001good afternoon I'm going to call to order the regular meeting of the Elk Grove unified school district board of education for March 7 2023 and announced that the board will be meeting in closed session I'd like to open public comment on items on the closed session portion of the agenda do we have any comments Mr superintendent no public comments for closed session okay I'm seeing none I'm going to close public comment and recess the meeting into closed session thank you foreign good afternoon good evening if everyone could please take their seat so we could begin foreign I'd like to call to order the regular meeting of the Elk Grove unified school district and announced that the board met in closed session and no action was taken good evening the board of education has resumed full
002in-person board meetings unless remote attendance is permitted pursuant to the California Brown act live streaming a 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 some of you may recall that today we are returning to our pre-pandemic rules essentially for public comment I'm going to read some information about that so we're all on the same page individual speakers will be allowed up to three minutes to address the board on each agenda item the total amount of time allocated to public comments by the board will be limited to a total of 30 minutes for public comment on a specific item time limitations are the discretion of the president of the board number one public comments may
003be made about items not on the agenda but within the school district's jurisdiction please note that if public comments are about items not appearing on the posted agenda the board cannot take action or discuss the public comment other than the board president briefly acknowledging the comment number two please excuse me public comment may be made on all items that are on a board agenda and will be heard when the selected item comes up please note that the board May comment and ask clarifying questions on comments related to board agenda items number three individuals may not defer their time to another individual speaker to increase their total time Beyond three minutes the guidelines for in-person public comments and participation can be found on a table outside of the boardroom and on the school district's website number
004five please be mindful that students may be watching you are encouraged to address the board and the public in a respectful manner such that all those observing from children to adults are made to feel welcome safe and valued pursuant to government code section 549-57.9 the board shall not permit any disturbance or willful Interruption of board meetings persistent 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 the board president may call a recess at any point during the meeting thank you for bearing with us the first item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance I'd like to call on Blair and Cassandra Douglas and also Marty Hawk principal of Sunrise Elementary and my colleague Carmen Fortuna has
005some comments to read good evening Sunrise Elementary School is honored to recognize Mr Blair Douglas and Mrs Cassandra Douglas as our education partners the Douglas family includes our Sunrise Elementary Spartan Bennett Douglas a current sixth grade student on C track Bennett has been a joy to watch mature from her early years in kindergarten a young scholar with a mind in heart beyond herself she helped to brainstorm create and Lead our Eco Club Southern rallying students to care for a local ecological needs especially our local fires benancico Club raised well over a thousand dollars through coin drives the club's efforts have helped the organization like Tri Counties wildlife in their support of injured animals displaced by the Regency fires as well as the penny Pines organization which replants the forested areas the Douglas's are long time
006supporters of the Sunrise Elementary community over the years they have volunteered in classrooms the Watchdog program on the School site cancel cancel excuse me and chaperone field trips in addition they are co-presidents of our parent faculty organization where they coordinate and Lead campus events like the tkk boohoo to Yahoo welcome event Trunk or Treat night walking bike to school days the annual Fun Run dinner nights out school dances and family nights we are so grateful to have the partnership and dedication of the Douglas family and would like to thank them for their continued support they have embodied love for our school and we are indebted to them for their kindness and their service thank you thank you our next item will be student our first student Regional report we're trying out a new model today
007and um today we're starting with Monterey the Monterey Trail region and that includes Monterey Trail High School Edward Harris junior middle school Raymond case Elementary Barbara Comstock Morse Elementary Roy Herberger Elementary and Irene B West Elementary let's welcome our student Representatives and Rio casadero High School is also here thank you good all right students whenever you're ready we're ready for you take a deep breath good evening board president chairs Espinoza Mr Fortuna Mr Yang Miss albiani Miss Jamerson Mr track Mr Vargas Mr Perez and superintendent Hoffman I'm Sheriff Assad and I am in tan lung and we are excited to be here to present to you on behalf of the Monterey Trail region there are great things happening in our unique region but first let's introduce you to the principles for the seven schools present
008with us here tonight Laura Ricks Monterey Trail High School the Glendale Rio cazadero High School Charles Amy Edward Harris Jr Middle School hilolo Umi Barbara Comstock Morse Elementary School Brian McNeil Irene B West Elementary School Pamela Moore boy Herberger Elementary School and John Stanton Raymond case Elementary School we would like to introduce our amazing student choirs for Monterey Trail High School and Raymond case led by Miss Rachel Yoder and Miss Jennifer Newfield who was seeing the national anthem followed by an inspirational song they performed at our Mt open house showcase and unique to our region we are excited to be the host of the deaf and hard of hearing program being the only region with American sign language classes we are honored to have Christiana bayudas in Monterey Trail High School student in ASL 2
009signing the national anthem foreign okay thank you okay before you leave if you want to stay up there we're going to give a minute for parents to come up and take pictures if you'd like is that okay can we can we hold for a minute foreign all right let's have one more round of applause for the Monterey Trail combined choir um the empty region is proud of the consistent dedication we have shown in our positive behavior intervention and sports otherwise known as our PBIS programs we have earned High words celebrating our Fidelity and success including three schools earning gold Awards and two earning silver here is Leanna Jackson from Barbara Comstock Morse Elementary School to share more thank you hello guests my name is Leona Jackson and I'm a proud sixth grade student at Barbara
010Comstock Morris Elementary my school is a proud PBIS gold recipient PBIS stands for positive behavioral intervention and support and I have experienced the difference this framework has made in my school's climate and culture now it is my honor to introduce to you a video detailing more about this effective framework means doing something doing something that you are supposed to do to be careful well Aiden get down from here no I've been doing this for three weeks index pay yeah and that's the way you should be doing them [Music] it means being um Dependable making good choices and being account accountable for your actions being kind to others all right okay good job everybody yeah I do but I don't want to show you three I wish they fell yeah what are you doing are you
011lost yes well I came to apologize because I I knew what I was doing was mean and the accept my apology yes uh do you know laundromats because I love my lunchbox yeah [Music] um super kind of you yeah I feel so much better yeah it is yeah what does hardworking mean to you are working to me means when someone works hard that is um like there learning skills and developing skills for later on life you know if you don't work hard you don't get skills and you can't do anything later on in life our region is also proud to have strength in both our student leadership programs and our advancement via individual determination programs helping us by communicating in American Sign Language is Taven Faust mths student and member of the deaf Community Avid
012is present in our region from 6th through 12th grade and our student leadership programs let's take a look at what's going on at Edward Harris junior middle school hi welcome to student leadership this is our classroom behind us this is where student leadership takes place when you're interested in leadership you'll be introduced by Mrs Scotto she's the teacher for student leadership for seventh and eighth grade in leadership you'll learn how to show you'll learn how to show what kindness and possibilities you have of being a leader and what capabilities you have of showing kindness things you'll be doing in leadership are recycling you'll also be doing weekly assignments such as weekly access service which is where you'll be reporting what you did for the week that was kind of probably achieved you will also be
013doing assignments that will help prepare you for your final um something that you would do in leadership are making projects and helping Mrs go to with events such as the dance you may help decorate or prepare with the student of the month which is where teachers award some students and you they'll get prized so you'll be giving them pizza and some other snacks hello welcome to Abba 7. in this class we will be focusing on um organization and prepping for high school and college in this class we mostly work on agenda checks Cornell notes buy monthlies and learning logs how has this class affected you this class helped me stay organized and keep a like maintained a good grade what about you um this class has helped me like well stay organized and help me
014keep up with what I do for each class so if you ever want to join Avid like just join now we would like to share with you a little bit about an event that brings all of our region schools together helping to celebrate the opportunities for all at Mt and just how exciting it is to be a Mustang in January our annual Mt open house showcase was attended by over 600 families from throughout the region as our elementary feeder schools joined our high school and activities together while learning about the amazing opportunities on the trail let's take a look on January 12 2023 our Mustang family had the pleasure of hosting the Monterey Trail open house this was a great opportunity to open our doors to our community we invited the public earned students and
015parents as well as future mustangs from the middle schools in our area our open house showcase was unique because we made it our goal to have activities and performances that include our theater elementaries and middle schools participating side by side with our Mustang students to help them see themselves as future Mustangs this year our fire and ring case Park both performed individually and then together sharing their inspirational message of Hope Roy Herberger and Barbara Comstock Morse joined our girls varsity basketball over 600 people attended from all ages throughout our region to learn about the opportunities and what it takes to be a Mustang our guests were greeted with music and performances from our talented students parents and Scholars had an opportunity to interact with teachers and staff and guests were able to tour some of
016our special classrooms including our Visual and Performing Arts programs and Career and Technical education Labs we had Department booths displaying student work and information about the curriculum we had an amazing time showing off the best of our students and forging a deeper connection to our community we can't wait to do it again thank you for your support Mustangs and now we turn it over to principal Doug Wendell to share about the Monterey Trail Regional Equity coalition my name is Doug Wendell and as I said I'm principal Rio cazadero High School following the killing of George Floyd principals in our region decided we wanted to do more than write a letter we wanted to do something together and so we created the Monterey Trail Regional Equity Coalition we meet regularly at least once a month as
017principals to discuss the issues around equity and particularly supporting our black and African-American students uh the site leaders within our region also want to express our appreciation for the other uh District departments because while we started it locally we've been supported by secondary and Elementary education as well as Ed equity and the face departments and we meet also as a region with community members and students and families to discuss issues of equity uh we recently had an event where we had uh a panel of students who rather than us talking to them they talked to us and we listened and that was a very powerful event uh and we uh are dedicated to continuing our work to address uh attendance issues and academics and creating a welcoming environment for all students but particularly our black
018and African-American students and the work that we've been doing as part of the Monterey Trail Regional Equity Coalition has been for me one of the most uh powerful things I've been involved in as an educator and has really LED for us to create some changes in our schools thank you so there's those are just a few of the highlights of our region and we thank you for having us tonight we encourage you to stop by the sites and check out all we have to offer and we look forward to seeing you at the region celebrate the culmination of the hard work our students have put as they walk across the mths graduation stage this may to close this out we are handing it over to sanelete Bruno tautiyaki and Justin Wright from Irene B West
019Elementary School to share some upcoming events good evening my name is Jenny latte Bruno satiyaki and my name is Justin bright and we attend West Elementary we hope that you've enjoyed the Monterey Trail region presentation first event is on oh we would like to welcome you to some upcoming events in our region our first event is our mtrec meeting on April 6th and the next event is the Irene B West Multicultural affair on June 1st on behalf of all the students and staff from the Monterey Trail region thank you for inviting us to share the great things happening on the trail we are Mt thank you I want to thank all of the representatives the student representatives for the Monterey Trail region thank you for an excellent presentation excellent report and one more time I'm
020going to recognize the principles of These Fine schools Miss Laura Ricks Monterey Trail High School Mr Charles Amy Edward Harris junior middle school John santon Raymond case Elementary School Barbara Comstock Morse Elementary School Dr Tamila Moore Roy Herberger Elementary School Brian Brian McNeil Irene B West Elementary School and Doug Wendell Rio cazadero High School students you are dismissed next item is one of two resolutions on the agenda today the first is National School library week I'd like to call on Lisa lavaster to see if there are any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam president there are no public comments via this item thank you um do we have any blue cards on this item yes we do have blue cards on this item I have Lori Gardner followed by Heidi Moore Miss Gardner
021who will be followed by Miss Moore come on down if that microphone is too low for you there's a black button you can push the top of it and it'll move the whole Podium up okay can you hear me okay yes thank you good evening everyone I wanted to take this opportunity to speak about a very important issue that was brought to up during a recent meeting that I attended as we celebrate Library week it is important that we also take the time to reflect on the books that are being made available to our children in our schools during the meeting that I attended on February 16th myself and other concerned parents raised our shock and disapproval of some of the sexualized and pro-trans books that were found in the libraries of our kindergarten through
022sixth grade elementary schools we were hoping to gain some clarity on who is responsible for bringing these books into the schools but unfortunately we were unable to get a clear answer it is concerning to me that some of these books contain adult content that is not age appropriate for our children as parents we should have the right to know what books are available to our children in the libraries and classrooms and we should also have the ability to provide our input on what books are being made available I was also surprised to learn that some of these sexualized type books are available in our middle school and high school libraries while it is important for our children to learn about history social justice family Dynamics and self-esteem we need to ensure that the books they
023are reading are appropriate for their age level some of the books that were found contain material that is not appropriate for minors including descriptions of Parental rape incest and animal molestation during the meeting the district's staff confirmed that they were aware of the books being in the libraries but they were not willing to remove them however they did agree to develop and Implement a parent communication strategy plan to allow parents to access School library and classroom book inventories as well as review all pertinent board policies administrative regulations and procedures regarding the library materials selection process and age appropriateness as we move forward I hope that the District staff can inform us of what Authority the community has if parents and caregivers disagree with potential incoming library books for the future we should all work together
024to ensure that our children have access to books that are appropriate for all of their ages their level and promote the positive values that we want them to have thank you Heidi Moore thank you before you approve this item declaring a national school library week I thought it might be important to bring to your attention some of the statements made in this declaration last time I spoke to the board in person I brought to your attention the fact that there were books in all district elementary school libraries using terminology such as vagina penis Partners sex drive sex reassignment surgery testes and ovaries and more additionally there are several books challenging gender identity to the point of saying that maybe babies don't have a gender at all I emailed all board members after my statement and
025only Mr forcina responded your silence speaks volumes since that time some fellow parents and I have had a meeting with several District officials regarding library books and the district's lack of any kind of approval process or checks and balances for books placed in libraries or even classrooms for that matter at this meeting Miss Jennifer ABY admitted that these books aren't appropriate for children under fourth grade yet they refused to remove them from the library in tonight's declaration it states it is important to recognize the unique contributions of all Library workers and the value to individuals and Society of those of those of those contributions this statement infers that Library workers have great impact on society or in this matter our children I strongly encourage the board to enact and demand an approval policy a system
026with checks and balances before any book can be placed into a library or classroom most recently I discovered a few pornographic books in the pghs cams Library the descriptions include the following from the book punkzilla it includes cat molestation using a pencil sexually explicit scenes with a discussion of hand jobs and teenage prostitution pedophilia and more another example these are just two examples I'm sharing with you in the book The Bluest Eye it contains graphic descriptions of rape incest and pedophilia children shouldn't read about a dad whose anus softens at the sight of his own naked daughter's body that is available to my seventh grader next year she's going to be in seventh grade available to seventh graders okay if we are going to have a declaration recognizing the impact of libraries on our children
027and societies then it is time to start censoring these inappropriate and sensitive topics from minors if you truly recognize the impact of libraries then be responsible with the material you are providing to our children and furthermore provide transparency to parents none of these books were provided to me I had to seek them out you're hiding it from me you're hiding it from parents they all deserve to know and they deserve better and our kids deserve better so it makes me question what is your intention with our children and what else are you hiding thank you thank you having no more blue cards I'm going to close public comment and invite Mr Chad Schweitzer up to present this resolution a good evening board president Cyrus Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos Chad
028Schweitzer assistant superintendent of secondary Ed here to talk tonight about National Library week annually National Library week is celebrated during the month of April and libraries host special events to highlight the unique role libraries play in people's lives this year's theme is there's more to the story first promoted in 1958 National Library week is sponsored by the American Library Association and observed in libraries across the country libraries are full of stories in a variety of formats from picture books to large print audio books to ebooks and more libraries lend items like Museum passes games musical instruments and tools out to members of the community Library programming brings communities together for entertainment education and connection through book clubs story times movie Nights classes and lectures Library infrastructure advances communities providing internet and Technology access literary skills
