Berkeley USD Regular School Board Meeting June 3, 2026

001Good evening everybody. Good evening. Can you hear me? We're going to start up the board meeting in just a minute. Thank you so much. I know there's a lot of excitement in the room. I can feel the energy. I'm excited to be here. You're excited to be here. Um, but we want to get started so we can hear your voices. >> Don't make me knock the gavvel. >> Look here. We have a schoolboard gavvel. I'm going to have to knock it. is easy. >> You guys hear that? That sounds very stern. Look at Look what I had to do. Just get your attention. >> All righty. Thanks a lot. Um uh good evening. Thank you for joining our meeting here on June 3rd. Um >> you're not very loud. >> We're not very loud. Not

002>> Hello. >> Okay, good. Um all right. Thanks for coming out. I can feel the energy. Lots of people here. Um, uh, you're excited to be here. We're excited to have you here. Um, so we're starting up the June 3rd, uh, school board meeting. Um, and I think we start with a roll call. Miss Chavez, >> stating 7:20 p.m. is our start time for the record. Um, director Anavas. >> Director Jennifer Shinowski >> here. Director Elijah Brown, >> present. >> Vice President Jennifer Kent. President Michael Chick. >> I am here. Thank you. >> Um and uh next up we have Vice President Korn is going to provide um the close session. >> We need to approve the agenda for the for the evening. >> Okay. Um good evening everyone. Closed session was called to order

003at 5:40. >> Over the agenda. Approve the agenda of course. Apologize. Uh, do we have a motion to approve the agenda? >> I'll move to approve. I'll second. >> All in favor? Eyes. >> I I >> I. >> No. No. >> All right. And now, Vice President Korn will uh provide the close session. >> Okay. Uh, close session was called to order at 5:42 p.m. with uh, Director Chinowski, Vice President Korn, and President Chang in attendance. Um, for item 3.1.1, the board received an update and gave direction. Uh, for item 3.2.1, the board received an update. For item 3.2.2, there was a motion by Korn, seconded by Chang, that was approved with Chang and Korn voting I and Chinoski voting nay. For item 3.2.3, 2.3. There was a motion by Korn, seconded by Vasu Dev.

004Um the motion was approved with Chang Vasuv and Korn voting yes and Shinoski voting nay. For item 3.2.4, there was a motion by Korn, seconded by Vasuv. The motion was approved by Chang, Vasuv, and Korn and uh Shinoski voted no. For item 3.2.5, 2.5. There was a motion by Korn, seconded by Vasu Dev. It was approved by Chang Vasudv and Korn and Shinoski voted no. For item 3.2.6, there was a motion by Korn, seconded by Vasudv. Uh the motion was approved by Chang Vasuv and Korn and Chinoski voted no. Um item 3.2.7 will be delayed for the next meeting. Um, for item 3.3, the board received an update and for item 3.4, um, the board had a discussion. >> Thank you so much, Vice President Korn. Um, next on up, uh, we have one of

005our most important items is superintendent comments. Superintendent. >> Thank you, President Chang. >> Good evening, B USD family. >> Good evening. I mean, you guys are getting better at that. >> Um, it's a whole lot of y'all this evening. I'm so happy to see all your beautiful faces. I wish I would have prepared something to say. Um, I'm going to be brief tonight because we have a pretty packed um, and engaged agenda and I know that you all are here because you have a lot to say. Uh, just a couple of announcements. Tonight in our closed session, uh, the board approved the appointment and it will be formalized on the consent agenda of Clifton T. Carly as the vice principal for the Berkeley Adult School beginning next. Did you guys even know we have an

006adult school? Yes. We enable and inspire a very diverse student body, a body of all ages and all pathways. We want to give a round of applause, please, for Clifton T. Carly, the new vice pres. Oh, wait. Mr. Carly, still go ahead, MR. CARLY. STAND UP. LOOK AT THAT. I didn't even know you were in the room. Thank you, Mr. Carly. Mr. Carly has um extensive experience in adult education and we are so lucky and excited uh that he will contribute that to supporting the learners of Berkeley Unifi Adult School towards a vision to foster equitable, kind and resilient communities. We actually had our uh Berkeley adult school graduation yesterday and if you all have not seen an adult school graduation, you have not yet seen an graduation. It is so amazingly inspiring to hear

007folks from all different walks of life who took paths that are oftentimes called uh non-traditional tell their story of overcome, of resilience, and of persistence. And even though they are not, I don't refer to them as the babies, they are still folks that we enable and inspire to achieve academic excellence and make positive contributions to our world. And we are hash Berkeley proud for their accomplishments. Okay, I said I was going to be short. Oh yeah, CLAP IT UP. UH, TONIGHT is round three of our budget series. Um, you all might not know, but we know very well that tomorrow is the last day of school for the 2526 school year. However, tonight is not the last board meeting of the 2526 school year. We have another board meeting on June 10th as well as

008June 20, I'm sorry, as well as June 17th, we will continue the conversations around budget and resource allocation with our board approving the proposed budget on the meeting on the 17th. And so even though you are out of school or school is out, maybe perhaps because it is, we know you have extra time. So I expect to see you all still here and engaged on the 10th and the 17th. Is that a deal? Um, finally, I just want to because I do have a captive audience and y'all know I'm really shy. Um, just to say thank you. Um, this is the end of what is the fourth year for me, the fourth year for us as a team, the fourth year of us together in this formation of the B USC family. Um, our hashtag

009this year, you all should know it was # Berkeley Proud. And I am so so proud of the work that we've been able to do together. Um I'm proud of the fact that Berkeley Unifi has been named a district on the rise. I'm proud of the fact that we um have reduced our chronic absenteeism, that we have improved our outcomes for all of our focal students, that we are for the first time in Berkeley history um having no students in the red, which means that we are not just showing progress with proficiency, but we are also accelerating outcomes for our babies. I'm so glad that we were able to I'm so proud that we were able to uh reach agreement with all of our amazing labor partners, our classified certificated and our administrators. Um and

010just proud to be in this community that is passionate, that is committed, and that even though we don't always agree, we are all very uh committed to this idea of excellence, equity, enrichment, and engagement. So, thank you for having me for year four. Thank you for your continued partnership and your engagement. and thank you for all the ways that you've done your part to make us # Berkeley proud. >> All right. Thank you so much, Superintendent, for that rousing uh public comment. And we all know that, you know, Berkeley's on the rise, but Berkeley has always been a great place to go to school. Um so, thank you so much. Uh so, uh we are going to be shifting into public comment. I want to make a few um framing uh uh suggestions for our

011public comment period. We are really excited to have everybody here and there's lots of folks here. Uh typically there's 30 minutes for public comment. So we try to stay within range of that so that you not only have an opportunity to speak to us and provide us with your hearts and minds. um this uh you know this public forum here is really important for our community and for our school district. So we absolutely recognize that in order to balance that um that right and that interest and having you speak to us and are listening to you. We also need to move things along. So here's here are the ground rules. So there are a number of folks here that are here to speak on the same issues. Some of you are are together, others you

012may or may not be. Um I have these green cards um put together by a subject matter. Um I'm going to give the groups who are falling into the same subject matter 5 minutes total. So I'm going to call out your names so you have a little bit of time to kind of think about what you're going to do as you're coming up and then I'm going to call out the next group that's going to come up as well. And each of these groups have five minutes. you'll have to figure out, you know, who amongst that group is going to chat and that uh Miss Chavez is going to start the timer and it's going to beep really loudly at the end of that. We apologize for that. And then if you move on um

013uh uh uh smoothly for us, that gives us an opportunity to give other folks to speak. There are also folks online and you can also send your comments by email too. And then if they're individual, there are a number of individual folks who want to speak. Um, we're providing you with 1 minute today. I know that sounds really short, but you can actually say aloud in 1 minute. Um, and if you run out of time, of course, again, send an email to us. And finally, of course, we want our students to go first. We prioritize them first. So, um, in some of these cases, I'm trying to figure out who the students are and and I believe I know if for some reason a student in a particular group has not been flagged, just let

014me know. Okay? raise your hand and let us know. So, I'm going to start with um a student first. Uh Yokoto Williams, if you could come on up. Hello. And then Dan Brownson and Glattus will compost out if you could be ready to come on up in a second. >> Mike, are you group by topic for later? cuz these are adults. >> Oh, >> student and then take a group. >> Okay. Yeah, good idea. So, we have this one student. Yeah, if you could go for one minute, that'd be great. Then we have another I'm sorry, we have another set of students that will will come after that. Thank you. Oh, so the next set of students just to name you really quickly. Um, appears to be a conversation on bridge. Pedro Terrera Terrero, and

015apologies for mispronouncing your names. Uh, Wells Grimes. J U L Z. And you can tell me how to properly pronounce that when you come on up. >> Gels. >> Joel's great. Very cool. And Tavvel Gray. Tavl gray. >> Tavl. Tavvel. >> Um, uh, someone here was your teacher. Um, Taji >> Taji. Cool. Uh, so I I'm getting some of them right. Jelle Jacel Lopez. Cool. Uh, so can you guys be ready to come on up right after you're in a group and five minutes kind of think about what you're going to say together? Thanks so much and apologies. Yoko, you can proceed. >> My My name is Yoko and I'm a fourth grader in Berkeley Unified. My mother is an ethnic studies teacher on special assignment and her job needs to be full-time. She works

016really hard and does so many things like writing curriculum, training teachers, and helping teachers learn how to teach ethnic studies. She even goes to classrooms to help teachers like she came to my class and taught ethnic studies lessons which everyone loved and had fun learning. I'm proud of my mom and mom and I'm proud of being in a school district that has ethnic studies for even for elementary students like me. Berkeley is supposed to be a champion for equity. And if we cut back my mom's job, we are showing that we actually don't value equity like we say we do. We are giving people like Trump exactly what they want, which is less equity, less education about people of color and less justice. Please fully fund the ethnic studies TSA job and the bridge program.

017Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, we always appreciate our students. And next on up that, uh, did we hear previously, Pedro? And you're going to make me mispronounce your names again. Are are you guys coming up? Uh, >> D. Okay, we got all of them. So, we just have two of you, but the the names that I called would be part of that group for five minutes. Is that cool? >> Yeah. It's a total of five minutes. >> All right. >> Okay. I guess I need to go. Yeah. Pedro Terrero Grimes sorry Tavl Gray Tavl uh Taji >> and Jacel Lopez. So um because you're >> because you're talking about the same issue, you have a total of five minutes. >> Okay. >> Is this 5 minutes for the kids or

0185 minutes for like including adults? >> Um >> there's a few adults here. So if it's five minutes including everyone then adults will come up too. Is that okay? >> Yeah. That's cool. >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll just do that. >> Okay. >> When do I start? >> Do you tell us when to start? >> Oh, okay. >> Okay. Okay. Um, when people hear after school program, they might think Bridge is just a place students go after school ends. But bridge is so much more than that. Bridge provides constant support. Support that is needed outside of the time we have after school. If I need help, I know I can send a message or make a call and someone will be there for me. And what makes sure of that is that br is that bridge

019is that the bridge team as a whole is there for me and not just the cohort teacher alone. They don't just wait for students to ask for help. They check in on us, call home, and make sure we're doing okay academically, emotionally emotionally, and personally. They do this for every single student. So, it takes a team. >> What makes Bridge different is that they don't forget about us when school day ends. They push us to succeed, encourage us to reach our goals, and support us through challenges. They are invested in our growth both in and outside the classroom. Bridge is not just an after school program. It is a community, a support system, and a constant resource that helps students thrive every day. Thank you. Great. You still got four minutes. >> Nice. >> Good

020evening, superintendent, board members. Uh I might not be your typical student, but you know, I'm here representing from my uh I just want to Well, I'm here to speak on bridge. I'm here to speak on rise. I'm here to speak on point. I'm here to speak on ethnic studies as a middle school coun. Well, my name is Aron Lechuga. I'm a middle school counselor, restorative justice counselor at Longfellow Middle School. And you know the counselor, yeah, we had our graduation say, I got all my lawfas, you know, we middle school counselors, we fight to uh get these spots in these programs that we know that work, right? Uh they don't need less funding. Bridge needs more funding. Rise needs more support. Fente needs to be in the ninth grade. Like these are programs that serve

021our firstgen collegegoers, that serve black and brown students, that look and create spaces to decolonize this process so that it is accessible to us, to our kids, so that they can be there and it gives them the love. It gives them the case management. It gives them the support. That's critical. We go, we fight for these spots as counselors. It's critical that we sit there and have meetings with with Miss Luxford, with Miss Betty, right, with Miss Mel Goza about what needs to happen um in order to get those spots cuz they're coveted. And we know that means those kids are going to a four-year college of their choice. It's guaranteed. And so, you cannot limit that. You have to find other places to cut the money. I know it's hard. I know it's not

022just money growing on trees. I know you guys work with a lot of uh restraints. You know, it's it's we makes us fight amongst ourselves, right? That's the divide and conquer mentality, right? So, but how do we look and find other places, not the ones that we know and see have a proven track record that get our kids that all these kids that we get into those programs, they come back and they're like, "Mr. Luga, it works. It's working for me. I'm seeing. I'm heard." So, it's critical and we need our ethnic studies just like you heard like if you've ever worked with from TK to high school, we've all used those amazing lessons, right? Um, that Joy puts together that are next level that are so well done. It's beautiful and it's a oneperson

023department. Come on. Who else got to talk? Let's go. Give it up for these programs. Bri mama. >> All right. >> Um, here we go. Um, my name is Jesse Luxford and I AM The Bridge staff should come up. The bridge staff should definitely come up cuz they made the effort to be here tonight. Um, and it's not me, it's a team effort. So, um, I just want to thank so many families for coming out, the students, the seniors who have signs. Again, we're here again, um, you know, just talking about how impactful this program has been for kids. And I know that the district knows that. Um the problem is that we're here for a second year in a row um having 105 kids on a weight list and we're being told um that

024there's going to be cuts, but we're going to do the same thing, get the same results with cuts and reductions. And as somebody who absolutely has never had except for having children like a more like love um and devotion to a program um I'm I there's no way that you can cut and grow a program and we need to grow it. We need to do better and do more. And if you cut and you say you're going to get the same thing we're the bridge staff, it's not me. We've met repeatedly every week. There's no way that you can get the same thing. Okay? and we're telling you that. So, I just want to say um that in order to understand the reality, this is not an afterchool 50-minute class. This is all day long.

025It's in the evenings. It's on the weekends. I have been on call for 16 years. I never leave my phone because if somebody needs something, the beauty of this position, the honesty, is that I have the time to have a long conversation, right, and get families what they need quickly, right? because the counselor is 60%. Okay, am I done? Thank you so much. All right, next up, our next group. Same pattern. Um, uh, there's a number of students. Uh, Sajji, um, Sebastian Bedoyan, Bedwin, um, Xavier Rufin, I believe these are all students. Lily Hammond, if you guys can start coming up, Lewis, I'm Luis Lee. Uh, Sebastian Foville, that's partly your >> Okay, cool. Thank you, Garcia. Thank you so much. Um, another former student, Samuel Fetcha. Fetcha Fa Fesaha. You look your your principal

026and your teachers here up here. Alex, Alexander Herbellin, Alexander Herbellin. So, uh, you guys, I'll hear that. So, uh, five minutes, please. I know it takes a little bit of organization and Miss Chariz will start up the the timer. >> Hi. Um I'm a senior from Berkeley High School and I'm a part of the track team. And speaking about Coach Brad, I've known Coach Brad since I was 6 years old, which is 12 years now. And in that time, he's been much more than a coach to me. He's always wanted what's best for me, even when it wasn't what's best for the team points-wise. And he taught me lessons that went far beyond sports and helped me shape me into a better person. What Brad uh what made Brad different was that he never made

027athletes feel like just another number. He genuinely cared about each person and the impact he had on their life. You can see that in the number of alumni who come back years after years after graduating just to talk to him and thank him for everything he's done. No matter the event, Brad was always there helping, supporting athletes and doing whatever needed to be done. His impact on his program goes far beyond wins and losses. Current athletes have already felt the loss of not having him around and the future athletes will miss on having a coach who truly cared about them as people. Coaches like Brad are super rare and the positive impact he had on many lives shouldn't be overlooked. And there's never been a time where we any I don't think anybody on this

028team has ever felt any kind of way to with him felt uncomfortable or felt like he didn't want what's best for him. Thank you. >> Thank you. Miss Charus, can you freeze the time for a second? Um I'm sorry. Can you freeze the time for a second? I I wanted to Yeah, I'm going to uh I'd like the students to go first, but this is also another subject matter that um there are some adults uh that would like to speak as well. Um can you come on up and and try to figure out your time? So, some of you are up. Ben Nathan is up and Sarah Habellan um I'll cover it up here. Great. Uh Kathani Toms, excellent and Nathaniel Tai. I'll leave you guys up there for more. Just want to make sure.

029Um, David Lee. Okay. Thanks a lot. And Miss Chavez, please start up the clock again. >> Uh, I can start. >> All right. Uh, my name is Sebastian Garcia Fostto. I'm a track athlete here at Berkeley High School. I'm a junior. Uh, I just want to come up here and talk about my coach, Brad. I want to talk about my experience with him. Uh, uh, when I first joined the track team last year, uh, I really got cut from like the basketball team. I, you know, basketball was really everything for me. Uh, sports was everything for me. And when I did get cut from that, I really had like a loss. Uh I felt lost in my grades. I didn't know what I was doing. And when I joined the track team, uh Brad like

030gave so much support to me. Uh he showed me he gave me a path. Uh I don't have like the best home life. And uh I have uh I say like I have a lot of like uh personal problems, but I feel like Brad as a coach and not just as a coach, as a good person, as a good mentor, as a good everything. He should really support me in every way possible. And uh it really makes me sick to think about like a kids in the future won't be able to have that mentor uh be able to talk to and not just like get better at their sport but you know be a better human being. And you know Brad really just not affected just me but I've seen him affect many athletes. He's

031been here for what like 15 50 something years as a head coach. He's inspired so many hundreds of athletes and it's it's just crazy to me to think that like no one else will like ever have that much impact that he has had on Berkeley High as a culture. If you really look at all the other sport teams at Brookley High, you'll always hear kids in the hallways be talking about like, oh, this and that. But hey, Brad has always made a good environment for all the students. So, I think that's all I had to say. Hello. Uh, I'm an adult, but I just graduated from Berkeley High School. My least favorite part about Brad is that it seemed like every day there was some alumni who was visiting practice to say hi to Brad,

032which took up valuable time with him. Um, but looking back now, all I can think about is just what kind of coach and what kind of mentor and what kind of person you have to be to have people who are multiple years removed from Berkeley High coming back to see you. The answer to that question is that more than anything, Brad was inspiring. He inspired hundreds of kids each year to join cross country and track and field. Inspired kids to continue to be healthy and exercise and train after high school sports. And lastly, he inspired me to be a coach. Finally, as someone who has spent the better part of three hours a day with Brad for the last four years, I can say that I have never seen him make anyone feel anything other

033than comfortable, confident, and inspired. And to anyone who doesn't think Brad should be the head coach, clearly does not care about our children. Thank you. Hi, my name is Ben Nathan. I'm a math teacher and the head wrestling coach at Berkeley High for the last 12 years. I have coached kids alongside Brad for that entire time. One of my most dedicated kids I've ever coached. Had Brad right after he would have me for every season. And the impact if we talk about the impact that of people on his life, Brad came before me and he saw me for three hours a day and he was in my classes like the somebody who I was very closely tied to. As a coach, we look at our positive impacts that we've had on people and that is

034how we judge what we have done. If I can have half the impact in my career that he has already had in his last 15, I will consider that a huge win. The number of kids I have seen inspired by him that have gone on to better things because of him. It is innumerable. I have seen so many lives changed by this man and not having him around is harming those futures of all the kids who will not get that opportunity. Hello, I'm Sarah Herblin, parent of Berkeley High Runner. Um, Coach Brad has built the Berkeley High cross country and track and field programs and he really actualizes BSD's four E. Building a team that's open to all students, no cuts. Athletes are encouraged to grow and do their personal bests engages with a supportive

