Board Meeting - August 8, 2023

001good afternoon I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Board of Education of the Elk Grove unified school district for August 8 2023 at this time I'm going to announce that the board will meet in closed session to address items one through three on the closed session portion of the agenda I'm going to call for public comment on the closed session items Mr Hoffman do we have any blue cards we do not okay thank you I am going to close public comment on the closed session portion and recess into closed session thank you we could have everyone please take their seats so we can begin I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Board of Education of the Elk Grove unified school district for August 8th and announced that

002the board met in closed session and no action was taken good evening and welcome to the Elk Grove unified school district's board meeting the board of education has resumed full in-person board meetings unless remote attendance is permitted pursuant to the California Brown act live streaming of full in-person board meetings will be available to the public via the zoom platform today's meeting is being video recorded and will be available on the district's YouTube channel I'm going to share some information about the public comment process which has been evolving during regular board meetings the public may make public comments on items on the agenda or items not on the agenda individual speakers are allowed up to three minutes to address the board on each agenda item the total amount of time allocated to public comments by the

003board will be limited with a total of 30 minutes designated for a specific item public comments during regular board meetings may not be made about items not excuse me may be made about items not on the agenda but within the school district's jurisdiction public comment may be made on all items that are on the board agenda and will be heard when the selected item comes up individuals may not defer their time to another speaker to increase their total time Beyond three minutes 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 of those observing from children to adults are made to feel welcome safe and valued the board shall not permit any disturbance or willful Interruption of board meetings

004persistent disruption by an individual or group Shelby grounds for the board president to provide a warning and then to terminate the individual's privilege of addressing the board first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance I'd like to welcome up to the front of the room Miss Elizabeth Ramirez and family um Jody Boyle principal of Miwok Village Elementary well I read a little bit of information about this family step right up there so um welcome I'm going to tell these nice folks a little bit about you actually do we do the pledge first now and forgetting the order what first read first okay my apologies um so welcome again Miwok Village Elementary elementary school proudly honors Mrs Elizabeth Ramirez Trejo as our education partner her exceptional dedication and contributions has have significantly shaped the

005success of our school community since the school's Inception in January 2022 Elizabeth has been a vital force engaging the community and helping Define our mission and vision as a devoted mother to her two adventurous children Regina in third grade and Pablo emilioin first her passion for Education extends to enriching the lives of all students as an active member of the school site Council and the elac chairperson Elizabeth's invaluable input has influenced crucial decisions for the school's Direction Beyond her official roles she volunteers as a field trip chaperone classroom assistant and is actively involved in the PTA she actively Fosters collaboration between the school parents teachers and the community cultivating a nurturing environment for Student Success we are deeply grateful for Mrs Ramirez Trejo's unwavering support passion enthusiasm which have transformed Miwok Village Elementary into an

006exceptional place of learning and growth we would like to express our heartfelt appreciation for Elizabeth's outstanding example as she leads the flag salute alongside her children together with support from parents like Mrs Ramirez we look forward to a bright future for our school community and the continued success of every child at Miwok Village Elementary flag of the United States and if you'll stay there for just one second [Music] thank you very much let's give them one more round of applause next item on our agenda is the first of our presentations or recognitions first item is the recommendation of the name for a library at Carroll Elementary School Miss levasser do we have any public comments on this item via Zoom Madam President we have no public comments uh on this item via Zoom Mr Vargas

007who is graciously filling in for Miss Jamerson today do we have any blue cards for this item which is item two one so we might uh let's see so Michelle Rhodes Smith did you want to speak on this issue I did get that right give us just one second and then we'll one second as we get a little organized please okay um I just I know folks have come here to participate in a presentation and I just want to know if we were planning on doing that during public comment or was that gonna happen okay I'm the only one Speaking okay um were you planning on limiting your comments to three minutes I will try well and the reason I'm asking is because if you're part of an agendized presentation that we're preparing with you

008you don't have to do it technically during public comment and we don't have to limit you to three minutes so so if we can not do it during public comment then I don't have to limit you to public com to to three minutes does that make sense yes okay so do you want to hold off and do it as part of the presentation uh yes yeah that gives us a little bit of more flexibility if that's okay don't move everybody don't move stay right where you are yeah um so what I am seeing is that we do not have any blue cards for this item uh correct okay um and Miss levatzer said there are no Zoom items so I'm closing public comment for this item and calling on Miss Kristen Coates to present the

009item all right good evening Madam president trustees superintendent Hoffman uh Miss Avalos and the public uh tonight is a a difficult night but also a great night um we are bringing forward the recommendation for the name of the library at Carroll Elementary School um consistent with board policy and administrative regulations 7511 community and staff members from Carolina elementary school have requested to name the library at Carroll Elementary the Seth Thomas Smith Library administration supports this recommendation consistent with board policy and I'd like to bring Dr greywall up to share Seth's story thank you Miss Coates hello Madam president members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos we have here Michelle Smith that's mom and all those here from the school site as well and family to support Seth and principal Jack Ferreira I just

010want to share a few words here when you become a Carroll Elementary comic you forever become part of a family that supports respects and honors all who are part of it one such former comment at Carol was an incredible young man named Seth Smith that's education at Carroll began in first grade his mother Michelle Smith was a teacher there at the time and she continues to work there today Seth promoted from Carol and then attended Elizabeth Pinkerton middle school and then he graduate and then he graduated from Cosumnes Oaks High School Seth went to attend the University of California at Berkeley with a double major in economics and history in 2020 Seth tragically passed away in Berkeley his life was certainly taken too soon Seth always lived life to the fullest and had a positive

011impact on all that he met he respected and valued education as well as Theater Arts but Seth's true passion was literacy he was a voracious reader and spent hours devouring novels from the school library he was an extremely kind intelligent caring and a very inquisitive young man there was no doubt in anyone's mind that Seth would be going on to make a difference often buildings and facilities are named after people in order to honor their legacy the Carroll Elementary staff and Community will like to honor Seth's life and passion for literacy by naming the Carroll library that Seth Thomas Smith Library all current and future students at Carroll Elementary will be able to visit the library and see his name on the building along with a plaque to commemorate his life perhaps through this act

012students will be inspired to become passionate about literacy just like Seth the Smith family has been part of the Carroll Elementary Community from the beginning and we are all in agreement that we would be honored to show our love and support to set and the Smith family and Michelle well she took some of the words right out of my mouth um I am Michelle Rhodey Smith I'm gonna try really hard not to cry um thank you for giving me the time to speak to you um Seth was a really unique kid he was from being a little boy he was reading at three by kindergarten he was reading Magic Tree House books and by first grade Matt Phillips his first grade teacher was mad at me because he could read already and he said what

013am I going to do with him now um again as she's as Miss gruel right very well um uh explained he's been in Elk Grove since Kinder he went to Pleasant Grove Elementary for Kinder and then graduated from Co in 2018. uh he had so many AP credits he had a full year of Berkeley completed when he got there he only had to do three years and sadly he was taken from us by an angry neighbor who hurt him um at 19 just two two couple weeks shy of his 20th birthday um while he was at Carol and some of my colleagues here can attest if he got in trouble it was for reading uh he would read during math and then Ms Leon would say put that book away and try to trick him

014by asking him the answer which he always always already knew um he just was a voracious reader I think he saw books as friends and he devoured knowledge and like it was food um Books open our minds to other people's perspectives they bring us empathy and compassion which he had um just a quick anecdote when he was at Pinkerton a young man named Mike Infante who um happens to be disabled he has CP and he goes from wheelchair to crutches um he really wanted to try out for a play for a play on the on stage and he was really nervous since that time sitting off to the side and he said hey you know hi my name's Seth what's your name made friends with him he asked him you know what's going on and

015he said well I'd really like to try out but I don't know if I can manage the stage and he said come on dude come on you can do it take that apart he went on to do theater at Sheldon and he's now making movies he just finished a movie with Pedro Pascal so um Seth inspired him to have a career another gentleman at CEO Kevin you I'm still in contact with many of these kids because Seth touched their lives in a positive way so they stay in contact with me to let me know where they're at Uh Kevin I wanted to drop out of high school sorry he wasn't exactly feeling good about it he didn't think he was successful Seth encouraged him they were in homeroom together whatever they call it Avid um

016and kind of cajoled him along and he is now getting his master's degree in criminal justice at Sac State so I feel that my son although taken from us in a untimely way was a really good influence on the community at Large and I'm I have a list a long list of people that I could name who he touched either through theater Through Math Mr matsumoto's here and he can attest to the fact that in Middle School one of the kids Emma Buckman just they all adored Seth he was one of the smartest kids in the class and she had shirts made that looked very similar to this this was a shirt made for a vigil we had after his demise and on the back it said sticks ways to Seth Ibana and all the

017whole class bought the shirt and wore it every Friday and called Friday's Seth day and they would dance and they would do math and they would he said he'd went on the back and said argue like Seth because he loved to argue with Mr Matsumoto to try to prove him wrong if I'm wrong if I'm incorrect I think he he proved himself correct a few times um he just was a light a light that is gone and we would like for that light to continue and perhaps hopefully Inspire the next few generations to love reading and knowledge and Gathering that compassion and empathy just like him so I think for us attaching his name to this building brings that light to us so thank you for your time thank you Miss Smith and to all

018of the other presenters and folks who are here today thank you for bringing us this opportunity to make a fitting tribute to a remarkable young man um I would like to call for a motion to approve the request from Carroll Elementary School staff and Community to name the library at Carroll Elementary School the Seth Thomas Smith Library so moved second moved by Miss albiani seconded by Mr Yang all in favor please signify I could make a moment excuse me uh that I like to see those individuals could you possibly bring those individuals one of these days to uh this board and do present it's been a public comment because that's very powerful but you just said that that he influenced a lot of students within our district and the district needs that you know good

019positive behavior and that feedback it makes my heart bigger yes and I could try some of them don't live in this area they're in college elsewhere or graduates well whenever they could come you know you know make a point because Mike would love to when Mike Ponte uh did a play downtown in downtown Sac recently my husband and I went and he held up there's a sweatshirt like this it's an orange sweatshirt long story but he held it up in front of the entire audience and said I do this for him so yeah Mike would be he would love to come and talk to you and you know that's you know the fact that he graduated three years and went on to the UC system that's one of our goals and objectives you know that's

020a million dollar story that that we need to put up here in in our community you if so he could do it everybody else could do it you know that gives enthusiasm and Spark and the whole works yeah thank you Mr Perez I neglected to check across the days for comments my apologies uh Mr Fortuna go ahead thank you for your comments about your son um I have a couple questions you know oftentimes with with well with people in general but certainly with children they'll see a name the name doesn't mean anything to them and considering uh there's several reasons why we'll be naming the library after some but certainly one of them is his love of reading will there be anything posted in the library that is a short okay description of him and