029support for business job Seekers and entrepreneurs celebrations occurring Across the Nation during National Library week include National Library workers day National Library Outreach day and take action for libraries day this evening we ask that special recognition be extended to the Elk Grove unified school district libraries during the week of April 23rd through 29th it's essential to continue our acknowledgment of the valuable contributions and recognize all Library workers including Librarians School support staff and others who make Library Services possible for all of our students the board of education is requested to approve resolution number 64 proclaiming April 23rd through 29th as National Library week thank you Mr Schweitzer before I call for a motion I'd just like to ask whether we have any of our Librarians in the audience today please do stand so we can
030recognize and appreciate you thank you to my colleagues one of the other things that is changing as we're going back to pre-pandemic Brown act rules is that we can now go back to voting by acclimation so we don't do a roll call vote unless it's required for specific circumstances so the way that works for those of you who have never had the pleasure of seeing that in action I will ask all in favor and you will all respond at the same time if you are in favor and then ask um all opposed and you will say nay if you are opposed and we just take a Voice vote if it sounds like we have a majority that's all we do if it's not clear then we will go to a roll call vote okay I
031like to make offending amendment to what sir to this resolution uh okay go ahead whereas this district school district Elk Grove unified school district seek funds to open libraries to to be open on Saturdays and after school okay that sounds to me like something substantive that would have need to be brought up before this meeting so we really can't entertain that at this point funds I'm not saying we're gonna fund it right that we should pursue funds to have our our libraries open on Saturdays and after schools because of the fact that a lot of our students are behind us in the reading levels Mr Perez I need to stop you because we publicly noticed this item and the text so unfortunately we're not able to make a substantive change like what you're suggesting it's
032not I'm not rolling on the merits I'm rolling on process okay so thank you process yes sir I've I've been to other resolutions before and and they brought it it was it was they were wordsmithing no you may not sir um I'd like to call for a motion to approve resolution number 64 proclaiming April 23rd to 29th 2023 as National School library week move do we have a second second thank you all in favor please signify by saying aye aye all opposed a call for a vote roll call did you did you catch the procedural change sir what what time you need to mention what time you can call it I'm sorry okay I work I I don't know what that was about okay so I heard a majority vote and the resolution passes thank
033you Mr Schweitzer next resolution um Miss levasser do we have any public Zoom any comments on public schools month resolution Madam President we have no public comment via zoom on this resolution thank you um Gina do we have any blue cards on this resolution no we do not thank you Miss Amy could you please come up to present the resolution good evening president chirez Espinoza members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos behind me I'm here tonight to ask the Board of Education to adopt resolution number 65 which proclaims April 2023 as public schools month in Elk Grove unified school district during the 1920s the free and accepted masons of California initiated the annual recognition of the role that public schools play in our communities since then the state of California has designated April
034as public schools month during these unprecedented times we acknowledge the contributions our schools play in ensuring the safety and well-being of our students had a great demonstration of that tonight with the students who came forward tonight in our principal supporting them the purpose of public schools month is to encourage communities to set aside time to honor our public schools and to enlist the community's continued support for public education community members are invited to personally recognize the dedication and commitment of the staff at their neighborhood schools thank you thank you Miss AV I'd like to call for a motion to adopt resolution number 65 proclaiming April 2023 as public schools month in the Elk Grove unified school district so moved thank you do we have a second I heard a first and a second all in
035favor please signify by saying aye aye aye all opposed thank you resolution passes unanimously next up we are moving to public comment for items not on the agenda this is still at the top of the meeting um comments on specific items will be taken when those items are presented just to remind you miss levasser could you please call up the first folks who are testifying via Zoom today for items not on the agenda first on the agenda for public comment via Zoom is Mark Graham if not next on on the list is Brandon Morgan uh you hear me we cancel go ahead all right thank you president Charis Espinoza and the board members again for this opportunity to address you in regards to the inclusive education program well you guys full screen this on me
036and now you can't see my notes all right there we go so it's March the month that you as a board have designated as disability awareness month and once again we're here still frustrated still waiting and more and more getting worried about the children with disabilities in the inclusive Edge program as we've not been presented with any plan as to how the District administration will move forward to serve these kids in a way that allows them to succeed in their goals and further their education back in my first public comment on this issue I discussed that my biggest worry was about the kids whose goals were not academic based not being supported properly through the learning center model and the move to downside the inclusive Ed program teachers that had a moderate to severe credential
037were moved into self-contained classrooms leaving only mild to moderate credentialed teachers to serve all of inclusive ed students because of this we're seeing kids who had previously had proper supports from appropriately credentialed teachers regressing in goals that they had previously been successful in and those regressions have been pretty huge for some of those kids and while there's many amazing and wonderful mild moderate credentialed teachers not only do they not have the appropriate credential education or background to serve this population they've been given a larger caseload where the model of serving those students is more time consuming than the students under the standard Learning Center model that they've grown accustomed to working on now I don't think David Reilly Chris Hoffman or Mark's already fully understood the ramification that this decision would have on the success
038of our inclusive ed students when they made this decision behind everyone's backs and I can understand how they couldn't have understood this being that none of them have a background in special education or primary education where early intervention happens to build the necessary skills for success in the later parts of Education you don't even take the time to consult people with proper credentials and experience it's easy to make catastrophic mistakes I understand they believe this would solve one problem for this year but what about next year the district likely applied for a waiver with the CTC to allow these teachers to work outside their credential but what about next year another waiver is not going to suddenly reverse the regressions from this year the model for the inclusive Ed program till this decision was designed
039to with these moderate to severe support needs in mind the decision makers at that time knew that these kids could be in a genetic classroom and succeed with the right supports now I'm asking the district to not just provide a plan for next year but provide an alternate planning case Staffing levels can't meet that plan provided a contingency plan if your alternate plan doesn't work and provide your emergency plan for if everything falls apart I'm also asking the board as this is within your power what we have elected you to do hold Chris Hoffman accountable to this finally I'd like to also thank the parents who discussed the appropriateness of books in the school library containing subject matters such as rape incest and animal molestation I really do think it's time we consider whether or
040not it's appropriate to keep the Bible in our school library shelves thank you foreign next public comment is Gabrielle Ingram Heidi broberg Christina navarrete hello can we can hear you go ahead hi hen um I'm just wondering uh I'm gonna bring up the fact that they had some drag queen um thing at school it was a mandatory whatever are the kids had to be there and I just don't see where how that has anything to do with education it's it's straight up perversion and it's perverted and it doesn't belong in school at all period if the if they grow up and CH and choose to live this type of Lifestyle then they can do that as adults but as children is this should not be forced upon them hello thank you ma'am yes have you
041have you finished your comments yes I have all right thank you yeah Miss Levasseur next comment next up is Brad Miller yeah Carrie Wilcox Jose Monroe or Monroy Anthony Rago Marion fimbres Nicole Wallace Kimberly e wani wellbutton Gabriel hi there speaker you appear to be muted can you try to unmute yourself or is that us who's muted Steve okay if you can unmute yourself we're ready for you okay um can we go back to the next person and try to come back to the speaker next speaker Enoch IO yeah Rosie Jimenez no Desiree roboletto Roberto all right welcome Patricia Javier sawat senium go ahead speaker we're ready for you good evening yes thank you um I am um yeah my name is the white cm and I am a concerned uh member of the community
042and I'm the reason I'm um weighing in this evening is in a strong opposition to um what took place last Friday at the Multicultural assembly um it came to our attention that there were drag queens that were invited to uh the high school and um that uh parents would not were not notified in advance about the planned activities um and I believe very strongly that students um should have had the right to opt out of this activity and I really hope that the board will um take some sort of action to um to ensure that this will never happen again and that the values of um parents families and students are upheld thank you thank you next up H Christopher Rodriguez Tracy Deming asmeron Gabriel we're ready for you sir go ahead okay thank you
043very much this is asmaron Eritrean immigrant to America six years ago and my kids two years ago so as a parent I had three I have three kids enrolled in aircraft in five school districts so my last son is in Catherine albani Middle School and uh it came with my attention that still we had a long way to go to behavioral cultural ways of living but Katrin Albany has mistreated my son so many times because of his inclination to his belief and the words he speak with his friends at the school administration is using other students to follow and Report things which he didn't do anything to do with the rules of the school so I have met with the principal and I have reported in five School District there is a strong pressure because
044of his belief and they kept him two hours in office terrorized him and they do whatever to my son because he said a word they say is offensive but he did not second they did it again they arrested him in the office for one hour and going and meeting all students to find evidence so that they frame him and this is clear violation of belief and also today as parents are describing in high school without giving an option or thought out to go on not to go doing something like this as a parent I am still terrified and this aircraft School District will try to work on this sensitive issues of culture belief and also respect of others so that others will respect others thank you very much thank you sir thank you next comment
045next comment Ellen Malak a lake you know Ricardo Gutierrez no Rachel Katan go ahead Miss Katan we're ready for you okay thank you so um my comment is in regards to the the um Multicultural ceremony that was that had taken place um and my question is how are drag queens part of what how are they part of a multicultural event um I under I saw that the performers didn't necessarily strip down to exposed body parts but they were stripping clothes off with another layer of clothes on underneath all the wild kids are screaming and cheering at the removal of the clothes which is suggestive and I truly believe that parents should have been notified and did it occur to you that there may be some students of uh uh that were uncomfortable that were forced
046to sit through a sexualized drag queen performance and as part of a multicultural assembly when I think of Multicultural I think of different cultures around the world uh Japanese Italian French where you're learning about their foods and their beliefs and their customs drag queens are a social group you can think of social groups like antifa or proud boys or other types of groups so how does exposing minor students to the over sexualization of drag queens benefit the academic success of students how are they being enriched by having students watch a drag show I really hope that U.S trustees think about that and don't allow drag shows to happen again in the future thank you ma'am next comment so that was the last of the comments but do you want to try to go back to
047see if that one yes please well then Gabriel hi speaker can you hear me we are ready for you yes yes I can't hear you I just want to give a comment regarding sawai and ask Forum that was the comment I really uh we are new from we came from Bay Area here but we just want to know especially the culture issue and our students have you know the right especially if the L group it happens without the choice to give out please you know we just want to know what is going on in the school especially about the sexuality about the belief different culture we just want to be involved family and I want you guys to take consideration about the Southwest comment and aspirants and thank you like it just came to support
048thank you ma'am so I believe that's all of our Zoom comments thank you Miss levasser Miss Jamerson do we have uh some blue cards Nancy oh didn't see your hand there Mr Fortuna we had a high percentage of people tonight that didn't uh tune in when their names were called yes do we have um along with their names do do we have the item that they wanted to discuss oh I see where you're going if we do can we have a list of that I think that would be interesting it's possible that lots of the folks who signed up maybe thought that that was a sufficient way to communicate a position to us so if that information is available I'd love an email to the board thank you Carmen all right Miss Jamerson okay uh
049first we have Jesse Bermudez followed by Dustin Noble good evening board members my name is Jesse Bermudez I'm the district director for assembly member Stephanie Wynn my team and I are here today to introduce ourselves to you to let you know that assembly member wins district office is now open um this is Stephanie fan and Lindy they're part of our team our office is located at 9250 Laguna Springs Drive Suite 220 and we're here to assist families and residents with difficulties navigating some of state agencies so we we come here and offer our support for the families teachers friends and to just let you know that we're here I have left my business card with your team so they can hand it out to you and also leave a stack of business cards outside for
050anybody in the audience that would like to connect with us so thank you for your time thank you very much appreciate Miss Winn's team coming out to introduce themselves thank you thank you now we have Dustin Noble followed by Courtney or Arizona apologies as you come up I'll just share again my blanket reminder that we're gonna do our best to get people's names right but please please always correct us because we want to learn and we want to do better go ahead sir sounds fair Dustin Noble uh good evening members of the board superintendent Hoffman yes I am back uh I want to tell you a story about a former student from Elk Grove High School from about 20 years ago uh they were visually impaired legally blind and needed some very specific supports students
051grades were slipping a lot of lack of motivation and very clearly on the Spectrum though without a diagnosis until much later in life uh spending most of their academic career self-advocating and ensuring they sat in the front of every primary class so they could see the board um high school was a very different Beast and the needs and expectations greater they were placed on an IEP in the 10th grade but with nowhere to really place them to meet their needs while some gen Ed classes were prepared to help and ensure their needs were met this was not common practice and thus the student needed placement somewhere they ended up being placed in a self-contained classroom for emotionally disturbed students this classroom was a portable placed in the furthest location on the El graphite campus you
052could practically kick dirt and hit the football field they were placed in the rear of the class partitioned off from the rest of the classmates so they could focus and use the magnification equipment at the time as time went on they became aware that this class was clearly not just ed students it was a mix of ASD Ed and some students in need of specific academic Services students that clearly should not have been paired with students with rage issues finding the ASD students in particular the target of their rage and bullying this was a Dumping Ground the opposite of what inclusion is was today I share this with you not to stir up parent fears or Monger anger or take away from the necessity of self-contained classes and the services that they provide those students
053that need those Services I share it to Simply say this is what it looks like with less inclusive Services when you take things away and where kids can end up without the right people in place to Advocate and steer their academic Journey parents just be mindful pay close attention to your IEPs and the services being provided this was clearly not inclusive Services we need to ensure we never go back to these days I know I will never allow this to happen to my own son and if it was not obvious enough I was that student that was my experience thank you Courtney followed by Jency Ferraro good evening um I have some support here tonight um I'm here to talk about inclusion in special education again um every month my son Nathan he's in sixth
054grade wants to come to the board meetings and make a speech himself um I believe in letting kids be little so he doesn't know 98 of what's happening right now with inclusion he does know that his whole world was turned upside down in August when his inclusion specialist had to leave our school do the changes that were made he knows that without warning the person that had nurtured and loved him since his first day of kindergarten was suddenly gone he knows that sixth grade has been so much more difficult without her he knows that he's afraid of seventh grade in Middle School and thinks that if she was still working with him she would be able to help him overcome the fear of the unknown just like she always did in the past he knows
055that he's regressed even if he doesn't know how to express and communicate that he told me what he would tell you my kind sweet boy is worried about the other inclusion kids at the school he thinks that he can convince you to bring her back Eve despite months of me telling him that it's not going to happen I have not let anything come because I want to protect him um also I have not let Nathan speak because I worry people think I'm using him and trying to get attention maybe I'm wrong and I'm being overprotective and I should let him talk to you himself I hate that he's anxious about this I always try to play it cool around him I'm always honest but more than anything reassuring I don't know how to rectify this
056I don't know how to help him heal from being blindsided and betrayed children with autism don't adapt to change well we talked about this and how this change was implemented over and over again that's why it's so disappointing that it's March and we have not heard a plan for inclusion if the district was listening to what we were saying they would know our children need to be prepared in advance for changes this has absolutely turned our world upside down we'd like to know what we have to prepare for next I've avoided speaking to my personal situation for months but I'm going to try to be brave and explain more and personally come from I have a precarious Health situation I have a complicated a complicated combination of chronic diseases both autoimmune and rare I have
057since I was a teenager I have received aggressive treatment including chemotherapy for years most of my pregnancy with Nathan I was bald and from the time Nathan was six months old until he was almost four I was considered terminal um every day that I'm here is a day that I wasn't supposed to be here and I take that um I live with purpose um things have been a little off in the last few years we've had a lot of close calls um I never know what's coming up next so I have to prepare for everything my backup plans have backup plans before those decisions it drastically changing Collision [Applause] um I'd ask myself at night if you if I was with you tomorrow and I always felt so secure with his education was getting in
058how much he'd learned and I thought he had a bright future ahead of them because of everything he's received from this district and that peace of mind was taken away from me in August and I need it back and I've got reassurances from people in the district that he'll always be taken care of and I believe that those are sincere but it's not enough I'm just one parent with one situation there are plenty of other parents that have other things going on in their lives they need this to not be the center of every day our kids needs stability our kids need security we need to know what's going on I need to know what's going on hey Courtney yeah good evening I'm jensy Ferrero um I'd like to start by thanking Mr Vargas and
