LASD Board Meeting - 6/1/26

001Good evening everyone. Happy June. Like to call tonight's meeting of Los Alto School District Board of Trustee's regular meeting to order. Uh a recording and or broadcast of this meeting is being made at the direction of the board which may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. If technical difficulties occur or persist, the meeting will continue without broadcasting. I'll now call the role. Brian present. Brandon looks sorry. Okay, Brian is here. Brandon, are you here? >> Yes. >> Jim, >> here. >> Stella here. I shall here as well. Can everyone please stand for the pledge of allegiance? for it stands indivisible and justice for all. Not >> would any board members like to provide comment on the agenda? Yes. Okay. Uh, seeing no comments, we have a motion to approve the agenda as

002presented. So, moved. Thank you, Stella. We have a second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Brian. Motion to approve tonight's agenda as presented was made by Stella, seconded by Brian. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Any obstensions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Close session report. No action was taken in close session tonight. And I'm not sure if to super. >> All right. What were you gonna say? >> Just Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. All right. We uh are taking some time this evening to celebrate retirees. As a district, we have five folks retiring from service. We were told three are attending, but two are here. So, we are thrilled to acknowledge. We're going to start with Maggie Lesley. Maggie, if you want to come on up. Maggie has school secretary of Cington from

0032007 to 2010 and later returned to us to serve as Sanorita from 2018 until Wednesday. I hope if not um as both secretary and clerk. Uh her dedication, her organization, her support for students and families and staff have last left a lasting mark on the school communities. We're so grateful for your years of service, Maggie, and thank you so much for everything you've done for the district. >> Thank you. >> In just in time, I'm pleased to uh chat a little bit about Alice Lee. Come on up, Alice. Alice has served as a noon duty aid since 2009. >> That's right. And not only has she been a noon duty aid, she has helped us for many years translating documents into Mandarin. She has helped bridge communication between school and families in our diverse community.

004She has really worked hard to make sure that everyone within our community has felt informed, connected, included. She has done tremendous work around the international days and weeks at Sanorita, which has really become a model for all of our school districts. So, Alice, I thank you so much for your many, many years of dedicated service to LSD. Welcome. Incredible. And then Julie Pampean is here. Since 2013, Julie has served as a dedicated LVN nurse in LSD, providing exceptional care and support to students across the district. her deep compassion, her professionalism, her commitment to student well-being have made such a difference in our schools and for our students. Um, we're so grateful for your many years of service and you've had such a tremendous impact on our school and especially some of our kids who are

005most vulnerable and able to come to school because of your service. Thank you so much, Julie. Not here tonight, we have Kim Bane. Kim Bane is uh since 1996, Kim has served as a second grade teacher teaching at Springer, at Cington, at Oak, and at Bolis Parisma back in the day. Uh she has positively impacted the lives of countless students and families. her dedication, her compassion, and her commitment to education have lasted have left a lasting legacy throughout the district, and we wish her many years um of great retirement. Thank you, Kim Bain. Here tonight is Marina Larson. Since 2016, Marina has served as an English language learner specialist, helping our students develop the language skills and the confidence needed to succeed. She has dedicated and supported so many of our multilingual learners, creating those

006inclusive educational opportunities, really making a difference for students new to our country, new to speaking English. And Marina's done a terrific job at both Garner Bolis, at Santaorita, and at Lyola, I believe, have been her schools. So thank you Marina for all your includes our retiree services. Thank you all so much. You are certainly welcome to stay for the regular board meeting and you are also certainly welcome to go and enjoy your retirement. >> Thank you for your service and your commitment to our community. Such good people. Good. Good people. >> So, we're move on to the superintendent's update. >> All righty. I have a few things. It's hard to believe it is June 1st. Um, wanted to thank Brian and just let you know we had a really great district picnic on Friday. It's

007always a nice time to kind of pause in the middle of true craziness that's happening at the end of the school year to pause and come together to celebrate to recognize each other to >> kind of, you know, recall the good things and kind of carry it through to the end of the school year. So, that's a really fun event last Friday. Um, wanted to remind you tomorrow if you're available, it's preschool graduation. 9:30 or 1:15 out on the um, play area back here. It is my favorite of all the graduations. Shh, don't tell people. Also, graduating on Wednesday, we have our junior high graduations. We're going to be um, having simultaneous graduations happening at 1:00. So you guys, I believe know your assignments at both block and Egan. Um, wanted to thank the Viking

008staff and the Egan students for a great Viking showcase. Hopefully you all got an opportunity to go. Um, it's one of my favorite events to be able to I I did three rounds. So, I had the chance to talk to 12 different students and hear about their experience in LSD, more specifically at Egan, but of course, I asked questions spanning their whole LSD experience. And it's just such a great opportunity to hear directly from kids about how they see their own change and growth as a learner. So, super fun. for folks in the audience or listening, if you didn't get to go this year, you should volunteer next year because it is absolutely fantastic. Um, also wanted to just make sure I know you are all aware, but wanted to talk about some principal moves

009happening. Um, we are getting some one-time grant money and using some federal funds to create a principal on special assignment role to really help us focus on our target population. Denise Khaled will be taking that role starting July 1st or sometime after she wraps over at Sanorita. Uh we have Kevin Armstrong moving from Covington to Santaorita. We have Kate Skirmohorn moving from Gardener Bullis to Covington. And on Thursday we will be doing round one interviews for um gardener principal. We have the last one I looked today we had 20 applicants to the position. um some of them outstanding. So, we're very excited about finding the next gardener bullis principal. Um and lastly, our last board meeting of the school year will be next Monday. After that, you get a little summer recess. That's it for

010me. >> Thank you. >> Lots of excitement in the year, I feel like. >> Yes. >> Right. Moving on to the consent calendar. Um board members are questions that's on consent to know item number six. >> Okay. >> We'll bring it back to the next one. One of the attachments on the amendment wasn't correct. So we'll bring it back for the new >> um are there any there's no public comment to request for this agenda item? >> No. >> Any further board comment? Okay. They may have a motion to approve the consent calendar as presented with the exception that we're pulling item six. >> Moved. >> Thank you, Stella. Uh, is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Brian. Motion to approve tonight's consent calendar as presented with the exception of pulling item number

011six was made by Stella, seconded by Brian. All in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. employee request to address the board. I understand we don't have any word from the teachers association tonight. Um the California School Board Association, Kim Fletcher, we got to celebrate some of our retirees today and just wanted to acknowledge we got to also celebrate them at picnic. But one of the big things I wanted to draw to focus was the fact that so many of them have were here for so long and I really think it speaks to what we're doing as a district particularly collaboratively hearing from employees ensuring that they feel like this is someplace positive to work and that we're meeting their needs. And then also just wanted to note

012that again that >> the word that was used over and over again was dedicated and just how lucky we are that people's co-workers just describe them in such positive terms that we really do have a place where people love to come. They come and stay and we really bring in people who are really great. All these people are actually people who came in already experienced. It's fun to get new people, but it's really incredible to work with people who have years of previous different experience that also brings that to supporting our students. All of them I've gotten to work with a little bit and they've all been just so welcoming and they really have had such a student centered mindset because they are here for the joy of it and have loved working with us

013and I just appreciate the collaboration that we continue to have together to make sure that people feel welcome every time they come to work. Thank you. Thank you again. That was lovely. We did it without my virtual support. >> I said, she's very brave. Um, all righty. To provide public comment on an agenda item, speaker cards are to be submitted to the superintendent. Speaker cards will not be accepted once public comment begins. Your name will be announced when it is your turn to speak. Now, this time is reserved for members of the public and employees to address the board on items that are not on the agenda. Board is not permitted to discuss or take action on non-aggenda agendaized items except to instruct the superintendent to review the matter further, report back to the board

014at a subsequent meeting, or place the matter on a future agenda. The board may make a brief comment or ask clarifying questions. And it looks like we have uh one speaker tonight for non-aggendaized items. So, um we'll give him three minutes. Chrysa Sanders. >> Wow. Speech, you guys. For the price of one. >> Exactly. Okay. Hello. Um I'm Chrissa Sanders. I'm the president of the Los Altos Educational Foundation. This is Heather McDonald's. He's our executive director. Um first of all, we wanted to say what a great year it's been. The partnership between the district and the PTA and LEF has been really fruitful and really fun this year and we really look forward to seeing the collaboration next year. Um, we also wanted to share the amazing news with you that Laf has exceeded our

015fundraising goal this year by a significant amount. Therefore, in addition to the 2.7 million we have already granted LD, we were able to provide an additional grant in the amount of $350,000. That brings this year's grant total to just over $3 million allocated across the LA funded programs that families know and love. And of course, we want to thank our wonderful parents and community who've made this possible for their donations to the foundation. Uh we are all very grateful. I'm especially grateful to have a community that values a well-rounded education and contributes to make LD such a great district. As you know, I'm already out of the district. Um but I was very grateful to be a part of this district and this community and of course I'm still part of the community going forward.