021the Y ordered one of my colleagues already ordered that and on his um he was cremated and on his urn which is a book it's a brass book it says a reader lives A Thousand Lives those who don't only live one and that's going to be on the plaque okay and that plaque will be placed inside uh I think it's just at the door it'll be at the door at the entrance door on the wall outside and then we're going to have uh like a corner like a section of um shelving where it will say Seth's favorite books because I know what they are in fact they're still in his room um so I'll get we'll make sure we have that list of books that could kind of inspire kids that's that's a I mean

022that's terrific because kids kids will see that they'll go who's that yeah and and then she you know they'll be able to explain it yeah you know the why so that's that's wonderful yes yeah thank you well can I say one more thing sure yeah I forgot it was in my notes but I get distracted and sorry um so when he was in by the time he got to sixth grade he had read every single book in the library every one of them internet demo I don't know if you know her I think she's at Franklin now maybe but she was our librarian at the time and she would personally go buy new books just to give him so he had more to read as did Paul howder a couple times so I mean when

023I say voracious reader I'm not kidding I think in fifth or sixth grade Carla he read the dictionary for fun um he read his social studies yeah like he read everything I couldn't get enough he enjoyed Russian literature at Berkeley so what can I say sounds like he's going to be very inspirational for the students at Carol so with that the we have a first and a second all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed none the uh resolution the yes recommendation I don't know what it says here yes it's approved unanimously thank you very much moving on to resolutions we've got a few of these today first is for suicide prevention Awareness Month Miss levasser do we have any public comments via Zoom for this item yes Madam President we have

024one public comment via Zoom for this item okay let's take that first one Joyce Brown okay Mr mate I can talk now yes ma'am go right ahead okay why did I I went off where can you see me um I I don't your camera is on but um we can hear you okay that's good yeah Mr mate if we can get the please there we go we're ready for you man whenever you're ready okay well good evening Elk Grove board members my name is Joyce Brown and I'm here to present a solution and a guarantee to our slogan leaving no child behind there's a proposal that I would love for you to consider and accept it it is the miracle University Dropout prevention program just to give you a few highlights of the program we

025solved the high school dropout crisis there are four thousand High School dropouts which includes all the districts in the Sacramento County most of these high school dropouts could have been identified and prevented based on a failing grades and poor attendance especially in the ninth grade this is what we offer mentors tutors specialized interests and internships plus they are paid along the way and scholarships we just graduated 31 tier uh 31 31 tier 3 students labeled as Impossible on July 22nd 2023. now many schools and districts are interested and trying to be a part of the miracle University I am now challenging Elk Grove to do the same we already have the support of Valley high school and Laguna Creek so right now I am praying and hoping that you would be that you will approve

026our proposal I am really hoping that everyone can hear me and understand the importance of this proposal I I work with Laguna Creek High School BSU and I love Laguna Creek my kids went to Laguna Creek and I just I don't want to see any child fail I don't want to see that anywhere and if we have a solution and we can do this I appreciate it if you guys would consider and just really look into it we have enough for I know you'll say but we have so many we have so many students that are failing it's enough that we can do it for everyone and I want to thank you thank you ma'am okay Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards on this item yes we have one blue card uh Miss

027Amanda Jimenez hello I'm here to talk about the suicide prevention awareness can you step a little closer to the mic I want to make sure everyone can hear you um I'd like to um Provide support for suicide prevention awareness to truly practice Suicide Prevention we need to provide an environment that students feel safe connected and accepted a huge component to this is representation feeling seen and supported conversations about the hard stuff is important for those who feel alone or feel like they don't belong to know that they are not alone nearly 20 percent of the high school students in the United States have considered suicide that they are definitely not alone they deserve to be here just as much as anyone else their families deserve to be here just as much as any other they're

028equally a part of this community and none of this is possible without representation these students deserve to be taught about all walks of life they need to be able to seek out conversations without fear of overly drastic response from under educated Personnel often due to lack of exposure they deserve to know that there's help when they're feeling helpless books and educational material that represent all types of existence and all types of circumstances is necessary to make those hard conversations easier and to reinforce that hate and discrimination will not be tolerated it is not enough to just acknowledge the existence of others we need to help them see a life worth living by including material that represents all different kinds of cultures identities and struggles will help promote a space conducive for acceptance awareness that not

029everyone learns the same loves the same or looks the same is key to the message that you can make an impact you can be successful you will be encouraged this does not damage any other way of life or infringe on anyone's parental rights in our country one in four youth identifies lgbtq lgbtq youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their peers 45 percent of lgbtq have seriously considered suicide Elk Grove has 63 000 students can you imagine if the estimated percentage of students who thought to con to commit suicide were successful they'd be over 12 000 students awareness breaks stigma opens doors and welcomes more conversations awareness is not possible without being aware of what causes suicide and that includes lessons in our schools that uplift differences no one benefits from suppressing

030real life occurrences or circumstances suicide is preventable thank you thank you is that the only ones that is the only blue card on this item okay we have concluded public comment on that item Mr Ross so uh good evening uh Madam president uh members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss abelos um I'm here this evening to present resolution number three recognizing September as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month although suicide prevention is important to address year-round Suicide Prevention awareness month is dedicated to time to work together to act two produce stigma encourage help seeking connect individuals with suicidal ideation to services and reduce the impact of suicide on our families and friends suicide is preventable health problem yet the Center for Disease Control reports suicide is the 10th leading cause of death among adults in

031the United States and the second leading cause of death among people aged 10 to 24. the overall suicide rate in the United States has increased by 35 since 1999. the stigma associated with mental health conditions and suicidality work against Suicide Prevention by discouraging persons at risk for suicide from seeking a life-saving help by recognizing Suicide Prevention Awareness Month the district is shedding a light on this highly's taboo and stigmatized topic egusd is dedicated to educating and encouraging students staff and families to recognize the warning signs of suicide to guide those in need of appropriate services and support while the district is communicated the importance of suicide awareness in the egusd parent and student handbook through many staff trainings and on our ID cards for our students this resolution memorializes the district's intent to further amplify

032the importance of suicide awareness and build an annual public awareness campaign to support the services available to our students and Families a quick note regarding our pre-service for all of our staff this year and its connection to mental health and suicide awareness the folks of this year's pre-service was to build community and to be socially connected so our staff received that training this year that collaborative work being done to build community and develop connections with each other and our students and our families was incredible I had the opportunity to see a few of those um and this is from CDC as well so when we are socially connected and have stable and supportive relationships learning can flourish and we all also more likely to make healthy choices and to have better mental and physical health

033outcomes we are better able to cope with those hard times when they come the stress anxiety and depression it was a great start to the year so thank you for your time tonight and I respectfully asked the board to approve resolution number three recognizing September as Suicide Prevention Awareness Month thank you Mr Ross comments yeah thank you just as with all of our other resolutions this this one is Meaningful and valuable and I just need to say Don that that uh thank you to to you and and all of our staff throughout the district because as long as I've been on the board this has been a subject that has been in the Forefront uh and the district has been responsive and its training with staff um the provision of communication uh at the schools

034providing uh crisis uh information and and telephone numbers uh to children so it's uh it's a subject we we know is important and it is one that I know that is a district we've taken very seriously so thank you yeah I'll just add I I don't think the the general public is aware of the work that you just mentioned so thank you for highlighting that um and and when we have conversations about other things this is always running in the background because of the training that we've had right we understand if we're doing an intervention with a student on on any issue what the tie-in could be to to risk factors for suicidality so um that's it's really critical and it relates to so many other issues so thank you for that but Mr Perez

035um and I work for the paternal child health unit with the Department of Health Services we did data on this issue but there's another data set that people don't realize it's the number of attempts before you actually commit suicide and you died so you know there there's another data set that people need to realize or be aware of but you know you don't a lot of these students and people who commit suicide they have attempted doing this more than once and so you know maybe next time you could provide us with that data and also data from you know State of California and and and maybe school districts you know I haven't seen them school districts but I know for by County they have it but yeah it's a very serious situation that we have

036here in throughout the world you know thank you very much Mr Yang um thank you for reading that uh post resolution um I lost a family member a cousin of mine to Suicide um this past March and it's it feels so surreal but it's very confusing and painful and the work that the school district are doing I you know I'm thankful for for that and I hope that we continue to um touch and help out more kids um because it's not necessarily just helping them in their teenage years but adult life as well and for the rest of their life so thank you for this work I appreciate it thank you with that I'm going to call for a motion to adopt resolution number three recognizing the September as Suicide Prevention awareness month I move

037approval resolution number three a second moved by Mr fortino seconded by Mr Bettis all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed the resolution is approved unanimously thank you next we have the resolution for Constitution Day Miss levasser do we have any public comments via zoom on this item Madam President we have no public comments via doing for this item thank you Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards for this item there are no blue cards on this item thank you thank you I am closing public comment and inviting larae blomquista so um good evening Madam president school board members superintendent Hoffman Ms Avalos um so do you want to start with five the Constitution Day yes ma'am that's what we have first so September 17 2023 will be the 236th anniversary of

038the formation and signing of the Constitution of the United States of America the finalizing of the Constitution had taken place after months of deliberation and discussion and it would be many more months before The Constitution was ratified by the states in March 1789 the Constitution was declared to be in effect by the first U.S Congress the Constitution that still governs and guides our country today has had significant political influence around the world the values and beliefs that are represented in this document are ones with which citizens of our country should be familiar in 2004 Congress created a Federal holiday Constitution Day designated to be September 17th in May 2005 the U.S Department of Education stipulated that all schools that received Federal monies must hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution on September

03917th of each year through this resolution resolution the Board of Education would communicate a clear message about the importance of our country's foundational governing document as well as the importance of Civic values in support of this resolution and in recognition of Constitution Day the curriculum and professional learning department will offer a virtual Workshop called upholding the rights of the people the California state constitution on Tuesday September 19th of this year 2023. additionally School sites will receive information and resources for observing Constitution Day at their sites and so at this time I asked that the board adopt resolution number five designating September 17 2023 as Constitution Day thank you Miss Blomquist I'm going to call for a motion to adopt resolution number five meeting September 17 2023 as Constitution Day so moved by Mr Vargas seconded

040by Mr Bettis all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye opposed none the resolution that's approved unanimously okay and I think you're here for the next one citizenship and Civic learning Miss levasser do we have any public comments via Zoom for that item Madam President we have no public comments for this item Museum thank you Mr Vargas do we have blue cards for that resolution there are no blue colleges on this item okay I'm going to close public comment and go ahead Miss bonquist okay these these two go together nicely it's the goal of the Elk Grove unified school district to prepare all our students for success in college career and Civic life schools are a critical place for students to develop the Civic knowledge skills and values needed to effectively participate in

041our democracy by having classroom instruction in government history law and democracy discussion of current events Service Learning extracurricular or co-curricular activities student voice in school governance and simulations of democratic processes students who engage in the community and participate in Civic action gain knowledge about school local and Global issues and are prepared to succeed in college career and life 12th grade students in egusd will be eligible to learn earn the California state seal of Civic engagement on their diploma therefore it's requested that you adopt resolution number four citizenship and Civic learning as presented thank you Miss Blomquist I'm going to call for a motion to adopt resolution number four citizenship citizenship and Civic learning as presented motion from Mr Yang we have a second second by Mr Bettis all in favor please signify by saying aye

