001Think Verizon's best expensive? Think again. Bring in your AT&T or T-Mobile to a Verizon store for a better deal. Then use those unwanted bills to wrap up goodbye gifts to AT&T from T-Mobile. Terizon rankings based on root metric report. Your results may vary. mobile within the past 45 days. The same name as person. Additional terms apply. This year, Rachel will get Anna a $200 code for just $75. But Anna doesn't need to know that because it's what she thought that counts. Yes, JC Penney. Higher price reflects comparable national brand. See store or >> jcp.com for details. Our lawyer said we couldn't name this new Carl's Jun burger the biggest burger for the smallest price burger. So we didn't XL charging more for half the meat. Not loving that. Get it now for a limited time
002only at Carl's Jr. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order at 5:00 and announce that the board will meet in close session to address items 1 through three. Uh we at this time we have no public comment on close session items. So I will recess into close session. Very nice. All right, everybody, let's settle down. Thank you everybody. All right, I'd like to call this meeting back to order and announce at 6:02 p.m. and also announced that the board met in close session and no action was taken. >> Good evening and welcome to the Elkrove Unified School District's board meeting. Live streaming of full in-person board meetings is available to the public by using the link located on the district's website. Today's meeting is being video recorded and will be available on
003the district's YouTube channel. We encourage you to attend the meetings and share your feedback with the board. Your active participation is valued and contributes to to the decision-making process. Some brief comments on public comment. During regular board meetings, the public may make public comment on items on the agenda and items not on the agenda. Requests to make public comment will be accepted for an item up until the board president introduces the item. Generally, members of the public will be given three minutes to address the board. If there are 15 or more comments on a specific item, the board will reduce individual comment time to two minutes each. If there are 30 or more comments on a specific item, the board will reduce individual comments to one minute each. Individuals may not defer their time to
004another individual speaker to increase their total speaking time. Please be mindful that district students may be watching. You are encouraged to address the board and the public in a respectful manner such that all those observing from children to adults are made to feel welcome, safe, and valued. The board shall not permit any disturbance or willful interruption of board meetings. Persistent disruption by an individual or group shall be grounds for the board president to provide a warning and then to terminate the individual's privilege of addressing the board. Next for our land acknowledgement, Mr. Yang. >> Good evening. We acknowledge that the Elgroveve Unified School District administrative facilities and school occupy the unseated territory of the Meiwa. The original people of the skies, land and waters where we work and learn. The meat have cared for these
005lands since time memorial. They continue to teach our tradition knowledge that comes from and responds to the needs of the land and the people who we who share it. May our daily lives and work, teaching, learning, leadership, and community engagement support the involving visions of the Miwa for their community and these lands. May we strive to acknowledge the past for the betterment of our future generations. May we look to our tribe partners, the Wilton Richer, the descendants of the original people of this land to assist with the successful education of our community. Thank you very much. And for the pledge of allegiance, I'd like to call call up Trina Keading. And before we start the pledge, Miss Alani. Well, usually we would have a a family with Miss Kading. Unfortunately, we have a child homesick,
006which we all understand. So, um, usually Miss Elizabeth List and Mr. Keegan List would be with her. So instead, um I understand we're watching at home, though. So I want to be sure and read these nice words that um we have to say about them and then Miss Keaton will lead us in the pledge. So CW Dillard Elementary School is honored to recognize Miss Elizabeth List and Mr. Keegan List as our educational partners. We celebrate the List family, a second generation Dillard Elementary cornerstone. Mr. and Mrs. List take an active role in the school to support their two children, Killian, a third grader, and Finn, a transitional kindergartener. Miss List's commitment to Dillard Elementary is exceptional. She has volunteered weekly for four years, assisting in the classroom with field trips and activities like tie dying.
007Over the last three years, she has been a PBIS tier 1 team member focused on inclusion and positive behavior. She successfully advocated adding TK kindergarten to the trading postreward system. Her dedication on the PBIS tier 1 team helped the school achieve the prestigious platinum status for the school last year. Mr. list, a Sacramento Metro firefighter for 19 years and a member of FEMA's urban search and rescue task force 7 has shared his expertise in this field with the students of Dillard Elementary. When Killian was in kindergarten, Mr. List demonstrated his fire gear and breathing apparatus, helping students understand and not be scared by the equipment. Killian's first and second grade classes also enjoyed presentations by Mr. list on how a service dog searches for people during natural disasters. Thank you, List family, for your dedication,
008service, and continuous p continuous positive impact on Dillard Elementary. Let's give him a round of applause. [applause] Please stand. Salute. Pledge. >> I pledge alce 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. Thank you, Miss Kitty. Will you come back for one sec? All right, thank you everyone. And now we have the much anticipated return of our student regional reports. I'd like to welcome representatives from the Consumnus Oaks region. region My name is Macy Henshaw. This is Caitlyn Reyes. And this is Isra. And we are the EPMS student leadership. We'd like to open up RCO region presentation with the COS Vietnamese student association performing their traditional fan dance. >> [music] [music] [laughter] [singing] >> night.
009Silver [music] [singing] [music] in the >> [singing] >> I am sleep. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Just thank you VSA. today. That was a beautiful performance. Good evening, board president Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, Miss Avalos, and guests. My name is Payton Dai, and I'm a senior and ASB president at Cassumnos Oaks High School. Good evening, board members. Um, my name is Kalia Condan. I'm a junior representing CS ASB as junior class president, and we are both students here at Kim High School. Um in this presentation we will be discussing our academics AP capstone vapa medical pathway culinary arts program PBIS athletics multicultural night and fall fest. Okay. Here at CO we offer many AP and honors cour courses such as AP world and US history, AP chemistry, AP calculus AB and BC and
010many others. We are also the only AP capstone school in the district. This year we are ranked number two for CASP scores, but we were number one in the district last year. In addition to that, we have the highest percentage of AP students enrolled in AP and honors courses at 58%. And a fun fact about last year's college acceptances is that we had five students get accepted into Stanford and have a very high UC acceptance rate. The AP Capstone program at CO is something that makes us very unique as we are the only school in the district to have it. The capstone program consists of two courses, AP Seminar and AP research. They are designed to be taken over the course of junior and senior year. These courses help develop critical thinking, writing, and presentation
011skills. The AP Capstone diploma is earned after taking both AP exams and passing them with a three or higher. Here at CO, our VAPA program consists of dance, theater, and band. The dance portion of it consists of dance courses such as dance one, two, and three and our hype dance company. Being a member of hype dance company myself, I can proudly say that we are a team of hardworking dancers who all share our expression through the art of dance during rallies, dance fest, vapa gala, and our annual showcase. Also, for the past few years, we've been have we had the opportunity to perform at the Sacramento Kings halftime show once a year. Next is theater. Here at CO, we have theater classes, advanced theater and children's theater. The advanced theater program attends a theater festival
012every year to perform a play. Children's theater puts on a kid-friendly musical for elementary schools to come and watch as a field trip. And the theater program puts on a fall both a fall and spring musical every year. Lastly, we have band. There are three levels of band. concert band, symphonic band, and wind ensemble. There is also marching band, jazz band, Jan jazz workshop and orchestra. At this year's first competition, the 13th annual Franklin High Invitational Band Review, drum line 1/3 in parade, marching band 1/3, and drum major won first. At the second one, the 47th annual Grapp Bowl Classic Band Review. Marching Band won first in parade and drum line won first in parade for the first time ever after only starting competing last year. Moving on to our medical pathway here at CIA,
013we have a medical pathway in which they learn basic medical procedures and skills. This pathway prepares students for working anywhere in the medical field. They learn about diseases and treatments on illnesses as well. Med 3 students also learn patient care skills such as blood typing and vitals. They are also able to earn basic life support certification from the American Heart Association and CPR certification. In addition, they are also able to earn six units of college credit their junior year in medu with the classes being human disease and medical language for health care through Los Rios. They also have sim labs where they simulate dolls that are babies, children's, and adults that you can perform different kinds of procedures on them and are very high-tech. Okay, moving on to our culinary arts academy. Here at CO,
014we have a culinary arts academy in which students participate in a three-year program that prepares them for a career in hospitality or food service industry. Students learn fundamentals of food science, cooking methods, flavor profiles from different regions, as well as catering and food costing skills. Students have opportunities to attend several field trips each year to local farms, restaurants, and the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, as well as hear from industry professionals and local chefs. In recent collaboration with the California Restaurant Association, students were given interview skills and resume recommendations from the head chef at Frog and Slim, a regional manager for The Habit and an executive from Eco Lab. Entering its 18th year as an academy, the program is led by chef instructor Vincent Lazerto and is well supported by the site administration in
015our dynamic career and college connections department. This support allows the program to m maintain its status as a high performing academy with strong graduation and attendance rates for its students. CO is notably one of two high schools to achieve platinum status for PBIS. This is the highest status a school can attain. PBIS is a set of standards we have for our students and we try to reward them, teachers and staff by giving them five star points that can be traded in for rewards which can be used as an incentive for students to uphold these words up here on the screen. Perseverance, accountability, community, and kindness. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, we have a pop-up shop managed by Miss Lobby, our yearbook teacher, and she has useful prizes like school supplies, snacks, and fidgets to help students.
016Here at CEO, we have various sports and have many have accomplished exceptional things either this year or last year. We have a girls flag football team and this is our second year of offering flag football here at CEO. And last year they were eight and four and placed third in league overall which is very impressive for their first year as a team. And this year there were more girls who joined the team and have made it a strong sports presence here at CO. Our men's football team had a new coach who has taken our last year's team and is in the process of rebuilding. Our 2025 girls tennis team finished with a perfect record 12-0 this season and won the Delta League title. For the third year in a row, Gabby Williams and Sydney Sue
017won the CIFS SJS Division 1 tournament. Also, Gabby Williams was voted the 2025 Delta League Player of the Year. Moreover, our girls tennis team plays Deloro in the CIF SJS Division 2 tournament at University of the Pacific. Our girls golf team qualified for the CIFSJS section tournament. Zanya Vang qualified for the go girls golf masters tournament and she was voted the 2025 Delta League player of the year. Our boys and girls cross country teams played seventh in subsections and are now moving on to sections. And we also have women's volleyball, men's and women's basketball, swimming, men's tennis, wrestling, track, men's baseball, and women's softball left to play this year. >> Moving on to one of our newly events, our multicultural night. Multicultural night is a secondyear event we have here at CO. It is an
018event where we can showcase our very diverse culture here at CO. And having this event allows our students who are part of cultural clubs to perform and highlight their culture to their parents, families, friends, and community to showcase the diversity we have. The lineup this year consisted of a CISA fashion show which is our Southeast Asian student association as well as our lion dance club lead and tinkling dance club, Vietnamese student association, majorettes, Persian club, banga and py ball fest is an event put on by ASB here at CO for the whole community, students, families and teachers. This is a community focused event and is very successful. It is a co specific event as we are the only school in the district that hosts a fall fest. At fall fest we have a haunted house
019that ASB designs, builds and act in as actors to scare the people who attend and walk through. We also have booths for any club that would like to participate in fall fest and sell food or have a game where people can participate which allows these clubs to earn money. At the end of the event, we have a slime a teacher finale where we choose a teacher or two to slime at the end and the students all find this very amusing and entertaining. Uh yes, thank you all for listening to our presentation [applause] and culinary will be passing out cookies now. Good evening, board president Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, Miss Avalos, and guests. My name is Felix Lie, a sixth grade student from Miwok Village Elementary. We'd like to close with Zenderanch Elementary
020School. As ZEs, every month is dedicated to a grade level VAPA performance. Tonight, they'd like to share a portion of last month's presentation under the direction of Mrs. Lefay. ZRE fifth grade level performance, Disney, the movies, the music, celebrating 75 years of Disney magic. Good evening, families, friends, and guests of all ages. In just a few short minutes, you will witness a portion of our incredible nighttime show where Zinder Ranch's fifth grade's imagination comes to life. in Disney. The movies, the music, celebrating 75 years of Disney magic. As you prepare for the show, get ready for an epic adventure with song and dance to enhance your experience. For your safety, please remain in your location. Disney, the movies, the music, celebrating 75 years of Disney magic, starting in just a few minutes. Who's the leader
021of the [music and singing] tree for you? MI Kore. Let us come along sing O. I C Y M O U S I T K Y M O U I C K E Y O S I C K Y M O U >> [applause and cheering] >> The song It's a Small World after all has become one of the most recognizable and to some inescapable tunes ever written. Though simple and repetitive, the melody is instantly associated with the iconic Disney attraction and continues to remind listeners of the idea that humanity shares a common bond across the entire planet. World of tears. It's a world of hope and a world of share. It's a small world. After all, it's a small world. After all, it's a small [singing] small world. There is just one [singing] [music]
022divide [singing] and the o [singing] small It's a small world. It's a small world. It's a small world. It's a small [singing] world. It's a small world. After [music] all, it's a small small world. It's a small [applause and cheering] Thank you, board president Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, Miss Avalos, and guests. We hope you enjoyed tonight's presentation from the Consumnness Oaks region. Please take this as an open invitation to come and visit any of our sites. Enjoy the rest of your evening. [applause] Thank you very much students. And we would be remiss if we didn't also recognize our principles. Zachary Cheney from Cassumnus Oaks High School. [applause] Kimberly Wallace from Elizabeth Pinkerton Middle School. [applause] Katherine Vanhausen from Elliot Ranch Elementary School. [applause] Sandra Weiss from Miwok Elementary School. [applause] And Cheryl
023Keilitan from Xander Ranch Elementary School. [applause and cheering] Thank you very much students and you are dismissed. All right, folks. Let's bring it back. We'll have people transitioning in and out. Thank you. Our next item is the California behavioral uh positive behavioral interventions and support PBIS coalition recognitions. Mr. Sang, >> thank you. Uh board president, Mr. Vargas, [snorts] uh members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, colleagues and community, uh I have unfortunately uh had the privilege to follow the kids. So I will not be dancing or singing, but uh I will follow the uh line of celebrations tonight. And it is an honor to celebrate so many of our schools and our leaders for the exceptional work they do in supporting uh positive behavior intervention supports. And I also want to give kudos to Katie Thomas
024who is our coordinator for behavioral health and student support services who leads a lot of this work. [applause] Thank you Katie. All right, with that I'm going to ask the board to come down uh because we will bring our colleagues on in waves so that we can all celebrate them and uh take a picture. So as the board is coming down um this is in align with our uh learning vision uh so everything we do and uh PBIS is a big component of uh each of our compon subcomponents of our learning vision. The recognition criteria uh is outlined in that slide. I'm not going to read all of them, but there's a criteria on how sites get recognized and those are the uh recognition criterias. Uh really exciting news. If you look at the chart
025there, you will see over the years we have had more schools recognized um and we have more schools recognized in different categories. Uh just this [clears throat] year we had se we have 17 schools who have been recognized platinum, 43 for gold, five for silver and one for bronze. [clears throat] [applause] So we'll start with the platinum level first. So I'm going to ask every school who is platinum to please come forward and uh join the board. and you will see the names of all our elementary schools, our middle schools and high schools who are platinum. So, can we give a round of applause? [applause] Stay >> here. Katie Yeah, just >> Yeah, just stay. We'll we'll figure out how to take a picture with everybody in it. >> All right. All right. All right,
026Kitty, you want to get in there, Kitty? All right, Lisa, whenever you're ready. These are all our platinum award winners. Congratulations to all our platinum award winners. [applause] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. >> Silver and bronze >> together. Yeah. >> All right. Our next level of celebration is our gold award winners. So I'm going to ask all our colleagues who are gold award winners to please come up and join us. [applause] >> [applause] >> All our gold award winners. Hey, look at that. How are you? >> Hey, man. >> Hey, what's up, brother? Manchester United. We got to get out of the way. [laughter] >> Oh, congratulations. Congratulations. All right, we'll try and all fit in there. [laughter] >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations, >> Sh. >> Congratulations. >> How are you? >> Get
027all together. We're going to get two rows. >> Thank you for all your help. exhausted. That's amazing. Good work. Good work. Good work. Good work. Good work. Good work. Good work. >> Good work. >> So that's the strategy. That's why. Okay, I'm getting >> probably should go on the way back. Good work. Good work. >> Congratulations. Congratulations. Congratulations. >> Go, Kimberly. Come on, Kimberly. >> All right, we're going to circle up so that Lisa can take a picture. ready to go. All right, congratulations to all our gold uh award wins. [applause] And last but not least, we'll do our silver and our bronze together. So, silver and bronze, please. >> Let's see. >> You showed up. Look at that. Coming to the board meeting. You're getting ready for your next job there. I'm ready for
028my next one. >> That's awesome. That's good. All right. Hey, good job. Hello. What's up, brother? Rockstar, man. All right. All our silver and our bronze. Congratulations to silver and bronze. >> Did they get their picture? There we go. That looks good. All right. Thank you and congratulations to our schools and their hard work. [applause] Thank you. That's good. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, next up, Elliot Ranch Elementary school is honored as 2025 California Blue Ribbon School, Miss Ay. >> Awesome. Thank you. What a fun night. And now we get to add another layer to it. All right. Good evening, President Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, and Miss Avalos. The board of education is asked to recognize the Elliot Ranch Elementary team for their school being honored
029as a 2025 California Blue Ribbon School nominee. This blue ribbon nomination is a result of the dedicated staff that's led by principal Katie Vanhousen and her vice principal, Mr. Allesie. In October, the state superintendent of public instruction, Tony Thurman, announced that 31 schools were nominated as national blue ribbon schools for 2025. Due to the US Department of Education discontinuing the National Blue Ribbon School program, these schools are instead being recognized as 2025 California Blue Ribbon Schools. The California Blue Ribbon Honor awards public and private elementary, middle, and high schools that are among the state's highest performing schools and are recognized for over overall academic performance or progress in closing opportunity gaps among student subgroups. Elliot Ranch has consistently been an overperforming school from the inception of the school back in the early 2000s to current
030time. So, it's a long-standing tradition. This prestigious award affirms the dedication and achievement of educators, their families, the community, and not only achievement, but creating a safe and welcoming school where students master challenging and engaging content. And with that, I ask the board to recognize the Elliot Ranch staff. >> Wonderful. Do we have the staff here? >> We do. Miss Van Housen, come on up with your whole team. We got a whole group there. Don't be shy, everyone. Come to the front. [applause] >> Do you, Miss Ay, do you want us down there? >> Come on down. That's okay. >> So, I just want to briefly say thank you so much to the Elliot Ranch community. Um, and thank you so much to cabinet for putting uh making time and space here at the board
031meeting. I know they're really excited over there, [laughter] but I thought it was really um important to mention that this this community is so special. We had the privilege, our family had the privilege for our son to go there and um he misses it every day and he always talks about Mr. Allessie and the teachers and going to AIT and loving it and um that just knowing that we created an opportunity for them to come and be recognized when unfortunately things happen at the federal level that are out of our control. Um I think it's really important that we we made space for them tonight and I just want to thank the cabinet. Thank you Superintendent Hoffman um Jen Ay um for making this happen for them. They definitely deserve it. They are such a
032special school and the PTO is so strong. Um they just do amazing work together. So I just wanted to just highlight that and again thank everybody for recognizing Elliot Ranch. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> Yes, Miss Davis. >> Yeah, and I just wanted to say that participating in that brought the Davis family full circle. My husband was the custo head custodian at that school for many, many years. Brian McNeel was the one who brought him over there. Thank you, Brian. [laughter] Um, but it was exciting to be a part of the school that I've always heard so many things and I've heard some of the different stories about Steve Allesie. >> All right, thank you very much. So, moving on to our next topic, we have uh student expulsion and involuntary transfer recommendations.
