001Live recorded, the recording of the webcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. At this time, I would like to remind everyone of the procedures for public participation in tonight's meeting. Members of the public are encouraged to attend and address the board on any agenda item or topic within the board's jurisdiction. Public comments will be allowed a maximum of 5 minutes per speaker with a total of 20 minutes allocated for each item. If necessary, the president may adjust these time limits to ensure everyone has an opportunity to speak. If a translator is used. Speaker request forms are available at the entrance of the board room and can be handed to Ms. Gonzales prior to the public comment. Regarding complaints, if a concern is raised about an employee, the complainant may be must
002will be informed of the appropriate complaint procedure. The first step is for the complainant to submit the concern in writing to the district office, after which the district will begin the investigation process to address the issue fairly and promptly. Complaints involving child abuse or unlawful discrimination will be handled in accordance with specific legal protocols. Please note that any documents handed to the board during the meeting are subject to public records request in accordance with the California Public Records Act. The board will prohibit retaliation against complainants and all complaints will be investigated promptly and thoroughly. Please be respectful of any due process. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated and may result in removal of the meeting. Thank you all for your cooperation and can you please all stand for the pledge of allegiance. Ready, salute. I
003pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. That's good. Indeed. Do I have a motion to adopt the board's meeting agenda for today, March 25th, 2026? Second. Roll call. Patty? I. Sammy? I. Sandra? I. Valerie? I. The poll I. Presentations. I am pleased to welcome Brent the college to the Sequoia's. He will be giving us a presentation tonight. Thank you. Thank you so much. Dr. Fernandez, uh board members, thank you for having me. I I think it was last spring that I missed. My apologies. In between, uh Superintendent Cena and I, maybe we were both without assistance for there a month or two, and it was like you have to try to figure
004out how to feed ourselves. We couldn't figure it out. Um so, I've got uh this presentation. Oh, you got to print them out for me? Yeah, fabulous. Uh you guys recognize our board members. Uh Raymond Macareno is our board president, John Lane, vice president, Ken Nuñez our board clerk, and then Connie Diaz, um and Greg Sherman, uh our two final trustees. Although, Greg Sherman's last meeting was in March, and uh uh Bob Aguilar from uh the city of Visalia, Ward 1, um has been given a provisional appointment um until November. Then, many of you may know um Mr. Aguilar, he was uh he's a practicing attorney, but he's also the principal of Golden West High School. And so, he's going to jump in and help us out for 6 months or so until the uh
005the November elections. So, um good news. Uh this spring, I'll go through a couple of just kind of COS in general updates, and then we'll get right to the the data that uh we're all interested in in seeing, but um as I know the high school went through their WASC accreditation visit today. Uh back in September, we went through the second half. First half is remote and the second half is in person. We went through the second half of our accreditation site visit. Um and uh we were fortunate enough to be given a a full clean bill of health and given 8 years um on our accreditation. So, we're really really excited about that. Um uh we got seven 7 years in in 2018. So, we're on a nice run of of accreditation success. Uh
006we were also named uh the number one return on investment for community colleges uh in the greater San Joaquin Valley and that ranked us number six uh uh statewide. They just look at the cost of attendance, um tuition, books, et cetera, and then they compare it with the uh salaries that that that our students um receive uh their first like 3 years 3 years post post graduate. So, we ranked really high in the state. So, that was good news. Uh you're familiar with Measure C? Uh students from Kings and and Tulare County can now um access uh Fresno State in a far greater capacity. Well, they will be able to in the fall of 2028. We currently offer four bachelor's and a couple of master's degrees through Fresno State on our campus. The programs are
007in a package because of lack of space. So, we've invested about $12 million and then the the residents of Ward 1 uh passed Measure C um $95 million to fund this amazing uh university center that that will house Fresno State and maybe a couple other universities well. Uh here's a shot from Mooney and Tulare, just about the busiest intersection in Tulare County. Go ahead. That's from from different views. It's going to be a gorgeous gorgeous facility about 50 51,000 square feet. Uh 15 or 16 classrooms and or um university lab spaces as well as a uh 250 to 300 seat um lecture hall um and performing arts and center. It should be nice. These are all renderings, but um as you'll recall from our previous construction projects, these renderings that that architects do anymore, they