016But thank you all so much. >> Thank you. That is really great news. Great way to serve the news. >> All righty. >> I want to give him three more minutes. >> You said how great we are. >> Thank you for your service in leading the organization. Thank you as well, Heather. We have we're very fortunate. We have a wonderful education foundation for supporting the district. All right, moving on to action and discussion items. LD education partners update. >> All right, I have a somewhat thorough update for you all tonight. I'm excited to share this update on behalf of the LSD education partners. I want to acknowledge many members of the partners advisory committee that are in the audience. Maybe they want to wave to let us know who's been a part of this work.

017um they've they we collectively have done really great work on this very important topic. So I'm going to hope you might just roll with me. That'll do it. All right. So I really want to start with tonight the mission and the purpose of each of the three partner organizations LAD, LAF and PTA with these clear missions in mind. Um I want to let you know that two years ago I came to this group. We meet every well once a month on a Friday as a leadership team. And I came to them with a vision and asked, "What if we took the next two years to develop a new fundraising model that leveraged the relationships and skill sets of all three entities, which led to increased donations, improved opportunities for school and district community building and

018allowed for the development of even more exceptional programs for our students and from there the work has evolved. um I don't know why it's not going to work for you. So by building on our collective strengths and working smarter as partners, we ensured our ability to provide an excellent education and build strong school and strong dis district communities in the long run. There is so much to celebrate. You can see some evidence of um great district-wide events. The idea was really building on the feel that comes from Junior Olympics when it when this entire district comes together and you feel so proud both for your school and to be a part of the district. This was the feeling that we wanted to work on and I see Jenny Pek has entered the room and Jenny

019really took um took on the development and creation and uh life of these additional district-wide events. These are just a handful. There were certainly more and this is something we want to continue doing together is more district-wide events. Um, additionally, we felt that there's an urgency to work together on fundraising because many local public schools in our area are really facing a lot of uncertainty. You can read here, um, districts are making hard decisions. They're cutting programs. They're closing schools. Um, and between the current climate, changes in enrollment across the state, and other challenges, we really thought it was time to change the fundraising model that has been in place for so many years in LSD. And we wanted to do it now so we could deal with inefficiencies, that we could better address things

020now instead of when we are in a crisis. Oh, now it's working. Great. uh in LSD we have some typical headwinds that all other school districts face. We also have a more unique challenge. So you know that the cost of our retirement contributions continue to rise. They've more than tripled in this um time frame here. Uh facilities, utilities, maintenance are all rising. Families are seeing the same rising costs at the gas station or at the grocery store. It's true for us as a district. Um, we know that universal meals, while we do get meal reimbursement to run our program, is costing money from our general fund, our TK program, we're not getting any um money from the state to run that program. Those costs will continue to go up year after year. And our more

021unique um challenge is the charter school. And you know, we continue to pay for facilities and pay the inloo transfer. um they get a portion of our parcel tax. But more specifically this year was the increase in outofd district students um to the tune of this year about $890,000 additional dollars. So we are our local taxpayers are paying to educate kids from Fremont, from Mountain View Wisman, from Sunnyville, from all over the Bay Area. Um and so this really has an impact on our bottom line. Um, I don't like I'm going to do it all at once. There we go. Um, so we we all know that providing the student experience is not possible without the fundraising from LAF and without the fundraising that's been happening with our nine PTAs. With public funding alone, LD

022can really provide a simple core school experience. But we know that we want more for students in LD. So funding from LAF has been so critical to allow us to bring in specialized teachers and staff to deliver those types of programs that you see in the lower right area. Really make our programs extra special for kids and what is so memorable for many of our students. And then over the years that bucket in PTA has continued to grow bigger and bigger. They've been so generous to take on additional fundraising beyond their mission of community building. Um, and again, this helps us provide that amazing LD experience. While all of these efforts are truly incredible, one result is a whole lot of donor confusion when all three of our organizations are talking about fundraising for the

023same things. Um, we knew that we could work together more efficiently and effectively by realigning the fundraising goals with PTAs and with LAF more to their core missions. Um, so what will this look like? Going to do it again. So you can note the important shifts in yellow. So through this great work of the advisory committee made up of representatives from all of the nine PTAs, the LAF board and our LSD executive team, we've really taken the next step to shift the fundraising responsibilities around so we can centralize and improve funding to programs and materials essential to our LSD student experience. So, beginning next school year, LSD, LAF, and the school PTAs are realigning specifically around instructional programs uh and materials. So, you can see the yellow that's been moved from PTAs down to the

024LEAF bucket. At the same time, LD is going to assume oversight and management of these programs, including the contracts, the vendors, ensuring high quality implementation across all of our schools. This change allows to be us to be more consistent and to have reliable support for these essential programs. Um I it's important to note that PTAs will maintain their focus on community building and school events. Um as well as things that happen outside of the classroom or during lunchtime that kids love. Um they'll still do some field trip support if they have been doing that and some of those teacher and discretionary funds. Um all of that will continue now with through the PTAs. Why are we making this change now? Uh PTAs have been very successful fundraising in the past, but we are mindful that

025they are a volunteer-run organization with rotating leadership every year by design. And so these essential programs and materials, we don't want them to rely on variable fundraising uh volunteer fundraising efforts. Those same programs deserve the oversight and care of the district. Um, this shift results in about a 55% on average reduction in PTA overall spend, freeing our PTA PTAs up to do more community building and less administrative work, which they've been doing quite a bit of. It also, we hope, will result in PTAs having more volunteers to do kind of their core mission things um as opposed to having to write checks and deal with invoices and all of those things. We know that an important continued collaboration between LD, LAF, and PTA um is critical leveraging the strengths of each group. LEF is an

026organization meant to fund raise. That is their purpose. Um, and so allowing us all to really focus on our organizational missions um, will allow us to continue to offer that excellent education that sometimes is only found in private schools, but people get it here in their local public schools, which is really fantastic. So, what does this actually mean? Um for students and staff it remains unchanged but behind the ste the scenes that fundraising shift is going to happen with LAF providing a larger grant to the district. The district setting up accounts for principles to manage the funds at their school site to pay for those things that are moving to the LAF bucket. As part of the transition, LEAF is expected to increase their fundraising target by 900K. This correct? Is this the right number?

027Excellent. Increasing the per student ask. And PTAs will be scaling back their fundraising efforts. We know this is a transition and success will be dependent on how well the three of the groups work together. It's critical that PTAs are the onampus champions for LSD fun for LEF fundraising. And this is how we continue to make sure we get an excellent education and keep those great programs that kids love, library, PE, all of the fun things, junior high electives. For families, we are asking families to prioritize their donation to LAF. We are also encouraging every family to become a member of the school PTA and to volunteer and to participate in the ways that their PTA will be asking of them for next school year. In the end, what we want is the very best experience

028for our LSD students. And the education partners really believe that this shift in fundraising will allow us not only to deliver that experience that our families expect, but it will allow us to continue to create and evolve that experience well into the future. So, happy to answer any questions you might have. And if I don't know the answer, I think some people in the audience might that was wonderful. Thank you. Um before we move on, if anyone wants to pro um provide a public comment, please speak card. Um are there any clarifying questions from board members before we get to public comment? >> Oh yes, I have questions. Will the um LD partners advisory committee remain active during the implementation phase? But yeah, I would expect that we will be closely monitoring both in the

029larger monthly PTA LEF LD leadership group and through that advisory group. Great. >> Yes. >> Any other clarifying questions? >> Okay, looks like we have one for public comment. Jenny, um, can we give Jenny three minutes, please? Thank you. Hi. Um, I first have to say it was a really a great experience that um, Sandra gave me the opportunity to create the community events. I uh, first came in as um, big ideas and she said let's let's try them out. and we were able to tailor them with the help of the PTA council and also with Carrie and all the some um and guidance from Artosen and some other people within the district to really bring that community pride which actually really is exciting for I think for as we go through this new change.

030Um, I am excited that PTAs get to lean into their mission that is community and really building in because in my opinion if a student in a family feels like they belong, they will be more apt to not just stay but to learn and be successful. And I think that that's kind of where um I'm excited to really be able to dive into that instead of worrying about paper. And so, um, and like I said, this is a great chance for us as a district to really build even more LD community, build even more pride across the district because of the fact that we are all having the same um, uh, concrete mission of bringing these, you know, fundraising for these items that are directly impacting instructional support. And I think that that's going to

031be really important. I do think that there's going to be some strong collaboration that needs to happen between the foundation and PTAs, specifically with the fact that PTAs have a lot of experience in event-based fundraising and have um non-monetary resources, ideas, and a lot of like I like to call them like lowhanging fruit that have always worked for us. But now that we rescaling back, I am hoping that LAF and the foundation has a nice open conversation with their PTA that we can really hone in on those and that we can be even more successful to raise to raise that gap even further and maybe even beyond. So, thank you. >> Thank you for >> and thank you so much for your incredible work that you have done in leading a lot of these. It's

032a pleasure actually for me because I'm in this role for a year to to go to the leadership meetings and to hear about all the wonderful things that are going on. So, thank you. Um, any um board discussion? >> I just want to say I apologize for going to step out but um so I don't know if you covered this already but for me it's great to sort of see this as the completion of a very long cycle. Um, I've been around the district long enough to remember that >> in the wake of the great recession, PTAs were asked not only to buy toilet paper, but also to actively step up the fundraising and cut big checks to the district. And so this is the culmination of a very long process of trying to get