033Uh, before we start, is there anybody who'd like to address the board in close session regarding a student expulsion? All right. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the recommendations for student expulsion. >> So move. >> Moved by Mr. Yang. >> Seconded by Miss Alviani. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Next up, we have public comment for items not on the agenda. Mr. Yang, do we have any blue cards? >> Yes, board president. We got a few here. Good evening again. Uh if I mispronounce your name, please um correct me when you come to the podium. Ear >> as not on agenda. >> You marked it as not on the agenda. So do you want >> you want to
034wait till >> Okay. Yeah. So, okay. So, this one's also on the union. Um, so you want to wait till later or you want >> Okay. So, you want to come to the podium. >> Okay. Crystal, will you come on up to the right, please? followed by Kurt Thompson. >> Evening board chair, board Vargas, Superintendent Hoffman, Miss Aalos, and ladies and gentlemen of the board and the labor partners in ATU Local 256. My name is Crystal McGee and I ATU is open to negotiations. I'm not sure if you know what's going on, but I'm here to tell you there's going to be some issues. Um, ATU has taken a vote 163 to no 18. Yes. The shielded threat that we received in our last and final proposal a uh pilot program for the binding arbitration.
035The members totally are totally disappointed in the negotiations and the district's mindset. The LCAP, we're not a part of it. I came on the o on a on this part on the open agenda because we feel like we're the others. And what I mean by the others, the hardworking, dedicated, loyal members in the back, standing in the back, those drivers, they deserve a competitive medical, a competitive wages, education. We have a program, the LCAP. We're not in it. I can't they can't say what they do in the LCAP. It's not for classifides. You guys know this. I came before you honestly talking about these hardworking brothers and sisters and now here we are before you a last and final proposal and we turned it down. So I'm here to tell you there's a saying in
036my community we can show you better than we can tell you. I came to you open and honest to talk to you about what was going on with AT2 ATU Local 256 and the bus drivers, the mechanics, and now we're here. So, with that being said, Mr. Riley has a contract. Congratulation. Mr. Riley pays into stars. He's eligible to move up to a step two. But why am I hearing that Mr. We're looking at the district is looking at giving him another additional 13,000 in his 403b in his 457. An additional 26 thou $26,000 and next year additional 14,000. We say we're saving money. We're looking for money for staff shortages, but I'm not understanding how we're finding money for what we want. You want to find money for, but you don't want to find
037money for those brothers and sisters out there. With that being said, we can show you better than we can tell you. [applause] Thank you. Next, Kurt Thompson. [clears throat] >> Hi. So, um, as someone who rode the bus for 10 years in elementary school, junior high, and high school, I want to apologize to all the bus drivers now for my actions when I was a kid. really a pump. So, [clears throat] so um what I came here to talk about, it has been two months since this board was warned about teachers publicly celebrating the murder of Charlie Kirk, which I remind you was a school shooting. And still, I have heard nothing about disciplinary actions being taken against these school staff members. In fact, the one person I know by name who openly celebrated the
038murder of a 31-year-old husband and father for having wrong opinions is still listed as a teacher at Calvine High School on their website. Now, I understand there are privacy concerns that go into disciplinary actions and staffing decisions. There's a whole process that needs to be followed, and I appreciate that. However, I've I've received general emails concerning staff misconduct in the past, like with the N-word bucks incident last last year. So, you can tell us something. So, if appropriate disciplinary action is not being taken against this teacher and no information is being provided to the public at all, I as a parent have to make some assumptions. My main assumption is that someone could walk in here right now and shoot me dead. a teacher could publicly celebrate my murder and my wife would still have
039to send my kids to be educated by that sick-minded individual. And since no action is being taken and no transparency provided, I would have to assume that the majority of this board, the superintendent, maybe a solid member member of the district staff and membership of the teachers union would think that's the right thing to do. I want to be wrong on this. It would be nice if someone would prove me wrong. Mr. Hoffman, you're coming into your last month here and we appreciate your service. Please prove me wrong. Thank you. >> Thank you. We're present. That ends a blue car on this item. >> All right. Thank you very much. Uh, next up we have our consent agenda. Uh, Mr. Yang, are there any blue cards on this item? Yes, we have one blue car
040on this item. [clears throat] >> Calling on Dr. West Dumpley. >> Thank you for this. And you know how it goes. Two months ago. By the way, Mr. Jean don't want to answer. Okay. Your bio said you're Thai, but anyway, I speak seven language. Anyway, I'm here to support that transportation team at the back. Two months prior, I heard their plea for equity and, uh, dignified, and I went to Damon's church, uh, Silo Baptist Church, and I talked to the pastor. I was going to do a Martin Luther King playbook in rallying all the churches, storm this building with hundreds of thousands of people and come to the bargaining and unfortunately pastor Santa didn't want to come. The Holy Spirit didn't speak to him that day and I said cool I have to respect that
041and he spoke with Damon who is a wonderful guitarist in the band. Okay. So, my support goes again to the transportation team at the back and to Crystal who did a wonderful speech. Wow. Okay. Then I want to talk about love. You know, the Holy Spirit entered me. I I gave a speech last month where I had my chewed up journey in life. I got to depart that to my kids, my wonderful 10year-old and sevenyear-old Eli who goes to Miwok. And oh, by the way, Dr. to Jodie Bole say I can say things of the Bible just don't use curse word and I never intend to use curse word so I'm going to spread a little goodness and love here I'm going to say one little sentence in the ultimate romance story ever written faith
042love the greatest is love that's all I'm going to say thank you that ends a blue card on this item board president >> thank you very much uh next up would any board member ever like to pull an item from the consent agenda? All right, seeing none, I will entertain a motion to approve items 1 through 37 on the consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Moved by Mr. Yang. >> So moved. >> Seconded by Miss Ballerini. All those in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Next up, we have bargaining units. Bargaining units, please feel free to jump in. I see a few. >> Good evening, President Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, and Miss Avalos. My name is James Sutter. I'm the president of the
043Elkrove Education Association. Thank you all for your thoughtful dedication to the very difficult process of setting the board priorities and recommendations. Co seems to be the gift that keeps on giving, doesn't it? While I say that in justest and in recognition that it was a catastrophe for many lives around the globe, it did provide some intrinsic benefits. Primarily, it taught us that we can do just about anything, including reinvisioning the fifth largest district from the ground up nearly overnight. It also taught us even in the most challenging of times, we could rely on the relationships we've built, come together and do the impossible so that our students and families could have normal normaly and support in times of intense need. Imperfect though it was born of that collaboration. Thanks to the funds that were provided
044by the state and federal government, we designed and implemented a plan to put into place supports that we otherwise would not have been able to afford. We dreamed big and we delivered big. Each student who had an AIT to provide intense academic intervention, a counselor to guide them, a mental health therapist to talk to, or a campus supervisor to help make campus safer can attest to that. With those dream dreams, we also knew that reality would eventually set in. And the real and that reality is here. Despite the one-time nature of these funds, I think we all held out hope that there would be some ability in future budgets to build these invaluable positions into ongoing dollars as we have done in the past, recognizing the benefits provided by these additional services to students, families,
045and staff. Unfortunately, this is not a year that we will be able to absorb FTE into ongoing funding. It's hard to end services delivered by people that we know have impacted so many and done so much good. Good that is hard to quantify, no matter how thoughtful, thorough, and deliberate the evaluation. Throughout the lengthy process, the administration has been exactly that. Thoughtful in the tools used to measure, deliberate in involving many different groups, including labor, through the whole process, and thorough in finding every conceivable way to wrap in these positions despite very challenging fiscal times. I know the board does not take these decisions lightly. You know many of these programs programs intimately, and you know the impact that they have on students. It has been clear that there has been a lot of thought
046on how to respect the work that people have done in various positions, how to extend as many positions as possible and how to address an uncertain fiscal future. We support much of this plan that is being presented to the board. We do however want to do provide a little education regarding counselor positions. I'd like to introduce to you tonight Vicky Trimmingham, EJ Lead Association Director for Secondary Education. Thank you, James. [clears throat] Good evening, board president Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, and Miss Ovalos. I'm Vicki Trimmingham, EGA lead director for secondary. I'm here to speak to you on the budget priority recommendation to decrease temporary funded secondary counselors from our current number of 12.5 to 5. and the presentation to the board. District management is recommending a reduction of 7.5 FTE and secondary
047counselors positions to 5 FTE to meet a district-wide 375 to1 ratio. This number is problematic in a couple ways. First, the 5ft FTE was based on student enrollment projections for 2526. We currently have more accurate numbers with the October seabeds. Using these current enrollment numbers, the district would need 7.2 FTE to meet a district-wide 375 to1 ratio. In addition, enrollment is projected to increase for secondary next year as well and would need to be closer to 8 FTE. Second, even though there is a common interest in maintaining a 375 to1 ratio, there seems to be a misunderstanding of what 375:1 ratio means to EGA. District management is now using a district-wide 375:1 ratio and that is not how we originally determined the numbers of counselors needed to meet the 375 to1. When we added these
048additional counseling positions, EGA's original intent of maintaining a 3755 to1 ratio was to ensure that no counselor would have more than 375 to1. While considering the specific staffing needs at each site, having a district-wide 375:1 ratio, which is taking the total number of students divided by 375, would make staffing very difficult at many sites with unrealistic partial contracts. So, for instance, based on current enrollment numbers, Harriet Eddie would be staffed at 2.63 counselors. Rudder would be staffed at 2.39 counselors, Floren High School at 4.32 counselors and Sheldon at 6.29 counselors. And with each slight change in enrollment, those numbers would change every year to maintain a district-wide 375 to1 ratio. That is why EGA recommended using an FTE allocation based on increments of 0.5 FTE based on a range in student enrollment when these additional
049counselors were added. This means many counselors would be well under 375 to1, but it would be easier in terms of maintaining proper staffing at each site. It also creates more stability and flexibility since many enrollment changes at each site would not necessarily create a need for a staffing change. That is why 14 FTE were originally allocated under the original ESR funding. If we were to have used a district-wide average, then we would had 10 FTE would have been allocated, not 14. At 14 additional counselors, the district-wide ratio was closer to 350 to1. Basically, you add a few more FTE to make sure no one counselor is above 375 to one while also creating some flexibility and stability and site and the site staffing allocations. Currently, we have 12.5 temporary funded secondary counselors, which has afforded
050all secondary sites to stay at or below 375 students per counselor. This budgeting has resulted in a service model where students are able to receive not only academic, career, and college counseling, but also in addition to that, support with teenage struggles and challenges. If we use EGA's enrollment range allocation to make sure no one is over 375 to 1, then 11.35 FTE would need to be retained. EGA would recommend retaining a number closer to 11 FTE. If district management is going to use a district-wide 375 to1 ratio, which again we want to reiterate that we do not think this is a viable staffing option, then at least be more accurate and use the current enrollment numbers and next year's projection, which would be closer to 8 FTE. The additional ESSER counselors are essential to continue
051providing the level of services needed to support again not only the academic needs of our secondary students but also the overall well-being of our secondary students including their mental health. Secondary counselors promote students lifelong learning and the successful transition from high school to postsecary opportunities. If the board has any questions regarding the FTE allocation based on an enrollment range, EGA is more than happy to answer those questions. Thank you for your time. Good evening board superintendent Hoffman, bargain leaders, community and union members that are working and with us today and those in spirit. My name is Edgar. I am the steward for at Local 256. Just recently you heard the president speak representing many transportation personnel who keep district moving. This includes, you know, attendants, dispatchers, drivers, our instructors, mechanics, and schedulers. These are the
052people that every morning wake up before the sun rises and go home when the sun sets. Tonight, I want to speak once more about the reality of our members face every day. the rising cost of health care, the relentless pressure of inflation, the lack of language protection, and the financial strengths that touch not just their work, but their families and their communities we serve. It affects all of us. We also want to touch on a few other topics along the way. Negotiations are meant to be a process of collaboration, understanding, and progress. Unfortunately, for the past 18 months, these discussions have produced little movement, leaving employees frustrated and feeling undervalued. Adding to the challenges, the district negotiator is moving on to a role of superintendent. While we congratulate them on this promotion, this role requires
053experience, collaboration, and the ability to build trust. all qualities essential if we are to work together to support students and staff. Without this approach, negotiation may stall employees lose confidence in the process. We recently shared district's final offer with our membership. Their response was clear and united. An overwhelming no. 163 members voting to continue to fight to have their concerns about health care, language protection, and fair wages addressed. This is not symbolic. This is a collective genuine statement that the current proposal does not meet the reality of our employees are facing. Rising health care costs as nation, not just here. Lack of language protection. We've been asking for that. Other units have it. Stagnant wages. Other districts already making it happen. And for their transportation decisions that directly impact their daily lives. When employees feel
054unheard, undervalued, trust erodess, morale suffers, and the dedication that keeps these districts running can be affected. Fairness and collaborations are the foundation of any healthy workplace. And when they are missing, everyone in the district feels the impact. It's also important to note that comparing our members pay increase to other bargaining units does not address the core issues. Even a one to 5% increase is often absorbed by taxes, inflation, and rising costs for housing, health care, and daily living. Trust, fairness must reflect the real experience of people who keep this district moving. Across Sacramento, many school districts facing similar challenges have responded responsibly. Prioritizing affordable health care for employees, providing wages to keep pace with inflation, engaging in negotiations with transparency, respect, and good faith. Building on these points, we want to revisit the homework we
055shared with the district last month. First, we urge leaderships to examine the district's budget with a focus on fair, realistic pay increase that reflect the cost of living and a set of substantial standards for years to come. Second, we encourage the district leaders to meet our transportation professionals firsthand. Ride with them, work along mechanics, sit and dispatch or observe instructors during their training. Witness their dedication, sacrifice, and long hours, often 10 to 14 hours a day while we're while many of us are only paid six to seven. A simple handshake, a smile, or a word of recognition goes a long way in acknowledging the value and humanity of people who make the district work. El Grove have the resources and capacity to take a fair, responsible path forward. The question before this board is whether
056the district will act in good faith, uphold fairness, and strengthen collaboration, or continue making unilateral decisions that leave employees feeling unheard. We're here to advocate for fairness, recognition, and meaningful negotiations. Our members messages loud and clear and unwavering. We will not be silent and we will not settle for less than fairness and respect. We urge the board to take concrete steps that value your workforce, address the pressuring issues, and build trust in the negotiation process. Doing so is not only the right thing for employees, it is an essential for the stability and success of the district as a whole. ATU and the members understand while our concerns are not the only priority before the board, they are fundamental to the long-term success of the district. The work we do ensures student arrives safely, programs operate
057efficiently, and families can rely on the district every day. We're asking for fairness, respect, and a contract that reflects the real cost of healthcare, language protection, cost of living, and the true value of the people who make the district function. We stand ready to negotiate in good faith, and we ask the district to do the same. Together with respect, transparency, and collaboration, we can build a district that employees feel valued, students are supported, and the entire community benefits. Finally, ATU and our members want to close not only with a message of advocacy, but the gratitude. We recognize that the work of the board is challenging and the decisions you make have a lasting impact. From our families to yours, we wish you a happy holidays and hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving with your loved ones.
058Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Any other bargaining units? All right. Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item. Reports and discussion items. budget priority recommendations and confirmation of direction. Mr. Superintendent, >> thank you very much. I'll pull that uh presentation up. >> Okay. So, uh today will be a little shorter than last time. I won't that'll wear out my voice quite quite as much as I did did last time. Um so we'll run through um some of the review some of the information that we covered November 4th and then we'll highlight a couple of items that um that were brought up at the meeting on the 4th um and also address one of the concerns around the the counselors as as part of this conversation as well. It's a little slow, but we got
059um so just a uh R. So, this is a little shorter version. Um so, we'll go over review the process objectives, go back to our budget priority foundations, uh confirm some of the feedback that we heard November 4th, um couple of adjustments to the plan, um and the end, we'll ask for the board to give us direction to move forward. So, uh, the objectives, um, started with kids, finish with kids, making sure that we we have that information. Um, and, uh, the recommendations are centered around meeting the needs of our kids. Uh, we paid very close attention to program need and related staffing levels. Um, and we didn't just do a five positions for five positions. Uh, we really did look at what does it take to run those programs effectively. Uh moving forward, as
060a reminder, um the way this plan is set up, we have a prioritization of the positions within the plan um through June of 2028. So it's two years um in place. Uh fourth bullet is critical um you know, four staff members who have um given immeasurable service and done a phenomenal job over the past few years. um those that are not included um in the plan moving forward, we want to make sure that we can give them timely notice and make sure they have options for um positions to be able to um fit into moving into the uh the new school year. We do have some funded um goods and services. Uh the goods and services we have a plan in place to cover through June of 27, so for one year. Um, and again,
061this is a recommendation from staff of what we think should be our baseline funding for uh, positions uh, moving forward. Um, knowing that they're not built into the ongoing budget um, yet, but they we really have given this a lot of thought and appreciate the comments of um, of our labor partners in recognizing um, the efforts that have been put into uh, to this plan. The budget priority are foundations. Um, these five uh, don't change. And uh just as a reminder, we're really focused on bullet number two um right now uh which is maintaining evaluating the things we've built over the past past few years. So a couple of um adjustments that we have um made um if you remember before there were um six of the family and community engagement um liaison um and
062through the work we are recommending one of those six um move into a funded um position uh through department funding. uh that will be um supportive of one of our safe centers at one of our school sites. The other u positions here are are the same as presented previously. And then these are the positions that were um were also presented last time. These are positions that are happening at our school sites. Um I do want to highlight the counselor page and you'll you'll see it on another um slide as well. um with the the idea of the secondary counselors. To be clear, the secondary counselors are in place right now. And so we're we're well below the 375 to1 um ratio right now and those counselors are in place through u through the end of
063the year. Uh what we're talking about is planning for planning for uh next year. So I just want to be clear that those and then they are below the 375 um across the district and those those services are valued. Uh these are the um goods and services that we have um identified for one year um of um continuation using one-time funding. And then there were questions that came up from the board on November 4th and we wanted to uh spend a little bit of time um time with those. Um here's where the uh the family community lison position um or was six. Uh we've now reduced that to five. Um and again we think that's a good use of department funds. They've identified a position that is not filled currently and they think this position
064is um of more value to uh to the department. On the line just above the red box you see the counselors the 4.5 there. Uh we added a bullet um the third bullet staffing levels may adjust depending on 2627 enrollment. So we really are building towards a 2627 u plan because we're already in place for 2526. those positions are in place. Uh the conversation with EGA whether we're a 375 across the entire district versus 375 rounding. Um rounding rounding is a challenge. I mean in in uh situations where you have additional funding um rounding may be an option. Uh the 375 to1 um gives us a base level of service better than we than we have been in the past. and the 375 to one was the was a target number. Um, but we're being
065very clear that that number is very likely to change um in the positive for more counselors and a uh and a reduction on this page as far as the positions that will be eliminated. But we did want to build a worst case scenario as we presented this plan to make sure we had had um our positions covered. Just to reiterate, we are those physicians are in place right now and the kids are are receiving these services. This is the plan for uh for moving forward. We didn't make any adjustments um to this set. And you know, one of the questions that came up um and very viable um questions from the board and from um community members and staff was regarding uh the sustainability of our AVID. So, if you remember, AVID was a um
066is a very functional program and it was a very functional program in our middle and high schools pre- pandemic and that work continues and we have um phenomenal um programs um at our secondary schools. The the goal and the dream was to bring AVID to our elementary schools. And so, what we were able to do over the past several years is actually bring AVID to uh to each of our elementary schools. Never never thought that was possible. And now now it exists. the capacity of our people to do that work exists. If nothing else is going forward, the training and the work that we've done investing in our people uh that lives on that those those services are still there. But just to be clear about it, uh we do think do believe that AVID
067belongs in the curriculum and professional learning department. It is it is an instructional strategy. It is it is around improving um it's not just improving note-taking skills. it's actually improving reading, writing and the kids academic abilities and so um embedding it into the curriculum professional professional learning department um we believe is is the logical place for it to be and we will have a coordinator uh within the CPL department uh that will be um supporting that work. Uh we also have CPL coaches within uh within our CPL department and through this past um several months we we've had openings there and two of our CPL coaches are actually two of our former AVID coaches. So the skill sets that they learned um through this process, they bring those skill sets to our curriculum professional learning
068um department. And so we're we're actually very excited about that. Uh we still have the support of the Sacramento County Office um of education and traditionally um school sites have done have paid for trainings um regarding um AVID um training for their school sites and they have larger um site funds than they've ever had before and that opportunity um still exists. So we believe we have a um a viable um su sustainability plan to support AVID. We value AVID. uh we are in a better place today than we've ever been uh with regards to being able to support AVID uh for the long term. So we value all the work that's been done uh to this point and look forward to that continuing and said this is the the one position the family and community
069engagement liaison. So we're able to bring one of those positions back. Uh they will be uh working uh with our student family empowerment center. Um, and we believe this is a a critical role in connecting our families um and community with the services that are provided at the safe center. So, we're very excited about that. And with that, um, I'm open to, uh, conversation and discussion among the board and I betting we have a few public comments as well. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Yang. Do we have blue cards on this item? Yes, President Vgas. We do have uh three brew cars on this item. Calling on Jamie King, followed by Allison. Good evening board members. Thank you for having us tonight. I wanted to start out today by giving a huge shout out
070to all of our AVID teachers, AVID site coordinators, AVID students, and all of those other supporters um who have given up their own personal time to come and speak to the board directly or to send emails on our behalf advocating for the importance of AVID support. I also want to say thank you to you the board members for advocating, for asking questions, for being curious about the original plan and I also want to thank the cabinet for coming to the discussion table and really having those discussions about how we make uh the progress that we've done so far sustainable. So I want to thank you uh both for that. The new re recommendation that was released on Friday is better at all at at least at the minimum. We are now acknowledging that AVID deserves
071dedicated positions to work to continue the work already done and to make sure we have future growth across the district. With that said, the new recommendation is not quite there yet. There is work to do still. The new recommendation proposes that CPL coaches could support sites with wicker implementation with the assistance of the two former AVID coaches who transition to CPL willingly and by choice into a different job. At first glance, this sounds like a plausible plan, but it's not. The majority of CPL coaches are not avid trained. And for those that are, there is a huge difference between being avid trained and being an avid trainer. It is like saying a brain surgeon can perform a heart transplant. The brain and heart surgeon are similar in ways where they are both doctors and they
072both went to medical school, but that doesn't make them equally qualified to do each other's jobs. To do that, it would take years of additional training, practice, and money. This is similar to our roles as CPL coaches. Both the CPL coach and the avid CPL coach, we are CPL coaches with an avid focus have expertise in different areas. So to propose other coaches are prepared to do our job as AVID coaches is unrealistic. Much like the surgeons, Alyssa and I, the last two avid CPL coaches, um, are in the CPL department, and we love our jobs. We love them. We want to do our jobs, not past just June 2026, but indefinitely. We love them, and we are here to fight for our jobs. Our contribution is not solely measured by the time, expertise, and
073effective coaching, training, and facilitation we provide. It's equally, if not more important, the trust and relationships that we have cultivated with teachers and administrators across the school. Thank you. Your time's up, Ellison. Followed by Bright Lou. Good evening, President Vargas, board members, and superintendent Hoffman. My name is Alyssa Organovich, and I am one of two avid instructional coaches. I want to sincerely thank the cabinet and the board members for recognizing the value of our work over the last few years. We understand the cabinet has propo proposed that our duties can be absorbed by other instructional coaches within the CPL department. This proposal, while well-intentioned, is based on a critical misunderstanding of our specialized role and a mathematical impossibility in workload. The question is not whether CPL coaches are talented but whether they are interchangeable. They
074are not. The cabinet suggests our colleagues can can absorb this role because many are avid trained. But there is a fundamental difference. The CPL instructional coaches who are trained were trained similarly to teachers in AVID strategies for personal application in their own content areas. They are not trained nor do they have the capacity to deliver the programmatic professional development like AVID's professional learning models or to support the systemic implementation that makes the program work. We are the only team trained and tasked to provide these services across all 61 schools guaranteeing that 10,00 teachers have the training needed to make con connections between wicker strategies and the framework for high quality instruction. We also support AVID certification site visits, a unique duty no coach is trained or designated to perform. Without us, the fidelity of the
075entire AVID system is immediately jeopardized. The unique skills that Jamie King and I provide as AVID instructional coaches are not skills that can easily be passed off onto other coaches whose workloads are already full and require specific on the job training that is attuned to their subject area of expertise. The specialized coaching drives your district's most critical outcomes. We include fidelity to the college and career um access for our students within the AVID program, demonstrating rigor for over 1,000 of our AVID secondary students who are enrolled in AP and IB courses and over 800 middle schoolers in honors preparing for those AP and IB courses when they get to high school. Additionally, as I've mentioned in the past, our team was originally six coaches and has now moved down to two. That's a 66% reduction.
076We have reached the absolute limit of our operational efficiency with each coach remaining carrying the workload of three prior positions. Asking CPL coaches to absorb this workload on top of their existing vital content vital content responsibilities is not sustainable. It is a recipe for system collapse across both the AVID program and their core subject areas. Our work is not just classroom coaching. It is system leadership. We support site coordinators. Eliminating this role removes the only central resource responsible for training, coaching, and ensuring the leadership capacity of these site coordinators across all 61 schools. The system cannot manage itself. We also urge you to listen to the voices of the many teachers and coordinators who have reached out to you. Their voices, those who we directly impact, should be the ones who matter most. We urge
077you to look past the proposed $300 savings and recognize what you lose. the only specialized team equipped to ensure instructional fidelity, manage compliance, and deliver proven systemwide college readiness results. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Your time's up. >> Calling Riley Lou. [snorts] >> It's Bin Lum. >> Oh, thank you. >> Uh good evening. Um I'm speaking on uh this item today to first appreciate the addition of one family community liaison um that is shifting to the safe center. I hope that my advocacy in the last time that I spoke with you had an impact there. Um but I am also still concerned about the reduction in that personnel. Um and I encourage our various regions to uh remember to consider funding a family community liaison with their LCAP funds. um because we all have
078goals of increased family engagement um and that our EGSD sisils uh remember to support our administrators in that LCAP planning. Um I am also concerned with the reduction of our program educators in the equity department. Um, our district's strategic goal of targeted supports and interventions um states that students who identify as black African-American, students with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, and students who identify as Native American will benefit from targeted programs and services that leverage their assets, affirm their identities, and address their needs to close achievement, opportunity, and relationship gaps. Project program educators in the educational equity department oversee the black excellence program, the Native American education program, the young men rising program, and the student equity councils across the district. Um, so the program educators who support school sites with these programs that uplift and
079provide leadership opportunities, advocacy, and voice for the targeted groups identified in the strategic goals are incredibly important. And these programs are thriving throughout the district because of these program educators organization and the care they provide students and staff. So our district really needs these programs and these program educators. Um a final point that I want to make because again I am an equity coach um is that earlier today um in this board meeting we um celebrated uh silver, gold and platinum PBIS um schools. Um the I was in the training for the new TFI that's coming through and the very first 1.1 um item does say that a diverse group um is what the uh teams should be made up of and it actually calls out including representatives from marginalized groups, mental health, equity, academic
080instruction and data systems. So that a reduction in equity coach staffing will likely make it difficult to include an equity coach on these PBIS teams throughout the district to support tier one universal strategies that also support positive behavior in the classroom. So to continue to earn silver, gold, and platinum awards um from the state, it might be a little bit more difficult. Um so I hope district leadership and the board will have a discussion about how schools will meet their TFI goals without equity personnel to support it. Thank you. Thank you. That ends our blue car on this item. >> All right. Thank you very much. We will now move to board member questions or comments. So, I'll start on this side. Um, I just want to recognize and appreciate everybody who's engaged in this
081very challenging um, decision that we have to come to. Um, and I just hope that everyone recognize or at least know that um, this is not an easy decision to make. um we do have to keep you know what the future in mind and what's in front of us and what we've been able to do with those co funds was really impressive and I think that that memory is going to continue to live on because I think we see now what we are fully capable of doing when we have you know abundance of resources unfortunately ely we're not there right now. Um but the work that has gone into the success that we've celebrated tonight even is something that will continue to live on and we will not forget and I do appreciate everybody that
082has emailed us. I apologize that I haven't been able to email everybody back, but know that we we were we've taken it all into consideration. And and I say we, I mean I mean me. Um this is not easy for um the board especially for um for me personally cuz I have a child that's in AIT and I'd met with his teacher and um his AIT teacher on Monday and and he's done AIT at two different schools and I've seen the impact it has had on them. My children um love their schools. So, I know that the the success of AVID has been tremendous on them and and I have a daughter that I know for in her it's instilled in her that she's going to go to college not just cuz her mom went
083to college but because she truly believes in herself because of the the investment that her teachers have had in her since she's been at Pinkerton and it's just really been special for our family to be a part of a district that has gone the distance to really invest where we can and to acknowledge where we fall short and where we will improve. So, please know that um we will not forget the amazing things that we're capable of and we will continue to look towards how we can be creative, how we can look to leverage our resources uh to get back to the special things that we have done u hopefully in the near future. Um but I just wanted to take a minute to acknowledge that and I I thank the cabinet. I know you
084guys have a tough job. It's not easy to try and come up with our best case scenarios. Um, and I appreciate that you've done it in a way that has provided opportunities for input. Um, the LCAP process, like having our bargaining team be a part of that and giving feedback. I appreciate you all coming and speaking at the um public comments and and just keeping us in tune with the impact that we we have um with the decisions that we make as a board. Um it's it's not easy but uh I do feel that uh we are in a place where we have a decent plan that can move us in a a good direction that will keep us uh moving in a space where we can continue to do good work. But we won't
085forget the great work that we've done so far and the impact that has had and we will need to work extra hard to see how we get back to that. All >> thank you very much, Miss Moore. >> Uh, thank you. I would also again like to thank all the the stakeholders that shared um emails or public comment over the last several weeks. Um, and I I do have a question. Um, superintendent, um, you mentioned tonight that we would have a coordinator um, specifically um, focused on AVID. Is that are you talking about the CPL coordinator? >> There'll be a coord there's a coordinator within CPL that will um be responsible for Abid. There'll be other duties as well. It's not specifically only [clears throat] for Abbott, but there will be a coordinator dedicated um
086to doing Abbott. Yes. >> Can you share what their current responsibilities are? >> I Mark you have any can help me out with that? I don't I don't know the individuals. It's still being discussed because there's there's two coordinators and so um Dr. Kier is working on and looking at what the total picture is and so the the I can't give the specific name or the individual um but there's one of the two coordinators will be responsible for there's a variety of other things there's uh integration of technology there's a number of things that those folks are responsible for but our our assessment of it is is that capacity uh there is capacity within those the coordinator position Okay. So, how many total CPL staff will be absorbing these respons the new AVID responsibilities if
087we move forward with this plan? >> Well, there's what there's the coordinator position and then uh Dr. Kier along with his directors and the coordinator will be looking at working with Skoey and then looking at what the uh responsibilities are and working with our instructional coaching team and supporting the AVID program. >> Okay. So, we're not it's not quite clear then how many individuals will be will be taking over these responsibilities. >> Not specific not specifically at this time. >> Okay. >> No. Um and then I just want to point out um that prior to ESRE funds the head counselor did oversee AVID but that was only for secondary correct >> they assisted with the secondary AVID. Yes. >> Okay. Yeah. For secondary AVID. Okay. Um and then um so at the last meeting it
088was mentioned that the head counselor would again take over um you know absorb the avid responsibilities but of since that time um as you mentioned we expanded into elementary and then um so that was two weeks ago that that was the suggested plan and then now we have a a new plan correct >> no it's not a new plan this plan has been been developed we didn't we didn't go into the detail is we weren't we weren't ready in the presentation on the 4th to go into um great detail on every single position. What we what the purpose was to share the general plan, identify where the board and community had questions and then to come back to this meeting and bring more detailed information on the things that they asked for more detail about.
