001Recording in progress. Welcome. I'd like to call this meeting to order at 4:00 p.m. and announce that the board will meet in close session to address items 1 through 5. Um, Mr. Superintendent, are there any public comment on close session items? No, there are not. Excellent. Then I will close public comment and recess us into close session. Good evening everyone and welcome to the Elkrove Unified School District board 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 the 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 the decision-making process. Some information about public comment. During regular
002board meetings, the public may make public comments 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 another 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
003children 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 will be grounds for the board president to provide a warning and then terminate the individual's privilege of addressing the board. Uh, next up is our land acknowledgement. Miss Davis, we acknowledge that the Elkrove Unified School District administrative facilities and schools occupy the unseated territory of the Miwok, the original people of the skies, land, and waters where we work and learn. The Miwok have cared for these lands since time immemorial. They continue to teach their traditional knowledge that comes from and responds to the needs of the land and the people who share it. May our daily lives and work, teaching, learning, leadership, and community engagement
004support the evolving vision of the Miwok 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 tribal partners, the Wilton Rancheria and 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, Miss Balerini. All right. Good evening. I have um the flag salute recognition for Raina Tango. If you guys would like to take a stand over at the podium. And yes, Hey Seuss, you too. All right, I've got a nice thing to to read all about you and your family. Arlene Hine Elementary School is honored to recognize Rea Tango as our education partner and pledge leader this evening. Rea and her husband,
005Jesus Turango, have six children and have been Arlene Hine Elementary parents since 2012. Their two youngest children currently attend Arlene Hine Elementary. Yatsil is in Mrs. Kang's fourth grade class and Jesus is in Mrs. Barry's sixth grade class. Jesus and Yatsil have both attended Hine Elementary since kindergarten and the Turango family wouldn't have it any other way. They enjoy the sense of community found at Arlene Hine Elementary. And one of the family's proudest contributions has been the ability to share their community, culture, and heritage with their classmates. As part of the only federally recognized tribe in Sacramento County, Wilton Rancheria, they helped organize a school assembly to introduce themselves and share the importance of recognizing the first inhabitants of these lands. They showcased their traditional values, language, contributions, cultural foods and practices. But mostly they
006were able to build connections to show their friends that we are all more alike than we are different. We all have traditions passed down by our forefathers, some ceremonial, some through food, attire, or language. We all have dreams, aspirations, and goals. Most importantly, we all want to feel seen, heard, and appreciated for who we are. Thank you so much, Raina Turango and family, for being an important member of the Arleene Hine Elementary School [Applause] community. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Did you want to say anything? Just um one, thank you, Mrs. for all of your efforts um in acknowledging so many diverse community groups there at Arlene.
007You have um really put forward the effort to be there for the community um not just the Miwok community but everybody and that's amazing because this school really does stand by making sure every child feels seen and heard for who they are. Um but also just thank you to all of you here on the school board. I am always impressed with everything you guys do, your guys' hard work and efforts to push Elro Unified School District forward. So, thank you so much, tall. [Applause] Excellent. Thank you very much. All right. So, moving on to make sure I'm on the right page. Our presentations and recognitions. So, first up is our 202425 Future Farmers of America student recognition. Miss Hubard, President Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, and Miss Avalos. Career technical student organizations, also
008known as CTSOs, have significant impact on students overall college and career readiness. According to the National Research Center for Career Technical Education, students participating in leadership and professional development activities in a CTSO, it raises students educational aspirations. Students who participate in a CTSO demonstrate higher levels of academic engagement and motivation, civic engagement, career self-efficacy, and employability skills. Our current CTSOs in EGUSD are FFA, Future Farmers of America, HOSA, which is Health Occupations Students of America, and Skills USA serving approximately 3,400 Elkrove students. OSA has 40 participants, Skills USA has, 1378 students, and FFA has, 1989 students. And tonight, this is about FFA. This CTSO is an integral component of our agriculture and natural resource CTE pathways. FFA is not just for students who want to be production farmers. FFA also welcomes members who aspire to
009careers as teachers, doctors, scientists, business owners, and more. Elkrove, Floren, Pleasant Grove, and Sheldon high schools offer comprehensive a programs with courses and pathways in agricultural business, mechanics, agriculture and animal science, forestry and natural resources, ornamental horiculture, easy to say, and plant and soil science. These students being acknowledged tonight have achieved the highest level of competition in California, competing against students from over 300 FFA chapters throughout the state in categories such as business management, marketing, nursery, landscape, food production, processing, and more. Recognition at these levels requires a significant amount of time after school and on weekends from both the students and their A instructors for practice, preparation, and competing in quality events. I'm here tonight to ask for recognition of Elkrove Unified School District students who competed and won first place in the Future Farmers
010of America state uh competitions this school year. And then I have certificates for them. And actually Cameron Standidge is one of the um FFA teachers at Elkrove High School and he's going to go ahead and read names and then I'll help pass out certificates. So, we're really excited to have uh our kids come through and get recognized at Elkrove High School. We had four state champion teams. So, we had a really great year and we had one champion aggra science project. Some of our students aren't here today because they're preparing at the fair. But, I'm going to read off all their names and then some of the students who are here are going to come come by to be recognized. So, we have our statewinning marketing plan team and on that team was Avery Souza,
011Khloe Hawker, and Amber Barnett. [Applause] Then we also had the best informed greenhand team which had Mara Patton, Carly Spurber, Averson Coobab, Brooklyn Alaji and Sophia [Applause] Hampton. And we have our farm business management team. We have Braden Fixall, Cash Foss, Joey Woodrum, and Liliana Cameron. [Applause] And then we have our nursery and landscape team. We have Caitlyn Campbell, Jocelyn Alarro, Angelina Rooney, and Natalie [Applause] Cis. And last but not least, we have our state aggra science fair team in food products and processing, Alan Sotell Barahas and Isaac McCriedi. And as Cameron mentioned, Pleasant Grove is at the fair. Um they had some other awards, but we'll make sure all the students get their certificates. Thank you. of Thank you. All right. Next up, Elkro Food Bank recognition. and Miss Ay, I think we got
012it. President Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos, the board of education is asked to recognize the Elkrove Food Bank for their partnership with EGUSD to distribute food to eligible families within our district. The Elkrove Food Bank and Elkrove Unified School District have been in collaboration since 1994. The partnership focuses on providing resources for families in need, ensuring that students have access to healthy meals even outside of regular school hours. Elkrove schools have supported the food bank in numerous ways as well. From the kids can to cereal and book drives to Elkrove Unified students actually volunteering to serve at the food bank. These partnerships have supported our families to combat hunger and help alleviate the burden of food insecurity in the Elkro community, thus ensuring that students have the nutrition they need
013to succeed academically. And we also have one of our uh partners, Valerie from the food bank, who'd like to say a few words to the board as well. I was not here to receive recognition. I am here to give recognition to the partnership with our food bank and the Elgrove Unified School District. Uh so good evening, President Vargas, trustees, uh Superintendent Hoffman. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today. I have a few um highlights of our partnership that I'd like to make sure are well known and shared with you. Um, as mentioned, we have worked with the food bank and the and the school district since 1994, and we truly cherish that relationship. For those decades, you have trusted us uh to support your students and their families with food and clothing.