008come pretty close to what you end up getting. So, excited about that job and then with that project and then just catty-corner from the University Center will be our Student Union. Uh this is this will house uh four restaurants with a centralized kitchen, our bookstore um um on the downstairs level and then upstairs there'll be four student support programs, veterans, student success, uh EOPS, and uh student activities and affairs. I may have said this in in years past, but our our food service is the number one revenue generator per day in Tulare County. Uh about $22,000 on average. I think Texas Roadhouse is the newest restaurant by selling and they're number two at 18 or 19,000. So, we serve a lot of meals to a lot of students and and uh and this will really
009help. This will also uh be open for the fall of 2028 semester. This is the Educational Sports Services Building been open now for a couple of years. I threw it in there just as a reference point because this was still in the same quadrant as the University Center and the Student Union. Um if someone were just walk onto that quadrant of campus, and they'll feel like they're on a university campus. And they kind of feel like that anyway, but the Visalia campus is just uh really, really nice along with our Hanford and Tulare campuses. But these three buildings will will be as nice as any three buildings in in the state of California at any level, UC, CSU, or community college. This is our uh applied technology and trades complex in Tulare, 71,000 sq ft
010that houses uh 12 or 13 of our career and technical education programs. You see several of them listed there, automotive, construction, HVAC, industrial technology, industrial maintenance, electrical training, robotics, mechanized diag and allied technology. And it it's uh you see it's it's almost like a horseshoe. To the right there, the the the right leg of the horseshoe is our existing welding facility, and then we just completed um the front that you see and then then down the left-hand side. It's a combination of of shop and classroom space where instructors can can be teaching in a shop-like or excuse me, a classroom-like environment. Um and then if they if they're losing the students, they can walk 20 ft back and and actually look at an engine or look at a piece of machinery or or what have
011you, kind of uh volley back and forth uh throughout the class period. So, we've been over there for about uh three semesters, finishing our third semester. It's it's just a really special place. Just uh you know, unlike maybe a lot of community colleges, we're doubling down on the trades. We feel like that uh university and transfer um is appropriate for lots of students, but not all students. And uh the the these programs kind of bear that out. They are packed to the gills with students that want to want to get in and out of the trades and get a get a job in in in in their career. And then finally, uh many of you have have been out to our new stadium. We just completed our third uh season of football as well as
012our third season of men and women's soccer on on this turf. About three It seats about 3,000 people. We've got a huge scoreboard there on the right where we can play all of our COS propaganda and so forth. It's just a nice opportunity for us to have community members come to the college for a football game and leave understanding a lot more about our programs and kind of what we do to support students. I think that's the final one. Okay. Now, the reason we all got dressed up here. Okay. Uh share a little bit of data regarding our students that we we share at this point. Um we click through. This first the slide just kind of shows our student count. You see we're at a high watermark, 439 um corporate students either previous or
013current. Um because about half of that, looking down the the the the right-hand side down at the bottom, 251 either dual-enrolled or they're currently enrolled high school students. Man, what an opportunity that is for those students to get a nice relatively slow uh long on-ramp into higher ed. We just think it's fabulous that they're taking advantage of of that. Uh the next slide is is something that we track and maybe not quite as interesting to other folks, but we track how many first-time students are are enrolling first time because we feel like that's a huge thing. We can convince students uh to enroll first time, they're going to be that much more likely to succeed. It's one of the as many co-curricular opportunities on our campus in terms of the arts or athletics. It's It's
014reason that we offer as many on-campus jobs as we do or the financial aid packages that we have because we want students to be able to to to either enroll full-time or be close to full-time. Because the sooner the sooner you're out, the less likely life has a chance to change your change your plans for you, right? So, the sooner you can get in and out and get on to the university or get on to your career, the better off you're going to be. But, at the bottom of that page, you see the various majors that Corpus students have have applied to, enrolled in. Liberal Arts, Health Science, as well as Associate Degree for Transfer, and Business Administration being the the top two, followed closely down there by Elementary School Teaching ADT, Associate Degree for