089So that's why we brought more detailed information about the AVID uh plan based on the feedback that we received from the board on the fourth. But it's not a new plan. >> Okay. Well, um I just want to be sure that, you know, I want to have confidence that we have a solid plan to support um AVID moving forward. Um and I just I would like to say that I think that AVID is an amazing uh program that has great value to our students. Um, according to our current district AVID staff, we currently support nearly 20,000 students and as I mentioned tonight, 10,000 teachers. Um, and I would like to see that number grow um not maintain and certainly not decline. Uh, AVID supports EUSD's learning vision. every student learning in every classroom in every
090subject every day to prepare college, career and life ready graduates. Studies, evaluations, and research shows show that AVID students graduate high school and enroll in college at significantly higher rates. Uh I have received dozens of emails uh from teachers, including our AVID site coordinators emphasizing that AVID is evidence-based to improve student outcomes. All site coordinators that emailed me emphasized that current district AVID coordinator position, the current district AVID coordinator position and the two district AVID coaches are essential to their site success in implementing AVID and feeling supported as a site coordinator. Furthermore, part of AVID includes equity. According to one of our district AVID coaches, the AVID program intentionally targets and successfully serves our highest need student populations. So now I would like to um focus turn the focus just a minute for to our
091equity department positions. Um in the in the last meeting it was previously mentioned that most departments or positions that were originally funded with er funds were cut or experiencing cuts um with this these recommendations. But um but I would like to I did um ask some for some question uh I asked for some information about equity from the staff and is it correct that prior to Esser funds we only had four equity positions >> that was pre- pandemic. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So, and at the last meeting you mentioned that after these cuts, the equity will still have 18 positions. Correct. >> Yes. Part of that is because youth development went from student support and health services over to the equity department. >> So, how how many employees within the equity department are within
092the youth within youth development? >> Do my math correctly? Six. Seven. >> Seven. Okay. So um but still we have significantly more um equity positions filled now than prior to ESRE funds. So I just wanted to correct >> I just wanted to point that out because you said that there was a reduction but overall there's been significant >> so it went from four prior to uh the pandemic was four and then went to 32 with er funds and then with these reductions it goes to 18. Yes. I just wanted to point out that there still um is significantly more staff than prior to Ezra funds. >> The the configuration of the overall department is different as well. So you're not you're not comparing apples to apples because there the the youth development the entire group
093was moved over to the department. So I just want to make sure we're clear that that's not that's not a direct um comparison. >> Right. I just wanted to mention that though since last time when I asked about it um I just wanted to make it clear that there were four before Ezer funds. Thank you. Um and so many many site coordinators and teachers mentioned like I said um some of them said that AVID is more important than equity because it directly benefits our students in our highest needs populations um and um that it also directly benefits students with evidence-based outcomes and prepares them for college or career. So, I just think there's some important questions that we need to ask when we're looking at um that, you know, when we're looking at all these
094positions. Um uh as I mentioned, AVID is impacting nearly 20,000 of our students um with positive outcomes and this has been done under the direction of only three district staff. And I would like to say that that is I think that's money well spent. Um, when I ran for this position as a board member, I promised to support evidence-based curriculum and programs, and I also promise to listen to stakeholders when making important decisions. As I shared, the individuals who are on the sites and in the classroom have shared significant evidence and experiences with me to prove that AVID should continue to be a priority. So, I respectfully ask that we consider keeping these three essential positions. Thank you, Miss Berini. >> Okay. Um, I want to thank all of you guys for working so hard
095um to get to this this work that we're looking at here. And I know it took bargaining units. I know it took the cabinet. um the board we we didn't have much to do with all the workings, but we have gone through all the things since then trying to figure out what goes where and who is in charge of what all of those kind of things. Um, and I know that that's taken a lot of of work on your part because I don't remember I mean I worked for the district for 31 years before I retired and I don't remember this amount of detail ever going in to the budget and and I just want to commend everybody for that because I know it takes a lot of work. Um, it's it's still hard because
096we don't have enough money for all the positions we want and that's just the way life is. is kind of like your home home your home budget. You know, you don't always have money for everything you want, but here there you there are students that may miss out and um that makes things very difficult. Um I know another thing that was taken into play here was um direction that Superintendent Hoffman kind of brought to the board was if we could put out something asking people if they plan to retire in within this year. um could they let us know ahead of time so that maybe we could look at that kind of uh empty spots to put people in and that I think has helped definitely as well. Um at least I mean we're not
097really allowed to let you know so and so is retiring. That's not part of the plan. But um we we do have those numbers and HR is using those because as president of of a bargaining unit, one of the hardest things I ever had to do was to sit in layoff meetings. Not fun. Not fun at all. Um and I know nobody really wants to do that, but I think the plan that you guys have come up with here makes a lot of sense. And I'm understanding that the counselor number isn't set in stone. We're still going to look at the seabeds for the 26 27 year. So that that helps there. Um I'm hoping that we're able to find enough elementary counselors to fill what what we're looking for. I know that was a
098problem before and um there were a lot of schools that didn't end up getting an elementary counselor. There was a lot of mess with that. I'm hoping that we will look at finalizing a list of the most needy schools, the schools that need the help the most, and make sure that the counselors, the elementary counselors go there, if we can, um it just makes a lot of sense and and I hope that places that we're not able to fill in with um you know, family, community engagement, people, etc., maybe um the people the the school LCAPS can accommodate those and you know we've got school site councils all those other things those are all different ways that we can get additional monies to these jobs if we find that they are important enough still to
099um to put people in them basically um I I don't like doing this any more than anybody else does but I think The plan is well thought out and I I appreciate everything. I have no more questions. I think I asked enough of you the last time. [laughter] Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Jean. >> Um, I don't really have much to say besides thank you for putting this all together and um the previous board members have already echoed basically what I was planning to say originally. So, I want to save us some time and give more time to our next speakers. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Yang. >> Yeah. Um, good evening um to the community and everyone here. Um, yeah, it it is a uh a situation kind of like a roller
100coaster in a way, meaning you know it travels 360. Um you know we started this uh journey um during the pandemic and uh there was a lot of thoughts and um a lot of uh opinions and a lot of ideas went into um the mini position that we thought was going to help the community especially the kids. And um we had over 300 positions um if I recall um correctly. And uh we were able to um hire um very close to that number. And um during that period of time um we have spoken to um many position that had been very effective helping kids um you know mental health uh counselors avid and on and on and on right so there was a lot of positivity uh in this journey um for our kids for
101sure and also for the staff as well as they lean on each other on a daily basis. And uh to me, I'm very proud of that. Um you know, we we talked about the equity uh program that we went from four um positions to 32 positions and then currently uh 18. So yeah, that that's very um um helpful for our very large um diverse um district, right? We we have um we have um this this this district has majority of majority of the students are minority and you know that's um that doesn't happen um too often in a school district. Um but it is here and you know the equity program it really help out uh student in need student who are at disadvantage and we we saw you know the mini presentation um the
102last three four years you know whenever the equity program came to the podium and present you know presentations and of course along with the uh family and community engagement u program which is the faith uh program. Um you know this the the home visitation um you know the the conversation that our uh staff have with the students, the parents you know at their own home um those stories were shared with us and you know is very touching as far as you know uplifting um the the family right building trust and so forth. So those those um Those things seem small but it's very um caring right builds trust build you know uh built builds uh I would say uplifting spirits and and uh a lot of time you know those disadvantaged um family really need
103this sort of uh this sort of help and so um you know so across the board you know to AVID AVID you know obviously preparing students you know to go to higher education and build that knowledge, build that confident um go into higher education and just uh a a better life in general. So um yeah, it it's it's very hard to quantify um which position is, you know, way more demand than others um to the teeth um of it. But, you know, we do have uh we do have um you know, our staff who work, you know, day and night, you know, to to really, you know, give us the I would say um the most reliable data that we could get our hands to and um and give us recommendation as we have seen
104in past. uh presentation and then also today right and um you know I do appreciate our uh constituents um reach out through emails and write in very details and you know I read uh them all um some of them are longer than others and you know I really appreciative of your uh inputs uh it's it's not easy um especially if you're facing um losing a job And again, you know, I said at the last um meeting um if if we are not losing our job, we don't really know the feeling of those people that are going through that, right? But the the positive side of that is that, you know, um during the time of those individuals um are are in our district, they they were they were trained and still being trained to have
105a lifetime skill set. um rather you know some of them you know continue to stay employed with Elgroveve Unified School District or moving forward to uh a different position here in El Grove or you know somewhere else. I I I really um you know um think that that it's a positive u note that you know they have to take and it it breaks my heart to um know that we cannot uh obtain all the position that has been so helpful for our students and uh you know it does break my heart and but at the end of the day we we do have a budget that we have to uh meet and and that's is the hard truth. And you know, I know that not everybody's going to be happy, you know, but remember, you
106know, we had a lot of um we had we had um we have le less position before co and we have a lot more today still. So that means that we are still able to provide the help um to our student staff more than uh prior to co. So so I think that that is something that we all should be proud uh from the labor uh partners to our staff, the parents, the teacher, um the um the students all the way to the board. So, um I I just want to say that I will continue to uh you know um dig in, do my homework and u push for what is needed um in our school district and uh continue to advocate and fight for those position. Uh but I know that um not everybody's
107going to be happy. Uh somebody's feeling is going to be hurt. Um that is what uh we it's going to uh transpire to. But just again remember uh we are moving um ahead making progress even though it feels like regrass we still making a progress. I just want to make that last note and I just want to thank everyone who's been a part of this journey. I know that you know some of our board members who were with us um during this process very difficult process. I remember we, you know, stay very long um long night meetings like up to like, you know, 12 midnight to 1:00, you know, I mean, those are very tough tough meetings. Um and and some of them were ver uh virtual, some were in person. So, you know, um
108I again, you know, I I just want to sincerely say I do recognize um the concern, the hurt um and the the the the advocacy of you know u want to make sure that we uh keep these very uh helpful position to help our kids. But um we will do our best. I know I will. and uh whether that meets some of your um um [clears throat] expectation or not, you know, um we'll see. But uh I just want to say uh thank you for all your participation. Um we appreciate you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Miss Alviani. >> I really don't have a lot to add. Um I can echo Miss Ballerina's um comments on counselors. Thank you, Miss Baldwin's point, too. Um, we we know these things are important. Um, we
109we definitely appreciate the work that was done, even if it was only done for can only be done for a period of time, but I I think we dreamed big and we will continue to leverage our resources to get back these things that we know have helped. Um, and I think that's really the only um I don't know consolation. I mean, it's a it's a it's a hard hurtful time. Um, and it's been done with a lot of thoughtfulness. I believe a lot of input and um and I do believe in the value of of the people and many of the people that were having to change their jobs or or choose a new direction. and we will work as a group to bring back those things that we all agree are important and we
110can't be there right now because we're focused on number two tonight. But truly number one is being fiscally solvent and it's it is an in is shocking if you look around our area and our state of how many districts are in trouble right now. How many districts have run out of their reserves? how many districts are under um are being overseen by the state. And and we have not done that because we've been very intentional about how we we run our business. And we run this very large group because we have the importance of these 63,000 students to serve and our 7,000 employees to employ in a place that is good to be at. And so we take that very seriously. Um I I I recognize um like I said that this is um feeling
111like a bit of a step back, but this is where we're at and and I do commit to to working to bring the things back as we can fiscally responsibly with the people we have. I appreciate the help people um the hard work people have put in that there is no lack of consideration for what you have done what you chose to take a temporary job to help students get through a horrible time in our history, a horrible time in their lives. I think every generation has some sort of defining moment and we've definitely watched our children go through that and what you've done to help them we appreciate very much. Um Mr. Yang, I appreciate your words about the equity department, what we're doing to help our our our students in the most need
112and um and um thank you. Thank you for all your hard work. That's the best I got. >> Thank you, Miss Davis. >> Well, there's not much to say after my members of the board. It's this hard coming last. Um, I've been a part of this district as a parent, a grandparent, an employee, and now a board member for 34 years. So, I I've seen the es and flows of this district. And I also have a family that benefits from all of these departments. I have a family of color, so the equity work is very important to me. the AVID. I have great hopes that one of my grandchildren is going to break through and be our first ones going to college. Um, and the high school counselors. I have a grandson going to high
113school next year and I know they're going to be needed. So, the these decisions are very hard to make being so vested in the community. Um, I had the privilege to attend a AVID conference when it was just getting started at the elementary level and it was amazing work. Um, I got to see something that others didn't. I didn't wasn't a teacher. I wasn't an administrator, but somehow they let me in and I got to see what was coming. And we were like the second elementary school to become an AVID elementary. And the work that was put in and the change in the students was amazing. So, it is an amazing program that will always have my support, but as I echo um Miss Albiani, we have to have the money to do it. Um,
114as I said, I'm very vested in these programs, but I also have a responsible to be um fiscally responsible so that we can maintain our district as a whole. Um even at our LCAP meetings um the expectation of the people participating when they were asked how many member people do you think we're going to be able to keep out of this number their expectation was was low. They were very surprised at how many we were able to save. And that is in a direct response to our cabinet members who have gone over every budget. It's not like we have a huge pot of money that we can pull from for everything. It's lots and lots and lots and little budgets and monies that come with constraints and rules that are placed on them by the
115um funding sources. So, the deep dive that you guys did and working at a school site and knowing how those budgets work, that work was amazing and I appreciate and thank you for that work because we are not having to cut deeper than we are cutting at this time. Um, so I I just thank you. It it is such a hard decision for our community to make these kind of cuts, but they have to be made. and and we appreciate all the comments that were sent our way, every email that we received. I'm I'm sure my fellow members read them as I did. Um, we felt the pain. We felt the pain and I hope you feel our pain when we make these cuts, too. We're in this together. And I, as Miss Albiani also
116said, I would we want to go forward to bring these back when we can, but we have to keep the boat afloat. So, thank everybody for for the input we've received. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Um, I don't have that much to add. I think most everything has been said. I do uh I want to echo one thing that has been said, which is um I continue to be amazed um that we've managed to keep so many of the positions uh that we started with. Um we owe our department heads an enormous amount of credit for that. uh and and we really appreciate all of the work that you did uh making that happen. Um but I also I think it's important and so many of us have recognized that that is little
117comfort to those who are seeing their jobs disappear and we shouldn't shy away from that. We shouldn't fail to acknowledge that. Um and we shouldn't fail to acknowledge the people who are hurt. Um it's more than just feelings. Uh it's it's lives and household budgets that are are going to be disrupted. it's time spent seeking a new job. Um, leaving friends and colleagues behind and the incredible amount of uncertainty that goes with it. So, um, I share my colleagues, uh, you know, position. I thank thank you for everything you've done for our kids and I have no excuses. We owe you more than we can honor today and I think it's important that we acknowledge that. Um that said, uh I also support the recommendations. Um with regard to the plans going forward, um I
118think that this is not the end of the conversation. I think we have decisions to make. Uh you know, as a leadership team, as a governance team, um but approving this plan is not the end of the conversation. Um we as Miss Alvani pointed out um we have continuing responsibilities to ensure that we do not backslide in the services that we're providing. Um and we as a board have an obligation to make sure that that happens all of us and to uh provide oversight to make sure that everybody is making sure that everything continues to function uh in the way that we have gotten it to now. Um, so with that, uh, I have nothing more to add. Um, so, Mr. Superintendent, do you need any more guidance than that or are you good? >>
119I think you've been very clear. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, see, we have two action items, three action items. So, we are two hours in. Why don't we take a brief comfort break? Um and we will come back at 8:20. All right, board members, let's make our way back to the >> deis. All right, everybody. Let's bring it back. All right. >> Thank you everyone. Let's find our seats. All right. We have a number of action items tonight. First up, Gateway Community Charter and Sacramento Academic Vocational Academy uh Elkrove Charter renewal presentation. Miss Hubard. Saba. Oh, there we go. Do you want me to start over? No, I'm kidding. We're here today for Sava Elro's renewal determination. Sava is a directfunded non-classroombased charter school that began serving students in August