042aye opposed none the resolution is approved unanimously thank you next we're going to move on to public comment for item not on the agenda Miss levasser do we have any public comments via Zoom for items not on the agenda yes Madam President we have three public comments via Zoom for items not on the agenda the first person is Hilda Garcia hello can you hear me yes ma'am go ahead whenever you're ready hi good afternoon I just want to share this verse first before I begin Matthew 18 6 but who so who so shall offend one of these little ones which Believes In Me it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck and that he were or drowned in the depth of the sea Mr Hoffman I know you did respond

043and send an email as well a Elk Grove unified school wide email on July 28th and you did mention briefly about the materials in the school library well you said the library books being reviewed um my concern is it wasn't received by many parents so I'm not sure what distribution is being used and if you could please update parents so that they know that they have to be on emails I know I received from the school you know to update my information but you know like I said several did not I'd like to read to you again pinoco 288.2 makes it a crime to send harmful or obscene material to a minor with the intent of sexual arousal or to have sex with them the other one is 288.3 the statue that makes it a

044crime for someone to contact a minor or attempt to knowing they're a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime or felony involving it is very alarming to know that there's pornographic books in the elementary schools or any of the school libraries in Elk Grove unified school district um I have asked you various times to cite to me under what regulation or what Authority you've been given to authorize these books you've not provided that information I know again you have noted you're going to have a group uh for parents to be able to review these books but I I really would like a response on my questions uh the sexualization of minors is not why children are being sent to school and so it's you know it's very alarming again to know that children

045can go view these types of books that would not be acceptable in a regular work environment for adults um and then my other comment is on the special ed children with special needs are being moved from school to school because of staffing needs this is for this is unfair because it doesn't allow the children to establish long-lasting relationships many Thrive with consistency and I understand if a child would need to be moved to a different school in order to be provided the services that they need but this isn't done with regular school children so I just think that's something that also I would ask that you please look into and keeping some stability of the children with special needs again I look forward to hearing from you on what statue or what regulation you're using

046to authorize these pornographic books because some of them are very graphic in nature uh showing how to have sex is not acceptable thank you next speaker next comment is from Wayne Shepard uh yes can you hear me yes all right my name is Wayne Shepherd and I want to say greetings to uh the board members and thank you for this opportunity I'm a local Pastor a military veteran and citizen of the Elk Grove Community I'm here to advocate for all students in our district who are potential dropouts I would like to emphasize the proposal by Joyce Brown for miracle University just this past year this is fact 31 students in Twin Rivers Unified School District Bay Lincoln High School written off as potential dropouts were enrolled in the miracle University program now I would say

047that it would be impossible for these 12th grade students to change their ways and graduate but this summer of 2023 100 ibsa 100 of these potential students uh who are supposed to be dropouts they graduated from high school with admission to college or that are are now on a career path that is a miracle indeed as a result of the success of the Medical University program hundreds of families at other schools throughout Sacramento County have requested to enroll their failing high school students in the miracle program this year starting in September of 2023. American University Dropout prevention program is currently partnering with every District in Sacramento County we would like to therefore once again humbly asking you the Elk Grove Board District AFS School District to consider and accept our proposal to enjoy I'm sorry

048to enroll and transform error period at-risk student and parent in our district who has requested to be in the miracle University Dropout prevention program we would like for our failing high school students to be enrolled in Miracle this September if at all possible thank you so much for caring about our kids and families and answering their plea for attendance at the American University thank you again so much thank you sir next speaker final public comment via Zoom is from Dustin Noble we get them up on the screen Mr mate okay okay Mr Noble it sounds like uh we don't have you on the zoom platform so uh let's see we did Zoom let's move to Blue cards and we'll come back to Mr Noble If he if he's able to connect go ahead Mr Vargas

049all right um so we have a number of blue cards on this item so let's start with Sean Connolly and after that will be aeon Cardoza and please feel free to correct my pronunciation when you get to the mic so folks come on up and we'd like to let you know who is the next speaker so that if you could start queuing up um it helps us move a little bit faster we appreciate it my name is Sean Connolly hey I don't want to interrupt you just for everyone who's new to the room if you need to move that Podium up or down there's a black button there that toggles up or down and just in case anyone needs to okay go ahead so my name is Sean Connelly I represent uh the tree of

050life and bboa and work with fellow Partners uh hooked on fishing island violence and we can work it out so we're here to support the miracle uh University and when I was coming up there was not a lot of programs for us that was failing I was a screw-up when I was a Youngster I went to Valley High School when I moved to Sacramento California and so we just hear because we have a lot of Youth that we mentor and so education is very important to us and so we just asked the Elk Grove unified school district to send those who are having trouble and dropping out to the University of Miracle school thank you thank you sir great next is Aaron Cardoza followed by Tio sessions good day you guys my name is Aaron

051Cardozo I'm a president of an organization called brother to brother we do a lot of good work around Sacramento today I just want to introduce a miracle University Miracle University is a new school a new program to where they want to identify the dropouts around Sacramento school districts right um and I was once a dropout until 2020 I just graduated and got my high school diploma thank you and and I'm 50 years old now but um it's just the the uh the lead and the head guy that that's that has the uh Miracle program he's he was my mentor he was my tutor and it's just good that we have this program going on now um I'm in support of it um I work mostly in the Del Paso Heist area but all around Sacramento

052and Miracle University is just a program needed right now to stop a lot of you know gun and gang violence because if you're not going to school you're getting into something right and so I'm in support of that and I hope that you guys get on board and all the school districts get on board because I'm gonna go to all the board meetings to try to get them on board because it's well needed around Sacramento so thank you for your time thank you next up uh next up to sessions followed by Daniel chastang absolutely good evening everybody my name is Theo De Niro sessoms I am here in support of Miracle University on behalf of my company train Consulting LLC and I am also um an Employment Specialist for an organization called uh Exodus project

053um what I do at Exodus project is I assist those returning citizens coming home from jails and prisons with finding employment um I was at Miracle University's first graduation it was actually in the same building Exodus project is is located uh on L Street and I was there for the 31 to watch them walk that stage I am in very much so support for miracle University because I actually went to Valley High School I was there a class of I'm class of 98 but I was there 94 to about mid 95 and I was kicked out under a um based on an understand a misunderstanding that nobody wanted to understand um after that my life had his turmoil I went to prison when I was 19 years old I was sentenced to life without plus

05415 years it took me 18 years to get back the kids that graduated from Miracle University are 18 now so their entire life I spent in prison fighting to get back I'm stubborn I've been told that since I was small so that was one of the reasons also why I was able to go to the ninth circuit twice the U.S Supreme Court twice to have myself freed based on illegal police tactics what I am here to tell you guys as well as hopefully motivate you all to support Miracle University is we just took six uh six students yesterday to CRC for a construction technology um class a tour so they can see what their future looks like so that they're given the opportunity to see um as a career they're starting their jobs uh 26

055dollars an hour and they're able to build my goal is to see to it that they do not quit on themselves so in support of Elk Grove School District we sincerely need you on board thank you very much thank you next up Daniel chastang followed by Carmen aeon evening panel uh thank you for being here thank you for allowing us the opportunity to speak my name is Daniel chastang I'm a Senate Bill 261 candidate I'm a youth offender just like the brother who just left I left at the age of 18 and I was returned home July 4th of 2022. so my stint was 29 years in that 29 years I had to understand what it was that made me do the things that I did right what this program is allowing the population the

056community is an opportunity for individuals to actually come and be a part of those who were like me who were misunderstood who were not represented who were not loved who were not supported my family moved me from the south area of Sacramento to the Elk Grove District I am an Elk Grove District individual 1992 I got kicked out of Elk Grove High School because I was going through some things that no one would ask me what was going on and you have this program that is able to communicate and talk that lingo talk that dialogue with those individuals who may not be able to express who they are or what they're going through I believe that this program will actually Aid the community and stop this pipeline of Juvenile Hall Prison and murders the murders

057that are going on in Sacramento right now in this in this time of Summer they need mentors they need people who are able to communicate with them people who actually understand what they're going through and to be able to pull them up be able to pour into them to love and understanding that they have coming out of the institution I've had to learn myself which was the most difficult thing because no one ever told me this this this they never gave me the direction I had to learn it in order to be found suitable to return back home and with that Insight the majority of us who have returned home are dying to give back to the community who desperately needs it because we have seen that pipeline we've seen those who were who we

058grew up with we saw their kids we've seen their kids inside 16 years old 17 years old 18 years old come inside of the institutions and I believe that if you have this program that you will be able to give them an upper hand give them a a leg up to help them out which helps the community that's it for me thank you thank you I think Miss Sherman uh thank you no comments or no no it's not a comment it's a request from you that we need contact information from these individual groups in the future we have it I would like to have us meet with them you know Mr Bettis you are out of order we already have contact information from this okay we need to meet thank you we have thank you

059next person there are issues thank you next up is Carmen aeon followed by Joseph Thomas good evening respective board members my name is carmelion I'm a former student from the Twin Rivers Unified School District and the UC alumni UC Berkeley alumni I'm here to Advocate and encourage the installment of the miracle University program to the Elk Grove District this will provide the opportunity for every building high school student specifically Urban Schools students from from Valley High School to be enrolled into the miracle University Dropout prevention program this year this will improve graduation rates attendance UC college graduation rates and overall achievement and the Improvement of our safety of our students in the community every student at risk deserves serves the chance to be enrolled into this program because we will see the the improvements of

060of the Dropout rates um and specifically students going into juvenile hall and the continuation school um development as well so I'm here to encourage you guys all and challenge the opportunity of the installment of Miracle University I want to share with you guys that this last year um 31 students who were ran off as potential Dropout were enrolled into the miracle University program in December of 2023 and six months later um all 31 students Rose from years of academic failure poor attendance and hopelessness to graduate from high school and succeed in the college and career for so definitely encourage you guys all thank you thank you uh next up Joseph Thomas followed by Stacy hello hello hello everyone as you know my name is Joseph Thomas I'm one of the founders of our organization called

061united.org I am also a recipient of programs such as this University uh res I resided in Sacramento California at the age of 13 years old uh uh I started my first Endeavors into gangs when I was about 15 16 years old the whole goal was trying to find a family right I didn't understand that the in-between between the family and gangs was kind of alike right and when I say that is we get a part of teams for Comfort when we don't have a real family so when me and my mother came out here it was just us too I didn't have a father figure I didn't have no one that could actually really stand up for me being I didn't have no brothers or sisters so I turned to The Gangs as not a

