make a motion to approve this report as it is? Sure. I'll move to approve the second intro. Okay. Um, any second? I'll second. Okay. With that, do we have any questions or comments? I'm excited about the music and arts. Yes.

153Can you say again um how many art teachers and how many drama teachers? You mentioned it. Four teachers in total. Four teachers in total. Two of each. Yeah. Two music. Yeah. Thank you. Is that is that planned to be on top of starting arts or like is that decision? It has to be on top of starting arts, right? Yeah. It has to be supplemental to our current programs. Okay. And it and for dividing up the time between the schools, there's some there's some schools that have more um existing existing programs than other schools. Is it the same amount for every school or are we doing equitable distribution? Yes. Uh we met with the principles and they've um agreed that they want to pull their resources because that allows us to do more and so we'll

154do sim a similar type system as what we're doing with our physical education programs. But we haven't solidified all the details yet. But the goal is for the the support to rotate through the campuses so that every campus um gets the programming that we're seeking. And then we're looking at in addition to that what can also be offered in the afterchool programming that's missing as it relates to music and performing arts. And the money comes not to the district. I think it was $750ome,000. It comes in 10 pots. Actually 11. District office has a tiny bit. So like that's how it has to be spent. It's like I get the philosophy behind it but um they don't know. Yeah. in terms of actually enacting it, it's really difficult to do. Um, but that's that's how

155it'll be divided up because that's how the money comes. We have to spend it that way and then you can still pull them and pay one full salary. Right. Right. Correct. Right. Okay. Good. And if I could say something else too and this I think this relates a little bit to your um request um Isabelle about like more information about the budget. That's why we had the slide on Prop 28. And um you know, since I became superintendent, I came right at the beginning of the pandemic and then there was that whole blizzard of one-time funds and grants and it was so hard to keep track of. Now, um yes, unfortunately that that is going to slow down, but that slowing down is going to allow us to look at each grant as it comes

156in individually and then be more thoughtful about each one individually and report it to you more individually. So, there'll be more um you'll be able to ask more questions about it. So, that that's that was like part one of that plan. That's good. Yes, we really appreciate that. So this is the first year that we're going to 140. Like every time I joke around I say yeah our budget is 120 120 and now like wow 140. So this is just because everything is more expensive now is because the TK do we have a particular salaries and salary steps and something else because of the negotiation I mean statutory deductions are have increased health and welfare increased pers is increasing exponentially year-over-year so and we have budgeted salary schedule increases too that are included in every

157budget and the benefits are a percentage of the salary Right. So it they're tied. Okay. So and pur is the pension, isn't it? So that one is increasing. So that's going to always keep increasing. So are we going to keep going up for 20 million every year? I I I don't think it'll be 20 million. So PERS is for classified employee and stirs is for certificated. Stirs was going up also for a while and it's kind of slow down, right? And then the purses continue to rate. At some point it will have to stop but it's pretty is it 20 26.68 but in a few years it's going to be close to 30%. Yeah. Yeah. because I remember seeing this same bar h graph few years ago and we knew we were coming to this

158year but then my question is you know how much money we have for next year and how it's going to work in the next two or three years and we already have the the contract working for two more years. So we we one more year. So we should be able to know how we're going 3% next year, right? Okay. triple sign next year and kind of know what is that we're expecting for the next year. We That was another of my questions like this is the first time that we don't see a multi-year projection of what's going to go. Oh, the multi-year projection. This isn't the new budget. This is just the interim projection required to do a multi-year projection with every sex report. It's it's in it's in the book. Oh, yeah. Well, so

159like um I think we talked about the last time for the first interim maybe we talked about um you know like some of the things where like because this is just a snapshot of how we're doing against this year's budget, right? So we're not making any budget decisions for this. It's just approving that we receive the we received the update. I think like um you know what would be helpful for me is like understanding like are there is there anything in this report like that there's new implications of like that we're saying like whoa trouble's coming for next year or you know what I mean like that's like that's the that's the like one that's like the um I know you do a lot of work contextualizing it and explaining this to us um but

160I think that's the part where um you you know, uh because we're hearing so much about the budget in Sacramento is changing. We're losing, we know we're losing one-time money that has been really helpful for the last couple years. Sure. So, like, you know, for me, I I just don't have a sense of um exactly when we hear this new information, you know, um how exactly is that sort of affecting us? And maybe it's not going to affect us till next year, but do like are should we sort of be preparing ourselves and our community for changes or you know because even the even the onetime money running out that isn't the run time onetime money running out. Um if we do nothing, we just don't fund those positions anymore. That's not like a board

161action. We're not like immediately letting go of things. But there might be some of those that we say those are really valuable. So, let's buy that's a budget conversation, right? Yeah. When you hear about cuts that other districts are making, um, they're getting hit from a couple different angles. So, one of them is all those increasing costs that Lori described that we have to be aware of. Um, others are their declining enrollment, which is causing real decline in revenue for them for LCF, right? And then also um the flat essentially flat column that they're getting is like less than 1% something like that. Our revenue projection in this for next year is a pretty conservative 3%. Um it's probably going to be of my guess you should definitely put not more than 3% down but

162that's kind of worst case what we think right every year which I'm grateful for. We we we estimate low and we have always gone over our projected right. Yes. So when you see a budget deficit um we don't want to be growing the reserve unnecessarily every year unless it's planned. We don't want to be growing it every year. Um and we have such a reserve that we could spend it down a little bit. That would be okay. Um if we if our revenue next year is like 5% which would actually be pretty realistic that changes the out years considerably. And then the f subsequent year in the multi-year projection it's 2% which is what you always should do for a third year. So, but the like will it be 2% like that on average I

163forget what our revenue growth is on average it's more like 5% something like that whatever an average year is so um when you see the deficit it's something to pay attention to but the fact that we have a good reserve and the fact that it's built on a very conservative revenue projection we should feel good about it I would say it could based on what Bridget was saying it could be potentially helpful with the new budget cycle, right? The new budget approval for Arthur and Lori. It might be helpful to do a little bit of refresh on kind of like basic like budgeting 101 for board members, right? I think that might be we haven't done that in a while and that might be a little bit we talk about now, but going more in

164depth that could be a helpful space as part of the budgeting process. Well, I think it's just more tied to like because the budgets there's so many different programs embedded in different line items in different like some some group like it seems like you know there's several pages of one thing. I mean like student nutrition is very clear or transportation or child care like those kinds of things but like okay that's one or two pages but then there's other things where if he wanted to know how much do we spend like um Sydney Chavez's office was asking how much do how much does your district spend on mental health and social services? I'm like, well, yeah, I don't know. I'm going to ask my superintendent because that's like seems like a really hard number to

165get. I think a lot of other people know uh they manage that they and they can make decisions about it. Well, so I mean I just we we can get those answers easily. You just have to ask us a couple days. And then we didn't I I asked something and we didn't get the number. you know that they always put us well I suppose we pull in 140 just make the calculation and I tend to do that but how much do we uh pretty much expend per kid but we have that one we get that one don't we get that one every per student expensive per student like I know that the states say they were between around like last year ours is considerably more than And yeah, we so but it's also tricky. Some