033the PTAs back out of the oh my god, it's a crisis. We have to get every nickel in the couch mode and back into what they're really good at, which is building a community. So, thank you very much to everybody who's spent a lot of time on this. >> Yeah. Thank you so much for stepping up when this district really needed it the most. And I'm really glad that we can ask you to dial it down so that you can focus on the wonderful strengths that you have. Um I always used to like to say that the largest child advocacy organization in the United States is the PTA. And I think it's great as Jenny said that you can lean into your mission of supporting children and families and that we can pick up the

034stuff that really is our responsibility. Um, I think that's wonderful. So, I think it's a great partnership between LD and PTA and LAF. Um, I'm excited to see how this unfolds, you know. All right. Well, thank you all so much. Thank you so much for your dedication to our district and for hanging in there for all these years and for doing all of this. It's, you know, a lot of people ask, it's a public school district. Why do we have to donate money? And I don't think they understand what we're able to offer our families, not just because we're all donating money, but because we're working together as a community. And I think that's really beautiful. And I think that's a really beautiful story to be told. So, thank you so much from the bottom

035of my heart, all of us, for the hard work that you do. kind of want to sit in that good feeling. >> I feel a little emotional sit anyway. Oh wow. See you financial time. >> Can we number one for a bit? >> And you are also welcome to leave should you have other things to do. And you're welcome to stay because there was a lot of good things in our meeting tonight. >> But I do you guys did incredible work. >> Thank you all of you. Hours and hours and hours of it. >> Thank you, Chris. >> I can't believe you're >> Yes. Um, so CACF could not be here tonight and uh they did such a good job with their video report and we did get a report from Brett Gallagher and he

036was very excited about our budget. It was the best budget he's ever seen. Anyway, that was nice. Um, so we decided that tonight that doing an end of year report, we would just kind of share the partial tax report card. This goes out to our community every year. It reports on how the partial tax is spent every year. This is just kind of the mockup version. It's going to the printers, I think, today. Uh, and then it'll be out in the mail hopefully by the end of the week. So, all of our residents will see this parcel tax report card. Uh, there's a nice letter from the superintendent. Uh there's language in there about how our seniors get exemptions. Um and this is just a nice uh and really how we compare to other districts

037also. We we are the best. We know that. Um but we but also we but we also want to show um you know really the commitment to the community. It's uh all the work that that we talked about the PT and late partnership. It's also our community pays parcel taxes and those are that helps fund a lot of programs as well. So we're very fortunate. Uh most districts don't have parcel taxes. we do and we passed measure A in 2023. So we're very fortunate. So this is just a quick summary. No action items to kind of share with you. You have to first look at it before it gets to your mailbox. Is that it? >> Sorry. This seems to be getting later every year. Is that my imagination? >> Okay. Okay. It usually gets

038sentenced though. >> Okay. >> Any other clarifying questions before I get to public comment? >> Is there any public comment? Public comment is now closed. Any further board discussion? Okay. Well, I think this is great. Thank you very much, Eric. Look forward to receiving it in my mailbox. Right. We're going to move on to the next item, our public hearing on our 2026 27 local control and accountability plan, affectionately known as the LCAP. If anyone would like to provide public comment on this item, please submit a speaker thread now. Um, Eric and I are happy to present the Lab and the budget um to you. We'll be talking about that three-year plan update. We just did a midyear update in February um along with our conceited priorities, our actions, our local indicators, and some feedback

039that we've collected uh this year. Back in spring of 2024, we completed a process to update our district strategic plan and our LCAP. Um and so with that we met with it's not working sorry about 275 individuals and input sessions um committee meetings and we went through an in-depth process to identify four priority areas students empowered educators engaged families and strong infrastructure and through a world cafe format with uh small group meetings we asked questions of these groups like how do we know when students are truly thriving? What does it mean to be an empowered educator? What does meaningful family engagement look like? And how do we ensure LSD maintains strong systems, facilities, and fiscal stewardship? From that, we develop an action plan. And so in 2526, I'm happy to report those green check marks

040are all indicators that we've met this year. Whether it was around the wheel and learning, uh, our professional development model or the adoption of a new math curriculum, enhancing our student support system, increasing opportunities for our staff to be engaged in shared leadership through instructional leadership team, the teacher advisory group, the classified confidential team advisory group, or just working, as you heard here today, with our PTA and length program to align family involvement and and our our fundraising model. We've also been focused on strategic communication. And so in front of this school year, we've uh updated our website and we are just in the first phases of launching our parent square application to um enhance communication which will also provide translation in real time to families who indicate a home language other than euch um

041not just for staff newsletters, principal newsletters, teacher newsletters, but also for direct messaging. So, we're really looking forward to that full uh platform use next year. In addition around facilities and strategic budgeting, over the last cycle, we've been able to improve uh our salary and compensation for teachers and staff, improving our comparability and rankings. And so, in front of you this evening in your packet, you'll see an LCAP executive summary doc. That's your reader digest version of that 90page accountability plan. The green checks are where we feel like we have already met those three-year goals. That the LCAP is a three-year plan. The little pink progress um indicators are things that we still have in progress. So, we were thinking about our academic, our social, emotional, our behavioral um systems. We're still refining those and

042as Andrew said, we're adding some additional support through police pallet to focus on uh tiers of intervention and support for students. And so really overall year two of our three-year LCAP performance summary is a very positive one. We still have work to do but our indicators are indicating academic performance following the boo status for our students performance on CAPS in ELA English and in math. We're seeing significant growth in our academic performance of our English learners and our socioeconomically disadvantaged students. And we've seen some really excellent growth in our attendance data. So our targeted approach at looking at chronic absenteetheism, we've improved um in reducing the number of students who are chronically absent significantly. In addition, we've reduced our numbers of long-term English learners in the district, exceeding even our three-year target mark. But there's

043still more work to do. We continue to have uh some language pro declines in English learner proficiency. So, we're not yet at that three-year target. Um, our special education, our students with disabilities performance and English language arts and math are trailing targets. Um, our science remains very high. Um, but it's slightly below that 80% year three target. And then our social emotional learning surveys with students remain stable, but they're below our target of a 10% improvement in those questions. We're still gathering some of our reclassification and our um ELOP participation data and we'll update that in our our LCAP prior to final approval next meeting. So overall, this is a really nice update um given that we're in year two of that three-year LCAP summary. In addition, at this time of the year, we're required

044to report out on what is called local indicators. And that's how we're doing in terms of our our teachers being qualified credentialed appropriately in the correct placement, um our instructional materials, our facilities, and our partnerships around parent engagement. And there's some indicators we're required to report upon. So, for example, um in the district, we have 86% of our teachers with clear credentials. that's well above the state average, but we like to be closer to the the 90% to 100% range. Um, so that's working with teachers who um maybe just have an intern credential to clear that or to gain an English learner authorization. Valerie Rogers, our director of human resources and they're working closely with those teachers um to get those additional authorization and credentials. Uh we're proud to report that 100% of our students

045have access to standards aligned materials and we have zero instances where facility do not need good repair according to our fit reports. Um as part of this process I shared with you how we collected data to reset our strategic plan and align our LCAP in 2024. Um, we also annually collect back and so uh we've have met with every school site so nine schools. We've done in-person input sessions to get staff feedback. Well, how are we doing on these different actions on these different metrics from their perspective and overall a lot of positive reflections about increased opportunities for teachers and staff to share uh their voice. They really value our site leadership. They're excited about our new math program. Uh feel that our our social emotional learning program and our specials are very effective and

046supportive of students. And where we can continue to grow is we were talking about that instructional materials all students have access instructional materials um but teachers would love like a base package. So what um do they have in their classroom in terms of technology AV um equip teaching equipment in addition to the instructional materials that are provided. In addition, they really thought the math curriculum adoption process was effective. They'd like to see that continue in the future as we analyze other areas of instruction, whether it's ELA or social studies. Um that process. They're also interested in having some ready to use tools. So more clarity around processes to support students who might have some behavioral um concerns or academic um concerns. The junior high talked a lot about grading alignment. So working together to look

047at our standards based report card and how are they evaluating students and the different grade levels and courses using that standard based report card. Um but overall a really nice feedback report. In addition uh we've uh solicited feedback from families by survey. Uh we've been rolling out a parent education survey and series and we want to build on the successful parent education that was held at Mullman this year. Um in addition I I spoke about our parents square but also talking with different people about how can we improve communication. Where do they seek communication from? Is it website? Is it newsletters? Is it emails? Text so we can capitalize on preferred ways of communication. One cool feature of parent square is you can digest the the notices. So parents might get one message per day,

048but it'll have teacher, principal, district messages all in one month. So maybe just consolidating and streamlining that will will assist. Um I mentioned the translation services. And then um this year we also administered a a family survey for families of English learners. But overall um the key strengths and appreciation from our our parent family feedback is of course they really value our our teachers and the positive impact that they're having on our on our students. A very welcoming and community oriented inclusive culture. Um they've talked a lot about Junior Olympics and different events that have been happening. how much they appreciate uh that focus. And then just responsive staff and personal connection. And of course, areas for improvement include just varying instructional effectiveness between classes or between grade levels or between courses. Wanting to ensure