059Miss Jamerson for a amazing personal conversations that we had since our last board meeting and thank you for making time to talk to us outside of the boardroom um so I am the mother of five brilliant beautiful black children who attend school Within egusd as you've heard me say I have four on IEPs and one has a 504. to say the school year has been emotionally taxing is an understatement however I would like to share a positive experience I recently had as a volunteer for and participant of the first annual black family conference the event was hosted by the families of black students union and affinity group created within the face department at this event the local local black owned businesses were highlighted black leadership and support teams and the community provided workshops students from
060several schools across the district performed and we had a chance to enjoy two meals together the efforts to build community build up our babies and strengthen parent and guardian advocacy was intentional meaningful and it worked I would like to thank the face Department from the bottom of my heart but I need this to be the culture at each school it's great that it's overarching but we're not getting to the schools I would also like to personally Thank The Advocates at bylp Maureen Pryor exquisitive Hundley Lisa Stanley Sharina Shaw and peer Advocates Jada and Adrian if it were not for this group of Advocates I quite literally would be in a full crisis within my family I'm not coming to you today with one of the horrific stories that we've heard too many times that our
061black families are experiencing within this District I'm coming to you today as a parent of black students who are constantly having to navigate and re-center After experiencing micro and macroaggressions within an educational system but is doing just enough so they can survive and rarely anything to create a learning environment in which they can thrive I watch the board meeting some time ago where byop mapped out what services they could provide be in the mou that the district would with to the district that would create safe spaces within our schools for black students it's mind-blowing to me that you did not take them up on this opportunity and join forces I was recently told student safety is our top priority well apparently emotional safety is not included I love my children with every ounce of everything
062in me however I am white and I am humble enough to admit that my love will never be enough my children need a strong black community that can protect defend educate listen to and genuinely love on them if I can publicly admit this when will egusd be humble enough to admit that this system that was built by white people for white people and are and it was not for our black students they need you and you need our school board to advocate for or provide funding so our black students can Thrive emotionally academically and holy thank you I have Elizabeth Rodriguez followed by Amy I apologize card touchner Karchner thank you all right good evening Mr Hoffman day council members foreign [Music] contracted in 2018. and in 2019 I decided that next become a better
063educator in order to make that happen happen right cool to complete my credits at EG Ace it took me two and a half years when I was done with all my credits I moved on to my credit my priority care certification while going to school I was working and raising a family I worked as a yard supervisor and then I also worked at Asus program as of Friday February 24th at 1 30. I have the release informationary I was not given the explanation or given a six-month evaluation yeah I worked any liquor to get out of the yard supervisor right here nearly by myself do those damn shortage I was the only parent Decatur that would volunteered to work in the palace class because of a shortage in August of 22 are we still inclusion
064supervisors I was instructed by the supervisor on tasks that needed to be taken with that child I was being assigned with I also was aware that I would be working with another bear educator due to multiple changes no other parent Decatur or training was given I have learned most of my training through experience on multiple occasions while I was not on the clock the VP contacted me personally accusing of situations the situations at the VP was accusing you have been invalid and inappropriate she recently instructed me with some issues that I corrected I was working at an encouragement for one and a half years I have been always been on time respectful safe and responsible I never said nature you know to any job assignment that was given as of Monday February 27th for Mary
065ponds I was put on an oer list which is making me feel as if I am a criminal when I didn't do anything wrong I'm unsure how each USD continuously Estates that there's a major establature it just required but yet they continue to release employees by novel exploitation yep Amy followed by Heidi Moore good evening good evening I am an Elk Grove unified school district graduate I have four children in this District I've been a part of this District since 1983 and in 30 years I have never felt betrayal like I felt on Friday on Thursday March 3rd we were notified that there would be a multi-cultural Expo assembly during school the following day and that dismissing and that picking our kids up from school would not be allowed one of my children told me
066the Punjabi dancing was incredible another one of my children texted me mortified because the so-called cultural Expo was ending with the drag show he was uncomfortable and felt trapped another student not even my son sent me a video in real time and expressed his discomfort if you'd like to see the video you can see the bewilderment of the students sitting around him I was with a friend who happens to be queer and in the active in the LGBT community when my children started texting me from school his response that his lgbtq community is embarrassed by the assumption that they are affiliated with agendas like this the drag show that ended Friday's cultural assembly without proper notification of parents was inappropriate the administration could have easily included an outline or program in the mass but vague
067email they sent out about the assembly less than 24 hours before the assembly happened last year they published a list of the clubs that would be performing it's not a coincidence that this year they didn't Administration knew this was the first performance of this type at this school and when I spoke to the vice principal she feigned surprise that this would be controversial and obviously had a script that she stuck to also not a coincidence they knew there would be parents like me that would not support this and that is why they let it in under the guise of culture which is also not a coincidence they required attendance and didn't allow dismissal which is not only illegal but is also not a coincidence they had the self-proclaimed drag queens perform at the very end
068of the assembly because they knew there would be a reaction coincidence this is not the parents performance happened after and separate from the children the parents version did not contain the political propaganda that the student's version was preceded by in which various states of our nation were publicly insulted some of which we have family living in this is not a coincidence so we are clear I am more upset with the school's blatant lack of transparency and integrity about the drag show then I end the drag show itself people who have nothing to hide hide nothing and distrust is a very large hurdle that I'm afraid the principal and by extension your board will have a very difficult time negotiating with honest supportive and contributing parents like me parents who raise honor students and AP students
069parents who raise their kids if you could finally wrap up please what if you could kindly wrap up this is it parents who raise honor students parents who raise kids who have not burdened the administration one time not one disciplinary issue parents whose kids serve in the community parents whose kids you should be fighting to accommodate and keep in your school I wish I was more hopeful that you have the courage to stand for anything related to my parental rights but I couldn't begin this is my last line I will sleep at peace tonight with my conscience but shame on the Elk Grove unified school district and specifically principal keplinger the bigger question is will you sleep Heidi horn followed by Elda Ortiz so like Amy I was shocked on Friday I received a text
070from my daughter saying mom guess what what my school had a drag performance I was shocked she said it was done at a multicultural assembly you see I knew about this assembly because Miss keplinger emailed parents the day before but as Amy stated it said nothing about a sexual performance it was a very vague email just saying it was a multicultural assembly without any outline there was no mention of the sexual drag performance like I said and by the way it it in the performance it was also called a political protest by the participants themselves I have the direct quote so you know quote this is from the the group that performed quote so gender and sexuality aren't race or ethnicity but still a culture because culture images from Community which is why we are
071here today pride is part of queer culture our performance is a protest for all the queens and transgender youth whose lives were lost for doing exactly what we are doing our performance is for our community in Oklahoma Idaho Florida Arkansas Texas Arizona Mississippi Alabama and Tennessee where we are actively being targeted everyone deserves to love to be and to be loved so are we allowing political protests in our schools now or just for certain groups the dancers proceeded to dance in a provocative way one even stripping some of their clothing why was this sexual political performance kept from parents and students for that matter it was a mandatory assembly as was mentioned it was placed in the middle of the day and Miss keplinger's email said that there would be no early dismissals it's despicable
072that this performance took place at all but if you're going to insist to have it you must absolutely clearly communicate with parents and students in advance my daughter felt so uncomfortable and trust me she is not the only student who felt that way um as I mentioned with the books this is just another way you're sexualizing our children and you're doing it secretly um once again you lack transparency I would also like to add that uh the principal has started responding to myself and other parents and it's a copy and paste email how insulting is that it's the copy and paste email response and also Mr curetti who I've emailed and some of my other friends who have been in the meeting with the books we emailed him there's been no response why we deserve
073better than that you can't sexualize our kids and then just ignore us um the last thing I want to say is if you have nothing to hide then don't hide it if you're proud of it then tell us be transparent these are our kids not yours thank you Elda Ortiz followed by Laurie Gardner I would like to comment on the drag queen performance at the Pleasant Grove High School Christian students and those of other religions shouldn't be forced to sit through a sexualized drag queen protist performance as part of a multicultural assembly parents and students should have been warned and given the opportunity to opt out the goal is to be inclusive right well people of Faith do not feel heard or respected when the school district takes it upon themselves to approve such performances
074everything is either governed by a law or rule please explain how this falls into a current law rule by forcing students of many different faiths to sit and watch such performance I'm hoping an email will be sent by the Elk Grove District explaining this to parents comprehensive Sexual Health curriculum adoption is also being adopted tonight parents will still be reviewing this tomorrow so how can you adopt this without all parents having the opportunity to view the curriculum or is this another item that the board has given the authority to adopt without parents given the opportunity to view the curriculum I don't know how we've gotten to this place where this Authority has been given to the board members without parents being alerted also please look into the content of the books at the school libraries
075and confirm they are age appropriate for our children I'm also concerned for the students with disabilities and what the plan is for the district to provide the education they well deserve it is very disheartening the stories I have heard from many parents I was part of a disability committee Statewide in hearing what is going on with the Elk Grove district for many parents and the handling of the changes is unreal and unrealistic please provide a plan to the parents that are nervous about changes for their children and are that are sitting at home in fear not knowing what's going to happen if this school board says they are for the students they should be more open and transparent with what they're doing I think you can all agree that as parents we care we care
076about our children whether they have a disability or not and I think that the school district should focus on anti-bullying classes or something because whether it's by color by religion bisexual orientation all the different differences that we all have there is bullying going on and it continues please do something for the children thank you Rory Gardner followed by emelina Mendoza thank you for letting me bring my concerns to your attention about the provocative nature and content of the Multicultural assembly at Pleasant Grove High School recently please understand that I am not opposed to the assembly itself but rather the specific content that was included this year I have valid questions about whether this event was mandatory and if students received credit for attending additionally whether parents and students were given an opportunity to opt out
077it is important for parents and students to be informed of the content of school events and given the opportunity to opt out if they choose everyone with the exception to Children knows a drag queen show is a provocative sexual display of queer culture and typically performed in an adult only 21 years older bar not at a school full of children children are 18 years and younger I do raise a question about or specifically two I know you can't answer yet Oliver but you are our student boards member I'd be very interested to know your stance on this issue I hope the school administration can address my concerns and ensure that future events are handled in a way that is sensitive to the needs and values of all the members in the community I had actually
078hoped that the president and excuse me the principal of Pleasant Grove High School would have attended today because she could have heard my response I got an email from her today and I was curious Mark or Jennifer if that principle was included on the email chain from our last meeting that we were at together because the email response or the email that I got from the principal was in response to my call I did not call the principal I do not know the principal and the principal emailed me all about the multiple cultural assembly so I don't know how that principle got my email I don't know you're the only people that have my email outside of people I give it to so I am that is a concern we're at the school board I
079got an email today from the principal of Pleasant Grove High School addressing this concern as a result of my call which I never made I've never met nor talked or communicated once with a principal at Pleasant Grove High School so that is a big concern as a local Community member thanks emelina followed by estela Uribe good evening my comment today is regarding the sexual education curriculum that you're considering to adopt today it is disheartening I have gone over some because there's so much there but some content of the curriculum and it is hacked with ideology about sexuality which is not backed up by science or objective truth this curriculum reduces the human being to its sexual behavior that's all it does it removes the Dignity of a human being it tells kids it tells kids
080that they don't have self-control as if they were animals it promotes sex promiscuity and drug use because it tells if you're going to have sex with someone with that is positive with HIV take the pills so you don't get infected use cling needles don't share your needles wear condoms take contraceptives for fifth graders regarding uh gender they can change their sex they can go in there's this little video cartoon video where the kids are going to the bathroom stall and coming out going in as a girl and coming out as something else changing their names tell seventh graders there are puberty blockers or sex change there's name change and by the way you have the right to tell your doctor in private and your doctor will not let your parents know anything about that these
081very very severe medical decisions it vilifies the Hispanic Community because the film that is there it's called be it's about a Hispanic father and a son that came out to him and the father was shocked I'm sorry that's really bad it invites and teach kids to become allies to the LGBT community and so on this curriculum is not held about healthy education it's propaganda it's induction indoctrinating gender ideology which is not based on objective truth there's no science to back that up our children don't need this confusion in this chaos and that's the moment that that this creates our children need a message of Hope and they deserve to hear the truth about the reality of who they are they're not little sexual animals that just go around with no self-control having sex with anybody
082they want can you kindly wrap up yes I will so you have the power today to consider not approving this because the parents have needs to have a saying in it but you have the power to do that or not but if you approve it so God help you you know all of us please yes despite of what you believe what your faith believe all of us who have one day are exiting interview and I hope you can answer to God your decision today thank you very much Estella aribe followed by Brian and that is I apologize hello good evening my name is Estella and I was looking uh you know around the new curriculum and I don't agree to pass the curriculum I think the boar they never Supply the place of the parents
083and I have another question um I know the district can apply for a grant to open Community Schools District going to apply for it thank you Brian followed by Lindsay Townsend Brian can you state your first and last name sorry oh Brian e datas thank you again very close that was good how you doing hello Madam board president uh members of the board superintendent Hoffman like I said earlier my name is bryony Davis I'm one of the area supervisors in the maintenance and operations Department I've been there for about 17 years I started working in m o as an electrician I have 26 years in the trade I came to work for the district because I needed a job closer to my family even though I had several other offers of employment I decided to
084come to work for Elk Grove unified school district because the reputation of the school district was that it was a great place to work I'm here today to talk about the struggle we're having hiring and retaining people in the trades like plumbers and electricians here at Elk Grove unified school district and as of now we have no plumbers and only one electrician during the day this particular electrician is retirement age and can leave at any time and he plans to retire later this year so I have questions how is our department supposed to respond to emergency calls like backed up sinks and toilets and electrical emergencies at the school sites when we have no one qualified to respond to them how are we supposed to respond to the multiple emergencies during the day without Qualified
085Staffing recently we had a sewer backup at one of our school sites and had to close down the boys and girls restrooms and had a call I had to call an outside company to respond to the emergency to clear the sewer line fortunately they were able to respond within an hour which we all know rarely happens if ever when I talk to people that are in the trades about applying for Elk Grove unified school district they tell me most commonly what I hear is how do you expect to get qualified people to maintain the safety of the facilities for our staff and Kids when your wages are so low I have heard for years that the benefits are what attract people and keep people here at the school district if that's the case then why
086is of late are we not attracting anyone or keeping anyone here and the fact is outside companies and other school districts can beat what we're offering when it comes to benefits and salary not by a little but by a lot and some of the research that I've done personally it's more than ten dollars an hour in difference across the trades I know when it comes to comparability study and salaries We compare to other local school districts but what percentile are we striving to be at when it comes to the comparability study I'm hoping first since we are the fifth largest School District in California that were at least close to the top over the last several years I've worked here I've watched many people leave for better opportunities and I would like to see that
087change I'm here on behalf of the people that I work with every day the same people I consider to be the backbone when it comes to the facilities here at Elk Grove unified school district I have the most respect for them because they are what I call the boots on the ground individuals that will come to work every day and figure out how to handle everyday work orders and emergencies despite the lack of personnel and lower compensation for doing the same jobs that other school districts are paying far more for these professionals if you could kindly wrap up yes ma'am these professionals are tired of what's been going on but still they put their differences aside and serve the district for the betterment of the staff and students here and I hope I'm here to