014It's a relationship that we are honored to serve, and we thank you very much for the trust that you have placed in us to do so. I do want to take just a moment to recognize trustee Beth Albiani. Uh she brought the amazing EG Reeds program to our site. So now thanks to her vision now when children with their parents come to the food bank for essentials, they're able to receive books. And these books aren't a library. These books are them for them to hold and keep and call their own. And if you'll remember when you received your first book, you know what an ab absolute cherished event that was. And you very well could tell me which book you first remember reading yourself. More than 40,000 books have been distributed distributed to the children
015that come to our food bank. Um, it's a special corner of our warehouse. It's a small corner. It's filled with hope. And if you haven't had the opportunity to come to visit, I do hope you'll make that opportunity. It's really um quite a joyfilled opportunity for you to see what's going on there. The reason for my visit tonight is truly to share just another success story and that's what your students and staff have done uh with this last year's kids can. The kids can is the big food drive that's a regional food drive annually sponsored by KC. Uh over 30 not over 36 schools registered to participate this last fall. They showed up in a really big way. Um, every single school donated pounds of food that it was absolutely essential that help stock our
016shelves and feed thousands of individuals who come to our food bank every month. Six schools collected over 2,000 pounds each. Arthur Butler, Cassumnus River, Mary Sukamoto, Folks Ranch, Miwok um Village, and Laguna Creek High School. Robert Fight Elementary School donated just under 3,500 pounds. And Pleasant Grove High School, they um always just really stun us with their donations. astonishing. This year, 5,830 pounds. So, over 54,000 pounds of food was collected for the families that come to the food bank. We are beyond grateful. And we also know that those efforts can't happen without the absolute dedication of the volunteers that are staff members who coordinate the drive at their individual schools. And to all of them, we thank them very much. I'd also like to shine a spotlight on Miss Sandy Peterson um of Lagona Creek
017High School. This last March, she called and led a cereal drive at her high school um over a ton of cereal, 2,245 pounds of cereal. If you haven't had the opportunity to see the video that was um shared of the domino drop of cereal boxes across her campus, I do hope you'll take the time to go find that. Another truly joyful event. So, on behalf of um our executive director, Marie Jakino, our board of directors, our staff, all of our volunteers, but especially to those individuals who come to us for help. We thank you. Your compassion, generosity, and ongoing support. It makes a difference every day. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much. Picture first. missing out on the phone. Yeah, come on in. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Y. Yeah, I uh would
018like to make a comment uh following that very touching um remarks. Um, I was uh fortunate enough to uh volunteers um a few times to uh deliver food from uh the Elkrove Food Bank to our community. Um so I I wanted to um also thank the donors and the staff, the volunteers, and it's such a joy to deliver food to folks and get a big old smile from them. um having that um sincere thank you um expressions and and and and that just fills your your heart uh delivering those food to them. So uh thank you for those who continue to donate like my colleague a and others out there that uh has called on. So thank you very much for all the great work. Thank you. All right, with that, uh, next up is
019recognition of Heroes of Arts Education, Miss Wilbanks. Good evening, board presidents Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos. I am here tonight to ask the board um to recognize our heroes of arts education from our Elkrove Unified School District. On March 12th, 2025, Friends of Sacramento Arts held their third annual Heroes of Arts education. Um, it was a gala event. They recognized outstanding arts leaders from school districts in Sacramento, Elorado, Placer, and Yolo counties. Two of our own finest teachers from Elgrove were honored that evening. Mr. John Brazier from Smemedberg Middle School, a music teacher and VAPA um department chair, and Miss Tammy McFro Elementary, a sixth grade teacher who regularly integrates arts education into her classroom. Friends of Sacramento Arts was launched in 2019 with the mission to ensure equitable access
020and comprehensive arts education to K12 public schools in the Sacramento area. Their vision is arts every day for every child in every school. They provide funding for arts projects for students and partner with statewide arts education um advocacy organizations and advocacy groups. As a part of this recognition, the friends of Sacramento Arts are with me this evening. They would like to honor our two heroes of arts education with an honorarium to help support the work that they do in their classrooms each and every day. So, I'd like to introduce Allison Kaggley and Mon'nique Anderson from Friends of Sacramento Arts. Well, she made a great introduction and helped provide a context for why we exist. And I know that for many of you growing up, you probably had mu music and art in your schools. But
021sadly, in California, only one in five school children get any kind of music and arts. despite the fact that academic and social emotional improvement is enhanced with music and art in every classroom every day. And uh just like with the food bank, feeding the bodies of the students, music and art feeds our souls and can't live without the music and art in our daily lives. So, I wanted to introduce um Monique Ganderson, who is an Elkrove parent alum, and uh she'll talk a little bit about the impact that the arts had here in this district with her family. Good evening. Hi, I am Monique Anderson. I'm the current board president for FOSA, but I'm a former EGUSD parent. And I just briefly wanted to share the impact that the arts programs had on my children.
022uh they both graduated from Pleasant Grove in 2017 and then in 2020 um and they both participated in the music programs. In fact um my daughter was a student at Smithbird back in 2011 1213 and was in the band program. Um they both stayed with the arts and I'm very grateful. Uh she went on to uh Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and she's a fashion designer, does ready toear brands uh that you'll find in Target and Walmart. Um and then just last Friday, my son, he stayed with music. He just graduated from USC's master's program in film scoring and he's headed to the television academy. So I am very very grateful that they had the ability to access such robust programs that had such a lasting impact on their lives. So very grateful. Thank
023[Applause] you. So so as um Jennifer mentioned and I and I'm so grateful for Jennifer and all the other VAPA directors that are in the school districts that we work with on a regular basis. We also partner with California PTA County Office of Education and we serve on a statewide policy council to help the implementation of Prop 28. So we expanded quite a bit just in the six years that we've been together. I was going to read you um some wonderful testimony from each of the teachers principles and then present them with the honorariums. So John Brashier um from Richard Wall who's the principal at SMED he said is a he's a fantastic arts educator he's not just the band guy although his specialty is instrumental music he has also worked dig I can talk
024diligently to be a strong choir director becoming knowledgeable in vocal technique and vocal ensemble performance. He has expanded his course offerings beyond band and choir to include piano and digital music. He has also taken over our school's ukulele band. He does all this while effectively serving as the department chair for our VAPA department where he advocates for all arts programs on campus. As department chair, he has worked tirelessly to utilize Prop 28 funding as quickly and extensively as possible, even bringing new course offerings such as musical theater and ceramics to the VAPA department for the 2526 school year. In the 13 years I've worked as principal at TRMED Middle School, it's been an absolute pre pleasure to work with Mr. Brashier as he has grown our music program and the VAPA department as a whole
025to be a vibrant program that is I believe unmatched in the Elkrove Unified School District. John, thank you very much. Thank you. Tammy Mcfon does not have the official title of the visual and performing arts teacher, but is a sixth grade teacher who implements art into her curriculum, both as arts integration and art education. Tammy focuses on the process of the artistic technique rather than the outcome. She works with the students using various types of media, watercolor, acrylic, charcoal pencil, pastels, foil, ink, pen, paper, and 3D arts like copper tooling, God's eyes, and paper sculptures. She always tries to incorporate art into her lessons, especially social studies and science, and takes into consideration how she can handle multi-incclude, multicultural aspects. She displays the student work in her classroom in various locations with each student having
026a spot for their work. Each student has an art portfolio and when that student leaves sixth grade, they have an entire portfolio that demonstrates their growth and development as an artist and allows them to reflect on what they have accomplished. Students voices and facial expressions always embody how proud they are of their work and they always state something related to how much they enjoy what they are doing. She has taught the recorder and directed social students and science plays. Tammy is going above and beyond to incorporate art in education and create meaningful artistic experiences for her students. Ashley Rob of Elkrove Elementary finishes by saying, "I feel it is extremely important that we recognize general education teachers who are not VAPA teachers by trade, but who are exceeding what is required to ensure students have
027access to arts in order to positively impact their overall educational experience. building their confidence and giving them a sense of identity through creativity, self-expression, and critical thinking. And that's why we do what we do. And we thank you for your support as a school district to allow these teachers to flourish and allow Mrs. Will Banks to flourish in her work with all the schools in the district. So Tammy [Applause] So, we have our event coming up next year, the first uh week of March, um which is Arts Education Month, and we'll send out that date. So, we hope that you can join us in recognizing your teachers and teachers from around the region. So, thank you very much. I have extra programs for you. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have resolutions. We have
028one resolution today, LGBTQ Pride Month. Is that CJ or Lara? Lara. Good evening, Superintendent Hoffman, um board president, Mr. Vargas, board members, and Miss Avalos. Um the board of education is requested to approve resolution number 88 recognizing June 202 2025 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer LGBTQ plus pride month. June is Pride Month, a time to commemorate the Stonewall uprising and to celebrate and uplift LGBTQ plus people across the globe. Various events are held during this special month to recognize the influence LGBTQ plus people have had on societies and to celebrate diverse sexual and gender identities. Pride Month is also an opportunity to peacefully protest and raise awareness of current issues facing the community, including the stigmas LGBTQ plus people face for simply being who they are. By recognizing Pride Month, the district supports
029policies, practices, and curricula that honor and respect LGBTQ plus students, staff, and their families, and ensures that our schools are safe and affirming spaces for all members of the community. Genders and sexual sexualities alliance clubs, GSA, are one such way to ensure students have safe spaces on campus. and our GSA students tell us how important it is to foster friendships, allyships, and advocacy of rights, not just during June, but throughout the whole school year. Thank you very much. All right, Mr. Yang, do we have any blue cards on this item? Good evening, community. Yes, board president, we have a few blue calls on this item. All right. First up is Charlotte, followed by Amenda. Good evening. So the statement about core values of Elkrove Unified School District include providing a safe, peaceful, and healthy environment
030for all students and staff, supporting collaboration with diverse communities and families. This is a lie. Pride Month will provide an opportunity to combat bullying, harassment, and discrimination based on real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression. And by recognizing Pride Month, the district supports other policies, practices, and curricula that honor and respect LGBTQ plus students, staff, and their families. This is another lie. The district can't even handle bullying at all the different school sites. I support these students, but I don't have to look for recognition to treat them with respect. I just want to call out the hypocrites who tell the the students you are there for them. You love them. Are you going to be there for them when they graduate? Are you paying their medical bills, housing, food, clothing, support? It's
031kind of hypocritical that you claim that you're there for them and despise their parents, which is sad. So this is just dividing students a lot more. I have experienced more bullying here at board meetings from people who support this. When you don't even know me or my beliefs or my personality, you like to assume. You know what it is it is said. You know what it is said about assuming. I think we just need to be kind to all and not only one group. Other children have rights and beliefs that you don't follow. Don't don't tell us that we have to believe and follow. I have never said anything to demean any of you. I just don't want my children to be sexualized like many of you are pushing. Children, parents, and families don't have
032to celebrate your month with you. I will respect you, but don't judge and attack me. Respect is a two-way street. You, many of you, don't even respect our religions and family values, which is extremely sad. My children have a diversity of friends. I welcome them all into my home. My children are my life, unlike many parents who have told us to give our children to the government schools. I am a proud mother of my children, and I will always be invested in their decisions and lives. and I ask you to vote no on this resolution. It is filled with lies and causes more division among the community. Thank you, Amanda. Followed by Alina. Hello board members. This is my first time back in this school year. Um I wanted to speak on resolution 88. Um
033at the very of this meeting. We acknowledge the land of the Miwok tribe, their existence. We honor the past, and we look to the future together. And that's acknowledged. That's said out loud in good faith. And that's important to do for our LGBTQ families, our students, the administrators, and educators within this community as well. It's fundamental to uplifting and protecting all of Elro's inhabitants. Um any argument about it being a lie that that we need this resolution um is going to divide our students. It does not divide our students. Uh it allows our students to accept each other. It gives foundation for them to ask questions and lets them know it's okay to hang out and ask the new kid to sit with them at lunch. Um, arguments about loss of federal funding is baseless.