166of those metrices aren't actually including all the money that a district has. So like yeah, we just know we so we know some districts spend a lot but I'm saying that like right if we if we just take our full number and divide it by number of students like you could say that's a per pupil but that not probably how everyone is calculating it. They're not including all their money and so it's actually a hard comparison because not everyone is counting the same money as per pupil if that makes sense. Yeah. So it's four four0 million exactly. And how much how many students we have this year? 5,000 5,632. And that's a good question. Do you want to know enrollment? Yeah. So I mean just use the number for your purposes. 8,8 that's what you're

167using come up with not an accurate number. 500,632. not including 24,000 but that's not our number that's not our that's not the number that they report out I've seen that whole thing for the county you can we can later yeah I can anyway okay so if you come up with a list of questions heading into the budget adoption be said like the sooner you send them the sooner Arthur will be able to put together and he's going to present things differently because he's new right So that'll in itself will be um just different. Yeah. So so maybe in one of your weekend reports the next few weeks you can remind us to send in any kind of budget separation. So, and with our one time money, I remember that most of that was what kind

168of measure they wanted us specifically to act that were tied to those to that one time money other than the doses that were using. Sorry, wellness centers that that's not with that one time money. We was any any specific thing that came packaged as post pandemic that we are not using anymore? A lot. That's a long that's a long list. Yeah. Okay. Well, we move to the next item. Thank you. And then we need to microphone. I think you have you have a motion and a second but no vote. Yes. So with that we Yes. [Music] All for the vote. Okay. Myself. Okay. So then if anyone can make a I think we had a motion. We just I Okay, with that uh we have a budget. Thank you. Approval of this midyear budget. So,

169and now we move to item 10B, acceptance and award of beach side improvement for electronic marquee sign and shade structure project. And that is again from our employee of the year, Brand Burns. Testing all of our patients. I just turned mine off. It was fine. Um, sorry, that noise is driving me crazy. Um, okay. Sorry. Um, item 10B. Okay. Um, acceptance and award of site improvements, um, electric marquee signs and shade structure projects. So, I'm going to read this verbatim and I'll add some stuff at the end. March 7th, bids were opened and accepted for the site improvements, electric marquee sign, and shade structure projects. The scope of the projects includes the installation of digital marquees and the replacement of existing playmatting underneath the existing play structures with syn synthetic turf at San Miguel Lakewood

170Elementary Cumberland and Columbia. We will also be applying standard and colored asphalt slurry on top of on the black top at Columbia Middle School in San Miguel. Lastly, San Miguel will also be receiving a shade structure as part of this project. The the bid documents require the bidder to be pre-qualified. Unfortunately, the two lowest biders, 101 Builders as well as Garrett Construction, were not pre-qualified prior to bids opening. Therefore, those bids are non-responsive and should be rejected. Um, based on the above, the lowest responsive bid was submitted by Bosco Construction Service in the amount of $1.79 million. However, this amount exceeds the budget and we now know we can get a lower price. So, district staff recommends rejecting all bids and rebidding the project. This one I'm going to keep there and then 10 C

171we can talk. Okay. So, uh then your ask has changed from the initial agenda. So, we are not going to approve this one. You need a motion. You want to clarify that's the motion that we're getting. Well, you need comment first. Okay. But make a motion. What What is our motion? Well, the motion is to vacate the It's right on the thing here. Yeah. Okay. I'm just kidding. I was going to ask public comment first. Okay. It's not We're not going to vacate it. Okay. So, with that, we move to Do we have any comments from the public? We have We have three. Okay. We have two over there and three 10 B. Okay. And uh perfect. So please uh do me start with let's start online first. So let's get the two online comments

172and then the two on person. We have Carrie Leven first and then Cynthia fan. four. Okay, so you have three minutes and remember that all of these still part of the Brown Act and you only have two minutes. Thank you. I start with your affiliation, name, and affiliation to the district. Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Hi, greetings. My name is Carrie Leven. I'm a long-term Sunnyville resident and I care about our community and I care about our local habitat. I urge you to oppose installation of artificial turf to replace the playmatting underneath the children playground and instead recommend the boards approve engineered wood fiber. Engineered wood fiber is safer for children in the long term because it doesn't have chemicals of concern like those found in artificial turf, specifically toxic PAS and other

173harmful substances. There is no such thing as PAS free artificial turf. None whatsoever. Even the president and CEO of Synthetic Turf Council admit to this in a 2022 letter urging Senator Allen to amend the bill AB1423 from one part per million to 100 parts per million PAST levels by 2026 in artificial turf. What did that tell you? PAST exists an artificial turf. The artificial turf manufacturing claims are based on one type of test method called targeted analysis that limit the testing of about 35 PAS substances. Given that there are over 13,000 PAS substances, such testing cannot be conclusive as they evade low-level sensitive detection limits. This is designed to intentionally mislead a customer like you. The total organic florine TOF is a non-targeted test method in process of being adopted by the EPA that can

174accurately detect presence of chlorine regardless of the number of PAS substances being detected. While the EPS EPA is slow to adopt it, it's a more reliable test and will be the de facto standard in the not too distant future. Since there are lawsuits against such claims, a third party lab to independently test such quote PAS free samples using the PF method, there's a good chance PAS will in fact show up. Another safety consideration that you need to consider is that engineered wood fiber is a cooler play surface. artificial temperatures. Artificial tur temperatures are 50 to 70 degrees hotter than air temperature and can burn kids when they fall into this hot dangerous surface. Engineer wood fiber cushions better, has good drainage, and is better for the environment. Artificial turf is not recyclable. Trust the science,

175not the sales pitch. Trust the kids will be better off in the long run. Thank you. Thank you. And with that we move to the next online commenter. Please go ahead and start saying your name and district affiliation. Cynthia Fan. Okay. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. Uh my name is Cynthia Fan. I am not in your school district, but I'm nearby. And the reason I called is because I went through something similar in my school district and I wish that they had the benefit of the knowledge that um some of the folks speaking tonight already had before them. Um based on what we have learned, I am asking you to please not choose to use any synthetic turf or rubberized surfaces on your campuses. Uh with the

176climate crisis, our heat waves are getting hotter, longer, and more frequent. We not only have a climate crisis, we are facing a plastics crisis and a PAS crisis. So I urge you to stay away from plastic and rubberized surfaces. Um, please choose 100% plant source materials like the engineered wood fiber that's been suggested. It is safer for the kids and for the environment. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. With that, we move to our commenters on site. Thank you for coming tonight. And for this item 10B, we start with Jessica J. Sorry, that's C. I know my handwriting is terrible. I'm sorry. Oh, this that's okay. Sorry about that. Direct key. Yes, I'm left-handed. I had breast surgery. Like there's just no chance. Go ahead. Still the same rules. We have three minutes. I don't know

177if I read this at the beginning. I think I did, but the speakers are asked to talk about well the name and affiliation and about the topic and also we would like people to focus on ideas, policies and values and you know remain with the city. you. You will. You're awesome. So, please go ahead. Wow. Um, my name is Jessica Jerki and I am still the parent of a Vargas student and a middle school student. Um, what I wanted to say is I I heard that we're going to be rejecting this proposal and opening a new bid. When you open the new bid, I humbly request that you do not just put in new astroturf. I was very excited to hear earlier when um Bridget and Zo were talking about how the plan is to