049we have the most challenging curriculum for our advanced students that we have support and are are being timely in our response to questions around special education and student support that is needed. interest in more transparency for communication that was more about systems and procedures. Then of course just questions around subsity similar for our English learner parent and family feedback. Again, themes around feeling welcomed and included, gratitude for teachers and staff, um but wanting some more clarity around reclassification processes or how to help their students with homework or home learning strategies or expectations and and teacher feedback. We asked our kids about how they felt. This is our local climate survey. They've done a one to five scale. So, these are averages for that. 4.5 this teacher please I can learn 4.5 I have a good

050friend in class 4.3 I feel safe in this class and that gave us an opportunity to actually dig in a little bit deeper this year with the first ever districtwide student ambassador event to find out a little bit more about experience three main areas we wanted to to talk with them about um we wanted that survey to come alive for us so we talked to them about student their student experience what do they value about school their classes what's something they might change. And then we asked them about class offerings. We were interested in their feedback as we think about middle school um conversion um and their experience in class. And then specifically we talked about student supports. So what supports today as upper grade level students in fifth grade, sixth grade, seventh grade, eighth

051grade um do they value what support them academically and emotionally? And we got a lot of really great data and feedback uh from them. Uh for example, a lot of them talked about being able to access wellness centers at the junior high and wondered could the wellness center also serve as an academic center because sometimes the stress of homework exam is what's impacting their wellness. So could they get tutoring services at the wellness center and have it be an academic wellness support center? um they talked about making it just normed and easy to seek mental health and well-being support by having those centers on the campuses. They really appreciated that. Um but interestingly, they they talked about the desire to learn more self care for themselves around managing tech use, how to appropriately effectively use

052AI ethically. Um they were very appreciative of the district's new retake and revision policies. If you don't have a junior high student, um it just means if you fail a test or you fail the exam, you have the opportunity to retake or revise. Um so it removes some of that high stakes test environment um and stress. So they talked about that as well and just the impact of clubs and student activities and um the meaningful traditions they spoke a lot about. So that was just a a wonderful opportunity. This is Gracie's clothing reflection says, "What's one thing you valued about our session? I love listening to what peers had to say and learning things I wouldn't have heard if an adult had talked to me." I also liked having my voice heard. And when we

053asked them, "What topics are important to students that you would like to talk more about in the future in sessions like these?" I think talking about how we should have more understand extracurriculars for teachers and homework. I also want to talk more about clubs. What do you wish you would have had a chance to talk more about? I think we talked most about everything and if there were more sessions like this next year, would you be interested in continuing? You can see her. Yes, we had a 100% of student indicate they would be happy to participate in future sessions. So, that felt really great to get their voice and it this year our student ambassador event. So, I want to thank all the parents that brought them to the district office for that event and

054their time after school. But we're happy to take any questions about the metrics. The documents I've included a document that is um just l specific in addition the exact summary it's the metrics documents you can see that that green yellow red blue indicators and progress on that goal just for ease. We're happy to any questions before I open the public hearing. Does board have any clarifying question? Okay, public hearing is now open for public comment. Okay, then the public hearing is now closed. >> Any further board discussion on this agenda? >> Oh yes. Well, thank you so much for all the work that went into this. It's such a long document with so much text. So, both of you, I know, put a lot of um many hours into it. And I also I really

055appreciated the presentation and all the detailed feedback that you shared with us and you know it's just wonderful to know how involved our stakeholders were and that like you know there were so many opportunities for them to provide this feedback and that we've expanded it by adding the student ambassador group. And since the theme of the night has been, you know, celebrating, I just kind of wanted to add to that because I think I I want to make sure that we highlight, you know, some of our achievements and you did touch upon it as well, but you know, the parent ed series at Almond, we received a really lovely email um from one of the participants just about how much they valued it and the academic performance and attendance progress that we've made. Um, it's

056just really encouraging to see that and I am so excited to be back at this meeting next year and see, you know, all the good work that we were able to do with our new principal on special assignment. I would just echo what Stella said and I shared with Carrie earlier that I don't know if all sixth graders do this but at Gardener they do a sparksation about what u sparks their interest and imagination and and their time at gardener and I went to those this year and the two students who participated that was part of their sparks presentation just how um proud they felt to have been a student ambassador. So I think it's great that we the people or the students that we serve got to participate in that process. So that's really

057great work. Thank you. >> Thank you. Also in addition to echoing all of that, thank you for um the extra column sort of highlighting sort of which goals we're okay on, which we're we need to make more progress. It makes it a lot easier to absorb. And I have some thoughts about ways I think we can improve the process when we're creating the next alcat, but I'll hold those for that process. >> Well, I mean, of course, I >> Yeah, >> we've never done the student ambassador. I don't think I feel like this is such out of everything and everything was wonderful but like this is what stood out to me the most is that we had the student perspective as one of our stakeholders and um and I hope that we can do it

058again for other things also you know involve our students I mean their voices are so important and I think that they got as much out of it as we got out of it so thank you for doing that thank you for including them Right. Thank you so much, Karen. We're going to move on to our next public hearing, the proposed 2026 27 district budget. Baby, we're here tonight to present uh the public hearing. This opportunity for the public to give input on the adopted budget. Um state law is uh yeah that way I think um we have to adopt our budget by June 30th. Um most of the uh we kind of stop making changes to our budget usually by the first week of May. Um before really the May revisal numbers and um it's

059always a challenge not knowing what Sacramento is going to do. Uh they have to have their budget approved by uh June 15th. Ours will be done in a week before theirs. Um but um this is the the time for the public to make comments. Adoption cannot be tonight. So we'll come back next Monday night to adopt the LCAP and the budget. And then our budget meets all the state requirements, meets all the state county code standards for criteria for the current year and the next two years um that they may revise. Um interesting the state government how much has changed over the last year. Uh stock market gains are driving the um revenue for the state and a lot of is driven by AI. Uh so many companies are investing in San Francisco. We want

060them to have an AI factory here in Los Altos but I don't think that's happening. Um but AI is really driving. I love AI in First Avenue, right? Um but AI gains are driving revenue and the state of California the number one revenue is personal income tax. So when people are paying those capital gains high income taxes that's helping the state revenue. Um the state at the mayor revised this is Governor Nome's last budget. So there were a lot of promises made and we'll see when the enacted budget happens what actually comes to fruition. Uh but there's a increase of special ed education funding which is much needed. As you know, special education is is severely underfunded. Uh so we'll see what the final number is. There's going to be a new one-time professional block

061grant. We don't know exactly the that dollar yet. And so we'll talk a little bit about those later. Uh there's a cola increase and they called it the super cola. Um so cola statutory cola is 2.87. The Los Angeles school district gets very little funded programs that get that cola every year. Special education is one of them. Uh the mandated block grant and child nutrition. Uh the Bulis charter school, they do get COLA per ADA. So as COLA goes up, they get more funding per pupil. Uh and so that's uh something to point out. And we I I put a little asterisk on there. The increased special education funding in the one-time block grant, it is not reflected in our budget. And we do that on purpose. And I talked to others seem to have

062done this, but they're not they're doing the same thing because we don't know what the numbers are. And you don't want to say, "Oh, it's going to be X dollars." And it becomes in half of that. And so once we get the state budget gets adopted, there's a lot of trailer bills that will happen in July. And so we should know uh by the fall. And then when we go to first interim, that's where we make all the changes to our budget of what has changed since July. Uh we uh one of the things that's more at risk than I think uh was last year is federal funds. We've been hearing that the title two, title three is immigrant students, English learners, and then title four, those potentially could be cut by the federal government.

063The title one funds and special education entitlements we feel are okay. We've been hearing this up and down the state to be very cautious. uh we will adopt our budget under the assumption that these funds will be uh given to us and provided but um there is an opportunity that we could lose, you know, $200,000 here in some of the title funds. So, we have to be mindful of that. Uh our assumptions when we develop our budget, we have to make some assumptions and it's based on the information we have at the time. So, at adoption, we uh we're very lucky um that our tax assessor's office gives us very good information. How is the property tax growth looking for next year? And we feel very confident. Last year we adopted a 4.75. We're right

064a little bit above that about 5.14. So we're very close. Uh this year we feel very confident to adopt the budget 5%. And we don't know what the tax uh uh projections are going to be until August. So August when the roles close, we'll get some final numbers. Uh so where our assumption is 5%. The parcel tax is showing the increase for the uh CPI adjustment. Every year it goes up 4% but only the measure A portion. Uh and that's going to be 10.8 million. Uh thank you to Le and very generous community here. We're budgeting 3.7. Uh and then Prop 55 EPA that expires in 2030 and I am I am always putting that date so you know when that expires. There's a lot of talk to try to get that extended. Guaranteed state

065aid. We get a very small amount of replacement from the state when they eliminate categoricals in 2013. Lottery um when we go by lottery and I I love playing Powerball. It's my favorite game. But everybody thought lottery was going to be the main like it's going to solve all schools funding. Well, you can see lottery only generates 600,000. Um lottery is not the the the uh the miracle uh for school budgets. Um everybody thought it was, it's really not. We do get a small amount of lottery money uh and it pays for we have some of it's restricted for textbooks. Prop 28 is our um we use that for computer science uh teachers ELOP and you can see some other funds. The one thing I want to point out here is on the bottom there's