034um has been proven by the countless victories of states and agencies and individuals who have taken the administration to court over withheld funding. So, um, I just approving resolution 88 is not going to do harm to our community. It hasn't done harm since we have acknowledged pride, since we've acknowledged transgender students, since we've implemented um, mentoring and coaching for those who are experiencing the LGBTQ bullying. This is not going to bring any harm to our students. It'll it'll bring them together. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Melina, followed by Kurt Thompson. Good evening. And uh first of all, I would like to say that addressing the board is not a privilege, is a right. is my right as a taxpayer as a resident resident of this community. So I I find it very interesting that in
035in the statement it says you know you lose the privilege of addressing the board. Wow. Okay. So maybe you want to consider that. Thank you. Uh and I'm here today because I found out that the district have in place a gender support plan which uh keeps a secret records from parents. Um the district have a flyer for the LGBTQ LGBTQ plus students. um that it kind of um it misrepresent AB 1266 which does not take away the parental rights. So in this flyer um said things such as um that the the student may um have their preferred name and pronouns. um that they can use the restroom that they feel align with their gender identity that they can participate in te teams sport teams that ali align with their gender identity. Um and then what's
036something interesting is is that confidential? Yes, it's confidential. If the parents come in and ask question about the uh identity of their uh child, the staff is instructed to lie if the kid has been transitioning social transitioning. So it's supposed to lie to the to the parents about that and will not share any records regarding the child's uh gender identity. Um so I find it very interesting that don't you think lying is a bad thing and if you saying this sending this message to the student that lying is okay meaning the means justify the end then you know I guess this kid can lie about anything else right I mean since you You know, it's almost like lying is a virtue, makes you a hero. you know in the press release from um the department
037of education it's saying that the that um I read from here the department of student privacy policy office totalifies educational institution receiving federal funding of their compliance obligation under the family education rights and privacy act and the protection of pupil rights amendment. Compliance with these laws means that schools must allow parents to review all education records of their students. Your time is up. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Kurt Thompson followed by Emily. Hi. Yeah, I've spoken enough about why these Pride Month resolutions are hypocritical by these by this board. I've cited multiple scientific studies over the last couple years from multiple reputable sources that show promoting transgender ideology promotes the drugging and mutilation of kids who largely turn out to be gay when just left their own devices. Um, and how transitioning leads to higher
038rates of suicidal ideation. Uh, this was described recently by one of you as being your authentic self, drugging yourself and cutting yourself up. All except one of you didn't care about any of that information when you passed your trans day avenge resolution a couple months ago. And if this board thinks it's appropriate to provide lip service to the gay community when you promote gay kids being drugged and cut up, well, I obviously can't talk you out of voting for this resolution. Instead, why is the Youth Development Office promoting gender support plans, which requires school staff to hide medically relevant information from parents? I know the psychos at the state capital passed a law requiring you and all school staff to treat every parent like a child abuser when it comes to this, but my concern
039is what's the process? Do the children have to initiate the plan or are there school staff searching for kids who seem the type and encourage them to start one? What are the safeguards to ensure that kids aren't being taken advantage of by some creepy school staff member or volunteer? What if a student realizes they are in fact the gender they were born to? Is there someone bullying them on the back end to remain in that gender support plan? As many dransitioners have said happened to them. What's being taught to these kids in these gender support plans? And I can already kind of hear everybody's thoughts. You can't teach people to be gay. You can't teach people to be trans trans. That's probably true. But are they being told how they're supposed to think as a
040gay or trans person? Are they being told what they're supposed to believe as a gay or trans person? We've had students complain that teachers already do this with political beliefs in your history and civics class classes. You want us to believe that this isn't happening during these gender sport plans? Why is this district willing to risk $70 million in federal funding by promoting social transitioning to elementary school kids in violation of a recent federal executive order which are not willing to risk standing up to the state by ignoring this law that treats parents like casual observers in their children's educational and social development? I doubt any of you have any acceptable answers to these questions. Mr. Offen, I did send you an email with these questions. So, I would like a response as soon as
041you can. So, go ahead and just pass your resolution. It's perfectly fine because it'll make you all feel good and that's what really matters. Thanks. Thank you. Next, Emily. Good evening, Rebecca. My name is Emily and I am a parent in the school district and the owner of an inclusive third space and bookstore in Elkrove. I was raised in the church going to a Christian K12 by a father who was the head of our household, a mother who was our caregiver. And none of that kept me from being the queer person that I am today. It did harm me and cause some some real damage in that I was not able to accept myself in any of these environments. It also taught me some good things. At my Christian schools, we learned that these three
042remain, faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. We learned through a song we sang in our chapel that Christians, this is our call to love your neighbor as yourself, for God loves all. We learned they will know we are Christians by our love. We learned that blessed are the merciful and blessed are the meek. We learned that God will separate the sheep, the people who deserve to go to heaven from the goats and that you must not judge other people. And we learn that the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, not judgment, and not exclusion. According to the Human Rights Campaign, LGBTQ youth are twice as likely to report being bullied. They are not as safe as their peers. We have a
043lot of resolutions recognizing a lot of identities in Elgroveve. I'm really proud of that. And these resolutions come about because these students are not as safe as their peers. LGBTQ youth are about 50% likely to contemplate attempting suicide. And when they find their school, specifically their school environment, to be affirming of their identity, they report that they are me less likely to want to attempt suicide. When you celebrate Pride Month, you are exhibiting love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You are living the love of God and the love of your community by accepting these students. As a parent, I do hope my children feel safe to confide in me regarding these gender support plans. If I have made myself so unsafe that my kids can't talk to me, that's work that
044I need to do. I really hope they have a safe adult in their school environment they can talk to and they can find safety and they can find the courage to come to me. Thank you for supporting queer youth in our school district. Thank you. Next, Rebecca Lamb, followed by Rick. Hi. Uh, my name is Rebecca. I am a parent in the school district. I have three children at McGarvey Elementary. And I am just here to say that I support the adoption of resolution number 88, 2024 to 25, recognizing June 2025 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer LGBTQ plus pride month. I think through love and inclusion is how we take care of our kids. That's all. Thank you. Rick, good evening. Uh my name is Rick Reyes. I'm a parent of four Elgrove
045Unified students, a career educator, and a proud member of the LGBTQ plus community. I want to thank the board and district leadership for once again bringing this resolution forward. In a time when LGBTQ plus students are being targeted across the country, our school district is telling our LGBTQ plus students that they are seen, valued, and safe. I myself didn't come out until last year at 43 years old, and messages of affirmation like this, the message that it's okay to be who I am, would have made a real difference for me growing up. I'm comforted to know my kids go to schools where they'll be supported and encouraged to be who they are. I don't really understand opposition to resolutions like this that are based on keeping making students feel safe. And I can only imagine
046that they must be rooted in either ignorance of the historical marginalization of the LGBTQ plus community or contentment with that marginalization. So, I just want to thank you for your courage, for continuing to lead in the face of loud voices who want to shame and silence us, erase us from history, and drive us back into hiding. With this resolution, EGSD declares that those voices do not represent the heart of this community. And you send the message to every kid that they deserve safety, dignity, and a chance to thrive. Thank you. Thank you. Last car, Aaliyah. might need the Barbara boxer box here. Um, good evening board members. I am a parent of two Elgrove Unified children, one at um McGarvey Elementary and one at Elviani Middle School. I am also part of a network of
047affirming ministers and I am a sixth generation minister and um I'm here to in support of this resolution number 88 and um recognizing June 2025 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride month. And um I want to tell a quick story as a storyteller, as a therapist and a minister. Um during the 1990s in the Bay Area, I had an uncle who was dying of AIDS. And um often I get asked as a minister about, you know, my relationship to the gay community. And I like to tell a story of the yellow bowl, which was a bowl that my mother had that she would transfer back and forth to my uncle's home to provide food for him in his last days. And so, um, I can think of no better theology than the theology
