001533. Good evening everyone. Good evening. We'd like to uh call this public meeting to order at 5:33 and we'll begin with the uh pledge of allegiance and uh let's see what uh student trustee would like to lead us in the pledge of >> allegiance. [clears throat] Please stand. May I hold this? I pledge allegiance to the stand of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty or justice for all. >> Thank you. And may we proceed with the roll call. >> President Tomas Tortez, >> present. >> Vice President Valerie Garcia, >> present. Clerk Trinidad Ardondo, >> present. >> Board trustee Joey Akuna, >> here. >> Board Trustee Alena Kalimanes >> here. >> Board Trustee Jesus Gonzalez. >> Board Trustee Jocelyn Vargas >> here.
002>> Student Trustee Mia Messa >> here. >> Superintendent Dr. Francis Esparza >> present. >> Assistant Superintendent Human Resources Dr. Monica Makawitz. >> Present. >> Assistant Superintendent Educational Services Soro Sanchez. >> Present. Assistant Superintendent Business Services, Julie Vigil, >> present. >> Very good. Um, so uh, next is the, uh, close session. We have the close session comments, right? This is an opportunity for members of the public to address the governing board regard regarding any close session items within the board's jurisdiction. Uh we have the public uh complete the request to address the governing board form and this form is submitted to the recording secretary right over here to your left and this is done prior to the start of the closed session. We have one that was turned in prior to the closed session. uh the
003individual speakers are limited three to three minutes and the time may not be yielded to another speaker and speakers must be present to address the governing board. So on this uh request to address the governing board we have a Rachel Cooland uh on subject or item 2.8 John Kelly a room now confirmed to have had mold contamination and remediation. What I and every parent deserve to know is this. How can we be certain our children were not exposed during the year they occupied those classrooms? In October of 2023, I stood at this podium and warned this board that chronic rain leaks were likely disturbing asbestos containing materials. I formally requested the EPAmandated asbestos management plan. More than two years later, that document has still not been provided. Now, here we are again, this time with
004mold and lead. Tonight, agenda item 13.13 asks you to ratify $650,000 in so-called emergency work. The district told the media that no harmful mold was found. Yet, your own November 24th and December 22nd reports list stacky botries commonly known as black mold as a marker spore all over the campus. You do not set up negative pressure and containment or step strip walls to the studs for just visible moisture. You do it because your own consultants found contamination that does not belong in a school. While some areas eventually pass clearance testing and all clear report does not equal transparency, parents, staff, and taxpayers deserve access to the ServePro remediation logs to verify what was actually removed, where work occurred, and under what safety controls. Most concerning is the leadbased paint violation. District records show that lead
005testing occurred on Monday, January 5th. Yet results confirming neurotoxic lead hazards were not released until January 7th. Despite this, contractors were working in affected wings, including near the nurs's office and east trailers, while students and staff were present. For two full days, work proceeded that may have disturbed leadbased paint before hazards were even identified. At a recent facilities committee meeting, a teacher raised legitimate life safety concerns and was told, "This is not a platform for political ulterior motives." With respect, there is nothing political about lead exposure, mold remediation, or a safe work environment. What does raise ethical concerns is the decision to bypass competitive bidding to award a $650,000 contract to a company owned by a relative of a sitting board member. Even if procedures were followed, the appearance of a conflict of interest erodess
006public trust, especially when children's lives are at stake. Therefore, we respectfully and clearly request immediate release of the full EPA asbestos management plan complete surf pro remediation logs detailing what was removed, where and how documented proof that leads safe work practices were followed during the week of January 5th. This is not about politics. This is about accountability, transparency, and the health of our children and staff. Thank you. [applause] >> Very good. There are no other uh I have close session comments. So, uh we're on 2.2 motion to enter into close session. Moved by um we Yes. All right. been moved by uh Dus and we have a second >> Second by director Trinad can get a roll call. >> Roll call vote. >> President Tortez. >> Yes. >> Vice President Garcia. >> I. >> Clerk
007Ardondo. >> I. >> Trustee Akuna. >> Hi. >> Trustee Kalimmanes. >> I. >> Trustee Gonzalez. Hi >> Trusty Vargas. >> Hi >> Trustee Messa. >> Hi >> President Torres. Is is this standard practice to get a roll call vote to go into close session? >> Uh maybe but I call it for this time. So uh the roll call is or the roll the vote is unanimous. So we'll go into close session and we'll return at what time? >> 7:30. Thank you. All right. Thank you. All right, good evening everyone. School board is back. We've have voted to return to open session and we are going to announce the action that was taken in close session. The board took action to approve settlement agreement OAH number 20 2510 0552. The motion was made by trustee Gonzalez.
008Seconded by trustee Arando. Uh President Tortois, yes. Vice President Garcia, yes. Clerk Arando, yes. Trustee Akuna, yes. Trusty Calamanis, yes. [snorts] Trusty Gonzalez, yes. Trusty Vargas. Yes. Motion passed unanimously. The board took action to return to open session. Motion was made by Trustee Gonzalez, seconded by Trusty Ardondo. The motion was unanimous. 70. That was all I have to report. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you. Uh next we have the approval of the agenda as motion by Dr. Gonzalez. Second by director Galammanis. Can we get the roll call vote? >> President Tortez. >> Yes. >> Vice President Garcia. >> I. >> Clerk Ardondo. >> Hi. >> Trustee Akuna. >> Trustee Kalimmanes. >> Hi. >> Trustee Gonzalez. >> Hi. >> Trustee Vargas. >> Hi. >> Student trustee Mia Messa. I >> motion carries unanimous. All right.
009Next we have uh public comments open session uh board 4.1 board notification requests to address the board. So we have about requests to address the board. Uh several several several are on the same topic just about. So normally we give uh three minutes per person with a maximum minutes per subject. So uh with that uh if we could be aware of the time constraint. Uh, I know these are important subjects, but I'm going to go as I have them here. Public comment submitted. Uh, we have first Ted Leonard Jr. on test scores. >> Good evening everyone. [clears throat] Uh, this is on the behalf of my wife. Um, dear board members, uh, Superintendent Esparza, my name is Samantha Leonard. I am a mother of three boys, two of whom are currently enrolled in school. I
010ask you to take a moment to consider whether your own child is in school and experiencing the same conditions our children are facing. Students are suffering the uh, consequences of having a full-time librarian, our parent liaison. Families are also uh left uninformed about what is happening uh within the schools. The lack of communication a supporter directly affects our children's well-being and a ability to succeed. I heard Dr. Asparza state that uh she was proud of the students for achieving test scores that allowed uh them to move on to win or break. However, I must ask, what happens to the students who do not pass their test? Are they denied a break because of their scores? Uh, this approach does not take into account students feelings, mental health or individual challenges. It appears that decisions are
011being driven by money and politics rather than by what is best for our students. Our children should be the main priority and even uh decisions made. I urge you to focus uh and support all students, not just those who met uh test benchmarks. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] Next, we have Daisy Castan Castanada. I hope I pronounced that with a autism awareness. is Disneyland. inclusion. hospital. Gracias. [applause] All right. Um, next we have Karen Torres. Uh, parent leazison. Karen Torres. uniforc. Gracias. Thank you. Next we have Sandra Deator and Lanche Deadres. Thank you. scholar. Edamentas. particip. Forech. Forech. contact. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Next we have Christina Rodriguez, parent leison. Good evening. My name is Christina Rodriguez. I have a child at the Mecca Elementary School.
012Edna Baragan has served an as an important person for the community, for our families. Um I I've known these parents here that have been advocating for the return of Edna Baragan in our school. She has made an impact in our community. she serves and is always there ready to help. Um, that's the person that every one of them have gone to that have made a difference. She helped her get her permit as a associate teacher permit. She helps people find jobs. She's the one that people go to when they need somebody to support Edna. What do I do here? Where do I go? Or why did this happen? Or who do I communicate with? And you know what? That person is missing from our school. all I I am the vice president for the school
013site council meeting and last year I attended every single meeting even through Zoom in person but this year I've already missed two meetings why because there's no communication there's an email there's nobody following up with us there's nobody calling us and telling us somebody called us gave us the wrong information for the meeting that we were supposed to be at so then it was like okay is the meeting on Tuesday the link the information on the on the email says one thing but the meeting was a different day. There's somebody that's trying to do the job of many other um par um parent leaison that's not doing it. That can't happen. We need our advocate in our community. She makes a difference. She's there for our families and we know we can go to her
014and contact her and make that connection with the principal. The principal is trying to pick up all the extra pieces that Edna used to do and it's not happening. um our principal is doing the best job that they can, but we need Edna there. So, we urge as a family as our families and our community. We want to be the ad the best advocates for our children, but there's no way that we can do that with when we don't have that communication with our school, when we don't have that support from the school, when we don't have anyone there that we can trust and go to and that they have the time to meet with us and talk to us. So, please consider this. Um, I know that budget is a different story, but there's
015other pieces that are missing that we can look at again and and make this happen. We thank you. [applause] Thank you. Next, we have Paula Marvin, the open subject. Allah. Hello, my name is Paula Marvin and I'm a teacher at Palm View Elementary. I'm also um NEA um delegate and I also am a CTA state alternate and I am a Coachella Valley Teacher Association member. Um, my topic was to be about the ice activity in the Coachella Valley. I brought papers that I believe Dr. Esparza brought to us [snorts] and um, I believe this. I believe we are one Coachella. I would like to see us united and working together. Um, I shared my shirts. I have my CSCA brothers and sisters shirt. I have my shirt from CBTA. And I also have this uh,
016sorry, I'm a little nervous. My Coachella Valley Teachers Association shirt. Um, I would like to request at this time, if possible, to have a restorative justice circle and discuss an uh conversation that was recorded. And um, I would love to see Coachella Valley Unified School District in the news for positive and I would love to help fight what's happening right now. Um, today I did call in sick. It's the second time this school year I called in sick. I called in sick Tuesday and I called in sick today. I'm very upset. I'm very stressed out. [sighs and gasps] Our kids need protection and the adults are the ones that can do that. So I really would appreciate your support and doing that. I know Mr. Trina Ardondo, Mr. Ardondo, if you could help me or
017Mr. Tortez, if you could help me to do a restorative justice circle and I am talking about the conversation that was recorded with Mr. Gonzalez. Mr. Gonzalez, would you be willing to do that? You don't have to answer right now. I know you can't according to what Mr. Tortez says, but [sighs and gasps] I would love to sit down with you and work with you. Work with Ral Ree, Manuel Perez, he uh [sighs] Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. Jeff Gonzalez, and any other elected officials that can help us protect our kids. That is my goal. I do not have any other intent of politics except for maybe I'm going to share. I'm a Christian and maybe the politics of Christ. So, I have seen you for years. That's what I was trying to mention. I don't know
018if that was recorded or not, but I saw you for years in Zoom with crosses behind you. So, if you are a godly man, I am a godly woman. And if you would like to sit down and discuss having a restorative justice circle with me, then that would be an amazing thing. And I would love to do it. Like, if you want to do it right now, I don't know if you can revise your agenda. If you want to do it publicly or you do not want to do it publicly, that's up to you. Um Joey, Triny, Mr. Tortez, Valerie, I called CTA today also. Like I really would like to have this done. I asked before that I would like for you, Miss Esparta, to have a closed caption for people who have hearing.