178move greener and to not just do what has been done previously to not have this just be a routine procedure going forward and especially not wanting to have things be so hot on the playground and as we know astroturf is incredibly hot and so if we can move to something that is ADA compliant like engineered wood fiber it will just be so much better for our students to play on. Um, and it's fairly simple to install and it's just going to be a lot better substance. So, I really hope that when we reopen this, if that what you guys seem to be heading towards, um, please consider not having AstroTurf in the new bids. Thank you. Thank you. And now for that, we have our next community member and that will be Andrea Wolf. I

179start. Yes. Okay. Thank you. So, you have few minutes. Okay. My name is Andrea Wald. I'm a longtime Sunnyville resident. I've recently joined a group of like-minded community members. Our group is community for natural place surfaces. Our mission. We advocate for safe natural place surfaces. We educate public and private stakeholders on the harms of artificial turf and other artificial materials. We strive to increase the amount of grass and natural materials in our playing fields, playgrounds, parks, and towns. I'm deeply concerned about the proliferation proliferation of toxic plastic in our children's play areas. Both artificial turf and PIP rubber surfaces which are sadly commonly used in playgrounds and are toxic materials and very damaging to their still developing systems. There are newer, much safer materials that can be used as playground surfaces. They are all natural

180and not harmful to those playing on them nor the environment. They are called EWF, engineered wood fibers. It's safe. It will protect kids when they fall and it's ADA compliant. I am urging you to reject the proposal to cover many playground areas in our local Sunnyville schools with artificial turf. This is not what our children need or deserve. We must do all we can to provide them with safe and safe and healthy playgrounds. Please take a pause and look into EWF. It's much better for our children and the environment. In closing, I have two things to say. I keep hearing from well-intentioned individuals that they are going to request PFAS free artificial turf from vendors. This simply does not exist. Even the synthetic turf council in a formal letter to California state officials admitted that

181they are working to reduce the amount of PAS in their product. No idea if this is even feasible. But also remember, artificial turf is a petroleumbased product. It's plastic. Simply bad for the environment. And to quote from Tom Mayor, the National Football Players Union's medical director who believes many Philly football players have died from brain cancers at a higher rate than a general public after playing on artificial turf fields. Our question to those who would put players health at risk is if that were your brother, your son, or your father exposed to those chemicals, would you take that risk? for the sake of our children. I hope the answer to that question is no. Final comment. Every parents unwitting unwittingly send their children to play at daycare centers, schools, and parks intrain infested with plastic

182and higher waste substitutes for living grass and soil thereby risking their future health. What about them? Thank you. Thank you. And with that, we move to our next guest tonight. And uh that will be Courtney Jansen. Please, you had me. My heart got lost. Um okay. Can I start? I can start. Um my name is Courtney Jansen still. I also still have a first grader at San Miguel and one who will start in kinder in the fall. Um when you reject this contract, I'm asking you to send it back with the request to revise it to include engineered wood fibers instead of artificial turf. Engineered wood fiber is ADA compli comp compliant. The installation costs of engineered wood fiber is also lower than the installation costs of artificial turf. So that will help you with

183your concerns with bids that are over budget. Engineered wood fiber is also the playground material that is recommended by safe healthy playing fields and others. Also to be clear, we're talking engineered wood fiber, not engineered wood chips. There was an ABC News segment tonight this evening. I was on it and it quoted a district statement today that said that you were planning to use PASF free artificial turf. I explained this in my email. A few other people had commented, but I want to repeat that PASF free artificial turf does not exist. Even if it did, it is still plastic and we don't need it. I know you have artificial turf manufacturers telling you you can get PAS free artificial turf. Don't believe them. There are over 10,000 I think someone said 13,000 different types of

184PAS chemicals. No company is testing for all 10,000 13,000 of those PAS chemicals. At most, they're testing for 20 to 30. Companies often also use misleading tests, including tests that have high detection limits. So in that case, let's say, for example, I had an artificial turf and it had a PAS material that was at 95 parts per trillion. If I put that in a test that has a detection limit of 100 parts per trillion, I can say that test will come back and say no PAS. Not because there aren't PAS, but because a test is not correctly sensitive enough. Additionally, the current EPA recommendations for lifetime health advisory levels for certain PAS chemicals are extremely low. For example, PFOA is four parts per quadrillion. PFOS 20 parts per quadrillion. In case like me you don't

185know what a quadrillion is, that's a one with 15 zeros after it. So in other words, no level of these PAS chemicals is safe. My email to you last week talked about questions you need to ask regarding PAS free claims. I'm asking you to please read that and familiarize yourself with those questions. And I'm also asking that when you hear PAS free, don't think no PAS. Think we haven't detected a small subset of P of PAS chemicals. Maybe we're using the wrong test. Maybe we're just using inappropriate detection level tests. I'm asking you to please go with artificial or sorry, engineered wood fiber for your contracts and keep artificial turf out of our playgrounds. Thank you very much. Thank you. And with that, we have Peggy Brewster. Welcome back. Go ahead. Thank you. It's nice

186being your guest. Um, hello. My name is Peggy Shan Brewster. still have the third grader Bishop and the incoming kinder. They're both asleep, I hope. Um, I'd like you to reconsider the materials used on your playgrounds. So, this pertains to 10B and C, and we're talking about it now and not again later, at least not me. Um, instead of artificial turf, please consider engineered wood fiber. Sunnyville residents have consistently demonstrated that we do not want at. Last fall, the city of Sunnyville proposed installing artificial turf fields at Lakewood Park. Over 300 Studyville residents, including 100 from Lakewood alone, signed a petition opposed to this plan. At the city council meeting, 44 people spoke against artificial turf. 22 of those were from Lakewood Village. And happily, that park is going to stay grass. Um, FUHSD voted

187last month on six fields, six sports fields at Fremont and Homestead High. Despite the midnight start time of the agenda item, this happened after some mapping things. Um 28 people spoke out against artificial turf. Many organizations including Santa Clara County Medical Association, Sierra Club's Loma Pria chapter, self safe healthy playing fields, sustainable silicon valley and public employees for environmental responsibility wrote letters of support and support for natural grass as did supervisor Lee, mothers out front, um Silicon Valley Youth Climate Action 350, um Silicon Valley and others. So for both Lakewood Park and FUHSD, the number of people speaking against AT was two to three times higher than the number of people speaking in favor of artificial turf. The people speaking in favor of artificial turf wanted the turf for playing sports and the turf that

188we're talking about is not for marching bands and football. So that argument doesn't fly in this case. So instead of artificial turf, please consider engineered wood fiber fiber. It's recommended by safe healthy playing fields and others. It's ADA compliant as confirmed by International Play Equipment Manufacturer Association. I urge you to look into other options that are safe for our children. Thank you. It started at 10 p.m. Not midnight. Oh, it ended at 1. Okay. Yeah, we Yeah, we want to stay more. Okay. So is yeah we're very I think we have time for this. So board now do we have a motion to start? I think we I think we did the motion on 10B right already. No. Yeah. So we have no motion so we can open discussion about this. my um I I

189move that we reject all bids on item uh 10 B and allow the district staff to review the product. I'll second it. Okay, good. Do we have any discussion with this item then? Let's start. Who wants to start? Okay, let's start. Sure. Um, so, okay. So, I just have to I just want to say that I've done a lot of reading in the last couple week about artificial truth. Um, and you know, uh, one of my thoughts is that, you know, I would never I feel really lucky that we have the big fields of grass right next to all of our schools. I think that's when I when my kids were little and when we bring people over to our house to play with their kids like it's always, you know, they always gravitate to