035team and are enriched as they're encouraged to compete in multiple events. Coach Brad has consistently worked for equity, providing opportunities to all athletes, not just a few elites. When there's an opportunity to keep in SoCal, he invited all the junior and senior athletes and planned tours by running alumni at colleges on the way down and back. He supports athletes to discover their personal excellence. We have a petition of over a hundred people who've signed in just the last little while as well as an overwhelming >> hand to Miss Char. Thank you so much. And you can send us stuff by email too. >> Thank you. >> Um alrighty we have our next group which is around ethnic studies and five minutes as well. Um so there's a number of names here. I think there is

036Gab Gabriella Casal, Dana Moran, Nadia Taylor, Jodi Saka Sakaloan Sakalor, apologies. Musa Tariq and um Yet Falca. So if you guys could organize for five minutes, thanks a lot. >> Whenever. Yeah. Okay. Hi, my name is Gabriella Kasal. I grew up in Berkeley and sit up. >> Can you hang on a minute? Can folks I I know folks in the back are just trying to move on out. There's a little bit of reverb when you talk in the back though. So, thanks so much. You got a lot of energy, but we want to make sure you hear the folks who are up here at the podium. Thanks a lot. Please proceed. >> Okay. I grew up in Berkeley and stood up at many meetings like this as a student. What has stayed with me about

037that time is what I learned about justice and what I learned about injustice. What has stayed with me are the seeds that were planted about so many diverse cultures and customs and perspectives far beyond one second. I apologize. I'm I'm still having trouble hearing. Um folks in the back, I know you're really excited and trying to get out the door. Um maybe you can move on out into the courtyard and chat because it it is kind of echoing up here. Thanks a lot. Apologies. Please do proceed. >> Can I start over? >> Okay. Start over. Sorry, I was on a roll. Cool. Miss, if you can start over. >> All right. My >> shut the doors in the back. >> Okay. All right. Here we go. My name is Gabriela Casal. I grew up in

038Berkeley. I stood up at meetings like this as a student many times. What has stayed with me is what I learned in school about justice and injustice. What has stayed with me are the seeds that were planted about so many diverse cultures and customs and perspectives far beyond my Berkeley bubble. I'm an equity teacher leader as Selia Mendes. This is an informal title since the district no longer supports our work. Stipens and a meeting space for equity teacher leaders were cut. So now Joanie Eto Gates is the person carrying forward equity work in B USD. Her title may formerly be ethnic studies TSA, but in reality her role holds so much more. Her full-time position ensures every teacher has culturally relevant materials. Her full-time position helps busy teachers prioritize reflecting our students identities. Because of

039her work this school year, I taught my students about black mathematicians and scientists, Larry Leong and Filipino farm workers, uh lessons on stereotypes from the ArabAmerican National Museum. These are just a few examples from her beautiful resource guides. These are not even from the ethnic studies curriculum. I left 10 years of teaching in Oakland and chose to return to my roots here in B USD because I believe that equity really was at the center of this district's work. We need to put our limited resources where they matter in the hands of smart, thoughtful, hardworking, and dedicated educators like Joanie. She makes me # Berkeley proud. Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh, my name is Dana Moran and I graduated from Berkeley High for the first time in 1980 and the second time when I retired

040in June of 2024 after 31 years at Berkeley High and 38 years of teaching overall and since the passing of the legendary Dr. Mcnite, I think I have taught ethnic studies at Berkeley High longer than any living person. Um, I'm here. I applaud your decision to fund the ethnic studies TSA, but it needs to be a full-time position because splitting the FTE with teaching dishonors both jobs. The TSA position has yielded enormous results in the short time it has been in existence. from the visibility of celebrating district staff to ongoing de uh curriculum development and resources for teachers to partnerships with UC Berkeley to Berkeley High students presenting at the elementary schools. And as someone who has taught parttime for many years, um we know that teaching takes up your entire brain and somehow expands

041to fill your entire schedule. So the ability to meet and plan with other teachers, UC partners, district staff and administrators, and community partners would be exponentially more difficult for the TSA if tried to squeeze into a teaching day. Um I would urge you to support the district's values of equity and inclusion by fully supporting a 1.0 FTE for the ethnic studies coordinator. Thank you. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Nadia Taylor. Uh, and I'm here I was on the ethnic studies um, advisory board and I'm here about the ethnic studies um, TSA. Um, so I had the pleasure of being part of that advisory committee and beginning to see the um, fantastic work that was being done. Um, and I most importantly am a a parent of a child who is a rising eighth

042grader at King who just had the opportunity to actually see some of that pilot material and was really touched by it. Um, so I'm here to support the continued funding for the TSA for to be able to devote 100% of time to um, continue the incredibly strong work that has already been started. Um, we know that ethnic studies is incredibly important to our children here in Berkeley. And despite very difficult budgetary choices, I think we also know that with someone at the helm at the district office working full-time, consistent and persistent work on ethnic studies throughout the levels of the district will not continue. I urge your support. Thank you. Hi, my name is Jody Sakalawa, but I'm actually reading a statement by Miguel Hundorf Lima, who is a recent um USD grad and a

043tribal member. This is his statement. During my time as the co-president of the BHS Native Student Union, I worked extensively with Joanie in her role as the ethnic studies TSA. Under her supervision, the NASU conceptualized and painted the land commitment mural that's on the district building right around the corner. Little could have been done without Joy's undivided commitment to the project as it was coordinated and carried out during school hours. The mural should be a reminder of the district's commitment to creating curricula and adequately represent indigenous peoples and systems that support young Indians. Meeting these needs is essential and requires a person who can dedicate their time to working with community and educators. Cutting down the capacity of the TSA position will represent the failure of the institution to meet the needs of indigenous students

044just a year and a half after the completion of the mural. If the position is cut down, let our faces on the mural remind the district of the students that were failed via this decision. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. You can of course email your comments as well. Thank you. Um, next on up we have U Tekken Schools. That's a subject area. Um, Vanessa Vega or or Vega. Um, Bandana Bala Krishnan. Cool. Thumbs up. Railey Lee. Great. Megan Wernner and Grace. Uh, Sukapor, if you guys can all come on up and you've got five minutes, please. >> Test. Hi, everybody. For um all the community members and educators who are still in the room, there's a flyer. We're here for Berkeley Unplugged back on the back table. Please pick one up. We would

045love to um have your support. Um, first I just this is unprepared but I just want to say we urge you here as a group of Berkeley unplugged to invest in proven human centered programs like ethnic studies like bridge that build relationships belonging and real engagement not clicks. Re-examine the hundreds and thousands of dollars that you're spending on screens and apps to see if they're actually improving learning. If the answer is no or you're not sure, move that money to these programs that it makes sense. You've got the proof right here. I'm here to actually talk about how my son came home early from school the other day with a migraine. We dropped him off in the morning. He was totally fine. I asked him what happened. He told me during class, students have been

046watching whatever they wanted on YouTube on their Chromebooks through their Berkeley student email accounts. He he loves to game, so he was doing all sorts of gaming stuff. He said that he spent so much time staring at the screen that he had a headache and ice strain. Eye strain. These are words spoken by a 12-year-old. Like, just think about that for a second. That's absolute insanity. And you know, last week I came here to tell you about his friends who no longer play basketball outside at lunch because instead they're going into a classroom to play online games on Chromebooks. This is not okay. Um, we are battling this at home. We need our schools to work with us. Our kids deserve better. Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Vandabala Christian, also Berkeley Unplugged.

047It is tempting to believe that school should focus on our kids adapting to the technological needs of the future. While that goal is well-intentioned, let's not forget the basic developmental needs of our children. Building memory, attention span, developing focus and concentration, preserving their ability to handle the inherent discomfort that comes with learning. screens without guard rails disrupt that at every turn. When a child is forced to do all his work on computers with easy access to distraction of the internet. When a child learns to simply ask AI instead of sitting with the problem himself. When a child just turns to his phone rather than engaging with the social discomfort of making new friends. I have no doubt that our kids will adapt to technology when the time is right. But I worry that the skills

048that children can only develop through time, attention, and care that child that a school fosters is being shortchanged. This is a crucial time in their lives. Let's not allow big tech to experiment with the brains of our children. In its recently posted FAQ, the district states, "YouTube access is restricted to assigned curricular materials only." But the data from our child's school account reveals an unmonitored algorithm-driven environment of digital distraction featuring shorts, gaming, live streams, ads, and AI generated content with little to no educational value. This is a pr prof profound systemic failure. In a three-month period, our child viewed 3,000 445 YouTube videos on her school account. Alarmingly, 516 of those were accessed during instructional time. The problem extends home as we calculated 1,487 minutes of video-based YouTube homework assigned in just one class over

049three months. What are B USD middle schoolers watching is equally concerning. 94% of it is on auto pay autoplay spirals. 21% is AI slop, an industry term for lowquality AI generated clickbait designed to generate revenue. I believe that the district's lack of a substantive technology plan coupled with substandard implementation and a distressing absence of oversight has caused substantial harm to my child and to my child's community. We call on the board to immediately conduct a district-wide technology audit to safeguard student privacy and well-being. It took roughly 40 years for the US Surgeon General to confirm that cigarettes cause lung cancer. We do not have 40 years to wait for long-term studies on smartphones, social media, and constant screen exposure to our children's cognitive development. The warning signs are already in front of us. Educational technology

050has been widely promoted as a way to improve learning, but the results have not consistently matched the promise. Earlier this year, neuroscientist Jerkuni Horvath testified before the US Senate and raised concerns that rapid expansion of classroom technology may be contributing to declines in attention, memory, reading, and problem solving skills. These devices are designed to capture attention and keep it and makes a sustained sustained focus harder for students. I've seen this with my own children. Research shows students often learn more deeply when they write by hand and work with fewer digital distractions. This is not about blame. It is about course correction. Now that we know better, we can do better with district and parent partnership to set stronger boundaries around technologies use and please act. >> Thanks a lot. Please email your additional comments. Thanks

051a lot. So next on up. So that's the full five minutes we have um Glattus Okmpost out and then just one minute Glattus please and and Dan Brownson right afterwards. And that'll be it for inperson public comment. Hello, my name is Glattis Okampo Stout and I'm speaking on behalf of Latinos Unitos Berkeley. Latinos make up over 22% of Berkeley Unified. While we're encouraged by recent improvements in Latino student outcomes and graduation rates, we know this progress came from intentional investments in bilingual staff and culturally responsive programs, we cannot celebrate progress while weakening the very supports that helped create it. We're asking the district to make a clear long-term commitment to Latino students and multilingual families by one, continuing to fully fund the ethnic studies position. Two, securing the 0.5 Spanish bilingual district position. Three, requiring

052Spanish bilingual qualifications for key positions at Silia Mendes Elementary, including the afterchool position. Four, protecting and prioritizing programs that have data showing success with underpres under underrepresented students such as Bente Bridge and RISE. Bilingual staff and culturally common programs are essential. They help families navigate the school systems, communicate with teachers, and advocate for their children. If Berkeley Unified truly value students, that commitment must be reflected in budget and staffing decisions. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Sam. >> Hello. Congratulations to all our students and especially the class of 2026 as we come to the end of the school year. At this time, I would like to mention a few other endings I'd like to see. An end to budgeting that solves the district's financial wos by threatening to ruin the lives of the workers

053least responsible for these problems. We show up and do our jobs. We didn't cause the district's money problems, but our jobs, which we depend on for our lives, are the ones always seen as expendable. Enough is enough. an end to attacks on the BCCE's merit system and the personnel commission it requires. We'd never propose getting rid of tenure or any other protections for workers in our sister unions. We only ask for the same respect. Finally, an end to McCarthyite witch hunts educators have been subjected to. The most recent complaints were filed not even by parents or students, but by a faceless organization in order to harass and intimidate our education workers to stop us from standing up for our values. Some of these complaints were for merely wearing stickers and patches that say free Palestine.

054Thank you. You can of course email. Um so we're moving on to public comment. Uh we are trying to stay within time. We're already exceeding time. We want to get to the um agenda items today which are very important. So we're going to do um one minute a piece of the top five online and if I apologize if you're not on the top five online which there are a number of folks um if you could come back at the end of the meeting. U so uh Miss Chavez if you could pull up based upon who is uh raising their hand in in chronological order by time. Good. Thanks Luny. No felt. >> Uh good evening. My name Can you hear me? Okay, thank you. Good evening. My name is Lindseay Nofelt. First, a quick request.

055Please do not approve after school bus fees later tonight. Once we add in exempt programs and the collection costs, it's unrealistic to gain 200k of savings and it harms our community partners. Now, I'd like to talk about how we teach foundational math in our math curriculum and PD choices. We rely heavily on inquirybased discovery learning. Using exploration to teach new concepts is inequitable. Early in the learning process, inquiry acts as a centrifuge. Kids with prior knowledge might survive it, but those without it are left behind. In reading, we use structured systematic methods backed by decades of data. The human brain doesn't change its wiring when it switches from letters to numbers. The evidence is deep and wide. Explicit structured teaching is superior. Let's look at how the brain actually learns and teach our kids the

056way they need to be taught. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Harris. Who do we have next? >> Laurona Kuster. >> And you'll have one minute. Hello everyone. My name is Laurona Kuster and I'm both a parent and an employee of the district. I'm here today to advocate for the importance of fully funding the Bridge program and not making any cuts. Bridge is an invaluable program that provides students with the support, guidance, and opportunities they need to succeed academically and to prepare for their futures. The program offers tutoring, monitors students academic progress, and provides interventions when students begin to struggle. It also exposes students to colleges and universities they may not otherwise have the opportunity to visit, helping them envision possibilities beyond high school. For many students, Bridge serves as a source of encouragement, accountability,

057and mentorship. It helps keep students on track for graduation while promoting college and career readiness. The relationship students build through the program can have a lasting impact on their confidence, motivation, and long-term success. Programs like Bridge are not extra. They are essential investments to the students achievement and equity. Please keep Bridge. >> Thank you. I appreciate you guys getting right in that minute. Um, I think we have three more. Sandra Leving is next. Thank you, Miss Tres. There you go. >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay, great. My name is Sandra Loving and I'm the extended care program director at Berkeley Alternatives and was formerly the Berkeley High PTA president and also served on PAC. I'm here to speak about the bridge program. Once again, we know Bridge has a proven record of success

058for many, many years. Bottom line, what they do, they do well and the reason for this is that they go be above and beyond for their students and families. Bridge is and has been successful because the students and families have access to something that is unfamiliar to many of our black and brown families. A program that is trustworthy and reliable. I know firsthand that they have literally saved lives. Let me repeat that. These staff members have saved lives through their dedication, patience, and love. If the bridge oversight budget is cut and we offer the same amount of cohorts to the the students will not receive the same high quality programming. Um, so if the decision's been made to cut to cut the uh funding, the oversight uh funding, then we should do four cohorts instead

059of five. Um, superintendent, school board members, please do the right thing and don't short change our staff and students. Thank you. >> Thank you. One minute around the button and Mike W is next. And then for the folks who um are not able to speak at this point or coming over at the end, you can also send an email in the meantime as well. Um, Mike W and then Jamaal Ladun. Mike W. >> Mike, do you hear us? >> Miss Charz, should you move on to the next one? >> I think they're um >> accepting the >> Okay. Uh Mike doesn't seem to be accepting the offer, so Mike, you have to come to the end. Oh, there you come. All right, let's go. Thanks. >> Okay, Mike, you declined. So, put your hand down,

060please. You can always come at the end if you want. So, we're going to do two more. Jamala Dunn and then Lena Mcdisi. Nina, can you hear us? >> Unmute yourself. Jamaa. >> Oh, yeah. Uh, Jamala is up then. Jamala, do you want to unmute yourself? Miss has Jamala accepted muted. >> Okay. So if so Mike W has declined. Um Jamala is having some maybe some technical issues. Um how about Lena Mack DC? Hello. >> Hi there. >> And then go. I'll play. Go ahead. >> Yes. As an educator with a master's in education and a new B USD parent of a rising third grader, I'm st I'm speaking here tonight to demand immediate transparency regarding the district's elementary technology practices. During a recent school tour, my simple question about third grade technology frequency received

061a conflicting and evasive response. The principal first claimed Chromebooks were used three times a week for an hour, but later admitted that they're used every single day. This lack of consistency from leadership is deeply concerning. As a low tech family with a neurodeiverse child in the early elementary years, this ambiguity is unacceptable. My rising third grader is at a critical developmental stage, learning to read, write, and physically form letters. This requires active human instruction, not passive screens. There is a lack of clear, accessible technology plan. The USD must act immediately to publish clear technology guidelines and protect foundational hands-on learning before the upcoming school year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, up next we have Courtney Kano and that'll be our last. So, the rest of the folks, please come to the end if you

062want to still speak or andor email. Courtney, do you want to come off mute? >> Hi. Um, good evening, superintendent, school board directors, and community members. Uh, my name is Courtney Kano and I'm an assistant professor in the Berkeley School of Education and a university partner with BUSD's ethnic studies TSA on a UC Berkeley Chancellor's Community Partnership Fund grant for the 2026 to 2027 academic year with goals to pursue financial support from education research foundations and philanthropy in future years, which can only come to fruition with a 100% line for the TSA position. I also speak as a graduate of Hawaiian focused K- through2 schooling in my home state of Hawaii, knowing that the design and implementation of Hawaiian focused education did not take just one or two years. It took decades. And even when

063I graduated from high school in the mid2010s, the work to improve, to refine, to evolve, did not end with my generation. It continues to this day. Please support BUSD's ongoing commitment to the important work of building out an ethnic studies system to honor Berkeley's long-standing legacy as a leader in this field. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you so much. Um and so for the other folks, you can come on at the end and or email even now if you want uh to the board members. Um so uh we're going to move on to committee comments. We have some students still here and it's you know it's getting kind of late. Um, we have G-Shack coming on up first and then after that at right after G-Shack just to set it up,

064we have construction board oversight committee and G-Shacks answer gender equity and sexual harassment advisory committee. Great. You guys coming up >> and then pack after CBOC. Thanks. >> Hi. Can you hear me? Okay. Good evening board members, superintendent, staff, students, and community members. My name is Rose Levine. I'm one of the student reps for the superintendent's gender equity sexual harassment advisory committee, and I will be a proud alumni of Berkeley High in about uh 48 hours, but who's counting? Um, in addition to G-Shack, during my time at Berkeley High, I was lucky to be involved in leadership, student clubs, and like BHS Stop Harassing, and my personal favorite, Green Dot. Uh, one of the reasons that I am leaving Berkeley High as a proud alumni is because of you, the school board. You and your

065continued support of programs that truly make a difference in student climate and wellness. You care enough about your students to allocate and continue to fund such important bullying, sexual harassment prevention programs such as Welcoming Schools, Green Dot, Berkeley Athletics Consent, Empowerment. Um they're they're all committed to increasing gender neutral neut neutral facilities and continue to support positions promoting gender equity and eliminating sexual harassment such as our title N coordinator prevention count coordinator and sight specific LGBTQ plus liaison as well as our continued professional as your continued professional development for BUSD staff. All of these things were greatly celebrated in GShack this year. Out of all these amazing things that I just listed, I really want to focus on my personal favorite prevention program, Green Dot. When my friend nominated me, nominated me to be a

066Green Dot ambassador, I honestly didn't really have an idea of what Green Dot was. They told me, "You get lunch every couple weeks, you go to an all day training with Miss Miss Molly and Mr. V, and you know, you make the school a better place." And I thought, "Hey, free lunch, missing school for a training, and making a difference. That sounds like my cup of tea." Um, at the beginning of junior year, I was sitting in sixth period math when somebody walked in with a letter along with the official permission slip for the training inviting me to Green Dot. Uh, at the time, I didn't really have no idea that I didn't have any idea that that one little permission slip would change the rest of my high school experience. Green Dot started as

067a program that I truly barely understood. And it quickly became an incredible community, incredible community of students who truly walk the talk when it comes to preventing harm and supporting people when harm has already happened. Green dot students. Green dot teaches students that we all have a role in stopping red dots which are moments of harm, harassment, violent or dis violence or disrespect. A green dot is any action that we take to interrupt that harm and make our community safer. And the best part is you don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be fearless. You don't have to magically know what to say. You just need to do something. Green Dot teaches the three main ways to step in. Direct, delegate, delegate, and distract. And what makes Green Dot special at Berkeley High