120of 2018 here in El Grove. SAVA serves approximately 370 students grades 7 through 12. SAVA serves at least 70% at risk youth and is considered a DAS school. This means that student performance is evaluated using DS which is a dashboard alternative school status in addition to state achievement indicators. SAVA has been eligible for DOS since um 2022. As per ED code, once a petition is submitted, the authorizer has 90 days to approve or deny the petition. The following timeline was followed, and tonight we're here for the final determination. The staff reviewed the petition utilizing an evaluation metrics, local data validation, and legal updates. The petition was reviewed for the following: Completeness, which addresses 15 elements. compliance aligning to ED code, school performance using the DOSS metrics and state indicators, fiscal governance, determining that the school
121is staying open is in the best interest of students. As part of the renewal report, the staff reviewed the following, excuse me, the [clears throat] following. Is the school currently identified for technical assistance? Need to grab some water. Right back. [laughter] >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. Is a school currently identified for technical assistance? Safa is currently identified for technical assistant for pupil achievement but is making progress. I will share some of the data on the next slide. They are mostly on track for renewal and then renewal performance level will be the DAS alternative criteria. There are five areas that would give reason for denial if a charter does not meet the criteria, but SAVA meets and mostly meets all of five. School performance is reviewed using DOSS and state indicators. The slide is showing
122a comparison of state indicators from 2022 to 2024, but I would like to share the 2025 dashboard data that just came out. The 2025 dashboard data shows growth in all indicators but chronic absenteeism. SAVA showed improvement from 24 to 25 in ELA which went from a negative 78 points to a negative 53 points a 25% or 25 point increase. Math went from 100 I'm sorry negative 181 points to negative 161 points a 20 point improvement. ELPI, English learner progress indicator, went from 50% to 52.9%, a 2.9% increase. CCI, college and career indicator went from 2% to 6.1%, a 3.1 actually I did my math wrong. It's a 4.1 um improvement and suspension rate maintained which means that and was good because it was below 2.5. But I wanted to note that their students with DI
123students with disability suspension declined 1.6%. Graduation rate on the four to five graduation um rate went from 60% to 62% a 2% increase. The only indicator that showed negative growth was chronic absenteeism. It went from 27% to 38% and I know that that's something that SA is working on currently with the DOS performance data summary. Um, we're looking at the 2024 DAS indicators. SAVA met five out of the eight indicators. The three that were undetermined were locally reported. So, the staff was not able to verify. A couple of key highlights are that the one-year graduation rate was 93.1%. Of their CCNI course completion, 100% of students completed at least four CTE classes. and their retention rate increased from 74% in 2022 to 81% in 2024. These dos indicators are agreed upon by Saba and Elkrove
124and we are currently working on new metrics so that we will we will have all verifiable uh data moving forward. Um basically for governance and fiscal concerns there are no concerns and there were no corrective action letters issued to the school pursuant of ed code. So the options are denial or approval of the petition. If the uh board should decide to deny the petition by adopting the finding that denial is in the best interest of students, it is recommended that the board adopts the findings outlined in the staff report. If the board should decide to approve the petition, the staff believes the school can be successful with continued oversight and a newou with an addendum addressing the following. The student group data disagregation, local assessment reports, alternative metric development, governance, transparency and training, educational partner
125input and decision-making, and a clarification that material revisions and the renewal process will follow ED code and the Elgrove board policy. Based on the staff review, the team is of the opinion that Sava Elkrove met the requirements of all necessary criteria and is eligible for a 5-year renewal. If the board elects to renew, the term of the charter would be July 1st, 2026 to June 30th, 2031. Any questions? >> Thank you very much. Mr. Yang, are there any blue cards on this item? board president. There's no blue car on this item. Great. >> Thank you. Uh would any board members like to make a comment or ask questions? >> Yeah, we do have a presentation next. >> Oh, okay. >> Should we go to that? Okay. >> Water. >> Not much of a presentation tonight,
126but good evening, President Vargas, Superintendent Hoffman, and board members. um tonight. Let's see if I can get to my slide. There we go. Okay. Um first off, I want to thank Director Hubard and her team for the thorough review of our charter as well as the board members for coming out to many of you made it out to visit. Uh it was a great process. It's fun to dive in, talk about our program, show off our students, and we want to thank everyone for their time and making that happen. We are in agreement with staff's recommendation and we are also working collaboratively with staff to fine-tune our updated DOS uh metrics as well as theou and we believe that we'll have that ready and agreed upon to bring back both to this board and to
127the GCC board of directors in the month of December. So we feel very positive about that and for those board members that were not able to make it over the last few months our doors are always open. We would love to have you out sometime in the spring. So expect an email from us and again thank you for your time. Thank you for the conversations and uh Sue, thank you for the review and that is all we have tonight. >> Great. Thank you very much. Board members, any questions or comments? >> Um I did go out and got the um pleasure of touring not just one but two of the the facilities. um you got some good things going on out there and uh I have a grandson as I've shared with you that's interested
128in your program. So why am I becoming a grandparent supporter out there? Um so yeah, a lot of good work going out there and it was really fun to come and see how engaged your students were in the CTE pieces, especially um quiet studying. It was not what I expected. I I was pleasantly surprised. So, thank you for that invitation. >> Okay, >> I also um enjoyed my visit out there and I I know Deia told you this as well. We expect an invitation to the fashion show. Got it. >> So, that's that's a really interesting area for me. So, I I'm excited about it. And I really did enjoy the tour and just the hands-on experience those kids get is is just amazing and the small class sizes was wonderful as well. So I
129and thank you for taking the time to give us the tour and answer all my questions. Okay, [laughter] there's more. Uh, I was able to visit a few months ago and it was a I was really um also pleasantly surprised and um I think that Saba is um offers unique opportunities for kids that might not have them otherwise and so I think that's really important and um so thank you. >> You just wanted to thank the um community for coming out and supporting Sava. It's really obvious you guys have a really great community and um I worked at Los Rios for eight years and when I came to visit Lasava it was like oh this feels like a little community college here um and getting to see the things that you're all doing is just
130so special um really important work uh that our you know students non-traditional students need um access to and you're doing some really tremendous um things and I'm really excited to learn more about the things that you'll continue to do and And um this is really great too to hear that you're also looking to improve um on some of those indicators. And so you know what's uh continuous improvement is always a good thing and it's clear that you guys see that um and you want to improve and and continue to do such great work and I think that's what makes you so special. Um so yes, definitely looking forward to the fashion show and checking out the um the students that are doing the um the firefighting. That is really fun. I will definitely let my
131husband know if you want some a guest speaker to come and talk about CalFire or um CDCRF fire. Um so, but thank you again. Uh I know this is a long process for you all. Very successful and uh thank you for being a part of our community here. >> All right. All right. Then I will entertain a motion to approve the Sava Elkrove renewal. >> So move. >> Moved by Mr. Yang. Second. >> Seconded by Miss Bowwin. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries unanimously. >> Thank you. >> Next up, we have calendar conversion recommendation for Arnold Adriani Elementary School. Dr. Coats. All right. Good evening, President Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, Miss Avalos, staff, and community. Um, here tonight to provide a recommendation for
132calendar conversion. And before we get started, I just want to acknowledge that this is uh we don't come to these recommendations lightly. We know that um no matter what we recommend, it's not going to meet the needs of everyone involved, but um but here we are. Um because the work needs to move forward. Um every decision that we make from building a new school to making a recommendation is uh rooted in our learning vision. Um and tonight is no exception. So, you've seen everything in this presentation before. Today, we're just going to review the process to date, provide a recommendation, and talk through um should you approved the recommendation, the timeline to transition. So, calendar convergence um are a three-step process. What we do is we examine site enrollment and capacity data to determine potential
133calendar conversions. Uh you'll see when we get to the process that this started over a year ago. Um the studying started several years ago, but starting to really have public conversations with with the board and community over a year ago. We gather parent and staff feedback and then bring a recommendation to the board for consideration. So, as a reminder, this slide was presented back in August when we talked about managing growth in Elk Grove. And um uh year round calendars are one strategy that we utilize when we have um over capacity in particular areas. when we use a fourtrack year- round model, um only three tracks are in session at any time and it expands the capacity of a a school by about 25%. And so what this does is it allows us to have
134as many students that live in the neighborhood and in the boundaries attend their neighborhood school. And so it's the um it's the intent that most kids um fit their attend their neighborhood's uh school. It also is a way for us to minimize construction costs, new construction. Um and should we not use the year- round model in Elkrove, we'd likely need another four to seven uh elementary schools, which is just not feasible. The average cost of an elementary school is around $75 million. [clears throat] So looking at the years of study really by the facilities and planning team uh conversations with elementary education and anecdotal experiences at the site. Um we've been watching and had our eye on this uh capacity issue at Adriani since 2324. At that point the site was at 95% capacity. Not
135going to read every single bullet but you can see the story here. In 2425 uh we were over capacity and we were offloading students but also receiving some students and those are for specialized programs that we have. Um for 2526 um we again are over uh capacity. we are offloading uh 78 students and most of those fall into the TK or kinder um age group. And so that's been an area of concern, a place where we've heard a lot of um uh you know really worry uh from the parents and the families who um who live within the Adriani boundary but are attending another another school at such a young age. Um, we did look at some other options and I'll kind of walk through the timeline in just a minute, but we did uh
136entertain a boundary adjustment. Um, but that would take out a portion of the Adriani boundary who's currently attending. Um, it would impact the enrollment of Sierra as well as Pleasant Grove. Um and then reducing the complete capacity of Adriani to just 57% which is an underutilized school. Um that really wasn't a viable option. Um we entertained the idea of relocatables those portable um classrooms uh to help alleviate enrollment impaction. Um I don't expect you to completely recall but portables are not a long-term solution. We talked through that back in August um at the managing growth and so um again just reiterating that the calendar conversion while not an easy decision appears to be the best solution. So I'm just going to say it again um we are going to recommend this evening the shift from
137uh Adriani Elementary School from a traditional calendar to a year round calendar beginning in July of 27. We do um follow an 18-month process to make sure um knowing that the transition isn't easy. Uh staff and families need time to plan, make adjustments, uh child care. So, it's really important that um we make a decision on how we're going to move forward so we have adequate time to plan, prepare supports, etc. um based on what we've learned and what we've heard from the offloading uh especially in our TK and K classes um using a similar approach uh that we have at Miwok adding short-term portables relocatables um at Adriani we have um capacity for up to four um we would be placing those this summer to avoid the offloading for the 2627 school year knowing
138it'd be um uh taxed in a in a way that um uh similar to Miwok and we would have to mitigate some of the increased traffic um but we could do that knowing it's not um the permanent solution. So the timeline to the transition and what we've done to date. So, as I had um shared over a year ago, we really started to have um deep conversations with different departments, our cabinet team, and we started to communicate what this could look like um uh November about a year ago, we presented an initial um presentation to the board for consideration. Um after that initial recommendation, we were said we were going to go to do the work. We were going to get out to the community. we are going to work with the site. Um and
139and that's what we did. We discussed the transition. We provided information. Um we obtained input. We tried to answer questions. Multiple um parent letters had gone out. We did survey families um on their preferences. Um we conducted community meetings to discuss the transition and um we explored other possibilities such as the boundary studies. One thing I will share about the survey results is um we had approximately 165 uh respondents. We have just over 900 students that attend uh Adriani. And the biggest concern that came out of the survey was whether siblings could be on the same track. And so that is something through the randomized process that um we've done a really good job being able to make sure that siblings maintain on the same track. I don't expect it to be perfect 100% of
140the time, but um elementary education and their process is um really tight in delivering um those trying to keep siblings together. So through the conversation that we've had um the studies that we've done uh the input from uh from the families and the site um facilities and planning team um we're bringing this uh forward this recommendation this evening uh to convert Adriani into the year- round calendar. Should you move forward with the recommendation, uh, we would communicate that widely to the communities, work through the transportation process. We do have ED code 37611. Um, that has some requirement um to post and give notice when we're changing a calendar. In February of 2027, that randomized selection process to determine track assignments would be done. We'd notify parents of track assignments. And then um in July of
14127, the year would start with the um multi-track year round calendar. And so just to reiterate that tonight we are recommending that Adriani Elementary School move from a traditional calendar to a year-round calendar beginning July of 27 and that we would provide the interim temporary interim housing that as soon as this summer to minimize offloading students to neighboring schools. >> Thank you. >> Right. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Yang, are there any blue cards on this item? Yeah, we have uh a few. Okay. Calling on James followed by Ben. Just a second. My check. >> Okay. Thank for letting me speak tonight. Um, what I'm was kind of unaware about this meeting to me it seemed like it's kind of deceptive and hidden if it's not posted in emails or located on the electronic
142sign at Adriana School. I was informed about it by a parent. Um, as far as I'm concerned, I don't want Adriana going year round because I have a first grade daughter and a sixth grade son at the school now. And, uh, that's going to cause problems for child care, figuring for the following year with my daughter will be in second grade and my son will be in seventh grade. So, it be two different tracks. One will be year round and one will be um, traditional. So that's going to be a burden on me for trying to figure out um child care to figure how they're going to get picked up from school because both of my wife and I work and uh what I don't understand is I was didn't realize um you guys said
143you had many meetings. I just remember just that one at the school and uh what I don't understand is majority of the people that I feel that go to Adrian don't want it to go year round. I don't know where you got that input at and they should have planned earlier for the growth of Elor of Elgor School District to build another school instead of just putting the burden on transition Adriana into a yearround school. That's it. >> Thank you. Next, Ben, >> followed by Jeffrey. >> All right. Good evening, U Mr. President, members of the board. Um, Ben Trifo. I am a parent of a student at Adriani and a parent of a student that will hopefully soon be going to Adriani Elementary. I want to start off my comments by noting that I
144am a product of Velgro Unified School District. I went to Folks Ranch and Joseph Sims. I went to Harriet Eddie. I went to Franklin High School. Shout out to Miss Phillips, my sixth grade teacher. If she is listening, she's probably not. Um, I want to say that because I I genuinely I value a public education. I do. And I I moved to the 95829 zip code to send my kids to Adriani. I live 73 miles from the school. I walk my children to school every single Friday with their friends. I've been doing that since kindergarten. My student is in first grade right now. The overcrowding at the school has negatively impacted my family. I have my son. He's in first grade. He's in a split class, a first, second grade split class. He does not
145get to go to lunch and recess with his friends. He is picked on by second and third graders. I've been told my son that's joining going to TK next year will likely be offloaded to a different campus. I see the nodding around here. You all think likely that I am in support of this plan. I am not. Here's why. I don't think it gets to the root cause of this issue. We have significant amounts of families at our school who come to the school for the same reason I do. It is a fantastic school. I think it's one of the best ones in Elkrove Unified School District. Unfortunately, they are coming in from the uppermost parts of the 95829 zip code. They're passing by others uh elementary schools along the way. They're coming from Rancho
146Cordova. You're going to hear other examples of students coming from across I-5. They're overcrowding the school. And yet families that live in the zip code who are assigned to the school are negatively impacted. I want there to be a permanent solution. I am a taxpayer in this area. My dollars fund this school. They fund the school, the area, the schools around here. I want this area to be successful. I want our students to be successful. This school has developed leaders in our community. I want to stay here. I want my kids to be here. But I want a solution that is long-term, that is tenable. We have 500 more houses going in north of Gerber Road that aren't assigned to the school. We have not done a good job of making sure that everyone coming
147to the school is actually assigned to the school. I have no faith whatsoever that those homes there are not going to be going to the school that they're assigned to that they will then end up coming to Adriion. I just want a permanent solution that works that everyone plays by the rules. So I urge this body, please reject the recommendation today. Let's, you know, have continue a conversation. Let's include the community. I want a permanent solution and maybe it is a blend of some of these things presented, but I don't think year round right now is a solution. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jeffrey. Followed by Danette Shoma. >> Jeffrey, correct? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I want to start off by letting you know I think you have a misunderstanding of our area. you
148miss the major factor and it just shows. So I put my thoughts down. Uh good evening. I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about both the lack of transparency in this process and the direction the district is trying to take. Uh this is against the clear wishes of families that you serve. First is transparency. The district announced anformational meeting days in advance and it was buried buried in the talking points. Okay. Well, that's why people couldn't find it. Right. Then you did a special meeting to follow up on this at 10 a.m. on a weekday when we work and our kids are at school. We couldn't go to that. Okay. After that, you didn't release the results of the survey that you guys gave. Why not? When you withhold data, families are forced to assume
149that you're hiding something. And you are? Because it was massively against going year round. Okay. Why didn't you state that data in the calendar conversion decision making process talking point number two that you put up? You forgot that data. Do you know what that data was? I have it. 82% of families said they had concerns about transitioning to a year- round calendar. When asked which option they preferred, only 16% chose to go year round. 60% wanted offloading. 24% chose other. That's portables. That's 84% of our community saying no. listen to us 84%. The survey I did had over 250 replies which I presented at the last meeting. Additionally, the root issue is not the calendar. It's the district's failure to properly vet enrollment. It's well known from principles as far back as Mark Vieiraa, okay?