066still discussions at um from Sela and at the county about these special education funds. So we're going to adopt our budget with about 2.7 um for special education funding. Uh, and we we think it's going to be I'm sorry, 3.7. So, but we think we might get another million dollars, but we're not sure yet. So, once we get the numbers from the county, from the state, we'll adjust as well. Um, and so we will once we get that information, we'll adjust accordingly. Um, charter school in fact, and Sandra touched on it a little bit briefly, but this it is significant. And then from last year to this year when the charter school was usually had about 8% 9% out of district they really ramped it up and I have a little graphical analysis to show

067that 17% of the students are coming from out of the district it has significant financial impact to the district. Um when the governor revis gave the mayise and he increased the cola and add that super cola will they get that extra super cola. So, it's an extra 500,000 uh and it has a compounding effect. So, next year our transfer into the charter school is over $12 million of our property taxes. Um there was they're going to receive 625,000 of the parcel tax and then portable rentals uh or $11 million here for the rentals for the portals. This is the graphical look at it. You can see historically over uh many years the number of out of district students was fairly flat and then the really last couple years it ramped up a little bit but

068then this last year you can see that the steep curve on the very last bar. Uh there have been concerns community members come to us why are we paying for these out of district students and and and it it's a significant impact. If you look at the very bottom numbers in 2526 it these out of district students cost our taxpayers and it comes out of our budget. It's just a reduction of revenue that could be going for staff be going for program for kids is $120 billion. And then based on the new cola 26 27 those out of district students cost the district $2 million and that's it's not a small amount that's a very large amount. You say how the average cost of a teacher salary benefits is that's seven eight nine teachers you're

069talking there that we could be paying for because of that transfer route. So it's it's not a low impact it's a large impact. general fund revenues. Um there's a lot of statistics that we share with you and I always joke well what is our property taxes? It's about 81% of our total general fund revenue. But then after you do the transfer out it's it goes down to 72%. So there's there are some different numbers but the part the property taxes you can see is the biggest driver of our budget. 91% of our budget is local. That property taxes, property tax, foundation, all those things, donations, that is a big part of our budget. 91% is global in nature. Property tax you can see over the last several years it is slowing. Um and we from

070second interim to estimated actuals we actually went down the property values and that is for a homeowner asking for ro corrections and they ask for their their properties to be reassessed by the assessor's office. They do an appeal and then sometimes appeals are granted. They say yes we will lower your property tax down a little bit lower or sometimes they actually raise them. So, one year we actually had a we had a positive correction. Uh, and once we close the books this year, we're hoping it will land right around 5.1% total property taxes. Some general fund um expenditures. We reduced our FPE and that the full-time equivalent based on an 8 hour day uh to six supplies and services at 3 to 5%. Uh we're a little cautious with the geopolitical stuff going on in

071the world. uh gasoline. Everything that we buy comes on a truck, comes in a car, comes in a van. Our maintenance operations, drive their vehicles, we have to cut the grass. We using gasoline. Everything is going to be more expensive and and so that we have to be mindful of that. Uh we feel pretty good about using 3 to 5% for right now. Uh and that's just based on today's information. Uh increase health and welfare benefits. We always adopt our budget around 10%. There are years where the uh health and welfare, the Kaiser rates, blue cross goes up 13%, one year goes up 7%. So when we adopt our budget, we do 10%. We don't know the the medical rates. We don't get them from CalPERT until the middle of July. So once we get

072the rates in July, we'll adjust our budget accordingly and we'll bring it back to the board first interim. OPED is the other postemployment benefits. That's for retirees. So, our district is is has a great retirement program, but that cost the district $1.2 million a year. Um, and then you can see the caliper rates and then we um we don't know what our workers compensation rates are going to be and that is based on your total payroll number and then uh we'll get a number from our uh insurance company to say what is the workers comp rates going to be. So, we want to focus on safety as always because that drive down your experience modification and you get better rates. cafeteria fund. Uh, and we're actually very happy with this fund. Uh, it was up

073to a million dollars on the first two years of of really mon of having the program. We've Camila Reata has been doing a great job with Elizabetha. They've got us a little bit more efficient. We've got a better consultant helping to support us. Um, and so our general fund contributions, it's going up a little bit based on it's just some operational cost increases, but it was 860 for this year. Uh and then we got it down to now 648. So which is great. So we're really seeing some good improvements in this program. Uh the cafeteria program as um Sandra mentioned is not funded. We get a little bit of money back from the state and uh federal government for reimbursement for these meals, but it's not really enough to cover all the costs. Special education

074contribution. This is another program. We've been working very closely this last several years with our special education staff and they're wonderful of being great partners with us. Um the total expenses you can see for estimated we actually seen a slight decrease and some of that's based just on lowering cost. Um one of the things on the bottom is transportation cost, non-public schools can vary from year to year. So we see that some of those costs go up and down from contractors and things like that. Um, so we're seeing a a decrease in our general fund contribution based on today's numbers. Um, utilities, this is one that moves. Um, and I have a we have new a couple new slides on utilities, but you can see the overall utilities is we're going to adopt very conservatively,

075but we we feel this is a good number to go with for the for the adopted budget of an increase of 120,000. And then this is a new slide. had a comment. Let's see if it shows up here. Oh, there it goes. Um, this is the expense over the years and you can see over the years the base year the the index all utilities includes phones, security, postage and all those things. You can see over years it has ramped way up. Um, we're not sure what the middle blurb is with the last two fiscal years. We think some of that calave grant that we had helped uh get some of our HVAC equipment to be more efficient. We're shutting things off during the off hours. So, we think that was some savings that we grant

076her there. Hard to hard to like quantify exactly how much that was. Um but we had a grant which I'll I'll talk about a little bit later, but this is a new slide and it kind of shows you like the total increase in utilities over the years. It's it's a pretty significant when you open up your utility bill when you go home and you see it. Yeah, it's it's it's everybody's feeling it. In school districts, we still have to pay for utilities and that comes out of our general operating fund. Um, this is insurance. Um, this is my um I don't know if it's my favorite or least favorite statistics, but it was a 531% increase from the base year, which is goes back to 0708. And it's over the years because of property damages,

077natural disasters, all the insurance carriers are raising their rates. Car insurance rates go up. Everything goes up. But it's really very steep at the end. And then two years ago, we saw this. We said, "Hey, can we do better?" We switched to a different uh joint powers authority. We joined the NCR. you get better services um and really and lower cost. So, so you can see we actually had about a almost a $200,000 decrease to our general fund, but then that's our new base and now it will go up 10% next year. Right? So you can see over year over the years this is a nice look at it has really gone up. Um and just like when there's when there's a property damage when things cost more cost more to replacement buyers that are

078were down in LA the mudslides there's so many things that happen in California. So the property liability insurance has increased uh just tremendous amount over the years. So when we adopt our budget, we have to adopt for this year and then also for the next two out years to show that we have really some financial strength and that really we're heading in the right direction. So that's called a multi-year projections. Um here's our assumptions and these will change at tonight's meeting. These are our assumptions. 5% four and three. We have no idea what the property taxes are going to be in the next couple years. It would be not smart. Some districts do like 2%. I said no, it's not going to be two. Um, so we always want to budget conservatively in the out

079years and then we will adjust as we get more information. Our parcel tax is just showing the cola for measure A late funding being at 3.7. Um, and then all these other items on there. The COLA will go up every year. So the amount to the charter school goes up every single year based on COLA. And that's that average daily attendance times the LCFF base rate. And so that is something that's really out of our control. Um, but it's it's really something that we we monitor. We have multi-year projections based on their current enrollment, what COLA will be projected. And so we have an idea that the the money that goes to the charter school goes up every year. It depends on what that cola is. Um, this is stein column for all the groups.

080So every year our teachers as they move down in the steps or they get more education, more units, they go that's a column adjustment. It's about 1.4% per year. Uh and then this is a number and I I feel like we we joke internally that we we created the term rightsiz staffing, but a lot of other districts are using that and that's really as our enrollment has dropped off, we have been adjusting our staffing accordingly. We haven't been haven't been able to cut programs. all of her kids are getting the same great quality education. We're student in a more efficient manner. A lot of the funding for some of these positions in 22 23 were like COVID funds and some of those funds all those funds have been spent and so now the district are

081getting our staffing back to kind of where it should be and so you can see over the last couple years you're and Sandra had that one slide it showed all the districts making cuts and program reductions. We've been doing it very systematically and really very intentional and that's really been really I think it's been um we really have such a great team. We're all singing the same song doing the right things getting our staffing where it should be because so when you do that then you have more money to give it back to the staff to increase compensation. So there's a direct correlation of that happening. um the health and welfare all groups increasing 10% annually uh and then a 3 to 5% increase for supplies and services and those are those normal things that

082you see here um Kalpers and Calsters and if you look at it's almost you know the it's 15% of our total budget is our contribution to the retirement programs for our employees and that's our current employees not not retirees. So we you can see we're spending uh you know upwards of $14 million per year just on our the employer contribution and that changes from year to year. The good news is Kalpers adjusted their rate slightly down for this year. It was going to be 26.8 for the budget year. It actually went to 26.4 and that's significant when you're doing you know $4 million of payroll. It does have a savings effect. um multi-year revenue. You can see the the on the bottom we try to just use the acronyms of mandated block grant, lottery, elop,