048of love as our dear sister beautifully lined out here for us. So, thank you. Thank you, board president. That ends our root car on this item. Thank you very much. And as always, thank you to the public for your feedback. Uh let's see. All right. Um so let's start with uh I will entertain a motion to approve resolution number 88 recognizing June 2025 as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pride month. So move. Moved by Miss Yang. Second. seconded by Miss Balerini. All right. Is there any uh would any board members like to be recognized to speak on this item? Miss Baldwin. Uh yes. I want to echo um those of you who came and gave us feedback. It's very helpful for us. Um I really appreciate the comment that love and inclusion is how
049we take care of our kids. I wholeheartedly believe that. Um, 26 years ago when I was in high school, I knew so many peers that were hiding. They were scared and rightly so because they were significantly bullied. And it is only now as an adult on through social media where I don't even really get to engage with them on a personal basis anymore, but through social media that I get to see them be their authentic self. and they're doing amazing work in the community and they're um really challenging the barriers that they faced and I just want to acknowledge all those who've come this far to stand up and to um be brave and be bold because without your work, we wouldn't be having this conversation and um putting these statements out and making these
050resolutions because it is incredibly harmful that someone in their midlife has to come out as their authentic self. Um, and I don't want that for any of our kids. And so I um encourage all of our board members to um pass this resolution because I think it's incredibly um important for our community, for our kids, um for our families who are constantly facing these struggles so that they know that we stand with them um and that we are really working hard to ensure that they are safe, that they are loved, um and they are encouraged to be their authentic self. Thank you, Miss Moore. Yes, thank you. Um, first I would like to warn parents um with children present here or at home or whenever you might be listening um that I will be quoting
051an adult theme material um from a district book. Um, so today's Pride Month resolution states, quote, "By recognizing Pride Month, the district supports other policies, practices, and curricula that honor and respect LGBTQ students, staff, and their families." End quote. I believe it is a false statement to say that we honor and respect families of LGBTQ students. Instead, we exclude them and deny them opportunities to be partners in their children's education and deny them opportunities to be included when their children are struggling with their gender identity. Children belong to their parents and parents have fundamental constitutional rights to to direct the education, care, and raising of their children. On our district's youth development website, we have a document titled affirming gender in elementary schools social transitioning. The document outlines how to socially transition elementary age students,
052indicating that parents may not be included in the process if they are not affirming. As a reminder, elementary schools include children as young as three years old attending our preschools. How can a three, four, or 5-year-old decide they identify as the opposite gender without an adult encouraging them? It's terrifying that we are allowing this to happen in our schools without including parents in the conversation. Small children think they can be a princess, Spider-Man, or have imaginary friends. It is dangerous to tell them that they can identify as a different gender, all while hiding it from parents. The YDIO page also has a PDF document titled EGUSD resources to support LGBTQ students under the law AB1266 here are your student rights. Within the document it says quote school staff are not legally allowed to tell your
053parents/guardians without your consent. I have made the superintendent and Miss Lavasser aware that this document is incorrectly citing AB1266 with this statement. AB1266 makes no such statement or reference. Despite the superintendent admitting that the document is incorrect, it remains on the website uh without amendments. This is highly misleading and highly unprofessional to falsely site a law on a district resource document. Furthermore, our district's gender support plan violates Furpa by indicating that the district keeps secret records for students that their parents cannot access. This puts us at risk for losing federal funding. Our resolution also states, quote, "Elgrove Unified School District continues to ensure that these diverse identities are reflected in the curricula and library materials." End quote. Based on several books I've located in our libraries, I believe that many of the books target LGBTQ
054students by sexualizing them on the elementary level. One such example is the book titled Rainbow Revolutionaries by Sarah Prager. This book is available in our elementary school libraries. The book highlights individuals as heroes. One such hero was Al Heckham. The book states he quote needed a son to pass on the kingdom to um to pass on the kingdom to a Hakam didn't have a wife or want one, but he needed to have a child. So, he had a woman dress up like a man, and they made a baby so that Alandhandas could uh have a future leader. End quote. Not only would this be extremely confusing for a small child, but if we read between the lines, this indicates that he likely forced a woman to dress up like a man and raped her. The
055book also highlights when of Han and says, quote, "It was normal for emperors to have a wife and boyfriends and girlfriends all at the same time." So my question is, how does raping women or having promiscuous sexual relationships qualify someone to be a hero? And even if they were heroes, why do their sex lives need to be highlighted to our young elementary children? The same book has sexual vocabulary in the glossery, including definitions of genitalia and gender affirmation surgery. In our secondary libraries, an example of a book targeting LGBTQ kids is titled This Book is gay by Juno Dawson. This book is available in some middle school and high school libraries. The book encourages kids to use sex apps to locate strangers for casual sex. It also highlights a 16-year-old having a sexual relationship with
056an adult. It discusses sex saunas orgies and explicit details of how to have sex, including how to give hand jobs, how to have oral sex, and how to have anal sex. These books are just two examples, but it's clear that we are targeting our LGBTQ identifying students with hypersexualized material and messages that direct them to participate in activities that are dangerous and risky. I cannot support this resolution today as I believe our definition of inclusion clearly does not include parents and families. As we state, true inclusion allows parents to be partners always, not keeping secrets from them. Additionally, I believe that we are targeting LGBTQ identifying students with sexual materials that advise them to participate in unsafe practices and I can cannot stand to support such actions. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Chen. Um, I
057want to first and foremost thank community members for sharing the feedback as echoed by Miss Bowwin. Before I begin, I want to say that I am in absolute support of this of this resolution and I hope that does not change in any at any time in any way for our district. Um, and I believe what I'm about to say has been echoed in sentiments by community members and other board members. I don't think that passing this resolution causes divisiveness. As a matter of fact, what I believe that it does as it encourages a task um and it asks of our parents, it asks of our staff, um it asks of the community to hold space for difficult conversations. And I believe that is a skill set that we need to be able to learn and
058be equipped with to navigate this society, this very diverse community for our students. I don't believe that suppressing this resolution, I don't believe that putting this down um is serving the duty that we have as an educational institution um to hold space for students curiosity. And I think putting this away and shunning this um these um a a current agenda of don't say the word gay, don't don't raise any awareness of the existence of this people is reverting our students back in our fundamental priority of holding um a very very welcoming and empowering um avenue for students to ask questions even at a young age. And I don't think that is something that we should be taking away from our children, their ability to ask questions and remain compassionate and open-minded. I also think that
059a lot of the conversation surrounding this topic and aligning topics um you know curiously remove student voice from the conversation. I think dialogue of having student voice at the center is absolutely imperative. So for community members out here, for um staff members um in the community, for parents even wanting to support students who identify as LGBTQ plus, I would turn your attention to GSAs on campus, student le organizations because if you really center what youth want in our community is a an area for them to be their authentic selves as echoed by multiple community members um here and I don't think that that fundamental right should be taken away because of different affiliations or fluctuations. ations and political beliefs. I believe that students have made it clear that they do support um our mission of
060diversity, equity, inclusion. I believe that students have made it so um you know they have underscored it so powerfully that their taking of action of building these spaces on their campuses being part and being leaders on their campuses they can they prove themselves as they they know that they have a right to be who they are and I don't think that we should be taking that way um that away from them whatsoever. As a matter of fact, I believe passing resolution reaffirms that mission. Um, and for that I support wholeheartedly. Thank you. Thank you. Other board members. All right. Then very briefly, you guys always make me go after our student board member. And I know I really should. Very good. If if you want to say something. I'll say something. Um, I just want