062form as uh protruding violence into my community but for protection so when I see a program like this University I see that same platform of protection for these kids so when you look at the A's that I got involved in games it was around seventh grade eighth grade right around the time when we start getting to the point of where we start actually feeling ourselves and understanding that we're closer to manhood so I believe by looking at people like us which I also consider myself a returning citizen because I did take a trip to the other side I came back home and was able to correct myself to different platforms of Education like um um problem solving um um conflict resolution um restorative justice uh and then sprinted myself in order to reach back and

063show these kids that you can create a family Associated to The Learning Experience coming out of games so I reached back to a lot of my peers that got involved in games when I did to try to show them a lot of the correction that I did to make sure we can reach back to our community so in that sense when we got in contact with somebody like Dr Roger the founder of this University we felt like we can be more of a spokesman for him to be able to show his community of these type of organizations does work when you can set up a platform where the kids can lean back on for supporting instead of leading back on the gangs like I did right because like I said it was more about family

064than it was trying to destroy our community so by setting up these type of platforms for kids early where they can reach out to instead of reaching out to the shiny object that's going on around them we got more of a probability of them succeeding later on down the line right I'm also 50 years old like I said I took a trip to the other side did a little bit of time correction had a mentor that stepped up in my life when I was 13 14 years old that never gave up on me thank you sir your time is up oh thank you thank you guys thank you next up is Stacy followed by amalina Mendoza the brain in this District one of my favorite quotes from the novel Walk Two Moons is don't judge

065a man until you have walked two moons in his moccasins meaning we have to understand someone's challenges and experiences before we judge them a lot like we just heard about you may have heard of how books can be a window to the imagination but really they are opportunities for us to view others lives it has also become popular that books can serve as mirrors reflecting back and reaffirming identities such as those who identify as lgbtq Plus according to rudeen Sims Bishop professor at Ohio State University books are sometimes Windows offering views of Worlds that may be real or imagined familiar or strange take one of my favorites Growing Up The BFG by Roald Dahl where a kind Big Friendly Giant roams the Streets of London ensuring children have only good dreams this became a window

066for me into the effects we have on others and the way we can incorporate kindness into everything we do and that Giants are friendly books can also be mirrors as literature transforms Human Experience and reflects it back to us becoming a means of self-affirmation the questioning Margaret goes through well everything and are you their God it's me Margaret acted as a mirror for me and my own Coming of Age process through the pre-adolescent years I knew I wasn't alone in my confusion of growing up books or tools for understanding complex issues limiting young people's access to books does not protect them from life's complex and challenging issues instead it leaves them defenseless and without a toolkit for how to navigate life let me give you an example there was a 10 year old girl who

067picked up a book at a library in Delaware the book included a chapter on sexual abuse much like The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison which has been read aloud here many times for its graphic descriptions of the sexual molestation of a daughter by her father the 10 year old Delaware girl read her library book and saw it as a mirror for her life and Trauma because she too is being molested by her father she didn't have words to describe what was happening to her until reading that book held up a mirror in front of her she also finally saw a way out because if the author grew up to write about it then this girl could survive the trauma too she brought the book to her mother and said this is me her mother read

068the book seeing a window into what was going on in her household her husband's betrayal her daughter's pain and suffering and she took her husband to the police their father was arrested tried and convicted the judge stated there were heroes in this case one was the child and the other was the book please do not remove books Elk Grove unified has over 63 000 students in 68 schools we do not have the all-knowing ability to predict which book is going to connect to which student in our district all we know is that having Books available to students even ones that depict situations we would never wish on anyone saves lives as the judge said books are heroes thank you thank you next up is amelina Mendoza followed by Heidi Moore thank you okay um I

069have received an email from the Elk Grove unified school district Communications in which is said that the district is in the process of reviewing and updating policies and regulations regarding the selection of evaluation of instructional materials for classroom and school libraries my question is who is working in these policies and regulations are they employees and is there an opportunities for volunteering parents to be involved in the process I am aware that a feedback opportunity will be granted to parents via online however my experience with the feedback the district has put have put forward in the past lack lack transparency and it was done after the process was already completed and perhaps even approved I would like to be part of the process as being that while is being developed not after all the decisions have

070been made being Hispanic and having worked with many having experience with many Hispanic marriages and youth I believe my input in these policies can offer valuable perspectives please email me letting me know the steps I should take to be part of this ADV advisory committee or whoever group is working these policies and regulations so I could be included or I could know what the steps to take and since I have a more minute I would like to just make a comment regarding your selective camera um it seems like with a general public uh comment the camera records about 45 seconds in the front of the person and in the rest of the minutes is from the back um but it doesn't happen when it people who come here and ask for Resolutions and and topics

071in the agenda that people wants to to pass and they come here and and present that the camera keeps you know filming them from the front the whole time so I wonder if the public comment is less important than the comments of other people who come here and make their comment regarding something that they are bringing to the board in order to approve so I don't know if the camera is set that way or what's going on but I just do not appreciate myself being recorded from the back while other people are recorded from the front the whole time it's either everybody from the back of from the front and no selective um recording there so that's why I always have a friend coming to record me from the front because of the selective camera

072setting that you have here in this room so anyway I'm looking forward to hear from you I don't know if you want this with my information or you have my information there I would like to know more about these policies and regulations that are being um taken care thank you thank you since it is our practice to always make sure that um someone is designated to to respond to specific questions I just want to note that I I did receive your email thank you for reaching out I responded uh I don't know uh why that didn't answer your questions but I will resend and make sure you have the information thank you all right next up is Heidi Moore followed by Ron Owens okay first of all I would like to address Mr Hoffman because

073I noticed that he shook his head during um Elda Garcia's comment when she questioned when you will be implementing the parent committee to help approve and oversee books he over or he shook his head uh as in he disagreed with her she had no idea what she was talking about but I do have an email from Mr ceretti that promised that would happen by July 19th and obviously that day is coming past so um just another example of why Mr Hoffman and others in the district are aligned to us and it's not parents line it's it's you guys because I have the email so that's pretty disrespectful to do that okay so it's back to school time so that means the parents have the opportunity to um opt their children out of PG-13 nr8 and

074movies um so this shows that the district acknowledges on some level that parents have rights and that ratings are important it also shows that you should record or that you recognize that some material may not be appropriate to minors oddly these simple principles are somehow being ignored regarding parent concerns over pornographic books books that graphically depict pedophilia promote sex apps to minors and much more the book push is a perfect example of that because this book has been made into a movie called precious that movie is rated R so let's read an excerpt from this book about a uh dad raping his daughter I'm your daughter effing me illegal but I keep my mouth shut so he so the effing don't turn into beating I start to feel good stop being a video dancer and

075start coming I try to go back to video but coming out rocking under Carl now my jumping juicy it feel good I feel ashamed CeCe he slapped my thigh like Cowboys do horses on TV then he squeezed my nipple bite down on it I come some more so you like it you just like your mama you die for it he pulled his dick out the white stuff pour out my whole wet out my sheets so that's just one example uh there are several in that book um so so how is it that my I could got my children out from participating in that movie um but you can somehow Supply it to my children without acquiring my permission without even letting me know how is that okay it's it's not okay and the fact that

076there's that discrepancy that you recognize that parents should get to sign the permission or R-rated movies for PG-13 movies but not for books that can say contain the same content if not worse it's very concerning um so you need to stop ignoring our valid concerns thank you next thank you next up is Ron Owens followed by Charlotte Rieger a northern California man was arrested in book and County Jail on one count of possession of obscene matter of minor in sexual act which is a felony a Southern California man was arrested for allegedly downloading and distributing child sexual abuse material over the internet the case of the northern California man in the case of the Southern California man is pending however they say well King Valley man was sentenced to 21 months in prison and fined

077five thousand dollars for transferring obscene material to a minor a U.S attorney announced on June 20th these are just three examples of thousands of people who have been arrested tried convicted and sentenced in one of 21 federal prisons one of California's 34 State institutions or one of 58 state county jails what specific law did they break they broke California Penal Code 311.11 paragraph a which I quote prohibits a person from knowingly possessing obscene materials depicting a person under the age of 18 years old engaging in or simulating sexual conduct in previous meetings I have noted Elk Grove unified school district's policy prohibits employees from sexually harassing others your pornographic books contradicts your own policy in previous meetings I've noted there are federal and state laws prohibiting The Grooming of minors your pornographic books goes against

078these laws the previous speaker just read a pornographic expert excerpt and in this meeting I note people are arrested tried sentenced and incarcerated and have to register as a sex offender for the exact same hornographic material that is being propagated in district schools and that is shelled in District Libraries in closing I want to note that my heart went out to you Mr Yang when you shared about your loved one we grieve for you and the community offers us offers you our condolences thank you next up is Charlotte Rieger followed by Rhett Pennell someone told you the right pronunciation thank you we get it eventually good evening we still need direction on how these sexually explicit books will be handled they do need to be removed from our shells I would like an email on

079explaining your Authority on allowing sexually explicit books Mr Hoffman I would like one too as I watched the movie sound of Freedom it brought back discussions and Thoughts From the board meetings I that I have attended or listened to sexually explicit books are normalizing sex for the students who read them what attention is being brought to those students isolation learning different sexual acts grooming children for sexual acts making them think that being sexual at a young age is normal keeping secrets adults telling them how awful children are and training the children in sexual promiscuity guess who was those kinds of children pedophiles and sex traffickers the more that you all show that you're supporting these books the more it shows that you're part of this grooming process yes I said it grooming process that's exactly

080what it is you're just making these pedophiles and sex traffickers salivate that you're doing the work for them they don't even have to train these kids you all are training these kids by allowing these sexually explicit books this is not a right or left problem there's no choice in What Child is going to be abducted or put in those sex trafficking situations or pedophile situations it's all the children all of them the children's innocent is not for sale these books have issues that the children are not emotionally intellectually or morally able to handle we need our children to be able to enjoy childhood and not know the sexual differences of everything I'm going to close this by a quote by Booker T Washington a lie doesn't become truth wrong doesn't become right and evil doesn't

081become good just because it it is accepted by the majority have a good evening thank you thank you and finally Rhett Pennell my name is Rhett Pinnell and I just have a couple questions that I keep asking but I haven't heard anything yet first is are the kids going to really be safe at school against Billy bullying and fights and things and this happens all the time every year so I'm just curious what what is being done to prevent it what um the bullies or the people that start it what kind of punishment do they get and I do know that from my own experience with my grandchildren my granddaughter got in trouble she wasn't the one that started it so I just want to know where the justice is in that second one Title

082One schools is there a hard copy somewhere that tells you what a title one school is entitled to what do the children get with the title one and are they different from state to state because my grandchildren went to a title one school in Nebraska they got a lot of stuff our Title One School they have to pay for a lot of stuff so is that different here so I would like to know exactly what it means here to go to a title one school and what the children are entitled to thank you thank you Mr Hoffman could you have someone reach out to answer those questions thank you great thank you very much and that is the end of our blue cards you're cool so that concludes public comment for items oh thank you