083prop 28. Those are some ongoing things. Um some of the changes, the local number is going down a little bit and that's we have some one-time grants that are expiring. Clare crane has been doing a great job trying to get some of those El Camino funds that we talked about last time. So, if some of those local grants come back in, then that local number will go up a little there. Salary and benefits is our number one uh cost for the district. 84 to 85% per year is salary and benefits. So that's our driver. That other financing now that is the contribution to the cafeteria fund. So you can see that change in the next couple years that we're making some it will go up again but we've got our cafeteria fund in a better

084place right now. This is our multi-year projections from our beginning fund balance. And then uh so this budget adopted year at 93,000 um deficit and then the next year 113,000 and then this is so much better than a couple years ago when we were in millions. Um so this is like very manageable and we know when we close the books more will fall to the bottom of things that were not spent in the budget year. uh fund 17 is special reserve. So you can see we've got adequate reserves. Um but we need to be cautious because sometimes when uh times are good, that's when you be more careful. Um and I we have a couple new slides on this next one. Um we've been very intentional of how our reserves have increased and it's a

085combination of several things. One is we've used restricted funds first. So whenever we get funds from the state or federal government, it's like best practice, use those funds first before you use your unrestricted budget. Um, when we get money from the state, so for example, educator effectiveness, all the great professional development that our CNI department does, all the great work that our staff does to to help build educator effects, all the trainings, we use those funds first. Then we had COVID funds. And then the co funds were spent over multiple years, but I'm just trying to make a kind of analysis to show you. We had some kitchen infrastructure grant funds. And everybody know who knows me, if there is like free money, I I will find it. And so, uh, we applied for a

086grant that we just got for next year for some more kit funds, kitchen and structure grant funds for 75,000, but we received about 90,000 in 22 23. We had some COVID funds that was carryover. We had a cowshaped grant and why are you applying for this? Because I want it. And so we got like a million dollars and we spent it on HVAC repairs, filters, new controls, uh the all the controls to shut your equipment off at night and weekends. And so we applied for that grant. We got it. We feel like that might be some of our energy savings. that grant and there's a little asterisk that means it's expired or or will be expiring. We have the art music discretionary block grant. We're going to spend the remaining 46,000 this year. And then

087uh we got a new grant on the bottom, the professional development grant. We only spent 216,000 that we think for this year. They'll be carryover for next year. Um, we restructured the maintenance department and did a better job of doing more things in house with our great cse employees and not contracting out. That has saved us some money, really monitoring those budgets. But the bottom is that right side staffing over 61 FTEES. The average cost for uh an employee for salary, benefits, retirement, health and welfare is about 170,000 total. And it's every employee is a little bit different. So we just took that number divide it over three years and we really can't show it in 22 23 because they were actually in the budget. So that's a savings of almost $9 million. We passed

088measure A $4 million ongoing. We passed measure E, a bond to help us defra facility cost and then we improved our credit rating to AAA. And so all these things are done intentional because when we wanted to um uh go out for a bond, you have to tell the creditors that you have a good credit rating. So by increasing our reserves, spending these onetime funds appropriately, reducing our staffing, we've really got ourselves in a much better financial position than we have been over the last several years. And it's been it's been on purpose. Um, and we uh just got upgraded again by another rating agency last week by uh Moody's. So, we're very happy by doing this, but there there is a reason for that. We always are we want people to know that we're

089being good stewards of public funds and we we've been uh we've been very fortunate to have some good things happen the last couple years. um any fund balances. Um and this is one thing we want. This is also a new slide this year is talking about what it is and what it is not. It is not a savings account. It's not a rainy day fund. It's basically a difference between what your revenue and expenses worth for that year. That's your fund balance. Fund balance is not cash. Cash in the bank is how we pay our bills. There are times um over the last several years that we would do a trend and that's called called the tax revenue anticipation that we would borrow money during the summer because we didn't have enough cash in the

090bank to make payroll in really really is usually mostly like September and October is that's when our cash is in the bank is the lowest and so the last two and a half years we have not had to do a trend we have enough cash in the bank and that's actually helpful for us um cash pays our bills are awesome employees, they need their paycheck year round and we only get our property taxes a couple times a year. So, there's always a balance of having that cash in the bank. Our taxpayers benefit from this. They get lower interest on bonds. If we have fun balance or some reserves, if there's an unforeseen natural disaster, something happens, we have some money to take care of it. If we have students that have extra needs, we've got

091some new um restricted funds. We're going to invest in our in some of our program next year. It's also best practice. Uh our board recently we increased our reserves to 15 to 20% and for basic aid community funed districts because of stock market fatility, local property tax fertility, it's best practice to have reserves on hand. And that's we've been very lucky the last several years um that we've been really focused on doing that year after year. So that's all the good news. So let's talk about some concerns. I think that the number one that from the business office when we think of you know what are you most concerned about is I think the price fluctuations. You can have a budget for textbooks and for energy cost but when they spike and increase so we

092will probably come back to you in December and there might be some changes in our budgets based on what's happening the last several months. The law will change between now because really the next major budget update to the board will not be till December 15th. So that's six months away. A lot will change then. I highlighted a couple annual costs. TK staffing is 2.697. That's just for staff and IAS. That's to meet the 10 to1 adult to student ratio. That's not for the furniture and all the other things that we need for the PTA students. The rising utility cost annually is 2.8 million. Health and welfare benefits is 10% per year. That's 7.9 million per year for that. The charter school impact, if you add up the inloo transfer, the portables, and the parcel tax,

093it's almost $14 million a year. That goes right out the door that we do not get to see. Workers compensation annually is $944,000 million just for workers comp insurance. So, that's why we're really focusing on safety programs to reduce the number of claims. And then our property and liability insurance, uh, it was almost over 900,000. We got it down to 600 and then we're doing a a 10% increase this year. Um, one of my mottos is always, you know, what does the district do? Well, we're taking care of everything and everyone in the district as best as possible. And we that's really what we're that's our job is to do that. Take care of everyone and everything. Um, these are some key budget deadlines for the year. Um, our budget cycle is year round. Um,

094they say, "Eric, do you get the summer off?" No, because we're closing the books from this year, right? So, we we will get some downtime uh in the business office, but we really, you know, tonight is June 1st. The adopted budget will be June 8th, and then you can see our unawited actual we'll be closing the books for this year for 2526. We'll bring those back to you in September 15th. The final audit for this fis current fiscal year will be December 15th. first interim will be December 15th. Um and then then we go right back into the new governor. Who will be the new governor? And then how will that impact California education? We don't know. And so the election will be um we've got the primary tomorrow and then we'll see who who

095the top two are and what happens here. So it' be kind of exciting. Um and then the last side just really an opportunity for questions um and all that. I really want to thank Elizabeth who's not here tonight. I know she sometimes watches um and really the entire business staff. Thank you to Marcy and Sandra Bush. This is a huge agenda. There's a lot of items. So, it's really a team effort. Get this. I also want to thank Carrie Boston, my ELCAT partner. Um because we kind of we work on this side by side. And then I never um I always want to thank the county office of education. They have been um we have a couple of new people helping us and they were so great. We gave them our LCAP with the numbers

096and they gave us quick feedback and that makes it easier for us to get our job done too. So I really want to acknowledge that the county office and some of our LCAP helpers that call LCAP helpers, right? >> Yeah. So that's it. So happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you so much. That was super comprehensive. Um before before we open uh hearing, we'll see are there any clarifying questions from the board else? Uh could you go back to slide nine? >> Yes. So slide nine it does show our total property tax collections but I just wanted to clarify whether that total number that we see um reflects the property tax transfer to the charter school. And if if it did or if it doesn't, then what would be the net revenue for us?