150That parents, teachers, everyone knows a quarter to a third of enrollment at Adriani is from out of boundary. You just talked about being in boundaries. They're not enforcing it. Okay? When asked about this, we were told there's nothing we can do. All right? They must accept all documentation. So, what's the point of boundaries if you're not checking addresses by not enforcing them? You're actually draining attendance and therefore funding from adjacent schools. Do you not care about the adjacent schools? They need their money, too. We live in an area with no apartments, very little turnover, homes are over a million dollars. You could have planned this out. This is a failure on your guys' part. Okay. Finally, I need to address the comments at the quote unquote informational meeting that were so tonedeaf it made us
151sick. Okay, we were sold. It wasn't a meeting. It was a sales pitch where someone said I I forget who it was. Oh, you can travel on off calendar that presupposes we have one child or they're both on the same track and they're not because someone that I my son goes to Karate with Adel. They had two kids on different tracks. It doesn't happen. Okay. Also, it presupposes we don't have kids on traditional calendars. That was so tonedeaf. It was it was borderline in insulting. In closing, families are not confused. We're not misinformed. We are clearly telling you 84% say do not go year round. We need transparency. Sir, your time's up. >> Hasn't been. You got 20 minutes to talk, man. Give me a sec. 84%. >> Make the correct decision. Vote against it.
152>> Thank you. Annette followed by Andrew. >> Well, thank you for letting me speak here today. Um, like Jeff mentioned, my kids also go to Adriani and in fact, one of them would be moving on to middle school when we will be changing it to a track system. Um, in fact, very convenient for the families to have a kid on a track and a traditional. But what I'm see sharing here today is that most of our community do not support this change. We have said that in our surveys and we have voiced it to our principal and some of you as well. Um on this platform the biggest concern we have is this is impacting causing a hardship for not just for parents, teachers, everyone. Now we have to identify different means to financially support
153our kids outside those track system times and provided care. Not only that, it's also impacting our families negatively because we wouldn't even have a quality time together if we have a kid on a traditional and a track system. And coming back to a few things that we discussed today, um I'm disappointed to hear how it was shared because first thing was shared was like we had multiple meetings. We didn't we had a one meeting. The data provided in there was inacc inadequate. We asked for more information. An email was sent to the district asking very pointed and questions that were referring to the data that was never disclosed. There was a very high level broader information provided. But coming back to our portable conversation, it was based on the information that was provided in our
154questions. We said the increase would be 106 students by 2029, which will require five portable classrooms, three without bathrooms and two with bathrooms. The I the concern was that we don't have enough bathroom space to accommodate that. Looking back to our facilities plan from 2015 to 2025, Ajani can bathroom can support 1,400 students and you can look at it. It's up on the website. Secondly, going back to the distance from the bathroom was the second concern. If these portables were going to be placed behind multiple purse room, actually there's already two portables that are being used by assist at Adriani. There's a space for three portables beh right behind there which would reduce the distance to the bathrooms almost same that would be from the other corner of the school and the two portables can
155go next to the multi-purpose room and used by assist program in fact it would be convenient for them because right now parents are walking across the campus to that classroom to check the kids out and then walking back to a multi-purpose room which is closer to the entrance. So I think that's where I'm I'm wondering if there's a more work that need to be done. So at least no matter where we go and what decision we make that we all have a clear picture and right now I don't feel like as a community we have a clear picture and I'm afraid you guys don't have a clear picture to vote on this today and I think that's my that's all I want to share. Thank you. >> Thank you Jester Hall followed by What does
156school say? >> Hello, my name is Ani Westerhouse. I have had the pleasure of having children at Adriani for the past decade and we love Adriani. We chose it because it's an amazing school. I was a teacher for many years. I taught at a year-round school and when I chose what home to buy, I chose traditional. A lot of families in our neighborhood chose traditional. I know there's benefits, but we chose this area because it's traditional. And I understand that there's been a lot of growth in our neighborhood, but there are, as mentioned, people that are o disobeying the rules. They're not using their addresses correctly. And I have to say, as an educator, I was horrified by the disrespect from the district coming in having meetings. You had one meeting, ma'am. one meeting at
157our school, we had many questions. There was a ton of parents who had more questions. We were given a very generic piece of paper as a response. The response was not adequate, nor did it address what portables could actually do to help our school, which will only be impacted for a handful of years before natural attrition happens. I am always advocating for public school, but the way that we were treated by you coming to our school, not listening to us, as Jeff mentioned, 82 to 84% of the parents do not want this. And when all those parents do not want this, guess what's going to happen to your ADA? Guess what's going to happen? A lot of families are gonna be like, "Well, we're gonna pull our kids out because they have families all over
158the world. That's why they chose Adriani." Now, I think this vote is very premature. I would like to know more numbers about what portables would actually cost and how many bodies we could actually get in. It's you guys came to us at a meeting like Jeff said basically selling us like you already knew that you wanted us to go year round. That is not okay. You said point two that you cared about our opinion. Clearly that is not the case because many of us have talked to you. I talked to you at the meeting. There's been no real response. Your solution to go year round is inadequate and it's disrespectful to the families of Adriani and we are owed an apology because this is not the way we handle families. Thank you. >> Thank you.
159Next said Co. >> Yeah, correct. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um good evening. Um, I just wanted to let you guys know I grew up in Elgrove Unified School Districts my whole life. And you know, this district is really dear to me. Um, from kindergarten to 12th grade. And when me and my wife were choosing um a house to buy, our kids were not even in school yet. Well, one of them was or going to school. I specifically chose this district or this, you know, location, vineyard location because of the school and um we really wanted to be in the in the area. Um and another thing is I went to uh Mary Sukumaro and that school is on track. Um and I really didn't like it. I remember where our church had kids camps
160and we didn't have to go we weren't able to go to kids camps because it was in a a track where I was in school, you know. So, a lot of events that I missed. Um, and I really wanted a traditional school for my kids. Um, I have four kids. One of them is going to be going to um, school soon. And it just worries me because, um, if they're going to be in different tracks, it's going to be really, really tough to, you know, you know, go anywhere or do anything, you know, and have all these, you know, community events, you know, outside of school with church and, you know, other events. So, I really want to um you know, have you guys vote against it. I really like the traditional system and uh
161I feel like if you know, us as a you know, young family, it would really help for us to have a traditional school year. Um, you know, I don't know all the solutions that there might be, but um I really hope it's going to stay the way it is. Thank you guys. >> Thank you, Michelle. Followed by Brick Lamb. Um, good evening board members and fellow community members. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Michelle Coffron and I have children who attend Adriani Elementary School, Albiani Middle School, and Pleasant Grove High. I stand here today to express my strong opposition to transitioning of transitioning Adrian Adriani Elementary School to a year- round schedule. While I understand the desire to fix the problem over impacted school, this particular change would
162create a significant hardship, especially for families with older children in middle school and high school. I'm really concerned about the attendance rates, which will I honestly feel will decline under a year- round model and just to accommodate schedules of their older siblings. This would ultimately cause a loss of funding due to decreased attendance. Adriani has always been a high-erforming, academically competitive school and decreased attendance and thus resources would ultimately negatively impact our school's performance. Additionally, this transition imposes a significant um burden on families. Many families rely on our summer breaks to coordinate child care and work schedules or older siblings like mine often help with their younger siblings while we work. For many families, especially those with multiple children on different campus sk uh different campuses and different schedules, year- round school introduces logistical conflicts
163and additional expenses. For these reasons, I respectfully asked for um the board to reject the transition to a year transition to a year-round schedule. I'd really appreciate if you could if we could continue working together on a solution that strengthens our student achievement without creating unnecessary hardships for our families and students at our school. Thank you. >> Thank you. Last blue car. Brick Lamb. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Hi, my name is Dick Lamb. Good evening board members. I am a mom of a special ed student at Adriani and they are usually overlooked and not considered and in this case again they weren't considered. Specialed students will be negatively impacted tremendously. They will regress. Their structure will be abrupted. An autistic mom face the stress of a military combat warrior. you are
164going to add so much more stress onto that for us. I don't know why you think this was a good idea. All the surveys that were done were special ed students need surveyed in this were they thought of were they considered or are they again just an afterthought? Our students struggle so much. My son went from special ed to general ed. Structure and consistency is very important. Doing year round will tremendously abrupt that the impact will be so bad. Regression will be there. What are we going to do with these students? Are they not important? Are they meaningless? Are we going to fail these students because they're such a small minority? We are putting portables in already for TK and kindergarteners for the impact that you're talking about to alleviate what's going on. If that's
165already the case, why not look into those options? Why are we not thinking of these students? Please don't fail these students. I'm asking the board members to please support special ed students, our as special ed moms and parents. We need you guys to back us up. Don't fail these students. If you guys change this, they will be so negatively impacted. That's not fair to them. Thank you. >> Thank you. That ends the blue car on this item. Board President, >> thank you very much. Board members, are there any questions or comments? I will start with Miss Bowwin. >> Yeah, I was just curious about um how much more capacity would we be gaining um in I know you mentioned that there would we would we expect to decrease offloading um if we make this shift.
166Um is there can you give me a a better idea of like what what could that look like? Your mic is not on. >> Yeah, I know. I was trying to stall a little bit. Um, we thought we think we could mitigate um offloading in particular with our youngest age groups, the TK um and uh the K through three families. So, we think we could pretty much mitigate the offloading with the year- round conversion. >> You couldn't give me a number of like like if we were to do it, >> we're offloading 78 students and they would be able to um be in their home schools and >> and I would add and we retain the special ed programs that people come in at Adriani. Actually, those were preserved um as we moved this consideration
167and recommendation forward. >> Okay. Yeah. I just want to I know this is a very sensitive topic. I empathize deeply. I last year uh it was a big motivation for me to put my name in the hat to be a a board member for area 4. Um we live in the Lagona area and my neighborhood school is Joseph Sims. I have three children. None of them have attended Joseph Sims. Um last year we were transporting our kids. Uh we did get the advantage of having our son ride the bus, but that had it its other challenges. Um, every all three of our kids had to be somewhere at 8:30 and it was very I was my kids did not like me last year in the morning. I was drill sergeant mom. Um, and I understand
168that this is a huge change and it's um very hard, very hard on a family. Um, at the same time, we are a grow district and we need to be fiscally responsible and we don't have $75 million to just create more schools, unfortunately. Um, so I, you know, I do I appreciate the perspective shared here. Uh, it's very important to us. We value public comment. it has gives us an opportunity to really hear from the community um and receive the letters that have come in. Uh and I just wanted to express that this is a hard decision to have to make. Uh and I believe me I understand um what it feels like to have to make such a massive change being a working mom. um and my husband a firefighter so at times I'm
169a single mom during different times of the year and trying to manage that. Um but we are the district that we are because we make these kinds of decisions to try and make sure that we can maintain the good things that we have going here and remain uh fiscally solvent. And so unfortunately this may be a decision that is not going to sit well with our f some of our families. Um, but the biggest impact of not having to see your child offloaded and ha and have the potential of your children being at the same school, that is a a nice perk that I see with this option. Um, and I I support the recommendation. >> Thank you, Miss Moore. >> Yeah, I do have some questions and comments. Um, first of all, I would
170like to thank all the parents that came out to make public comment and um and or emailed. Um, I really appreciate your feedback. Um, the first question I have is I don't I know that parents asked what is the projected cost increase associated with transitioning to a year- round school. Have we calculated that for parents? >> We did calculate that. Um I don't have that is slightly more with um just cost of running operational having lights on utilities to run a year round elementary school. But um when you look at the annual ongoing cost versus the cost of a a new school um it's nominal. >> So did we provide that information to parents then when they asked? >> I don't believe that was in the FAQ. >> Okay. because I know that they asked
171that. So, I just that's I I want to validate their concerns that when they ask questions and we don't answer, then they feel that we did not listen. So, I think that's unfortunate. Um, and so did you say we're placing four or five portables? >> There's um not room for five from the planning team. So we can place up to four um for interim housing is what we would call temporary. >> Okay. And but but the plan is to that they're only for going to be there for a year. >> Uh they would be there during the transition. Yeah. Similar to Miwok as we're building the Arbor Ranch Elementary. They'll sit there while we're in the middle of that transition and then they'll be um relocated. >> Okay. Okay. Well, I just want to point
172out that portables I visit sites all the time and we keep portables on sites for extended amounts of time. So, um I I don't feel like that has been explored properly. Um because for example, at Sunrise Elementary, they have four or five portables that have been there basically since their site open and they're still the same portables. So, um I think we need to be honest about that and consider that. um as an option. Um and then I believe in the the presentation tonight the projections were only shared out through next school year. Is that correct? I'm looking at the wrong presentation. I I think that's what I wrote down. Um so but it I attended the community meeting that was referenced at the Adriani school and at that time Michael Golden gave a presentation
173and I believe his projections were for five years. Um so I was just curious why we why we didn't project out past that year. Um any projections that we are are doing beyond current or um future years are based on building development, permits, um people moving in. I um Adriani is a bit landlocked with more growth happening outside of that boundary area and we've been um approaching the 100% capacity for the last three years. And so um we believe that will stabilize. I don't have the five or 10 year projections with me tonight. >> Yeah, I remember when he presented I I believe the projection said that after five years it would start to decline again. So I just question if if we've adequately studied that and if perhaps keeping the portables there for an
174extended amount of time up to for example up to five years would meet the needs without um impacting families so much. So that's why I'm asking. Um, and you mentioned the boundary options. Was that the only option um that you said it would leave I think Adriani at 57% capacity. Was that the only option that we had? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, and then something I just I mentioned to the superintendent today as well um while we're talking about this topic is I think that in general when we're talking about tracks that we need to consider how long a family has lived in the community or owned a home when looking at track placement because we do that I know that we do that um for the high schools with um I know like at
175PG and CAMS you um are allowed to attend those schools based on uh you know when you when your home was purchased or when you um you know had proof of residence. So I think that's something that we need to consider so that we don't have I don't think it's fair to have families living in a neighborhood for 10 plus years that get less priority than someone who just moved in. I think we need to that's something we need to consider. Um so I'm just I just wanted to mention that. Um okay. Okay. And then I have big concerns about why the survey results weren't shared from the parent survey results. I know they asked for that and we've had multiple opportunities to share that including tonight and we didn't do that. And also it
176was mentioned that we sought staff feedback but I've not heard any staff like why why has that not been shared with the board and the public? >> Um so a couple questions in there. So the first is survey. We don't typically put that survey um survey results into these types of presentations. I think it is important to note that um we have just over 900 students enrolled and we had 163 respondents. So, um it's um informative and it helps us understand how to best support and where those needs are knowing that um survey results can't be a singular um data point for us to make a recommendation. So that's one we had um uh elementary ed met with the site staff and had um that particular meeting and then we had a lot of department
177meetings and facilities and planning meetings as we made the recommendations over the past few years. >> Yeah. I just I think if we're going to claim or put on our timeline that we um sought out feedback from various stakeholders, then we should be sharing that feedback. Even it's to me it doesn't it's not a good look to seek feedback and then not share it. especially when the community is asking for it because it appears that we are hiding something. And even if the survey results are not in favor of this recommendation, I believe it's important to share those results because it shows that we're being honest and transparent and that we care about community feedback. Even if it's goes against the ultimate recommendation, I don't think that's appropriate that we didn't that we're not being
178transparent about that. Um, so, um, I don't think that's okay and and I would have appreciated hearing the staff feedback as well. So, um, I would also like to, um, acknowledge that this is a difficult decision and that I understand that sometimes difficult decisions need to be made to best utilize our existing facilities, accommodate growth, and to be fiscally responsible. Um, my family has experienced firsthand the challenges that come with transitioning from a tra traditional calendar year to a year- round calendar when Sunrise Elementary transition to a year- round calendar several years ago. I think it's important to point out that it is a big challenge to ask a community to transition to a year- round calendar versus opening a school on a year- round calendar. That's a big difference. I have also experienced the
179challenges that come with having children at an elementary school on a year- round calendar while also having children at a secondary school on traditional calendar. The reality is this decision will likely negatively impact many families and limit family time and family vacation opportunities potentially ch uh complicate child care as was mentioned and more. Um and I feel that this process has not been one um has not been one with honesty, transparency or making our parents feel that their opinions are valued. Uh as I previously mentioned, we didn't share the survey results with the community. And um our last meeting discussing this topic was a special daytime board meeting. Um as mentioned, most people during the daytime are at work or um when we start at 9:00. Some kids are just my kids, my youngest kids
180start school at 9:00. So, um we're really limiting opportunities for parent feedback and I don't think that's appropriate. Um especially for important topics like this. Um we have we have not been honest about the realities of the potential hardships this can place on families. Um, as was mentioned, the the meeting was I understand why the parents felt that the the staff presenting um were tonedeaf and or that that's the feeling they had um saying you can go skiing in January. So, it's you know, it's it will all be okay. But as mentioned, if you have kids on a a a traditional schedule or um complicate or you know constraints with your job, you can't just pick up and go skiing in Febru or February, January. You can't go to Disneyland. Um that that doesn't always
181work that way. And um so I I don't think that it's appropriate that we present it that way that um so I think being honest and transparent is important if we want to build trust and truly allow our stakeholders to be partners with us even in difficult situations. So um for these reasons I will not be able to support this recommendation today. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Miss Balerini. >> Okay. I'm looking at the boundary map. You you don't have it up there, so I'm I'm just trying to figure out where Adriani is, etc. in relation to other schools in the area and maybe why that one's so impacted. Do we know if there are any students at Adriani that may be going to end up going to Cypress Grove when it opens next year?