083so much for reminding me um did we get uh was it Mr Morgan or was it Mr Noble yes Mr nobleback hello can you hear me yes sir go right ahead all right thank you very much let me go ahead and pull up my notes Here all right good evening uh president chairs Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos I want to thank you all for your continued support for special education and the students and families we mutually serve at EG speaks we support students parents and Educators advocating for kids in special education when we say Educators we mean teachers support staff including our wonderful Paris campus security the lunch person in the lunchroom Librarians anyone that touches the lives of our kids and supports their academic Journey Librarians in particular are

084there for reading supports and ensuring our levels programs get the needed curriculum they so desperately need to support our children today egusd Librarians are under siege being harassed villainized called names and threatened both in person and on social media this is happening in our district to our Librarians at our schools they feel unsafe and a job that should be the least threatening or hazardous one of which is a member of the EG speaks support team this is appalling to me and should be to all of you as well the same voices in this chamber calling out the books sex ed curriculum anti-pride month the list goes on as so does their agenda are the same people going after our librarians I'm calling on this district and its Administration to condemn these acts and to immediately

085acknowledge and support the staff being affected by this let's start this school year strong with support for our site Librarians and the students they work so very hard to support thank you thank you Mr Noble with that I'm going to close public comment for items not on the agenda and we will move on to the consent agenda let's see Miss levasser do we have public comments via Zoom for this item Madam President we have no public comments via this item thank you Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards for the consent agenda there are no blue cards on this item okay I'm going to call for a motion to approve items 1 through 25 on the consent agenda I move approve lives one new 25 second moved and seconded do we have excuse me

086all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed none those items are approved unanimously thank you uh before we get into the following items I'm going to call for a five minute Comfort break thank you or something okay thank you we're going to resume our meeting our next item is the 2023-24 budget update before we have the presentation I'm going to ask Mr Vassar if there are any public comments via Zoom we already do consent yes ma'am okay good so quick Madam president there are no public comments via Zoom that's right thank you Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards for the budget update there are no blue cards on this item thank you I'm going to close public comment and take it away Miss Watkins hey I may need a tutorial on

087this right we got to learn sometime don't worry thank you good evening Madam president and fellow board members superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos tonight's presentation is an update on the enacted 2023-24 state budget and its impact on the district's adopted budget this slide details our District budget cycle we are currently between adoption of our current year budget and approval of last year's unaudited actuals which will provide us with our expected beginning balances for the current year on June 27th Governor Newsom signed an on-time budget the same day as Elk Grove adopted its 2023-24 budget our budget was completed based on the latest information available to date from the May revision tonight we present changes that result from the enacted state budget no action is required at this time as sufficient budget Authority exists to continue

088operations until action is taken with the first interim budget report in December the 2023-24 enacted state budget maintained several proposals that were included in the state's May revision these same assumptions were used in developing our 2023-24 adoption budget such as funding an 8.22 cost of living adjustment or Cola and maintaining core programs there are some changes incorporated into the enacted state budget that will impact our 2023-24 adopted budget such as reductions to one-time block grants there's a great deal of uncertainty regarding State revenues until October tax receipts are reported Lower State revenues could result in lower minimum education funding through the prop proposition 98 guarantee currently the proposition 98 minimum guarantee for education is being funded through the delay and reduction of several one-time grants there are numerous references in the budget Act of intent

089to repay these in future years it's important to note what isn't included in the enacted budget to balance it using rainy day Reserve funds apportionment deferrals or Cola reductions these considerations are likely being reserved in the event October revenues don't materialize as projected in the enacted budget the district adopted a protective budget in June to be conservative this also protects the district at the state enacts a mid-year budget revision to address Revenue shortfalls the local control funding formula is the district's primary source of unrestricted funding the enacted budget maintains funding of the statutory 8.22 percent Cola intended to support inflationary cost increases this Cola is an increase in per student funding not total funding the funding formula also includes funding by grade span as well as supplemental and concentration grants calculated based on the unduplicated

090percentage of enrolled English Learners socioeconomically disadvantaged students or Foster youth half of the state's 1000 school districts saw a decrease in their unduplicated pupil percentage 30 districts lost eligibility for concentration grants Elk Grove is one of these districts we have implemented additional mechanisms for collecting eligibility data to ensure we are maximizing funding this slide shows the amount received per each unit of student average daily attendance or Ada loss of concentration Grant funds per Ada amounts to an average of nearly seven thousand dollars per Ada per year another addition to the local control funding formula is the lcff equity multiplier intended to close opportunity and outcome gaps the state identifies eligible schools including those with socioeconomically disadvantaged pupil rates greater than 70 percent this funding was not included in the adopted budget and amounts to 627

091dollars per pupil a total of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars for daler Lineback and Rio cazadero the lcff equity multiplier is intended to supplement current funding to increase and improve services and supports and will be incorporated into the local control accountability plan proposition 28 funding received an increase in the enacted budget resulting in an additional 1.3 million dollars for Arts education as a reminder These funds must be used to supplement existing funds used for Arts education with 80 percent spent being spent on Staffing we are still being advised to be cautious in planning and implementing programs using proposition 28 funds as the first date of apportionment is still unclear and additional State guidance is still needed this slide outlines the changes in proposed reductions in one-time grant funding since the January Governor's budget our

092one-time discretionary and learning recovery block grants were not reduced as much as anticipated in the enacted state budget our discretionary block grant is reduced by 2.1 million dollars we have yet to encumber or spend any of these funds although the entire amount was budgeted in 2022-23 we have received 50 percent or 18.7 million dollars with a balance of 15 million dollars yet to receive in the future the board will be asked to approve a plan to spend these funds and funds must be encumbered by June 30th of 2026. the district already received its total allocation of 71 million dollars of learning recovery emergency block grant the enacted state budget reduces that amount by 10.3 million dollars but includes intent language to restore the cuts in future funding years Elk Grove has intended to use these

093funds to maintain Staffing levels funded by federal one-time Esser dollars this slide summarized the amount of the changes discussed on the previous slides adjustments to these funding plans will be brought forward to the board at a future date staff will continue to Monitor and incorporate changing assumptions in state revenue District enrollment and Ada budgets are developed based on the latest information available to date this includes reviewing daily attendance at the start of school see beds data as of October 2nd unduplicated pupil percentages as of October 31st and state revenues in October we will also monitor our lcap spending to increase or improve Services as changes in the funding formula occur we must evaluate needs to support the use of numerous one-time supplementary funds as a reminder we will next present our 2022-23 unaudited actuals in

094September providing our starting point for our 2023-24 budget this information will be incorporated into our first interim budget in December reflecting revised budgets and actual activity through October 31st concludes my presentation thank you thank you Miss Watkins colleagues as Miss Watkins said this is an information item no action today our next action on the budget is at first interim so we do have time for questions or comments go ahead Mr patina first of all thanks Amari that was uh that was well presented and very concise um you indicated that we would be getting recommendations soon on the Arts education what what does that look like the Arts education plan I believe we need to bring to the board I don't know what the soon date we have to talk about that and I don't know

095if superintendent Hoffman wants to address that I don't have a date for it yet but it'll be when the the October um Workshop the special meeting that's going to be kind of a deep dive into okay so what does what did the two block grants uh mean because we lost money out of the out of the big one um and then we're going to ask for direction from the board with regards to the more uh flexible one which is the one tied to vapa and part of the direction we're going to look for is do we want to use some of that to cover what we lost with the um uh with the larger recovery block grant and then use the rest of it and we'll ask for General ideas but you know large chunk

096areas of where the board wants us to move forward and then we'll we'll dive into the plan but that'll be the October special meeting that's going to be the big dive in that we've been promising for a while that'll be the October Workshop okay I'm just uh uneasy uh with that uh 2026 is when the when the funds so we have we have whatever money ET about it would be any attempt to divert in any way the money smarts education understand do whatever that's what that would be the conversation yeah with the with the whole board everybody have an opportunity to chime in and we'll share some recommendations from staff as we've looked through uh look through it so it'll be a good conversation okay thanks we know where you stand the other questions comments

097or Miss Watkins go ahead Beck can you show slide 11 please on the um oh maybe I was wrong they've come up with a new multiplier that's a 10 this slide 10. they changed the criteria so originally we didn't think any of our schools qualified and now three now three hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the three that you mentioned correct is that what I read yes okay I just want to make sure I made that connection correctly thank you you're welcome uh related to that Miss Watkins okay well I've started asking mine so I'll go back to you um I think around slide nine you gave us the per pupil amount um that was uh the result of the loss of the concentration Grant did I hear that correctly yes the bottom row is

098the amount of funding per grade level segment for concentration Grant eligible students yeah that's that's a tremendous amount okay thank you so so yes as it stands we could stand to get 650 000 from the equity multiplier but it's doesn't really stack up to the 9 million that we lost from the loss of the concentration Grant so yeah and it goes three different places it's wonderful Mr Perez that's exactly what oh first of all I'm at the Elk Grove Unified School District web page to get the agenda and uh under the budget of date 20 23 24 budget update it only has your 10 pages but it doesn't have your presentation is that any reason why you didn't have it on on the web page this will be it will be updated yeah I think

099there's a different document that was attached perhaps by accident or I don't know if that was intended to be supplementary what this so the document that was that was posted on Friday was the document that we had it was the the from the county offices the summary of the um of their view of the budget uh this particular presentation was working on it to get it ready to go for tonight we will make sure that this is available to the board and we'll post it to the agenda as well but the public didn't have an opportunity to look at this or even have the opportunity because they didn't have it they didn't even have the opportunity call in tonight to give input or you know to this issue and this is one of the issues

100I have uh you know we in fact I don't think it's right to have this item on the agenda if the public has not received adequate information well there's no action being taken well it's an informational item right and we'll make sure it is posted and before the board is asked to take action right all that information will be made available yeah but from now from this day till the next meeting there you know people you know they're going to see this tonight would have been you know absorb this information and even have uh have questions tonight they may have called in monitor may have may have wanted to call in if this was on the on our site you know last Friday well the information that's in this right in this presentation here right

101is just a different format of the information that's on the agenda and it's the same information well not not what I see on the page right here there's 10 pages and uh and that well this is doesn't doesn't line up page per page but the information you have here and it's I I like your presentation by the way it's very clear okay and but yet you know the process that we're doing this you know and I'm not sure is up to um standards or whatever uh I think it's a issue regarding um you know Robert rules the order or whatever we have your point is taken okay let's move on um the fiscal impact of well in this District not going out doing a survey of our students and because yearly this was the first

102time that we never had 55 plus percentage of our populists students you know being identified so we lost what the fiscal impact is did that have on the on our budget you're conflating a couple of things here we do surveys every year as part of the lcap and other processes and this is also not the first year in which we lost the concentration Grant shared this multiple years as a three-year average that they do but we've been below the 55 Mark for three years and we've reported that to the board each year and we've let the board know that as that this continues we're going to fall out of concentration once the average goes and that's why we've identified dollars in our Reserve to make sure the services that we're providing are single are still