097>> Yeah. So that number right there is that's the gross collections before we transfer the money to the charter school. So take that number minus 12 million, you're at like 62 million and change in total revenue. Yeah. >> Do you have any clarifying questions? >> Okay. And I didn't public hearing is now open. Public comment. Great. Public hearing is now closed. Um, further board discussion. Uh, any questions for Eric? Any comments? >> Oh, >> just a quick on the not on the in the presentation, but in your narrative document, which I appreciate all of the extra things, but I just wanted to sort of on on page eight, you have the raises that we've >> been able to give to employees. Um, and then a total, which looks like you just sort of added the

098percentages, but of course those compound, I think. Um, so I just wanted to point out that even though sort of if you add the raises each year, it adds up to since 2122, it adds up to 36. But by my math, it's actually sort of a 41% raise overall over that time since they kind of stack that way. >> That's correct. Um, and then I wanted to sort of contrast that with page 11 where you have the property tax increases um, over a slightly larger time frame. But, um, again, if my math is correct, I sort of went back and I think sort of the property tax the cumulative property tax increase over that same time has been about 34%. Um, so I just wanted to sort of highlight that it's great that we've been

099able to catch up because our our payroll, our our salaries were sort of middle to low end of county comparison districts, which is obviously an issue with recruitment and retention. And so it's great that we've been able to catch that up and we're in a much better place today. I just want to highlight that it's not necessarily indefinitely sustainable for us to give uh raises at a higher rate than our property tax is growing. So obviously part of our work going forward will be balancing that and finding soft land. >> Any other Bella? >> Uh yes. Could you go to slide seven please? >> So and Eric, thank you so much for and your business office for you know all the work that went into drafting the budget. Uh I asked to go back to

100this slide because I want to comment on the transfers to the charter school. We actually have heard public comment at a previous board meeting about this topic and there seemed to be some confusion about how where the money comes from that gets transferred to the charter school. So, I really want to clarify that tonight. Uh uh as you pointed out, we're a community funded district. That means most of our money is coming from local property taxes, not from the state government, not from the federal government. And a lot of our neighbor neighboring districts are also community funded. So, when a student from a communityf funed district enrolls at BCS, we don't receive any extra money for that student. Um, and out of Oh, but we do need to transfer on average $11,000 per student to

101the charter school even though we received zero extra dollars. Um, out of the 185 out of district students at the charter school, only one dozen of them are coming from districts that aren't community funded. So, we do get some money from uh for those students. We get $90,000 for those students. And we also have anou with Palo Alto Unified. So, we also receive some funding for the Palto students that are enrolled at BCS. But in aggregate, we're only receiving around $200,000 of additional funding to cover 185 out of district students. So when you look at those numbers at the bottom of the slide, the 1.8 and the $2 million, that's our true cost. That's money that um would have gone to LSD students if BCS were not enrolling out of district students, but instead now

102it's being spent on students who don't live in our district and who don't pay taxes to our district. >> And is it's also fair to say then to your build on that that Lala school district residents within our school district, the taxes that they're paying are paying for. Yes. >> Out of district students. >> Yes. So the money that we're paying as taxpayers is not being spent on our own students. Is that fair to say? >> That's correct. >> Um I'm really glad that you pointed out that clarification. I think it's an important distinction to make. >> Jim or Brandon, any comments? I um you know looking connecting all all of all of these dots you know I do appreciate that we continue to right size right um I think because of the tremendous effort

103that you and Carrie and Sandra we've all been doing about right sizing we haven't had to go to the the place where we're laying off staff etc etc but is there point where right sizing our staffing is not going to be enough like I'm looking at the $13 million that we hand over to the charter school and what we could be using that for right um and then I'm looking at all the efforts that we're making to rightsize so that our district stays financially viable but is are we and I guess I don't know if it's a philosophical but are we I'm actually kind of worried that we're going to get to a point where right sizing is not enough and yet money is still going out the door to >> I mean we have

104done a a tremendous amount 60 or so um FTEES through attrition through resignations retirements right looking very closely at each position can we live without this right without having a detrimental impact to student program um you hit a point where the answer to that becomes like no, we can't go without that position, right? We still have a little bit of wiggle room. We we look at this closely as a district, but as Brian was saying, you know, our raises have increased significantly. Our property tax has been slower than in the past, but still a nice there will be a point where all of those things merge together. We don't have enough ability to continue to rightsize. our property tax is maybe not as high as we want. Um, and we won't be able to give

105the type of raise that we want without it very negatively impacting our bottom line. >> But yes, but we will still have to make the transfer to the chart. >> We will always have to make the transfer to the charter school >> because um that that is that is something that really worries me. I mean, you know, as trustees, like one of our big responsibilities is ensuring the financial health of our district >> and um >> and I think it's fair to say for many years in this district because we were, you know, on the lower comparable end, it was because of the impact as a as a big factor. But when COVID hit, we have had a nice succession from 2019 onward of one-time funds that we've been able to really expertly use. Eric,

106thank you for your guidance. And a lot of that that has helped us build our reserves, be able to use those one-time monies to become more competitive and attract and retain folks. But there will be a time, I would expect, in the future that that's not going to be the case. Well, I mean, one of the things that I wrote down in my notes that, you know, this whole super cola thing and what it means, you know, I think I remember I forget what exactly it was, but during the pandemic, there was there were funds that the charter school had access to. >> Around $2 million that we did not, >> right, >> PPP, whatever those funds were. And so, and again, they have access to the super cola, which we do not. And so

107this is I feel like it's always been lopsided, but it's getting more and more exacerbated. And as we try to stay competitive as a district in terms of what we can offer our teachers, our staff, our programs, I know that'll probably be the last thing that we tried we have, but the slide that you had showed in the beginning of your presentation a couple of agenda items back about what districts around us are doing. You know, I don't want us to be in that position. And it's very I will speak only for myself. It is very difficult for me to see $13 million walk out of our budget and not we what do we get in exchange for that? >> Yeah. And I want to add to what you're saying about how the money could

108be better used if we were able to use it on teacher raises, right? And Eric, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the amount there would be enough for at least a 3% raise for our teachers if we didn't have to spend it on out of district students. >> Correct. >> Yeah, that that's non-trivial amount of money, right? that that that $2 million seems like a small amount used to be the entire budget, but that's >> twothirds of the amount that we just celebrated LA for >> giving you put in context like that. >> I think maybe because we're in the heart of Silicon Valley with all these companies like the Googles and the Apples, >> $2 million is probably what they spend on massages for their employees, you know, in a

109given week. I don't know. But but that's a lot of money in public education, you know, and at some point at some point it's it's teach potential teachers, potential staff are not going to want to come here to our district. We can't offer them something uh comparable. I mean, I remember we were our staff was paid closer to the bottom of, you know, the comparables. Then we give them a raise, but then everybody else gives a raise. So then we're back at the bottom. So this is incred if I sound very frustrated, I'm very sorry, but this is incredibly frustrating and thank you for the hard work that you do and spelling out all this budget issues for us and do sincerely appreciate that. We're not frustrated with your frustrated the situation. Uh, I mean

110it it's incredibly lopsided that that the charter school has access to funds that we do not and yet we still have to give funds over to them. There has to be some something. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see what the new governor does if any of them. Sorry, that was my editorializing. Any comments, you guys? Charlie, I did want to point out you got some public comment, but it came after the public hearing. >> The public hearing is closed, so we will not be taking your public comment. >> We switch it really quickly. >> We didn't switch it very quickly. I said public uh I tapped the gavvel. I said, "It's open." And I said, "Is is there any public comment public comment cards had to have been received by our superintendent >> before

111it started?" And then since she hadn't received it there were a public comment. >> Oh, >> well you're also welcome parent I just want to point out for those in the audience you do you're not legally required to give your name. So you did write down parent you are welcome to send an email to the board that becomes part of the public recorder. >> You are welcome to do whatever you feel you need to do. Um, is there anything else on this? Okay, then let's move on. Measure and citizens bond oversight committee annual report, the bond audit. >> Yeah, I want to win is on her bond oversight committee and uh she's here to give annual report to submit the audit and it'll be an action item also for the bond to accept the audit

112for approval. And thank you for being here. >> Thank um good evening. My name is Yuan Newan representing the citizens oversight committee. I'm here to present the annual report of the committee. Copies were included in tonight's meeting package and um ask that you accept and approve the report. The committee met on May 20th, 2026 with district staff to review the auditive results for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2025. The auditor's report concluded that districts in all significant aspects expended measure and bond building fund only for the specific projects approved by the voters in accordance with Proposition 39 and outlined in article 8A section 1B3C of the California Constitution. The review of financial statements, performance, and prior audit matters concluded with no findings or recommendation for the year ended June 30th, 2025. The procedures performed

113and the related results are further described in the report. Based on the audit results, the citizens oversight committee recommends that you accept and approve this report. Thank you for your time and I'm happy to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um I see that I received this time question. >> Yes. I'm but I'm actually quite confused as to what this person has checked off that they wish to speak on a topic not on the agenda which has happened already and I've also checked off. So I'm not sure what they want to speak on. >> I believe >> because both of them both >> Marcy Marcy put in H5. That was okay. Um I guess it is the bond audit. >> No, I I understand that. But the person themselves checked off an

114agenda item that we've passed, but that's fine. I will be gracious. >> That's fine. I will we will we will be gracious and let you speak. Uh can I clarify a question? Yes. Yes. So um >> yes, >> Eric, can you remind me was Measure N passed in 2016? >> 2014. Okay. And um have most of the funds in measure N been depleted already? >> Uh we're pretty close. Probably by the end of the calendar year, we'll have all of Measure N will be spent >> and um the item on the agenda tonight, it's just regarding our audit report, is that right? >> Correct. Yeah, it's an annual report for the COC committee and then the board is accepting the audit for the 24 uh 25 disclosure. And if I may um paraphrase paraphrase the

115findings of the report, it just it shows that we've spent all the funds um as we should have said. >> Yeah. Yes. All the expenditures were according to the language of the bond. >> Thank you. Thank um any other clarifying questions before we go to comment? Okay. Um, so parent, did you want to make a public comment? >> Nope. Very good. Public comment is now closed. Any further uh more discussion? Thank you so much for being here and for um your contributing. All right, we've got a public hearing on developer. manual item. Not really a manual item, but uh we are every couple years. >> I'm sorry, Kelly. That wasn't an action item. >> Accept the audit. >> Yeah, accept the audit. I'm so sorry. That's okay. >> Thank you, John Marcy. >> Sorry. Thanks,