088plead with you guys so that we need some changes and we can't wait any longer thank you I have Lindsay followed by Laurie Bachi hello board thank you for your time um and listening to our concerns regarding classified staff I'm here today not to represent myself but also other classified staff that couldn't be here due to working situations uh or what have you um out of the eight years that I've been working for the district this has been one of the toughest years stressful um at my site there's been vacancies um there was a vacancy for five months that we could not fill because of a sub shortage um and other stuff that was out due to medical reasons or stress related issues uh me my registrared I am a controller um how to share
089covering the vacancies due to the lack of Subs available I know there are similar situations out there at different sites that people had to cover for and it's just getting more difficult without Subs um I feel that there's a such a shortage due to the pay that they're getting one of the wages for clerical and custodian um that some of them can make uh go to another higher paying job even as a fast food you know Clerk um I've talked with one of our campus security that has been there for 23 years and one of our custodians that has been there for almost 20 years and they're making less than twenty dollars an hour um and yet in and out piece nineteen dollars an hour I feel that they are not their their salaries are
090not justified for the hours and um support that they give to the schools for all those years in the past classified has gotten the same raise amount as teachers and I'm just begging that you listen to us speaking here tonight and fighting to Open the Eyes of that the raise for the teachers is not nowhere near what classified should be getting based on their incomes I am I don't feel this is a fair trade-off and I beg you to please look at what the hard working classified members are doing in this District to help keep the sites running some of them being the first people that they see at the sites and then just do the raises based on our salaries because it is far and few between the teachers so thank you for your
091time Ronnie followed by Lynn owano so I was I'm talking about comparison with other districts we are the biggest District in South County we were asked to send in a group comparison by our Union last July our group sent theirs in we did our homework I don't know how many were sent in by each group but we haven't heard anything we compared ourselves to eight other districts EG USD fell to number eight and Sac City Unified was number one as Nicole mentioned last month we were a competitive district and everyone wanted to come and work here we were thriving we're not any longer we are losing many I've even have considered leaving among others I have worked 22 years here at our district should I be getting paid more yes we all should I started
092in the kitchen and believe me that is hard work and my journey begun after that I left the kitchen and I went to counseling and ROP Tech to a health Tech I started as a registrar in January of 2017 my hourly rate was 21.50 and has only increased by a dollar seventy three this is sad in six and a half years of being a registrar sexity unified starting pay for a registrar is 23.36 and their high is 28.19. EG USD starting pay for a registrar is 1743 and the high is 23.64. what all our teachers receive by their percentage does not help the classified we need our hourly wage adjusted on our step scale to make a difference no one wants to work for a starting wage of 15.65 which our office assistance won and
093our campus supervisors start at In and Out Burgers are starting the workers at 19 an hour and you wonder why we can't find anyone to hire what can we change to become the number one school district like we were in the past so we need to make change not only for our classified workers for our students and what our kids learned in the last you know my kids all graduated here and I'm proud of what they came out of EG but our district is changing and we need to make change we need to start thinking of our students and our families and our district again come back and keep the politics out of it thank you Lynn followed by Nicole strange good evening board my name is Linda wano and I moved here about eight
094months before the pandemic set in I moved here from the bay area and I'm sorry I apologize for interrupting I want to make sure everyone can hear you can you hit that black button and move the podium up I think there we go thank you okay so once again I'm Linda wano and I moved here about eight months before the pandemic hit from the Bay Area I moved here with my family and we had an 8th grader and 11th grader at that time and when we decided to move out of the Bay Area we knew we could move anywhere we wanted to in California and we ended up on Elk Grove because the top of my list was quality of the school district and uh consequently I am now working in the school district I've
095been in the school district for about a year and a half as a health Tech um and I I think the point that I would like to really make is that the skeletal staff that we have been dealing with is exhausting us and the staff that is still here is highly motivated very skilled very appropriate and is very proud to serve our community and our students and of course we love the kids too so I just want to stress that people like that and myself and others will start to leave because the pay is not commensurate however uh we we really need those people to come help us we really want to stay and we and we want to make the best school district we can sort of like a beehive you have the queen
096you got the worker bees you've got the whole thing going on and that's how I sort of think about our school district so you can't have one be without all the other bees so we need some more bees thank you Nicole followed by Lisa Stanley I'm a little short I'm sorry um hi guys um thank you for hearing me tonight my name is Nicole strange I work at Pleasant Grove High School as a data processor I want to thank all of my people that came tonight to share their story because it's not easy um nights tonight I came to talk about staff morale um we haven't been charging like who'da thought and I am trying to find it within the deepest of my soul to like walk into work every day with my purpose and
097I want to be here because I want everybody to have such an amazing experience at Pleasant Grove High School and um as we've talked about for months now we've been short staffed and we cover wherever we need to be on Friday when we have that Multicultural assembly we had three people working in the front office and we took those angry phone calls with the best of our ability you know charging with that positive energy and we managed with three people but my staff morale conversation comes from probably the only time that I sent an email to my fellow teammates telling people that I could not assist them and the item in which they were asking for me to do because I had things to do in my queue that pertained to my job and I
098got the finger Shake I got pulled into a meeting and when I tell you that when I left on Thursday night that I could have like taking a mental health day on Friday and said I cannot believe that after all the charging that we have done and the rallying and the moral support that we've given each other that the one time that I say my Plate's full for right now I can't help you I got pulled in and then I come to work on Friday because there's only three people gonna be there and if I get pulled to do other people's jobs so my conversation is stop around it's it's down it's down because the people that are showing up aren't being appreciated for showing up and for doing the extra mile time in and
099time out and it doesn't feel like there's anything gonna happen to change that in our future for a while to the point where I've had conversations with my significant other about stepping down from my mental health I get it so thank you so much for hearing me tonight Lisa Stanley followed by Laureen Pryor my name is Lisa Stanley and Advocate with black youth leadership project what we saw over the last few weeks was business as usual for egusd I sat in a conference room where we witnessed a baby at Pleasant Grove expressing her pain and voicing she had no safe adults on campus as she expressed this she was repeatedly questioned on how many opportunities she indeed had to come to the staff member the complete disgust not even a moment did this woman say
100you know what I was wrong I'm wrong how can I make this right lack of accountability instead the administrator asked me what she should do she went on to say she could not take sides and she had to be stay neutral neutral in situations of racism that's not what we need right now absolutely insane when I pointed out white admins take sides all the time the cries in the room of oh no I don't take sides well your discipline records tell a different story previously previous instances on this campus do as well additionally with this same family on another day we were greeted with animosity from the IE IEP team and a lack of responsibility was taken when the ball was dropped on providing the family with assessment results in a timely manner further some
101of the teachers expectations on this student's class assignments was confusing to say the least this school must do better on the competence of their staff and general concerns as it relates to black students and even more so with black students with disabilities we have yet another baby harmed and another family left frustrated and left to pick up the broken pieces at the hands of egusd staff I'm glad you're at least listening here at these meetings because we are not going away until something is done I think it's funny that you didn't believe my last public comment of our successful partnership with San Juan Unified School District I hope all your questions were answered moving on I want to once again thank the teachers and administrators who attend our Bassin Educators support network there are some
102Educators in here that I would like to invite you out tomorrow please RSVP at byop.org um so so that's our allies to abolitionist support network Educators so please come out um let's support each other together we've also launched a 12-week mindfulness-based substance abuse treatment program because we have so much to build up on our campuses our babies are facing microaggressions every day on top of economic insecurities harassment peer pressure so we have committed to teach them self-awareness and a strong meditation practice so they know that you are the problem not them with this the solution to racism is to expose it to speak out against it and on a daily basis do something anything against it Maureen Pryor followed by it Moises Garcia I'm a little taller than Lisa well good evening Lorraine Pryor with
103black youth leadership project um I want to make this abundantly clear to anybody in the room who has never met me but has decided to call around asking about me my email is L fryer byop.org you can reach me at 916-513-7959 I am accessible I have opened my doors to everybody who has wanted to meet with me even if they became disrespectful there is no reason for any of your staff to call around asking about me when they can just ask me I will gladly answer their questions um I got an email from the equity director in San Juan Unified saying that your Equity director asked how he knew me and what I was doing there your Equity director has never had a conversation with me so I invite him to call the number I
104already gave at the top of my comments or to email me and I'm happy to sit down with him additionally after we left this meeting last time I don't know two weeks ago I want to tell you some of the things your staff did as well there was another call placed to a school that invited me to come and talk to their young people I did a fabulous conversation with them I had I was talking about self-esteem and them associating certain words with themselves one of your directors called asking about me again call me I'm accessible I walked into a room um I don't even know I was at Pleasant Grove three times last week I don't remember what day it was I walked in and your program specialist was absolutely rude and disrespectful to
105the family I want that addressed and if she can't comport herself to be a professional you need to assign a new program specialist I don't appreciate that I don't appreciate them not sending over the reports so that we could review them with the family and figure out where the needs lie and I did not appreciate the the disrespectful tone in the email to which she got the authorization and all I asked was to be added to correspondence that's the least people can do is keep me in the loop also after the last board meeting one of our students over at Valley High School who has autism who doesn't understand a whole lot they approached him after exquisitive comments last week and had him sign a document to do his IEP by himself What type of
106game are y'all playing I have not heard back from the principal over at Valley High School somebody tell her to call me or email me back it's unacceptable get your staff Moises followed by Alexander Garcia thank you good evening smart time speaking and whenever you guys um my concern is regarding the books and obviously what happened in this high school last week the big picture is seeing how this is grooming the little kids you're exposing them to this or allowing to be exposed to this to where now they're going to be desensitized to allow adults to get close to them and abuse them allowing them to think that an adult can do whatever they want because as as adults we're supposed to be protecting them not exposing them to be abused and molested I was
107a molested myself and thanks to uh counseling and and the Lord himself helping me come through this and because I wasn't protected by the ones that should have been protecting me and seeing this and and seeing the little kids how now when when you were you want to be a volunteer you're asked through all these uh uh exams and all these uh very new but you know we're still allowing them to filter themselves and and obviously um get it so close to them mentally physically to be able to be exposed to this as parents we need we need to protect them I protect my children I didn't bring children this to this world to be exposed to this I brought them to be raised as as um children that were going to be an example
108to others and to be able to help others and to be uh somebody that can be looked up upon and Society to help Society not to destroy lives you don't understand the physical the mental that the abuse that goes on when somebody's abused because it's not that just that moment it continues going for a lifetime and that's why you see so much youth in drugs and exposing them into this and showing them that it is okay to just expose your bodies and and put yourself out there how is that acceptable anybody that allows that to happen it's somebody to me that is it's also in their minds accepting the fact that it is okay it isn't not okay to expose kids to this this type of propaganda this type of of literature this type of
109of performances what in the world are these people thinking to me they are the groomers they are the ones that should be fired get rid of them because if you don't do that that means that you're going to be held accountable when you come with your creator that you were part of this in destroying the children you cannot say that you're gonna have a greater society when you're destroying the children of tomorrow when you're indoctrinating them with trash and you're indoctrinating them with with so much trash in their mind that they're not going to be able to think for themselves they're only going to act upon because now they're made to be like animals like somebody said before can happen Please wrap up really be think think about what you're doing Alexander Garcia followed by
110Mark Graham so today I will be talking about the drug School the drag show going on in high school kids are there watching all of that which is not good they should be learning instead of doing all this stuff that is not meant for them in Genesis 1 in Genesis chapter one chapter 1 verse 27 it says that God made the male and female In His Image he should have Brave yeah What God Says is and we couldn't do any of this stuff of all our kids are watching all this I'm glad that I'm homeschooled and my friends are out there watching all that is not good for them parents should not be letting their kids watch all this this they should be with them safe instead of watching all whatever this gay stuff is
111uh thank you Mark Graham followed by Patty Marty good evening school board members superintendent Hoffman and staff my name is Mark Graham and I live in Elk Grove the sound volume in this room is about three times as loud as it needs to be I have sat back there I have sensitive hearing and I said why does it sound like almost every speaker is shouting no none of the speakers are shouting not even the children but your PA system is too loud you should please adjust it to a reasonable level so it doesn't sound like we're being shouted at I was in this meeting by your website on the zoom meeting link as of about 6 43 and I had signed up to make a public comment and you didn't allow me to make my
112public comments so I got in the car and came down here what yes thank you what I want to talk to you about is every day this school district is exposing all sixty thousand plus students and three thousand plus teachers to a known pollutant in a hazardous Health situation in the classroom I've written to you about this on November 14th and December 7th of last year I got no response from any school board member got a response couple responses from superintendent Hoffman and I will get around to it every classroom has in the ceiling a wireless wi-fi router and this transmits non-ionizing microwave radiation throughout the classroom at either 2.4 gigahertz or 5 gigahertz which is 2.4 billion cycles per second or 5 billion cycles per second this is how your students at times not
113all the time get onto the internet you know for their online instruction there's another way for your students to get on the internet and that is what they hardwired internet connection you have hardwired internet connections some but but I don't know what percentage this is one question I asked superintendent Hoffman and I never got a response it is a known Hazard the there's a statement in 2015 called the international EMF scientist appeal I've shared it with you I'll share it with you again it was signed by something like 250 scientists from around the world that have studied the effects of nine non-ionizing radiation on living systems and they concluded that the current regulations in place are are way too high they're not sufficient to protect the students and they should be lowered what are some
114of the effects they affect the circle central nervous system the endocrine system the respiratory system it causes learning and memory deficits it causes structural and functional changes of the reproductive system if you want to wonder why want to know why their behavior problems in the classroom it's because this Wireless radiation is stressing your children and your teachers all day every day now superintendent Hoffman wrote back to me twice with basically passing the boxing a false statement he says the regulatory issues covered in your email are within the jurisdiction of the courts and or other governmental agencies not true and I asked him by by follow-up email tell me what court has the responsibility for protecting the health and safety of students in this District you didn't answer please give me an answer tell me what
115government agency has the other than this this district has the responsibility to protect the health and safety of students in this District he didn't answer I'm asking for a response it is a responsibility and and furthermore I sent you a letter signed by seven attorneys that describes in detail your liability for failing to learn the issue and warn the parents please wrap up not warn the parents of the dangers of Wireless radiation in the classroom and you have an obligation and a liability please do it Patty Marty you can bend that microphone too okay hi everybody my name is Patty Marty I work with Turning Point USA's high school department out here in Northern California so when I found out about your little incident that happened Friday afternoon at 3 30 this afternoon I was
116appalled I want to ask you guys what your responsibility is your responsibility is not to parent the students the student's parents should have a say and know exactly what is going on in the classroom and inside their children's school they send their children to school expecting them to be protected not to be indoctrinated and not to be pushed with propaganda back in the good old days if I am correct if you would go into a store with explicit pornographic material it would be behind a curtain and somebody would be sitting in front of that curtain making sure no miners nobody under 17 not 16 year olds not 15 year olds we're seeing this naked explicit material so why on Earth are you guys handing it to these students on a silver platter why is this
117being allowed in a school let alone have you guys seen the video because I watched that video multiple times and there were School administrators barricading the doors students were getting out trying to get out and the administrator is just Why why do you need to leave so why if you watch the video you see those boys singing and picking off their clothes to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance I want you so bad your Bad Romance why is this appropriate in what way shape or form should this be allowed in your school district if you pride yourself on being the fifth largest school district I expect it to be one that does not root itself in such propaganda and such trashy vulgar thank you Madam president that are that is all of the blue comments thank you
118Miss Jamerson important information yes sir has there been an answer report on this issue and how soon we're going to reply to this sir we have received emails please check your email okay well is that look at that folks yes I actually went over my apologies we're gonna reconvene and the next item on the agenda is the consent agenda I'm going to call on Miss levasser to see if there are any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam President we have one comment via Zoom and it is if you could mute yourself speaker we're ready for you Salam we're ready for you and you take yourself off mute okay let's move on to Blue cards and we'll try to come back to the speaker we have Heidi Moore for consent agenda item number 19.