019>> Thank you. Thank you. [music] Yeah. >> Yeah. We're not allowed to waiver or give time back, but thank you because there are other other requesters that would like to speak. So, next we have Olivia Rodriguez uh with John Kelly. >> Good evening board members. My name is um Oliver Rodriguez and I'm here tonight as a parent at John Kelly Elementary. Um, and just a brief context, um, since starting school, my own child has experienced reoccurring respiratory symptoms that have worsened over time, um, since attending school, um, and that I've noticed have improved during school breaks or during the weekends or in in some instances as soon as I start driving him home. And I've spoken with other parents and st in general that not only attend the same classroom, but just John Kelly overall,
020and I noted that's a reoccurring and similar pattern and experience that a lot of parents share. So, of course, it rais raised concerns for me, especially as wanting to make informed decisions in my child's care. Um, and then with the recent mold findings, the moisture findings, I think it's just raised more alarms. I just want the best information and accurate information and clear information so that I can take to my child's healthcare providers. And it just creates a moment of frustration um when we're left to having to connect those dots together. I think in that moment of trying to find out more information, I've reached out to public health experts, environmental scientists, um just clinics overall who are more than willing and happy to talk to parents and um just go over information with us,
021just inform us of um you know, walk through us with those reports, have health assessments or, you know, health clinics, anything that we can do to provide that reassurance to families. Um, and that happened within a few hours of just connecting to folks in the search of more information that I wasn't able to get in those reports. Um, and just a jargon that I know I'm not a Molda expert. I'm not like an environmental expert on the remediation process, but what I do ask for is there's an opportunity to have a system in place, leadership in place that centers the student and staff health first, not just facilities. Um, so I'm not really here to ask what was fixed. I have a lot of questions, but more so how the district is going to ensure
022that all students are protected, supported, and not left to connect those dots on our own when health concerns arise. Um, so I respectfully urge the district to continue to um have open communication with concerned parents regarding um follow-up questions that we have when it comes to understanding all of these reports so we can make informed decisions regarding our kids care and make those next steps as urgently as as possible. Um, just because I've been at a loss of what to do. Um, and hoping to just get more clarity along the process and more support. Thank you. Thank you. Next [applause] we have Leticia Torres and John Kelly. [sighs] Good evening uh Dr. Sparsa and board members. I am here to talk about the timeline that for the mold at John Kelly. So on November 18,
023the maintenance department was notified that room 52 and 53 had possible microbial growth at John Kelly Elementary School. The director of uh maintenance and operations requested a testing and received results on November 24th. No, I'm sorry. On November 24th, he requested the testing. He received the results on December 1st, which were the air swab samples. The remediation and contamination recommendation report was received on December 4th. So on December 8th, the work was scheduled and started the demolition. On December 15, the remediation clearance was uh reported and the reconstruction started December 16th. On December 19th, uh he we received notification of another classroom with possible mold growth which was room 18. That is when we decided to test the entire school. So by December 22nd, the entire John Kelly Elementary School was tested. We received the
024results on December 28th. On December 29th, facilities and maintenance along with Serpro walked the site to review affected areas. That same day in the afternoon, we gave the green light to start the re the reconstruction, actually the demolition, sorry, the demolition and then uh the reconstruction. So, they did that entire week for 6 days. They we had two crews, two 24-hour crews to remediate and reconstruct the entire school, which was uh 13 13 classrooms that were that were affected. We did this so that we didn't have to relocate the students to a different school since we didn't have enough classrooms to to relocate them. On January 5th, all the reme the remediation and reconstruction of classroom was completed with the exception of room 51 and one which and the health office which was the cabinets
025and sinks. The clearance for the restrooms was received on January 6th and work started on January 7th. The north restroom was completed on Wednesday, January 14th. The south restroom is still ongoing and it will be completed January 17. >> That's all. >> Thank you. >> Good evening, board community. I'm going to talk as well about uh some of the remediation that took place at John Kelly. Um as well as provide um as much clarity as possible on some of the work that was done. Um there was some concerns about why the reports were brought out in sections. So whenever there's an issue um or a finding of possible water intrusion before these areas can be demolitioned or ripped open, we have to do what's called asbestos and lead testing. Um once that once that clearance
026comes back in, that's when we can go in and rip those walls open. Before those walls can be put back in, um we have to do what's called the post remediation verification. Once that's completed, then we can reconstruct these areas and and put them back to their normal state. Um as we got the results um of surface swab samples, air quality samples, that's when we began uh to test for as vessels and lead. Um as we received those, we began to demo them. So four cash four results came in, no as vessels, no lead. We can rip those walls open and start the reconstruction. That's why you'll see the reports in sections. um you will have a limited contamination assessment that has everything um that was tested uh schoolwide and that's why they're they're in
027sections. At no point was there uh an effort to to hide any of the findings to cover up anything. Um we try to be as transparent as possible. Uh the report will show it. Um the high concentrations were behind baseboards um in areas that um weren't classroom environments. Um that's the reason we still chose to check to test any common areas whether it's a restroom, health office. That was the bulk of it. Um I also have uh Jose here from Sir Pro Construction. He can also talk about some of the remediation and the processes we take. >> Right. So that was the thing. So if you could uh state your name because I had your thing next um for the record. Right. And then uh yes, next I have Jose Torres. John Kelly. >> Yeah.
028Hi, I'm Jose Torres. I'm with Serpro. Um, I am the regional manager here. Um, just to go over a little of the process. Um, to clarify with the parents as well, when we were called in. Um, we, you know, got the test aid, we kind of acted immediately. Um, we did work around 24 hours around the clock. Um and that was to ensure that we were able to get all testing done, all remediation done, clearances done and build back um in a timely manner. So that way when kids came back to those classrooms, they were remediated and safe. Um all clearances were done as classrooms were remediated um as Timothy Hernandez has has said. So the way we had to do it was uh remediate four or five classrooms at a time, get those post
029clearances done so we could start reconstruction and then that continued over the basically the new year that that one week break that we had. Um so that was the reason why we were working 24 hours around the clock was to be able to remediate and rebuild and get clearances. Um, so that way by the time students came back, everything was was safe for them to return. Very good. Thank you. Next, next I have Nathan Lios with Schoolboard Recognition Month, Valley View. Good. [clears throat] Sorry. Good afternoon, President Tortez, Dr. Esparza, and members of the governing board. My name is Nathan Larios. I am a sixth grade student and the ASB president at Valley View Elementary School. This is my second term as ASB president and I am proud to be the first student at Valley
030View to be selected for a second term. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak with you today. [clears throat] One of the things I like most about my school is my teachers, staff, and the ASUS program, as well as the new playground that the facilities team has created for us. It is a place where I can truly be myself, enjoy time with my friends, and take a break with take a break from learning so I can recharge and finish the day strong in class. I think Valley View is such a great place to learn because whenever we are stuck on a problem, we have our teachers to help guide us and encourage us to keep trying. We also have a great library filled with wonderful books that help us learn and explore new
031ideas [clears throat] and we're able to use cool technology that makes learning more fun and engaging. Having all of these resources motivates me to work hard every day, do my best, and feel confident in my learning. At school, I feel happy and safe when I see my friends in the morning. In the morning, when a teacher or principal greets me at the door, and when I know there are adults around us who care about us, being in a safe environment helps me focus on my lessons without worrying. I know that the school board is a group of adults who make important decisions for us. I believe your work is very important because you make sure we have supplies to learn, help keep our school safe, and ensure every student has a chance to succeed. Without
032your planning, our school would not be the special place it is today. If I could say a big thank you to the people making decisions for our school, I would thank you for our technology such as our iPads, our new playground and field, our new music program, and for for keeping our school safe. Thank you for caring about our education and future. I'm Nathan Ldios, a champion in the making, and Valley View Elementary School is helping me shape my future. >> Thank you, Nathan. Very good, Nathan. Thank you. [applause] Very, very good. Next. Very good. Next, I have Crystal Garcia, School Board Appreciation, Toro Canyon. Good evening everyone. My name is Crystal Garcia. I attend Tora Canyon Middle School. I'm an eighth grader, a part of the AVID program, and a cheerleader in the EXLP
033program. In addition, I've been a student in the Coachella Valley district for 9 years, starting at TK at S Martinez Elementary School. While there are many positive aspects of the CVUSD thanks to your decisions, we may no, we have many beneficial programs that help us improve our performances. For example, the AVID program. This program allows students to develop important life skills for college and their future careers. It also teaches students about the importance of organization, critical thinking, note-taking and many more skills. Another skillful curriculum would be ASB. This helps students develop student leadership, creating a positive environment and representing student voice and in administration. Overall, ASB boosts school spirits and community. I'm here to thank you for your support. To end off with, these are some questions my eighth grade classmates have. Why are students
034getting late to class due to the lack of transportation? Why is promotion being held at the gym after last year's terrible s ceremony? And why does it feel like every year we're getting less and less funding at our school? Finally, I would like to thank you all for letting me have this opportunity to speak and thank you all board members at this event. That's all. [applause] >> Very, very good. Thank you. Next, I have Perise Dominguez, school board appreciation for Bobby Duke. Good evening, board members. Superintendent Dr. Sparza and guest. My name is Benisa Dominguez Aguilad and I am Bobby Duke Middle School's ASB president. I would like to thank you for the programs and educational opportunities you provide for students like me. Programs such as AVID career technical education, dual language, and ACES have
035made a big difference in our learning and our confidence. These programs help us build skills for college careers and life while also helping us grow academically and personally. Because of these opportunities, students are encouraged to challenge themselves, explore their interest, and feel supported at school. We feel proud of our learning and we're prepared for the future. On behalf of students at Bobby Duke Middle School, thank you for believing in us and investing in our education. We truly appreciate everything you do to support our schools. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Very good. Next, I have Eric Werta, school board recognition for Desert Mirage. Good evening board members, superintendent and CBUSD staff. My name is Eric Werta and I am a senior at Desarrage High School. I also serve as the Quente
036Vice President and ASB Executive Board President. I joined the Coachella Valley Unified School District when I was 11 years old. And tonight, I am honored to speak during the school board appreciation month. For me and for my school, Des Mirage High School, I want to thank the CBUSD Board of Education for everything you do. The time, effort, and dedication you put into this district does not go unnoticed. You show up for our schools. You make difficult decisions, and you work to do what is best for our students. Even when we don't see everything that happens behind the scenes, we feel the impact of your work every day. because of your leadership programs like the newcomers academy, the migrant program and the point program, many and many other that exist that support our students and help
037us grow. These programs changed my life. They supported me when I needed guidance, encouraged me when I doubted of myself, and helped me see my own potential. They remind students that they are not alone, that someone believes in them, and the opportunities exist because you choose to invest in them. Being involved in student leadership helped me find my voice. It taught me confidence, responsibility, and how to work with others respectfully. Serving as a student trustee last year allowed me to see firsthand how important the work of the board truly is. From a student's perspective, your decisions shape our schools, our opportunities, and our futures. You help create safe, welcoming environments where students can learn, they can lead, and they can succeed. I know serving on the board is not easy. It takes time. It takes
038commitment and it takes heart. The work comes with challenges and tough choices. But I want you to know that students notice your dedication. We notice when you advocate for us, when you support when you support programs that lift us up, and when you put our education first. Standing here during my final year of high school makes me feel proud and grateful. I am one example of what is possible when a district and a school board stands behind their students. As I move forward after graduation to attend Columbia University, majoring in biology and neuroscience, I will carry CBUSD with me. I'll carry your lessons, your support, and the care that you help me make possible. One day, I hope to return to my community and give back the same way you are doing now. On behalf
039of the Desert Mar High School and me personally, thank you for believing in your students, for caring about our schools and communities, and for always giving us your best. Your work truly makes a difference. Happy Board Appreciation Month, and thank you for everything you do. [applause] >> Very good. Thank you, Eric. And we would like to congratulate you on your full scholarship to Columbia University. Very good. [applause] Next we have Janelle McDaniel on 6.3 fiscal stabilization plan. >> Good evening. My name is Janelle McDaniel and I'm speaking tonight as an educator, a wellness professional, and a parent. I want to begin by acknowledging something this district has done exceptionally well. Coachella Valley Unified has been a leader in student mental health. We were the first district in Coachella Valley to open up wellness centers across