190the grass grassy fields, right? And so I think that I'm really glad that that's not what we're discussing. We're not discussing ripping out and and doing any of that. Um, I have a couple of experiences that, um, you know, inform my thinking on this. One is, you know, I'm a a cancer survivor, so I'm pretty I try to be pretty conscious. I, you know, I have gone back to drinking some Diet Coke, but other than that, I try to be pretty healthy. And yes, I ate a bunch of sugar earlier. Thank you, Ivy. Um but but in general, you know, um I try to be pretty careful and I'm conscious about um you know, I'm I'm risk averse basically, but um I also have this experience of putting in the gu school garden at Sherry

191Chase as a PTA parent. And we put in this garden. Ethan was like three years old, maybe two and a half. Alexi was like five and a half years old. We clear out cleared out this garden. It was overgrown. It was just a disaster. And we got this group of parents and everyone was we were real excited and we put in this um you know raised beds and we put in a garden pathway. And the conversation around the pathway was do we use compressed granite in our pathway? because we're framing it out and everything. Do we pour concrete or do we use um like a wood chip thing? Wood fiber thing. Wasn't engineered wood fiber, but it was going to be some form of wood chips. And you know, we're a bunch of, you know,

192this is like even precancer, but you know, bunch of excited garden parents and we want it to be as natural as possible. So, we choose the wood chips. And then fast forward to when Ethan is in first grade or even kindergarten, I think he was in kindergarten. And in his entry class for Cherry Chase, two little girls, one's in a wheelchair and one's in a walker and all these kids, we got all these programs going. We didn't read recess. um you know, explore the garden and like I don't like m crying in board meetings, Michelle, but they were like insane because there's those kids and they're literally on the outside of the fence and they cannot access it. And I'm telling you that I will not vote for Bwood chips or anything that's fluffy underneath

193this freaking play structure because when I was a teacher at Fairwood, there were lots of kids from the special day class who go out there and they couldn't climb on the play structure. They just sort of wander around under there and play with it in their own way. So all of this stuff I think is great. I really want to green up our resources. I want to green up our whole area. I want to rip out all the astroturf and have everybody play on the lawn and figure out a way that's like greener and and make a plan to do it because, you know, I love lists and I love plants. So, I'd love to have a timeline on like how do we get to a greener environment where kids can run around wood things

194instead of all the whatever plastic sides. But I I just I just don't personally I personally cannot cannot leave out those kids that I left out those years ago. I just can't do it. So that's where I'm at. And I I just and I think we asked for whimsical. The district has given us really whimsical play structures. They've put the the artificial turf that I've seen at Vargas is under a shade area. It's very small. It's not We're not sending kids out to go chew on the grass and like ingest chemicals out there. There's no offging. I guarantee you that the football players they had a mental if they're having brain damage, it's very likely that it's from their concussions. Um I I just don't and we're not I just don't feel like it's that

195scale where where it's I just don't know what the alternative is if there was some sort of really soft fluffy wood cotton thing you could put under there. But there it's just not the technology isn't there yet. This the solution isn't there. I did Google natural play structures and what they did was they made um the one I googled was they made the play structure itself accessible for children with mobility issues. It would mean really rethinking how we do our playgrounds. So, they had the natural wood fiber and then they had ramps going across it so that everything was accessible for the kids. I would vote for that. I I would completely vote for that. I'm one of five people on a board, so my voice is not like I'm not the only vote here,

196but I would vote for I know it would be a lot more expensive to do playgrounds that way. I think it'd be pretty fabulous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But anyway, so that's that's just where I'm coming from on this. I I it's really important for for the kids to have act all all our students to have access. We've come a long way in the 17 years since I built that garden. So I I also did so much reading about this. I called I texted people. I called people. I emailed people. brand gave me a nice Zoom meeting where I could ask lots of questions and the PAS was a part of it and but the other thing that was such a big part of it for me was I have a kid who's going to be

197crawling soon and I remember with my older one having to keep him off of rubber surfaces so he didn't burn himself with his chubby little knees and I know that advances have been made since then that artificial turf is less hot than rubber. But we don't have the numbers on that. And climate change is only going to get worse. Like we're going to have more extreme weather days. We're going to have them more often and they're going to be more extreme. And I asked Brandt about this, but most of those structures aren't going to be shaded. Um, we have had extreme heat conditions in which kids have suffered from from that. and we'll we it's not going to get better. I I am also the wife of someone who is visually impaired and it is

198very difficult for us to navigate structures. I in this particular case with this particular thing where it is a a side improvement on existing structures I agree that there's only so much you can do with the things in place but I agree with rigid for the next item for site improvements if there's a way to redesign structures like that I would be very supportive I also wonder if there is a way in which we can to like a mix like have for example the impact areas where we need to prevent fall damage or the areas with high traffic at the end of a slide. Have those areas be accessible, have a ramp going to the stairs or something so that kids are going to be able to access these these areas regardless of their potential

199mobility issues. But I also think that there is joy in playing with natural materials. Even if it's not how the play structure was meant to be used, my kid will make happy tambar sand castles and be content doing that. As a person of significant privilege, I think a lot about where do I go? because I have a choice um to go on hot days. And where I came to was that I would prefer to go to take my kids somewhere like um Washington Park over 7 C's because 7 C's doesn't have enough shade. It has water but but not everywhere. um some place like Persona that has, you know, a creek and has grass and has shade and those just are so more pleasant to be in in hot conditions. But that's not a choice

200that our kids can make. They they have to be at school. They they can't get in a car. Um and that's what I want for the kids to be to have that to not overheat, to not Yeah, that's where I want that. Nancy. Um, as an early childhood educator, I have personal experience uh with with uh dealing with uh various different types of fall materials. My first concern is they should be seen. We're also talking about a small fall area. We're not talking about moving all of the area to um an artificial um turf situation. There are While I appreciate that there are um natural um materials available for fall areas. It's not a oneandone. It needs constant monitoring. It needs to be replaced. And because they're movable materials, I can tell you that children

201will use them in their play appropriately and inappropriately. And um those objects can cause injury, too. So, it's a matter of trying to have a really good balance for what we can do for the moment. But I agree that the best practices for any early childhood is to go with natural, but we need to do something now in order to make our playgrounds safer because some of them are damaged. Um, and we need to have them safer now and work towards a broader solution, a better solution in the future. Um, I know it it's not what people want to hear, instant fix, but I think we need to thoughtfully move forward for a better sustainable um option that's going to take more time than what we than the timeline that we have um currently because

202it's going to take a more of a refine than just looking at a specific wall area. So that's that's kind of where I'm at. Um right now um I'm for making sure that we have materials that are um safe and compliant um to meet uh opportunities for freedom of play um moving forward um in the in the different areas. to once again look bigger broader about um having more natural place um surfaces and um natural space throughout our entire campus. Great. I have a question. So, how much time, Grant, how much time do we have like as far as like if we wanted to reimag like if we didn't do anything this summer, if we wanted to go for next summer, how much time do we have to like reimagine things or to look for

203a look for a broader approach for these improvement areas? So, so I'll I'm going to answer your question, I think, so let me know if I do. We've been putting band-aids on the existing playmatting tiles for well over a year now. Um, these tiles are to the point where replacing them is extremely important to the safety of the kids using them. I will say that. Um, I guess I'll leave it there. um in regards to timeline on down the road. So, if we replace if we replace stuff with artificial turf or wood wood fiber or whatever we do, if it's artificial turf, is that an eight-year solution? And the wood or is it the wood fiber that's the eightear? Are they both eight years? About the same time. I have a tag on question. When