182It it unless >> it's too far. >> Yeah, that boundary was not impacted at all by Cypress Grove. >> Okay. Because I was hearing some people say that the some people [clears throat] live in Rancho that are going to the school. So, I was thinking that um I also know that we have property in the vineyard area at some point in time. We were talking about doing uh something with that. Is there a way to move the building up of that school sooner? Is that something we can possibly look at? >> So, that is the um Sierra rebuilt, >> right? >> Uh and when we looked at the boundary adjustment to perhaps take a look at that, it was um >> So, is that the one you're noting in there? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >>
183Uh and it impacted the entire Wild Hawk area and would take them out of the Adriani boundary, which um was a major disruption. >> Okay. But it would be another new school. So may and maybe then those could both be on traditional or something. I know there are a lot of >> but another another but but an existing it's not a new school without kids. It's a we're talking about moving Sierra. So all those kids go with it. >> But it's a it's not a very full school at this point. What are numbers of Sierra? Do we know? >> I don't I don't >> not off top of my head. >> Gendas. >> They're right at 600. A little below 600. >> Okay. So, they do have some some room if we could possibly do
184that. I'm just trying to think out of the box, think of other ways that we can do it. Um, now with the uh with the putting some portables or relocatables is the key word um on the site since we have 78 that we're offloading, will that accommodate those 78? And so I guess my question is if we're able to accommodate them is do the numbers go up the next year like she was saying we don't have the next year to know if they'd be able to accommodate. >> Yeah. So relocatables um are not the most conducive learning environment. And so if we go back to our learning vision and like the wellness and a healthy um environment, while we have portables all throughout the district, it's it's not the what we want for our students.
185And so um we don't own the portables. We lease them for a short period of time. So we would have to look into purchase and for each one it's approximately a million dollars. >> Okay. and we lease them for that amount of time and then do whatever. And and I know TK and kindergarten specifically have specific uh requirements about bathroom within a certain distance and 20 to one all these different things. So I know those complicate things a little bit. I'm I'm just trying to think of other ways than going year round since they totally do not seem to be wanting it. Um h I wish I wish I had a magic wand it could make happen but I don't. >> Me too. [laughter] >> Um okay that's that is all the questions I have.
186Sorry. >> Thank you Mr. Yang. >> Yeah. Um thanks for the presentation. Um thanks for the feedback uh from our constituents. Um yeah, I I uh I do agree that this presentation is a bit lack of uh data um especially from the survey uh standpoint. Um I I too would like to see that um being a part of this presentation. Um regardless the the result, you know, the lack of uh participation or whatnot, I would like to see that. Um um so obviously we had uh parents who are very concerned. Um so my question is um this this is a action item, right? So if we vote on it, then we're going to move forward. So, so with that said, um if we were to asking for more time, um I wanted to know how
187much time do we have so that we would do a more thorough uh presentation next time for the board and for the community to see that we are being transparent to have that trust. uh in in this process. Um how much time do we have? >> So um as I started the presentation, we typically take 18 months to make a recommendation. That way once the decisions made, we're out. We're working with staff. We're working with the community. We're identifying what supports they um may need um what the impaction is during the um the transition period. For in instance, we add for portables and um stop offloading. We know that traffic is going to be impacted, bathrooms are going to be impacted, and so we need to have time to mitigate those factors, whether it's a
188a crossing guard or um some additional options. So, um that it's a it's 18 months. And so 18 months kind of our our um drop dead date for uh July 2027 is December. Anything beyond that we're now um we're now having a discussion for the 2028 uh academic year. >> So I'm looking at a timeline here. So you're saying that we have to make that decision July. I uh I would so December 16th is our last board meeting to hit that 18month timeline. >> Okay. So for me um I I I see the recommendation you know the the benefit of why this recommendation is made. But on the flip side, we got some very concerned parents um and they know their situation better than we do. Um so I think to to really serve our
189our parents and our students which are you know who we serving and if we still have that time I personally don't mind to you know um stall that process from this action item to prolong to the next meeting so that we could gather more uh information and and present it a little bit more thorough um so that we could build trust within um parents uh in this case. I I I don't mind that um pushing forward because we still still going to meet that timeline. So um yeah so so we'll see what we will go on it but uh my recommendation is for us to uh come back next meeting with uh more information um like the survey and and more more data if we can um to put on here and and then we
190we could take a vote. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Alviani. Um I I think um this is obviously something hard. Um Elkrove's been a a district that when it schools get impacted, we go year round and shrink back. And we have for I taught 25 years ago in this district and we were doing the same thing. I will say in the 10 years I've been here, um I I've never had a a a transition that got this um clear push back. Um and and so the process building up to this um concerns me. Um, we and there are so many things that have been brought up and that I was emailed that really are I think fears that that we can put aside because we have done this so many times. Are we going
191to get past the point that you move somewhere and you wanted your kid your child to go or children to go to a traditional school and they're going to and they could be going to a year round? I'm not sure we're going to get past that. Um, but there are true things like you believe I mean I've heard all sorts of numbers that people are coming to your school that shouldn't be at your school. Susan was a school secretary. There are laws that we have to follow to allow people in our schools and it's required documentation. And so that's tough. Um, we do a track system in 1922 of our schools. Anybody know? 19 19 of our schools are are on a track. Um, I think as the mom of a a child that's had
192some special needs, I I feel for the idea that your your special your special needs children will be that change is a fear. Um, we have extremely successful programs in year round. Tonight, we recognized a nationally recognized blue ribbon school and it's a year- round school. So, it doesn't have to be the end of the world, but change is super hard. And your daycare providers have to adjust to what's the [laughter] new need in the neighborhood. It it's a whole process. And that's why it is 18 months. And there is the rub of someone's going year round, someone's going high school. Our last president, um, she had a year round, a traditional, and a modified somehow. I mean, it it is part of coming of being in Elkrove. To me, I moved here to beat
193Elkrove. Um, I'm sorry we couldn't fix the TKK problem this year, but I am excited we have listened and responded to that need. Um, I I I think the track system, we keep families together. Everybody's going to say there's a chance you aren't, but I will say I've been on the sport 11 years and no one's ever written to me say that they didn't keep their family together on a track system. I have not received that email in 11 years. So, we do have that part down. Um, I think someone that spoke said they prefer to overload their school, but then you have how many recesses, how many lunches, how many staff are on site. You just end up with with losing the dynamic of a school with the amount of students it's built for,
194which gives you your best educational program. And um I I don't I don't feel like there was enough preloading to make this a successful smooth transition and and for that I I apologize and and we'll bring that up if the next time this is done. Um I I I I'm rather split. So, I'm going to finish listening to my other board members before I um say how what I think I mean where I feel on the recommendation. >> Thank you very much, Miss Davis. >> When I came into this district, almost all the schools were year round, including our middle schools. Um and I've watched them eb and flow over the years. Um, interestingly, I was working out a year round school and when we decided to convert it back to a traditional, there was
195just as much resistance. Um, people get used to the schedule there. There's pros and cons on all. um to address the intra thing and I know this isn't going to be popular Jen but from the school side of it secretaries have been asking for years why don't we why aren't we able to question documentation when we know it's not valid um it it is frustrating is Adriani closed to interest >> yes it's been closed since the beginning of the 2019 19 school year. >> So the only ones there on intro were the grandfathered ones who are transitioning out. So so the numbers are reducing each year. >> Do we know how many are there on interest? >> I think if I don't quote me, but it's below 10. Um and they were like sixth grade
196students this year who were grandfathered in at that time. >> Okay. >> And so they're they they are closed to all interests, >> right? >> Even an administrative interest. >> Okay. Um, but just that is a frustration of your office staff that when we do call when we did call and it was mentioned that we can't ask questions. So, so I'd like us to at least address that because it is frustrating on the school side and the parent side because people talk and it's creates a lot of misinformation. Um, see, were any evening meetings held? Was there a reason that we didn't have them in the evening? >> We had an evening meeting with >> Yeah. Yeah. >> We held we held the um parent meeting and um every parent who had additional questions, uh
197Mr. Golden or the site principal met with them. Some parents he met with multiple times and um each question that was asked, if it was a new question, we developed a FAQ, a frequently asked question. And each time a new question was asked from either a a parent meeting or an email that was received, then the FAQ that was added to it and it was resent out. >> Okay. Thank >> All right. All right. We welcome your feedback, but we don't welcome disruption. So, please respect board members, respect cabinet as we're having this conversation. Thank you. >> Thank you on that. Um, just to the parents of working in an office, I I just want you to know the office staff works diligently to keep families together. It it is a priority to the staff.
198Um, it's a hard job to do once in a while due to overcrowding in a certain grade level. Sometimes they can't be accomplished, but they do put in the work. We know how important it is to keep families together and and I would really recommend you you investigate the schedule to find something that works for you because a lot of people think that the A schedule works best and everybody wants to rush to the A schedule not realizing that the D schedule works with traditional schools too. So, there are a couple options if you look and and you investigate it that you could maybe find something that works for your family. Um, but again, the office staff works very hard, the principles work very hard, elementary ed works very hard. I I know at the
199beginning of the year when registrations happen, there's many calls going back and forth to elementary ed asking, can we do this? Um, and generally we can. They support us in those requests. So, I that's really appreciated. It is a hard decision. It is a hard decision to make. I've seen the pain for the families that have to go through it, but I've also seen the good things that come out of it once it happens. Um, it does reduce the number of kids at the school at a size. The traffic is decreased. The opportunities for kids increases. So, it it is it can be good and bad. So, so I am mixed on this not being a part of this when it first started. Few of us board members are coming into this midway. Um so
200we we had no participation or knowledge of how this was being handled. Um some of it's new to us but and we are listening. So thank you for your input. >> Thank you very much. Um I don't have much to add beyond what my colleagues have said. Um, I actually agree, uh, you know, with the observation that it does feel like maybe there was some conversations that should have happened. Um, opportunities for feedback that should have happened. Um, the process could have been better. Um, I think maybe maybe that's partially because we were a little bit blindsided uh, you know, by the amount of interest. As as Maviani said, this is uh this has happened before and hasn't been as uh controversial. So, um that may be a misstep on our part. Um and we
201all bear some responsibility for that. Right. We've been having these conversations as a board for the past year. I remember when it first came to us, uh you a year ago. Uh and I did not think all that much of it at the time. Um and looking back on it now, I wish we'd wish we'd done a little bit more. Um, but that being said, I also, you know, looking at the numbers, looking at the the the changes that we're expecting, um, you know, we could punt for a month, we could punt for a year, uh, we could, you know, live with the portables for two years. Um, you know, and we could punt those conversations. Um, but the question for me is, does that actually change anything? Um, or are we just kicking the
202can down the road? And my impression right now is that we're just kicking the can down the road. Um and so we should certainly acknowledge our failure um in addressing the community and addressing the community's concerns. Um but I think for me the ultimate conclusion or the end result is going to be the same. And um so I that's where I that's where I fall on this one. All right. Um so board members, we do need to have a vote. Um, I did not hear I did not really hear consensus. So, I think the easiest thing to do is to just to go down the line. So, we'll do a quick roll call. So, um, I will entertain a motion to approve the transition of Arnold Adriani Elementary School from a traditional to a multi-track
203year-round calendar. >> So, moved. >> Moved by Miss Baldwin. >> I will second to get us to a the point of conversation. Um, so sounds like there's conversation to be had. So I will open it up to board member comments on this motion. Miss Bowwin, do you want to start? >> I don't think I have much more to add other than, you know, I appreciate the um what's been added to the dialogue here on the dis. Um, and again, I express my deep empathy that this is a hard thing to do. Um, but at this point, I don't waver in my decision that I would approve the recommendation. >> Miss Moore, any additional comments? >> Yeah. Um, so I would actually like I know that we're in the middle of a motion, but um I
204would like to move that we um table this conversation until a further meeting um we can come back with data um providing projections further out as was provided at the parent community meeting. Um, and also that we provide the survey results in full and the staff feedback. Um, and I think that that would show that we want to be honest and transparent with the community, which I feel that we have not done. Um, as I mentioned before, the last meeting we had was in um, an August special board meeting. That's not um, showing that we want to be uh, that we want to include our parents' voices. And so I think that um that is not appropriate to move forward. >> Okay, Miss Berini, brief comments. >> I agree with um Trustee Yang and Trustee
205Moore that I think we need more information to move move forward and I think we do have a little bit of time. I know she's got a deadline. The law basically states we have to notify by November 1st of the year before we're doing that. So, we still, as far as the law goes, we still have time. I know um logistically speaking, they'd rather have 18 months. I'm just saying we're not not not meeting the law, so I'd rather have more information. >> Mr. Yang, any additional comments? >> Yeah. Um I appreciate uh board president give us a chance to uh give another feedback. Um, yeah, I I stand with what I said earlier and I appreciate uh uh Jennifer to uh to support that because you know I think that we we are serving
206our constituents um and that's the parents and the students right and we need to be transparent uh to build that trust and we talk about trust all the time we talk about transparent all the time so I mean this one is yeah I I do agree with you, Mike, um about we we came short on this one and when we came short um we we got to do better and it it looks like we still got a little time. So, oh, why not do it um our best and and that's what we should do uh as a school district that we um um stand behind our work and and we we try to cater excellent to our our constituents. We're not perfect all the time, but we try to be. And I think this one
207we we fell short. And I agree to uh uh Miss Obani the fact that yeah maybe we had a you know um easy road in the past uh not too much complaint so it seems like hey we might have done everything right but this one uh we came short and um our constituents you know voice matter to me and they have valid points it's not like it's not valid points so so I uh yeah I stand with what I said earlier which I denying the to to move forward at this time and would like to see more uh data. >> All right, Miss Alviani. >> Um I think there needs to be relationship building between staff and and the school and I think um I think I it'd be clear to say that I think
208I will eventually support this move. I I actually I'm sure I will support moving to this position if um because I did know in August when we had the meeting what we were talking about completely. Um I think I think we throw around the word dishonest in a in a hurtful fashion to our staff. um we are doing things in a way we've always done them and um and we haven't always included these things in here and it and it's and and I think it's not out of dishonesty or trying to be untransparent or unccommunicated and I think the fact that I will request we have some more time with our community before we make this final decision is a sign that I we do believe in having open and honest communication. Um, and it's
209not it's not hiding, it's it's taking in all the information. And um as a board member, we do have a a a privilege that we can also ask to see very specifics, but lots of times decisions are made with a a n number of factors and they aren't all shared and and numbers are sometimes hard to come up with exact numbers, but um I think this is a wellaccepted practice in our in our district and it will it would be no surprise um if it does make the community gives us a chance to spend some more time with community and answer. We have this many people concerned and we can answer questions and get down to a smaller amount of our community that feels um against this and and help a larger amount of our
210community understand the change and the ways we can support them through it. That's I I I am up for taking that time though um I do foresee supporting this in the end. All right, Miss Davis. >> It's hard to adjust to a year- round school. It's hard on families, but offloading is even harder. Sending our students from a home school out to a school that might be across the district. We do our best to keep them close, but sometimes there's not spaces available and children are bust across the district to other schools and into areas that are difficult for parents to reach. Um, so I understand that and will I agree with Miss Albiani here that it's a decision that I I feel that way. I feel there needs to be communication. I feel we
211need to step back. Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves. We all know what we're doing. So we go through and we forget we're not communicating it clearly to the people who don't understand the inside ways and the reasons why. So, I would also support taking that extra time to have those conversations to listen to our parents out there. Um, and hopefully come together and make this happen for what's best for the kids. And like I said, offloading is devastating to parents when you've got kids spread across the district and you're putting a TK kid on a bus to go miles away from home. So I I think we need to give it more time. I think we've rushed this um trying to do what was right, but evidently that was not right in this case.