061to thank uh our uh our constituents for coming to the podium and share your uh opinion. Uh there's a lot of emotion, a lot of care, a lot of love um on all the speakers. And for me, you know, being a um minority, a minority minority minority ethnic groups, um it it gives me the experience of being uh very um in a a very small vacuum and and there's a lot of shame, you know, growing up uh because you just didn't know better. and and the the fact that you feel like you're not being accepted accepted uh by the public in general, it's very difficult. And I think that um you know on that note, you know, there's cry out loud for acceptant um because you just want to be um equal or even um
062being treated equally. And uh if you're not in that space or that upbringing, it's you you won't understand, you know. And uh I do have u you know uh some cousins and um aunties uh that that are gay, you know, and um they were in the closet for a long time. Um but uh finally they they came out and everybody except them uh in my family. Um but it it's it's not us but it's them because of you know you're in that vacuum by yourself and and so so in that u note you know we in a school district that is very um diverse um but we we we don't just embrace diversity we celebrate diversity. I mean we just celebrate uh AAPI we just celebrate Mong American day and now we are um going
063to uh adapt prim uh resolution again and I think um so so there there is I believe there's al always that happy medium that uh you have to uh treat people fairly and and give them a chance and and uh not saying who's right or who's But I think that there there is a mutual respect that need to be given um to each other as a overall. So um yeah, I support this uh resolution uh as I did before and I will again because um I I believe in uh inclusion. I believe in uh embracement of uh diversity. So yeah, that's that's what I have to say. Thank you. I will try to keep it brief um since pretty much everything has been said. Uh but one thing uh I want to keep sort of
064driving with with the with these resolutions I want to keep driving us back to you know not just speaking about students but speaking to students. Um I think you know to our students it's important that you see these this resolution as our promise that we see you we hear you uh and your safety and you know your well-being is continues to be our top priority. Um and this is also our promise to keep doing better. Right? Every year we're going to try and improve and make our campuses safer, make our campuses better for you. Um that is why we're all here. Um, and then the the only other thing I want to say is, uh, I feel like every time one of these resolutions comes up, uh, I think I was having a really interesting
065conversation with a parent recently, um, whose whose child came out as trans last year. Um, and this parent is fully supportive. Um, but even this parent is struggling to navigate uh, their their child's transition and this moment in their child's developmental process. um and they are you know figuring out how to respond to their students development. They are figuring out how to navigate their students coming out process um while also realizing that there is a coming out process for parents as well. uh you know coming out to your friends and your family and uh you know that whole process comes with uh you know um frustrations and difficulties and anxieties that you know we don't we don't necessarily talk about um and a lot of these parents oftentimes feel like they're doing it alone um
066because there is a process of coming out to everyone around them and their support network and it takes time to do that. Um, and so I'm glad to see that one of the things we're doing in the district is we are starting to spin up some resources for our uh, LGBTQ and supportive parents. Um, because those really are the overwhelming majority of uh, you know, our parents in the district have that alignment between the parent and the student. Um, and so I want to continue to encourage us to do that to, you know, have these resources available. um but also be thinking about what more can we do, right? This this month is an opportunity for us to pay a special attention um you know to these students and families uh and be thinking about
067you know how can we you know better support those families? How can we uh lower barriers for them and how can we reach out to them? Right? It's one thing for us to be responsive right when a when a parent comes to us and asks us questions. Um but a lot of these parents don't know they can do that. they don't know that's even an option. And so how can we reach out uh and uh affirmatively try to support them when these things are going on. Um and so that is that is all I wanted to say on that. Um I appreciate that we are doing this for the sixth year in a row. Uh I hope that we will continue to do it in the future. So all right with that um let's take
068a vote. So all those in favor of the resolution please say I. I. Any opposed? No. Motion carries. Thank you very much. All right. Next up is request for student expulsion. Is there anybody who wishes to address the board in close session regarding a student expulsion? All right. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to approve the recommendation for student expulsion. So, so move. Moved by Mr. Yang. Second. Seconded by Miss Albiani. All those in favor, please say I. I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you. All right. Now we have public comment for items not on the agenda. Mr. Yang, do we have any public comment for items not on the agenda? For presidents, we do have blue cars in this item. Let me just count it quickly. Yeah, I don't think Oh, yeah. We don't
069have 15. All right. calling on Red Panel. I think I might have mispronounced your first name. Followed by Charlotte. Is her mic on? Huh? Try it again, please. Hello, everyone. Y Okay. Hello everyone. Thank you for allowing me to talk. Um, I'm a full-time volunteer at John Airheart. I go to a third grade class and I'm pretty much there every day unless I'm sick or have a doctor's appointment. I'm retired, but I love going there. I love the students and I love helping the teacher. Personally, I don't know how teachers get stuff done. I mean, I do a lot and I don't mind doing it because that gives her more time to teach, but I also I've been there almost since the beginning of the school year. And I think that the each class should
070have a parah because I tutor certain students in math and some of the ones that need help with their reading and things and they come up every day and I have stuff for them to do. They have to bring the notebook back and show me that they did something. And um it is my choice to come and volunteer. I'm lucky enough that I'm retired that I can do that. This has probably been the best job I've ever had in my life. And um with the kids that need extra help, if I wasn't there, I don't know how they would make it to the fourth grade, personally. And you know, I always hear this thing, no kid left behind. Well, I don't believe that. There are kids that are going to be left behind and by
071the time they gradu get up to high school, they'll probably be a dropout, which is sad and which is a loss to our community, our state, and our country to lose these children because there should never be an excuse for a child not getting help. So, I'm glad that I am there to help these kids. I also believe that there are a lot of people getting paid six figure salaries. We need to not decrease the parah salary but to keep them because each class after all the stuff I've seen and observed should have one parah because that would help the kids give them help that they need and hopefully help them to graduate. And I'm seeing a lot of things. Also, the other thing is that the bullying, the bullying still goes on at the
072school that I volunteer at. That has not changed in the last few years. The bullies are rewarded and that is totally wrong. There should be heavy consequences for bullying, but I don't see it. So, those are my opinions. I don't personally I hope that you do take some of this to heart, but personally I don't think it's going to be really taken to heart because I say this every single time I come up and I'll keep repeating it and saying it because I strongly believe it in my heart and my soul. Thank you. Next, Charlotte, followed by me. So tonight I wanted to talk about the California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress. It's the state systems of mandated and optional assessments. It currently includes the three type of mandated tests, Smarter Balance Assessments, California
073alternate assessments, and California Science Assessments. So, California Education Code section 60615 allows a parent or guardian to submit a written request in the school to the school official to exclude his or her child from any or all parts of statemandated assessments. Section 852 of title five of the California code of regulations further provides that parents or guardians may annually submit a written request to the school to excuse their child from any or all parts of the cast testing. So currently there are no statemandated consequences for schools who do not for students who do not take the the ESPback test or other statemandated tests. Yet El Grove School District has this one with consequences for elementary. Now this states that I don't have to fill out this form and I I will share it with you.
074So, schools with low cast participation rates are penalized severely in public reporting of California dashboard. You know what? That's an empty threat. Just like your bullying resolutions, your fear-mongering, and you're not allowing parents this transparency. Now, this one is the one for high school that a student is supposed to sign. Why in the world do you have students signing something when they're minors? And this one basically tells them if you miss your school time, oh well, you can't you can't leave or it's unexcused. So right now during state testing, the poor kids can't even leave to use the bathroom. They have to sit in their their their classrooms. And volunteers can't even be in the room. Why? Because you think they're going to be cheating. Well, you know what? This is all about the money.