040all three unified school districts. That decision sent a clear message. Students are humans first and learning cannot happen when stu when a student is in survival mode. Because of your leadership and the support of our student support services department, our students have been safer, more regulated, and more connected to school. Tonight, the board will be given three proposals to consider. One of those proposals eliminates mental health services entirely. This is the option I'm asking you to think very carefully about before selecting. If the board decides to cut these services, it's very important to me that you do so knowing what will be lost because this is not just a budget decision. This is the removal of a safety net. Nationally, youth mental health statistics statistics are staggering. One in five youth experience a mental health
041condition each year. To put that in perspective, at a school of 1825, which is what Desert Mirage is at, that's 365 students who may experience a mental health condition. Over 40% of high school students report persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and suicide remains one of the leading causes of death among adolescents. Since the start of the school year, Desert Mirage has conducted 25 risk assessments. A risk assessment is conducted when a student expresses thoughts of self harm, suicide, or shows behaviors that indicate they may be endangered to themselves or others. We have initiated six mental health holds at the site level, meaning six times this year, a student safety was at such risk that emergency intervention was required. And we average over 200 visits to the wellness center every single month. These visits are
042not abstract numbers. They represent students who need safe supported space to self-regulate, are grieving the loss of a friend or family member, need support navigating peer conflict, are experiencing anxiety, and more and more students are walking in with a fear of a family member being deported. These are they are coming to school with nervous systems already on high alert. I understand that under the proposal, staff members would still have jobs and return to their previous positions. I want to be very clear. I'm not speaking tonight to advocate for my employment. I'm speaking here to advocate for the students who rely on these spaces. Adults will be reassigned, but the space will be lost for the students who need it and the connection to the school. I also want to speak briefly as a parent. My
043own child attends a neighboring district high school. They don't have these programs. When my child has a panic attack, he's doing it alone in a hallway. He does not have a safe place to land like our students here in our district do. And it's very important to me that we continue that service for all of our students. >> Thank you. [applause] Next, we have Megan Ramirez with 6.3 Fiscal Stabilization Plan and Wellness Center. >> Good evening. My name is Megan Cho RmIrez and I'm a 24-year employee of CVUSD. I saw the stabilization plan option one with the possibility of completely cutting all mental health services for our budget. This makes our services comparable to what is currently happening in Desert Sands. And I'm speaking here as a parent from Desert Sands to explain to you
044the differences that have I have experienced with my own children. On September of 2022, I lost my father-in-law. My daughters who were in middle school and high school each got three days of bereavement. That's all they got. They were not offered counseling. They were not offered any other types of support in our district. They would have had an option of going to a wellness center, therapists by self-referral, dropping in, or immediate crisis support. In December of 2023, a little over a year later, I lost my husband, their father. [sighs] I reached out to their counselor and asked for grief support, and my junior asked could she please drop one of her AP classes because it was too much for her to do. They were offered support with a grief group which only met once in
045three months. Here, our wellness centers would have offered support with coping skills, would have had regularly scheduled support groups, and would have done daily check-ins if necessary, and our therapist would have been available for immediate crisis support. At the end of February that year, I found out that one of my daughters was missing 52 assignments. The counselor had not reassigned her AP course. Here in our district, our wellness centers identify and track students when they're in need. They connect students with the support options that are best for them. My youngest did get signed up for individual individual therapy and she attended three sessions at which point the therapist over there told her she was at low risk for concerns because she was doing well academically and had good attendance. So after her third session, she
046was never called back again. Our wellness centers track our students continuously and they pull them out for regular checks on a weekly basis. This year we tried again and it took three and a half weeks from the initial referral for before my daughter finally was able to see a therapist in Desert Sands. There are no wellness centers at Shadow Hills High School. The two wellness centers in Desert Sands at Jefferson and Lita Middle School are holding cells for kids that are kicked out of class. There's a counselor that sits in that room. My daughters always ask me, "Mom, why can't we have what you guys have?" Here in our district, we hold our students up. We hold up their hope until they can hold it up for themselves. That is what our wellness centers and
047our mental health programs do for our kids. As the district coordinator for child welfare, I ask that you consider the welfare of our children first, keep their social and emotional needs a priority, and not select plan one, a plan that completely cuts all of our mental health services for our students. I ask that you not have our students experience what my daughters had to experience in our neighboring district. We cannot know when a mental health crisis or a mental health need will happen with our students. We can't schedule that. We can't plan [music] it. But we can make sure that we have the right staff in the right place when they do need it. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you. [applause] So next is u written request to the board and we have the
048written request. will uh circulate that to the board and u the next agenda item after that is the student board member report. >> Good afternoon. Um thank you for having me today. I'd like to say that on behalf of the students not only at Coachella Valley High School but all the high schools in our district, thank you for listening to our voices. I'm going to start off with Coachella Valley High School and reporting that academically over 200 students have successfully completed their ASVAB test and received guidance on understanding their scores. Counselors are actively renewing transcripts, adjusting schedules to meet graduation requirements, and preparing for course requests, which will begin on January 20th, 2026. The college and career center continues to support seniors with post-secondary planning. Cood and trade school workshops are held every Friday and
049plans are underway for senior field trip to local colleges and career training centers. Preparations are also in progress for the annual CVHS college and career fair. ASB remains focused on student engagement with kindness themed lunch activities planned for the last week of January. Upcoming middle school visits, class fundraisers, and continued planning for prom and senior activities. In addition, both boys and girls basketball teams are preparing for upcoming league competitions, and students are excited for the start of the spring sports season. Track and field, baseball, softball, and swim teams are beginning their seasons, providing many students with opportunities to compete, build teamwork, and represent CBHS. Many sen seniors remain hopeful and motivated as they look toward their future. But there is a growing concern about the lack of confirmed information regarding graduation dates and ceremony locations
050and students are eager for updates to help with planning. Moving on to Desert Mirage High School, the counseling department has conducted a thorough review of student academic progress and post-secary readiness. Graduation statuses for all seniors were evaluated and graduation status letters were sent to families of students who are both on track and not on track ensuring clear and timely communication to support career readiness. Approximately 150 dozen rod seniors have registered to take the ASVAB providing them with valuable insight into career pathways and post-secary opportunities. They are proud to highlight a historic achievement within the Desert Mirage Po Buente program as senior Eric Huerta who is just up on this podium was admitted to the Colombia University through early decision becoming the first Buenista student from Desert Ranch High School to be accepted into an Ivy
051League institution. Additionally, eight Bentista students have been named Gates Scholarship finalists and successfully submitted their essays and portraits. To further promote college readiness, Buenthisa students have in grades 9 through 11 are applying to summer academic enrichment programs designed to strengthen academic preparation and exposure to higher education. Moving on to La Familia High School. They have had several important accomplishments and upcoming events to share. 60 students have successfully returned to their home campuses and are on their track to graduate. They are also proud to celebrate two CTE students who have completed their program, a first in their school's history. Senior portraits are scheduled for fee February 24th and 2026. On February 3rd, Laaf Familia ASB will host a blood drive followed by a Valentine's Day candygram sale on February 13th with additional activities to be determined.
052On February 16th, ASB will proudly participate in an annual date festival parade. Additionally, both boys and girls soccer teams have begun practice this week. Soccer continues to be one of the greatest strengths and under the leadership of coach Manuel Aria Ariada for the boys and coach Mariel Aguilar for the girls. We are building strong teams that aim to continue our tradition of going undefeated. The teams will play a total of five games and if crowned Saro League champions. They will advance to compete against Sierra Continuation High School from the Inland Empire in San Bernardino. While they celebrate these successes, transportation remains an ongoing concern. Students are frequently arriving late to first period due to bus issues. And on three occasions this school year, students have had to walk from Coachella Valley High School to Laafamilia
053High School. Additionally, after school students often experience long wait times for buses as some stops are assigned small buses despite having 15 to 20 students waiting, creating delays and safety concerns. Moving on to West Shores High School student support and academic process counselors and the college career team are actively ensuring accurate transcripts, graduation readiness, schedule adjustments, and completion of key student requirements. instructional growth and accountability. Teachers are implementing structured academic conversations to deepen learning final completion rates and the school is well prepared for the upcoming WASK visual virtual visits. Student engagement and enrich enrichment. Strong participation continues across athletes leadership opportunities like RIA and community programs like Poente showcasing student commitment in both both in and beyond the classroom. That's all I have for you today. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Next is the
054uh board member reports or requests for future board meetings. 5.3. Uh starting with director Akuna. Do you have a good evening everyone? Thank [clears throat] you all for coming out. And um again, as I always say, um regardless if you're coming here to to say good things, bad things, or whatever, the fact that you get out of uh off the couch and come to to speak to us means a lot. Means that you care uh regardless of what your reason for doing so. So again, I try not to take it personal. Um but um but we do hear what you say. Um secondly, uh I have one big issue I want to talk about. The other ones are smaller. Uh I know the after school program is going to have the flag football tournament on
055Saturday at Desert Mirage Toro Canyon. So if anybody wants to go out there and see the kids uh perform and it's a good chance to talk to lots of parents as well who will be out there. Usually when I go they have lots and lots of questions. So they find a way to to communicate whatever concerns they may have. That's always a good way to communicate with parents and have parents communicate with us. Um, I also want to do what I've been doing, and I know people are getting angry at me doing it, but I'm going to do it anyway. Um, the attendance, we heard about the delays in the bus drivers and the in the transportation department, and that is a concern, but I keep reminding people that that is not just a transportation
056issue. That's an issue across the district. So, um, strangely enough, the, uh, first day back from school on Monday, there was 294 people totally absent. Um, but on Tuesday, there was absent across the board. That's everybody. And on that last Friday, 381 people across the district were not here. And again, that's everyone. That does include other people who are either on maybe workman's comp or but still a lot of people. And the big concern I have is what happens tomorrow and what happens on Tuesday because there's a holiday on Monday. And every time that there's a holiday, we usually have 400 plus people absent on either Fridays or Tuesdays after the thing. This is a systemic problem across our district. This is not just a one area issue. This is becoming a culture of people
057not showing up to work. And I believe when we look at this and we drill it down, the overwhelming majority of people are coming to work, doing their jobs, doing what they're supposed to do, and there's a group that persistently continues to do this. But unfortunately, when one person goes out and we can't find a sub or it's last minute, all the domino effect things happen. Buses are late, classrooms are moved, kids have to do something else. principles instead of doing their job has to do a has to cover a classroom. Um you know phones aren't answered at the front or whatever the the position is. So that is a problem that's ongoing and again you know we always hear about the bus drivers which again is an issue in our district but I want
058every parent to understand it's not just transportation it's across the board everywhere in our district. Um and then the last thing I want to talk about I think is what is the big issue um concerning not only our valley but I think our country. Um there was a woman who was murdered in Minneapolis uh last week by what I would consider a mass terrorist. Um and it was tragic anytime that happens anywhere in our country. But I was very caught by the statement from people saying, "My god, if they could do this to a woman, a white woman in Minneapolis, imagine what they can be doing in communities of color." And while I understand what they're saying, we who live in community of colors have experienced this most of our lives. This is not something
059new. Just today we had an attack uh again an invasion and an attack on some of our community I believe over by the Oasis area at a mobile home park mobile home park. the same thing that afternoon. We just found out that the uh ICE agents on Mark Cars decided that they were going to use West Shores High School as their base of operation. >> North >> to which thankfully >> Northshore, >> huh? >> Northshore, >> I'm sorry, Northshore. I I apologize. Northshore School as their base of operation, which I am glad to know that our leadership and our security went out there and told them, uh-uh, not in our school district. And I think this is something that we as a community need to understand that this is not going to stop. This is