068is that it did not stay a small program. It grew. And during my junior year, there were so many nominations. And by my senior year, there were double. I had never seen so many students so excited by to be a part of changing the culture of a school. Green belt became cool. And I don't mean like school assembly cool with polite, polite applause and then forgetting what they actually said. I mean actually cool. Uh students wanted to be a part of it. Students were talking about it. Students were green dotting real life situations. Over the past two years, Green Do went from being a program that that students had barely heard of to becoming an action that students understood. It became a culture and language of of Berkeley High. And as a senior, seeing how

069Green Dot is operating now gives me confidence that this will continue after my class leaves campus. Um, and obviously students are not the only reason that this program has grown. Mr. V has expa expanded the role of green dot by incorporating into student service and leadership and Miss Molly's undying commitment and support energy and probably way too many emails reminding us that not everybody has to do something but everybody not everyone not nobody has to do everything but everybody has to do something and together they have poured so much into this program and to every green dot ambassador. So, on behalf of one of your newest alumni, knock on wood, um, and G-Shack committee, I want to thank you for your for continuing to prioritize and fund gender equity, sexual harassment, prevention in Berkeley Unified

070School District. You are all truly green dots and I encourage you to therefore I we we have we have come so far and but we still have a lot of work to do. Therefore, I encourage you to continue to be green dots and continue to support programs that prevent bullying and sexual harassment across the the district. So, we also have very fancy shirts for you guys to prove it. And I know that I will be wearing mine in Maryland at University of Maryland this fall. Um, and remember, thanks. And remember, nobody nobody has to do everything, but everyone has to do something. And your support support is a huge something. Um, may I approach the DAS to give you these shirts in multiple size. >> Thank you. Thank you for your time. >> Thanks so

071much. Uh those the shirts look great and thank you for your comments on the important work your group does. >> Yeah, that that um I myself and uh Vice President Korn are sitting on. Um and congratulations on your upcoming graduation. Very exciting. Um, >> I think it's guaranteed. All right. Um, you've done what you need to do. Nothing's guaranteed. That comes from a professor. >> That's a Yeah, go to school tomorrow. The professor is spoken. Make sure to listen. Don't blow off school. Um, so we have construction bond oversight next. Thank you. Um, and then we have parent advisory committee after that. Good evening, Superintendent and Board of Education. That's a hard act to follow, and I'm sorry to say I don't have any t-shirts to give out. I know what's wrong. So So I'm

072David Golden. I'm one of the seven members on the uh Measure I and Measure G um Citizens Bond Facilities Oversight Committee. Uh, for those of you who need a slight uh, lesson down memory road, measure I passed in 2010, $210 million. Measure G passed in 2020 for $380 million. Both programs are in full boore, going full steam. Measure I, all the bonds are sold. The money is winding down. Measure G, 75% of the bonds have been sold. projects are going full boore at the moment. For those of you that that don't remember, the ED code requires that if you pass a facility bond measure with 55% plus one, you need a happy committee like ours to make sure that all the money gets spent the way it's supposed to be. And every year we have

073to do an annual audit. And every year we do an annual report for the board of education. And as with last year and the year before and the year before, I come with a cup with nothing but good news, which is the the facility bond program uh has continued to go full speed, has spent all of the money exactly the way it's supposed to be on exactly the things it was supposed to spend it on. and the the audit that that justifies that has been forwarded to you with our with our recommendation that you adopt the audit. Um, that's really important news because there are districts all over the state that are struggling with communities that don't trust that that the board of education and the facility department knows what they're doing. And I think

074after 5, 10, 15 years of good hard work, this district has proven that we're really good at what we do. And that brings me to thanking Assistant Superintendent Kiss and his entire staff for all of the hard work that they have done during the year. Really an exemplary amount of work. the bond oversight committee. In addition to the audit and the report, we also closely monitor the work like at Longfellow and at Sylvia Mendes. And for those in the audience and those on the board that haven't been to Sylvia Mendes yet, I would recommend a tour. I think the facility is going to be wonderful. Um, so in general, it's good news. Um, and I want to sort of conclude with a special thanks, one to John and his team, two to the superintendent and

075the board for their continued support, particularly for Jennifer Sinowski and Jennifer Korn who have come to our meetings and suffered through some of the nonsense that happens at these meetings with their wisdom and it's greatly appreciated. Um, and mostly and more importantly, I want to publicly thank on the air um, the voters and the citizens of the city of Berkeley for having faith and confidence that education is important in Berkeley. And in order to teach and learn in the 21st century, we have to have some of the best facilities in California. And I think that's happening here in Berkeley, and we should all be proud. and Eric Weaver is the the chair of the committee and if if he wants to add any words of wisdom I'll turn it over to him but thank you.

076>> Uh the only point that I wanted to add is in the last couple of uh reports we pointed out that our committee wasn't fully appointed it by the law they're supposed to be seven members. We now have all seven members and I wanted to thank you for uh making sure that we had a full complement of people. The people who were added this year have added a lot. Couple of architects, people with a lot of experience. So, thank you very much. Thank you so much. Thanks for your hard work. Um, PAC, which stands for parent advisory committee. Good evening. My name is Siello and this is Michael and we are this year's pack co-chairs to here to share our committee's feedback on the LCAP for this school year. We'd first like to thank our

077district partners Dr. Lena Sweeney, Joya Ball, Jill Huggenike, Dr. Dave, and Roel Bayham. We also extend our deepest gratitude to each pack member, especially to our student members. During each of our 11 meetings, PAC received presentations that had a strong balance of anecdotal insights and timely data with a focus on our unduplicated students. This year in BUSD, our unduplicated population is 2,896 students or 30.4% of the total student population. To be clear, when we say unduplicated student, that means our kids that are multilingual learners, our socio-economically disadvantaged kids, our kids experiencing homelessness, and our foster youth. We celebrate Longfellow and Willard's recognition as 2026 California Dist distinguished schools, and we are so happy to see improvements in the California dashboard where college and career readiness, math, and English language arts have all risen to their

078highest levels, a clear signal that the work is working. At the same time, our committee remains concerned about the state funding model, which does not fully account for the needs of our community. As in prior years, our district faces budget reductions due to lower enrollment, ADA, and expiring funds and grants, making our task of offering constructive recommendations for LCAP funded roles and programs especially challenging knowing that any reduction in services will have a lasting impact on our most vulnerable students. For the purposes of tonight's comment, PAC wants to highlight our five high-level prioritized recommendations, but we encourage our community to read the whole thing. It's linked in the agenda. You should read it. Uh first, protect and properly staff student centered roles. At some sites, a single RTI teacher will monitor 400 plus students across

079MTSS tiers. Our EL teachers must maintain FTE despite reclassification changes at each school site. Our McKenna Vento liaison serves nearly 250 students across 17 school sites. Ofi is no longer present at each school site daily. Restorative justice counselors are the primary mental health touch point for 25% of our middle schoolers. An important element to note in light of expiring mental health funding. Second, stabilize funding for proven high equity, high impact programs. With AVID discontinued at BHS, Bridge and Buente are the only first generation college pathways funded by the LCFF at the high school level. And Buente isn't available for rising 9th graders who must wait until 10th grade to reenroll, leaving a gap in their critical freshman year in high school. Third, mandate SEAL, PBIS, and restorative justice as tier 1 practices. These programs are

080currently recommended but not consistently implemented. The gap is in execution, not program design. As our community has reiterated in this year's LCAP survey responses, restorative justice must expand from reactive to proactive work. Fourth, invest in family engagement and multilingual hometoschool connection. Despite persistent requests from PAC, DAC, and LCAP survey respondents, we still do not have OP OPI representatives at each school site. LCAP actions 4.2 and 4.3 carry a zero Z budget line and are solely shouldered by our OFI partners. By prioritizing family engagement to include elements like take-home literacy tools and math support on top of existing OFled programming, we can only strengthen the school-to-ome connection. And fifth, build coherent disagregated systems. We all benefit from the incredible work of the Brea Department and we ask for more data on TWWI Spanish assessments for better

081data parity to nonTWI sites. We ask for methods to track MTSS touch points to ensure our students needs are identified and paired with the right programs as well as post-secondary persistence tracking to further validate the effort and effectiveness of our college and career programs. In closing, California's ADA per pupil funding model wasn't built for today's reality of declining enrollment. Since that model isn't likely to change soon, we ask the district to consider requiring that a portion of any funds contributed by private individuals or organizations include an allocation to high equity, high impact programs, so the programs and roles that are clearly working for our kids can continue regardless of fluctuations in state funding. We look forward to continued collaboration with the district to promote successful outcomes for all of our BSD kids. Thank you so

082much for your service. We appreciate you. >> Thank you so much. We appreciate you as well and all the committees for their hard work. Um, are there other committee members? Make sure I haven't missed anybody. Anyone online? Miss Chavez, new. Thanks so much for your work and um or staying here and waiting until pretty late. Um, so uh let's see. Make sure I'm not missing anything. Union comments, of course. Are there union folks here? one of our very important partners. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, good evening board. My name is Mojam. I'm the vice president for BCCE. And before I say anything else tonight, there are two people I need to recognize. Because often we stand at this podium. It is because we are advocating for something, defending something, questioning something, or asking

083leadership to truly listen. But before this school year comes to a close, BCC wants to acknowledge two individuals who rarely stand in the spotlight yet help keep this district moving every single day. Jessica Lopez and Lzanna Chavez. Jessica, the exist executive assistant to the superintendent and Lzana, the executive assistant to the board of education, are two of the hardest working people in this district. They are not represented by a union, but make no mistake, they are represented by the respect and appreciation of the people who work throughout BUSD. Jessica works behind the scenes supporting the superintendent, coordinating countless moving pieces, responding to endless requests, and somehow doing it all with professionalism, grace, and a smile. And Lazana, well, anyone who has ever attended a board meeting knows that if things are running smoothly, there is

084a very good chance Lzanna is somewhere behind the curtain making sure they do. She keeps agendas organized, board members informed, deadlines met, and somehow manages all the different personalities, opinions, schedules, emergencies, and lastm minute changes that come with helping lead a district the size of Berkeley. Let's be honest, that alone deserves hazard pay. Tonight, before this school year ends, we simply wanted to say thank you for the work that most people never see, but all of us benefit from every day. And while we are recognizing people, BCCE also wants to congratulate all of our BUSD graduates. Whether you are moving on from elementary school, middle school, high school, adult school, or beginning a new chapter in life, remember this. The best is yet to come. And perhaps that's not that's true not only for our

085graduates, but for all of us. The end of a school year gives us an opportunity to look ahead, but it also gives us a chance to look back to reflect on what we've accomplished, what we've learned, and where we can do better. As BCC leadership reflected on this school year, we thought about the speeches we have given from this podium. Throughout this year, we spoke about power, respect, fairness, transparency, protecting workers, protecting programs, and ensuring decisions were made for the right reasons. And as we look back, we realize that all of those topics really come down to one thing, accountability. Because accountability is not about punishment. It is about ownership. It is about having the courage to admit mistakes, correct them, and do better. It is about understanding that leadership is not measured by a

086title. Leadership is measured by actions. A title may tell us your position, but your character tells us who you are. Your decisions tell us what you value, and your willingness to be accountable tells us whether people can trust you as we prepare for a new school year after we end this one tomorrow. BCC hope is simple. Our hope is that accountability is expected from everyone. Not just classified employees, not just teachers, and not just union members. Everyone. Too often it feels as though accountability is applied differently depending on who you are, your position you hold, or what title sits on your business card. Accountability should not change based on a title. If we expect classified staff to be accountable, then management must be accountable as well. If we expect employees to own mistakes, then leadership

087must own mistakes as I do. If we expect honesty, transparency, and professionalism from staff, then we should expect the same from those who lead them. If this school year taught us anything, it is as titles may create authority, but accountability creates trust. This year, we spoke about P's. Value people, lead with purpose, stand on principles, honor the process, and let your performance speak louder than your title. When these five things are aligned, organizations thrive. When they are ignored, trust begins to break down. So, as we close this school year and prepare for the next one, I challenge all of us, including myself, to reflect on those five Ps and recommmit ourselves to them. Because at the end of the day, titles come and go, positions change, people retire, boards change, administrator change, but character remains.

088So, to our students, congratulations. To our graduates, the best is yet to come. To our staff, thank you for showing up every day for children. And to our leadership, we look forward to a new school year where accountability is not something we ask of others, but something we expect of ourselves. Thank you. Have a wonderful summer. And congratulations to the class of 2026. >> Thank you so much. Um, are there other union commenters here or online? I don't believe so. Um, so we are moving on now to board member comments. Um, I will go last and I'll be short, but are there other board members of Vice President Korn? >> Thank you. >> Um, tonight I want to call into the room an additional meaning of # Berkeley Proud because it's June, y'all. This is

089Pride Month. >> Thank you. I am so proud to have been an out and proud lesbian teacher, principal, parent, and board member in this district over the past 20 years. And I'm proud to serve on the G-Shack committee with Rose and with a dedicated group of educators, families, and students who are working hard to advocate for our queer, trans, and gender expansive student, staff, and families. BUSD has been a leader for many years in the work of ensuring that our schools are safe and welcoming for LGBTQ students, staff, and families. And I am hash Berkeley proud of our steadfast commitment to that ongoing work. Um, in addition to that, I just want to say thank you to everyone who came out tonight to advocate for students and programs, to the really hardworking community uh committee

090representatives who shared comments this evening. Um, we still have a number of difficult budget decisions ahead of us over the coming weeks and I am grateful to all of our engaged community members bringing your perspectives into the conversation and I'm looking forward to tonight's discussion. >> Thank you so much, Vice President Corner. Is there another board member would like to go next? Who would like to go next? >> Director. Yep. On my left. Thank you. >> No, I have no comments tonight. Thanks. Thank you. Okay, she doesn't have comments, but she kind of tricked me for a second there. How about on the right here? Thank you for asking. >> Uh, I'll be brief as well because we're running behind. I want to make time for Director Brown her copious comments. I'm just kidding. Um,

091I had the honor and privilege of attending the adult school graduation yesterday and it's been said before, but that is, you know, no disrespect to anybody else, but that is my favorite graduation. seeing the resilience of those students, um, their families, and the joy and the pride at overcoming coming something that many people thought they would never, uh, or accomplishing something that many of them never thought they'd be able to just is really touching. So, thank you so much. I'm excited to go to the BHS graduations on Friday. Congratulations to all the graduates. I want to thank um all of the staff for their hard work in this really difficult budget season and thank everyone who's coming out to advocate for their programs. And it is really hard um to make these decisions and they

092are not taken lightly. In the end, we have to pass a balanced budget. And so I would encourage folks as they're advocating for positions to please help us find where we are going to make the cuts for the programs and the people and the positions and the things that we want to keep. And I will finalize my comments as I've done like all budget season by saying, "Please take a moment to call your assembly person and your senator and ask them to fully fund Prop 98, which would give us another $8 million into our general fund. That would allow these decisions to be much easier and much fewer. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Good reminder in Prop 98. Um, do we have uh do we >> Yes, please. >> Uh, good evening everyone.

093Thank you all so much for taking the time to uh be here and to those of you who decided to stay here. Um, but most importantly, those of you who spoke to the board of education tonight with your public comments and who take the time to email us. Um, I think that your comments are incredibly important to us and really uh help us to govern and help us to make decisions. And so it is important that you know that your your comments don't fall on deaf ears, but on the ears of those who are interested in doing work on behalf of our Berkeley community. Um I will follow uh Director Kin's lead and say happy Pride Month um to everyone. Yeah, clap it up. Um every Pride uh month since I've been on the board,

094I take the opportunity um to really celebrate um Audrey Lord. And typically I read um a portion of some of her writing um and really call her into the room, bring her into this space um as she carries uh so many different she wears so many different um hats but is an inspirational person. Well, I always take the opportunity to honor this uh month and this month is no different and so I do call her in and bring her into this space. Um, on the heels of graduations, we always go to uh the Berkeley High graduation and it's such a wonderful celebration. Um, and we always attend um the affinity celebrations for our high school students. Uh, but this year I decided to uh attend some of our middle school celebrations which were absolutely phenomenal.

095This year I spent the afternoon with Longfellow Middle School um and attended their Longfellow graduation and the graduation was so large that of course they moved out of the Longfellow space uh and moved uh into the Donahue gym and the gym was absolutely packed with friends, family members, community members who were proud of uh the students who were graduating and also proud of uh the the educators who helped them along the way. But what stuck out with me most about the graduation is how prepared the students are for uh the next chapter that they are getting ready to embark on. A lot of times we talk about the next chapter in our high school students lives as they uh continue to postsecary opportunities and education but we don't really talk about what's happening with our

096middle school our middle schoolers. Um, and I am happy to uh let you happy to report to Berkeley High that we have some phenomenal prepared uh brilliant and resilient students who are getting ready to enter into our high school community. So, congratulations to all of our graduates, but uh definitely congratulations to our middle schools, middle schoolers who are ready to promote to the next grade. Um, I am going to cut my comments short tonight. Thank you, Director Shinoski. Um, but I do want to I identify that, you know, in our agenda tonight, we're discussing our LCAP plan, um, our budgeting contracts, um, and some, uh, budget balancing solutions. And I think that it brings us the it gives us the opportunity to ask ourselves, what kind of district do we want to be? And when

097we ask ourselves that, this is our opportunity to really put our money where our mouth is. Director Shinoski has been reminding us uh week after week after week after week and feels like we've been here every week, but week after week after week after week um about the need for uh to call on our elected officials uh so that we can um be able to do what we need to do for our students. But the truth of the matter is we are here right now with the type of budget um that we have. And I want to acknowledge that budget conversations are very difficult. Uh because budgets are not simply numbers but they are statements of priorities. Um every reduction that we make, every investment that we make, every staffing decision that we make um

098not only has a impact to our district but it has impact to the the human beings that serve our students and serve our communities. And as board members, our responsibility to balance financial stability uh with our commitment to students and families and um those who love our schools and our the students who feel them uh is the most important job that we do here on the DAS. And so I hope that we tonight and moving uh into next week uh can come together as a community around some of the most important questions. Number one, are we preser preserving the supports and programs that students need the most? Number two, are we protecting direct services whenever possible? Number three, are we being transparent about tradeoffs? As Director Shinoski mentioned, oh, it's the third time I mentioned

099your name. That's too much. It's too much. And then number four, are we listening carefully to the people who are affected most by the decisions? I encourage us as we're having conversations here in the DI here on the dis and in the boardrooms uh as we're having conversations within committees and as we're having conversations within our communities to keep these questions um at the forefront of our mind. No, we may not always agree on how we balance our budget. We may not always agree on which programs uh are here and which programs should remain, but what we have to agree on are these four points. what's best for our students, how are we preserving direct services, are we being transparent about trade-offs, and are we listening carefully to the people who are most affected? I

100look forward to our conversation tonight and I look forward I look forward to our discussion tonight uh as well as looking forward to making sure that we are making decisions that follow these four points. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Um I just want to say thanks for folks uh coming out and speaking their hearts and minds and you know you can see from the range of viewpoints and perspectives and the energy that was brought here that you know Berkeley is a really unique place and that's why many of us have come here from far a field to live here and um it is a a moment in time to that um there has been u many challenges um at the national level um that has resulted in Berkeley being uh in the news

101um and the school district being in the news. And um I want to reiterate that as a board member and as board president um I'm here to ensure that Berkeley values continue to be represented um even in the face of national uh politicization and polarization. Uh so I want to move on to the next portion of our board meeting. Um so we've got the consent calendar. Um, do we have a motion to approve, please? >> Oh, hold on. >> To amend it. >> I'd like to move that we um Sorry, I need to look up the number. Um, that we remove I'd like to move that we approve the agenda with the exception of item 12.10. I'd like to second that we approve the consent calendar with the removal of item 12.10. Thank you. >>

102Got it. Do we have the eyes and Yes. >> Hi. >> Great. Want to unmute. Um okay. Uh we are now on to the public hearing portion. Uh third only 16 minutes. It says 8:30 on here. So you guys did a good job hustling. Um, we're 13 13.1 if I'm reading this correctly. 13.1. Is there someone here to speak on the local control and accountability plan? >> Oh, congratulations. >> Thanks again. >> Thank you. Welcome. Um, >> have a good night. Can I help you? >> Yeah, go ahead. >> Um, you'll just open it up uh for a public hearing. Um, officially say those words and ask if anyone's here to speak on uh these items for the hearing. >> Yes, we've opened up for public hearing to speak on these items. Are is there

103anybody here to speak on these items on local control and accountability plan? How about online? We we're a little surprised there aren't, but that could happen at this time of the night. >> Seeing them, we may close the hearing. >> Yeah. So, seeing that there are no persons here in person nor online um to uh join us in public hearing, we're going to close 13.1 on local control and accountability plan. Um now we Good. Thanks you. Now we have 13.2. Same thing. public hearing. We're going to open it on the 2026 27 preliminary budget. Is there anyone here in person who would like to um speak in public hearing now that we've opened that up? I don't see anyone online. And having not seen folks online or in person, we're now going to close 13.2.