075So, as usual, um I challenge you schoolboard members and you, Mr. Hoffman, to look into this because you're not being fair to the parents. Um, only one school board member fights for the parents and children, and that is Heidi. I challenge the rest of you to look into your policies that you agree on, you vote on because many of them are terrible. And by the way, you all have made my decision to leave California and I will not be coming back and I'm just treating you the way that the district has treated me for eight years. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Maxi followed by Mark. Hello, my name is Macy Christ. I work for Calresh Healthy Living at the University of California Cooperative Extension um along with 4. Uh we provide some programs in the
076afterchool setting and we wanted to provide some of the data that we have collected this year. Um and I just want to say a big shout out to the high schools that we work with. Um, we recruit teenagers from Floren High School, Monterey Trail, and Valley High School. We train those teen teachers in a 10-hour training at our office to deliver nutrition education to your elementary schools. So, this year we had seven elementary schools participate on ha in hands-on cooking classes. Um, we had our cooking academy which is for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Um, we had our grub club which is for first, second, and third graders. Both of which they are doing hands on cooking. So during our cooking academy, they are using real knives. They are learning how to cook real meals
077that are healthy, nutritious. We are increasing their fruit and vegetable intake by about a serving a day, which I don't know if you've talked to a lot of our kids lately, but they don't really like their fruits and vegetables. Um, so we are making an effort to help find ways that they like to eat them in a healthy way. Um, in our grub club, we are making snacks. So, the kids make their own snack, learn how to do that with fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Um, I also want to talk about our teens as teachers a little bit more. Our teens volunteered over a thousand hours this school year. Um, so not only during training, but also delivering the curriculum to your elementary schools. So, I have some packets that I can hand out as
078well. Um, and then my coworker Gabby will be up in a to talk about some of our other education efforts. Um, but we just want to say thank you for allowing us to be part of the after school program um through a contract with 4 and our our office. So, thank you so much. Thank you. All right. Next, Mark Roco followed by Good evening. My name is Mark. I'm an alumni of the Oakill Unified School District and have been a resident of Oakro for over 30 years. Before starting, I just wanted to thank the Arnold Adriani Elementary School staff and teachers for all their hard work and dedication. Our son has thrived at Adriani and our experience there has been excellent. I'm here today to discuss two concerning issues. One is random selection and the
079other is offloading. Our twin daughters were accepted as TK students at Adriani. However, they were selected to be offloaded to to Pleasant Grove Elementary. We are very disappointed with this outcome, especially since we literally live across the street from Adriani. We bought our home so close to the school for the sole purpose of having our kids go to Adriani and to walk them to school. Randomly selecting 54 children and offloading them to another school is simply not practical. nor in the best interest for the kids of our community. Furthermore, the decision to split siblings between two elementary schools negatively impacts families in three areas. The first is family hardship. We now will be responsible for picking up our son who attends Adriani and our two daughters at Pleasant Grove. For working parents without external support,
080this is very difficult to do five days per week during the entire school year. The second area of impact is parent capacity. We want to be actively involved in our children's education and provide support to our school. However, our ability to contribute and volunteer will now be extremely limited. The third area of impact is family stress. Muting between two elementary schools can increase stress for parents and the children, reduce quality family time and disrupt the family environment. And then the second issue I wanted to discuss is using random selection to determine whether a child is offloaded or not. Random selection is a flawed solution and is simply a game of lottery. Selection must also include human considerations such as siblings attending the same school, students with additional sport needs, and the actual distance from the
081home to the school. In conclusion, random selection offloading is only a quick fix. The district needs to consider other long-term and viable solutions such as portable classrooms and school boundary changes. Thank you. Thank you. Next, Gabrielle Gabrielle, I should say. Thank you. Um, good evening superintendent and board members. My name is Gabrielle and I als I am an alumni of EGUSD as well and I currently work for Calresh Healthy Living University California with my colleague Macy and we are here today. We wanted to highlight just some of the wins that we've had um this past school year within um 2024 and 2025. So within the folders that you have received um Macy talked about the nutrition education that she helps with afterchool programs um and I focus on um inschool programs. So I I provide
082nutrition education within the school day um one being through our curriculum called up for it and that is an activity workbook for fourth, fifth and sixth graders. And when I do guest lessons for that activity, I'm able to provide taste test and give those participants, those classmates, those classes, um, fruits and fruits or vegetables, um, that are in season. So they are able to taste those fruits and vegetables and be exposed to things that they have not been exposed to before. So in those folders, I created some statistics that you can see that um, we do have picky eaters, but they were willing to try the fruit that they are not used to, and that's a win for me. Um and also in those folders I created statist statistics for physical activity. So our physical
083activity curriculums which we have too. I provide guest lessons where I help those teachers meet those physical activity standards or physical activity times. Um and we just have a blast with the teachers and the kids and we have a good time um being physically active because that's something that we know that is very important in today's age. Um so we thank you for the opportunity. We hope this gains we hope our program Calresh Healthy Living gains more exposure and we're looking forward to working together next year and more efforts then. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Next, Danielle. Daniel followed by grace. Good evening uh trustees, superintendent. Um, first, um, congratulations to everybody that got awards today, certificates. Um, also shout out to CalFresh and to fruits and vegetables, especially green grapes. Those
084are my favorite. Um, so I'm actually here today, my name is Manuel Sapata. I am the political and public relations representative for the Sheet Metal Workers Local Union number 104. Uh, for those don't know what sheet metal workers do, we are HVAC union. We are the HVAC union. We are your HVAC union. We do anything and everything to get air from over here to over there. And if you don't know how important that is, you will in a few weeks when it gets very hot. But I'm actually here because a few months ago, I was tasked with uh going around my district, which is the Central Valley, and meeting with trustees and board members um in different uh school districts, and letting them know the importance of apprenticeships. Now, everybody um I'm sure you heard
085of apprenticeships. It's another way of uh furthering your education for those that are not collegebound or those that want college credits and learn a trade. Um we are not here to get your children a job. We want them to learn a trade. We want them to learn a skill. We want them to continue to know how to fix things, to innovate, and to adapt to the everchanging world of the HVAC industry. I'm also here to invite everybody here. Well, nine of you because that's all the copies I have, unless we're going to share um to our open house in our Sacramento um uh training center which is out in uh in Matherther, I believe that's how you say it. Um uh we're we're going for those has anybody tra uh toured our training center workers?
086Thank you. Um but I know you have not trained uh or went to that training center while there was carnival performers or barbecue lunch. So there, you know, we're we're always changing our curriculum there. We want to always uh surprise you with new things and it's free. Um so if you if you would like to come and see what the sheet metal industry is about to see um the other degree that your children can get and to pass along uh our amazing program to the students, we would love to have you. It's on June 7th. I'm going to pass these down. uh you can scan the QR code to sign up and um or take one of my business cards and just let me know that you are interested in coming. So, thank you uh
087everyone. Have a great night. Thank you. Next, Grace Bailey followed by Crystal Thomas. Good evening everybody. I want to confront the quiet injustices injustices that are shaping student achievement in the Elgroveve Unified School District. My children went to Elkgrove schools, elementary, middle school, and high school. And I have worked in the district since 19 um 95 and I'm still here and nothing has changed. And nothing has changed. The disparities are real. In the most recent CAST results, only 31.5% of African-American students met English standards compared to 60.5% of white students, 59.7% of Asian students. In math, the gap widens even more. Just 19.9% of black students met standards while over 51% of white students and nearly 52% of Asian students. It's not an accident. It's the outcome of unequal access, implicit bias, and policy decisions
088that consistently fail our most vulnerable students. To be specific, in schools like Floren High, where over 70% of students are social and economically disadvantaged, advanced placement offerings are fewer and access to honors tracks is more limited than at wealthier schools like Pleasant Grove, where parent fundraising and booster support help bridge uh these budget gaps. Our black and Latino students are very very unre under under reppresented in the gate programs. And in 2022, black students were suspended at nearly three times the rate of white students. And I have personally seen so many interactions where literally white students were the perpetrators and black students were the ones who paid the price. I'm not making this up. uh we could fund with uh transparency. I don't really know if that's happening. Uh we need to require we need
089and the board has the power to do this to require antibbias and cultural competency training for all school staff with follow-ups, not just a one-off, you know, a oneandone. And we need to elevate parent voices. But you know what? The biggest determinant in terms of academic success, academic achievement is not the program, not the funding, it's the teacher in the classroom. And if we don't have teachers who are on board with seeking out solutions, I mean really looking at solutions to closing the achievement gap, then what's the purpose? like our little brown babies, our little chocolate kids are getting the short end of the stick year after year after year. There needs to be a buy in and the teachers need to buy in to having the I'll be back. Miss, your time's up. Thank
090you. I'll be back in a couple weeks. Next, Crystal Thomas. Good evening, superintendent and board members. Thank you. I did get a response from the district team from the issues that we brought forth. Um, I represent the Black Family Student Union. As we consider equity and culturally responsive practices from DEI trainings that we learned were going on, which we are appreciative of, I would ask the board to consider impact. So we have these trainings but just as the teacher pointed out our student outcomes are the same. And so how have the efforts impacted students students experiences? How have those trainings impacted directly impacted student outcomes? And it appears that year after year they're the same. So you have to ask yourself why does it remain the same with all the training that goes on. We
091have to move from discussion and training to collective responsibility for all of our students. There is a book, I don't know if the board engages in book studies, but I would recommend the cast which is a bestseller by Isabelle Wilkerson. She provides a detailed account of the systematic structures that in every institution keeps African-Americans at the bottom of the system. We will we're supposed to be meeting with district leadership teams soon. And so I created an action plan because again we have to move from and the expectation that we have is that we move from discussion and into actions with real goals set identifiable actions that are researchbased as well as a plan for monitoring to make sure that those goals um are achieved so that we can move from discussion because we don't want
092it to appear performative. And right now, many of our parents feel like the actions taken are performative because they don't show up in the day. Thank you. Have a great day. Thank you, President. That ends the blue card. Thank you very much. Thank you for the feedback. Appropriate district staff will follow up with concerns presented during public comment. All right, moving on to our consent agenda. Um, Mr. Yang, are there any blue cards on this item? Board present. There's no blue card on this item. Thank you very much. Would any board member like to pull an item from the consent agenda? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to approve items 1 through 32 on the consent agenda. So moved. Moved by Miss Berini, seconded by Mr. Yang. All those in favor, please say I.