103there so we've taken this action over years to make sure we'd be ready you didn't spend any energy you said it yourself we should have went out there and what it did on-site reviews and requested the community to identify themselves you know low income and go for these uh low-cost I mean the luncheons we did lots of that Mr walster Bettis because I know for a fact that if you do a demographic study on our community in area three Valley High one floor and high Monterey High We and throughout these other things we have 55 plus students in our populism that's not the fact Mr bet is when we ask questions we have to allow people to respond to that hold on but that's not a question no you've made a series of questions and

104comments unfortunately and she would like to respond and provide some information thank you madam president member Perez we have implemented some additional measures in the last couple years to try to get the information I don't disagree that our community probably is more reflective of a higher unduplicated percentage but the challenge is getting families to be comfortable reporting their income levels and so we have instituted this year through online re-enrollments the opportunity for families to check with just a couple radio buttons whether they qualify or not just to State their income level and we also are still sending out nutrition applications that's one means we get direct certifications from the county or families that already certify as socioeconomically disadvantaged so we have multiple measures and we're making an extra push recognizing that this is a huge

105impact to the district we call it our educational benefits form and it is included it goes to All Families through the online re-enrollment through Synergy and and I know other districts District hundreds of thousands of dollars doing this and they have positive outcomes and they for every dollar you spend they get eight six thousand dollars per student and that this is this is what really irritates me the fact that we do not aggressively going after this money just like we didn't do on community uh schools we lost millions of dollars because we qualify for uh community school funding but yet this board did not go forward or when I suggested that I didn't have that support you're you're giving out some information that's inaccurate so I'm going to ask you to move on yes so

106like you know we we as a board we need to tell Mr Hoffman go for this this supplemental concentration of money spend money on staff to go out there and register these people and do talks on each campus each classroom PTA whatever it takes get that 55 plus so we you get supplemental concentration Monies to support as a as a result of that look at these tests that we have poor outcomes of academic tests results Mr Bettis let's stay on the budget and for the record all of those conversations have taken place in this boardroom given the activities have been carried out I'm sorry you don't remember them yeah so we're going to move ahead go ahead and the other issue is the art we need to start spending that art money now now and

107you have heard it when that is coming back we could be buying instruments and I can't believe this thank you Mr Bettis one-time dollars to do that through us so we've we've done we've done that with some of the one-time dollars already in support of the house so I just wanted to to add to the record that my children are one year out of school but uh we spent many years getting promoted and asked to and I received numerous emails to register my family um so the fact that just the perception that that we are not doing that work was not true when I was had students and that was two years ago that's one person one family yep one family with students in the district so with that I see no other hands for

108questions comments uh thank you Ms Watkins for the presentation we look forward to coming back next time next item on our agenda is the Communications Department update Miss lavasser before you come up here do we have any public comments via Zoom Madam President we have no public comments via this item on Zoom thank you Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards for this item there are no blue cards on this item trick with bargaining units if they want to did I skip okay it's crossed out on my list I don't know why um but yes do bargaining units any bargaining switch to address us thank you apologies um our fault we lined that one out sorry oh thank you for calling me on that I don't know we have a little typo up here

109I apologize for that folks oh I'm supposed to do this good evening um representing csca we've had some leadership change so I am now the new chapter President congratulations I wanted to share with you that we um CSEA had a conference July 24th through 28th up in the beautiful Reno Nevada we had six delegates and one State Community State conference Community member Tina kute who is a buttercup there were over 1800 csca members at the conference Elk Grove was recognized as um having the best Community page in our Facebook status um Kim Howell our Communications officer was pulled up on stage and received an award and CSEA also raised over 128 thousand dollars for the humanitarian fund so any unit member who falls on Hard Times is eligible for that humanitarian fund so we just

110wanted to share that with you guys thank you for the update congratulations okay so getting back to the communications update I heard that there were no public comments via zoom and no blue cards so we welcome Miss levasser up to the podium good evening Madam president members of the board superintendent Hoffman Miss Avalos I am so excited tonight to present an update on the Communications Department tonight's format is going to be simple I'd like to introduce you to the team I'm going to share a few areas of focus how we evaluate our work and then talk about our next steps exciting what the future holds and then of course questions at the end so I want to first start by thanking all of you for supporting superintendents Kaufman's reorganization of this department and creating this

111position I am extremely fortunate to work with this Dynamic team that you see in this picture here and in the back of the room over here for the last nine months as a new team you would think that we would have a hard time trying to figure out what we're doing but we have not we have gelled they are an amazing group of human beings and I'm excited for the future collaboration ahead as you can see we are a small but very Mighty group and I want to just highlight a few of the things that these various team members do there's no way that I do this work by myself it is absolutely a team so James tan is one of our Communications managers in the back there he comes to us with an excellent

112skill for writing and came with a background in the district working in District Communications departments so James focuses in on some of our press releases our media advisories and helps all of our schools and our district with our crisis communication excuse me can your staff come up and can't see them over there I see half his face they're more than welcome to I just didn't want to make a mistake special come on up here okay we don't need to keep people standing for the duration of the presentation you're fine I want to say something too [Laughter] we have also Lori Wallace who is another Communications manager on our team Lori is the newest member of our team and comes to the district with a background in journalism and Reporting so Lori is specializing in storytelling

113also working on our relationships with our local media and she brings that strong skill set in as she has worked in local news and then she has created something new that we'll highlight in a little bit called our employee spotlight then we have our veteran staff James excuse me Jermaine lot who uh has a Keen Eye For All Things Graphics anything you see on our websites um he specializes in making sure that everything looks good on our websites and in the communication that we send out uh he also is instrumental in creating our student handbook as well as making sure that our website and our school's websites uh with Kathleen watt have the support that they deserve and then not here tonight is the person that really is in charge of all of us and

114organizes all of us is our incredible assistant Trina Davis I know many of you have met her as you come into the office so this slide should look familiar to you I know you've seen it a few times but I wanted to put it in front of you tonight to remind you that this is what guides our work everything that we do when we communicate focuses in on our egusd learning vision so you might ask how so in our next slide this is what we mean so when we talk about high quality curriculum and instruction we are focusing in on employee recruitment it is our job to partner with human resources department to make sure that we are hiring the best and brightest Educators and we do this by promoting and marketing various positions when

115it comes to student assessment and program evaluation we help share surveys we ask for feedback we support our schools with their various communication and surveys and methods of Assessments and we make sure that this is out in various ways when it comes to Wellness we build awareness and we keep our community informed during a crisis it comes to family and Community engagement we want to make sure that our families and our communities are aware of all the Fantastic work that is happening across the district we want to make sure that they know about it and they are engaged and then finally we want to do this in a way that is done through an equitable lens we want to make sure that our messaging is an inclusive for our various populations in our district so

116tonight I'm going to talk about a few key areas of focus that our department is focusing on um over the past year but over you know into the future as well so when we talk about our key areas of focus we do this in a way with messaging and storytelling our goal for the Communications Department is to stay relevant we know that our world changes rapidly and it is important and up to us to make sure that we keep up with that we want to make sure that when we send out messages that we are communicating with our families in the community that we do this in a timely way and an inclusive way and in a relevant manner so I'm going to talk about what that looks like so our number one priority this

117past couple of months and into this next year is to focus on positive stories our district is massive and we have wonderful things happening around our large District so one of our goals is to highlight the various things and activities and events that are happening at all of our schools so I want to give you an example of what this looks like so hopefully this works thank you Eduardo Romero is a freshman at Elk Grove High School uh this program I know it's been here for a while but I mean this year really just I would say you start to Blossom the students with blossoming interest in the school Farm not in the barn but in the greenhouse some maybe they're not so into the animal projects that are uh at the farm currently or

118going to be hosted in the future and they just want something that's after school relaxing that they can work on independently or with a few friends we've pretty much tripled the amount of plants in here uh triple the group working here and I could tell kids love that I love it it's a labor of love and for the first time students are sharing that with the community so we'll have a lot of people come out here and they'll choose three succulents of their choice uh their own pot and we'll mix the dirt then they'll get to plant their own plant and take it home and after the succulent planting party the work continues with everything from projects to research so students can come up here and have their aggro science projects out here learn about

119propagation techniques I learned about watering practices that would be in a normal Greenhouse to prepare them for landscape materials or anything in the plant nurseries industry the kids love what they're learning but just being there has its perks you know it's a nice place where you can come relax plant a few plants watch the plants grow I mean it's a lot different to see a plant in a greenhouse and see how it grows compared to at home you can see the plants just really thriving I know a lot of students at first they didn't really think that they were going to have a love for plants or things like that but then they come out here for their average science project or join a friend they're like hey Mr Sanders I want to sign up

120for this this is really cool a cool program that takes a lot of commitment and with the help of the community potential to help it grow even more if I want some of the money to go towards the students so hopefully we can take that money and put it back into the program and buy some more succulents but also kind of give them some money in their student account where they can pay for their yearbook or pay for their FFA jackets um things that make them feel like they're being rewarded by being out here so I'm proud to say that video was created all in-house uh with um Lori's background in journalism and James and tremaine's skill set in creating videos we were able to do this type of story and many like them the

121past uh several months we put them all on our social media and then we also send them out and highlight them in our Friday Communications all of these examples up here are positive stories and I don't have time to share them with you all but hopefully you follow us on social media and you've seen them the next area that's a key area of focus for our Communications Department has to do with public relations when it comes to public relations consistency is key in effective communication um excuse me throat is sore one of the areas that we focus on is in recruitment we are constantly marketing and promoting various uh vacant jobs and new job positions we partner with the human resources department uh to promote our job fairs and we do this in lots of

122different ways uh on LinkedIn in various universities on our social media and different Publications different associations magazines websites we also conduct TV interviews and run a few commercials which I'll show you that in a few minutes I'm proud to say that with this effort we saw a huge turnout for our classified job fair we continue to do this and we hope that that our ability to reach the community and go beyond uh we'll continue to bring some of the best and brightest to our school district the employee Spotlight is what you see in the middle this is a new feature that the communications department has created I mentioned earlier that it's consider that consistency is key in effective communication so twice a month the first Wednesday and the third Wednesday of the month you will

123see our employees spotlight and in the beginning we focused in on classified staff that we knew we had to fill positions for so we sent out an email to supervisors and directors and said do you have anyone you want to nominate we had lots of forms come in which is great news so every other week we highlight a new employee on the feature it talks about what they do what they love about their job uh there's some quotes from their supervisor or their colleagues and then a little about five fun facts about the employee what's great about it is on the bottom there's a tagline that says if you're interested in joining egusd team for more information see here then we have a link that takes you directly to the adjoin page um we have

124seen lots and lots of great comments and reviews and our employees who are being spotlighted feel they're humbled and they feel honored so we're going to continue to this we started kind of in this building and we're going to continue it Beyond and put it out to schools for them to nominate employees that are doing spectacular things out in our district next key area of focus is external Communications um we know that our families and Community rely on us and our schools for updates we have to be um really relevant and timely on our information that we send out so we do this in various ways you'll see all the various ways that we have different social social media platform we have school messenger that sends out our external communication we have the ability to