015Transfer. There's another one that we track pretty closely and and Corpus is doing a nice job preparing for the English placements. 83% of your first-time students this past fall placed into transfer level English. They don't have to take the the one-unit support class for English. They're They're welcome to. Um the English class itself is is is four units and and that support class, it just gives them that extra time with with the instructor um each week to kind of go over the lessons and so forth, but um 83% of your students placed into transfer level English without requiring the the the support. That's a nice nice number and a rebound from the last uh couple of falls when we were down in the in the high to mid 70s. And then, if you look down
016uh with the disaggregated as well and and no major no major uh uh achievement gaps. Uh uh uh in in in this in this regard. Uh the next slide is course success, and you see that uh Corcoran students have held steady at 82%. This is all students from from Corcoran uh taking our classes, and and 82% of all of those enrollments were successful. That's pretty damn good. I give these uh these reports you know a couple times a week, and and they really doesn't get me higher than than the low 80s. And that's fabulous. Uh and then if you look if you look uh one of the things always consistent is in the orange there the females are always a little bit better than the males. So, I know. See, Teresa said, "Of course." Uh
017and then again major achievement gaps uh down there at at at the bottom uh as well. And then finally, my final slide is kind of a big one. All of this stuff is great, but where where is it leading to? And you see that we had an all-time high uh with with uh graduates. Uh that's that's uh degree completers, 56. That's awesome in one year. And then we had an all-time high for students completing certificates. Uh 90 or degree and certificate is the 96 awards. So, you've got uh both graduates with degrees and certificates completers in that 96 number. And then if you if you just kind of scroll down uh the left-hand side, you see what those awards were were were in. Uh you know, various degrees and certificates. A nice a nice wide
018of uh successful students uh All in all uh in my opinion we we claim bill of health for for Copper Hills School and uh just more evidence that they're doing a wonderful job out here. I just want to say we appreciate the partnership we enjoy uh with Assemblywoman Medina as well as uh faculty and staff at the high school and uh just appreciate the partnership with them. Questions I can answer for you? Can you tell me the differences between the AS and the AST? The the AS is uh Associate of of Science is kind of like maybe what most of us were accustomed to. Uh the AST is specifically designed for uh transfer. It's Associate of Science for transfer. Not that you can't transfer with a with an AS still. You can, but the CSU
019put the the T on the end for transfer is they tweaked a few little things to to guarantee the uh the the transfer to CSU. So, if you complete uh that that degree with a certain GPA, they kind of move the goal posts sometimes with what GPA they require. But, uh uh nevertheless they they they will guarantee admission into one of their uh CSUs. For us normally Fresno State. So, if you wanted to go to Cal Poly or San Diego State or something like that, you may have to uh apply kind of separately for that. They wouldn't guarantee you admission into uh the CSU of your choice necessarily, but most of our students pick Fresno State anyway, so it's a neat deal. Yeah. Neat deal. Thank you for letting me speak to you this afternoon.
020Thank you. I appreciate you. It's a great business to be in, isn't it? It is. Great business to be in. I think we might have a quick video. Unless is that a PDF or is that a Uh If it's a PDF, it won't play and that's that's fine. I don't So we're we're celebrating 100 years, so we found some old some old video of the building of our wooden giant out front. President has kindly accepted the old beginning to be played here in Virginia. This special edition of our college bell. Here is where a sculptor lives. Weeks ago, he went high into the mountains to select his piece of wood. From this wood, a giant will be carved. A giant will be carved. First comes ideas. A model is made. Then cutting away the material
021he didn't need. Then more planning. Cutting away. Different tools for different tasks. But tools. Great joy in the thought of your connections and your accomplishments and most importantly our proud 100 year achievements and your potential and We are deeply honored to have shared a part of your lives. We're grateful for the part you have played in the life of this very special project. You are a giant A material found in this countryside carves and plays to reflect the spirit of the people who live here. This year the college has soared to new heights. over 3,600 degrees and certificates, the most ever in any one single year. Congratulations to all of our students. Right now, it's our time to go out and find the rest of our story. We are giants. Let us live like giants.