104two. Um, so we move on now to 14.1 discussion on local control and accountability plan. Yes. Nice breathing room here. >> You going to do next reach? >> I don't I got you. >> Oh, did she give it? You guys are going to Okay. >> All right. Good evening, superintendent, members of the board, members of the public. My name is Jill Hoganike. I'm the associate superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District. I'm joined here at the DAS by Dr. Lena Sweeney who is our director of Brea and Miss Joya Bach who is our director of state and federal programs. I also want to acknowledge the team in the audience in the event that there are additional questions. Um we do have um uh our other staff members here um who are available to help answer

105questions. If we go to the next slide um we are here this evening for the first reading of the draft LCAP. We're going to provide a brief overview of the LCAP. Um we are going to review some key components of the year that of the current LCAP which is a 2024 2027 plan. So we will be entering the third year of a three-year LCAP and we will take feedback from the the board to finalize the 2026 LCAP which will be submitted to the state um by the end of the month. Um so we're going to start with a quick uh overview of the LCAP. Um for members of the public who may not be aware um on the next slide we have um some content there. Um but the original purpose of the LCAP or

106the local control accountability plan was to address opportunity and achievement gaps particularly for focal student groups including students identified as unduplicated under the local control funding formula which is how the state funds um our districts. Um, and as Miss uh Rios shared in the pack report, our unduplicated students are our multilingual learners, students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch, our students experiencing housing insecurity, and our foster youth. Our BUSD LCAP is also situated in the broader context of BUSD's emerging strategic plan, district initiatives, and board adopted resolutions. Um, and a a quick refresher, the LCAP is a required planning document for all California school districts that receive funding through the local control funding formula. It is a three-year plan that connects identified student needs with goals, actions, services, and investments that are designed

107to improve student outcomes. And while the LCAP covers a three-year cycle, districts are required to review and update the plan annually to reflect progress and respond to community input and address evolving student needs. Um, and so you will see attached to the agenda that is online um when we will review in our presentation um advisory committee um recommendations and staff response. On the next slide, you see a very big uh highlevel overview of the timeline of LCAP development. Um the green arrow it indicates where we are today. Um and at this stage in the process, we have engaged with our educational partners and we're preparing the budget and refining content um as we present the draft LCAP for you this evening. Uh it's at this point in time that we bring the proposed LCAP forward

108for public review and the required um public hearing which just took place and board consideration and then finally approval. As a component of this process um the Alama County Office of Education or ACE reviews the draft in the categories that you see here and identify any corrections in the following categories. Uh technical changes and required actions. Um, and then also those things that meet requirements. We met with the Alama County Office of Education staff on May 21st and the overall feedback of our draft LCAP was uh was positive. Um, while there were some technical issues, some of the budget issues uh some of the budget numbers were not in at the time of the review and some of the calculations were not complete. Um we have been able to update that for the draft LCAP

109that you have um before you. Um components uh some of the successes that you see here on meeting requirements was that we do MBUSD sponsor a very robust engagement with various educational partners. Um and we have clarity around the five goals and associated actions and um our actions have also been uh leading to some pretty positive gains in our data. Although we still do have gaps for some of our focal student groups, we did have some required revisions that you see there in red for developing a further developing rationale for our investment choices. And that is work that the team has been doing. Um, and we are checking in pretty regularly with ACOE to ensure that those corrections meet requirements before we will submit that for board approval on the 17th. Um our LCAP uh

110is anchored in the five goals that you see here. We have not made any changes on those goals. Um they are described more uh fully on the next slide. Um, these five goals ele elevate the work that we're doing to ensure that our students have the opportunity to achieve academic excellence, that they have the supports needed to attend to their mental health and wellness and belonging, to support partnership and engagement, and as a reminder, goal five is a goal specific to Berkeley Technology Academy to help students graduate from school prepared for college and career. Um, and with that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Sweeney who is going to share an overview of the feedback from our uh educational partner engagement this year. Thank you Jill and good evening board of directors and

111superintendent. Um as part of the LCAP process we gather feedback from our educational partners including the parent advisory committee the um the district English language advisory committee and the educator advisory committee known as EAC. The next few slides highlight the key themes that emerged from those conversations. Next slide, please. The LCAP and strategic planning survey was open for approximately 5 weeks this late winter and received approximately 2900 responses overall representing a participation improvement. Student participation in continued to grow. That's at the secondary level. And we also saw increased engagement from staff and teachers. We recognize a decrease from our parent guardian group which represents an area of growth for us. Next slide please. Oops. Way. Yeah, there you go. Um, we are Thank you. We are pleased with the increased participation this year as I

112mentioned and remain committed to strengthening engagement efforts particularly with our educational partners whose voices have been historically less represented in district feedback processes and next slide please. Thank you. So this is a very high level summary of the work that we've done across the district in various meeting spaces looking at some of the themes and comments both in regards to strengths and areas of growth for us. Responses highlight strong appreciation for BUSD's commitment to equity, student support, and community partnerships while also pointing to opportunities to strengthen consistency, access, and outcomes across the district. Next slide, please. The pack or the parent advisory committee's recommendations highlighted several priorities including as you heard um protecting student supports, sustaining effective programs, strengthening school climate, expanding OFI, and continuing to improve our data systems. We appreciate the thoughtful feedback

113and partnership with our pack. Next slide. The DAC or ELAC's recommendations centered on maintaining and strengthening supports for multilingual learners. Its members emphasize the importance of preserving existing English language development services, protecting key staffing positions, and expanding multilingual access. And next slide, please. The educators advisory committee is an advisory group we had a number of years ago and at the discretion of the superintendent there was a decision to reinstate this group this year. The educator advisories committee recommendations also focused on strengthening direct student supports and emphasized the importance of sustainability. And next slide and I'll pass. Oh, I'll pass this over to you, Joy. Sorry. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. Okay, so for section three, we're highlighting the LCAP actions across all five district goals. And while advisory groups review the full LCAP,

114only some actions fall under their specific purview because not all actions are funded through the LCFF supplemental funds. We're going to discuss the funding distinctions in greater detail during the budget budget part of the presentation. So for goal one, providing highquality curriculum and responsive instructional practices, there are 15 actions supported by 21 metrics to progress monitor. A notable revision in this year's LCAP is AVID. So you can see there in maroon for the 2526 school year, AVID was offered exclusively at the middle schools rather than in both middle and high school. This adjustment reflects an analysis of the program participation and the scheduling considerations which indicated that high school enrollment remained low due to a competition with other academic opportunities serving a similar student population. The revised model allows the district to focus resources on

115strengthening AVID implementation during the critical middle school years where the program has demonstrated stronger participation and impact. So for goal two, focusing on providing and monitoring timely and effective academic and behavioral interventions necessary to accelerate student outcomes and eliminate barriers to success. Um and through these actions, the district aims to ensure that students receive the appropriate level of intervention, progress monitoring, and instructional support needed to achieve these outcomes. There are no notable changes for this goal. Goal three focuses on fostering safe, welcoming, and inclusive school climates that are humanizing and culturally and linguistically responsive for students. Actions within this goal include restorative justice practices, attendance improvement efforts, behavioral health services, and other supports designed to strengthen student well-being, belonging, and engagement. A notable revision in this year's LCAP is the reduction of LEAP class sections.

116Based on ongoing data monitoring and evaluation of student enroll or student outcomes, the district found that the program demonstrated limited impact over time relative to its intended goals. So, as a result, resources have been adjusted to align the enrollment to course capacity and reinvest in interventions and support that show stronger evidence of effectiveness in improving student outcomes. Goal four focuses on building authentic partnerships amongst families, staff, and educational partners by leveraging the diverse strengths, perspectives, and talents within the Berkeley community to support positive student outcomes for all students. So, actions within this goal are designed um to meet that outcome. A notable enhancement this year is the district's commitment to systemically providing translation and interpretation services for advisory committee meetings and stakeholder engagement opportunities, ensuring that multilingual families can fully participate in shaping district programs,

117policies, and priorities. And then finally, goal five is specific to Berkeley Technology Academy. A key revision in this year's LCAP is a strategic shift in resources from additional counseling services towards the expanded college and career readiness supports. This change reflects a deliberate effort to strengthen career connected learning by building a robust CTE career technical education pathway, increasing opportunities for students to engage in meaningful career exploration and investing in teacher professional development to enhance the instructional practices aligned to workforce and post secondary expectations. And so this final slide provides a summary of the major revisions made to the goals and actions section of this year's LCAP based on stakeholder feedback, ongoing program evaluation, and analysis of student outcome data. This these revisions reflect the district's commitment to continuous improvement using evidence, stakeholder input, and effectiveness data

118to guide the decision making and ensure that our investments remain focused on strategies that best support student success. I'm going to hand it back over to Dr. Lena Sweeney for the metrics. >> Thank you, Joya. Now, I will walk us through key metrics for our if you just go back just one. Thank you. um for our local control accountability plan. Okay, next slide. The LCAP includes 28 required metrics tied to the eight state priority along with areas for district to develop local measures. Next slide. Here we outline how metrics support our continuous improvement efforts. Each goal is supported by actions that are directly tied to specific measurable outcomes. Honing in on our 3x5 target, our goal is to increase proficiency annually by 3% for all students with an accelerated target of 5% for our focal

119groups across all academic content areas. Next slide, please. This slide presents samples of goal one metrics with a description of the baseline data and growth required to meet each target. The data it in the end of year 2526 column represents the most current data we have for each area. For example, the CASP state data reflects spring 2025 data as 2026 scores are not fully in at this point, while our star and dibbles data is new as of May 1st, 2026. Next slide. In 2025, no student groups were represented in the red on the California state dashboard, which is an improvement for us. And as you can see, the data show growth for most student groups. At the same time, outcomes for focal groups remind us that significant opportunities for improvement remain. Next slide. Here we

120zoom into our K through2 disagregated endofear dibbles data. We see an increase according to our 3x5 target, particularly noted here for our students experiencing homelessness and our economically disadvantaged students. And next slide. Thank you. This slide highlights a sample of goals one and two measures. We are seeing positive movement in several key outcomes including A throughG completion, college and career readiness, science achievement, graduation rates, and CTE participation. Next slide. Moving on here to goal three, wellness and belonging. Goal three snapshots highlight positive movement in school climate and engagement measures as measured by our checks data. We see improvements in school connectedness, caring adult relationship and our suspension rates. These data suggest that many students are experiencing stronger connections to school while also reminding us that continued focus on belonging, engagement, and well-being remain imperative. Next

121slide. And here we highlight goal three using grade five school connectedness as an example. We can see both overall performance and outcomes for individual student groups alongside established targets. In this case, grade five students exceeded the target with 82% reporting a sense of school connectedness in 2026. And this this is a a fresh data set. Next slide, please. For goal four, partnership and engagement, our metrics are designed to assess the depth and breadth of our family and community engagement. We maintained 100% compliance with SSC and ELACS or DAC as as we refer to it. And more families of students with disabilities reported feeling welcomed by their schools. At the same time, feedback from families of multilingual learners remind us that we must continue strengthening our outreach, communication, and engagement efforts. And next slide. Thank you.

122Overall, we're seeing positive trends across many of our key measures, including strong academic performance and growth. Early literacy remains strong, as does improvement in our state data. These data help us identify where continued attention is needed. Particularly noting around persistent opportunity gaps in areas of our mathematics outcomes, particularly noted in our star um 3 through 5 and 6 through 8 end of year data. And I will now pass on to Jill. Okay. Um in this uh next section we're going to talk about the LCAP budget considerations. Um on the next slide you will see our district's core values for resource allocation which um should be extremely familiar to everybody um at this point in time. Um these were all also core values that we used in our educational partner engagement opportunities um throughout the school

123year. Similarly on the next slide um we also recognize the importance of balancing and impact with fiscal sustainability with regard to the LCAP actions um as the LCAP expenditures have exceeded ongoing revenue in recent years. Um, as we have shared in many presentations, we are operating a deficit budget on our LCAP actions and we've been funding a number of them through grants that are now ex expiring um and moving um some of that work into uh current grants that will expire in 2028. Um we do have some good news however. So on the next slide, um when we uh came to you with a projected LCAP bud budget a couple of months ago, we are anticipating that budget being about $6.6 million. At the m May revise, another $100,000 was added to that budget projection.

124Um and then most recently, uh an adjustment has been made based on the P2 attendance and enrollment of another $95,000. um bringing our projected budget to nearly $6.8 million, which is great um because that is adding capacity um into the budget. Um that said, we still have a deficit um as we are anticipating um the impacts of budget negotiations. We know that there's going to be a mid-year bump. Um almost entirely the LCAP budget uh the LCAP supplemental funds are being used to pay for staffing. So, we know that in January we'll see an increase on those staffing costs when the benefits um kick in. So, still about half a million dollars um on in a deficit um recognizing that we're going to be moving that into mostly learning recovery. So, we'll go over that

125um which is offering temporary stability um as we think about these actions. Um, but considering Director Brown's charge of where we put our money shows where our priorities are. Um, over the next few slides, while there are nearly 48 different actions um, in the LCAP, not all of the actions are funded through the LCFF supplemental fund. So, we're going to focus just on those actions. So, across goal one, you can see here um, we are using LCAP supplemental to fund for part of a TSA. The other part of the TSA is in our BP budget and the board will be hearing um the BP or the PNO recommendations for BP and Bara next week. We also fund our AVID programming uh which is inclusive of the three middle schools um and our bridge programming. We

126are uh recommending to move some of that. While we're going to be making a slight reduction in that bridge programming, that's the recommendation. we will still move um part of the costs for um the bridge program into the learning recovery um block grant across goal two um which is that next goal here um you see that we have significant investments in our RTI staffing those are allocations that are made to our uh K8 schools um goal 2 uh point.4 Four is our ELD support. We um support and invest in our ELD TSAs and an ELD coordinator at the high school. Um two goal 2.5 is the centralbased ELD TSA. Um and again our math uh support coming out of uh actions 2.7 and 2.8. One shift for the middle school math support classes. Um there

127are currently uh three classes at each of the three middle schools. Um we're recommending that the LCF LCFF supplemental be used to support uh point a third of that and then the other third will go to uh BP funding and then in conversation with our middle school principles they will pick up that third section with their site funds. So we're reducing costs um from the supplemental budget there. on goal three which is our goal focused on wellness and belonging. Um you see there and you heard from Pat comments tonight that we do sponsor a McKini Bento counselor. Um we also pay for the RJ counselors um at and the RG coordinators in our middle and high school. Um we have supported intervention counselors um which really came at the time of COVID. um we had

128some COVID funds that were allocated to school sites and then we've moved some of those costs into the LCAP, but we will um split that funding of the two intervention counselors at the high school um between supplemental budget and the learning recovery and then back up to the high school RJ counselor. This has come up in one I think the May 20th presentation. Um, we've funded one of the two RJ uh coordinators at the high school on an ACL wellness grant this current school year and we got an extension on that grant for the 2627 school year. So, we will maintain that staffing um but paying that second uh RJ coordinator on that grant that expires in June of 2027. Um, and then as Joya mentioned, uh, the reduction on the LEAP classes, we're not

129paying for any of the LEAP classes in the LCFF supplemental. The remaining sections are being, um, paid for out of BUP. Goal four on partnership and engagement, um, we are, uh, supporting our, uh, eight family engagement specialists. It says 7.47 47 there at the top because Berkeley High School picks up the other 0.53 for the high school OFI specialist and the and the supervisor is included there. Um we have done some work with the PNO and looking at where we have capacity in the BP budget. So we'll be moving um the costs of some of our OFI staff $232,000 and change into the BP budget. Um supplemental funds also go to pay for the Berkeley High School welfare and attendance support and then LCAP evaluation and support and then we have to put the indirect

130costs in some goal so we put it in goal four. Um and then finally on goal five, goal five again specifically for BTA does not receive it says supplemental budget there and we should probably put an an asterisk my favorite symbol too. um because this is equity multiplier funds that we receive from the state that entirely go to BTA. Uh BTA did not qualify for equity multiplier funds this year. Uh the equity multiplier funds are received based on uh calculation of free and reduced price lunch rate and transcency um and transcency rates. Um and we won't have that information from the state until the fall. So, but we still have some carryover, so we'll be spending that down. Um, one of the other requirements that we talked about last year, um, we, uh, districts across

131the state receive learning recovery emergency block grant. Um, these are funds, um, that go out to individual school sites and thank you to the advocacy of all of our community members and labor partners and staff, um, we've been receiving uh, small additional amounts of learning recovery block grant funds. um back. If you'll recall, the state allocated a number of dollars to districts across the state and then midway between that first year, they took some of the money back and they've been slowly giving that money back. So, we are getting some of that, but as a result, there is a requirement to include learning recovery block grant expenditures in the LCAP. And you saw a couple of those expenditures um in the previous slides. Our expenditures need to be based on a needs analysis. Um, which

132we shared with you a year ago. Um, but the big broad strokes of that needs analysis is on the next slide. Um, really wanting to focus in alignment with the guidance of those funds um, on enhancing our social, emotional, and mental health supports. That was a big um area of concern and interest particularly for our families um and our Spanish- speakaking families in particular wanting to know um how mental health supports were being uh mental health was being supported at the school site but also wanting to understand how to support their students at home and our OFI team and I think some of you were actually at a mental health event last Friday. Um so you see some of those workshops um have been happening. They also want strengthening family and community sport um building

133out a robust MTSS uh system for attendance and then high needs uh grade levels. So um broadstrokes overview about our expenses that are tagged in the LCAP um for the learning recovery block grant are on the next slide. Again, some of which we've talked about before um on the previous slides. bridge specifically. Um we pay for the point counselor out of the learning recovery block grant funds plus um some additional allocation for some hours for the counselor and the teachers. Um the classroom teachers for Poente are part of the teacher template because the point classes serve as an English class at the middle school and the high school. So we don't need additional budget to support um that that particular component of the programming. Um what the biggest line item on the learning recovery block

134grant has been for um our mental health contracts at the elementary school. Um and moving into this year doing some partial funding for some of the mental health coordinators um at BTA and Berkeley at Berkeley High. This does reflect a reduction on the current mental health contracts and Dr. Shelley has been working with site principles. Um, some sites have elected to use some of their site funds to help fill out those additional costs. Um, but if you might recall about 3 or four years ago, the cost of those mental health contracts didn't just grow incrementally, they grew exponentially. Um and uh we have been receiving to subsidize part of that to um the mental health grant from the city of Berkeley which expires this month too. So we're waiting to hear um from the city

135of Berkeley if there'll be um additional allocations. There has been an application that's been submitted um but they too are going through their own budget process. Um and then you saw the intervention counselor. So that's a total of about a million dollars. It leaves us um depending on whether or not we score um the most recent uh numbers coming in from the state in May um it currently leaves us with about 87ish almost $800,000 remaining in learning recovery block grant for next year. That will um grow with the final budget. Um but just want to tag that we've got a million dollars of expenses already there. Um so any additional expenses can go on to learning recovery. We definitely have capacity there, but then the sustainability question um will be one that we'll need to