125do this for every family who has given us an email and we have the ability to do this for every employee sorry we also have talking points talking points is um a game changer is what teachers tell me talking points allows our teachers and our principals to send out communication and over 100 different languages also allows the language the communication thank you and bless you the communication to be translated both from the school and from the home so a family can respond in their native language um as of today when I checked we had over 42 different languages being used with talking points also allows for teachers to take pictures and send videos home and it translates them uh our website catapult is our website server all of our websites um use the same format

126and template we want to make sure that our team is supporting School staff to keep it updated keep it relevant and I'll talk about in a little bit next steps around what that's going to look like we also think it's imperative that we support our school district our school leaders and our district leadership one of the areas that I'm most proud of is how we do that being a principal is a huge and very busy job so I believe it is our responsibility to support our schools when they need us especially when it comes to communication we know that families will read an email from their principal and will read an email from their teacher unfortunately maybe before they read an email from someone from the district that's that personal connection so we want to

127make sure that our principals and teachers have the support they need to communicate effectively we do this in a couple different ways one we support our our schools with crisis communication we also do this by asking them to tell us what are the some other successes so we can highlight the positive stories and then we do this in district-wide Communications as well so like every large school district we have our fair share of Crisis communication I want to give you a short perfect example of that crisis communication and this incredible team behind me in action so last January you probably all remember you should remember vividly the storms that we had and the flooding that took place in the beginning of January the team was only uh you know new working together for a few

128months um but the crisis doesn't care so during that time our team was constantly communicating out information to staff and families and we knew it was important that we did this in a timely manner and that it was crucial that they had the information so they knew what was happening that day for their School site I'm very proud to say that our team was very in sync with that we had messages going out we had pop-ups on websites we had information out on social media we had a school messenger going out we had it translated we worked closely with the El Department um it is important that we do that um because our families rely on us it is also I have discovered very important for us to have relationships with uh law enforcement with

129our city officials with our office of emergency services so that has been one of my goals this past year and will continue to be to work on those relationships so that we know what's happening in the city and they know what's happening in our schools internal Communications we also know it's important to keep besides keeping our families and the community informed it's important to keep our staff and our employees informed so we send out internal communion Eternal Communication in a couple of ways we have our news and notes newsletter that goes out every every week about different things that are happening in our district we support several different departments in our district with newsletters that they send out to the principals and to teachers and then we also promote employee discounts we know our employees

130work really hard so when we get things like discount tickets to the Sac Republic games or the Sacramento Kings games we communicate that out so our employees can take advantage of that when it comes to evaluation we are always always evaluating what we do because we know if it's not working for our families that's a problem communication has to work for our community and our families and our schools so we're constantly evaluating our impact and the services we provide we study analytics constantly analytics around whose um what websites people have gone to and what websites they've visited what videos they've viewed um analytics when it comes to our email campaign who has read them um Eventbrite signups who is coming we also partner closely with our research and evaluation Department in regards to sending out

131surveys we also make sure that we provide various ways to do that and seek feedback on how to improve so next steps it was great sorry let me get a drink of water so some of the next steps we have on our Horizon we are fortunate to have an incredible curriculum and professional learning Department and one of the things that we plan on doing is partnering uh with that department to provide training from our department to our webmasters at our schools to our school leaders to our teachers focused on improving and enhancing their communication um many of you know my background um the family and Community engagement and facilitating workshops and a former educator myself I want to make sure that our teachers and our principals have the opportunity and the training so that they

132can continue to communicate with our families the most effective and the most relevant ways uh we are working on creating uh different tools for example templates for our webmasters and for our principles to use when sending out messages we want to create little um simple messages that they can send out for attendance reminders uh for different talking points messages for different templates for their website so they don't have to recreate it themselves we want to support them we know how busy they are we will continue to work with red and the family and Community engagement Department uh we were working on an upcoming parent survey um the most effective ways to communicate we want to know what families what is the most effective way for them is it a text message is it an email

133is it a flyer home so we will be asking that and then uh depending on what we receive we will follow that and then finally we are going to focus on promoting and marketing our job fairs our vacant positions um in an area and in a in a way that we haven't really done um we realized that when I was uh kind of doing A needs assessment over the past couple of months I realized we were missing out on a huge population and that was our Spanish speaking population um that's our number one language in our school district so we met with Univision and started a little pilot with them we created some advertising and some commercials um and brought our employees in to be the Stars so I'm going to show you it's really

134short a commercial and then on the other end of it I'll explain where they thought foreign so to start we asked a couple of departments where we knew they needed positions hard to fill positions or they had some vacancies our btas our bus drivers maintenance and operations grounds workers and food and nutrition they all responded Yes we would love to to support this uh and then we asked do you have anyone in those departments that speak Spanish and we told them why that they would be featured in a commercial so fast forward uh we had quite a few uh volunteers uh which was great um and we did two things one we had two interviews done that were featured on uh local morning shows about our district about the classified job fair that was coming

135about all the wonderful things that you can do in our district and the support you will receive and then we created these commercials when I say we a partnership with Univision created the commercials they ran for about a month um and we know they worked because we had one people come to the job fair and tell us that but also um we knew in the El department for example uh for btas they had about 11 or 12 positions vacant for several months uh the director told me just recently that they had 35 people possible candidates for those positions that they were going to start interviewing so the woman that you see at the end is a BTA in our district and if you don't speak Spanish she talks about how wonderful it is to work

136in our district and that they should come and apply so this is a partnership that we want to continue to pursue and in various populations not just our Spanish-speaking population we know we have a Vietnamese and hmong uh Cantonese population and so we want to make sure that we are reaching out to all various um families and community members so they have the opportunity to come and work in our great School District and that's it wonderful thank you um Miss levasser so colleagues questions comments go ahead Mr yang well well I I just try to recall when we hire you on and uh the thing that came to mind just listening to you presenting this was like we got the right person so uh Applause to you I love the energy that you uh bring

137to this board to the community and just a team that is um reflecting our school district even though that is a small team but I think that it's it's a team that reflective of this community um thus far and I like what you guys are doing uh like the fact that you have videos um that shows the um type of program that we have uh I know that we have more than that but that sort of program uh with um gardening and so forth it's just very valuable for the kids um I myself love those sort of things and um yeah so Applause to you and the team the work that you guys have done so far um I I look forward to seeing more um a question I have here is um how do

138we um interact with students um and that you think is the most effective way so far that you've seen so it's great that you asked that um I should have highlighted that we had the privilege of having uh in the face Department actually a student intern uh this summer and he sat with Tremaine uh for a little bit and gave us the student perspective on what he would like to see on our website and social media so that feedback is key because we want it to be user friendly as well for our students uh also we'll be working with Isabella uh and featuring her and the student Voice through social media so the stuff that I see on Facebook is that through you guys yes okay yeah correct okay great and I see um you

139know most of the stuff I see it's it's job opportunity and so forth um do we do you guys put uh post short videos as well you guys do okay yeah on the Elk Grove unified yes Facebook page and Instagram you can find those as well as I think YouTube Correct okay yeah the one I found which is you know I'd score down the Facebook page and it just pops up and I really like that because it's kind of you know um kind of randomly that you didn't expect to see it but it pops up so I like that a lot so um I don't know we have to pay more money to boost it up or not but I I love that and I think um that will be really great for students could

140to see us uh more often especially the great thing that we are doing here and I love what you said earlier about you know showing the positive stuff um I mean once in a while I'm sure we're gonna show the bad news but the positive stuff it's it's you know we cannot get it enough so congratulations great job and continue doing good work one last question are you intent to expand the team or this is a good amount of folks that you have right now you're a fabulous team okay thank you thank you very much it's a great presentation um some things stood out to me um talking points which I've been told by so many people has been a game changer in our whole district and so I'm I'm glad you've brought that to

141this department as well I know it is life-changing for people from teachers to parents I've been told about I appreciate Sean's question on student perspective and how you're working to get that in because we are serving students but they are based on their family and your you're background based in family and Community engagement is is shows and what you're doing and I think it it shows in the thoughtfulness of how you're delivering this information at this point so it's greatly appreciated I think training at the school sites to allow more consistency is an amazing idea and going through CPL and just huge winners and um and I noticed and completely enjoy seeing the positive stories it they're just we have so many excellent things happening and it's just great to be advertising those and sharing

142those and letting people know and when you do do job things it's very easy for me to push that out to my Facebook world when you can just share and so as a board um we have to be very careful what we do in social media and stuff but you give us a very safe platform to to be able to share that information so I appreciate you all you're doing a great job thank you very much um I want to Echo a lot of what uh what has already been said the employee spotlights are amazing um you know I've started following you guys on social media uh you know after our conversation when I first got uh elected um the positive stories are amazing it's you know so often I think the stuff that ends

143up in you know the media and in social media and other places is the negative stuff the stuff that is you know controversial and makes people angry and you know all those things and it is so important to have the positive wonderful stories out there that really are the vast majority of the feedback that we get the vast majority of the stories that are out there about the successes in the district so I love it um and I feel like I'm being really positive maybe it's this chair uh Gina's energy is just coming through the chair um but I do I in all seriousness I love it um uh the other thing I I appreciate did um was that you talked about you know one of the next steps is working more with some uh

144sort of external Partners like the media um and really building those relationships and building out uh you know how to work with those external Partners um you know one of the things that has always been you know a challenge for me is having the lawyer brain and the educator brain kind of fighting with each other um and I think you know everything I've seen so far is that you guys have really threaded that needle very effectively of um giving the information in a way that is thoughtful uh and um you know and also very um warm and and student-centered uh in a way that can be hard when you are communicating with external Partners um and you want to be as you know um as thoughtful and safe as possible um so I I really

145appreciated seeing that in in your um you know in your relationships with the media and such um so thank you for the presentation I really appreciate it and I look forward to the good work that you're going to do Mr Vargas Mr Fortuna anything hello Lisa but first let me say that uh it's uh it's a pleasure to uh finally have a functional and purposeful Communications Department uh and and seeing the work that the team is doing uh is is is is really pleasurable from the standpoint that it is doing or they are doing the work that needs to be done to highlight each of the areas you you've discussed tonight and and it's also uh for me personally uh uh pleasing to uh hear many of the proposals that we we talked about in

146terms of how we can move the district forward um and in relation to those uh at least in terms of communication techniques and templates for schools I all that'll be done this year yes yes correct oh I was being facetious really that's fantastic yes it's already been started that is fantastic I mean because there there's so much there uh to do and and I mean that that to me is really really exciting that that's this year's plan yeah well if you if you think about it uh teachers when they get their credential or when administrators get their admin credential there's no class on how do you communicate effectively for the community and Families we can do that and we can help them with that so yes that is already in process and will continue and