060not an attack on our kids. It's an attack on our community. Um you know the vice president of the United States told them they have 100% immunity to do whatever they want to do and nothing will happen to them. That's not true for one. But the mentality of people coming into our community is they can do whatever they want to our community. citizen or non-citizen, it does not matter to them. We've we've proved that. Um, I for one want to thank our district leadership. I want to thank TOK and all the other community organizations out there that are doing the job, informing our community, protecting them, videotaping, getting all the evidence. I want to thank them. We have to stand together on this issue. And I would also like to recommend to this board that
061we send a letter to the borders and custom agency and tell them that our school districts are not their staging grounds that they have no business in our school and unless they want they have a warrant that they are not allowed and they are not wanted here in our community. I think we as the board one small group in this area have a responsibility to protect our to protect our community and our students. And I think that's one small way of telling them, "No, you're not allowed here." And any other law enforcement agency who directed them there, we should send a letter to them as well and say, "Don't be offering our district without our permission." These these things are small, but they start growing. And we just saw that um there's a memorial for
062a gentleman who passed away who was arrested in New Jersey and moved to California just so their families couldn't be close to him when they arrested him. and he died in nice custody, had to be taken to the hospital and died of probably we are not even some kind of a health ailment that they never helped him. They never did anything for him. And he's not the first to die in ICE custody. He's not the first to get abused by ICE agents. Um this is just turning into what it is, an invasion of our community. So I I am angry, but like many people, I believe that's what this administration wants. They want us to retaliate so they can send in the military. They can really put a officer, a military on all of our
063corners. We have to be smart in our response. But I think we also have to stand guard and make sure that they do not cross that line that some one of our community members, one of our kids, or someone gets hurt. Um, I have been receiving calls all day as many of you have, you know, trying to do what we can do, but this is an issue that's not going to go away and we need, you know, we have a lot of other issues in the district that are pending and yes, they're all important, but this one is the one where I think some of that stuff, >> we can talk about it, we can argue about it, we can discuss it, but on this issue, I think we all need to stand with one
064voice and say enough is enough uh to protect our kids and to protect everyone. So, with that, that is my report and I'd like to make those recommendations to the board for those letters to go out. >> Thank you, Director Akuna. Um, [applause] next, Director Gonzalez, do you have anything? >> Mr. Akuna, well said. Um, as we look listen to staff talking about, you know, the uncertainties that families are experiencing every day, it it's it's truly tragic. And I think all of us have family members close to us that that don't have qualified legal status. And it's it's it's really heartbreaking to see that at the highest level of government, they're allowing this kind of terrorism in this community. And so every day, you know, I'm getting phone calls about where they're at, um, what
065they're doing, how they're doing it, and it's not even human, right? It reminds me of Nazi Germany. And I think as history will remember this time in American history, I think we're going to be reminded that we're a better country than this. And it's it's ab absolutely appalling that it's being condoned. um just the blatant lies that could be promoted in social media nowadays where people could post stuff that just isn't true. But for that moment, it is true. And it's just super uh it's going to be a real serious challenge how we go forward as a community. And to your point, you know, you know, just retaliating with the same type of abuse, uh, it's only going to qualify another level of exploitation in our community. And I hope that uh that we can
066stand strong and um and I'm hoping that this leadership is over um as fast as possible. Hoping to see a change in Congress, in the Senate, and hopefully we can start moving this country in the right direction. I wanted to thank the staff, the parents, the community that came out uh supporting the parent leaison. I'm a big believer that parent leaison play a very important part on how we message as an institution to the community. It almost seems to me like we did offer 5 hours and benefits in a very difficult negotiation with some serious fiscal challenges. Unfortunately, I believe that it was purposeful that the parent leaison weren't supported. I also believe it was purposeful that they allowed the front staff at respective schools, people that had been there for 20 25 years, they
067were just swapped to other schools. I believe it was to create this type of upheaval, right? And I'm hoping Dr. Esparsa that sooner than later we can restore the parent leaison because they play a very very important role on how we touch every kid that comes to school. Um my final thought is I um shout out to Desert Mirage Poente program. I mean the idea that we have seven eight qualifying you know gate potential gate scholars the fact that we have a young man going to study the natural sciences um at Colombia. I mean it's just amazing to watch and I think that is representative of who we are as a community. that promise, that change, right? That leadership. And I think this whole project, back to the thought of the current leadership, this idea
068of project 2025, it almost is to deny us that, to deny us the opportunity to grow as a community, to to get better, to become true competitors. And I just um I think it's programs like Bente that are really going to bring change and new leadership for tomorrow's promise. Very good. Thank you, Director Gonzalez. Uh, Director Nandondo, >> just like to start [clears throat] off by saying thank you to everybody that came today, all your public comment, uh, those that are with us here and those that are on Zoom. Um, I'd like to say that um I'd like to thank President Tortois for uh walking uh John Kelly School to and and Trusty Calamanis for walking John Kelly School to make sure that uh to just see the things that are being done there. Thank
069you for taking that that proactive step to to walk the school and and and reporting back on the things that are being done there. I think that's important. Uh over the break and before the break, I got a chance to meet with Dr. Sparza. cabinet. Thank you for the opportunity to to at least share my concerns and the things that that uh are important to uh the constituents here in the community when when we hear about the things that that are important to our community, which is wellness, which is mental health, which is uh making sure that we have a balanced budget, right? It's definitely a challenge that we have to work together to to make sure that our our our school district is on the correct foot and that we can go forward and
070and continue to operate school district, right? Safety and security, right? Making sure that we have good schools, that we remediate the things that we need to do to make our schools better, that um we have services for our students so that they can learn, right? And I think those are the things that I that I shared with with staff. So, thank you to staff for taking the opportunity to meet with me. Um, I look forward to the continued discussions as as as this board works together. And I think that, you know, we hear you. We hear you when you come up and say, "We need another person at our at our school. We need the parent liaison. We we need staff. We need wellness staff. We need mental health services. We hear you." and all
071and what we're trying to do here is collectively balance and restore our budget to make sure that we can operate as a school district. Um I'd like to ask Dr. Sparza to ensure that all our sites have our safety our safety and security plan when we when when when um you know anybody comes to our school district especially law enforcement that our our sites understand how to respond and and the protocols in order to make sure that our schools go on lockdown and that our students are safe. Uh the most important thing for um I think for us as a school district is to make sure that our students are safe. they have a safe place to come every day and that we communicate with them to make sure that on their way home they
072also got a they also got a safe a safe place to to get home. Um, thank you to everybody here. Once again, what we're going through is not easy. It's not, you know, it takes a lot of work, takes a lot of commitment, but we need to work together to make sure that that we're also providing all the services that we need. And then there are going to have to be cuts, right? There are going to have to be cuts, but I can tell you that as a board member, safety, security is important and [clears throat] making sure that we have safe schools. So, uh, with that, that's all I have. Happy, um, you know, it's, uh, hopefully a good year, right? Um, and that we continue to work together. Thank you. Nothing more, Mr.
073President. >> Very good. Thank you. U, next we have >> Vargas. >> Yes. >> Vargas. >> Yes. Um, good evening everybody. Um, just wanted to say thank you to everyone who came out to provide public comments. Uh there's definitely a lot going on in our district. Um you know, positive things and challenges. So um I really appreciate everyone just coming to voice um you know, your concerns and raising um you know, bringing to attention and and light some of the challenges we're facing within our district, right? Um there's definitely a lot on my mind in terms of, you know, just our facilities and kind of the needs across our district. um you know just hearing our students that were here this you know providing their their public comment right and raising um you know I
074think Crystal was the one who was mentioning like some of the challenges right like um we just it just makes me think a lot of some a lot of the work that still needs to happen right um I think one of the comments that was made by parents just the requests that were communicating um clearly with them and just providing the opportunity to really understand what is happening and it just um you know with some of the things that Mr. Akuna was mentioning and Mr. Gonzalez um happening in our in our community it's just making me think a lot more about the importance of just being able to communicate with our families and being able to provide them with clear um information that they can understand and it's accessible. Um so you know I know
075that communication has always been an area that we've been working on. So, I think the more we can uh work to provide that to our families, um the better. Uh the last thing I'll say, um you know, I do agree uh with some of the concerns, right, of things happening, incidences that we're hearing in our community. Um you know, just kind of seeing everyone providing and and being vigilant, right? I think with the interest of ensuring that our students are safe, that our families are safe. Um, I appreciate everyone, you know, communicating that information to ensure that we are kind of keeping an eye out for for our families. Um, so I I would support something, you know, that we're putting together. Um, I know that there's new legislation around what we're supposed to be
076communicating out um and when there's presence um on our campuses or near our campuses. So um just making sure that our our district employees and staff um have that information is going to be important for me. Um, so I'll just leave it at that and just thank everyone who came out tonight. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you, Darcia. >> Thank you. Um, thank you all. Everyone who comes here, everyone who emails us, calls us, text messages us, sends videos. I mean, I get things a lot of different ways. Um, we thank you. We do hear you. And I know that you've heard several of us say that. um behind closed doors, we are having these difficult conversations to understand how best we can make sure we are meeting your needs. Um but it also
077helps when we hear from you over and over and over again. I mean, how many times have we heard about these amazing people that have made a difference in your lives? I know that our communities are stressed on so many levels. You've heard us all um talk about it right now. um that is heavy on our minds and it's compounded by our stabilization plan. I want you all to know that those are three options that were given to us. They are we are not confined to those options just as they are. We aren't confined to those options um at all. We we are hearing what our leadership is telling us and we are going to have to make the decisions on what makes sense to us and what we hear from you over and over
078and over again. Right? So, I wanted to make that clear. Um, as far as ICE presence, you've heard that we are committed to our communities. We want to make sure that we're getting that information out to you. Also want you to know that we are being as careful as we can internally. I don't want any report that's going to make it easier for this administration to find our families. You're all all of our students here are entitled to a safe education. We don't want reports that make it easier for federal agents to find our students, right? So, we're keeping an eye on how um attendance has been affected, making sure that services are being uh available to families that are in crisis, but we also want to make sure that we are not identifying in
079any particular way that we don't have to to serve our students. We're protecting you uh as much as we possibly can. We're getting that information out. I do realize that communication on the ground with people that you trust is also important. I know that because I see virtually on um social media on on email on text message we have that but I know we have families that are not as technologically um literate. So face to face would be very important. And I hear our parent leaison over and over again. You've heard several of us say that we know and we keep hearing how important that is. [gasps] So, we're going to have to find a way to fill those gaps because you should still have that communication base that you need. Um, I do also
080want to make sure that our students feel like they are have everything they need in spite of all of this. We hear that our students are still making amazing strides. um I want to make sure that they are rewarded for all of their hard work. Right? So again, we heard from our students that um something about graduation locations and dates. I know that that was still something that we're figuring out. Can we continue to work on that because now we're into the new year. It's just around the corner. Our students are excited about it. We are excited to celebrate all of their hard work. Um and we want to make sure that our families have a comfortable place to celebrate their students. Um our we have a lot of work to do. We are going
081to continue to understand as best we can our options so that we can make the best decisions for you. Um continue to reach out to us, continue to talk to us. We are listening. We are here to serve you. Thank you so much. >> Very good. Thank you, Dr. Kamanis. >> Yes. Thank you very much. I'll just very quickly say thank you for all the feedback because it's really important in our decision-making. What I wanted to I wanted to comment on the John Kelly tour that I took uh with President Tortez with uh Dr. Espisa and and staff. Uh, I've been to John Kelly many, many times through through the Read with Me program and I was just floored, amazed how much work was done over the holidays. I mean, some of the things that