022Achieving form, textures, grace, meaning, meeting. It's good to live and work in such a place, such a place. Thank you for coming today. This year is going to be great. And uh look forward to seeing you again real soon. Thank you very much. Thank you so much, Dr. Gilman. Appreciate it. Thank you, guys. Okay. Now, um the middle and high school report to you to stand. We don't have the middle uh percent today due to the track invitational. It looks amazing. There's so many people out there. So, CHS, please Jade and Jason. Um hi, everyone. Good evening. Uh we are excited to share some updates from Corcoran High School. Our spring sports teams have had a fantastic start. The softball team is currently 10 and 1 and the baseball team is 8 and 3. Additionally,
023our first ever stunt team earned their first victory over Riverdale. Track is in full swing with league meets happening after spring break and tennis and swim are both in the middle of league league play showing strong effort from our student athletes. Our students are also making positive impact in the community for Dr. Seuss week. Reading Across America, CHS ELD students recently visited Bret Harte and read to the elementary students. A and B and track students assisted John Muir Middle School with their track meet invitational today and CHS students have volunteered on the weekends with our local youth baseball program. Lastly, FFA attended their annual FFA State Convention in Ontario. This Friday, Uh this Friday, we are looking forward to career day. Guest presenters will provide insight into a variety of careers and showcase opportunities for
024life after high school. Finally, we continue to see our success with our positive behavior initiatives. Today as our incentive as our incentive for students thriving in a safe and respectful environment, we are able to provide an extended lunch with a food vendor food Sorry, food vendor offering churros for our students to enjoy. Thank you for your continued support to our students, program, and the Crockett High School community. Thank you. Do we have um Crockett Faculty Association? No. Okay. Um California School Employees Association? Neither. Okay. Oh, I skipped us. Sorry. Chloe, Superintendent report, please. Sorry about that. Not at all. Give it a short, so I just wanted just good evening board president Cisneros, members of the board, staff and community that are here. Just again, grateful for our partnership with Dr. Calvin and COS as
025you see. What I wanted to mention too is that not only is it supporting our students at Del Oro Grande, but also our students overall in the community. Former students as well as our adult ed students. So they they also provide support that way as well. So we're very thankful for them. Our high school just went through their WAS today. So we actually sat down and I know that we'll probably get a very good report. And one of the things I know was still Principal Larkin's thunder cuz you know that you'll come back and and share that with you. But the individual had come 3 years ago, I believe, and walked and then 3 years today. And one comment that she stated was that she has seen a transformation, very positive transformation from the last
026time she was here till now. So there's more to come through that report, but I want to thank Principal Larkin and his team because it's really they're they're working day in and day out. And the students cuz they've been doing an amazing job of just holding each other accountable, right? And then besides that we had our math uh academies over the over starting on Saturday. So our second cohort. So now it's it's a junior high and high school. And so we had 56 show up on Saturday. We had some of our tied up in the chess tournament that was over here and some other things going on, but they're committing to being there this coming Saturday. So we hope that that number goes up a little bit. But those students are there to accelerate. So
027we have the opportunity for students to gain credit in math one and math two. So then when they're seniors they can be taking a class at COS and and then complete. So we know the research shows that if a student completes a a college course before they leave high school, the likelihood of getting a four-year degree is a lot stronger. If they complete their their sixth grade math, it guarantees that they're going to graduate. And if they complete their math one, their ninth grade math, it's like a 74% chance that they're going to complete their bachelor's. So, that's why it's so important, right? So, all those things are important. That's why we're really focused on math. We're priority number two. And so, thank you so much for your investment in that. I just want to
028thank all the staff and that are kind of trudging through the last couple days cuz spring break's coming up. So, know that that's happening here in the office. It'll be minimum folks. So, we'll we're going to have a doorbell there. So, then if somebody needs to come in because it's it's, you know, spring break's a lot of people take time off there. And then we had the invitational for track happening right now. So, if there's a lot of folks out that way, too. So, thank you again. Hope everybody has a spring a great spring break and just gets some rest. Okay? And I yield my time. Thank you. Okay, board of trustees report. Just just to pick back on the transformation of the high school. I think Mr. Barton and I discussed it all through,
029but there is a huge transformation there. And I again a lot of things Mr. Barton brought up. Thank you. Thank you. I had the pleasure to enjoy some of the games yesterday's. I got to see the JV's, both girls and boys, and the same thing for the the staff varsity. And it was just great fun. JV, how they came up on the last play time. I don't know what you call it. It's not a whole game, but zero to to five and they just came up six. So, that's that's a lot of fun. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. I also wanted to uh I say that Miss Amanda Diaz is doing an amazing job with the exit exams. I I love when she contacts me and I'm always willing to help with that, but
030um seen a a great growth in our students in the way they response and and they're more in a professional manner and they seem to hit every note on there. They have plenty of time to study and they're doing an excellent job. So, I wanted to give kudos to you, of course, Amanda Diaz on that. And then I've attended a couple of high school swim events. Miss Cruz does also a really good job on in combining these events so they go a little faster and she does really good and I I also think that the swim team has been doing amazing and I I love seeing when they combine the boys and girls and our girls can beat the boys from the other team. It's just like, yeah. So, good job to the high school