147will grow hopefully over the next couple of years well again James Laurie Tremaine you Trina they're all doing terrific appreciate it thank you Mr Perez anything thank you very much for presentation excellent report when we're here 2012. there's only one individual and now we have all these expertise in a variety of disciplines but yet I want more I want a TV station I want a radio station a lot of these you went to uh the Spanish-speaking TV station and you know their expertise is reaching out to people excellent examples to do that and get feedback and input from them and and using them and also the other media's channel 31 now we hire a person from 31. but you know they have experience you know they they've been into business for a long time another

148area that I'd like you to explore using is the radio Spanish speaking radio uh you know Farm Workers a lot of our our people they wake up five o'clock they you know they don't put TV on they put the radio you know in their car on on the way to the work on the way back to Warren so that's another media thing that you know get in tune with uh you mentioned internships I like that you I hire that we need more transition you know use these communications majors at the community college State the UC systems who are going to pursue this discipline and they they need they need uh you know units of credit working on site at some place within the media or within Communications or or you know um key areas focus

149in school districts and uh yeah uh yeah I advise you do it and they get paid they they get paid by working either work study or some type of funding we we have monies you know the Arts funding I think we could tie that money into your program to do that it just getting creative and again and using those type of funds and uh and get our you know high school students doing that too that's another thing definitely we need to get our students our Representatives isn't here today but yet I imagine you're that's on her oh you know your calendar to interview her and the present her to the community um training I think page 16 training uh that's a big thing that you know our community the uh you know as a result

150of covet yes a community of people colored or getting in tune with the internet distance learning and uh but yet they still need tree and I still need training updates because the applications there's new applications there's new techniques there's new uh equipment that we we all have to learn we're all lifetime Learners so you know so you know that we need to train parents and through the family you know through our uh Community engagement we need to spend that money how to use the media to you know to communicate from the home to the school sites you know that's a big project but yet you know we need to do that and maybe we need another component or another person's or within your unit to do that training of parents and you know uh how

151to do communicate and feel comfortable using that you know a lot of times you know they don't you know they're not they're scared remember what I was scared when I started learning the computer because I thought I was gonna blow it up or get electrocuted or something like this or mess up the network but now shoot it's my lifeline to the world the internet so you know they they need that and also cell phones I know for a fact that every student in this district has a cell phone and that's number one tool so we have communication devices that are compatible to every phone every right yeah and they're very important yeah very important so you're guys using that technology very well and and notifying another person uh people besides the uh Mexican uh media

152uh to use to communicate with a Latino spanish-speed Community is the Mexican consulate they do an annual College uh career uh event there in the north side of town and they get the students throughout the Northern California go there career day College awareness blah blah blah so there and also they are doing of people looking forward with visas that possibly could work for our districts who are even teachers uh nurses there's a might be surprised that all these people that come here you know they come to this country for work and they want to we're looking for work but yet they don't know the process they're learning the process so uh and and then they they have to go through another educational process to get in credentialed and uh you know et cetera Etc um

153so those are the recommendations that I you know like you to follow up I think page 13 I have well with page 13 uh oh very important crisis Communications uh someplace in our own I was I was looking at our we're doing our video surveillance system so we just okayed that or I think I read it through our our BC one of our BCS this week but last week that's not actually part of the Communications Department that's Safety and Security I know it is I know I know that so that means it's not part of its agenda item no but it we need to tie into that because you're going to get the latest data latest reports what's happening through what it call at a school if it's a crisis so you know I didn't

154see I'm not sure if you were tied into that uh of a variety of people are going to be accessing that because you mentioned earlier you're gonna be because of what happened the flooding we had an emergency disaster uh uh Network so I think you also need to be part of that Network to get the latest Communications and know what's happening on this crisis I am okay so you are okay so okay and also that you know um I went to the Bob again the Department of Education to see like School disasters Emergency Management unit there's a whole list of resources on that and also funding that we could apply for so I want you to look at that one uh the Department of Education school disaster Emergency Management and also disaster emergency resources those

155two places I've seen some uh for instance thank God we haven't had an active Shooters there Mr Pettis are veering off the agenda again so can we bring it back to Communications I understand there's a Nexus in emergency communications but you're veering away from Communications so I need you to bring it back okay but the bottom line people safety pupil safety that's what I'm concerned okay yeah and we need to be on top of this situation regardless of it if it's on that gender or not or somebody feels it's not but it's all related to me no that we are okay and school safety plans are you part of that also put input or or no okay I think you should you wrap it up Mr Bettis Ah that's about it I think if I

156want to say but again I want to say you're you're I think you turned your mic off but sounds like you're done oh yeah yeah well I know you got expertise in almost all Fields but I think I'm pretty sure that you need to grow a little bit bigger because you know 63 000 students and how many sites you know the 68 yeah so we you know and try to keep up on this all right thank you Mr Perez Mr Yang has one more comment yeah I just want to say thank you for uh putting them all American day there um I'm just curious do you also um promote like um Multicultural events you guys do okay that that's great and that's what my recommendation was going to be because this school district um represents

157so many cultural so many backgrounds so I know for a fact that you know Hmong American has a celebration on May 14th and I know that other cultural has it too so if you could um promote that so that we as a as a community could attend yeah if we could that would be uh really great so if you're already doing that thank you once a month we send out a community connection that any family who's given us an email receives that and that's where we promote that thank you so much community and how are you reaching them that's a great question uh Tremaine and Kathleen watt uh have uh been trained in that and make sure that we when we communicate out especially when our websites that it's Ada accessible and they all get

158training correct okay great uh I just want to address Mr Yang's point so if ever this happens frequently for me I know we're all involved in lots of different groups and activities in the community if there's ever anything that we want to share out to the community now we know that it's Mr uh uh Tremaine who is in charge of a Community Connection and news and notes so I I forward all of that stuff to to Lisa usually but now it'll be Tremaine um and whenever the opportunity comes up of course they have to deem it relevant and all that good stuff but they do a great job of sharing all of that out yeah so um great comments I agree with everything my colleagues have said so I'm not going to repeat it um

159I will highlight just two things I know that with respect to School site websites and the maintenance and and just the the production of that content bandwidth for School site staff has been an issue so I'm really encouraged by all of the measures that you're taking um I'm really eager to hear you know how to what extent it helps and if there's more that we need to do after that um and um you know the the work of communications is is never done in a sense because it is always evolving right particularly with respect to technology our communication preferences as adults are always evolving and you know young people evolve even faster we have had you know Young Folks come here and say that they don't love our current methods so much so I just

160uh I'm looking in the future to kind of hear what we can do to improve and and it is just it seems like it's a never-ending you know thing to catch up with whatever their favorite social media channel is today but um it's just something we need to remain on top of and I look forward to hearing more about how we reach them where they are I I didn't mention but one of the ways that we plan on doing that is working with our student Equity councils seeking their feedback on what we provide and then giving the student voice that way yeah excellent thank you so much congratulations Miss Levasseur the whole team we really appreciate your work thank you and they're here early so get out of here yeah um next we're going to

161move on to our action items first of which is the egusd community facilities District 2023-24 tax report and second reading of ordinance number one for 2022-23 um Miss levasser can't leave yet because we're going to ask you real quick real quick are there any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam president there are no public comments via Zoom for this item thank you and Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards for this item there are no blue cards for this item thank you go ahead Miss Coates all right good evening again um this is a follow-up item it is an action tonight um to uh we are asking and recommending that the board adopt the district Community facilities District tax report um this is the second reading uh a follow-up from last time

162as a reminder we have prepared the 23-24 community facilities District tax report which sets the tax rate for each parcel within the district the rate is based on information on each parcel in the district and tax formulas established by the passage of measure a this report is used by the County of Sacramento to prepare tax bills and collect tax revenues for the 23-24 tax year the melloroos ACT requires that the board acting on behalf of the Elk Grove unified school district Community facilities District number one adopt the tax report as a regular agenda item the ACT requires that the action taken by the board is in in the form of adopting an ordinance ordinance number one 2324 when adopted by the board allows Administration to make changes to the tax report in response to appeals

163from taxpayers or otherwise in order to correct errors in the application of special tax to particular parcels as a reminder this uh current tax report that we're recommending tonight continues the current and maximum tax rate of 3.82 cents per month for existing development and 9.82 cents per month for future development uh per equivalent taxable unit according to the manners specified in resolution number 27 from 1986 1987. um with that uh reminder I will just um ask um for a recommendation or we are recommending uh that the board take action to approve the 2324 tax report thank you Miss coats I'd like to call for a motion to approve the 2223 excuse me 2020 324 Elk Grove unified school district Community facilities District tax report and adopt ordinance number one so moved second moved by Mr

164Vargas seconded by Mr forchina all in favor please dignify by saying aye aye opposed none that item is passed unanimously um Miss coats also has the next item which is Education Code section 17556 at spec uh consideration of resolution of intent to convey electrical facilities easement to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District or the Elk Grove High School project missile Vassar do we have any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam President we have no public comments to be assumed for this item thank you Mr Vargas do we have any blue cards there are no blue cards on this item thank you Mr Vargas go ahead Miss Coates all right so we do have a recommended Moshe tonight we are asking the board to adopt resolution number two 2324 of intention to convey electrical facilities

165easement to the Sacramento Municipal utility district for Elk Grove High School project and two to set a public hearing on September 5th at the boardroom at 6 PM SMUD has requested that the district convey without cost and electrical facilities easement on Elk Grove High School site at 9 800 Elk Grove Florin Road the purpose of the easement is to allow SMUD to access construct and maintain electrical facilities serving the Elk Grove High School campus the final configuration of the easement will be determined at smud's expense upon the completion of the installation of electrical facilities recording the easement accurately in relation to the facilities the resolution of intent intention must be adopted by a two-thirds vote by the board and so we're recommending to take action on that resolution tonight and we'll bring this back for

166public hearing on September 5th okay folks is a standard item to give SMUD the space to do the infrastructure work for our new facilities out there so I'd like to call for a motion to adopt resolution number two intention to convey electrical facilities easement to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District or the Elk Grove High School project and to set a public hearing on September 5th 2023 at this location at 6 pm none that item is approved unanimously next item on our agenda is board member and superintendent reports are there any board members who wish to provide any updates on committee work seeing none go ahead Mr superintendent okay Paris I just want to recognize that Thursday is the beginning of the traditional and modified Traditional School year so we are very excited and have had

167the opportunity to welcome back staff and they are they're ready to go I want to thank everybody for the work they've done to make sure we're ready for the for the opening of the school year I'm just very excited about that um I do also want to say thank you to the board and thank you to Cabinet I'm actually going to miss my first first day of Traditional School I think in 30 years because I'm going to be taking my June my my junior gonna be taking my son dropping them off in Dublin Ireland for his year master's program so crazy excited scared to death all at the same time but uh I appreciate everybody supporting me and making sure that can happen so thank you course next item is consideration of future agenda items

168seeing none I'm going to adjourn this meeting at 8 51 pm I'll have a good night stuff