204the Fremont Union High School District replaced their um fields, one of the reasons that they declined to replace them with natural grass, their existing artificial turf with grass was that they said that the barrier to that the cost of like tearing up everything up would be too great. If we do artificial turf now and then at some that that I'm under the impression that's not reversible. Is that true? I think what you're talking about is a separate space, right? because those are huge fields and they'd have to be replaced with like they had regular grass, they went to artificial grass going back to regular grass. This is a underneath. So, this isn't a space that we would ever put regular grass at cuz that's not a great I realize but if we but there's like

205there's multiple layers to the artificial turf and I'm wondering how difficult it would be if we decided at some later point that we don't want anymore. Yeah. So, so fortunately for construction, any construction generally it's reversible. Um, you can rip it out just like anything else. I'll say it's not that. Okay. Okay. Yeah. There. Rip it out. Yes. So, this is one of those things about which experts you want to throw your dice out. And uh we got a lot of experts opinion from every side and uh we also get and I think it's a very valuable one from our licensed architect which is the consultant we pay and she is also a licensed lead certified advisor and architect. She is a lead AB. So Mariana from the Mariana Alvarez Para say from her office

206she has specified a product that complies with the jet to be passed AB1423 which requires a manufacturer to remove all regulated PFAS. She explained that the concerns about potential public health harm due to PFS are based on all synthetic turf applications and the technology for processing the textiles has evolved evolved with the past few years and the preparation of the bill resulting in a current market that offer several products complying with these regulations as an extra layer of ensuring the safe building materials. are used. The architect who is a lead certifier architect had specified the requirement for contractor to submit the product with the data sheets and lab test showing such compliance and you had more comments about this. I was going to say we're talking about Mariana. Mariana has joined us if we have

207any questions that we would like to to ask her specifically about this. allow her to talk. Huh? Should I allow her to talk first? Oh, yes. Yes, please go ahead. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. Oh, hi. Thanks for having me. Um um I I appreciate all all the comments. I um yes, I am a licensed architect. I am lead certified and I'm also a mother. So, I can relate with all the concerns. Um so I I think the key issue here is um all the things that we need to balance um as it was said previously and the things that I need to balance as an architect is that I need to follow the requirements of the code. I need to follow what the US access board determines and that is again

208for accessibility and inclusivity for having access to these playgrounds. Um, I have to have everything that we do and and and believe me, I am dealing with safety data sheets for every single building material because as you can understand, there are chemicals added to everything in our lives, right? Um, and the the issue with the BFA, Can you hear me? Well, I can see I can hear some echo. You're very good. Yes. Oh, okay. Uh, thank you. Um so unfortunately the these chem the pifas are chemicals are man-made chemicals and they've been around for a long time and they have made their ways into the our air our water and our soil um and but the technology has changed so much that um the the manufacturing of products have reduced these chemicals that have been

209added. So um we've done a lot of research. I have um newsletter coming from building green articles from USGBC. Um and the issue that is happening is that sometimes a product even though a manufacturer has eliminated from their process the use of those man-made chemicals after the product is installed. If there's a presence of that is because of it has been contaminated from what is from other things and those other things sometimes are even unfortunately in food packaging in in makeup in pesticides and herbicides. So there is true in that there is no PFAS free product but there's these have been reduced significantly and for what we need to do in playgrounds where I need to assure that we have a stable material smooth impact act attenuating surface um the best choice at this point

210is um what we have um from my experience is artificial turf is giving uh the best solution for what we need to do. Unfortunately, the u uh the US access board is not accepting the the wood fibers uh because it doesn't provide that smooth uh surface uh for that accessibility. Um it requires to have a binder in it. Um so that is basically glue um to provide that stable surface. Um and that's something that um it has to do it has to be done at the site as if they're mixing with motor mixer and it cannot be done like for more than an hours to ensure you know the workability and that it binds the fibers uh properly. Um and there are concerns when they use the motor mixer they wax that um with a

211product that I we don't know if that itself has uh chemicals that are not acceptable or have VOCC's um the binders themselves. So there's no perfect answer right now. And I want to go back to the the the um term balance. Um their technology has changed a lot. Most of that chemicals that were added I said was for in the produ in the production process which is um like a lubricant to the equipment that they use to extrude the blades of the artificial turf. I'm talking about the hairs, right? Um so that has been eliminated and um I don't have any information from AstroTurf which is u um one of the manufacturers. There's two that we are specifying that have explained their process and they have tested the process and they use raw materials that

212do not contain PIFAs and that they don't use that in those equipment as they're saying in their process. Um so from what we can get we can we can choose these materials again that have changed their technologies to comply to the AB uh 1423 and and that bill actually it's not I think they understand what um how um PIFAs are working because there's not such thing as no PIFAs but the the bill reads that they're prohibiting any product that intentionally has added Ephas. Um, so that is what's reducing a lot and and California is moving towards safer materials and I'm talking about anything in buildings. But again, when we need to comply with the playgrounds for safety, for fall protection, for accessibility, um the options that are um complying with that are the art artificial

213turf and the pour in place rubberized surface. on the rubberous surface as it was mentioned from my experience and how what we've been specifying it could have more heat than the artificial turf. Um and and same thing because it's put in place the binders that are used in those and and the the waxing of the mixer at the time. There's no testing of that um um for for doing that. And we have tried to do the loose wood fibers um in playgrounds, but the division of state architect um even though there's they cannot say we're not approving it, they're actually not approving them because being loose um it doesn't provide that smooth surface and they have asked us to create paths onto the play components of the structure. um that has um made us they

214they have requested us to do that and that requires another concrete curb to separate the wood chips from the smooth material. Sometimes is that rubberized uh surface and it's creating even more hazard, right? Because as a kid playing in that area, they can fall from the loose fibers onto that concrete curb that is in the middle of that play box. So considering all these things and again going back to balance um that is our recommendation that you know for everything we need to accomplish um it there's no perfect solution but the artificial turf uh provides everything we need to have compliant play compliant play structures and areas. So I have few questions. First, a few years ago, lead and green points were giving points and and start for Can I do a quick time check?

215I think we're going to need to extend our 9:30. Yes. Yes. So, can I make a motion that we extend our meeting time by 15 minutes to 9:45? I think we should make it till 10 and then if we don't need it, then we are using it. I'll make it to 10. A second. Okay, everybody say I if you are inclined to. I I Okay, so with that we stand at least until 10. Can I also I haven't been able to talk yet. Is it okay if I share some thoughts and then last questions? Uh I asked you before you didn't want to. Oh, I didn't say no. I just wait like everyone's going. Um so I I appreciate like what I was just say I think the architect said way better, right? that this

216idea there's these competing right we have these competing things we have to deal with right so I'm someone who is trying to like use less path loss in my life and understand that space but then there's all these other pieces so I just I think she articulated really great so I don't really need to go into that space but I think that space of competing balance and then I think um like going to this idea Bridget kind of said it earlier and then here too right the space of like maybe we want to have like a broader conversation about about environment mental things, right? Like so one example, if we're really caring about chemicals that our kids are like ingesting, then we I don't want to like throw this is like throwing food service under