031and all their athletics. Okay, do we have public comments? Who wants to call this one? Okay. We'll jump into the action items. Consent agenda? Okay. I'll second. Roll call. Patty? I. Sammy? I. Sandra? I. Valerie? I. And I. Business. Consider the approval of Lightspeed purchase agreement. Do we have a motion for that? Oh, no one's going to speak on it? What is it? Mr. Patterson, can you speak on it? Good evening, board. Uh so, Lightspeed is a program that will keep work with the Chromebooks to filter and also monitor our students' activities. So, right now we have different software for our filtering and different software for monitoring and then different software for management. And we pay about 60,000 a year for all those different softwares. So, Lightspeed will kind of bundle it all together and
032this three year is 35 a year for all the services and what So that's why I'm recommending we give them a blessing. No more saving money. Yes, I'll make a motion to approve. It's better when you bundle, right? >> Yeah. Roll call, Patty. I. Sammy. I. Sandra. I. Valerie. I. And I. Consider the agreement of sand cleaning services. Who's speaking on this? I. Yes, it'll be So this sand cleaning services an agreement for we had sand cleaning maybe about a month ago with the same company to sample around the where the new kitchen building is going to be set for Kings Lake. So this is to continue sampling but around the building where the grounds department just to just to ensure that there is nothing in the soil or anything like that. So that is
033just this that's where the sample is for this agreement. Do I have a motion to approve? I motion to approve. Who's seconding? I second. Sure. When how long is the sand cleaning that you're going to take? Um ours right now once we if this is approved I have to make arrangements with the company and then probably take a couple days and then they're done. Will that allow us to move forward or not allow us to move forward with whatever plan we have up here is that Correct. It's just to ensure that there is nothing in the soil just for us to ensure like okay we can move forward with whatever plans we have for our future. So Look great. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, we had Valerie motion. Do I have a second?
034I'll second. You. Roll call, Patty. I. Sammy. >> I. Sandra. I. Valerie. I. And I. You. I have You have the nice flight. Have a nice night. It's an agreement of architectural services and replacements at Bret Harte um Elementary. Uh this one remains for architectural services for H-vac replacement at Bret Harte. Currently, we have 17 units that are surpassed their age. They're from 1999, so they're actually sort of I mean, we're in the last leg, so this agreement will help us for architecture to send plans to DSA and then one out for the replacements, so. And And these replacements are going to be done like uh not all at once, right? >> So uh Spread out? That's a good question. I Fortunately, I won't be able to answer that right now until we get this
035agreement, get the plans uh to DSA for them to approve. Once the plans are approved, then we can actually get uh companies to bid on the job and then from there we'll have our bids get I mean, a a schedule for for the installation and whatnot. So, there's still some planning to do after this. But I I can give you an update once we move forward with this if we move forward. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for the motion, please. Regine? I'll second. Roll call, Patty. Aye. Patty? Aye. Sandra? Aye. Valerie? Aye. William? Aye. Thank you. Resolutions, consider the approval resolution number 1418, California School Boards Association close the achievement gap. This is the Mr. Cecilio spoke on it last Yes, so this is one that uh that Mr. Cecilio spoke on it and he spoke
036on it. And so, the CSBA is is wanting to put this forward to legislation so they can actually begin to streamline the education department, which both acts as an agreement with CSBA, CTA, and I mean, pretty much everybody's like they've got to kind of clean up shop at the state level, so that's what they're they're wanting to do. So, just they're recommending that. Do I have a motion to approve? I can go ahead and motion. I second. Roll call, Patty. Hi. Sammy. Hi. Sandra. Hi. Valerie. And I. All right. Do we have any future agenda items? I do. I would like to see if there's a way because I've been seeing a lot of behavioral issues throughout the school years. And I was wondering if there's a way that maybe we can change it to
037where I know high school has like the honor students in the class where they have to do community hours. Is there a way that we can change the graduation requirements to where all high school students have to complete a certain amount of hours and then also maybe bring that into Kings Mountain and middle school. Because I think once we get these youth involved in our community and they see that there's other participants who volunteer their time and actually care about them that they might want to change or sway their ways of thinking and instead of allowing them going towards the gang area, now they have someone that they can confide in and talk to through maybe it's corporate Little Friends, it's corporate Little League or maybe cuz they always need help. So maybe they see
038that adults are willing to put back into that and they put some time, maybe we can help our youth. Yes, we can definitely get to that. So just for clarity, that we want to look at how we're model what we're modeling at the high school to go over to Kings Mountain and East School John Barr in some way. Okay, yeah. Definitely can. And that's also I'm glad you brought that up because it's a great example of a potential action for strategic plan that we're going to be moving forward with because that'll help, you know, those things like if some districts have what's called a portrait of a learner or a graduate graduation profile and that would be a part of it that they're community service oriented and that would be that would be built into
039that. So spot on. Thank you. Um 6:04, we'll go ahead and close for close session. Thank you everyone.