093I. Any opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Next up, bargaining units. Uh, would any bargaining units wish to address the board? Right. ask me. You're my on. Okay. Uh, thank you so very much. Um, good evening, board president Vargas, uh, school board members, public cabinet members, Superintendent Hoffman, and Miss Ois. I just wanted to say thank you so very much for the last board me meeting uh, recognizing classified school employee week, which is currently this week right now. So, thank you so very much for that. Um, I also want to just just give a shout out. I'm very proud to be the president of Ask Me Local 258 and having our members be truly the backbone of the school district in the variety of the job descriptions that ask me covers. So, I also was very excited
094that um since this is classified school employee week, we actually took the whole month to be able to have conversations with our members. we were able to celebrate them in a picnic um on Saturday the 10th and just show them how much um being ask me means and how proud we are the the leadership of the leadership of local 258 how proud we are of all of our members. So again I just wanted to say thank you so very much for passing the resolution uh at the last board meeting but this is truly the week to celebrate our classified staff. So not only just ask me but my brothers and sisters and the other classified unions. I just wanted to say thank you so very much for the recogn recognization. Thank you. [Applause] Excellent. All
095right, then we will move on to reports and discussion. Um, oh gosh. Uh, 202526 budget update. Uh, Miss Watkins, tell us about the governor's May revise. on. Hello and good evening board president Vargas, trustees, superintendent Hoffman, Miss Avalos, colleagues and community. I'm here this evening to present on the May revision budget which was released by the governor last Wednesday, May 14th. there. We're at the point in our reporting life cycle where we're focusing on next fiscal year and developing the 202526 budget in alignment with our LCAP, our local control accountability plan. The governor's May revision provides us with assumptions used in developing our budget in advance of the state's final enacted budget. Tomorrow, district and labor representatives will attend School Services of California's May Revision Workshop, which will dive into greater details of what we
096will highlight this evening, which includes changes since January's governor's budget update. Tonight we will review the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee to fund education, universal transitional kindergarten, the expanded learning opportunities program, the new discretionary block grant, and other notable adjustments for Elkrove Unified. The state is facing significant financial and economic uncertainty. Overall, the May revision budget projects lower revenues and increased costs of health care in the near term. Federal policy is impacting California foreign trade, tourism, and immigration. The May revision forecasts a 27% average California tariff rate, significantly higher than the 2.4% tariff rate in 2024. Despite these challenges, Proposition 98 is mostly protected and there are minimal changes to the January proposals for education, including the plan to underappropriate the 202425 minimum guarantee, which remains in the May revision intended to mitigate the uncertainty of
097revenue projections referred to as the settle. The payment of the $ 1.3 billion dollar difference compared to the calculated constitutional minimum guarantee would be delayed to an unspecified future year. On average, this equates to an additional $214 per 2K through 12 unit of average daily attendance. Across 202425 and 202526, the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee is $4.6 6 billion lower than the January proposal. Despite the decrease in funding, the May revision fully funds the statutory cost of living adjustment of 2.3%. To cover the drop in the minimum minimum guarantee, the governor also proposes deferring 1.8 billion in payments to TK through 12 schools from the end of 202526 to the beginning of 202627. So from June to July, as well as using the entire Proposition 98 reserve, the state's budget deferral becomes a cash deferral for
098school districts. A year ago, the projected 202526 statuto statutory cola was 2.93%. In January of 2025, the projected rate was adjusted to 2.43%, 43% an estimated loss of $4 million for Elkrove. The final statutory cola of 2.3% realized an additional loss of $1 million in Elkrove Unified School District's LCFF revenue from the January projection. The May revision continues to provide ongoing funding for the full implementation and of universal transitional kindergarten and lower average student to adult ratios of 10 to1. The per pupil rates are lower than proposed in January due to revised ADA estimates and the reduced COLA decreasing $859 per pupil. The May revision maintains full implementation of the expanded learning opportunities program, including increased access by reducing the unduplicated pupil percentage threshold to 55% instead of 75%. Under current law, the districts with
099unduplicated pupil percentages greater than or equal to 75% must offer and provide access to all students in grades TK through six and are funded at a fixed rate of $2,750 per pupil. Districts with less than 75% UP must offer and provide access to all unduplicated students at a lower variable annual rate, currently $2,000 per pupil for 202425. At our current UP, under the proposal, Elkrove would offer and provide access to all TK through sixth grade students for the higher fixed funding rate. The May revision reduces the new one-time discretionary block grant by hund00 million, but retains its original design and adds a final expenditure report due to the California Department of Education by September 30th of 2029. Funds are completely flexible to address rising costs, although state priorities are highlighted. Allocation is on an equal
100per ADA basis and funds are available for expenditure through June 30th of 2029. It's important to note that the legislative analyst office in its review of the May revision recommends that the legislature scrutinize the discretionary spending proposals included in the proposed state budget as they increase the size of the state's budget deficit. So, an area for us to watch. There are other adjustments to the to the governor's January budget proposal reflected in its May revision budget proposal. The revised COLA of 2.3% is applied to the LCFF equity multiplier and other categorical programs including special education, child nutrition, youth and foster care, and the mandate block grant. The May revision suspends the COLA for the California state preschool program and child care within the Proposition 98 education budget, but maintains the existing total funding for child
101care and development programs from the January proposal using nonproposition 98 sources in the state general fund. The budget includes numerous one-time literacy investments at the state and local level, a repurposing of January's one-time teacher recruitment incentive grant program to a one-time student teacher stipent program, and a reduction of investments toward the govern the governor's master plan for career education, which was released on April 2nd. The May revision also includes a reversion of unused funds for fire impacted schools that indicated that they cannot use the funds by the August 2025 deadline. These schools will be able to access Proposition 2 facilities funds which is already oversubscribed for from facility needs exceeding available resources. Our next steps for us include a presentation of our 2024-25 estimated actuals and our 202526 proposed adopted budget on June 10th alongside
102our 202526 district LCAP. The board will be asked to take action on June 24th. The legislature began reviewing the governor's May revision proposals this week and will adopt its own budget proposals over the coming weeks. A final state budget must be agreed upon and passed by the legislature by June 15th to meet the constitutional deadlines. We will continue to monitor the impacts of federal policy decisions. The administration has taken steps to dismantle the US Department of Education. The proposed 2026 federal education budget maintains title one and special education funding but potentially eliminates federal funding of other programs. The federal budget proposal details are due by July 15th and must be enacted before October 1st. A lot more to come and I look forward to seeing you at the next board meeting to present our proposal.