082weren't even discussed is the fact that there was was a lot of dirt and mud mud around these classrooms. They actually resemmented and so that the water would go away from these rooms so it would mitigate water damage and it it was it was like how did they do that so fast? You go any place else and it takes forever to even do a small sidewalk. They it was just amazing. So I wanted to commend the job that that uh Mr. Hernandez did and serve pro and everybody. It really really is truly amazing. I told uh uh Brian Kennedy, the the principal, it's like you have a new school here. It was really amazing. I want to do a shout out uh to Tara Henchin and team. We did a read with me education here
083in the boardroom and we had 70 volunteers who were trained who are going out to your schools and working with your students for reading tutoring. Um I also wanted to say we relied on uh parent leaison with read with me to help us find teachers and students that would work together. So that was very important to our program as well. So um that's that's what I wanted to report on. Thank you. >> Very good. Thank you. So, as for my report, I'm hearing, you know, the the events that are happening with ICE and everything around, but this is the second time that this happened, you know, with living through this with my children and the first administration, there were families that left. So, when the families leave, the friends of my kids leave, so they're
084left. You know, it's hard when you go through school, elementary, middle school, and then all of a sudden you lose those friends, and that's traumatizing to kids. So, I'm grateful for the the wellness uh uh centers that they have at the school, right, that that help them with these trauma traumatization times. And then it's happening again uh to the point where my kids want to be homeschooled. They don't want to go to school cuz, you know, the kids have social media and they spread all the actions that are going on. So, even my kids are scared to come to school. And, you know, my son misses enough school because he has severe allergies. And when we're talking about, you know, Don Kelly and and the environmental indoor quality, uh, we talk about asthma cuz my
085son has it pretty bad and it's one of the reasons that he misses a lot of school. Asthma is an epidemic in the United States according to the EPA. An average of one out of every 10 school children now have asthma and the percentage is rising rapidly. So when we're talking about what the leading cause of absenteeism, uh it's according to PA, it's asthma. 13 million school days are missed per year because of asthma symptoms uh that require visiting emergency room or to the doctor and it prevents the child from living an active life. It's uh you know, according to EPA, asthma is a long-term disease that affects the airways and the lungs. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir. A lot of people know if your kids have these. But because we spend 90%
086of our time indoors, we are exposed to indoor allergens, irritants, and this triggers asthma episodes like with my son. And so what we need to do is continue to mitigate the indoor air quality um our school buildings. One of our we have a few policies environmental safety policy Coachella Valley policy 3514 which says that uh we as a board and the district shall focus on maximizing healthy indoor air quality monitoring quality of outdoor air adjusting outdoor air activities and reducing emissions. You know these type of things minimizing exposure to lead and mercury uh reducing the risk of unsafe water. uh properly abating asbestos, storing hazardous waste. Um that's in 3414. Another part of 3414 talking about air quality is um section two where it says school facilities shall regularly be inspected for water damage, leaks,
087roof poor drainage, ventilation as to prelude the buildup of mold and mildew to prevent unsafe conditions. So when evidence of mold and mood is found, maintenance staff shall locate and repair the source of water intrusion and remove moldy materials. So that's in our policy. It's in our policy that we are to inspect for mold for lead. We are to minimize potential for lead any activities and handling and disposal of lead. Uh according to state and federal standards. So and also in 3414 and the last section it talks about management of asbestos and then we have also regulation 3517 of Coachella Valley school district talking about facilities inspection whereas the uh district shall inspect school facilities to maintain each uh each facility in good repair and a minimum shall assess the uh facility conditions so that
088uh there are no gas leaks, mechanical heating, ventilation, um that they're not obstructed, windows, doors. But number five, uh specifically says interior surfaces, walls, ceilings. Interior surface should be free of safety hazards, tears, holes, missing floor, ceiling tiles, and surfaces should display no evidence of mold or mildew. So uh it's in our policy about uh inspection and assessing and mitigating and at the very end about assessing the safety and cleanliness cleanliness of the school facilities that if anyone finds it shall be it shall be reported to the school and uh reported on our school accountability report card and that's education code 33126. So uh we have received complaints of the complaints alleged uh on a school facility condition that poses an emergency or urgent threat to the health or safety of students or staff shall
089be addressed in accordance with uh the code 131. That's a California code 1312.4 which is under the Williams uniform complaint procedures. So, I just wanted to let the public know that that's the procedure and that's the regulation that the school board must adhere to. So, as president, I'm going to make sure that during this year that I'm president that I frequently visit and inspect with the superintendent all of the schools because I'm not sure if we have a schedule, but if it's yearly, annually, I think it's annually, I'm going to make it quarterly. If it's quarterly, we're going to make it monthly. So, I will be out there. Um, just so you know, expecting all the facilities for all of these hazards. But, um, that's what I have. Thank you. >> Uh, next we have
090superintendent report. >> Thank you. >> Good evening everyone who's here in the audience as well as those watching uh, from home. I'd like to begin with an update on the 2026 uh, CV High School and Desert Mirage High School graduation venue. Are you excited? We're working with Acer Arena at this point. Uh and while confirmation is typically provided by them to the person who wants to rent or the company that wants to rent from them uh 60 days in advance. So that's a very very short time for our students and our parents to prepare. So, Miss Sautello, our director of secondary, and our assistant superintendent, uh, Sakoro Sanchez have been working with them to try and convince them to get us at least a 90 to 120day um, notice to see if it is that
091they will rent us the um, Acure Arena at the same price or less from what we used to pay at the tennis gardens, so that we stay within budget for the high school graduations. Um, if that is the case, then every student will be able to invite their entire family. >> It's a good thing. >> Hey, >> so um it's a very huge arena and so we are hoping that we will be able to work that out with them uh as soon as possible. And so I just wanted to announce that to all our seniors, I hope you're jumping up and down and clapping and starting to make that list uh and texting all your family that they're going to more than likely be able to come. Um I want to thank the parents who
092have reached out with the concerns regarding uh ICE activity as well as some staff our support services team along with the school principles and we have a group called the collaborative that's uh made up by some parents some staff members um as well as representatives from TODC uh and it's run by our student support services staff uh our director Julisa Hernandez and our counselor uh Karina Vega and they've been doing a great job putting information out there, making sure that um we are working closely with the PIO so that parents are informed if there's ever uh ice in the area as well as putting information out on what they are doing. And so they just miss recently met. I believe it was yesterday. And so more information is to come. They are working to ensure
093that um we inform the families as well. If they like um our board members have stated are near the campus or try to get onto the campus like they did this evening um we they were immediately removed from the campus and they are not allowed to go into schools. So if they should try to do that, we will immediately inform the families through parent square as well as our social media and do through every single way of communication that we can. So please know that the district is proactively uh working to ensure that the parents have the most immediate information when it comes down to um any ICE in the area. Um, I want to clarify something about um, board compensation. This has been a hot topic and there's a lot of uh, misinformation being
094put out on social media um, and also um, just questions asked to uh, board members and myself getting uh, some emails in regards to that. Please know that um the board uh and several boards throughout the state of California have not received a raise in or in compensation raise uh uh as they receive it monthly for over 40 years. And so this board has never So the board will receive compensation every month, not for every meeting. They don't receive an amount for every single meeting. It's for the entire month. So if we have five special board meetings that month, they're getting the same amount as well as if they miss a meeting, they it is deducted from them as well. They don't get the full uh amount at for that month. So uh that is
095something that I just wanted to make sure that I clarified uh with uh those who are posting this on social media or who have questions about it. And some of the emails that I've uh received I have returned with this information as well as with the documentation on the uh assembly bill leaves 1390. Um I wanted to address uh our elementary schools. Uh across the elementary school, students are engaging in strong academic and enrichment experiences through steam learning, science fairs, spelling bees, academic Olympics competitions, rocket live lessons, and targeted supports such as ELD instruction and power hour after school. At the same time, schools continue to strengthen their wellness attendance and positive school culture through PBIS. Blue zone initiatives are being implemented. Student recognitions are taking place at all our schools and meaningful family engagement
096opportunities including coffee with the principles and outpac parent nights. I want to thank the parents some of them I see them in the audience who were here with us this week for our parent workshop as well. I want to thank our secondary schools as well as across the secondary schools there's a strong focus on academic monitoring readiness assessments and student recognition through I ready testing alpac rallies promotions meetings trimester and semester award ceremonies for high school students are also benefiting from college career and real world learning experiences including scholarship recognitions are starting to happen attending many college visits health and science presentations, arts participation, and community service. While schools continue to elevate student voice, and family partnership, we want to thank our administration for working with our students to ensure that they are going to
097be those great leaders and champions that are going to come back to this community. Um and closing these highlights reflect the meaningful work happening across our schools each day where learning wellness and strong partnerships are coming together to support the success not just of one student but of every student. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next we have information presentations 6.1 Edward Simono. I think I said that right. Seino presentation of the California dashboard performance. Good evening, President Tortez, Dr. Esparsa, members of the board, and members of our community. Tonight, our MTSS data coordinators will share the California school dashboard and walk us through the through what the data tells us about our overall performance and growth. The dashboard helps us see not just where we are, but how our students are progressing over time. We
098invite you to view this information through an MTSS lens, recognizing our growth and using the data to inform the next steps in supporting our students in schools. Good evening, President Tortez, board of trustees, Dr. Sparsen, executive cabinet. I'd like to introduce Cindy Bradley, coordinator of MTSS data coaching, uh Dr. Santa Maria, um principal of Coachell Valley High School, and Dr. Marjorie Pirate, principal of Lasita's Elementary. Uh tonight we're sharing a brief overview of Coachell Valley Unified School District's 2025 California dashboard results. Uh highlighting district-wide trends and then spotlighting two schools uh that demonstrated strong performance and growth. Before we review the results, we want to briefly share how the dashboard works. Um so the California dashboard uses a 5x5 grid that combines overall performance with year-to-year change. This means that color ratings reflect not only
099where students performed that year, but also how much progress they made from the year prior. This framework allows us to recognize both high achievement and also the growth and meaningful growth that took place uh from year to year. This slide provides a snapshot of CVUSD's performance across our state indicators which span academic achievement, attendance, behavior, and college and career readiness. Across the dashboard, we see a mix of green and yellow performance levels with several indicators showing positive momentum. This overview helps us understand system level strengths while identifying areas where we need to focus improvement. uh efforts. This is the first year of since the release of this California dashboard from 2017 that we have received zero red or orange levels for our indicators. [applause] This year we saw encouraging trends across u multiple indicators. Our
100chronic absenteeism declined 3.4 4 percentage points with 33.6% of our students indiv identified as chronically absent. Suspension rates declined with 3.3% of our students suspended at least one day. For both of these indicators, a decline in percentage points is actually positive growth. Also, our graduation rate increased by 4.8%age points with 89.8% 8% of our students graduating. Our English learner progress increased by 5.3% with 48.1% of our English learners making progress. Academically in English language arts, we've increased by four points and our mathematics increased by 8.1 points. Our college and career readiness in in increased by 8.3% with 45.5% of our students prepared. These gains, particularly our English language arts and mathematics, align with our continued implementation of the instructional priorities on our CVUSD instructional framework where we are strengthening clear learning intentions and success criteria,
101checking for understanding, purposeful student discourse, and of course, collaborative planning. So, while we continue to focus on overall uh system improvement, we also want to take time to highlight bright spots, which are schools that demonstrated particularly strong growth on key indicators this year. As we saw in December, we had several schools with bright spots to be celebrated. Tonight, we'll hear directly from two principles whose schools showed notable gains in graduation rate and English learner progress. We'll begin with Coachell Valley High School who increased its graduation rate by 5 percentage points reaching 95.6% which is well above the statewide average graduation rate of 87.5%. We'll now hear from uh Dr. Santa Maria who will briefly share the key strategies and systems that contributed to this improvement. >> Thank you. Good evening president, trustees and superintendent. I'm