119um so my the point of my comment right now is that there was an email sent that there were three Community um preview nights for the sex ed one of which is tomorrow and that's the one I have on my calendar but it's being improved tonight and according to miss um cheers Espinoza that is legal which I mean I'm glad you're doing things that are legal but I don't really think that makes it right or honest because I thought I had uh longer to view it before it was put on the agenda um so I would appreciate that you consider putting it on the next meeting because I don't feel like it goes back to you not being transparent and honest if you say you have three meetings and I put the third one on
120my calendar but then you approve it before that meeting that doesn't seem honest so that's a requesting that you consider that please thank you ma'am Mrs Vassar can we try one more time with that person via Zoom Salaam speaker can you hear us can you unmute yourself okay it does not look like that's gonna work okay so I'm going to close public comment and uh let's see I will I I see your hand Mr Bettis hold one hold one second um before I call for a motion to approve items one through nineteen I know Mr fortina gave me a heads up that he is going to pull one item do you want to let us know what that is Mr Fortuna yes I'm pulling item uh 19. okay thank you sir uh Mr Bettis yes
121sir okay uh let's see can I have a motion to approve items um three through nine eleven and thirteen through 17 on the consent agenda so moved second thank you moved and seconded all in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye all opposed that passes unanimously thank you Mr Bettis can you please speak to item one um there's there's an item number one the basic legal morale responsibility of I would like to sit instead of say parent Guardians say parents and then grandparents and family members to see that their children attend schools because today nowadays the other family members are raising their kids and so I want to recognize that as a issue number three the types of roadways and rock ways um I I have this issue with my children many moons ago
122and one of the issues uh that has not been addressed in this policy is when a student like for instance goes from Hemingway and Power in and they go to Anna Carriage Gator Elementary they have to walk within a ditch a drainage water ditch a runoff uh through barbed wire going to Anna Kirchgater so if there's no okay and there was language prior to this that if there was no salt to walk or safety uh to and from school that there shall be a bus picking up these students that's what it was back 30 years ago and and according to this there hasn't been any changes or amendments but until this particular uh issue okay so uh no yeah Etc for the amount of traffic on a roadway used by the student now number four
123no I haven't not interrupting you you're trying to follow you thank you if you if you take a second I just want to get some information okay it's on page one of policy 3560. Page One Number Four I just finished number three there should be some language on sidewalks you know to and from school students should walk on sidewalks that's what it had in the past the amount of traffic on roadways used by the students also during that time when my students were going to Rudder Middle School there was a fatality of a student who was crossing power in it Gerber she was killed run over on that corner so does that apply to the situation in this in this uh the amount of traffic on the roadway that's the question I have Mr Perez
124okay memorize your your concerned with this board policy because the time to line item at it is number six any unusual conditions with me that is I need you to I need you to summarize what your concern is with this well let's finish I'm going through this whole document the different feedback that's not appropriate that's not happening at this time we do not edit an entire document line item during a meeting that's part of your preparation work you know you're trying to silence me no and what you're doing you want the status quo you don't care about the health and safety of us yeah try one thing real quick Mr President just want to make sure we're we're clear about the process we use for board policies so this information has gone through edits it's
125gone through legal it's gone through we provided this information to the board okay let me hold on let me go through the processor everyone understand and the whole concept of that is if the if board members have questions about it to let us know what those are we'll go back and research those make adjustments that they and then we bring them to the board but if we don't get comments from the board the assumption is they've been read the board understands them and then we bring them forward um on the consent agenda that's that's the process that this board has agreed to with regards to board policy so if we if we're doing this in this process it's going to make doing board policies very very challenging right I understand exactly and I told you
126exactly this I want to read everything that I could consider that which is a healthy safety issue of our students I want to be recorded on this video and let all our general audience and parents know that I've had addressed this issue and and my fellow board member chair doesn't want me to address these issues that's the only thing I'd like to say it says policy reference disclaimer if you read that this references are not intended to be part of the policy itself nor do they indicate a basis of Authority for the board to enact this policy instead they are provided as an additional resource for those interested in the subject matter of the policy then you go on the last thing notice references unique policy I never have seen this one okay unique policy
127Mr Perez the policy is unique to the district and is not connected to existing the FBA sample policy or included in regular quarterly updates okay so no Mr Bettis you're done you said that was the last thing on this item so you've just confirmed for us that you did not Avail yourself of the opportunities to read and respond to this and provide feedback in a timely manner and you're just confirming for me that you just read what is boilerplate for every single board policy that comes before us so it's come before you many many times in the decade that you've been on this board so if you're telling me that's the first time you've seen it that's concerning okay so that's item number one can you speak to item number two please in a succinct
128manner we are not going line item by line item why not for the reasons okay that's a that's an issue that I do not like and I protest that some members of the boards have this a certain color of privilege and you know they could talk anytime but when I talk as a Mexican-American Hispanic I get cut off there's there's racial racism and selective okay Mr Pettis privilege that some individuals getting around here and I can't get that this Mexican-American chair promises that if you catch me letting anyone else get a document line by line you can call me on it okay so what are your concerns with item number two Mr Bettis certificate and high school equivalency uh number two is Personnel actions uh that's what hold on here that's number one rifle oh
12910. I was going to talk about that was number 10 I believe yeah that's number two yeah oh did I did you know I'm just speaking Step One Number 10 18 19 . okay um School uh Montessori annual facility agreement uh thank you for putting October first 02 history of of Montessori I think that was very good of the staff for giving input to our our new members because that's very important but what I would like to find out and and my fellow board members shouldn't know what is the process he talked about everything about the history so if somebody's okay it says petitions or agreements to assume prorated okay I'll forget that one anyway I think that we need to do the list of the process and how new individual Charter Schools or groups
130want to establish a a a charter school within the district that's what I want to say on that one bottom line that is not specific to this country anyway knowledge needs to happen prior to meetings or somehow outside of meeting time is that all you have on this item well I would like to see like I said I like to see the process uh written down and how in which individuals uh can apply for this that sounds like a great thing for you to ask Mr superintendent yes okay number 12 sir well me what now this was a coin I'm not okay this is a flash we are in covering money back to the district but I was wondering when we approve the completed project like B walk Elementary School it stated that we had
131approximately one million three hundred fifty four thousand and twenty eight dollars in which the car I guess the contract was given back to us that money was that's 143 days that's that we lost in interest is that good business practice for the district to do that that's a question 14 adult education of royalty I forget that one you didn't call number 14. number 18. the contract on this individual contractor it says a three-year contract and on page it says contract for professional service the first thing I noticed you have it March 9 2023 130 000 to August 1st 2025. if you look at the fiscal years that's from June March 8th to June 30th which is one year July 1st 2020 three to June 30th 24 that's two years and July 1st to June 30th
132that's three years but the last one August first fourth first 2025 that's four years four years so anyway I just want to bring that to your attention that it's not a three year it's an actual four-year contract um and I'm wondering this is uh a new contractor right and the contracts for Professional Services and the way it's written March 9th this individual contractor can build us for 130 000 dollars boom and maybe walk away the 10th with no no work nothing so anyway the contract language is weak again I have always said that the way we write contracts for our our partners in the community is weak and needs to be strengthened there's other issues here in this contract I want to bring it to your attention Mr Perez if you had concerns about this
133contract why didn't you raise them after you got the agenda why didn't you share that with staff so that they could do a better job as opposed to now when I don't have time to adequately respond now there's no uh 17. uh what are you talking about the whole payment the Clause number so there's some explanation of how what's the circumstances how can you hold a Pavement uh failed to perform provided support documentation they did that doesn't State what documentations they they need to give to us there's no evaluation and time frame for evaluations reports throughout this contract again weak I can go go on and on uh you know I I get leery I'm very leery about the description consult consultation technical assistance and consultation that's all there is nothing now there's no heart
134to that there's no explanation no meat to it so anyway that's number 18. 19. again approval of the fifth and seventh grade Sexual Health curriculum adoption number one thing we had a person from the audience Tomorrow there's a workshop you're going to disenfranchise and not hear any comments from these individuals and you want to approve this tonight I don't think that's particular good District Allstate to do that uh I was planning to be here tomorrow and that and you want me to prove this today again I I don't think there's an issue on stakeholders involvement in this whole process what you're saying uh no Wednesday March 8 6 to 7 30. Jackman Middle School multi-purpose Mr Bettis just State your concern are we still going to have that don't read document are we still going
135to have that tomorrow it is it is still taking place sir um they're the one legally mandated Workshop took place as did a second one that is at The District's discretion and there's a third one that is scheduled for tomorrow as you stated is that the conclusion of your comments Mr Bettis because someone else wants to speak to this item YouTube you know uh the other issue is you know um Fifth and seventh graders I personally think that we ought to add high school students to this to this this curriculum of study separate curriculum for the high school okay if you were here so so we should uh say that within this history and state that it is part of the whole picture oh brother of sexual education we should State this near but it
136doesn't state that news thank you thank you I'm going to go to Mr Fortuna and then Mr track thank you uh I posed a number of questions um with respect to this agenda item and and have received responses uh and I need to make a couple of comments and I believe it's uh important um for the district responses to be part of the record um the first one I said is why is the item on the agenda when there's another parent meeting now what has been explained is that we're only legally obligated to have one we had two and we're gonna be with third but I think the point that was made is that uh of the possibility that that the fact that there were three meeting schedule is misleading to the people who are
137looking at those dates and scheduling their time uh based on their other obligations and we had one parent here tonight spoke that she had calendared the third one it was her belief she was going to have an opportunity to discuss and now we're being told that uh that that we're just we're just uh giving this opportunity kind of like you don't look at us right we nice guys we're gonna we're gonna have a third meeting but oh by the way nothing you say makes any difference because the board already made a decision uh I I have a problem with that um uh also with respect to the agenda item in the board communication what what we did not learn is how many people had attended the meetings and what did they say and what did
138we do with the information um the this item goes goes to the larger item that we've talked about and and continues to be one that troubles me so much and it's one of communication the what we say how we say it when we say it who we say it to who has responsibility it just goes on and on and on um I'm going to ask for a roll call vote on this item okay thank you sir um I apparently aired I thought that Mr Bettis was asking to pull item two and I misheard that so when I asked for a motion earlier we did not vote on number two so I'm going to add that now um let me do a Voice vote for all of the remaining items except number 19 I'll do a
139roll call vote for number 19. sorry one second I we need to go to Mr track and then I'm going to go to miss albiani after the vote yeah go ahead Mr Chuck uh actually um I agree with the uh one of the speakers who I said earlier who should we should uh push number 19 back to another meeting um the reason I think this is I think uh with many of the parents who talked about their concerns earlier um I feel like we don't have enough adequate um feedback from all the parents and the students on the new um of the new curriculum so I think it'd be good if uh we we'd be able to send out surveys asking people on their opinions on the curriculum because once the curriculum gets implemented it'll
140start it'll be implemented for like the next few years or so and it'll have like a big impact on I guess the mentality a lot of kids have so I think we should be really careful when we change the curriculum that the students go through for like basically the first quarter of their life so I think we should um have more data on this before we uh approve this thank you Mr trackman salbiani I would like to move I believe may I make a motion at this point is that appropriate yes ma'am okay um I'd like to move the um item number 19 to next meetings consent agenda please okay um I'm gonna um I just wanna do this kind of in numerical order okay let me come back that's why I asked if I
141should do it yes ma'am I heard you all um so may I have a motion on items 1 2 10 12 and 18. so moved moved do we have a second second thank you all in favor um we're not doing that no sir that's not free all in favor please signify by saying aye I'll post okay those items pass unanimously we don't have that option number 19 we're gonna do um I Heard a roll call okay number 19 we have a motion to move this to the next agenda I'm just going to go to Mr Hoffman really quickly we're not running up on any state deadlines for approval of this curriculum it can wait until the next agenda correct I don't know that we don't know that and it's having it published because it was
142produced in the district by teachers and staff who did a thorough review of a variety of curriculums and didn't find anything that met the state standards in the framework um so it's a matter of us having it published so you know we have our internal deadlines that we'd like to meet to be able to send them out um so so do we have first bioca hey if I think we'll make that work if that's what we're going to do okay thank you all right we have a motion and I'm looking for a second to move item 19 on consent can I get a point of clarification okay well hold on well I'm still looking for a second and then I'll come back to you okay Mr um so I'm looking for a second to my
143second item 19 thank you to uh the March 21st meeting I heard that first and second and go ahead Mr gang I'm just trying to get to a point of clarification and I I'm 19 so from here to then um are we gonna do some sort of deep diving so that uh because he you know we we upholding for approval right so what are we going to do about it in terms of so what what is that process I want to just get a point of clarification I can speak to it go ahead Miss albiani um I I feel it was a very justifiable request to have all three meetings that were posted due to people being busy and choosing a date that works for them um I can see how this was was misconstrued
144I don't want I don't think there's any ill intent um but I think it gives parents an option to see the the Publications and write to their board members if they would like to or or learn more about it which is really an important part of those nights um learning what is required by the state and what we have done in those departments and also that they have their children have options to opt out of these things as well so um that's my basis of making that motion and I appreciate the emotion and I'm I'm for it I just want to make sure that we are clarifying or what our intent is I think that's important for the public to know and for us to know as a board okay um I see two more
145hands so far just uh reminding folks not to get into discussion clarification is okay go ahead Mr Bennett I like to make an amendment to that that we get feedback from the first second and third meeting and tomorrow's meeting that's also in your email inboxer but tomorrow's meeting no you've already we've already reserved input yeah provided information related to the other meetings we'll also do information related to the meeting tomorrow for sure yeah if if you look at those emails and the feedback that's been provided hold on I'm speaking I'm speaking and there's something that's not there that you would like to see please let me and the superintendent known we'll try to get that for you okay um Mr fortina go ahead one of the things that I I said in in defense of