103Excellent. Thank you very much. Um board members, any questions? I'll start at this end. There's more questions. Well, on page nine, um, when you were just on the last bullet point when you were discussing, um, the you said the the the schools that were impacted by fires, they could access Prop 2 facilities funds. So, I was just curious if that would impact us in any way, um, being able to access those funds if if they're used that way. Um, is that unanticipated use for those funds originally. Yes. From Proposition two, that just makes less available funds for the entire state to access Proposition two. Okay. So, that could impact us uh for example with our facilities master plan um potentially not being able to implement as many um projects or completing as many projects as
104we want or I wouldn't say that. It just the proposition two funds are used as matching funds for the state the state bonds that are issued. So it impacts reimbursement programs at the state level. So while it might not affect directly the pl the programs and the initiatives in our facilities master plan, it could impact the available dollars that we have to access on match. Okay. So it could potentially impact us though with some of our projects as far as the matching funds. It is possible. Yeah. Okay, I just wanted to understand and share that with community. So, um I think that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Christian. Okay, I do have a couple of questions. Um, a couple of things I want to sort of highlight, uh, in part for the public,
105in part for my colleagues is, uh, the slide number four. Um, this, uh, hold back of, uh, funds. Um, has, remind me, has there been any resolution on the litigation from last year about them holding back any still pending the the faded what was it called? The maneuver last year. So, the SBA and others have initiated legal action against the governor um and the state regarding that. So this is like round two and dja vu with this now they call it the settle up. Um so more to come. I um I anticipate with all of our partners that we will be pushing back against this as well. Yeah. And so I think it's important to recognize that whatever whatever justifiable reasons um you know the the governor and the legislature may have for these uh
106maneuvers, we'll call them. Um it is less money for us. Um and it is taking it out of a what is supposed to be a guarantee. Um so this is not exactly something that we are thrilled about. um and it continues to be an issue and something that is not resolved at the at the state level. So, uh we should all be keeping our eyes on this. Um my second question is about the block grant. Um I think was slide number eight. Um so I want to want to hear a little bit more about what the acceptable uses are here. Um, one sort of uh, one thing that jumped out at me here was rising costs. Um, what does that mean? Is that is that a limitation on what we're allowed to use it for
107or is that a bit of guidance? Guidance. It's completely discretionary. So rising costs for us are inflationary costs for the cost of doing business, utility increases, um, you name it. It will help um, to offset rising operational costs for the district. employee costs. Employee costs um if you recall the board is plus percent of the budget. The board took action um with its commitment at the second interim budget and if you recall that commitment or if you don't the language is aligned with the block grant. So the board has taken action and committed um moving forward in supporting employee retention and recruitment which is also a rising cost. Okay, good. And so that was kind of my question is that, you know, is this going to be available to us to use pretty broadly? And
108it sounds like that seems to be, you know, well, until we get the trailer bill language, we won't know for sure, but um it seems like that's the direction they're going. So that's the intent at this point. Oh god, let's hope it stays. Even though highlighted state priorities, it is completely from what I've read in the initial trailer bill language, there aren't any restrictions. There is an amount per ADA profered. So which has helped us estimate and if you recall in second interim we included half of the value of that um in our budget proposals. So that along with the reporting requirement is the the newest ad in the May revision is that there will be a report due to the California Department of Ed about how we spent it but still no restrictions on
109how we can spend it. Perfect. Um and then remind me uh just a more sort of separate question that wasn't on the slide. remind me, are we getting funding yet for ethnic studies? There is some language and I look forward to hearing a little bit more tomorrow about um the directionality of that. I I noticed it is in the May revision trailer language. It's been a deep dive. So, more to come and you'll hear about that at the next meeting. But the fewer unfunded mandates we have to deal with, the better. So, just wanted to toss that out there. Um, the last thing is just a reminder, uh, you know, I think to the public and everyone like that federal uncertainty is, you know, 41 million to us. That's a pretty darn significant amount of
110money. Um, it's not as much, it's not as big a percentage of our budget as it is for some other school districts. Um, but that is still a lot of money. And so, you know, any changes, you know, modifications to whatever strings are attached, you know, speaking exclusively in my capacity as a board member here. Modifications to strings attached we can live with. Um but changes to the amount of money are going to be substantially, you know, problematic for us. So, um just wanted to put that out there as well. Um and that is it for me. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Uh next up is public hearings and action items. So, first up, public hearing on the Elkrove Unified School District's annual service delivery and budget plan for special education. Um, ah,
111Mr. S. Good evening, President Bus, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, colleagues, and community. I'm actually going to put on to my colleague and regali who's going to present the item. Good evening, chairperson Michael Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, and Miss Avalos. Um, the board of education is requested to hold an open hearing for anyone who wishes to comment on the Elkrove Unified School District's annual service delivery budget plan for special education. This item will be presented to the board for adoption at our June 4th, 2025 meeting. The Elifi June 24th June 24th June 24th, 2025. Yeah. Um Yeah. June 24th. Right. Okay. The Elkrove Unified School District special ed local planning area was approved and adopted by the board of education on March 1st in 2011. Annually, each SULPA is required to
112develop and revise an annual service delivery budget plan as an additional component of their approved local plan. The annual service delivery budget plan includes a description of all the special education services provided by the SULPA, the nature of those services, and the physical location of those services. The annual service delivery budget plan also identifies expected expenditures for all items required by the SUPA's service delivery plan. Thank you for your consideration. Thank you very much. All right. Um with that, I'd like to open the public hearing and ask if there are any blue cards on this item. Board present. There is one blue card on this item. Calling on You can seeing felt like a really long walk today. Um it's nice to see everybody. Um I am here today uh as the director of advocacy
113with EG speaks. Uh, and I had a great opportunity today to um, communicate with different uh, family members that were within the community that had concerns based on what they had seen posted on with the agenda and I was able to take those to an and um, she we worked together and kind of adjusted some things and I really appreciate the partnership and it is our goal at EG speaks to be the bridge between the families and the district and tonight was a great example of that. So, um I thank you Ann and um always enjoy getting an opportunity to collaborate. Um the biggest thing that um I'm coming tonight and asking for you and everyone else to to to expect and to ask for for presentations such as this are specifics. A lot of
114the boxes are checked and it's like the CDE sends out the form and it's you check the box and all this stuff, but what are the descriptions? Those are up those are up to the department to describe what are what does it look like to have speech services and um you know specifically I would like for the district to identify what intensive um individual services are. I there are a select there's a there's a portion of families that benefit from their student having a one-to-one parah support in their classrooms that needs to be documented in the services that is a service their child cannot access their curriculum and this is agreed upon by the team it's not something that parents are just making up and asking for so I'm asking for specifics for that to
115be identified in all of our documents for services such as what Mr. Valley is going to present. There are a handful of other things that you know I feel like could be more descriptive and our families there's a lot less confusion and a lot less extra meetings being held and a lot less feeling like parents are um being given secret information is being kept secret from them if we're specific. So basically I'm just asking for all of you to ask everyone um in this report and as they're going forward to be specific in what the descriptions of services are. Thank you. For president ends our blue car on this item. Thank you very much. Then I'd like to close the public hearing and announce that this item will be back will be brought back for
116adoption at the June 24th, 2025 board meeting. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Next up, uh tentative agreement between Elkrove Unified School District and the Elkrove Education Association 202425 and 202526. Uh Mr. Riley. Good evening, President Vargas, members of the board, Superintendent Hoffman, Miss Avalos. The tentative agreement between the Elkrove Unified School District and the Elkrove Education Association for the 20 2024, 2025, and 2025 2026 school years has been ratified by a vote of the EGA membership. In addition, educa education code section 3540.2 two stipulates a fiscal review by the Sacramento County Office of Education of negotiated agreements to determine the financial impact of the agreement on the district budget. Therefore, the AB1200 report which provides the financial analysis of the tentative agreement is attached was submitted to Skoey for their review and it was
117approved. The EG US board is now asked to approve or ratify the attached 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 tentative agreement. The EGS board president is asked to announce and open the public hearing with a request for anyone who wishes to speak to the EGA tentative agreement. And after listening to the speakers, the um and closing the public hearing, the board should be asked to take action to approve or ratify the tentative agreement. Thank you very much. Then I'd like to open the public comment and see if there are any blue cards on this item. Board President, there's no blue card on this item. Very well. Then I will close the public hearing and entertain a motion to approve the tentative agreement. So move. Moved by Mr. Yang. Seconded. Seconded by Miss Ballerini. All those in
118favor, please say I. I. I. Opposed. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right, that brings us to our last item of the evening, board member and superintendent reports. Uh, Miss Bowwin, I believe you had a report. Yeah, I just wanted to give a brief update that the wellness committee met um and it was um a really great presentation by Michelle Drake from food services um very similar to the presentation um for the board um a few meetings back. Um but yeah, just you know, great um opportunity to really focus on how our um nutrition services um is really contributing to the well-being of our community, our children, um you know, is that's a sustenance is a big part of thriving and so um that presentation was very helpful for that committee.
119That's it. Excellent. Any other reports? Miss Moore? Uh yes. Uh I recently attended an education focus group organized by the city of Rancho Cordova and um and they also invited parents um from schools that I represent in Rancho Cordova. And um so anyway, it was very uh it was a good opportunity for um the city to hear our feedback. Um and I'm just appreciative of their efforts to support schools and education in Rancho Cordova. Thank you very much. Other board member Other board member reports. Mr. Superintendent, anything? All right, then I will give a really quick uh report. So, we had uh the CSBA um board of delegates met over the weekend. Um it was mostly informational about the budget and uh legislation and litigation that the CSBA is uh pursuing. Nothing of particular note,
120but if any board members have any questions about what the CSBA is doing, feel free to ask at any time. Uh with that, um we are adjourned at 8:12 p.m.