217the bus, but like that's probably the space that we are actually I mean like the water plastic water bottles, right? Like I haven't used one of those probably in years, you know? So like there are lots of other things if we are truly concerned about this that I think probably we can make some other changes in the district that actually would make a bigger difference in the health of our kids. So that that's just like a broader that broader space of conversation like I think that would be a fascinating conversation like if we want to dig into this there's like the green space but there's also the pl there's simply chemicals and plastics and what are they doing to our bodies and anyways so just I would be interested in that broader conversation at a

218later date but I think in this space I support like the motions on the table so as we have Mariana here Mariana so we we years ago green points and leave were giving extra points for artificial but then they didn't lower the heat iron effect and and now brand is talking about using envirill which apparently it does and is pretty much I think silica and is more more sustainable and and is supposed to lower the hayan effect which I'm very worried here and it doesn't have at least the amount of missions. So I I wrote to both institutions [Music] US US GBC didn't answer but then green points build it green say that they do not have a problem with it. They are not giving points anymore because they're moving towards recyclable items and this

219is not they they still haven't figured out how to recycle this or how to say but they don't have any issue with the particular product but what about lead as you are as lead certified how what is their position and if you were building this with a green with a lead intention will this pass the green intention And this is again is for this use in particular that is another playground not I mean not changing the world into this is those little parts. Yes. Um that's a good question. There is no specific definition for the use the USGBC they don't say do not use this is they basically ask you know it has to do with areas right like what percentage are you using for certain uh sustainable strategies versus areas that you cannot right

220where do we have per pvious surfaces and where they are impervious right so there's actually no no guidelines um saying no or or even There are no list of approved or prohibited materials as it as it comes to to synthetic turf and I think it has to do because honestly when we're talking about these uh offging uh materials the concern is when they are indoors right so that's why there's a big push for limiting the contents of VOCC the volatile organic contents uh compounds um being outside um It's I I haven't seen either in the USGBC or in the building green list um any testing for for these materials and I think it has to do because again there's no perfect solution. Um but there's no no one way or the other of telling us

221not not to. Um I I hope that I answered the question. And Brand, you you were going to say something about the viral field. No, I just heard you say brand was talking about envir so I came up here because I thought I was going to address one. There was no question. So walk away. So um I can clarify that. So the environ is um the material. So so the synthetic turf has uh three parts, right? um the cushion layer down below that is not in contact with the user. Then is the the fabric that basically is the the the grass blades. And then there's the infill. The infill is what's put on top of basically that carpet to keep the the blades like the the grass up and also to keep that fabric uh

222in place. um the technology has changed a lot and and actually I think faster than regulations are going on. So the the current products are heavier and it requires less infill. The problem with the older generation of artificial turf is that they were have the infill that they were using were also a byproduct of or or recycled tires and that is what was retaining a lot of the heat. So right now there's alternates to that and not put those those pulverized uh uh recycled tires. There's many other um options for keeping the the the grass down, the the blades down and one of them is the envirill. There's other ones that are made of um recycled like seashells. There other ones that are made from um there's there's a variety of of alternates that not

223only is a thinner layer but also retain the heat less. So that's what we're specifying. There's that we have two options of them that again we have talked to not only manufacturers but actually contractors. the contractor builds anything outside and they and he has explained uh to us this this issue about the what he's learned about the fabrication and that there's no added chemicals to this. So there are several options and we found that the envirill u was a good um alternative for that infill um that is what's you know above the the carpet or the or the turf. I just wanted to say one more thing. When when my kids were little, they were at Churches. Um there was also a kid who fell off of the play structure and landed on another kid

224and broke that kid's like femur or something like broke his leg really bad. I remember it was horrible. And that kid missed all of third grade and he was in traction and I think he didn't have insurance and it was like a super terrible horrible deal. And so I'm all for padding under play structures. I think it's super important and um you know and I just like Eileen was saying like about eventually moving to inclusive access really like like really a seriously accessible play structure at each of our sites having at least one at each at each school would be like the dream. So um you know I think I think it's a two-part conversation for sure. And I love Michelle's idea. I just wanted to say I want to talk about other stuff too.

225So that sounds fun. Sure. The um the letter that was included in packet review was not the one from October of 2023. And the other thing that bothered me about that letter was that the um specific vendor 10K didn't have a press release about about having PAS free materials until January 2024. So I'm really wondering about the dating here if they actually do have PASF free material. I don't know what that means. I would like the district to do independent testing of the material that we are going to install. I'm pretty sure there are labs that will do that um within specifications. I have a specific worry about the schools that we have that are the closest to the bay. Lakewood and Fairwood are directly staffed with the bay. In conversation with some of our

226other school board colleagues, I'm under the impression that uh the state water board may move forward with um potential lawsuits for PAS contamination of water from large areas. I realize we're not a large these aren't large areas we're talking about, but for specifically those schools that are very clo very close to the southern end of the bay. I want to minimize that if it sounds like we're going to go in that direction. Um, I'm worried somewhat that even if the manufacturing standards for these things have changed, the lots that we get won't have been produced after those manufacturing standards are changed. So, I really want to make sure that the things that we're putting in are meeting the standards that are being advertised. Yeah. And a lot of those might not might not be from

227our little playgrounds. I know. But if we like before we put it in, let's be sure it off that is not out. Right. Yeah. Because it's really hard to get that bass out of the water once it's in. And with the extreme weather conditions, if you get like a few more atmospheric rivers, that's that's a very short trip to the bay. Um Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure that in the other bill as you put it well you put it as that this year we're going to have some contracts although I don't think this contract in particular of putting new carpets and all that those are indoor those are have way more effective and those are green materials and and green carpet and binders and everything the glue and everything is approved and safe to be

228installed in classrooms as code is currently written. Oh, okay. Well, yeah, the the green option with no VOCC's and all that, correct? Oh, I have another one about the exposure of the artificial turf during um high heat conditions like very hot days. Do we have any data on that? I'm under the impression that pases um particularly in when when you heat them like in cooking on pans and stuff that's when they're released. Is that um do we have data on aren't those really high temperatures? Yeah. Like they're really high temperatures but they're but they'll be out in the sun for like years. like do we have data on those those conditions of these toxic chemical releases over the course of the lifetime of the turf? I can circle back with you. So the the the

229ask is data on lifetime of synthetic turf. It's essentially right. So I think we're just getting at the same idea, right? So like plastic like we I've switched from plastic to like glass at home, right? because learning that like if you heat up a plastic like your leftovers in a plastic Tupperware in the microwave Yeah. then all those bad chemicals leech into the food that you're eating. So I think that's what she's referring to. So the question is if there are PFAs in the the turf as it heats in the sun, do you get a similar effect as that microwave problem where then is not leeching to food but is it leeching into the air or whatever else? Yeah. Yeah. It's it's on the one hand encouraging that this technology is improving, but on the

230other hand difficult to make this decision now because it'll be it's potentially going to be improved significantly tomorrow or a few months from now or a few months after we install it. Um where in fact we have already committed to this product for a decade and the manufacturer isn't isn't going to tell us no no no wait a few months. Thank you. Then and again, yeah, what part of the the plastic also were getting closer or the products because this table has plastic in it, right? I think it gets down to right like we all agree that plastic is not great, but we have to balance all these other factors. Yeah. I mean and where are we putting it and where is exactly and it's in construction everywhere and it's not black seed we have