146pulling the item uh was was the issue of communication um there's a parallel issue with communication and it's the process by by which people are you can use whatever word maybe is softer uh selected versus chosen to be on the committee uh yes there was a committee I am not uh making any disparaging comments towards the staff and others who sat on the committee but this concern that I have is a broad-based concern that goes across the district in many many issues and it's the process of selection you can get outcomes based on who you put on your committee and when it comes to the board then the board is that one of their responsibilities certainly is to look at at what the report says what the curriculum is so on and so forth but
147what but what we don't get is say in is that selection process and who the people are is it a broad-based group of people or is it like thinking people that that's a really critical issue for everything we do but it's it is a big piece part of why I pulled the item okay well I I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to but I hope we're not calling any of the people who participated not not thinking people hold on sir I'm speaking um I'm always interested in improving process um I think the purpose of doing these three so far completely public advertised sessions is to get around exactly what you're talking about that there's any notion that we're kind of self-selecting the advice that we want to receive so I'm perfectly satisfied with putting
148this over and ensuring that we get the input from all three of those sessions um anything else on this or can we move on what I what I meant with was that if one of the groups that you're going to identify as a group to give input is quote students and then your input comes from students in the equity Union the the student Equity Union is that broad-based student input I would say no I would say it's a very narrow okay view of things and if that's the only group you choose then it begs the question why did you choose them why was it opened up to all of the schools to submit names of students who may have been interested uh and I can go that way for a lot of things and I
149can make very specific examples so that's what I'm talking about Tony uh is is a selection process how is it set up what are your objectives and I'm not saying they're negative I'm just saying what are your objectives by virtue of who you are selecting to be placed on your various committees well this is this is we've had conversations I know we have this is about in general overall work right just right but it certainly pertains to this item in terms of who was on the committee that selected the curriculum and how did they specifically get there okay thank you let's bring it back to this item we have a first and a second and I believe there was a request for a roll call vote so the motion again on the table is to
150move this item to March 21st so Mr Fortune oh yes sorry I forgot how to do roll call votes again go ahead Mr fortina hi Mr yang hi Miss albiani hi Miss Jamerson aye Oliver yes thank you um Mr Vargas aye Mr Bettis yes thank you I am also an eye motion is unanimous thanks folks we have concluded with the consent calendar next item is the budget update approval of the 2022-23 second interim financial report before Miss Hayes begins her presentation I'm going to call on Miss levasser to see if there are any public comments via Zoom Madam president there are no public comments via Zoom thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards on this item no we do not thank you Miss Hayes we are ready for you good evening Madam
151president members of the board superintendent Hoffman and Miss Avalos tonight I bring you the 22-23 second interim report this is our financial status as of January 31st tonight we're going to go over briefly the proposition 98 and the governor's proposal that he released in January we're going to take a quick peek at enrollment in Ada the changes we've made from first interim to Second interim the unrestricted General fundamental year projections and the components of those projections and next so looking at the January budget proposal from the governor um the budget itself was very simplistic which was nice for change um he is trying to ensure that we can keep up with inflation by ensuring that the lcff is still intact and we see this time going through and I joked with our finance committee I
152don't know if they found it funny because you know it's Finance but I always say we don't see colas over two percent and I did I now and that's been a mistake now for four years so we've seen another um large cost of blowing adjustment or Cola of 8.13 percent that's up from five and some change that we had estimated back at adoption we see an expansion with universal transitional kindergarten and then there is one little minor concern if you want to consider it minor is the governor is proposed to do a mid-year cut on our Arts and Music instruction block grant to fund a portion of that 8.13 Cola again it's just a proposal as we move forward we're very anxious and looking forward to seeing what the May revision brings I say it's
153just just real quick is that to highlight what you just said the concept that the governor is taking one-time funding that he's already said was going to schools cutting that one-time funding and using that to plug a hole in the cola because he doesn't have the money in the budget to fully fund the cola you just want to make sure that we're really clear about what that proposal means that's that's a very odd tactic to use it would be and he's getting a lot of pushbacks it'll be interesting to see what happens in May and June and the final but that's a very odd way of going about doing accounting and this is why we you will never hear Administration recommend that we spend those funds until the state approves their budget that we would
154not recommend that we spend those dollars until the state adopts their budget no no so the art music instructional materials block grant has a whole process by which we have to go through and develop a plan so we can't spend that until that happens anyway so that's part of our planning going forward okay yeah I'm not sure who's proposing it it's just very odd um it would be very tricky I think for SS as a district if we were to receive many in that manner of how we would go about um using it looking at our enrollment Trends um I think I've been up here several times um we were really keeping our fingers crossed and hoping our enrollment was going to bounce back after covid um it's not appearing to do that so this
155particular chart shows you the enrollment versus Ada so now that we're in the lcff calculations there's two different triggers your enrollment can trigger supplemental and concentration funding and your Ada can trigger funding Miss Hayes just I want to make sure everyone's on the same page can you explain the difference between enrollment and Ada again of course so enrollment is those students that have been enrolled in a school by census day which is seabeds which is the first Wednesday in October so as kids are enrolled that is a snapshot at a point in time of how many kids we expect to come to school the actual um daily attendance is how we are paid for those students to attend school so they have to attend in the classroom showing up being present every day in order
156for the district to claim that child's time and then us get reimbursed for that time so with the local control funding formula with the supplemental concentration the amount of enrollment compared to our unduplicated percentage students which we'll go over shortly here determines if we get supplemental concentration the Ada side has rates and we'll I don't know if I have that in here or not but we have Ed code has rates for Ada and then based on that ADA and it's a snapshot as of April 15th of what how many kids came to school every day then that's how the district is paid so looking at this chart the reason is interesting is because our Ada has a different value and a different change over a year than our enrollment so you could have a high
157enrollment and a very low attendance rate and that's a problem because your enrollment's high but your kids aren't coming to school every day and so you're not getting paid so when we went into um covid the first two years there you see 19 1920 that was the year we closed School in February that was a snapshot at a point in time on both of our enrollment and our Ada as we rolled forward through 2021 you can see our enrollment drops compared to the prior year but our Ada didn't grow so we were held harmless that was something that the state gifted to all school districts in the state we come forward into 2122 we are paid based on our enrollment for supplemental concentration but we are held harmless again one more year on our Ada
158and the state allowed school districts to do a three-year rolling average and to use our attendance factor from the prior year which means we got to claim additional Ada that we would not have been able to claim had we just used our current year attendance Factor why that's important is our district normally has about 97 percent at the time students attending school versus where we are today which is a roughly 91 percent it's a pretty different from what we're used to and it is having an impact on our Ada why this is important and I wanted to speak to this is we had some projections in our multi-year in hoping that their student our student population would come back with universal TK that was another area if we saw some growth that would be huge
159because as you have growth in your primary they typically tend to stay so with that now known that this isn't happening as quickly as we would like in the in the landscape does still continue to change what you're going to see tonight for the multi-year projection and per second interim is all of those assumptions have been removed and we are budgeting now for flat enrollment not declining and we are factoring the three-year rolling average of ADA so still a disconnect between our Ada and enrollment so it'll be interesting going forward but right now um our Revenue projections are more on the conservative side and our expenditure projections are geared towards the enrollment so a little bit different um we do continue to analyze the budget as we go through we'll do one more snapshot in
160April and we'll estimate our actuals for adoption and then we'll go through that process again so looking at our unduplicated counts again those are students that are free and reduced lunch count students Foster Youth and El those students that that group of students they're all counted once so you could have a child that's in all three groups we count them one time that enrollment level compared to our district-wide enrollment is how that percentage is determined we have a standalone year-to-year average which is what's on this chart here and we have the three year Rolling average the three-year rolling average allowed districts to um slowly dive in if they were to go down in enrollment and that's what's been happening here so a couple of things happened during covid we went to Universal meals that did
161change how food nutrition receives their Federal forms for parents to take advantage of free and reduced meals now any student that wants it can eat for free so that's changed that landscape a little bit with the local control funding formula we also have the ability to acknowledge those parents that qualify for free and reduced lunches but we could not count them using the federal forms so we have our own survey by which we send to all of our parents because even if they think they may not qualify they could and if they do then that changes what this percentage looks like because we're below the 55 percent we are no longer receiving the concentration portion of the supplemental concentration Grant and that was a loss of overtime so it didn't happen in one year it
162happened over about I think a four-year period but that that was a 8 million dollar hit to our budget because of that percentage drop as we continue to go and look at our enrollment information this is the group of students that make up the unduplicated counts the bar at the top or the line at the top that is our free and reduced lunch count information you can see it's been declining the last three years part of that is covid and I think part of that is the universal meals that's my assumption Michelle Drake would have a better handle on that information the bar in the middle is the tricky one so that is our El population [Music] our yield population being redesignated um is a good thing yet that amount is on the natural supposed
163to go down it's been relatively flat which is a good thing I guess from a funding perspective not sure about the student level but from a funding perspective with it being flat like that that's good thing the bar at the line at the bottom that's our foster youth population and it's been declining as well which is unusual for us because we're normally one of the districts that has a larger population of foster youth so those three lines there is what's driving that percentage and as we have um more students coming into the district that don't qualify into one of those three are percentage continues to decline so looking at the changes in our budget from first interim to Second interim we did make adjustments that I just talked about for the unduplicated count so now
164we're using a flat amount we're not having a projection of increased enrollment and we're not having a projection of increased free and reduced lunch students we did a recalculation of salaries and benefits from adoption how we adopt our budget is we take a snapshot from the prior year in April on actual staff costs and we roll them forward in December we take another snapshot and look at all of our salaries and benefits and we Shore up anything that needs to be addressed this year has been particularly tricky with the bargaining and thank you very much board for allowing us to set aside 72 million dollars to bargain with our different employee groups um that was put into the budget at first interim and as um the units have signed and their tentative agreements have been
165approved we've been implementing them so implementation of egea's tentative agreement that was approved in January um presented another challenge and how we adjusted our budget so the lot of moving Parts this year and then we had a little bit of additional indirect costs and some other adjustments that we made there were on the minor side so those changes I just talked about are here in numeric form so the revenue change for the lcff based on our P1 Ada so P1 is in that as a snapshot of attendance in December that tends to be a little bit higher than in April but we went ahead and used that just so that we could start on a more solid surface and so right now for the current year operating budget there was a decrease of five hundred
166thousand dollars to reflect actual Ada at P1 expenditure changes from first enter into second interim we did adjust salaries and benefits and we did implement egeasta that amount there you can see is 34 million is an increase in certificated salaries and then we had set aside 40 million dollars to fund their change we have excess health benefits that are in the budget that have been since removed and then we have a small adjustment of a negative it's actually money um coming back of 0.67 percent or six hundred thousand dollars so the total change is an increase to our fund balance and so if for the 2223 school year we have less deficit spending than we did at first interim and that is to the tune of 17.08 million dollars so looking at the components of
167our multi-year projections for 23 24 and 24 25 school year we have additional funding based on the eight percent cost of living adjustment that amount is 38 000.30 38 million dollars in the first year of 23.24 and then there's another 4.02 percent cost of living projection and that results in 11.9 million dollars we did adjust the lcff for the three-year rolling average for the new unduplicated pupil percentage rates and the governor we are using the governor's three-year rolling average for the Ada side and then our revised Ada uh has SS flat so our enrollment our Ada calculation because it's a three-year rolling average we're kind of we're flattening out rather than just and falling off the cliff which they talk about the Ada Cliff so we're kind of smoothing in there a little bit the
168expenditures we are we still have a um we are still using 2122 stopping levels the reason for that is we had a huge influx with our independent study program both on the elementary side and the secondary side and we are adjusting and we meet for every Friday on Staffing allocations as far as teacher Staffing is concerned and so we're watching that really closely especially with the universal TK we want to make sure that we don't have our ratios out of whack if that happens the penalties for the district are very very large and we have additional growth Staffing built in the nyp for special education we do have an adjustment of five percent in 23 24 and 8 and 24.25 for the district's portion of the health care increases we have adjustments for both calstrs
169and Calpers employer contributions we did add into the multi-year projection the one-time two percent compensation and then we have an ongoing adjustment to the site supplies um to try to tackle the amount of inflation that's currently happening so looking at the myp at first interim this is the snapshot of where what we brought to you as far as our financial status at that point in the 22-23 um budget year you can see we are deficit spending 34 million dollars that was after we had put into place the tentative agreements for all um six of our bargaining groups and then for 23 24 we had a little bit of deficit spending again we had 5.38 as a cola increase instead of the eight percent and so you can see we were ending the third year in
170a surplus and we were within our 10 percent app on reserve so we didn't have to do any creative financing for that looking at second interim this is the state reports that you guys have tonight to take to approve we have included the 8.13 cost of living adjustment of 38 million dollars in year two again the caveat is the governor has proposed to fund a portion of that Cola with one-time funds so we're watching that and the salaries and benefits have been projected salaries and benefits in the second year do you include the one-time off schedule two percent proposed salary compensation we have our mandated two percent Reserve again based on a district our size we are mandated to reserve two percent and then over time our district I'm very proud of our district our
171district um through the lcff to be true to lcap we have always carried over those initiatives that started in the prior year that may or may not have finished and so what you see there that Mitigation Of Upp lost because our Upp had been dropping and we did not recommend necessarily to completely put back all of those lcap priorities we did have a portion that didn't make sense to give it to a program twice I get it every year so this doesn't amount is a reserve so that we don't have to make cuts to schools going forward another option for the board would also be to do some one-time projects with it that would enhance School sites specific to those groups of students and then press the professional development line that is a component of
172two initiatives one being arbinger work the second one being the 28 hours of professional development for all employees across the district and then the next time I will be back would be for the Governor's May revise in May and then the district adopts their budget in June prior to the state adopting their budget so that's always kind of tricky um we have had on-time budgets from the state so we're very happy about that and so we are hopeful and excited about the year to come and with that I'll take any questions and ask for approval of our State financial reports thank you Miss Hayes members do we have any questions on this report before I call for a vote uh thank you Mr Fortuna go ahead thank you um well one second please Shannon three