102proud to share that Coachella Valley High School has achieved 95.6% graduation rate and I'd like to highlight the systems that made that possible for us. We closely monitor student progress using the graduation tracker that shows credits attempted and completed for each of our seniors. This allows us to quickly identify students who need immediate support and intervening before they fall behind. We also hold weekly counseling meetings with administrators, ensuring consistent communication and timely action for students who are not on track. Data accuracy has been a priority for us through careful review of the CowPad's dropout report. Our registar has ensured that our students are correctly tracked by confirming transfers and clearing up our data. Finally, we engage our families early by meeting with parents of seniors that are not on track during our first quarter conferences,
103building clear graduation plans and strong partnerships. This success reflects in um intentional systems, collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to our students. Thanks. [applause] Lasitas Elementary School increased in English learner progress by 20.2 percentage points with 55.8% of its students making progress. Now, Dr. Pirate will briefly share the instructional practices that support that in contributed to its growth. Good evening, CVUSD board of trustees, Dr. Esparza, executive cabinet and community. I'm Dr. Dr. Marjgerie Pirate, principal at Las Palmitas. And on behalf of my students, teachers, and staff, I'm excited to share with you some of the steps that we have taken and will continue to take to support our English learning students reach high levels of success on their ELPI. Schoolwide, we have identified multiple researchbased strategies that support students English proficiency. These are utilized on a
104daily basis across content areas. They include speaking in complete sentences, providing sentence frames for stu students to use in response for both written and oral language, and integrating various types of language activities into instruction like stating an opinion and giving reasons, extended listening and response, summarizing academic presentations, and structured student discourse. As a school leader, I work to support my students and staff through regular and consistent classroom walkthroughs and guiding data chats around student performance and next steps for instruction. In addition, we have set an ELP goal for our students for this school year and there is a strong focus on EL instruction implementation data in order to consistently improve instructional practices. I'm proud of the work that we have done as a school team and I look forward to celebrating continued success with you
105all. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] >> Um, in closing, these school examples reflect the broader work happening across CVSD. While we still have important work ahead, these results show that focused instructional practices and strong systems are making a difference for our students. Thank you. And at this time, we would like to open up for any questions. Thank you. >> Any questions from the board? Just a comment. Um, want to recognize Dr. Sparsa, her leadership, the cabinet, their leadership, and obviously the work that's being done at the respective schools. I think this is a testament of of a promise that only happens because people are committed to what they do. And again, I just want to commend you all for the work that you've done. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Our community appreciates it. >>
106Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Next we had 6.2 uh but that is going to be moved to February 12th uh meeting. So 6.3 June vigil Coachella Valley Unified School District uh fiscal stabilization plan Good evening, President Tortez, members of the board of trustees, superintendent, community members. This evening, I am pleased to present the 2526 updated fiscal stabilization plan. What happened here? As stated at first interim, the district recommended a qualified certification to continue its commitment to addressing the structural deficit. In order for the district to meet its financial obligations and maintain the required minimum reserve of 3%, an additional $20 million in reductions was included in the financial report. The three options presented this evening continue the district's commitment to making measurable progress towards long-term um financial stability and sustainability. Each studio includes
107additional staffing reviews and realignment totaling 14.7 million in reductions. It also includes the restructuring of the technology department, the consolidation of facilities with maintenance and operations and the reduction of $1 million to the maintenance and operations budget. Additionally, this option eliminates the Latino Commission contract and seven wellness staff positions, redirecting support to county provided services. Option two provides the second greatest level budgetary savings over the next three years with a proposed reduction with a little over 22 million. This option includes additional staff reviews and realignment totaling 11.5 million in reductions. It also includes the restructuring of technology department, the consolidation of uh facilities with maintenance and operations and the $1 million reduction to the M budget. However, this option only reduces the Latino Commission contract by 1 million and continues to provide services through the
108seven wellness um staff that we have in our programs. This option also includes the use of state funded one-time discretionary block grant allocation to offset district costs in the general fund. Option three provides the lease level of budgetary savings over the next three years with a proposed reduction of 17.5 million. This option includes additional staffing reviews, realignment totaling 11.5. Again, it includes the restructuring of technology department, the consolidation of facilities with maintenance and operations, and the $1 million reduction to the maintenance and operations budget. This option only reduces the Latino Commission contract by 1 million and continues to provide services through the use of state approved onetime discretionary block grant allocation to offset district costs in the general fund. The chart before you reflects the summarization comparison of the three options presented tonight along with
109the initial 2425 approved budget stabilization plan. Key differences between the 24 and um between the 24 approved plan and the current plan presented are in the revenue enhancements. As you can see in 2425, we had a large revenue enhancement of 13 point uh $13 million from RDA fund 40. We also had an additional $6 million from our ELO program to offset operational costs. In option two that was presented, you have $4.5 million that was presented as far as the one-time state monies that would offset our general fund expenditures. When evaluating the staff classification percentages with the recommended changes, more than 90% of the district's workforce consists of cert certificated and classified employees while slightly over 5% represents management and confidential positions. We are still with still well within alignment as far as providing um staff
110and classified services to our students. The Riverside County Office of Education requires the district to submit an updated financial fiscal stabilization plan that incorporates the reductions to the district's financials to address the structural deficit. The presented timeline outlines the key activities and milestones. In November, cabinet and the district leadership had discussions around areas of review. In December, the board is presented with a draft plan of discussed areas for consideration. In today's January meeting, the presentation of three revised plans of the areas identified where reductions and right sizing may be necessary. in February, the discussion and approval of a selected plan and and with March step uh and along with approving for the meeting of the March statutory deadlines and in April the implementation of approved stabilization plan will be also presented within the 2627 adopted
111budget. The proposed 2627 state budget includes updated colas, percentages, and one-time allocations for professional development and student um services which will be reflected in our center second interim along with updated ADA and district actuals. A third interim report will also be presented to the district's current to also report on the district's current financial situation. Budget development for 2627 is underway with leadership aligning timelines to their SIPA goals. This process will incorporate board recommendations including those proposed by trustee Jesus Gazales related to the parent community leaison. Additional additionally the superintendent has directed the staff to evaluate how these positions may be restored within the district's financial and staffing capacity. that would in alignment with um our ongoing commitment to our students and also meeting our financial requirements. I would like to begin by thanking educational services
112and human resources for their close partnership, thoughtful collaboration and approach to addressing the long-term financial sustainability. We continue to prioritize student services and the operational continuity. This unified effort strengthens the district's ability to align resources with strategic priorities, responding responsibly to our fiscal challenges and continuing to move the district forward. In closing, I extend my sincere appreciation again to my fiscal management, my fiscal management team for their continued support and dedication to this process. At this time, I would be glad to address like any questions that you might have or provide any clarification. >> Very [clears throat] good questions. >> I I just want to Mr. If I could, President Tortois, I obviously you guys have given us three, you know, taxonomized uh options. I I I just want to remind us that we're we're
113not necessarily needing to pick one of the three that we can based on priority, based on need, based on board opinion, and maybe we can custom one that would best serve uh the responsibility of of being fiscally responsible, right? Doesn't matter what we do. Um cuts are going to come. It's inevitable. That's the condition we have. Uh, I know that the work that you do and bringing this the bearer of bad news, right? It's it's not easy. It's not easy for your staff, but it's it's a responsible thing to do and our community deserves that. So, as hard as it's going to be, I'm hoping that we learn from what got us here and that we're able to, you know, forecast the future just a little bit better and a little more responsibly. But uh
114thank you for the work that you've done and I'm sure the board's going to have a lot of opinion on on projects that they believe are important and what I think is important might not be as important to another board member and we through um the dis will make a decision and vote on it. But thank you for the work. >> Thank you Trusty Gonzalez. >> Thank you Director Gonzalez. Director Auna. >> Yeah. Um couple [clears throat] of questions and then a couple of comments and suggestions. Um, we were talking about I just want to make clear so everybody understands when we're talking about the parent leaison. The parent leaison are currently part of our original budget that we passed for last year. They are in there as part offering the 5 hours 10 months
115provision. They were approved in the board and that's in there. Uh, as Mr. Gonzalez mentioned we did negotiations with the union uh early on and they chose not to proceed it. Uh those are there as were all the other parties that were there as well. So that budget is still technically in the budget. Those people are still in the budget to be brought back whenever you make a whatever. But it is part of the old budget. Now having said that, yes, we've also spent other monies that has affected the old budget and that may incur to that. But technically the board has already voted to allow them to come back at that rate at that for those months. We've already done that in our budget. So now it's a decision about moving forward looking at
116what's left and and that for the recommendations to bring them back. So again, I think most board members would support bringing them back, but is it responsibly fiscally responsible to do so? That's what you guys have to tell us. But again, for all of those who and I have no problem meeting with you, I'll meet with you. Um, when you keep asking me what I can do, we've already done it. The board voted to bring you back at that rate. Nothing has changed as far as I know except for our budget condition. So now that's a revenue issue. Uh, my understanding is so we'll we'll do that accordingly. You'll make recommendations as to why we can or cannot, you know, responsibly bring them back. So that's the first one. Um the second my second one
117is and I did take a strong look at this um and go through everything. Thank you Dr. Sparsa for putting in an Excel sheet. It makes it easier to move things around and actually move the bot the numbers the PDF files are very hard to do that. Um and I actually I'm going to send you a copy of my suggestions as long along with President Tortoise and you guys can distribute it as you see fit. Um I actually believe that we should put all three of them together and put everything in there to consider. Um and also I think we should bring back something you took off which was the um the dual language teacher programs when there was some for secondary and some for elementary. I think we should bring back and consider those
118as well until for me personally until I feel we have an actual program that's going that we can actually fill those classrooms that we have a plan of how that's going to happen. I haven't seen one yet. Uh you know everybody loves the program. I love the program. We few of us here when it started fought to bring that program here uh amongst other people who didn't want to. We fought to do it. So, it is a program close to me, but if the classrooms aren't filled, I can't justify having one teacher for 10 students. That's just that's fiscally irresponsible as well. So, I think that all should be put on for consideration. I think we should take all three, put them all together, put everything in there, and start, you know, seeing what we
119should or should not have. For the most part, they're all tough cuts. Nobody wants to cut, but that's part of our job. Um, that's why now we get the big bucks, right? Um there are three things that I personally would like to restore back into the budget. Uh and for very specific reasons and some of these are financial reasons. Uh but some of them are more community. We just heard about everything that's happening in our community right now. The trauma that our kids are going through our communities and our families. I personally think it's just irresponsible in general cut our wellness teachers. uh that program we cut all our our their support staff last year and we also cut the mentors which again I personally wasn't really happy to do. I wasn't proud that we
120had to do it but I felt at least we had wellness centers since we still had that support there and now to cut that with everything's happening again I think it's just irresponsible. Um I also believe that cutting the Latino commission even a million dollars is irresponsible at this particular point. You know, if people want to get rid of the Latino Commission because they don't want it, put it on the agenda. Vote that you don't like them. Put an RFP out and get somebody else. But those services at this particular point in our community, I think are more than necessary. I'm sorry. There's there's things that are academic, but these are things that it's like the free lunch program. If the kids are hungry, they're not going to learn. If the kids are in trauma,
121teachers aren't going to be able to teach these kids. They they need these. I believe they need these services. So those are two areas that I would restore back. I personally would request or my suggestion is to restore those two back into the budget. um they're on the ag master master one anyway, but I think those are the two for me that I believe we should restore back into the budget because again I I think more than ever I mean we can look at it down the road and see what happens in a few years, 3 years hopefully when we get a new administration but I think for now those services not only to our students but our to our communities and even maybe to our staff are necessary. Um, and then the other one