231all these things and I'm very worried also about the heat effect on the island heat effect on on the asphalt and the big black tops that really worry me more and then more shading structures as much as we can I made a note on that one yes okay so with this then I think we don't have anything. Oh. Oh, yes. This is Huh. There's a vote, right? There is a vote for B, but we already You haven't voted yet. This Okay. And so, the motion was to reject, which is not really I I read it three times and it's not really how it's written down. So, we're going to change what is written down and we are rejecting it. That's what it says. Yes. Yes. Yeah. But written down it say reject all bids and

232allow district staff to review the project. Very good. I recommend Oh, do you reject? Okay. Now it says and then so in in this one we are approving your rejection. So just have to ask for the vote. So we when we say I we say I for this particular question. So everybody says I. You are in. All right, with that we pass not to pass. We pass and then we move to C which is sister of the other one but this one is the acceptance and our bit of design improvement in multiple campus. Thank you for coming back. Of course. Okay. So, I'll I'll truncate this description and say that on March 7th, we received bids and open them in regards to the um award of multiple site improvements. Um those sites being Fairwood, Vargas,

233Bishop, and Cumberland. Um we received six bids. We are recommending to the board of education that they accept receipt of the lowest responsive responsible bidder being Silicon Valley paving and deem that 101 builders and Gira Construction be thrown out as non-responsive. Okay. So do we have a comments on this particular item 10 C we have three online. Okay, let's go ahead. All right, got to move quick, please. It has to be different comments than what was made earlier. Yeah, we just need to go quick. Yes, please. Three more comments for the public. Actually, now two uh D W followed by Susan Hinton. Okay, please go ahead. You have two minutes. Please start stating your relationship with the district and name, please. Good evening. I'm D I'm Diane Walkey. I'm on the board of directors for

234Safe Healthy Playing Fields, a national nonprofit. And I'd like to speak to the fact that all synthetic turf has PAS. It's not a matter of whether it's indoors or outdoors. It all has PAS. It all leeches PAS as well as other chemicals that are found in plastics. These are especially harmful to children who have developmental windows. It leads to all types of health concerns, not just as young children, but even later. Cancers usually have a a long latency period, but the incidence of cancer in children is increasing rapidly. I'd also like to speak to the loose wood fiber, the EFW fibers that can be used. You need to know that the Americans with Disabilities Act does not speak to surfacing. It speaks to access and loose wood fiber is an acceptable surfacing. You should know

235that used tire crumb surfacing is not. It's got over 350 chemicals that are toxic and carcinogenic and have no business being under the feet of our children. I also wanted to speak to the envir envirrill issue. It is plasticcoated silica sand. So, not only are you adding hundreds and hundreds of pounds of microlastic broken synthetic turf blades and backing and shock pad to the environment. This envirrill would also add plasticcoated silica sand. Silica sand has been on the California Proposition 65 list since 1988 because of its carcinogicity. As as these fields are played on, kids are grinding these surfaces down with friction and they're releasing the silica sand which they're then inhaling. They're smaller but in stature. They're lower to the surface. These surfaces get extremely hot. I personally have measured surfaces at 187 degrees.

236Others have measured them at over 200 degrees for synthetic turf and used higher crumb surfacing or the PIP pour in place exceeds that. These surfaces are always hotter than asphalt. I urge you to not use any synthetic surfacing. They're move legislation in California and regulation is moving away from these services. you put them in today, you're not going to be able to replace them when they're due to be replaced. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thanks. So, the next person online, please. We have two more. Susan Hintson, followed by Cynthia Fan. Okay. Don't don't add any more. Okay. Because we have another action item that we have to get done before 10 o'clock. Well, just go just go. So the next the next person on the online hello just can you hear

237me? Yes. Um good evening. I'm Susan Hinton and I'm here as a member of the Sierra Club LMA created chapters plastic pollution prevention committee. There are so many things that were discussed that need to be rectified. First of all AB1423 is no more. It was vetoed by Governor Nuome, so there's no point in talking about it. This year, there's SB903, which is broader in scope. It uh essentially wants to remove PAS from all sorts of products, not just from artificial turf. So, you really need to look at SB 903. Also, wood fiber is not wood chipped. That was mentioned earlier by several people. Wood chips and wood fiber are different surfaces. Wood chips are bigger, clunkier. Um, natural playbased playgrounds uh can have different surfaces. They don't need a uniform surface. So, you could have

238a combination of crushed granite and a boardwalk and wood fiber. Uh, you don't necessarily need to stick to one thing. Different people have mobility on different surfaces. you could satisfy everyone's needs. You do not need to go to artificial turf. I have myself purchased a certified calibrated infrared thermometer and on fair oak um artificial turf fields when the air temperature was 78°. I measured the surface at 152° F. That's quite hot. I would not want my young child on a surface that hot out in the sun on a swing. Um, also artificial turf gets compacted. Um, that is to say, the infield gets compacted and it becomes hard. I would not want somebody falling off the swing onto a compacted artificial turf field. Um, artificial turf is made from um, polyethylene. It's made from linear

239low density polyethylene and prop polyropylene. Uh polyethylene in its form is a clear squishy plastic. In order to make it artificial turf, you had to have you have to add colorants and conditioners. That's where PAS comes in. Even if you remove PAS, you still need something to make it less flammable. is also considered to be flammable in its natural state because a melting temperature is the same as a kitchen match. Um, so you need extra stuff added and you need independent testing to tell you what that is. Um, there are cheaper, easier to care for, cooler, fully biodegradable alternatives. You should go talk to other architects. Thank you very much. Okay, next. The last one is Cynthia Fan. Okay, please go ahead. Hi, again, my name is Cynthia Fan. I'm a parent of children in

240a neighboring school district that had a really disappointing experience with what our school district did. They went and installed synthetic turf in the courtyards. Um, the first thing I can tell you is a lot of people think the heat of synthetic turf comes from the infill because for a long time synthetic turf fields were infilled with crumbled tires. In other words, black rubber crumbs. Uh, so industry started selling what they call cooler infills. Cooler is a very deceptive term. Cooler is not cool. I took an infrared heat gun onto a local synthetic turf field with cooler infill. It was cork cork crumbs. It was 170° F in the spring. not the summer, in the spring and they had a natural grass field right adjacent to it and I took the temperature there at the same

241time that was only 90° the difference between 170° and 90° that's crazy. So cooler infill did not work. Now going back to my my son's school the courtyards in the the synthetic turf there they get hot and they didn't get any infill. They chose there's a there's varieties of synthetic turf that don't take any infill. That's what they picked. It still gets hot. Um, not counting our our grass playing fields. The entire rest of my son's elementary school campus is high heat surfaces, black top, synthetic turf, rubberized surfaces. And when I do yard duty in August and September, you can see the heat coming off the surfaces. Um, the other thing I can say is after that our school district installed the synthetic turf in the courtyards, they had to decide what they were going

242to do with the athletic fields and after the community was informed about this, the district ran a survey and nearly 80% of the parents voted for natural grass. Um, regarding PAS, the head of the Synthetic Turf Council, which is an organization that represents the industry, testified at the hearing for AB1423 last year, that the industry needs more time to bring PAS down to the levels at which the bill was going to regulate them. Uh, the state is concerned enough about PAS and artificial turf that later this year, Department of Toxic Substances Control will be doing a workshop about it. I also want to alert you that 10 days ago, the Center for Environmental Health, which I think is in Oakland, sent legal notices to Home Depot and Lowe's for selling artificial turf found to contain