136consider because we won't have the ability to c to um cover the costs of these through the 2728 school year when this grant expires. Um so, as we shared with you at one of the last presentations, we do have a big asterisk across all of this. There are still a number of things that are shifting. We have some positions that are open and uh currently being filled. Um those uh expenses for um staffing will need to be confirmed. We're also working to ensure that we spend down the grants that are expiring and as we know that we'll have some capacity because we might have had people on leave etc. Um we'll be moving some of either the LCAP expenses or the learning recovery expenses onto those expiring grants where they're appropriate. And then again, we

137will have a mid-year budget increase to cover the negotiated benefits coming in January. All right, Joy will close us out. >> Okay, thank you. So, as we conclude tonight's presentation, we want to highlight the remaining opportunities for review, feedback, and adoption of the 2627 local control and accountability plan. So, as you can see here, um, starting June 3rd, we did post the 20 26 LCAP on our district website, and we do have a physical copy available at the lobby here, 2020 Bonar Street, um, during normal business hours. If you prefer hard copy for review, we encourage all of our educational partners to continue sharing their feedback through June 10th. Please use the survey link. um the feedback that you've shared thus far has been incorporated and highly um highly important as we've made these difficult

138decisions. On June 17th, staff will return to the board with the final LCAP and budget for adoption. And following board approval, the district is required to submit the LCAP and the local indicator data to the Alama County Office of Education uh by July 1st for review. July 1st also marks our beginning of our implementation for the next year. And at that point, we're going to transition from planning to action, launching the investments, supports, and strategies outlined in this year's LCAP. Um, we remain committed to our continuous improvement process, monitoring the impact of our actions, engaging our stakeholders and educational partners, and really using our data to ensure that these efforts are producing meaningful impact for all of our students here in BUSD. So, thank you to all of our advisory committees, um, our families, our

139staff, our students, our community partners, and board members for your partnership in developing this draft plan, um, and supporting the success of of Berkeley Unified Students. >> Thank you so much. Um, really appreciate all the work that went into that and the detailed uh, review. Um I want to make sure that yes we move on to board members so they can have questions and discuss. >> Uh thank you all so much for uh your presentation and for your work and also I want to thank PAC for uh their comments uh which will I hope help drive uh some of our conversations this evening. I do have a number of questions. Don't be surprised because it always goes like that. Uh but I'll start off with one and then leave space for my board colleagues to

140ask their questions. Um I first want to start off uh talking about LEAP and uh in goal three uh you mentioned that there was going to be um a reduction around the s around the sections of LEAP um and you mentioned um some of the data that specifically helped to lead to that conclusion uh as well as the need to shift and I have maybe more than one question around that. So the first is um how many students are we currently serving um in LEAP and um what specific data led us to the conclusion and then you mentioned some alternative supports um that students will receive. So I'm interested to know what those alternative supports are. And my most I think important question in this section is um that it's my understanding that LEAP is

141an elective class um but as it be as an elective class as it as an elective class it is also um an A throughG requirement specifically a G requirement for graduation. I think about the students who are currently in that uh course and or in those uh sections or future students to come who will need to uh potentially be in those sections and need as much support as they can get to meet their A throughG requirements. Removing some sections will prevent students from being able uh to do that. And so when you answer the question about alternative supports that they will receive, can you also ensure that you're talking about alternative supports that meet those A throughG requirements, specifically the G requirement? Thank you. >> Um I'll let Dr. Sweeney speak to the data, but

142just um so we know there are currently 12 sections of LEAP across the seven hives. I think it might be 14. So that's a capacity of about 150 students, 12 students per hive. Um, but we currently have about 59 students enrolled in those sections with some the highest uh and the highest number of a class is 10. And we have one, two, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight of those current sections with five or fewer students enrolled. Right. So we have the capacity to be able to support the number of students. I think um as one as you all know one of the challenges at Berkeley High School with a sixth period day is that there are a limited number of opt of of space. There's a limited amount of space and a

143schedule for a number of electives. So we do have students who are opting into a number of other electives. um not everybody chooses LEAP and we want to make sure that we're targeting resources into uh both sections that are desirable for students but also that can provide the level of support. So um I do think that this is going to be uh it this as I understand it uh was a key component of the UN9 design at the time that it happened. um but it hasn't re realized the enrollment and the data that we're seeing for students who are participating in LEAP are not necessarily accelerating um given the low teacherto student ratio that we're seeing in these classes >> and um and specifically the data that was used um in this evaluation was student

144uh DF rate um comparative DF rate student attendance as well as student suspension data um and we also Alo did a an analysis of course of demographics to see the relative um representation of our unduplicated populations. >> Thank you for taking the time to explain the rationale behind the decision as well as the data that uh you derived this decision from. I'm still kind of left with the question around what alternative support looks like uh specifically alternative supports that will meet the G requirement. I'm not going to have all of that information, but I can get that to you about what I I don't know where they go if they don't go to LEAP. I just don't have that cross-section here, but I can I can get that to you. >> Director Ron, can I

145ask a quick followup? Um, is it correct that even it sounds like there's a small enough number of students opting into LEAP that would it be fair to say that anyone who wants to take LEAP next year should still have access to a LEAP class even with seven sections? So, there will be one section a high but we would be we would with the current enrollment we would still have a capacity for more students to be in LEAP. It's about 12 students a class. >> Sorry, I have another follow-up question. So, the original um the original way that students were enrolled in LEAP was from a recommendation um by um well, first of all, students and families could self-elect for it for it, but then they were also recruited through recommendations from 8th grade, from

146middle school, right? So if our sections are low, what what has happened there? Um is it still that students and families can self- select to participate? Are we uh touching B or have we touched base with our uh middle schools to ensure that they're um are the the recruitment efforts are high? Like what is just what has happened? Because even if we do reduce it, which is is fine if it's enough space uh for students, we if without those efforts, we'll continue to see those class classes go lower and lower and lower and lower. So what's happening? Both of those are true, right? So there is there's a high level of communication on the part of the Berkeley High team as they go out to middle schools. Um but we also offer students and families

147a lot of choice in what they can select. um and they're not opting in. I have a theory that it might be slightly lower because a we did see an uptick in the number of students the number of 9th grade students who enrolled in PE this year in compared to previous years. Um so that could be a contributing factor. Um but I think that it what it boils down to is it's student choice and or student and family choice in that in that design. Yes, director. >> I have a question about the survey. So, I don't I didn't make a note of what slide it was, but you know what I'm going to ask. It's very low. And I'm wondering why and also connected to that. I have a suspicion that we have some survey

148fatigue. Um, and I'm wondering, you know, we we had the other survey. No, this isn't the one. >> It's slide It's probably slide 11 is where it starts. But just for members of the public to also know, we have more extensive information about the survey data in the appendex. >> Hold on. I'm talking about the slide number there it is uh this end ofear survey on slide number 34 >> so >> oh is it okay so it just looks like uh we went down quite a bit right um this is just the number I was looking for and so I'm Just wondering if we I know you said we have a goal to improve that. If we have any ideas on why it was so low or what kind of outreach we did and maybe

149if it's possible for us to combine some of the various surveys we're doing so that we're getting the same information but not ask you know when you're pushing out the complete the survey, complete the survey in all the places. Um that can give us more information for more pieces so we get that feedback more comprehensively. Yeah, and we we did receive feedback that the um the survey is extremely long and and and relatively complicated. Um we are using the same survey for continuity in comparing survey results and we have the opportunity with writing the new LCAP to shift that survey and I believe to make it um a more streamlined and approachable survey for for our families. on our part. I feel like we we worked hard to get u more participation and I'm not

150completely sure of the the reason why it decreased from last year. Um but that's something that that we're looking at is h is how to increase that next year knowing that we'll we'll use it again. And as we I just want to just add because I think the the really specific feedback that we've heard a number of times is that this we're trying to get the sweet spot of the survey administration because school sites also have their individual surveys. And what we hear from parents who are on advisory groups is that those surveys are getting them information, but they're all designed a little bit differently based on what the the school needs are. we don't actually have a um a uniform template of school-based surveys, right? So, school site councils and their site leaders are

151working on collecting that information and I think those two things are happening at the same time. We're trying to do that at a system level and also recognize that um some of these uh data points are components that are aligned with the local indicators that are required. Um so that's a little tricky. We've really divided our LCAP survey into three main sections over the course of the last two years. The first section is just general feedback on each of the individual goals. And then we have those local indicator questions which are on the liyker scale but they are in constructs around things like um school connectiveness etc. And then the third section has been on the graduate profile. So we were getting inputs about the graduate profile. Now we've got inputs and we were um

152workshopping um some of the content for the graduate profile. So totally want to acknowledge that it's long. We do have an opportunity to reset on that um and figure out different ways. Um my understanding is prior to my arrival here, they at one point tried to break the survey down into three separate parts, but there was fatigue that way too. So um definitely have some work to do in that area. just as we streamline it seems like it would be good to have some kind of template so that at least you're gathering similar information across the school sites and then I also wanted to just ask that as we streamline to make sure that our parent leaders are involved in that process so that you know sometimes surveys become so administrative heavy you know sort

153of lens and you lose some of the nuance of what's happening at the school sites. So, if they are willing and able, I think it would be great to keep our parents involved there. >> Thank you so much. >> I have a also a survey question. I'm wondering, do individual school sites get access to the their specific school site survey data and they when they're designing their survey, they know what's going to be asked on this survey and what data they're going to get. So, they can ask different question >> somewhat. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Um I have also just all of this talk about redesigning things next year and sort of preparing for a new three-year plan. I um I'm not entirely sure what my question is, but I have a lot of

154questions about the fact that we're ending the this is going to be the third year of a three-year cycle. And what is that process going to look like next year to prepare for a new three-year cycle? And how different do you anticipate the the plan that gets written for the next 3 years to look compared to like just how are you thinking about approaching that? >> I know. Yeah. So, not to get ahead of ourselves list of summer projects and I've been talking with these ladies here um and my and my team like we do want to get a scope and sequence ready um the summer so that we can launch that the beginning of the year. my in my ideal world, we would have some draft goals um by December. That's important because we

155want to make any shifts on the school plan templates before the sites start engaging their schools and we want those the goals to be aligned. So, one of the things that Berkeley does really well is that our LCAP goals go into the site sips, right? The school plans for student achievement. So there is some there is some clear alignment there and expectation. I think one of the things that we did for this three-year LCAP this current three-year LCAP cycle was that we had a sense of what the emerging pillars were on the strategic plan and the goals are really aligned to the pillar. So the extent to which we get the um strategic plan off the ground, I I have a wonder if we're going to deviate from these current major pillars of academic excellence,

156wellness, and belonging, partnership, and engagement. um while we might need to take a more critical look at the actions that we're prioritizing for the funding. But again, showed you a sample of the actions that are funded with um our supplemental funds, but there are uh there are a few other actions in the LCAP that we're prioritizing for our our district-wide efforts. >> Dr. Rosette, >> hi. Thanks so much. found your presentation to be informative and appreciate it because I know I've been asking and we didn't hear comments from DAC about the budget this time around. It was helpful to kind of just get anecdotally like how you got to your conclusions around how to serve English language learners. >> Yep. >> I was a question because I director Albeck is here. He is our one

157our liazison for the DAC. I do want to say our DAC chair has a promoting eighth grader and so while we did ask about her attendance here as you all know it's middle school promotion night so >> most important night for that area no worries >> um I have a question about you know you made and I think it was you Dr. Sweenie who made um reference to the feedback that you had gotten about doing better family engagement for our English language learners in the you know next iteration of this and so wanted to know kind of preliminarily what were you were thinking and also um I I know on one of the slides we saw like the baseline for alpac progress and that struck me I think it was like in the 60s I

158don't remember exactly what percentage it was struck me as low but I'm wondering if that's like if our baseline is an anomaly to other districts baselines or on PARM just curious um around our baseline for alpac progress and I did attend the multilingual program graduation had a chance to talk to our staff and also to families there and one of the things that they wanted me to hear just about you know how the district could be more supportive to you know families and our our els in particular and our English language learners was more support for the oral portion of the exam and wanted to know how that was kind of factored into your recommendations or if that's something that you looked at for the um yeah for the future. Thanks. >> I can't talk

159about it but I feel like you're there in it. >> Uh good evening everyone. Um, so as it relates to, as I understand the question to be family engagement for our multilingual learners and specifically support for the oral component of the ELPAC, um, a few things have come up. Um we are very fortunate that the board of education and BSD continues to support EL coordinators um across all of our school sites and we are currently doing a crosswalk of several of our neighboring districts including Alamita, Albany, Caster Valley and two other districts just learning about what their service delivery model has looked like. Um for we know that it does have a significant impact on our budget. Um, but I'll return to that in that our EL coordinators are a huge opportunity for us in

160addition to our OP staff to be having that regular uh communication with our families. And I think part of the data that we saw this evening reflects that in regards to our active ELACs and then our joint uh DAC which director Kin has been be able to be a part of uh this year. uh it has been very well attended and uh the recommendations made this year uh that informed this evening's uh presentation um had a lot of thoughtful feedback and conversations that went into it. So I do feel confident that we have the capacity given the decisions made in our district with our EL coordinators, site coordinators and also our OP staff that we have the opportunity to have real engagement and authentic engagement with our multilingual learner families. Always work to be done

161and opportunities to improve. Um, and I think one example that we that really shows some commitment to this work is that we noticed that for our newcomer families that were just uh coming to the country, they were having a lot of challenges or difficulty navigating the admissions process. So, what we did is we created uh online videos in home languages that we uh presented directly to families when they came to admissions that really helped them navigate the process in addition to the capac uh the staffing capacity. And then lastly, as it relates to the oral language component of the ELPAC, we are seeing a a big opportunity there and also um room for continuous improvement there. So this year we launched our ELTEL committee and through doing um interviews with families and also students. Uh

162the oral language component continued to come up. So we'll be working with our ELD coordinators on that component next year on what do we need to do with our designated and integrated EL to improve that component. But uh thank you for bringing the question and something we can continue to improve on. No, >> I'm glad it's on your radar. Thanks. That's consistent with the feedback that I heard that evening. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Are there other board questions? Yes, director. Um I I first want to appreciate the um effort to try to save as many programs and initiatives um as possible, but I am nervous about like continuing to operate with like project with a projected supplemental spending deficit that is temporarily supported by grants that are going away, right? And I really

163am nervous about what our long-term plan is, our long-term sustainability plan is once these temporary funds expire. Um, and I'm sure that you all have been thinking about it and so I just would like to hear some more. >> Yes. I mean, I think that that that is that's the that's the ultimate challenge. And I'm going to go back to uh direct director Shinosk's uh uh board member comments, right? Like we're not we're not fully funded for the services that we're expected to deliver. And and that's not just true of the LCAP. We had a whole board study session about special education and the underfunding of special education. There are a lot of pressure points on school districts, public school districts in particular, to serve um to serve students. And one of the things that

164I'm hashtag Berkeley proud of is the commitment of this community to focus on our focal student groups. We call them by name. We work to address them. I think our LCAP reflects that. And we've been doing our level best to ensure that we're stabilizing as much as possible. And this is really, you know, a year ago, two years ago, um we the board voted to use some of the um we we have an LCFF reserve, right? That reserve was then used last year to help balance the budget, so it wasn't available. And we, you know, we we we made it through the budget development season coming into this year without having to make significant cuts. But I do think we were very transparent that we were going to have to come back this spring and

165that we might have a different landscape and um and that that's the reality of where we are. I do think that um any of the reductions that we're recommending I just want to say have ab absolutely no statement on the value that it brings for any of our students. Um, but we are in a situation where we're trying to look for efficiencies and to be able to continue the work to support the students and and that the way that we go about doing that for any of these reductions might look differently. It might mean that the work moves slower and I think that at least myself and my team, we're going to be looking for directions from the board about where do you want us to then prioritize? Um and so that I think that

166we're all committed to public education. We're here at the dis and in the audience because we fundamentally believe in the work that we're doing. We know that the work that we've been doing over the last four years has been getting us some pretty significant results even though the gaps are still there. Um we're still in the in the business of building some infrastructure. We spent the first three years at least of my tenure building the literacy infrastructure which really is um I mean it there's just a fundamental difference about what's happening in classrooms. I was in a kindergarten classroom with Sylvia Mendes and all of those students were reading like all of them all of them reading um and we're turning our attention to MTSS infrastructure um and you know I think based on a

167lot of the recommendations that we've got from our advisory groups which are similar themes to last year whether or not we've had the capacity to address all of them is a different question but one of the big ones as we come into next year is how do we evaluate these programs and look to where we find efficiencies in how students are being identified. Um what we are learning is that we have a large number of students um who are not involved in any of these program in any of the programs. some of those students um are achieving greater success than others and we need to better understand that. We're building a data infrastructure uh with our Brea team and then I will say by extension to any one of these other teams who are now

168more more proficient at using the data because we have a platform that's allowing us to do that. We're changing the culture of what it means to go through data cycles and we still have lots of room for improvement for sure. But I think you're asking, you know, the the big question coming out of the cycle is um we are we are trying to be super strategic about how we're using the grant funds and how we grant funds is one thing. Grant funds plus grant fund guidelines is a whole another ball of wax. So there's a lot of work that we have to do to understand where those things match up. I do also want to give a shout out to um our PNO partners because we we we' worked to build some capacity in BP.

169Uh Chris and his team and Juan uh Principal Regos at the high school and his team. We we made 10% reductions on BP, but we needed that savings to then pay for the teacher template. So, it didn't realize any of the capacity that we were hoping to achieve, not because we didn't we weren't trying to get there, but because we have other costs um that we are now obligated um for all the right reasons um to make sure that we're paying for. >> Um thank you, Jill, for that thoughtful um reflection. And I think that on the heels of um just what the community has been saying, what I said, you know, last board meeting, even from the pack comments tonight about the need to stabilize our um our funding for high quality programs, high

170equitable programs. Um yes, all of those things remain true. And when we no longer have these one-time grants because unfortunately next next June some of them are even disappearing. Um it looks like us providing real and authentic direction for very difficult decisions around program evaluation around what stays around what's continued to be funded around what are we funding based off of values and what are we funding based off of outcomes. Um, and so I think the conversation will will need to continue to happen. And I think that we do our best to try to keep as many things as we want or and do our best to try to keep whatever the community comes out and tells us to keep. Uh, but the truth is we are not going to be in the same position

171next year financially that we are in this year. And so the conversation has to start sooner about what that looks like. Um, and it will not be an easy conversation to have. It'll be a necessary conversation to have because we won't have the the same money and we still have the same goal of stabilizing these these programs. So, thank you for that. I think what can I just add just to piggy back off of that, Director Brown, is we we have our core values of resource allocation. We have our our principles for uh resource allocation and stability and sustainability are the two at the bottom for a reason because those are the ones that are oftentimes hardest for districts to do. And I think we're working to do a better job of helping folks understand

172what that means. And so sometimes you might get a proposal for a reduction and that might seem counter to the idea of stabilizing or sustaining because you're you're getting rid of it, you're removing it. And actually that's not the case. sometimes and oftentimes in the cases of the examples given here and that will also be given later on tonight. Stability looks like knowing what we could afford and knowing we could afford not just now but long term and saying we might not be able to fund this at this level but we actually can do it a little bit longer if it's at this level. So just trying to help our community understand that stability and sustainability does not mean keep it the exact same way it is currently but thinking ahead of the game and

173thinking about what is actually doable both fiscally but also in terms of human capacity to manage and hold the work is something that I think we we are grappling with and trying to better um explain to our constituents. >> Thank you. >> I don't have constituents >> to our community >> community. Um, thank you. And I I do want to say that um, you know, on the heels of my comments, I also want to make it very clear um, that year after year we come up, we're up here and we're talking about the same programs and thinking about are they effective in this way, are they effective in that way, these are the programs that we're recommending to cut, but we have hundreds of contracts. We have hundreds of programs and I'm kind of tired

174of having the same conversations about the same things. And so when I say we need to have some difficult conversations, I'm not necessarily talking about the programs that we're year after year fighting for. I'm talking about like let's start looking other places. Let's start looking other places where we need to cut because we're up here year after year literally literally perpetuating the oppression Olympics and it's not fair to our community. It's not fair to our students. is not fair to the staff. It's not fair to to us really to you all as staff or to us as board members. Like I want to start talk let's start talking about something else, right? Because we're constantly talking about the same programs over and over and over and over and over again. And we already know the

175effectiveness of those programs. We already know those are our values. I'm talking about let's talk about something different. But I digress. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Brown. Um are there other questions or comments? Okay, thank you so much for your time. >> Um, next on up we have our 14.2 agenda item. Um, the 2026 2027 preliminary budget. over there. >> Huh? Are you going to do it? >> Oh, yeah. Because we don't It all It never works and we don't. She's going to She's She needs a evening or is it afternoon? >> Good evening. So, good evening board members, superintendent. Um, we'll be presenting we're presenting the preliminary budget. Um, it's just an overview at this point because we're missing a lot of the information, but we're going to take you through the process.