173questions um quickly um the information presented here on the budget is it all does this represent all of the budgets or just fund 12. no Mr forchita this is a snapshot of a very small portion of our billion dollar budget number two question when budget managers are given instructions for the development of the succeeding years budget what are they told they are told that we roll the budget from one year to the next and they are asked to give input and feedback based on their starting budget if it needs to be adjusted based on their current initiatives thank you you're welcome are you getting ready um and and why do we keep rolling the 6 million uh on professional development that is uh uh is is deducted from our total Reserve so the reason it
174shows up in all three columns is because it is a reserve and it's not above the line the line being the supplement the Surplus deficit line so if we don't have it above that line to be used then it gets spent more than once down below so this accounts for it so when we look at the undesignated then we know that that's truly available as undesignated to do something with if I took it out of the other two columns it would continue to overstate the second and third year thank you Shannon you're welcome said it Mr Fortuna or uh for this part yes okay Mr Bettis I'm okay so if we approve say yes then we will approve six million dollars for professional development for fiscal year 2223 uh the first the interim 23 24
17525 that correct if you approve the budget as stated here on the slide that we're looking at you have an opportunity to spend 6 million in year one or six million in year two or six million in your three but it's not 18 million it's 6 million one time depending on what you're getting oh there you go that clarifies that because I was wondering that's 18 you know it's just six and this is also based on previous board Direction and decisions that is correct so this would roll over and and what was proposed total amount for this trading Arbiters trading um so the arbitrary training I believe we have 1.9 million dollars left of the original amount excuse me 1.6 million dollars left of the original 2 million that was set aside and that's part
176of this that's part of the six the other portion of the six is the amount that the district is short to pay everybody for them to do their 20 28 hours so we are utilizing educator effect Effectiveness Grant funds which are one time to pay as much as we can up through a certain point in time if it spills over and we don't have enough within that Grant then we set aside some funds here and so like I always do I go to the State of California Department of Education site you know to learn more so I have to ask so many questions because but yet well it disturbs me like for instance uh with a school district like this we are losing millions of dollars on concentration right yes we are millions and and
177I see like other you know school districts 10 largest school districts and getting a lot of monies because but and and why is that so did they okay I read possibly more that the way they got their Ada up was they actually hire people to go out there and do some paperwork that's all you agree oh I have no idea but other districts do Mr okay to get our students to do the medical forms they did this and that they re they went looking for why Mr Perez that's that's not true Mr Perez that's not true hold on before you move on to another issue Mr Perez before you move on just put a pit in that Mr Hoffman and then we'll come back so we did a great deal of work um and I
178actually um have a couple of groups where I meet with the superintendents that are doing those work the work in the other districts and uh we're on par with the the way we're going about trying to identify our kids we knew this was coming it got it got accelerated by um covet I believe but in a district like ours where the growth is happening on the edges where the numbers of free and reduced numbers of students is significantly Less in those areas and in some of our other portions of the district like every other District in Sacramento County who are experiencing declining enrollment in other parts of our district we knew long term that our percentage of free and reduced kids would would reduce overtime I do believe it was accelerated with regards uh with
179the pandemic but this this is not a new phenomenon this has been going on um for several years and as we grow around the edges that's going to be a reality for a district like ours but I will say staff has done an amazing amount of work trying to make sure that we are identifying every kid that qualifies that we that we identify but it is more challenging than it used to be for sure okay so page five what I did an analysis we were and and okay let's go back yeah I went too far back but if if you subtract or prior to um years unlike for instance I took the highest numbers for free reduced lunch then I subtracted 26 091 right that's 7 000 students seven almost seven thousand seven hundred ninety
180six students now where are okay and I know that we have new charter schools and and this they go home schooling because of the you know the epidemic and this and that but that's seven thousand dollars I mean seven thousand seven hundred ninety six then I looked at English language Learners we lost from the highest 624. students then from Foster youth we lost 263 happen so where did they go there must be around here someplace well we were hoping they would come back Mr Perez oh yes me too you know I assumed back to school when I see them on the streets uh so you know that's that's a lot of numbers that's about you know hold on here that's almost eight thousand six hundred eighty three students that's a total students not on our
181Ada rolls yes and we need to do something I'm not not sure again I'm gonna refer to the with the Bell program Golden Bell Awards I'm just going to remind you in the public because the board did authorize additional funds and we created the attendance um Review Committee the attendance Improvement office is what happens when you get old things just kind of fine um and they've done a phenomenal amount of work and and doing parent Outreach they are now under miss levasser's leadership and so with her family visits um there's the potential then to hopefully get some of those kids back but it's very difficult to respond to right now because we came out of covid we assume so I understand that and then just recent today a lot of these individuals English language Learners
182they're going back I didn't know that yeah you know that's what I read today I was trying to research why those numbers aren't going there they're going back to Mexico the retirees and the family the whole family is going back and that's that's a shame because they don't have a way to citizenship so anyways I'm very that and you know that I always inquire about this issue because what is it a policy issue you know because we we uh reclassify English language Learners a little bit I think a little bit too soon um um and the other thing is that we need to do help our medical population register and get those numbers all of those programs and outreaches in our district so I think our district does a phenomenal job yeah okay and I
183know our jobs and here's example and you read the Sacramento Bee the number of seniors not applying for their food or food things like that it's the same thing the parallels that's a shame so that's you know well can you say thank you sir Outreach do I see any other hands with questions or comments thank you I am going to call for a motion to approve the 2022-23 second interim financial report approval second interim I heard a first and a second from Mr Vargas all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed hearing none measure passes unanimously thank you Miss Hayes next item on our agenda is bargaining units are there any bargaining units who wish to address the board tonight seeing none I'm going to move on um we have one action item
184on our agenda tonight that is the egusd transportation plan which has been in the works for quite a while before Miss Coates presents I'm going to call on Miss levasser to see if there are any public comments via Zoom for this item Madam president there are no public comments via zoom on this side thank you Miss Jamerson do we have any blue cards Madam president there are no blue cards on this item thank you Miss Coates this is your first time presenting to the board it is I'm so excited to be here this evening thank you so much getting used to the rising Podium so forgive me and uh Madam president uh trustee superintendent Hoffman staff in public I'm excited to be here tonight this is a good news item and it has been a
185collective work over the last few months one of the first things I got to work on when I um joined the Elk Grove team just for some context um in as part of the 2022 California state budget uh home to school transportation reimbursement was included that's a big deal because it hasn't been and so this was implemented originally through ab181 and then later amended through 185 and what this does is it provides some reimbursement um for local school districts like ourselves um really to the tune it's about 60 of our expenditures and for Elk Grove that's about 8.3 million dollars and so to be eligible for this reimbursement the school district with stakeholder engagement must develop a plan uh to describe the district's offering for transitional kindergarten TK kindergarten first through sixth grade and then
186any High need students we just finished the budget presentation and so high needs would be those unduplicated students that this Haze was really going into great detail this has been such a joint effort and everything that we've done has been rooted in the transportation Department's mission which is to provide students with safe and secure transportation in a friendly environment that enhances the total learning process and and Mr Black and Mr Singh really wanted to be here tonight they were really integral members of the committee and offered a lot of the uh technical but we did have to send Mr Black home because he was under the weather so I know he's watching right now the plan was really um actually pretty simple on the description so you'll start to see some of the feedback and
187and some of that feedback went outside of the plan and we'll take that as an opportunity for continuous Improvement through Department planning later but right here what you have on your screen are the four areas that the California Department of Education asked us to address and create a plan around so I'll read it once they're on the other slides but the first is entering a description of transportation services offered to pupils and how it prioritizes land transportation services for pupils in TK K and any of the grades one through six and then those unduplicated students um the second bullet is entering a description of our transportation services that would be accessible to pupils with disabilities homeless children and Foster youth the third being a description of how unduplicated pupils would be able to access home
188to school transportation at no cost to the pupils and then the fourth bullet is how did we provide consultation and feedback for various stakeholders so the transportation committee was formed back in December we met several times and it comprised of central office staff departments uh and uh site staff as well along with a couple trustees thank you for your time and contributions the purpose of the committee was to First review current board policy and make recommendations understand the transportation services operations and and current and future needs we know Transportation has been a challenge uh in the past few years uh understand the impact that transportation services has on school sites and our families and then provide feedback on the transportation plan and the community forums so the committee map provided feedback on the plan prior
189to that public forums and then we went to take that in various ways we had three open Zoom sessions at various times throughout the day and then we had a district-wide survey that was um you know sent directly to all of the families we had about 400 respondents between the the different forums offered we also as part of the plan we had sent um copies to sacrt and um and the air quality district and got responses from both of them the survey was comprised of open-ended questions um really about how we could improve Services knowing that we were going to take the feedback that was provided and work it with the plan but also use it as I already mentioned to provide a you know to really kind of reevaluate and and see where we
190can have either replicate successful practices or maybe tweak and revise practices that um had some feedback um so here are some common responses I won't read all of these to you you have them certainly hiring more drivers was a trend um providing dedicated buses to uh you know distant locations throughout the district providing bus services to increase attendance um busing should be free or greatly reduced and more buses and drivers needed or some of the comments um we did ask specifically uh part of the plan was to take into consideration the possibility of partnering with a Sac RT um knowing that there is a national driver shortage and so we wanted to know how the community felt about that and so these are you know this would require much more exploration um just with some
191of the the community um kind of feeling a bit insecure and wanting to make sure Naturally that their students were safe in any um a public transit situation um bus passes is not part of the transportation plan but it is a topic of conversation and so we want just wanted to get some information out there and get some input for ourselves just to see how bus passes are impacting and it was you know some are too expensive so really varied responses something to look at in the future not for this plan tonight so here is the plan description this goes back to the original four bullets that I went through I won't read the description the CDE language is highlighted in green and you can see it's our description is Elk Grove School Unified School
192District provides Transportation all qualifying tkk and first through sixth grade students currently based on designated service areas these services will remain based on the district's Transportation capacity and all low-income students will receive prioritized Transportation based on eligibility the second bullet required by CDE to describe the students with disabilities homeless children and Foster youth Elk Grove unified school district currently provides transportation to all students with disabilities identified in the student's individual education plan homeless and Foster youth who are deemed eligible for transportation will be offered free Transportation by Elk Grove or local Transit partners the third bullet unduplicated students will be provided access to Elk Grove Transportation or the ability to use local Transit based on Elk Grove Transportation capacity at no charge the district will use all common methods to help students Access Transportation such
193as our homeless and Foster youth liaison special education case managers using the Section 504 compliance guide and the free lunch programs and then the fourth bullet is around stakeholders that we've had several meetings um with stakeholders for the school board and administrators and teachers the district has reached out to local transit for input and has sent the communications together public comments from the community parents and students and local air pollution and air quality districts so the next steps to this is we are recommending approval of the transportation plan just and as a reminder brings approximately 8.3 million dollars back to the district um once approved we'll submit that plan to the California Department of Education hopefully by March 15th prior to the April 1st deadlines and then we'll continue to evaluate those survey results and
194see as I've already mentioned where are areas that we can replicate successes or maybe revise some service implementation and that is it thank you Miss coats uh let's see I would like to before I call for a motion thank Mr fortina and Ms albiani for representing the board on the transportation committee thank you for your work on that I would like to call for a motion to approve the egusd transportation plan okay go ahead sir thank you I'm not catching it for some reason thank you who's that up there yes um went to go research this issue want to see the policies and guidelines and so um so I start looking at the transportation service plan questions people asked and I looked at your pay your presentation page 11 or throughout this document he only
195mentioned first of all what grade levels TK a one through six yes and when I looked at this paper question is the statute requires that transportation service plan describe how the Lea will prioritize plans transportation services for pupils people students and transitional kindergarten and Nanny grades one through six inclusive and students who are low income does that mean the plan will will take into account students in grades 7 through 12 were in low income that's correct and the answer to that is yes our pupils or students who are low income should be included services so that leaves out a whole bunch of our students who are out there in rural Mr President she actually answered your question they are included so when you ask a question try to listen for the answer it's it's on
196slide 11 and it's the last um second half the last sentence all and all low-income students will receive prioritized Transportation based on eligibility so when we say and all low income that does encompass 712 but the plan does require us to specifically call out tkk and first through sixth grade and what about how come you don't have a language for seventh and 8th graders who are low income in your presentations they're included with all students all students means well that that's not saying to me it's not staying hate high school students may also be bust I'm glad we clarify you know they need this plan with your plan and I know what they're trying to do they're trying to get me off track but anyway that's the issue I have within this thing it does
197not address low-income students or four and seventh and 12th grade except it does do you see seventh and eighth grade written in there absolutely all means all so oh this doesn't specify it yeah so anyway I'm not okay so and that's what I was really concerned about our policy we had earlier today the language that you put in there and and I didn't have the time to address that you put students are one mile and a fourth to and from school that's completely changed you have Junior High two miles you have you have high school students three miles from school so that's what I'm concerned about the way you this whole presentation on transportation and busing has not being very good for low-income students and you haven't to this pay I don't see those I
198see page 11 it doesn't say grades and and all students then okay Mr Perez where I think you need to include this group of people the students okay you've raised it it's very clarified what's next well I'm gonna uh I'm not gonna approve this because the fact that it's it's leaving out a whole understood now a lot of high school students that are out there rural urban areas in which you know okay sir other people want to speak to this do you have anything else yes where is it doesn't seems not include the Transportation Route I think last year within last year when we did uh this issue we were given Transportation routes of the whole District that's not part of this item sir on the plan we had a rounding system that we have