243high levels of PAS. Um they say that Home Depot and Lowe's failed to warn its customers of potential exposure uh as required under Prop 65. independent testing they commissioned um found alarmingly high levels of PAS and they advise if you touch it, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water. Limit your exposure if you have children. Limit playtime on the turf and ensure your hands and other body parts do not touch your mouth. Uh I want to talk about engineered wood fiber. Uh wood chips are not ADA compliant because wheelchair wheels and crutches can't gain traction on them. But engineered wood fiber is not wood chips. EWF knits together. It is compliant with ADA. There's no perfect solution, but I ask that you not use plastic turf or rubber rice surfaces if you choose. Thank

244you. Thank you for your comments. And that was it online, isn't it? Okay. So, we have three people still here that also going to talk about that. But due to time and unless you have something particular new, we're going to give you one minute of three. How much? one here one two please we we need to finish the meeting by 10:00 and we have another action item and the consent agenda items this is a really important decision for our case start talking then yes minute so so we're going to start by Peggy oh no we're going to start by or you want yes start in My earlier speech, I mentioned a letter from the synthe synthetic turf council. Now, I'd like to share specific details. It was written by Melanie Tower, the CEO of synthetic

245turf council, which is a lobby group for the artificial turf industry and addressed to Senator Ben Allen on the environmental quality committee regarding a proposed ban on artificial turf that contains PFSA Pass. the letter in June 23 um when the California state legislature was proposing AB1423 to ban at artificial turf. The letter stated the bill is a ban on the sale of artificial turf containing intentionally added PAS on January 1, 2024 to certain public entities and by January 1, 2025 for all sales in California. These dates do not provide enough time for the manufacturer and suppliers to develop viable alternatives to the marketplace. In other words, if the bill had passed, artificial turf would not be able to be sold in California because it's all manufactured with PAS. In school, we teach our kids to

246look at the facts when making a decision. Now is a great time for the board to demonstrate the lessons in real life. The facts are clear. Past free artificial turf does not ac exist. Please reject the contracts and require they're done with with natural materials. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um I have a minute. I'm going to say I'm going to ask you to split it up. So you're not sure. Let's do engineering engineering wood fiber at some schools and you can do something else at other schools. I do want to highlight uh researchers of the toxic use reduction institute at University of Massachusetts say engineered wood fiber is better for playgrounds. National center for health research also recommends engineered wood fiber for playgrounds. You already heard from someone from safe and healthy playing fields

247also engineered wood fiber for playgrounds. Special needs playground equipment online. Engineered wood fiber is um when compressed produces a surface that is wheelchair accessible and ADA compliant. Specialized playgrounds. Engineer engineered wood fiber offers a playground surface compliant with accessibility standards. This advantage highlights its capabilities for wheelchair accessibility. Bridget, your story sucks, right? We want to include everyone. You can have everyone included with engineer engineered wood fiber without having to go to artificial turf. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So before we we move to the next and we do you want to vote for 10 more minutes after 10 or we try to finish at 10 and if you by the bylaw you can only extend it one time. Okay. Then we'll tell you we have the next two weeks. So let's try to do um

248the next one. Oh yeah, we need to vote on this one. Vote on what we just talked about. Yes. So, do we have a motion on this particular item and C? Do I need to read out the whole long recommendation? It's recommended or I move u the board of education reject the receipt of bids from 101 builders and GA construction group as non-responsive and accept receipt of all other bids and award the contract to the lowest responsive and responsible conforming bid from Silicon Valley Paving and grant authorization to execute the agreements relative to the site improvements multiple campuses including Bishop Elementary, Fairwood Elementary, and Marcus Elementary. We have a second. I'll second it. Okay. Okay. Do we want to start discussion about this board? I think I was gonna say I think everybody said what

249they needed to say about um the artificial turf versus other alternatives. Okay. So still we have here Brand and our consultant expert. Do we have more questions to any of them? I think it I think as long as we you know it sounds like the board is consensus that we want to come back and have a discussion about outdoor play spaces in the future. I I'm ready to vote. Sorry, the the thing was we have we want to have discussion about like you know how how we want to like if we how we want to make healthier playgrounds and healthier play spaces over in the future over the next several over the next several years and we have the half that got rejected today. Yeah. So this is only half of them and uh okay

250so everyone who is who wants to approve the motion as it is I think we're ready to vote please say I I and you just n okay we have four eyes and one nay and with that if pass. Thank you Mayanas for your work and thank you Brand. We move to the next item which is the approval of the chief business officers employment contract and salary schedule. Oh sorry verbal summary of compensation or package offered to the chief business officer and for that we have Dr. Gallagher. Okay, so this is the moment at least Arthur's been waiting for. Sorry, Arthur. So, no, thank you. Thank you, Arthur. So, as you know, we we do a verbal summary first and we actually take action. So, I'm going to read a whole bunch um because we do

251this just as transparently as possible. The chief business officer salary will be a base salary of $275,000 for the 2324 school year and $283,250 for the 2425 school year. The contract includes a one-step increment each year of the contract. The one-step increment shall equal to 3% of the base salary during the prior contract year. An annual cell phone stipen will be $600. The chief business officer is required to possess and maintain an automobile to be used for travel and the performance of his regular assigned duties throughout the district and the county of Santa Clara for which he will receive a flat monthly car allowance of $535. The chief business officer shall be eligible to participate but is not required to participate at his own expense in the insurance plans medical dental vision made by the

252board uh to district employees pursuant to section 2219.2b3 of the education code and section 125 of the IRS code. The CBO will receive a full paid term life insurance with a benefit amount of $100,000. The district shall pay the annual dues or fees for a total of two associations, state or national, to which the business off chief business officer belongs for purposes related to his duties as chief business officer and one local service or community club as approved by the superintendent and there's no action on this. No action on this one. And uh well is recommending at the bottom to approve the contract. Okay. And then the next one which is 10E which is the approval of the chief business officer's employment contract and salary schedule. So yeah this is the item where you actually

253vote to approve the contract. Okay. So board do we have a motion? Is there any public comment on these particular two items 10 D and E? Okay, with that approval of the chief business officer employment contract and salary schedule as presented. I'll second that. Second. Okay. So, can we get a vote to anybody who is Oh, do we have any comments with that? Thanks for sticking with us. Thank you. It's not usually this long. Yeah, it could be done just when he's here for you. Good. With that we have a vote. Everybody who is who wants to approve it please say I. I. I. Okay. That is fast. Welcome aboard. Consent. And now we can get the consent agenda items. With this any item on the agenda is subject to review and discussion prior to

254being approved by the board if necessary. meeting may be removed for separate for action. So the public may address the board regarding any items on the consent agenda. If we have any comments about this is item 11, please say now. Seeing none, then we move forward. Any motion to approve to approve the consent agenda? Second. Perfect. Do we want to vote on it? Please say I. If there are no comments. I Okay. With that, we approve the agenda, the consent agenda items. And so the next item will be the future meetings. And before this, I wanted to say thank you to our wonderful translators and thank you for being here, giving such an important service to a big part of our community who will come back and see you doing your wonderful work. And uh

255now uh the next meeting will be on April 4, 2024 at 6:00 p.m. Thank you. Good job. Thank you Lori for your service. Good night everybody for our Thursday. Oh yes showcase in the EW.