122that I would do only because I think this is more of a personal one is I would restore the lifeguards. We took a long time to fight to get lifeguards in our schools to provide certain programs to our kids. And just because a coach or someone has a I'm the lifeguard certified person does not make that the lifeguard that's going to oversee the programs. And again, it's a it's a little thing and maybe it's a personal thing to me because we fought so hard to get that and to get the the programs in there. I it it's yes, it's it's an amount of money, but I don't believe it's an amount of money that that will cost us in the long run for these programs to disappear to support the kids and the programs that
123we have. Um, and again, now more of a personal one because we fought hard to get it because that was the problem. The coaches who were certified didn't have time to go sit around and observe the programs for our swing programs for our kids. So, those are the three things that I would personally request to restore back into the budget. And everything else, I think it's on the table. I think we need to look at it. And if you look at the way I broke it out, if you take those three out and you add all the other ones, it's still 20 something like 23 $24 million total. So, it meetes it meets the requirement that you've been talking about, roughly $20 million. Uh, and again, the cuts suck. I'm not going to tell you
124that they aren't. Um, but you know, we have to cut somewhere. And these are the recommendations you made. I'm sure if we look hard enough, we'll swap one site, one person or one program and one department for another. We can go back and forth and do that all day. [clears throat] These are the ones that you basically say we can do while still maintaining our academic structure, our other departments. Uh, and that so be it. Uh but those three for those particular reasons that I believe I believe that we should restore back into the program into the budget. Uh and if looking at the end it still matches what we need to do. So I'll send a copy of that to uh Dr. Sparza and and um President Tortoise and then they can pass it
125on to you so you can see what I did. That's my comments, my suggestions. I just wanted so everybody who's going to start calling me I want you to know where I stand, what my priorities are, what I'm looking at and um you know I you want a communication this is transparency and communication as to what I believe. So thank you with that. That's all my questions. >> Good. Any other question? >> Yes. >> Oh yes. Go ahead respond. >> Can you make the comment on dual language? >> Yes. So um although dual language is not listed within there uh we are still currently um reviewing that program and we do we did look at especially in our high school uh program and so for um the particular dual language we're actually going to be
126moving that to um offering a Spanish class and then collapsing those that particular program within there. >> The only reason they brought up body as it was the original one Yeah. >> And then just to continue to clarify for the secondary, the dual language that we currently offer, it's only at Desert Mirage and it's part of the Quente program and that's the um ethnic studies course. So, the ethnic studies course will continue to be taught, but in this case in English at the middle school level for our dual language, that is where we're going to go ahead um and and instead of the dual language, we will offer Spanish, which will actually allow our students to prepare um when they go into high school, then they can possibly start at the Spanish for honors and
127then progress up after that with to the AP classes. Okay? and then that'll give them um the CLA by literacy. >> I'd also like to add that the reason why it was removed from and everyone didn't see the original one for secondary because they're one period here or two periods there is no savings because it's not a full FTE. >> Yeah. And she realized that it wasn't a savings on it wasn't an actual like whole person all day long. So there was savings because it was just a few periods. >> Yeah, we were reviewing that with HR to ensure um that it would be a full FTE. >> Okay. Yes. Comment. >> That's kind of what my issue was with dual language placed on here to begin with. If we're looking at it for elementary
128school, again, I believe that we're going to lose students to other districts because of that. But assuming that we wouldn't, we still have to house those students somewhere. So if it if it um goes over a class limit, we're still going to have to have a teacher with students. So adding a number to that feels very deceptive because it's not going to be a one forone savings for us. We don't actually know what that savings would be, but we know that we'd be losing proven academics for our students. We are the lighthouse, as you heard throughout this meeting, we are a lighthouse to our community, especially our Spanish- speaking community. So, I know of the things that we would definitely lose if we lost school um in elementary level at any level is what I
129I don't like, but certainly at elementary level. and it'd be an unclear savings and that's what kills me for it. Unclear savings but a lot that we know we would lose. So for me that's something I don't I don't want to touch. Um as far as the others I I hear you. As far um Mr. Akuna about the wellness center. Of course, we don't want to mess with our students during we hear every week um students with times of crisis at every school site. So certainly we don't want to mess with safety nets for our students. Um I understand that we this is a a jumping off point for us and I'm glad to have this information. I do think that we need to get I want to say aggressive but also listen to our
130community listen to what is what they're actually asking for. So the the parent liaison we've heard all school year all last year once it came into effect how much our families want that. So if we can figure that out that is certainly something that it sounds like our community wants that's a value of theirs. So it should be a value of ours. Um yeah, we still have a lot of work to to happen before we have a clear path, but this information is helpful. >> Thank you, Trusty Garcia. >> Yes, I a couple questions and comments. Um I see the timeline. Um and I and even just like last year, it's a fairly tight timeline, right? Um I guess my question is uh around what can we expect in terms of like stakeholder engagement? What's
131the what's the next coming months going to look like? Are we um is I I know in the budget committee we had talked a little bit about that process. Um, so I'm just a little bit curious of, you know, is the board meeting the only place where community members can come and provide their feedback or input or will there be other opportunities to kind of I'm assuming that these conversations are happening across committees across departments I mean everywhere right is that a part >> I did want to add one more thing about the dual language at the elementary level even though yes we would not recognize what the savings might be. It would possibly let us lessen the amount of combos that we currently have. >> So that is one impact that we're studying in
132HR. I I it's it's a separate factor because combos, you know, are are not the ideal. So, um being able to take some of those away might be some option that we want to explore. >> Any comments? >> Uh well, I had more, but I don't know. I was hoping if someone Yeah. No, you're fine. I mean, I don't know if there's any comment, but just a thought. Um um yeah, in terms of stakeholder engagement, I think it is important, right? I think last time it I mean I I think it just created a lot of animosity and I feel like maybe it kind of um led to some of the challenges in terms of even resolving the parently as situation, right? And so I think the more that we're engaging in in conversation, um
133I think that that's important, right? Um the other question I have is around the M budget. Um I did ask this question. Um I just like to understand or maybe commun for us to communicate to the community like what that looks like. Um because it just kind of notes it as a cut to the budget itself. Um and then the other question I had um yeah so th those are the two main questions. The other ones are comments. I don't know. >> Okay. So when you talked about your stake um the question of stakeholder engagement. So this plan has to be presented to the board in open session prior to any additional um input provided in the budget advisory committee. So we can discuss that further and present that at our next committee meeting. In
134addition, when you talked about the M budget, so the cut to the M budget, we actually when we reviewed that budget statutoily, we're actually above and beyond what we need to supply it minimumly. In addition, when I looked at the past trends as far as expenditures, uh, we were well within making the cut to the services that are listed within that budget. Um, and the last two comments I I have, um, I'm also not in support of just fully cutting our mental health services. You know, that includes our contract and our teachers in our me our wellness centers. Um, I think with everything happening in our community, it just is not, in my opinion, I think it's a critical service um to support for our students. Um, and the last comment, right, uh, I feel
135like the last several months there's been um, comments around our attendance, right? Um, that that is a cost that it's incurred on our district, right? Um, so I think one thing for me, I've been trying to think about, okay, what areas of maybe inefficiency areas that we could improve on, right? Um I mean the attendance the cost of like our our attendance right um it's it's a a huge loss significant loss and so I'm wondering how we can work to improve some of those inefficiencies that longer term could could help us um financially right um I think if we continue with that culture uh you know two three years from now we're probably going to see this I mean we're continuing that path right and so I'd hate to see us continue every year to
136have conversations about cuts and cuts and cuts when maybe the issue is about addressing some of those inefficiencies within our district. >> So, um to address that last question that you had in regards to our attendance, our ED services and our student services team actually have a number of staff members that work with those students to address the chronic absenteeism. As you could see a part of our dashboard, they actually had started to bring up some of those numbers, but they are specifically targeting the students that have those deficiencies to bring them up to see what is the bridge that they can provide to bring them into school. >> I think our student ADA is one thing, but it's also staffing. So like if there like we still have there's that cost of substitutes is
137a cost of you know, so I think like that's also like thinking about it that way as well. But yeah, thank you. >> Right now at every school site is does every school site have their own attendance clerk or are they shared among more than one site? >> So it depends on the site um size and if it's less than the 600 then they share an attendance clerk. Greater than has a single attendance clerk. You see that's something that for me kind of stands out as that is the way we capture the numbers for our revenue. We want that those numbers to be as accurate as possible. I know that was what was highlighted in the past for us was that um maybe our practices weren't up todate enough to capture um at the secondary
138level um accurate what we're allowed to capture. Um so all of those things that is something that for me if we're not capturing that then we're not capturing revenue. Um so maybe looking at that as something to make sure that we can have I know I've heard from principles that it's something that they struggle with um when their attendance clerk isn't there. They have to fill that gap. So that along the lines of what Trusty Vargas is saying, efficiencies to capture revenue wherever we can. >> Any other comments, questions? >> I have a couple comments. Um, you know, I I definitely when I came on the board love the idea of the centers, right? But when you have wellness centers that are not staffed, then then I become concerned because I don't think people realize
139that there's there's one teacher in there when we used to have three to four people in the wellness center, right? Latino commission is not in the wellness center. So regardless of what people think, therapists, thank you for the work that you're doing, but you're they're not in the wellness center. So for me it's more like okay what do we need to add to our wellness centers to have properly staffed wellness centers that's that's one of my concerns right um the other thing is or providing mental health services you know during this time we have our ELP program um when I attended California schoolboard association uh I attended other presentations where ELP was mental health was imple implement it in after school. We're not implementing after school or just have it during school, right? So, you
140know, and I know that there's board members that feel they know everything about LOP and that's fine, but there's a lot of opportunities to use the LOP money, especially when we're at a deficit. How do we get creative? Right? I'm not saying that we move everything to after school, but I'm saying our kids in after school, it's the perfect time to work with them, especially if they're having mental health issues, right? So, I don't disagree that I'm not saying that we have to um do away with the Latino Commission. I'm saying services should be provided after school. Um and and it's it's it's a opportunity. And then you have um other opportunities that we can look at, right? Where services could be provided uh well in our beyond the belt program, right? There's districts throughout
141California that I could name that are doing a lot of great things to to try to uh go through this because many of them have declining enrollment like we do. When decline enrollment happens, you have to get creative with the budget that you have, but not by not using the budget because you know you just want to keep it. It's the dislong to any one department. We use it as a strategy to best serve our students. That is it. And so that is my opinion. So my thing is, yeah, I don't want to get rid of mental health. Yeah, I don't want to get rid of the water centers, but how are we providing the best service possible, right? And we heard today from our Wana centers teachers that they're utilizing. Definitely happy that that's
142happening. So hopefully there's a way to still support some of these services in addition to Thank you, Mr. President. >> Thank you, Trust. Go ahead. Real quick, just if you didn't know, I was the one he's talking about that knows everything about the LOP. You can say my name. It's okay. I'm a big boy. Uh the issue I have and that's a very nice speech, but when the wellness teachers need to refer them to services, who exactly are they going to be referring them to? That's the whole part of the combination of how it all works together. That's how it's been working since we started this. As as was noted, we're the first ones to do this. Back in the day before COVID started, we were doing this program because we saw the the immigration
143stuff that was happening back then and the things. So again, we can, you know, the after school program. Fine, do it in the after school program. Who's actually going to do the mental health services to them? You can hire another teacher just like the wellness center. You're just going to extend the day to them. Again, who do they refer them to? We need those professionals. And again, if you don't like the Latino Commission, vote that you want to get rid of them. This will be their last contract and put out an RFP and see who else could come. It's about the services. Latino community, the Latino Commission has provided those communities for us. But again, if members of this board or member of the staff don't want them, so be [cough] it. Vote on it.