212So yeah, I would support pushing this out a little bit. >> But before I I do see Mr. Hoffman wants to speak. Before we do that, we do have a motion on the floor. I am seeing five against it. Do you, Miss Bowwin, do you want to withdraw your motion and we will try for another different one or do you want >> just want clarification on is there actually time? Jennifer just shared information that I think is new and I believe cabinet should have the opportunity to address that. >> So, we'll go to Mr. Hoffman. Do you want to address anything? >> I mean, there's there's technically some time. Um, I do want to say um a couple things up front. There's never been a situation ever where we moved from one um calendar to
213another where anybody spoke up and said that they wanted it done. I that that's that's just the reality of of the situation. And then we only hear from folks that uh that don't want the change. I mean, that's that's that's just the nature of the beast. Um so, we listen to the board. happy to go down and have some more conversations, but in the end, you're not going to have people line up and say um and and give you, you know, the the community feedback that we want the change of the of the calendar. The reality is um looking at the needs of the kids, looking at how how we're going to run the school most effectively, most efficiently um safely um when you get to this size, moving to a um year- round school
214um just provides u a better opportunity to better serve the community. More kids in that community will be able to go to their home school. That's and and so that's that's the bottom line. temporary piece of doing the the portables. So we because we heard very clearly and we and the the move to TK and having to offload kids um from a we have we have a short-term solution that but the long-term solution for that is a year- round calendar that has 75% of the kids on the campus at a given time that gives you the room to do what you need to do. We very effectively run year- round schools across the district on a regular basis. We've never moved from a traditional to a year-round school and had people say yay. And we've
215never moved from a traditional school to or from a a year-round school to a traditional school and have people say yay. I mean that's that is that is the reality of it. So, um, and and as you know, u, I very much appreciate the the the comments and understand that the the challenges that, uh, that this change would cause, but that is when you talk about meeting the needs of your constituents. That is who you're you're hearing from in this in this um, particular center are folks that this is not going um that [clears throat] they they don't want it. And that that's just the reality of making um, calendar decisions. >> All right. Before we miss Bowwin, do you want to >> I just want to add that um I really appreciate um you
216centering this conversation, Chris, back on kids and doing what's best for kids and if we're going to come back to this same topic and likely have to move forward because we know that the what we've exhausted all potential options, I get that this is not positive news for everybody. Um, but at the end of the day, families need adequate time to start preparing for this transition. And if we can offer that, you know, I I think that that's something to be considering like, yes, this is hard, but at the end of the day, doing thing running a school safely, having optimal learning environments, and having your kids be able to go to your neighborhood school. I'm really looking forward to that opportunity one day, but I'll, you know, I'll take my kids being able to
217go at least to our to the in schools close to my region, you know, in my region. Um, so having more time, I think, is precious to be able to plan for that transition. >> Okay. So, board members, we have a motion on the floor. Um, so let's do a quick vote and dispatch that and then we can talk about next steps. Uh, all right. So, the motion >> Michael. Yes, ma'am. >> Um, I think that's a good point to bring back to refocus and and I'm not sure me voting to wait two weeks to vote yes helps anything. I think changing my level of expectation of interaction with that school and changing our my expectation of the support given to them and the clarity to give into them is more of where I would
218like to go and and I um and so that's what I would like to see from our staff because I as I stated before I do know this is where we need to go and it's not easy But I think almost making a decision and the decision that I believe is right for the students, for the staff, for the campus itself is more important. And then giving the support to the families at the after part and feeling we didn't quite get it right this time on this side of it, but we're going to get it right on the second side. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Miss Moore. >> Yeah. Just in response to what Superintendent Hoffman said, um, regarding the parents that showed up tonight, to say that they aren't representative of the parents
219of the school, I I think is not fair. Of course, not >> I didn't say that. >> Okay. Well, I'm sorry. >> I didn't say that. >> Well, it feels you kind of inferred that, but what I would like to say >> I didn't I didn't infer that. What I said was that's >> Oh, back and forth. >> Okay. What I would like to say is that they are the parents that chose to show up. There weren't any parents that chose to show up and say yes, we want to go to uh year round. They are the parents that cared to show up. So, it's important to them and I think their opinion should be valued. And also, since we didn't share the parent survey, that's very concerning to me. I would like to know
220and I would like the public to know the details of the parent survey and the staff feedback. I think that's important and that's why I I don't think it's appropriate to move forward when clearly there are people that care and we didn't even take the time to share in my opinion adequate information to make the best choice. >> There there is no information that we would share that would change their opinions with regards to the that that's that's the reality of it. We understand the concerns and to Miss Alviani's point, the purpose of the surveys is to understand what the concerns are so that as we move forward, we can help work through as many of those as we can if if the board makes the decision to make the make the transition. So, the
221idea that I don't think these folks represent the people, I I did not say that. What I said was I've never seen a situation ever where people are excited and and and ask for the change. That's that's what I said. I understand these point these folks point of view. I understand who they are. Some of them I might might even consider like almost friends. Um so that's so that's that that's not that's not the issue. U the issue um is calendar in Elgrove Unified. Um, the year- round calendar is a viable option for running schools and running a district in an efficient way. Without the year- round calendar, as in the presentation, we'd have four to seven more elementary schools. That's $75 million a piece and a principal at each of those sites and a
222front office staff at each of those sites and a custodial team at each of those sites. um and all of the um costs that go along with the utilities of running those sites. Because we use the multi-year um the multitrack year- round system within some of our schools, we're able to offer program at a higher level across our schools because we're not spending those dollars like other districts have done over the years where they build a whole bunch of tiny, you know, neighborhood schools. And then what do they do when they once they um get to full they end up closing all the schools. That's never going to happen in Elro Unifi because of the year- round calendar. It allows us to flex and allows us to contract in a way that makes sure we're
223providing the best quality programming for our kids as much as possible. And it is not the most convenient thing in the world. I will say having been a a parent on a multitrack year-round uh piece, you do adjust to it. Um and there are advantages to it, but it's just like a 4x4 schedule or a six period day. There's advantages to both. There is no perfect system, but in this situation, based on the information we have, it's the best decision for the school right now. That's that that that's just true. It's not not popular, but we don't get paid to make popular decisions. We didn't get elected to make popular decisions. Well, our our job is to make the right decision. >> All right, folks. All right. So, we have guys, this is we can't
224get into an we could have this discussion until midnight. So, >> I want to >> Okay, I want to get to a vote, >> but we'll start with Susan, then we'll go to Sean. >> No, I just wanted to weigh in on the comment I made before. Whatever we do, I agree, is not going to delay this because you can't go on like you are. Families are going to end up being offloaded. You're already offloading families out of your neighborhood. They're having to make friends with children in different areas. They're not able to participate in birthday parties and events and sports because they're not going to school with those kids. It really is devastating. It is harder to adjust. I I've watched the families go through it. I I've sat with the mothers that are
225crying saying, "How do I put my child on a bus when my other child is here?" This does allow you to keep your children there. Luckily, you have your children at that school, but new people moving into your neighborhood are not going to be afforded that. By converting to a year-round school, your those children will get to grow up in that neighborhood knowing their neighbors, knowing their families, knowing the kids, and building relationships. It is hard to adjust to, but there are many facets of it that are great. You have intercession, which your children can go to. It's like summer school for year round. There there's many facets of it. And and I would really recommend that you maybe visit a year- round school and see the joys that are on those campuses and the
226people who have adjusted to it. And think about how you would feel if it was your child you were putting on a bus every day to go to another community, another neighborhood in this community, not your own. A and it is a hard decision. And as I said, as a school secretary, I've had that conversation many, many, many, many times with families. And the lesser of the hardness of the conversation was explaining the benefits of a track system versus sending 78, 100, however many that your community keeps growing that are going to be disenfranchised because they're not a part of the community. It is a hard decision, but there are benefits in it if you go into it with an open mind. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Mr. Yang. Brief comments and then we need
227to get to a vote. >> I was just going to say that uh when when you change um someone's routine, it's going to be tough. And we heard all of those reason why, right? And I'm not going to go into it. And you know, not everybody's going to be happy. I get it. But I think as a board member um or board members, we we do um make the final decision. And to me, if I see that we are not ready to make the decision, I rather wait. And that's and that that kind of decision is, you know, in everyone's right because, you know, our constituents woke us in to represent them. So if you don't feel it's the right decision to make, it's okay to say no. But if you feel like it's the
228right decision, then just vote yes. And I think we ready to vote. >> All right. So we are moving to a vote. As a reminder, the motion on the floor is to approve the transition of Arnold Adriani Elementary School from a traditional to a multi-track year-round calendar. That that would give our staff permission to begin that process immediately. We would not bring this back to the board for a future discussion. All right. So, starting over here, Miss Bowwin, >> yes. >> Miss Moore, >> no. Miss Ballerini, >> no. >> Mr. Yang, >> no. >> Miss Alviani, >> yes. >> Miss Davis, >> yes. >> I am also a yes. So the that is 4 to three in approving the motion. All right. >> Like to make a motion to extend our meeting to 10:20 p.m.
229>> Second. >> All right. So the motion on the floor is to extend the meeting to 10:20. The mover is Miss Alviani. The second is Miss Balerini. All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much and thank you for remembering that. >> All right, we have two more items, folks. Um, give me a second on this one. I got to get my So, this one is me. All right. So, item number three, we have a superintendent employment agreement that needs approving. So, just to kind of tee this up, um, we've had a long process. I, you know, in search of a superintendent, I want to start by thanking everyone who was involved in this process from staff and labor leaders to community members, parents, and students.
230Selecting a superintendent is one of the most important decisions a school board makes. and your feedback was invaluable throughout this process. This process was not easy. The board hired a search firm and conducted an extensive nationwide search that drew 17 highly qualified candidates to apply. Having taken extensive community feedback into account, the board narrowed that list to a handful of interviews which were conducted over two days. I want to specifically thank the staff members and parents who took part in those interviews and provided feedback to the board on our candidates. The search resulted in the selection of Mr. David Riley as our finalist and today the board takes action on this on this contract. Our approval of the contract will officially make him our next superintendent. So, California Governance Code section 54953C3 requires that a
231verbal summary of the proposed compensation and fringe fringe benefits be given to the public prior to final board action on certain employment agreements. The superintendent employment agreement is between Elkrove Unified School District and Mr. David E. Riley is effective January 1st, 2026 and requires board action in open session to approve. The superintendent's employment agreement includes the following material terms. First, the term. The term is for the period beginning January 1st, 2026 and ending January 1st, 2030. compensation. Effective January 1st, 2026 of the 202526 school year, the superintendent shall be placed on step one of the 2025-26 superintendent salary schedule and his base salary shall be $362,365. Contingency for the 202526 school year. The superintendent shall be afforded the same compensation contingency provisions as other certificated employees prrated for working a partial year as superintendent. 2026
23227 school year step movement effective on July 2020 July 1st 2026. Consistent with the terms of the agreement, the superintendent shall be eligible for movement to step two of the superintendent salary schedule. Health benefits. The superintendent shall receive the same district contribution towards health and welfare benefits and shall pay the same co-pays, premiums, deductibles, and other costs as the district's certificated employees as those costs and contributions may change from time to time. Life insurance. During the term of the agreement, the district shall provide the superintendent with life insurance term policy in the amount of $150,000. Retirement superintendent may may be entitled to retiree health benefits consistent with the Elkrove Benefits employee retirement trust rules and regulations, transportation and business expenses. Effective January 1, 2026, the superintendent shall receive $100 per month for travel within the
233district's boundaries. Professional expenses. The superintendent is eligible for professional association membership expenses, which shall not exceed $2,50 per year and for subscription expenses, which shall not exceed $2,225 per year. This concludes the summary of the superintendent's employment agreement. Mr. Yang, do we have any blue cards on this item? >> Mr. Vargas, there's no blue card on this item. >> Very well. Board members, at this time, I will entertain a motion to approve this item, noting that board discussion can occur after we have a motion and a second. >> So move. >> Moved by Mr. Yang. >> Seconded by Miss Ballerini. Board members, is there any discussion on this item? >> Yeah, I would like to say something. >> All right, Mr. Yang. Um, I I just want to say thank you to uh Chris for
234his uh longevity uh service as our uh superintendent. You know, he's the head of the state for our staff um a very large staff and uh it wasn't easy. um know you gone through the the pandemic especially the last three four years it's been very challenging and uh you know I give you a lot of credit um and you do deserve so and um you know from the outside looking in it's it's you know it's never perfect and uh there's a lot of uh criticism that went directly to you because that's just how it is right when you are the leader um you get praise on and then you get blame on and uh but at the end of the day collectively as board members we still uh gave you satisfaction and continue to extend
235your contract and that is um to show that hey the job that you did was great, right? uh or or good enough to move you forward with the tough with the tough situation and and and it's you know it sounds kind of funny back and forth as far excellent but no you know not perfect but at the end of the day I mean if you been a part of this journey you know through the pandemic uh it's not easy and honestly what we discussed tonight wasn't easy either right what we talked about but you I know that we had a lot longer night before as I alluded to earlier. So, I just want to say thank you to you first and foremost. And I just wanted to turn to our uh future superintendent which is
236uh D Riley. Um you know this process of searching for a new superintendent was not easy. uh we hire a uh firm to do uh the due diligent search and we have a lot of qualified candidates and it took a long process to get to this point and uh decision wasn't easy at all. Um it was definitely close session so we can reveal all of those uh discussion but uh it was not easy but at the end of the day I truly think that we picked the right guy to lead our um school district which is a very large school district and I think that he will add on to what uh Chris and our whole uh [clears throat] board um and and the staff has built you know to this point and I I
237put my trust in him and uh I do look forward to working with you as our superintendent to really um um you know making progress for what we already established to some of the thing that we already done well to expand on that some of the gap that we need to close it uh you know we I'm looking forward to work with you and other folks um and our concentrance all the shareholder to close those gaps so that we could lead our student to uh academic and life success uh going forward. So congratulation. All right. And I do want to remind board members we will have plenty of time to shower Chris with much unwanted praise uh next month. So we can look forward to that. But board members, any other comments on the contract?
238All right. Seeing none, I do want to very quickly say um congratulations uh on not only on the selection but once we make the approval um we are all looking forward to this uh we are looking forward to a good transition with all of you. Um and uh as we make this transition as we are transitioning uh it is too easy to lose track of priorities. And so as we do this, as we move from one superintendent to another, let's remember um that we have our list of priorities that we are focused on that that we are doing this in the middle of a school year. Um and we have to make sure that everything stays on track. I am going to be available to all of you in any way, shape, and form to
239help support that process. All of my colleagues are in the same boat, so please utilize us if you need. Um, but let's make sure that this is a smooth and seamless transition. So, with that, uh, we do have to do a roll call vote. So, I will start with, uh, Miss Bowen. >> Yes. >> Uh, Miss Moore, >> yes. >> Miss Ballerini, >> yes. >> Mr. Yang, >> yes. >> Miss Albiani, >> hi. >> Miss Davis, >> yes. And >> I am also an I. The vote is unanimous. All right. Yes. Yes, we can. [sighs] Thank you all. Thank you all for your patience. Um, okay. We have one more item. We have to establish an annual organization meeting for the board of education. So [clears throat] under the provisions of education code section 35143,
240the governing board is required to set an annual organizational meeting within 15 days uh that that within a 15-day period that commences with the date upon which a governing board member elected at the election takes office. That's a weird statement. Um the 15-day period is December 1 through 20, 2025. Mr. Mr. Yang, are there any blue cards on this item? >> President [snorts] Vgas, there's no blue card in this item. >> Thank you. Then I will entertain a motion to establish the annual organizational meeting for the board of education at the regularly scheduled board meeting on Tuesday, December 16th, 2025 at 6 p.m. in the boardroom of the Robert Elrigg Education Center. >> So moved. >> Moved by Mr. Yang, seconded by Miss Ballerini. >> Busy. >> All those in favor, please say I. >>
241I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Board members or superintendent, any reports? None. None. None. All right. There being no further business, we are adjourned at 10:13 p.m. Thank you very much.