116Marc. All righty. Um, since there are no further comments uh or discussion from the board, we have a motion to to approve to accept the measure and annual report and bond audit. So moved. Thank you, Stella. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Thank you, Brian. Is there any further board discussion on this item? >> Okay. Uh motion to approve to accept the measure N annual report and bond audit was made by Stella, seconded by Brian. All in favor, please say I. I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Motion passes and thank you for the reminder. >> Okay, back to developer public hearing. >> So, can I just say this is a public hearing. So, if you want to provide comment during the public hearing, now would be the time to submit your

117speaker card. >> Sure. This is a item that we come back and it's a state allocation board. Every other year they will raise the fees in January and then it's been a couple years. So we did a full uh fee justification study which is attached as part of the the agenda item the next item. Um and we'll be asking to approve that resolution. Um and I'm happy to answer any questions you have on that. >> Thank you. Um before we open the public hearing, are there any clarifying questions from the board? Uh no. Okay. Public hearing is now open. You have any public comment cards? No. Okay. Thank you. Public hearing is now closed. Um any further board discussion? Yes. Um well I I thought that the the study was very interesting because it shows

118that our current facilities can only accommodate about 3,500 students but the number of students that we are required to provide facilities for is actually 4,300 and that includes the charter school students because we are obligated through Prop 39 to provide facilities for their indist students. And so you can see that we actually don't have enough facilities to house all of the students we are obligated to house. And so I think that this report not only justifies the developer fees but also the construction of a new school. And um the report also shows that we are expecting declining enrollment and uh but it it also says that in 2030 we're still expected to have over 4,000 students. So I feel that the construction of the new school is very much justified given the number of students

119we need to provide facilities for. >> It's an excellent point. Thank you for clarifying that. >> Anybody? >> Okay. Can we move on? Uh next agenda item resolution number 2526-17 increase in developer fees. >> Yeah. in order to increase the fees and we're going to try to do it by July 1st is the board must actually pass a resolution uh and tonight's resolution is 2526-17 to increase the developer fees. Um we've also had to do some public postings on the community. There's uh to let everybody know that we're doing this. Um and so uh so that gives the developers and people in the public a right to come speak about the PP justification. Uh then once the board approves this resolution, we'll adjust the fees accordingly. We'll update them on our website. Uh then when

120developers come in to pay, it opens the pay an increase in square footage price. >> Um any clarifying questions from the board before we go to public comment? Is there any public comments? Okay, public comment is now closed. Thank you. Any further board discussion? So, seeing as this is a resolution, we'll take a roll call vote. Before that, however, um would any board member like to um make a motion to approve resolution number 25/26-17 increase in developer fees? >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Stella. Um is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Jim. Is there any further board discussion? Okay. Motion to approve resolution number 25/26-17 increase in developer fees was made by Stella, seconded by Jim. >> Brian, >> yes. >> Stella, >> yes. >> Jim, >> yes. >> Brandon, >>

121yes. >> I to vote yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thanks everyone. We have another resolution number 2526-18 order of election specifications of the election order and consolidation requests. >> Yes. So each year prior to uh an election, so for this November 3rd election, you need to consider adopting resolution 25-26-18 to officially order the election to be placed on the ballot. Okay, thank you. Um are there any clarifying questions from the board before we go to public comment? Okay. Um is there are there any requests for public comment? Oh, comment is now closed. Any further board discussion? >> Okay. Yes, please. >> No, I don't know if it's appropriate. >> Sorry. Now I really want >> We all want to hear. >> Okay. Um, may I have a motion to approve resolution number 2526-18, order of election,

122specifications of the election order and consolidation requests? >> Salute. >> Thank you, Stella. May I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Jim. There any further board discussions? No. Okay. Motion to approve resolution number 2526-18 order of election specifications of the election order and consolidation request was made by Stella, seconded by Jim. Jim, >> yes. >> Brian, >> yes. >> Brandon, >> yes. >> Stella, yeah. I too vote yes. The motion passes unanimously. Thank you everyone. >> Board policy updates. >> All right. We have three new updates coming you tonight for discussion and review to be um considered for approval at the next meeting. These um new board policies andor ARS are required to be adopted I think by the end of sometime in July July 1st. Um so they come to you

123and if you have questions around them let me know in the course of the next couple days before we post. Yes. Good deal. >> Well, I just thought maybe I was wondering because you said you've already removed some of the language from the weather safety. I don't know if there was any other >> before it was posted for you. >> Yes. So, it there's every time we review there is some optional language. So, yes, that >> so you redacted that, but then do we still have more room to possibly, >> you know, >> we'd have to look back because some of it is required language, some of it is optional language. message maybe in seeing if we could do a little more. >> Sure. >> Any other comments? >> Okay. Is there any requests for

124public comment on this item? No. Okay. Public comment is now closed. Any further board discussion? >> Okay. Great. We'll now move on to board and administration comments. Okay. Just a few thank yous. I want to thank our labor partners for their work this year. Both LATA and CFA leadership we work really closely with on labor relations and different matters of the partnership all year long. Um I also wanted to thank Kelly Rafferty and Kra for helping to facilitate student ambassador event. They both led stations and it it was so cool for the the students to have audience with superintendent and one of our principles. And then finally, I wanted to thank Ba, Donna, and Kim and our tech department for all of their work around parents. Been a big lift for that department to help

125with getting all of our staff on board, getting our parents on board. So, I wanted to thank them. This will be of course my LCAP partner. >> I want to thank my LCAP partner also want to thank uh having an audience. So, thank you for being here tonight. But really really to thank PTA and LA and what a great partnership in the advisory commun there's a lot of work done and so I want to thank everyone for being here tonight but not just tonight it's really the culmination of several years like Brian mentioned it's really it does take a village and so we have really strong village so thank you for being here and for all the work we've done over the last year together and I want to thank um our LA TV partners

126who are always so supportive and I was very lucky as a former teacher I got to go see um some of the projects the teachers were doing last week and that was such a great opportunity. It was really I just to see that one of the projects the students said was how long does it take an ant to walk from the Bay Area down to LA and it was the kids had to learn it was a great math problem. I was like oh my god I never had a teacher like that was fun. Um, and I want to thank uh Kim Fletcher being great CSU partners, the maintenance and ground staff. If you've seen our campuses, they're looking kind of spiffy right now. Doing a lot of trimming, getting ready for the promotion ceremonies and

127for the the middle school graduation. So, want to thank our ground staff. It's everybody's been team effort. So, thank you. >> Uh, yes to all of those congratulations and thanks and thanks to you, too. I did the ELCAP for many years and understand the time and blood, sweat and tears that goes into that. So, thank you for doing that. And then I really wanted to call out UN has served as our um >> yes PTA council president for the last two years and we'll be terming off of that. So, thank you for your work of just kind of harnessing everyone and um I wanted to thank the advisory council who's been doing lots of additional work and Chrissa who I know left but who's been really taking the lead around LEF as president and uh

128folks are rotating off. So, so many good things have happened this year. Thank you for your service, all of you. It's been amazing and it's it's been really fun for me to like to watch like all of this unfolding. It's great. >> Brian, >> um as Sandra mentioned, I attended the end of year picnic which was a lot of fun. Um and I thought it was interesting. There's a particularly large cohort of teachers with who had 30 years of experience in the district >> this year due to way back in the 90s there was extra money for the state if you reduced your class sizes. So we hired a bunch we reduced our class sizes and the state money pay for and they're still here which I think is speaks to what Kim Bletcher was

129saying about >> longevity and how that reflects well. Uh, yes. Well, I enjoyed my block site visit with Sandra and I, um, enjoyed the Covington open house and I am really excited about our upcoming graduations preschool and Jan High. >> Um, I'm always confused at this time of the year. So, I went to the Oak open house. I think I did that since the last board meeting and it was great and the teachers were all very welcoming and it was wonderful to see the work of the students. >> Things just kind of blow together at this. I'm not sure what I did and what I did >> like I missed the picnic. I'm depressed. um want to emphasize again um how great a longtime PTA member it is to see the PTA LEF partnership come

130into fruition um that have been very important to me for a long time so it's nice that um even my absence from those groups it's it's uh they work with those I'm not there >> thank you for an um I Just wanted to uh just say that um June 20th, the school boards associ county school boards association is holding a candidate forum info session. >> Um the the job of a trustee is very complicated to say the least. And um this candidate forum is open to anyone who's thinking about running for school board uh district or county. And so I highly encourage if anyone's thinking about if you know of anyone who's thinking about it to come and hear from trustees what this role is really like August 20th um come join us at the

131farmers market farmers market. Come look for us there. Um and I just wanted to thank this board and all of you for giving me the grace to skip May 18th meeting. I genuinely don't like missing our meetings. Um, but I had a wonderful personal thing going on and my daughter graduated college and so, um, I didn't even want to check email. I'll be honest with you. I just wanted to be 100% present. So, um, thank you and thank you for running the >> We're a good team. >> We, uh, Almond came and did a great student presentation that we said you would have loved to have seen on that. Yeah. >> Well, I'll have to look it up on on that video. And with that, I would like to adjourn our meeting tonight. Thank you,

132everyone.