176Um, I'm presenting to this evening with Medie Rivy who is our executive director of business services. So, next slide. Um we're presenting um of course um in accordance with our mission and our four E. Our agenda, we're going to be focused on the unrestricted general fund at this time. And again, it's more of a process overview at this point. Um we're going to look at the budget summary and highlights of the budget, look at our budget risk, what's in the budget, what's not in the budget. Um and then um the budget cycle and some budget assumptions and next steps. Um next slide. So in terms of the budget highlights again um we have an unrestricted general fund focus. Obviously the district's budget is made up of restricted programs and other funds but our focus at

177this point is the unrestricted general fund. Um and as we presented in the May revise, there's a lot of risk and uncertainty in the budget in terms of some of the assumptions that the governor shared in his May revise. Um not finished yet. Sorry. Uh and of and we're also waiting on information from the board. We're going to be going through budget balancing solutions. You'll be voting on that later. We also have increasing program costs and the governor's budget itself has a lot of unknowns. We will know more when he actually um adopts the budget in June towards the end of June. So again, we're going to look at what's in the budget, what's not in the budget, a quick look at our budget cycle and our assumptions and then next steps. So let's go

178on. Um based on our information that we have and based on the um outcome unknowns, we are confident we'll have a positive certification which means we'll have a positive ending fund balance for the current year and subsequent two years. Um even though at this point our undesated ending fund balance is negative um with the unknowns and after tonight's vote we um we project that it will be positive. Um, and then the multi-year projections, you we're not going to see those tonight, but remember when you when we do bring them back on the 17th, they will not have negotiated increases in all of the out years. And again, um they we're not funded adequately by the state. So, we either need to um have additional reductions to make sure that um to address our structural deficit

179or any additional costs. Next slide. Uh you want to take this one daddy? >> Yes. So the u may revise was uh presented and um a at first sight it looks they said that there is additional money and uh the additional funding available particularly for the um leas. But when we go in more detail uh then we what we found that there are risk associated with each of those proposals. So basically this is a summary of how uh the those proposals from the governor how they could be classified. So the first thing is our statutory cola which is was increased from 2.41 to 2.87 and it is nearly zero risk because it is based on the inflation factor from the federal government. >> Mhm. >> Then uh the additional 1.4% 4% uh LCFF increase that

180is also nearly zero because uh they have shown some funding that will be available for it and they are linking the paid pregnancy disability leaves along with it. So that looks like that that would be available. Then comes actually uh our discretionary block grant that they said that they will increase those amounts which orb which they says that they will increase amounts for all leas although it is part of the bud governor budget but the risk living little high compared to the other two and it is being termed as a medium risk level. Then u LBG another area where they said that additional money will be available but still that is not really risk-free that although the risk is is low. >> Mhm. And the greatest thing that could be helpful is the special education

181base rate which they are saying that they will increase by around 30%. >> Mhm. >> So that would be really helpful but still it is being classified as a lowrisk activity. >> Okay. Thanks Mary. So, um this should look familiar to um the board and the public because we brought this when we presented the May revise. Um not not public on the viewing public. Um and then in terms of the um the common message, we also get information from acco on the common message that just came out today, right? So, we're um we're kind of building it as we're getting additional information. Next slide. So what's in the budget in terms of budget balancing solutions? We have included in revenues the cola because we use that when we're actually um building the LCFF as well

182as the additional LCFF investments. Um the staffing formally is a part of us actually constructing our budget. So we do have the teacher template in the budget at this time and enrollment projections for our spud spudbud spudbug funding. Um we have included 2.7 million of the 5.9 million and what we have done the spudbug usually comes in as restricted. So we have to transfer expenses out to that restricted program. And for restricted funding, we're still um waiting for the information from the SLPO for the total amount that we will receive in sped, but we are estim we're we are building in $2 million at this point. As we get additional information, we'll be changing our assumptions. Next slide. Um what's not in the budget? Um, as I mentioned before, the total spud sped spud bug

183revenue, we're we're pending about three million. We're waiting for the board tonight to approve all budget balancing proposals. Those excluding revenue will total about $2 million. Um, the cost of the pregnancy leave um pregnancy disability leave, Medie mentioned that in terms of some one of the risks that we're looking at. Um and then the other um funds and other resources have to en we have to ensure that they have the projected cost of benefits in the current year or and the subsequent years for the multi-year projections. So next slide. Um so then we have to remember the budget cycle where are we in the actual um process. We have received the governor's may revise and that happened probably another day not 5:14. Um we should have the final budget by 6:15 but we know by

1846:30 we will get the final um governor's budget and our budget will then be adjusted as needed um within 45 days. So, now we're um we'll be waiting for the governor's final budget and any cleanup bills and trailer bills that may um that may accompany the governor's budget. Next slide. This is another representation. This is the present. This is a representation that we've used in the past. So we are in the process of finalizing the 2526 budget which we call the estimated actuals while we're trying to finalize a 2627 budget. So we're working in two fiscal years. Next slide. So um we can look at some of the assumptions um that that are in the budget and the major one next one this the major one that we look at is our ADA and our

185enrollment. So on the next slide um we next slide Liz. No. Yep. That one. Thanks. So this is a um us looking at our enrollment and attendance over several years. Um 2627 we had increased the enrollment projections based on working with our enrollment office and our student um Francisco in our our um where anyway. Um so so the projections that he gives us we use that to develop the teacher template as well as informal revenue. Um from that we also look at P2. We have P2 now for 2526 that came in a little bit lower than we had projected but then based on the ADA enrollment projections we have um we've estimated our ADA to be at 8957. So 8937. So that's what we've used to actually construct our LCFF revenue which is which is

186in the budget at this time. Next slide. Um, next slide. So, the variance report at this point we usually give you a a variance report looking at the adopted budget to the estimated actuals. But now we have too many unknowns for the comparison to be relevant. So, we have a draft, but we're not sharing that tonight until we get the additional information about the um budget balancing solutions and and actually we could get a little bit more information from ACOE as well. um with the information that we have now um bearing in mind that we haven't taken all the spud bug we haven't um done budget balancing solutions our preliminary ending fund balance is negative 2.8 8 million, but we know that once we get in all the revenue um that that amount will be

187um will be eliminated. Um and as a reminder, we'll be bringing back the final budget at the June 17th meeting for the board to approve. Next slide. You want to do the next steps? >> Yeah. So the next step that we have so the whatever we are discussing is based on May revised and that was presented on May 14th and at the moment the legislature they are looking after the proposals from the governor they are discussing and in different committees. So hopefully they should be able to do it uh second week of June and definitely their deadline in June 30th. And uh if there are um more changes compared to what with which we are working at the moment then we will be presenting a 45day revision to the district budget and that would that

188is not nec to be done but it is better if there are so many change many changes between May revise and the June final budget then it is a good practice to do that and if that happens that then we will come back with a 45day revision. >> Mhm. >> Somewhere in August and board approval of the budget on June 17th. And what we hope that we will have the we will be able to incorporate the uh budget balancing solutions and at the moment there are some one-time activities from the state budget that we are trying to incorporate. >> Mhm. And the challenges as we say that what are the challenges are basically uh yes next slide please. >> Yeah the state revenue forecast that is has changed substantially between January and May and many

189people are looking at at those with suspicion. So definitely those are aggressive revenue forecast. ADA basically what was done that in the state change the ADA how they will fund it. They were have started to use the three-year uh average and Berkeley actually is now at a point where that is not not of any benefit to us. Then we are looking at the expiring one-time funds and grants and uh in some of the uh the costs are outpacing the available revenues and the contribution and at the end we have to develop a comprehensive plan to maintain fiscal solvency and preserve the integrity of our educational program. This is what the intent is. >> Okay. So thank thanks Mitty. Um so as Jill actually shared earlier um the impact of the expiring grants obviously it impacts

190not only the programs that Ed services works on but it um impacts the entire budget. So if there are any questions or any um things that we can assist with um we'll be happy to take questions at this point. Thank you so much and again uh thanks again for coming uh to us um multiple times with these important updates and keeping us um you know informed as we go through this challenging process. Um are there board members would like to ask a question? >> Director Schnowski, >> I have a comment and then I have a question about the budget. My comment is just about our ADA and the fact that it's we're projecting it to be flat under just under 95% and so I just want to put out another call to really like trying

191to move the needle on that um with every percent being a million dollars for our district. So, um I know we've had a couple presentations on it before. Um, but if we're not moving the needle at all, then the way that we're investing or what we're doing doesn't seem to be uh making improvements. And then my question is I just really want to understand this. This is about the settle and the discretionary block grant. Okay. So, well, it's complicated because we get the we get the discretionary block grant the settle up from last year. >> This year, right? Yeah. there's like this lag. So, what I'm I want to be sure I understand is this year's settle, which is huge for our district, is not at all being budgeted for in this budget right now.

192Correct. >> No, the sp not the settle, but the spud bug, which may be related to the settle. Um, we're doing the spud bug, but we're not budgeting for the settle. um when we presented the May revise um like the Prop 98 funding that we may or we may not get or may come in as revenue or may go to the reserves that's not in the budget, >> right? But the Prop 98 settle settle up money is generally given to us as a discretionary block grant. So, I I'm kind of asking this because I think that it is it's very confusing and I don't know that most of our listeners or or even me that I fully have it clear because the spud bug is >> the setup by another name from a previous year.

193So, I just want to be really clear that $8 million is not the 2.9 I think it was $2.9 million that we're putting in >> for this bud bug. It's an old setup. >> Right. >> Okay. >> Right. And it's difficult to track it because the um state's not absolutely clear. Um, so this may have been the 2526 settle up, but we know that um, from a statutory point of view, they do owe us like $8 million, but we can't count that revenue until it's actually given to us because we don't know the format that it's going to actually um, be given to us in it. So, it may be a one-time grant or they may may decide, oh, we're going to put it to the rainy fund, rainy day fund. So, we really can't

194count it at this point. So, we can we can kind of um explain what we think is going on um with the Prop 98 and how it relates to the spud bug. Um, but what we're putting in the budget is when it has become like a a dollar amount that they're recommending that we put in the and even now it's an unknown because we don't know um in the governor's budget whether that's going to the final budget whether that's going to be have a lens, whether it's going to have some other kind of how they're going to actually distribute it. But um based on our budget balancing solutions, this is counted as being unrestricted cuz that's the information we have now. >> But the rainy day fund has been now maximized. So the the amount

195of the potential settle up shouldn't get any smaller because of the rainy day fund because the governor has maximized what can go into the rainy day fund statutoily with the May revise. But yeah, but when when if there's any additional allocation, right, there's no guarantee that we're going to get it. >> No, I I understand, but it wouldn't be a rainy day fund. It would be more settled up. One day we should get it. Great. Thank you. I just wanted to make sure I was clear on that. Um, okay. Thanks. >> Okay. >> Thank you a helpful clarification. Are there other folks with questions? No. Oh, okay. Um, thank you very much. Uh, we really appreciate it and I know there'll be more conversation. Um, >> bring it back on the 17th. >> Yes, that's

196right. >> Um, thank you. >> Thanks. >> And so, uh, we have 14.3 and then we have 15.1. So, >> 14.3 is part of a discussion. It's, um, uh, procedures to fill potential board leaves. Um, this is I'm sorry. >> Oh, okay. It It hasn't been switched. We're going to switch the order. Um, do we need to do an I think we forgot to do that. An agenda amendment. Yeah. Liz, can we do that? >> Yes. Um, would someone like to make an amendment to the I mean sorry motion to the >> I move that we amend the agenda to uh put item 15.1 ahead of item 14.3. >> I second it. Do we have the eyes? >> I I with Director Schnowski is is momentarily out. Um, do board members and folks here need

197a quick break? Yeah. When want you to take a like a three to five minute break. Thank you. We'll be back in 3 to 5 minutes for 15.1. I know. I want to >> so cold. >> It's freezing. Okay, thank you. >> It's freezing. >> No, we got to turn these off. When I got here at 5, it was like a thousand degrees in here. >> Jesus, I hate these chairs. >> You guys, it's it's >> I'm not going to I'm not going to take forever. window. >> No, I know. But I'm saying I don't have to do all these. >> It's freezing. Like blow me away. Can I have one? >> One of these. >> This is mine. >> Hold on. You want >> all that stuff? I'm not doing that. >> Hold on.

198Let me get you another blow you away. crazy. >> I'm waving at you. I'm saying hello. I'm right over here. >> Hello, my friend. I was like, >> everything. You're >> the last person standing. >> Congratulations on the school. You're done. Tomorrow's last day. >> I know. >> Do you have any? >> Well, I just uh finished myself. She was the speaker at my commencement ceremony for college just finished my bucket listers in public administration >> watching you guys >> budget update. >> Yeah. Yeah. So I'm really excited because Yeah. I just had the reference to my commencement and she was there. >> She did tell me she was speaking. She did she >> was amazing. I did. I introduced myself. >> Congratulations. I was thinking about your baby classes. >> Yes. >> You know

199your whole stuff. >> You spoke at her graduation. She >> Are we clicking or she clicking? >> She's clicking. Is there a clicker or no? She's clicking. We're back from break. Thank you so much. >> Uh good evening board directors and members of the public. Uh this is the last of three budget presentations this evening. Um and this is a budget update uh through which next slide please. We would like to um do a couple things. We want to review the budget balancing proposals. Next slide please. um that was shared with the board at the May 20th meeting. The board recalls we have a budget balancing target and staff has made proposals over the last several months um in most cases to and through ESPback and brought these proposals to you on the 20th just

200for review discussion and information and now we're bringing them back to you uh for action and your action and your discussion will help us as we prepare to build a final budget to bring to you on June 17th for approval. Um, so we're going to review the balancing proposals. We are also going to very quickly go through the slides that remind you all of our core values of resource allocation at the request of our president. Um, but we will just make sure that they're there for the reference of you as well as members of the public. And then the main other action is for you to take action on those proposed balancing um, proposals. Next slide, please. You've seen this slide in different forms over the three presentations this evening, but this is our BUSD

201budget development timeline. slightly different than the one that you saw in the previous uh presentation only because this is just kind of marking uh the places and different types of presentations we've had around the board I'm sorry around the budget over the last uh several weeks. So on the 20th again we presented to you all the budget balancing proposals that we're going to revisit today for the purpose of discussion. We also had a budget uh update that focused on the governor's may revise uh at our last board meeting. Tonight we are doing the first read of the preliminary budget which happened uh just prior to this particular agenda item. We also are going to um and we did show you the LCAP budget for the purposes of discussion. At our next meeting on the 10th,

202we will be coming to you with our VEP budget. Um and that will not be a discussion. And that would be an opportunity for you to discuss and take action on the recommendations for VEP as well as an information item which is an update on our personnel commission budget which also must be considered as we think about building um our complete budget at the end of the school year. On the 17th, we'll come back to the board for the final action uh this school year with regard to the budget, bringing you um our LCAP budget for you to take action on, the preliminary budget for you to take action on, as well as our site plans or also known as SIPAS, where our schools outline in detail how they'll allocate resources towards uh the district

203mission and goals, but also specific to their site goals and needs. As you heard, um, June 15th, we will get the governor's, uh, final budget approval. We say June 30th because after we get that, we need to actually dissect it and understand it. And so, sometime around the 30th, we'll have a better understanding of the implications for BUSD's budget and have an opportunity to revise the budget in the 45day revise um, at the beginning of the school year in August. So, just wanted to make sure that everyone understands the process and that you will likely see things and have seen things on more than one occasion. And that's because we want to make sure you have time to discuss and digest before we ask you to take action. So, thinking about the budget target, just

204a quick reminder, uh you can go two slides, please. Uh quick reminder that we have a budget balancing target that we set some time ago prior to the governor's revise and prior to a lot of other information that we have now of $10.4 million uh for our unrestricted general fund. Um you just heard a presentation on LCAP and previously have heard uh presentations on our expiring uh grants or grants that are having reduced capacity. Reminder that this 10.4 does not include those grants. This is strictly um general funds though we do know and appreciate that our various funding sources do have a relationship. We set out with our ESPback to figure out some ways to move towards that uh 10.4 uh,000. Sorry, 10.4,000. That'd be nice. Yeah, a >> $10.4 million budget balancing um target

205and we are going to again go through those with you all this evening. Next slide. One more time, please. Thank you. Um and then one more time. So before doing so, uh President Chang thought it was important and I agree that the community um and you all as members of the board are reminded of a couple things. One is that um district budgets are not like the typical budget. There's definitely revenue and expenditures like every other budget. Um but oftent times our revenues come with uh expectations, requirements, and restrictions. Um and we have different funding pots and types. So we have the unrestricted general fund, which is again what we're going to primarily focus on this evening. Um and that typically is more of a discretionary fund, though that also is misleading. But then as

206you've heard in previous presentations, we have what we call our categorical dollars or soft dollars that come with stipulations and restrictions as to how they need to be spent and who they need to serve and oftent time have uh timelines uh for which we receive the money or by which we need to expend the money. Um the next reminder we want to give you is that we've presented to you all this idea of um musical chairs. It stuck for a while and then it kind of disappeared. But the idea of it, next slide please Liz, uh is the same that we want to make sure that as we think about programs, staffing and services that we provide to our students in service of our mission that we actually have funding sources to sustain um and

207maintain them. And so again, our analogy was musical chairs. And so we want to make sure that we are not continuing programming, services or uh staffing without making sure we also are clear on how those particular things will be funded. Next slide, please. The core values of resource allocation. You just saw in the presentation for LCAP. And so you've seen them several times. Want to make sure that the community knows they're here for your reference. But also want to point out our next slide, which is our budget balancing principles, which is a new thing that we presented this year that doesn't just call out our focus on equity, but also says that we want to make sure that we are funding things that um are actually impactful to the students. And I think I've heard

208some of that sentiment this um this evening at the from the deis. We try our best not to scale things that we cannot responsibly sustain. We align our investments to readiness and capacity. So Jill talked about infrastructure. If we don't have the infrastructure to do something, we want to be really transparent about that and take the time to actually build infrastructure before we make promises and commitments to our students and families. We believe that those closest to the work inform decisions and should inform decisions early. And that's why many of the conversations that you're going to hear this evening or many of the proposals have been informed by conversations that happen even as early as the fall. And then we try our best to continue to name trade-offs clearly and proactively um including uh when

209we are making decisions on uh funding sources that are not uh stable. Next slide. This last slide is important as it kind of uh gives you a a preview of how we're going to organize tonight's proposals. These are our budget balancing strategies. Um and this is how we typically move as we're thinking about balancing our budget. um no particular order except the first one always eliminating and removing vacancies is the first thing that we do as a district and the last thing we ever want to do is consolidate or reduce positions andor programs. All those strategies in the middle happen at different times um and in different orders. And then finally, want to remind you of our decision-making triangle that as we make decisions about reductions or restructuring or changes to programs, we do so

210definitely holding up uh an equity lens and making sure that we are identifying where uh programs and services remove barriers. Um have high participation from our focal students and otherwise uh support our work to disrupt some of the persistent and predictable narratives for our students experiences and outcomes. And we want to make sure that again they are stable and um can be sustained and that they are having impact. So all the decisions that we are presenting to you particularly those around restructuring reducing or changing uh uh program services etc we evaluate in this triangle and you're going to see some no you won't not this presentation that was especi um and rated different vertices. And then finally want to remind you all that though this is focused on unrestricted general funds which is the funding