144Put it on the agenda. Do an RFP in the morning and get whenever and get another person, but let the Latino know that their services are no longer needed. Don't try to hide it behind, oh, we have budget issues, so this is what we're going to do. Again, we need the referral services of our community. that that's what that's how it all works. It's a whole process. And again, the people that we took out last year, I again, I hated doing it. But we had a balance. As long as we had the Latino Commission and the wellness, I figured that they had an opportunity. But now we're going to start cutting more legs off of this stool. Again, I personally don't agree with it. The rest of the board can work the way they want.
145But again, those that referral service is what's important because those teachers can't sit there. That's not partly that's not always their job. The teachers are not the therapists. They're not the they have certain skills and things that they do, but their job is also to refer those services to someone for our community. And that may happen later on. Uh again, you want a different group, get a different group. But it's those services that we need to maintain. And that $4.5 million, and yeah, it's a lot of money. That $4.5 million has been able to do that. And remember, we've already cut that in half from the services we had before. we've already done that and I also agreed to those that cut because that was the money from the what was it the ESER funds
146that we got that was part of that and I said anything that came after that fact yes we we need to cut because we don't have that money but again those services are so important for our community the teachers the wellness teachers they do a great job I've been to lots of the centers I've talked to they they do a great job but they can't handle all of our school district they need the opportunity to refer these to services and professionals that we may have out there. At current, that's the Latino Commission. If you want to change the name of the person doing the services, so be it. But, um, don't do a back door and try to use the the budget thing to get rid of a group that you don't like. Let's go
147find the services somewhere else. That's fine with me. >> Thank you, Trusty Akuna. >> Yeah. >> Um, if I could just clarify that I'm not I I never said get rid of the new commission. What I said is move the services to after school because I believe that our kids all I said was that they don't live in the wellness centers and that's my concern. If they lived in the wellness centers then yes you have a you have a a a referral system but currently you have a referral system where they call our our support services and that's how they you don't have them in the center at the time of the services. But what I'm what I'm suggesting my suggestion one board member is to consider right our afterchool program and the services that
148they could provide there. I never uh for the record want to say that uh I want to get rid of mental health services. I want to make sure they're after school too. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. I just wanted to say I don't know if we've ever looked into having in-house services cuz that I imagine that would be much more cost effective to have three I know I'm just throwing the number out there three school psychologists in house in our district that could be assigned to our our secondary or however we want to do it that would I'd imagine be much more cost effective and we would know exactly how our services are being rolled doubt the billing all of these things would be very clear to us. Um I would like that
149to be something that would is looked at in as an as an alternative. We need to get creative with what we're doing. We want to make sure that we have services for our students. I don't know if I've ever heard us ever look into it. [cough] I would like to see if that is something that would be creative and and in house. >> Thank you, Trusty Garcia. >> Any other comments? Yes, student trustee. >> Um, [clears throat] listen to what everyone here has to say and I can just I can't help but think about the needs of students. I know that we all have our opinions and we all that the budget is a big part of our school district obviously, but students do need these resources. I believe me as myself who has used
150these health services, it's really like a safety net that we have. I mean, we're going through these big changes in life and we're getting ready to face the big world and we're going through all these emotions. Obviously, most of your kids, if you know, have a lot of dramatic emotions that we don't know how to deal with yet. So having an older mentor is really useful and it's really it feels like you the district cares about us when they're listening to us and when they're helping us with these kinds of things. So I think that we should take into consideration keeping this program as it is useful across the board or across our students. >> Thank you. >> Any comments? and director calman >> just very quickly um it's been very useful for me as
151the newbie here to listen to the community input to in listen to what all of you trustees have been saying because and I actually love your idea of of putting it all in one spreadsheet and then just you know that's a great idea so so thank you for all the input that that we've gotten it's I know it's going to help me make better decisions. Thank you. >> Very good. Director, one last thing. I I I like your suggestion. Let's uh look at it in house, but make sure you do it hour for hour, person by person, all the actual services and what it would actually cost. And I can guarantee you it's going to be a lot more than what we had a Latino commission for those services because we've done this before. We've
152had them before in our district. And they are a cost. That's just the reality of it. Now, if you don't like contracting out and you're willing to pay all the money, then that's another decision that you have to make. But I can pretty much guarantee you that the cost is going to be a lot more than it to do it in-house than it will be doing to contracting. And we have that issue all the time. We've had that issue talked about that issue with transportation. Would it be cheaper? Yes. Are is the benefits outweigh the the savings? Eh, that's that's where I think the rubber meets the road on that particular issue that that keeps me leaning to do it. in house even though I think we need to do a better job but it's
153just the the nature of in-house brewing contracting is contracting will always be cheaper for a variety of reasons but I would encourage you to do that so we can show the community what the cost would be one way or the other >> very good any other comments good >> no >> all right thank you thank you very much >> all right we're on to next Yes. Good. Okay. All right. Thank you, student trustee. Very good. >> We're on to action item 7.1. So, Coralo Sanchez requesting approval of agreement between Coachella Valley School District and El Po Hotel LLC doing business as hotel hotel pork work related work-based learning program. So move. >> A second. >> Motion by uh director, seconded by director Vargas. >> Roll call vote, please. >> President Tortez, >> yes. >> Vice
154President Garcia, >> Ardondo, I. >> Trustee Akuna. Hi. >> Trustee Kimmanes. I. >> Trustee Gonzalez. you stuck out. >> Trustee Vargas. >> Yes. >> And student trustee also. Thank you. >> All right. The motion is carried. Thank you. Um item 7.2, 2. Sakoro Sanchez requesting approval of agreement number IN20431 with Riverside County Superintendent of Schools for the reduction of CTE and entrepreneurship pathway extra service hours for the 2025 uh 26 school year. Do we have a motion? >> So move. >> Motion by director Ardano. We have second. >> I'll second. >> Second by director Vargas. Roll call vote, please. President Tortez. >> Hi. >> Vice President Garcia. >> I. >> Clerk Ardondo. >> I. >> Trusty Akuna. >> Trustee Kman. >> I. >> Trusty Vargas. >> I. >> Motion carries. Very good. Uh, agenda item
1557.3. Soral Sanchez requesting approval of resolution number 2026-24. for authorization to join education technology joint powers authority. Do we have a motion? >> So move. >> Motion by director Ardondo. We have a second. >> Second by director Kamanis. A roll call vote please. >> President Tortez. >> Hi. >> Vice President Garcia. I. >> Clerk Ardondo. I. >> Trusty Akuna. Hi. >> Trustee Kimmanes. Hi. >> Trusty Vargas. >> Yes. The motion is carried. Thank you. On to I action item 8.1. Julie Migel, authorization to solicit statement of qualifications for uh from firms for architectural planning and design services. I have a motion. >> A motion. >> I'll second. >> Motion by director of artists, seconded by director, and grant a roll call vote, please. President Tortez. >> Hi. >> Vice President Garcia. >> I. >> Clerk
156Ardondo. >> Hi. >> Trustee Akuna. >> Hi. >> Trustee Kalimmanis. >> I. >> Trusty Vargas. >> Yes. >> The motion carries. Thank you. Action item 8.2 2 Julie Vigil consideration for adoption of resolution number 2026-25 approving the annual and 5-year reportable fees report for fiscal year in compliance with government code section 66006 and 66001. So we get a motion. So move. >> I'll second. >> Motion by director Idano, seconded by Director Vargas. And we get a roll call. >> President Tortez. >> I. >> Vice President Garcia. >> I. >> Clerk Ardodondo. >> I. >> Trustee Agua. >> Trustee Kalimanes. >> I. >> Trustee Vargas. >> Yes. >> The motion carries. Action item 8.3. Julividual approval of agreement with informed K12. >> Can you make a comment? >> I have a comment. >> Yes. Comment. >>
157So, I just wanted to say that uh we've been using informed K12 at read with me and uh we really like it. >> So, I just wanted to mention that. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> Yes. Uh I actually had a question. Um I think we have we also use laser fish. Do we consider laser fish for forms? Um or is there something specific about It sounds like it's you like the platform, but just wondering if we are able to use something that we already pay for or would it be an additional cost or so? Laserfish is a document retention program and the other program that you're possibly thinking of is school stream which then has the approval flow. However, um informed K12 is a step above that. And so at the end of
158this fiscal year, we'll actually um end the contract with school stream. And what we're paying for right now is going to be the implementation and then some. We'll be able to actually put more documents and create better routing. >> Okay. >> And move away from paper. >> Okay. Yeah. We at my employer, we use it for both forms. Um, and it does do the workflow for approvals and we also use it at a repository. So, I was curious if that was a possibility, but thank you. >> All right. Any other discussion? >> All right. Do we get a motion on 8.3? >> So, move. >> Uh, motion by director. Do we have a second? >> Second by director Kamades. Uh, roll call vote, please. >> President Tortez. I. >> Vice President Garcia. I. >> Clerk
159Ardodondo. I >> trusty Auna. >> Hi, >> Trusty Calimmanes. >> I >> trusty Vargas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. Action item 8.4. Julie Vidual. Approval of State of California Governor's Office of Emergency Services designation of applicants agent resolution non-state agencies. Can we get a motion? >> So move. >> Motion by uh director Aridondo. I'll >> second. Second by director Vargas. Roll call vote, please. >> President Tortez, >> I. >> Vice President Garcia, >> I. >> Clerk Ardodondo, >> I. >> Trusty Auna. >> Trustee Kalimmanes. >> I. >> Trusty Vargas. >> Yes. >> The motion carries. Action item 9.1. Dr. Monica Mechowitz. Approval of a revised job description for a senior executive assistant to the superintendent. Can we get a motion? comment. >> Yes. >> So, so my comment probably is too basic, but I didn't
160see in there some of the tools to use like um and maybe I just missed it like Excel or something that we get somebody who already has tools that are really important to the job that they already know it or you know. So that that was just a comment I was going to make that is how important is that to add so that we make sure that the person can really work effectively with with uh us. >> All right. No noted. Uh any other comments? Are you looking for a response or you're just putting it in there? All right. Any other comments? Do you want to respond? >> They're part of an exam. through an exam. Sorry. >> Oh, good. Thank you. >> All right. So, that's action item 9.1. Any other comments? Not. Can
161we get a motion? >> So moved. >> Motion by director Kamanis. Do we have a second? No second. Huh? 9.1. Yes. With no second, the motion will die. There's no second. >> There's no second. >> Oh, >> there's no second. The motion will die. >> I'll second. >> Second by director Vargas. Can we get a roll call vote? >> President Tortez. >> I. >> Vice President Garcia. >> Nay. >> Clerk Ardondo. >> No. >> Trustee Akuna. >> No. >> Trustee Calimmanes. >> Yes. Trusty Vargas. Next month's meeting. Okay. Next agenda item is 10.1 approval of consent calendar with items as submitted. We have a motion. >> I motion second by director Kamanz. >> I'll second and if and with anybody wanting to pull anything. >> Seconded by director Ardondo. Are there any items to pull?
162>> All right. Can we get a roll call vote? >> President Tortez. >> Hi. >> Vice President Garcia. >> I. >> Clerk Ardodondo. >> Hi. >> Trustee Akuna. >> Trustee Kimmanes. >> I. >> Trusty Vargas. >> I. >> Motion carries. Thank you. Um, next is the adjournment. Is it motion? >> So move. >> Second. Motion by director Aando, second by director Vargas. Roll call vote. >> President Tortez. >> Hi. >> Vice President Garcia. >> Hi. >> Clerk Ardodondo. >> Clerk [clears throat] Ardondo. >> Hi. >> Trustee Akuna. >> Trustee Kalimmanes. >> I. >> Trusty Vargas. >> I. >> Very good. Uh motion carries. uh meeting is adjourned at 10:24.