199access to but yet in this presentation we weren't we weren't um given that of all the routes we had in our school district because I analyzed that too and and a lot of the busing services are not per se uh low income so you're gonna have to do a lot of changes when I'm saying on these routes and we're going to spend a lot of money speak to the item or conclude your comments well are you going to provide us with with those new routes that are going to serve these low-income students with this money and when are you going to do that Mr Perez I'm going to give you one more opportunity to speak to this item or conclude Mr President there's not going to be a series of new routes as a result
200of this what what this is doing is reaffirming the work that we are that we're doing right making sure that we're prioritizing the students that are required to be uh prioritized so we prioritized already so what it's doing is securing dollars that the state has woefully underfunded us within Transportation so this is we've already been spending money out of the general fund to cover transportation and all these dollars are really doing is helping close that Gap we're going to continue continue to still um you know spend general fund to do Transportation much bigger than we have to do and we do it because we want to serve our kids many districts of our size and slightly smaller have abandoned Transportation altogether and we haven't we haven't done that so this is allowing us to maximize
201dollars that this board gave me direction to push on the legislature and we've been pushing on this for six years and now those dollars that are actually showing up here uh to help us with the the work we've already been doing look here it says here no it says here Transportation related and on funding Mr Perez yes we're moving on Mr Yang the floor is yours yeah you're cutting me off yes thank you for the presentation and uh welcome aboard I guess it's official now now that you presented um when I watch and listen to this presentation it reminds me of the new program that we roll out as far as meals for our students and all students get free mail um that uh get me thinking of you know the the most too basic
202thing for kids to be able to learn education in school uh it's one get there two is to eat and drink right for them to be able to learn so is there any sort of uh anticipation in the future that um Transportation will be provided to all students regardless of incomes and status I don't have as far as disabilities and so forth I'm just curious it is provided if it's outlined in that that's what I'm trying to say right now we are income based and this I mean status many disabilities or whatnot right is there any anticipation in the future no [Laughter] so we're not at this uh current policy we're not income based at all dictate how much what we're going to spend but it's it's the other way around from the way you
203said it if we if we take away all the parameters we could we can transport everybody but it's going to even increase the amount of general fund contribution that we already make what this does is speak to the groups that we have to do my answer board this speaks to the groups that we have to transport and additionally it allows for the transportation of some others but but even doing this we're contributing from the general fund the idea of being able to you know to have transportation available so right now we we transport a fraction of the students in the district and we fill an entire yard with buses um we have 150 bus drivers that we would nearly the physical ability of what the scope we would have to be to be able to
204offer transportation to all students in the district is mine mind-boggling from a total cost resources and everything that would take so what we've done here is prioritized our special education kids for sure and prioritized um our tkk one stand one through six and our low-income students the students that need it the most um but the idea I like the comparison of universal meals and Universal Transportation the cost of universal Transportation um I I couldn't even um give you a guess but it would be an astronomical number and would come directly out of the general fund for other things that we we are trying to do so what's the current percentage of our kids uh taking buses that is a a question that I wish Mr Singh or Mr Black were here I don't have that
205in front of me right now Chris I'm guessing it's not good yeah 10 of our kids probably yeah okay yeah that's just something that I thought you know with the universal male and possibly Transportation but I I get what you guys are saying they make sense and they sound rude but but um the the ability to pull it off um just again I can't even I can't even fathom how big that would be and let me uh there has been discussion the state legislature about mandating Universal Transportation but they always run up against the fact that they don't actually want to pay for it so I do give them credit for that is that you know we're doing the meals and they're paying for the meals but yeah Mr Yang okay that's all I have
206just sort of ask those couple questions thank you thank you thank you Mr Yang Mr Vargas uh I appreciate it I just want to make make a comment to perhaps assist hold on I'm going to Mr Vargas and I'll go back to you sorry that's what I pointed to I I didn't understand I apologize go ahead Mr Vargas no worries um so thank you for the presentation um I wanted to drill down on just one issue which is uh transportation of homeless students in particular we have a pretty robust population of homeless students in Elk Grove USD and it's a population that when you're uh you know housing insecure uh can be hard to nail down you know whether or not you know how we're getting on on buses and how are we transporting them
207so can you talk a little bit about um how you how you do that I can speak from pretty broad general terms and we can probably get more information um I believe um I don't Don Ross's department which is likely student services is in direct communication with Transportation so once a student is identified and they're identifying the need for transportation transportation is um securing the pickup and the route for that student is the best idea can I jump in there too Ken black he's our director of Transportation he spoke to that point and and Transportation uh communicates as as Chris was saying uh with Don's office and the respective people who have responsibility both for homeless as well as foster children so the information gets out to the families about the availability of the transportation
208uh within their area and Mr Singh whom was also referenced has uh has a responsibility for the maintenance of the Rowdy Maps which then shows uh uh to anyone who's interested but certainly the people who have a responsibility where exactly the locations are within within uh a bus route area so they the the information gets presented okay then there's follow-up with our our school Improvement office on the the issue of the kid not coming to school and which could be a lot of reasons but with our Foster and our homeless but certainly if somebody says well we don't have a car that they know that that our staff person knows that if indeed they didn't get the information they can give them the information so that's a pretty we do have a pretty good loop
209on it uh does every kid who is eligible get transported I mean who knows you're dealing with a really tough population but but the but our bases are covered in terms to me in terms of getting information out another important point with the with homeless population is one of one of their rights is um they get to keep the educational rights with their the school they're attending for so if a student was in a particular um the school district or the School boundaries of going to that school and now they are homeless and they've lost that home and they may be living in a shelter or with another family member and another part of the district they still have educational rights to the original school and so we don't just transport into um the closest
210school we actually transport them because they have those rights to the to their home school so they don't lose that continuity so there's a great deal of work that goes in there but their homeless kids are certainly a priority yeah and I guess my just the one concern that I want to kind of resurface in the conversation is just being able to identify and keep track of them as they're moving around because as part of one of the problems is you know when you're housing insecure you're about you're bouncing around from yeah as as you mentioned Chris um uh is bouncing around from home to home family to family places like that and I just think it's important to sort of resurface that issue of you know when we're talking about this when we're thinking
211about you know these Transportation plans if they if we're talking about high needs folks like making sure that we also have everybody looped in on like okay how are we keeping track of them as they move and it sounds like we've got a group that is covering that so you just wanted to surface that as we're talking I'm only saying some of the things I'm saying because I mean I mean you're new in terms of sharing information um and I hear your concern about especially homeless because of the things that happen the registrar Stars as another group of people stay on that on top of that too because one of the biggest problems is kids move around is not having transcripts and so registrars really really work on that and if a kid shows up
212unexpected uh than than in terms of intake one of the things they do is is nail down where you come from so that they're on the phone with the registrar's office and and and get the paperwork signed and get the kid transferred so people know what the child was working on what their needs are so and so forth so that's an area that and you know I'm not going to say it's 100 but that's an area that I'd say we're pretty well on top of well I want to be respectful of everybody's time so I'm I'm done thank you thank you Mr Vargas bring it home Mr for Chino yeah I just want to make a comment in case anybody uh is on the on the fence about voting no versus yes uh you know
213first of all you know and I've I've said this to her I congratulate Kristen for the work she did she provided really good good uh Direction and and what we have here tonight is the first uh real revision in 30 years in our district okay 30 years and it's a pretty long time a lot of our policies you've never asked for it before a lot of yeah right I've been asking for reviews and transportation for seven years um but it it's it really reflects uh a lot of time a lot of thought and and and like I say uh it'll continue to undergo revision uh as as information is presented uh it'll the the information that's garnered will assist uh in in our continued lobbying efforts to help the legislature understand why they should fund
214things they require uh in a number of areas but in this area in terms of home to school it's been so lacking and and it's funding but but this is a this is really is a is a concerted effort uh that involves quite a few people that gives gives Clarity to the issue of transportation we have we have a bundle of Transportation policies if you have a question on transportation and you go to try to determine an answer it's pretty damn tough this really does so much Cleanup in terms of of providing some clear thought and Direction and and at the same point in time uh we're meeting a a requirement but but in in the process we're making it better for everybody so I hope everyone votes yes here here um okay turn on
215your mic sir just quickly I I um saw a survey for um word uh our constituents our parents um I was thinking in the future is it possible if you put it on maybe a table so that we know the number of participants okay thank you okay Miss Coates I just reiterate our appreciation for everyone who's been part of this process so please please share the board's appreciation for that and at this time I'm going to call for a motion to approve the egusd transportation plan so moved second moved and seconded all in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed no one nay thank you uh measure passes and we will move on to a board member and superintendent reports do we have any reports on official board Duty I know the transportation Committee
216just uh gave us a whole lot of updates right now go ahead and go ahead Mr fortina um yeah I was I was I was just going to say the subcommittee on Transportation want to take the best thunder so else I I'll let her take care of that one um and that that's all I'm gonna say right now I think we just got the best update possible on the transportation committee work is there anything to add Miss albiani okay good stuff um yes sir just one quick um note um I did want to um recognize that the passing of Bob Blattner who was our long-term lobbyist of the district did a lot of great work in uh he was actually one of the folks that uh that Rob and I worked very closely with in
217carrying uh the message with regards to transportation and this was a this was a huge win more work to do uh but Bob was a phenomenal at that the work he did and did it in a way that um connected with people and he was a better person so I just want to recognize we had a service on Saturday when I attended on behalf of the district so I just want to make a later of that thank you Mr Hoffman okay um let's see I was gonna mention csba ledge committee but they're actually meeting after our next meeting csba delegate the regional delegates do have a meeting coming up this Saturday which uh one or two of us may be attending go ahead Mr Yang official um board committee work no okay got it so
218I'm going to close that item and go to consideration of future agenda items just uh really briefly if anyone has anything on that please let's be succinct as possible because I see a lot of tired faces out there and I want everyone to drive home safely so I will take hands um I'm trying to remember if Mr Fortuna was first I am gonna I'm going to uh hold those requests until the next board meeting appreciate it look forward to our conversations Mr gang yeah um thank you uh board president uh we we face um the pandemic since 2020 and uh right now we are in the post pandemic and that's three plus years and during that time there's a lot of people especially um outside of the Elk Grove Unified School District staff their vendors
219institutions that really contribute in the effort of rather's donation no uh volunteers there's a lot of efforts and um supplies that was donated I thought a probably something that is necessary for us as a board as a school district to really um visit visit the institution of the folks that really done a fabulous job as far as donations and volunteer time and provide some sort of recognition that you know allow the public to recognize them and that is something that I don't think is necessary to put a Time on it but I think that is something that's necessary I want to see uh I don't know we do a motion on it or we just you know what what is the necessary thing for us to do but that's what my thought is am I
220understanding you correctly you're suggesting that we add an item to agendas to to thank folks who have donated goods or services to the district yes to recognize and thank them and Pla I mean maybe a letter of recognition by our board something in that nature okay can we talk about how to approach that um bigger picture as opposed to going directly to putting something on the agenda Miss albiani mentioned you know letters of appreciation things of that would you be open to expanding the conversation well the letter I think is good but I think it's it's the amount of work amount of time amount of money that they spent and and I'm saying it would not known the actual uh dollar but I think there's there's a we could talk more about it but I
221think a letter is nice but bringing them here to recognize them and then also take picture uh and and you know just you know showcase um our appreciation toward their volunteer time and donations I think that's more appropriate because it wasn't easy we all know that okay so Mr Fortuna I just want to be careful that I'm not getting into discussion uh and we're not getting any discussion but I think I can provide some info Nation if we're going to vote on whether or not we want that as an agenda item and I think it's so I think I'm okay I do think I'm okay okay as I understand it the request is for a board agenda item to address the issue of recognizing persons who make contributions to our school okay in the past
222the board did do that what has happened over the years is that with with the Advent of our strong uh Career Technical education program we have got so many companies and individuals that are involved in our schools that the different departments and service areas do their recognitions of those people yeah and and one of the reasons why it you know one of the reasons was said to me when this was brought up uh uh before was were we to do something here you we wouldn't do it here uh if if the people who showed up who were invited it wouldn't be in this room they might appreciate having it be on the School site when they donated just and that's and they do stuff with the school site well I think that uh we we
223could maybe classify that depends on you know individual schools or to the district so I'm thinking of to the district or to the school that matter but it to me it really uh to me this is a special uh case special situation it's it's a global crisis and it's obviously a local crisis as well and I thought the again the the time of volunteer the donation you know it's just a tremendous effort and I think that that is something appropriate and we could take it offline to talk more about it I I you know I don't want to put people on the spot it we have to really vote on it you know because it should not be a timeline but I just want to you know share that thought to see you know what
224other board member um thinks and you know and go from here okay thank you um like we can't quite go to what everybody thinks because that would be discussion and violation of the brown act but um you and I and Mr Hoffman will follow up on that and we'll reach out to folks as the brown act allows that's fair enough to me okay thank you so much appreciated being no one else I have a little announcement you saw this uh via email but I just want to make sure everyone is aware um we're going to be needing three board members to volunteer to participate in a subcommittee to review two items that we would uh potentially bring to the board one is the student Bill of Rights which has con which has been developed further
225since it came to us last year and the second is our district land acknowledgment statement which has been in the works under our previous board president Dr Crystal Martinez O'Leary and Mr Fortuna is at a volunteer hand I see okay all right well I see yes sir okay all right well I see forehand so we will talk maybe look at some dates and maybe compare availability but thank you so much yeah okay I am taking notes bye yeah okay thank you folks thank you everyone for sticking with us today I am going to call this meeting to adjournment at 10 0 8 PM have a good night