211uh resource that ESPback primarily has purview over as was just presented in the previous presentation and the one before that we actually have a number of advisory committees that inform and give us input on the decisions and the recommendations that we make. And so though we're here to represent ESPback and you will see that in the slides that are to come um please know that there's been other groups that are involved in these recommendations as well. So, we're going to start just by reminding you of the 10.4 million and that we had three phases of budget balancing that we did uh that got us to $7.8 million towards that $10.4 million target. Our goal this afternoon, sorry, this evening is to recap those and I I say recap because I'm going to I'm kind of

212giving a disclaimer as to why I will not I might go a little faster than usual um in the interest of time and I definitely ask that you could slow me down if if necessary. But all of these you and the public have seen before multiple times again including our presentation on the 20th. And so um I will move as if that is so and um we'll stop and answer any questions if the board has them. This is just our first three phases again $7.8 million towards the $10.4 million target. Um reminding you all that again our first strategy, next slide please, is to eliminate and remove vacant positions. We had none this year because we exhausted this strategy last year. Next slide. We also had an opportunity to true up some cost. Uh we

213redid our teacher template uh per the formula and we identified $1.1 million that we could score towards our $10.4 million target. And we were able to um acknowledge some changes, some increases into our in our enrollment projections to the tune of $194,000. What is different in this presentation than the one that you saw on the 20th is um to the right of each of these proposals, you will see a pie chart and that pie chart represents um how ESPback pled uh these particular uh proposals. And so uh blue is yes, I support this approach. And so if you see blue, that means that the ESPback member who voted says yes, we're good with this with this proposal. Red is no, I do not support this approach. And then uh the orangish yellow is undecided. So

214looking at the staffing formula um as well as the enrollment change projections you can see that over 90% of our ESPback members supported these proposals. I will also name that sometimes um it's orange because at that particular time of voting our ESPback members had more questions about it. We typically look at um 80% and more or more as you know we can go ahead and advance it to you all as a recommendation. Next slide please. it's not matching. >> Okay. So, we also um identified some opportunities to eliminate expenses that were covered in um funding sources that we can move into other places. And so, we have some ergonomic evaluations that we currently contract out and we've reduced that contract. So, moving that work in-house uh and that will save us $4,000. You can again

215see I'm not going to go every time with what ESPback said because I think you can figure out the pattern but overwhelmingly ESBAC supported it. And then we had the proposal for five furlow days. The five furlow days were actually um I think we brought that to ESBAC at phase two or phase three. This is before the governor's mayor reby. This is when that 10.4 4 million was looking incredibly daunting and we were having back-to-back ESPback meetings and we were trying to find a way uh to move towards the target and so we brought back a recommendation or proposal that we that we had even last year uh towards furls. what you can see here and the reason why there's a star is because there's a lot of questions um about furlow days and um

216this is probably the lower of all of the recommendations or all the scores for ESBAC with um about 80% saying yes we support but a 20 a group of 20% of the folks said that they uh were not ready to make that decision. So wanted to point that out to the board um as one distinction. We also look to make some website changes to the tune of $17,000 as well as reduce print shop costs um for 150,000. We continue to work on our print shop costs. You see there that those costs run about $867,000 a year and there's room for uh more reductions, but u we want to make sure that we do things in ways that are not destabilizing for our educators and for the work that we do. And so we just have

217scored 150 for uh the fall. We also have the opportunity to save some money, about $30,000, by moving some of our parent reports that we currently print and print in color to digital. This was overwhelmingly u um celebrated by many of our committees and many of our families who receive these reports. Not only is it um you know, a little bit more friendly in terms of environmentally um there's actually more information they can access from the digital reports. um our home and hospice instruction hours, we were able to score $75,000 there and we were able to rightsize some clerical support at BTA for $7,500. And those were um both underlooking for inefficiencies. Next slide, please. Um then we move to transferring expenses to other funds. And so this is not where we are removing or

218reducing. We're saying we're going to keep that cost but move it somewhere else off of general funds in this case. And so, um, with that in mind, we moved $187,000 from our unrestricted general fund to BEP. We also moved $4,400 from our language line contract to BEP. Um, and then we moved 1.1 FTE of indirect cost um for $194,000 to um a number of other funds, not BP. Next slide. Again, the last thing we want to do is consolidate and reduce positions and programs. And so what you see here are some slight changes to to uh positions. You will notice that our BHS expiring grant right side support for our wellness center that we brought to you on the 20th has now been um struck through. Um and that is because we've since secured uh

219grant funding to take care of that position. We wanted to again uh continue to show what we've shown in previous presentations. And then finally this next set of slide are all revenue generators. You can see they have overwhelming support from ESBACK except for one that I'll speak to in a moment and that you also heard a public comment about. We scored the uh initial spud bug of $4.5 million. We also had an opportunity to have a onetime saving from PG&E and $100,000 ongoing. We also scored revenue from our CYBHI um fee payment reimbursement that we have with Alama County Office of Education for $250,000. All three of those received overwhelming support from ESPback. However, um the transportation fee collection, which was a proposal that we would charge our nonBUSD after school programs, particularly starting with

220those that are for-profit, we propose charging a dollar a day for students uh to and from school to and from no sorry from after school from school to the after school program, sorry, the NBUSD programs. We were um proposing to charge those organizations a dollar. Um again they are some of them fee based organizations and so we were saying we're providing them a service by transporting the students to them and we would charge them a dollar. Um we anticipated that would generate $242,000 and that was one that had less than 80% from ESPback with a number of questions and concerns. You heard one in public comment. The main concern was that um uh a lot of these organizations um are also on fixed uh on fixed funds. And so, uh, what would that how would

221that impact their budget if we were to charge them a dollar? So, that was one concern that came up. Another concern was that if we charge these organizations a dollar, then they would just pass those costs on to families. And so, then families will be paying additional as well. And another concern was that it just wasn't equitable and that Berkeley should be the ones responsible for um getting students after school programs and transporting them despite us sharing the cost of uh transporting. You all I think you all have cars. you know the price of gas right now and so the price of gas for buses is increased as well as the cost that we have to pay for maintenance repairs and with additional tariffs and taxes um the cost even for parts and repairs has

222gone up substantially. So we tried to balance that out that we recognize and we want to support our community and providing after school programming but we were trying to find a way to offset some of the costs that we're experiencing. So that's why that one had um the the results that it did from ESPback. So those are our phases one through three. Um, and again, all of those had bars or pie charts from ESPback. Our third, I'm sorry, our fourth proposal phase, um, scored us about $3.4 million. Um, you will notice that when I go through these next few slides, there's only two. There will not be a po a pie chart to the right of each and that is because we did not engage uh, ESBAC in the straw poll for these. These were

223all revenue generating um, and they kind of came in late with the governor's may revise. Next slide, please. And so for we did go over them with ESBback though and discuss them. So there's a statutory cola and the amount given in excess and we were able to score 2.1 million dollars uh towards our $10.4 million target for that. And then our B USD share of additional spud bug after negotiations we scored for $1.2 million. To be clear um we received u a set amount for this second layer of spud bug if you will. However, in our negotiations with our labor partners, uh we have some language that said that if Spudbug came in higher than what it was previously, we would allocate um a portion to um our our members of our um our unions,

224which is why um we say this is B USD's share of the um of the spread book. And so that concludes all of the review of the um proposals. we can pause and see if there's any questions or any clarifications because the next thing we're going to ask you all to do um Pauline's going to go line by line and ask you to take action on each proposal. Um because again we're trying to build a budget and we don't want to build it with assumptions about what you would what you approve and what you will go for. We'd rather hear your discussion and your feedback now so we can make any changes as we prepare the final budget. >> Thank you so much. Um first >> point of order. Can I ask you a question?

225um so that we can go through uh it the time is 10:39 and we are almost reaching our time of adjournment. My recommendation would be to um receive a motion that allows us to extend the meeting so that we can go straight through without any disruptions. >> Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Thank you so much for the reminder. Um so is there a motion to extend? >> You have to agree on a tie that you want to extend it to. >> I'm sorry. Say it again. >> To what time? >> Oh yeah. Um >> I move We can extend till uh 11:30. So I move that we extend till 11:30 with the hopes that we don't go that >> long. Thank you. >> I'll second the motion. >> Do the eyes. >>

226I I >> unanimous question. Yeah. Um can you talk a little bit about the implications of the furlow proposal and what uh what ramifications 5 days of furlow would have on the work that needs to get I assume that would happen during the summer. So I assume it might impact summer work. Is that an accurate assumption? We have not landed on when it would happen. It is probably most ideal for it to happen during summer months in some ways because school's not in session, but it's challenging because, as you likely know, that's when a lot of the planning and prep work for the upcoming school year happens. So, we didn't get that far. The implications for sure though is that, you know, bodies of work that are done at any period of time would would

227slow down, wouldn't stop necessarily, but that the board and the community should expect that there would be some delays in the delivery of some of the the things that we typically would deliver um throughout the school year. I want to note that this is for uh employees that are unrepresented and who make 125,000 or more. And so that is oftentimes our central office leadership um for whom again summertime and the planning and the prep time is is is a big part of our work. And so yeah, I would just be we should anticipate you know a change in in services delivered or at least the timeline in which these services are delivered. And quite honestly it is likely that some work might have to stop. some of the projects and things that we're taking on

228um might have to be paused rather um and be taken on later in the school year. You >> want to say more? >> Sam is going to say more. >> I just want to um give a reminder that the money would be only one time. Uh it would not be an ongoing savings. And you said it's only for unrepresented employees so it wouldn't have to be negotiated with labor partners. Right. >> Right. And that was at the recommendation of ESPback. Even last year we proposed the district wide furlow. >> I'm just going to go ahead and go. Um I have two questions totally unrelated to each other. first is um what was the percentage of ESPback members that voted in this? Like does this represent the entire ESPback? Like what was the part? I'm just

229curious what the participation rate was there. I And I actually don't know I should know how many ESPback members there are. I know there are a lot. >> I can throughout. We can look. >> You don't have to look that up. If you don't know offhand, I can look it up. It's fine. Thank you. But do you know what the participation was generally? >> I'm going to get that for you as well. I need to go to the Google form and see that the votes took place over two pollings. And so the the the total number might change, but I can get that for you. That would be helpful. Thank you. And then my other question is um like last year when we were going through this process in a very similar way um we

230did not code or did not count certain revenue sources because we couldn't be sure that we were going to receive them but then we received them later. And one of the questions, concerns, comments I had was how that process was done. um sort of separated from this budget process. So, as we anticipate, I think it's pretty safe to say we will get additional funds this year at some point. I understand that we can't um count on it right now in our in our budget balancing, but what is the process? I think it's important for us while we're talking about voting for these cuts also talking about the process of restoring things and the priority for the restoration. >> So the revenue that's actually the spudbug revenue based on the prior year when we were told

231not to score it and came in this year we took a different approach. So I've actually counted all of the spud bug that um that we mentioned the 4.5 that we did in an earlier phase and in phase 4 we counted an additional 1.1. So we are counting it all in the um in this budget development. it is a part of the recommendation. >> But now I'm confused because my question in the earlier presentation was exactly about the fact that we can expect to get more revenue this year. So last year it was a little bit simpler because it was the TK funding and then it was the other block grant, but it it wasn't a setup that we were talking about at this time last year. This year we know that we are not

232getting the full Prop 98 amount and we are not quite sure how much of that will be restored in the next year. So my question is, as we're making these decisions to make cuts to meet the target that we have in front of us right now, where is the process or the transparency around reinstating or prioritizing what will be reinstated if and when we get additional resources? We don't honestly, director, we don't have a process for that right now. I'm looking at all of the proposals that are here. I mean, reducing print shop cost or website changes. I don't know that there's many that you all say like do not do that if you get more money. I think when we're having this discussion and you're taking action though, I we are more than happy

233to take note of you all saying we are because we're going to go line by line. We approve this and if additional funding comes in is something we want to direct staff to prioritize to bring back. What I want to caution though before what I want to put a comma or parenthesis or something after saying that is just reminding you all that um part of why we're here every year is because of the fact that we have a budget target. We have had a budget balancing target for the last three years and we are able to meet that target in most years with a significant amount of one-time dollars, right? And so we still honestly have not met our targets even from two years ago. And we kind of what they say in ESPback, we've

234been kicking the can down the road. You've heard from our labor partners when it's time for negotiations like we should have known this was coming. We knew this was happening. Even in ESPback and some of our other advisory committees, they say like we knew this. And so we're trying to actually have a different strategy of not saying or not, you know, misleading the us ourselves to think like when we get some extra money, we should bring stuff back. That might be a conversation the board wants to have, but we should also be thinking about the fact that we already know that we're at a deficit. We're going to start the year at a deficit towards our our multi-year target. And so we should be changing that frame of not always being sometimes it might be

235the case what are we going to bring back to like okay how are we going to allocate this towards the ongoing budget target and that is something I didn't point out so I'm glad you asked the question and Sam kind of referenced it. If you look at the um the budget balancing spreadsheet that we have if you go back a couple list you'll notice that there are on the chart there are two columns. One says ongoing and one says um one says ongoing and one says one time. And of that 11.2 million that we have uh towards our $10.4 million target, only 5.4%. So just about half of that or less than half of that is actually ongoing. So we know we're going to start the school year next year having to find about $6

236million to balance. So just wanted to to add that piece. But more than happy that as you all take action, we'll record what you want us to prioritize bringing back if there's bring back money. >> If I could just clarify, I understand that. I'm not doubting that. But as those resources come back into the budget, I don't always feel like we know where they are going. So, for example, the TK money from last year, we didn't score that in our budget. It's not being scored as a revenue. So, I'm I'm not saying we did anything bad with it. I know that we used it right for all the costs that come up, but I think some transparency around that would be helpful for me and I think it would also be helpful for the public

237because as we're making difficult decisions, right, if there is, you know, if we were to get that full $8 million, then we would be able to bring some of these things back. And so, I think being transparent about that, I think, would be helpful for me. >> Right. Right. So all the revenue that's in the budget is based on an assumption either from the may revise or additional money that comes in and the transparency is when we present the interims to the board and the public. So there's full transparency and when we got the block grant the last time we did not put it in the um adopted budget because that's what ACOE told us. um we did not put it in. It came in later and the board told us that we could use

238all of that money towards balancing the budget and that was a agreed to in close session. So there's no lack of transparency. There's full transparency. We got uh I can remember what the amount was but it also is reflected when I do the variance report. I explained that our electricity costs looked like it had decreased, but because this money comes in as restricted, we transferred expenses to that resource. So, there's full transparency and I'm hoping the board and the public aware that we are presenting fully transparent information. >> Just to clarify, I'm not suggesting anyone's hiding any I I'm suggesting a process for as we prioritize. We're also prioritizing what can be removed >> should that come to fruition. >> So that would be >> so I I'm not suggesting anyone is not >> so

239that will be presented to the board along with our interims when we or we can do a special budget update. So we have three opportunities to do that when we close the books. We're looking at what we actually spent. We have the first interim, we have the adopted actually we have preliminary adopted first interim and second interim. So we have multiple discussions to share our budget with the board and the public and it director shi that we just try to find a different way to present it. So so Pauline is right. It's come in different forms. Um but it might be that for some is more you know we need a visual and we can actually specifically say we got this in June and we applied it this way. So, we will definitely we're definitely

240open to exploring other ways to tell the story. The story has been told, but to your point, if if if some people don't understand it or don't know it, then we need to figure out a different way to tell it. So, definitely open to feedback around how we can do that going forward. >> Thank you so much. And even as we go through the line item tonight, um there could be a way where board directors who have a question about this is particularly an item that I have a question about that maybe if we do get the quote unquote funds that we could consider returning and so it could have a preliminary fat flag for you that you should be aware of. >> That's right. >> Okay. >> Sorry. Um I just want to I

241do want to caution us from from having that conversation about every line item that we see. I think we've already discussed on the dis and we've already made the things we already said what our priorities were around specific uh positions or specific things that we want to see. So I want to caution us from moving away from that and then going line by line and saying okay well when it comes back when we get more money we want to bring this back. we want to bring this back because then it widens our net and that's not what we want to do. What we really need to be focusing on is the fact that next year we will have less money. Next year we won't have the grants that are available and so we need to

242be thinking about ways to um be a little bit more um what's the word I'm looking for? Strategic is important but not the word I'm looking for but conservative with our with our uh with our spending. But I think if I can just help us uh that that's one point but if I could help us just bridge the gap. I think the direction that's coming from the dis is to have an additional budget conversation when we return um in August or when we return in September um that is outside of the typical um preliminary budget uh presentations that we have. That's the direction that I would support and we can move on from that conversation. Is that okay? >> Yeah. >> All right. Great. take it away. >> Are there other comments or questions? >>

243No. So, we're going to go >> I guess I just >> um I mean I asked about furlow days um before we start voting line by line. I guess I would just offer that um of all of these budget balancing solutions that that is the one I feel most uncomfortable with. Okay. I mean, we're essentially talking about a salary reduction for some of our employees, which is a big decision to make and feels like it should be a last resort. >> Um, so >> yeah, >> by way of discussion, I would offer that to my colleagues. >> I think that's helpful as a process to move through this efficiently. Um, you know, I'm going to raise a question, you know, so that when we're going line by line, some of it might move really rapidly.

244you have on the second page of the possible budget reduction spreadsheet. Um, >> great. I'm sorry. I think we're gonna go through >> I'm gonna ask you a question just like Vice President Corn did. So, the uh category of BHS eliminate duplicative positions. Um, that's a general term that perhaps you have raised it before and I've just forgotten. Um, what types of uh roles does that include? Are you referring to slide 22 uh the consolidate and reduced where it says BHS limited position school admin assistant or >> Yeah, it's on SLI that's right and it's referencing uh in slide 29. Exactly. >> On slide 22. Yes. >> So that references the school admin assistant uh and that falls under these balancing solutions are super helpful as you're you know classifying them. consolidate, remove >> um

245uh do any of these other categories across the school sites include TSAs, teachers and special assignment? >> No. So the so if on slide if Liz if you can go to slide 22. So slide 22 is where we summarize of the consolidate and reduce uh positions and or programming uh strategies. Uh there's four there again. The last one around the wellness center FTE we removed because we received grant funding to to address that. So there are the three remaining which is the district office clerical support. Uh we had a 1.0 admin assistant three and that person is retiring and so one could argue that it's eliminate vacancy but that vacancy did not exist when we started the process and so we went ahead and scored it under consolidate and reduce and that after the retirement

246we're not going to reopen that position. uh the BHS position we um we're reducing a school site ad I'm sorry a school admin assistant by 1.0 and then in BTA we have the opportunity to um right size a teacher leader position by 0.2 two. Which of those two are you asking about? Neither of those are TSAs, though. Okay. >> I just wanted to ask a general question. >> Yeah. Just to clarify, the TSA positions are will come next week. When we look at the BP budget, >> you will see some TSA positions uh in the BP budget. You saw some examples of TSA positions in the LCAP. They're kind of TSAs are funded by different sources, so you'll see it, but you definitely will see it when we bring to you the final budget, too.

247>> Thank you. That's good for the members of the public uh to be aware. Um thank you. Um and then would would you like to run the process for >> here? Yeah. >> So >> go ahead. >> Thank you attendant. Um so now it comes time for you guys to vote on the budget balancing solutions. You will see that the presentation is a little different from how Ania was focusing her um presentation. She was looking at the various strategies. Now we're looking at grouping it like um similar types and um locations for budget balancing solutions. So what I've done, I've shared with the board a hard copy um of what's on the screen. So if you can't see it on the slide presentation, you're welcome to look at the hard copy that I shared with

248each board member. Um so the first group and we're now looking at groupings. We have 10 um suggestions or budget balancing solutions based on central office um reductions and transfers. those total 993,000 of which 781,000 is ongoing and the one-time solution is the um the furlow days that um that Jennifer um what is it Miss Korn said um had reservations about. So I recommend that either um if there are questions we are happy to take questions but each of these would need to have like a yes or a no vote um by the majority of the board. >> Okay I see that last column on the right hand side does that's very helpful >> scoring them as you guys tell me which yes or no. >> Okay everyone has heard that. Um >> I just

249have a quick question clarification question. Do you want us to go each line by line or group in terms of your vote? >> Well, we can go line by line within the group. >> So line by >> Okay. >> Well, I mean or if you have no questions, we can take >> we can take it as a group. So if we have questions, we can pull them out and discuss it. But if we don't, it would be more beneficial to just vote for them as a group. Correct. Thank you. So I would suggest that we remove the furlows and vote on everything else as a group and then discuss the furls separately. >> Central operations office reduction. >> So we would need the board to to vote on removing the furloss. Okay. >> And then

250we would just say yes to everything else. >> I'll second the is that the director K's motion. >> Okay. Um do we have the eyes? >> I I >> Okay. Unanimous to remove the furloss. Um >> yes. So now I I'm going to make another motion that we vote to approve all of the central operations office reductions and transfers with the exception of the furlow days. >> That was the motion. >> Oh, that was the motion. Okay, >> that that was the motion. >> I was just Yes, >> that was the motion. And so now we're at the place to discuss those five fur days. >> Okay. So clarifying the intent. Yeah. So you just did it did a one step. Okay. >> Um did >> Yes, ma'am. You don't >> I have two questions.

251One is it says 5 to 10 days furlow. What? No, >> sorry. Sorry. >> Five. >> It doesn't say 5 to 10 days fur. >> Five. It's five days. Yeah. >> Okay. So, five day furls. And have we discussed that with those employees? These are all unrepresented employees. >> These are all unrepresented employees and they are all aware of the proposal. >> Okay. >> Which is not going to happen now, right? >> I'm sorry. Say again. >> Oh, no. No. They didn't vote yet. there. I thought they just voted. >> Just for some clarification, what we did is we voted on the entire group of central operations office reductions and transfers and we voted to pull the five furlow part of it for discussion. Right now we will discuss it and then we will vote

252to either approve the five furlow days or take it out. Thanks for the >> and I had one other >> been able to score everything else. want to make sure that I >> Yes, we have everything has been approved. Yes, except for that one. >> Scored it on the sheet. >> And I had one other comment about it. Um, just to >> while it has the impact of being a decrease in salary, it's not actually a lowering of salary because you work fewer days. So, it's just it's not like a cut in pay. So, >> it's a holiday. Yeah, >> it's not a cut in pay. >> I just you're working less. >> You're working few more days. It just I think the field experience for salaried unrepresented folks who work year round anyway. I

253I know we can say like you're you're not going to work those five days. That's just not real. Um and so there I think people will feel the impact fiscally to your point um that it's going to feel like it is a reduction in pay >> because those particular days that they're furoughed isn't the term furoughed referencing you do not get paid for that day you're off. You've been taken off work, right? >> You don't pay, you don't work and you don't get paid, but the work still has to get done at this level of leadership. >> So there'll be reduced prata. >> So it might be something has to stop and that never happens, right? So so the reality is is that the people will work anyway or you will expect the work the

254community will expect the work to happen anyway and the work will happen anyway though it might be happening a little slower. So the the failed experience is still yes a reduction. >> Okay. Yeah. Director Jashi. So this is kind of why I was bringing up the comment that I made before about prior like if if we need to do this in order to balance our budget then I support doing this and I want to respect the work of the people and what you just said that people are not actually going to do it >> um in every instance and so that is what I'm looking that's why I asked the question before like how do we approve this with the understanding that if there are other areas that we can make cuts in or if

255we identify additional revenue sources that this is this comes off the list as a priority. I like how you did it. >> Okay. So I would like to make a motion to approve the five furlow days with the understanding that if additional cuts or additional revenue is identified, this is the top priority for being removed from the budget balancing solutions. >> So uh thank you Dr. Schnowski. I'm I'm just thinking this out. So, um yeah. So, you're you're um asserting it would be a top priority then as other directors go through this and also other budget days when we will be reviewing stuff as well. we'll have to keep track somehow of um prioritization and I don't know if it's like a rank order or like a categorization of this falls in a category that

256when we reassess it if there are additional funds this is a set of top priorities this is medium priorities this is low priorities to kick back in in case we get more funds >> what I'm saying is I've reviewed this list we've seen it several times and for me this would be the top priority in this particular list of budget balancing solutions. And so that is what my motion is is that and of course it will come back to the board, but that this be prioritized for reinstatement as soon as possible if we can find some other solutions. >> Okay. And so what that's a good principle. >> Is there a second? >> That's a motion. >> Yeah, it's a good principle and I think it's workable is what I'm saying. So is there a

257second? >> Yeah. >> I think also Director Brown had a question. No. What what what needs to happen in terms of purpose, there's a motion made on the floor and there needs to be a second before we can engage in discussion. So if and if you don't agree with it after the second, you can offer a friendly amendment to the motion, but we need to take care of the business. So you should call for a second. >> Yeah, that's what I'm doing. Is there a second? Okay. >> If if if there's if there isn't a second, then the motion dies and there's room for another motion to be made. So, >> yeah. >> So, I'm assuming that the motion has died. Is there another motion? >> I move that we um move forward with the

258five furlow days um and think about it as a way to bring it back. Maybe not as the top priority from our priority list way to bring the the funds for that to restore those days back. Maybe not as a top priority but as one of our priorities. >> Sure. >> I'll second that. >> Do we have the eyes? >> I >> uh great. We've got that recorded and uh thank you. Um so that looks like the central operations office category is completed. Is that correct? Has been scored. >> That is correct. And so staff's direction the way we understand it is all of the items on uh the previous slide if you go back one Liz the central office operations sorry reductions and transfer all were approved including the furlow days with the direction

259from the board of us prioritizing that one not as the top but if funds uh avail themselves or we we identify an alternative means of moving towards the target that one would be removed that's what I understood >> director Brown and director that you agree with that >> you agree with that thank Thank you. >> Yeah, thanks for repeating the record for the record. >> Okay, so we should move on to the next section. >> Um, so the next page has um two sections. Um, we're looking at school sites and then we're also looking at staffing formula considerations. Um these total seven proposals um totaling 1.3 million and all of these are ongoing and the staffing formula just um would be included in the budget because this is part of our budget um um process.

260Um um but we will be happy for you guys to vote on both sets of proposals on this page. Um, okay. You're saying both sets as in school sites and staffing formula, >> right? >> Okay. >> I I move that we accept the staff recommendations for um both groups of school sites and staff for staffing formula considerations. >> I second. >> Do you have the eyes? >> I I >> So, it's been unanimous moved. So, we're on to the third. >> Well done. Third page. It's um 11:07 the latest we've been this whole year. Hustle hustle. Sorry, I don't mean that. I'm not saying you hustle. >> We're just making hustle. >> Sorry. >> Third and final page. >> Oh, >> third and final page. Um yeah, >> that is our revenues, right? >> Thank

261you. >> Yes. Okay. So um so this is um the totals 8.7 million and this is where we have a significant amount of one time um proposals and the um ongoing is 2.7 million one time 6 million. >> Okay. Any questions? >> I move to adopt the staff recommendations. >> I second pass. I beat me to it. >> I I I director >> Director Brown beat me to it. >> Yep. That's fast. >> Okay. >> Hallelujah. >> Well done, people. >> Oh my. >> Thank you so much. Thanks for all the work on this and the the formatting of this and working with us. >> Thanks Pauline. >> Pauline and superintendent both super helpful here. >> Thanks. >> Um >> and can I also say thank you to the ESBAC. I know that there have

262been a lot of meetings and a lot of engagement. So thank you also to the ASPback. >> Absolutely. Good reminder. Lots of um parents working on that group. Uh okay, we're not done though. We still have um we let's see what do we have. So uh we have 14.3. Um so uh you know this is a conversation that is just specific to ensuring that we have process. Um 14.3 is called procedures to fill potential board leaves. This type of thing happens. that has happened in um recent memory. Uh and we want to have a conversation on what is the process that um we would follow in case there is a board quote unquote leave. Um so uh we have engaged with um council and he did provide a memo regarding the process. Um, and board

263members have been exposed to this previously through their Friday notes. And I want to just verbally describe the very brief um uh process there. So there's two options. There's provisional appointment as a process in case of a board departure. And secondly, there is a um special special election. Um my understanding from our kind of looking at this is that the special election would take a lot of time and yeah and money and of these two options just transparently in the past you know what has happened is a provisional appointment. Uh so my suggestion is to go in that direction. If there's anyone who would like to maybe >> Yeah. What's that? >> Yeah. We don't We're not voting on this, right? We're just discussing. >> No, we're discussing it. We're actually setting for public transparency

264the the process that we would use if there were >> we can propose it. We're not going to vote for on this point, but we're going to propose a a a process. >> I don't think though we can discuss what action we would take on an item that we can't vote on. I believe that we just have to discuss theoretically the processes >> and to be honest with you, we have our legal counsel online and I think that it would be in our best interest to um stop our own discussion and allow our legal counsel to um to speak on this. Um Roy, would you like to pop on and address this uh immediate issue with regard to our conversation on the process that you have laid out the two options and we're looking can

265you hear me first of all can good evening can you hear me? Okay. >> Okay. Good. So so um I'll be very brief given the hours. So I I think you know board president can ch you summarize that the board um has essentially two choices. I know this item is on just for discussion tonight. So you would not be making any decisions. Uh but you certainly can discuss pros and cons etc of either option but one is to call for a special election which is both time uh requires a resolution. There's also a cost uh that can be significant particularly if the district is one of the few that calls for an election. So you could bear pretty significant cost uh to have that election. The other is a provisional appointment and as you noted

266at least prior Berkeley boards when there's been a vacancy uh they have gone the provisional appointment route that doesn't mean you have to do that but that has been the prior route that prior boards have taken. So, so big picture without you know going through all the detail in the memo that the board received back in May. Um that's basically your your process choices that you have. Um and then just a parenthetical comment about sort of the Brown Act issue. Um you can discuss these but you can't take a vote and even sort of a small vote will not be really be appropriate that sort of thing. But you absolutely can discuss pros and cons and among you may you may get a sense of where your colleagues are as you discuss pros and cons.

267But uh those really are the two choices that are before you now in the event that there is a vacancy which we now know there will be um and congratulations by the way to the board member uh because of the recent election. >> Um thank you. So, um, this provisional appointment procedure, uh, as you've described, has a number of basic steps. Just for public transparency and the pros and cons here, we'll just talk it out quickly. Um, as, uh, Roy has drafted in his memo. Um, in summary, there's a selection process. Um, and by resolution, the board approves a procedure, which we're not quite at yet. We're just kind of discussing and giving the public a opportunity to um understand that there is this process discussion for a potential board member leave, board director leave.

268Um it's called the provisional appointment of a new board member to fill the vacancy of the outgoing board member. Okay. Um some of the common procedures uh for this process is are advertising in the local media to solicit candidate applications, establishing a committee ad hoc consisting of less than the quorum of the board to review applicants um interviewing the candidates at a public meeting. I believe that may have happened in the past. Don't quote me. um vote to appoint candidate provisionally to fill the vacancy at that public meeting. Um and then there's a second step. The first step is kind of that first part of it. Uh public notice of the provisional appointee within 10 days of making that provisional appointment. The district must provide notice of the appointment. as pursuant to some ed codes

269and like posting on the website, newspaper, posted in at least three public spaces within the district. Um, and formal notice to the county office of education of that appointment. Uh, and that notice must also state it's like resignation, date of the vacancy, full name of the provisional appointee, date of appointment, etc. Um, is there a question about this general process? >> I have a question after. >> Okay. >> I I do have a question. Um, and I don't know, uh, if you want to turn this over, um, to council Combmes, but, um, I do think that it is important for us, uh, before we talk about a procedure, we should talk about timeline, um, and plan backwards. And so if it is possible, uh, council Combmes, could you please advise us on what timeline looks

270like for us? >> Well, in this instance, you do have, um, the provisional appointment need not be made before the vacancy occurs. So, that's one thing to keep in mind. There may have been some belief that the appointment needed to occur by June 30th or July 1st. That's actually not the case. uh you have a broader window of time. Um but the in general you would make the provisional appointment um uh within generally um 60 days of the vacancy that would be in this instance July 1. I'm making an assumption about that date that the statute uh related to the election in the ACL. Uh the new board member by law um takes that seat effective July 1 of 2026. So, the board would have to decide sort of the timeline for when it wants

271to um finalize its selection if it chooses the provisional appointment and then work backwards from that date. Um, and again, I don't know if the board would want to have someone in place, for example, before your first board meeting in the next year. I'm not sure exactly what that date would be. Uh, but if you were to choose that date, then work backwards from that date. Uh I think directors had a question first and sorry vice president. >> Yeah. So I guess I would like to understand next steps since we have two meetings left and it seems like we are going to need a process in order to fill the upcoming vacancy on our board. And so since that vacancy will take place on July 1st, um I guess I would like to provide some

272direction for us as a board to have an action item at the next meeting or the meeting after to um to provide direction on a process. Um but yeah, so I I feel like we do need clarity on what the timeline is going to look like, what the process is going to look like, and that needs to happen either next week or the week after. So I guess I'm trying to give direction for that to be agendaized and and happen. Thank you. >> My recommendation would be that we do it Oh, I'm sorry, Jen. My recommendation would be that we do it next week in case we are not uh in agreeance. So that we that leaves us our last meeting uh to utilize that to vote if we need to. So my recommendation would

273be that we agendaize it for action next meeting. >> Um but we should really use the 10 minutes that 11 minutes that we have left >> to just talk about what we want to see as a process so when we get to next week we know what we're talking about. And I I'm sorry to interrupt Director K. >> Well, I would love to speak to that. You set me up beautifully. Um, I mean to the point about after the resignation we would have 60 days to make an appointment. I appreciate that and we've just spent a long time being a board of four and we missed you when you were not here and I would like to as quickly as possible become a board of five again. So, I would like to set ourselves up

274to be able to make a provisional appointment as efficiently and quickly as possible. Um, I've been reviewing the information from I think 2013, the last time there was a resignation on the board. And at that point, the board appointed an ad hoc committee that was two board members to develop an application and kind of set out a timeline for the process. So, what I'm hoping we might um do as an action item at our next meeting is direct ourselves to identify two of us to kind of hold that process. That's my suggestion. >> Director, >> I have a question for Roy. So, what's kind of the best practice in terms of like public notice so it feels transparent? Like what do other districts do to notify that there is a vacancy and that there's an

275application process? like if the if there were an ad hoc committee kind of what's the bare minimum level and now I don't I'm not proposing right that that we do the bare minimum that's never my proposal for engagement so let me clarify that off the bat but kind of what's the the standard best practice that districts do um so that the public feels like there was enough uh notice and that they were aware >> yeah great question I'm I'm not sure if there really is a a standard practice you know CSBA has some recommendations but I've seen districts give anywhere from five to 14 days notice of the opening of a vacancy so that individuals can submit either letter of interest or if the board chooses a more formalized process with an application. Um so

276it it really does vary. I wouldn't say that there's a standard per se. Uh but if the board wants to solicit um openly uh then it has discretion on the timeline whether it's two, three, four, five or more days to invite uh individuals who may have an interest in the provisional appointment. >> So it could look like you know there's a resignation and then there's a short time window where it's posted publicly, right? And then in that first August meeting the board could take action. Something like that. That that's that's correct. And ju and just one thing, there's nothing that actually would prevent the board necessarily from starting the process, right? Not the appointment, but starting the process before July 1st. I'm not suggesting you do that, but legally that's not prohibited. You could start

277the process of making an announcement that an evac occur. Those individuals who are interested uh can submit whatever information the board deems uh would be important. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Do you have a question? So, to follow up with that, you know, just to get the time frames uh in our heads and because we we're off in July as part of the concern as well. Um uh Roy, you laid out in your memo in step two that it seems like the the kind of more rapid time frames that get triggered are um the public notice of the provisional appointee. There's like within 10 days of making a provisional appointee, the district must provide notice and this ed code. Um but before that like notice for applicants is kind of more vague or it's not specific.

278I'm sorry for using terms like that. There's no specific time frame. Is that correct or >> that's that is that's absolutely correct because there's no statutory requirement regarding that time frame. So the board has discretion on whether to give notice. I mean, as a practical matter, the discussion tonight is beginning to inform people in an informal way who have tuned in that there will be a vacancy. So, so you're exactly right. There's no formal notice to the public that's required in advance of the board taking action on the provisional appointment. Again, it's the districts vary as to how much notice they give, but almost all will get some minimum notice and then, you know, 3 to 5 days at least. Yeah, 3 to five days would see minimum. Okay. Um, sorry, Director Schnasian and Dr.

279Braum. And also, I want to keep track of time. We could extend it. It's 11:24. >> No, we can't. >> No, we cannot. >> Unfortunately, we cannot extend it. >> All right. You're right. >> Um, I just want to then agree again with Director Brown that it would be really important for us to agendaize this at our next meeting so that we can start the process as soon as possible. um especially notifying the public of the vacancy and the process so that we're not taking off July and we are ready to act in August. Thank you. I had a a question for uh Council Commes again. Um we can uh decide tonight who the two members uh we can appoint or they can uh raise their hand uh the two members who would be interested

280in working on this and the board could direct them uh to move forward and it doesn't necessarily have to be a vote of the board. We don't have to take action. It could just be an appointment or a uh we can accept it as a volunteer uh >> signal from the board. Is that correct? >> Well, well, so the actual appointment of an ad hoc committee is an action by the board. So that would need to occur when this comes back to the board for action. But there's nothing tonight for you to discuss who might be interested and so on and so forth. If there's some consensus, then at your next meeting, you can formalize that with an action. >> Okay. Thank you. So, as a formal action, but um everyone can kind of think

281about it. I'm just being wary of the time. Um think about who may be interested. Yeah. Any other questions as we have like four minutes left? So just point of clarity, you're going to agendaize at the next meeting who who's going to be on the ad hoc committee >> and a process action item to form an ad hoc committee >> to um lead the process >> to lead the process and a confirmation for members of the public of the process which would it sounds like >> even though we can't >> right we're saying that's going to be an action item next time. >> Yeah. Um yes and as we talk about um we can still discuss we just have a few more minutes. We can still discuss what feels good in terms of a process.

282What I'm hearing is that an application might be uh the best way to move forward. And so uh I agree with that and I think that we should move forward with application process. I think we should um put the information out uh as much as we can as directed by council. Um, I also agree with using with having an ad hoc committee um that we will hopefully be able to vote for next meeting. And um all of this to say that it sounds like an appointment is probably the best route to go versus uh moving forward with an election. >> Yeah, I think that's the I would agree and I think we have consensus here on that. I I believe and also um uh some type of public interview process would we'll we'll be discussing

283that during the action item but just kind of raise that as one of the things that Roy one of the possibilities that Roy suggested could be um of step two. Yeah. Okay. Any other questions as we close out? Thank you so much and um Council Combmes, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, I'm sorry. on a best >> just really quickly. You didn't discuss what happens during medical leaves, but I guess you'll just do that next time. The >> Oh, yeah. >> other part of what was agenda. >> I'm sorry. Yeah, we had agenda some medical some leave >> the process for how to handle medical leave issues on the board that was agenda also wasn't discussed. >> Yeah, I was meant to address that. So, we'll we'll pull that on for next time

284as well. And you know, Roy, if you have any um kind of support on that in addition to the memo, which which we I think requested, >> but on short notice, that'd be great. And um we might ask you to jump on, you know, next time around. Um I I will let you know if that's a possibility. >> Okay. >> I appreciate it. >> Okay. Right. Good evening. >> Thank you. >> Byebye. >> Good evening. Sorry. >> We have one hand online and we have one minute left before we have to adjourn. Just >> we have one hand online and we have a minute before we need to two minutes before we have to. >> We have like two minutes we can hustle that. Thank you so much. >> Um uh Lindsay Noelt is she's

285the one. >> Hi. I'll make it really quick. Um, I'd just like you to consider a hybrid option where you make an appointment and then put a special election in with the regular November election so that the public has a chance. You can't do that. There's the CSBA says that you can. So you could appoint by a member of the board to serve until the November election and then in that January you could have a dually elected new member of the school board. Please consider letting the public have more of a voice in uh somebody who will sit there for another two years. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have any other um Okay, great. And we have we are adjourned. Thank you so much. I don't know. They're off.