001Okay, we'll call science board meeting to order at 7:08. The 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 If technical difficulties occur or persist, the meeting will continue without broadcasting. Board President Serkey is unable to attend this evening's meeting. I'll call the roll. Brandon? Here. Bella? >> Here. Brian? Present. I am Loner and I'm also present. Uh I'll pledge allegiance to the honest students who lead us in the pledge. Please stand. Take your hats off. Put your right hand over your heart. Ready? Begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank
002you. Okay. Uh do any board members want to provide comment on this evening's agenda? Okay, hearing none, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? I move. I'll second. Okay. Uh Stella motion to approve the agenda, Brian seconded. Uh all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes unanimously. There was no action taken in closed session. Superintendent's update. >> Yes, a few things tonight. I wanted to let you know, thank you to Stella and Brian Zgorecki to attend, but we celebrated our staff and teacher of the year awards last week, and it was so great to bring together folks from across the district to really highlight with great staff members and teachers that we have and school psychologists that we have across the district. I wanted to let you know that
003each year we have a small group who selects one teacher of the year from the pool of the teacher of the years across the district to represent the district as they go on to the county um teacher of the year competition is not the right word, but you know what I mean. Um yes, and we're thrilled that the group recognized Candace Marquez as our district teacher of the year. Candace is one of our amazing PE teachers. She mentors all of our new PE teachers. She works closely with Junior Olympics. She's a great district treasure. So, we're so thrilled to celebrate Candace. Um and you'll be invited, I assume, it'll be in October again to the county um teacher of the year celebration. So, that was really exciting. Um several of us were at the Leadership
004Circle event at our LAUSD last week, and it's just a great opportunity to thank some of the um donors within our community, and it was wonderful to hear from a student panel around AI, around what they think great learning looks like in their classrooms, and how they're becoming future-ready, hopeful learners. So, that was excellent, and thank you to Grace Toy who helped put that panel together, and Brandon Marquez, the other half of Candace Marquez, um who was also on the panel as well. Really great event. I will let Dr. Bosco later this evening talk about our student ambassadors, but it was a really highlight of our of my week last week. Um wanted to thank Eric and Kimberly Dickerson. We met with our architect design team to talk about materials and finishes for the San
005Antonio campus. Um, really it's always interesting to you know, we're getting into details of what carpet and what color paints and all of those fun things. Um, and then just a reminder we have open house this Thursday. Jim, are you still able to go to Oak? Did that work for you? Excellent. Stella, you'll be at Covington. Um, Brandon and I are going to go to Santa Rita. Are you No, you'll be gone. No problem. We'll we'll get the district folk to go over to Loyola. And then Monday's a holiday, it's Memorial Day. Next Friday's a minimum day. This school year is coming to a rapid close. Rapid close, but lots of good things happening over the next two and a half weeks. That's it for me. Thank you. Now, on to our school presentation. Is
006this our first time to ask you is this our last school presentation? This is our last school presentation with the mighty Almond Eagles. Tell us about Almond Kindness Eagles. And Raquel Matteroli is here to kick us off. Almond says Good evening, members of the board. Thank you so much for having Almond School here to present to you tonight. My name is Raquel Matteroli. I am the proud principal at Almond School. A few things I want to share before the kids come up. Um, this evening I have the pleasure of introducing an incredible group of fourth and fifth grade students. They are called the Kindness Eagles. Um, let's see. For the past several years as a school community, Almond has been deeply focused on creating spaces where every student feels um, safe, connected, and a true
007sense of belonging. Through student leadership, empathy, and service, the Kindness Eagles have helped bring that vision to life in meaningful ways across our campus. Tonight our students will share how they are building a culture of kindness and inclusion at Allen, and the impact this work is having on our school community. At this time, I would like to invite Ms. Nguyen, Ms. Harvey, and our student presenters to the podium. As you begin, we'd like everyone in this room to think about a time when someone made your day better with one small act of kindness. Maybe someone smiled at you, invited you to sit, or or noticed you were having a hard day. Did it help you feel included? Did it help you feel connected? Those feelings are what inspire the Kindness Eagles, because small moments can
008change someone's day. Hello, members of the board, Assistant Superintendent McGonigal, Assistant Superintendent Bosco, and Assistant Superintendent Bolakale. Thank you for inviting us to share about the Kindness Eagles program. There are two teachers and 21 Kindness Eagles making our school more connected, welcoming, and kind. First, thank you, Ms. Nguyen and Ms. Harvey, for your guidance in this program. You lead by example and help us help others. I'm Sophia, this is Lily, Sonia, Carol, Lisa, Mayor, Julian, Ali, Emily, Rhea, and Francesca. We notice when others feel left out. We include them. We are students who notice conflict. We help solve it kindly. We are students who notice loneliness. We choose connection. Small moments can change someone's day. Our program started when we gathered as a group to talk about the strengths of our school and the challenges
009students still face on the playground. We realized that many conflicts happened because students didn't always know how to solve problems kindly or include others. Those ideas helped us see a need for our school and inspired us to turn our observations to action. We'd like the board members to participate in something for 10 seconds. Please turn to someone near you and give them one compliment. >> [laughter] >> That only took a few seconds, but I noticed big smiles on your faces from both the person giving the compliment and receiving the compliment. Some of you even sat up a little bit taller. Moments like that can help people feel connected, included, and important. Small moments can change someone's day. So, to think about what we could do to help make Almond even better, we became observers on
010the playground. We noticed students arguing during games, students being left out, and students struggling to solve problems kindly. We learned a conflict resolution process called step that helps students stop, listen, and solve problems kindly. Then we started helping students use those skills during recess. We'd like to show you a short example of a common playground conflict where the Kindness Eagles come help solve the conflict using the step process. >> Here we have Sophia and Carol who are having name calling and friendship problems. Mason and Lily are our kindness keepers that will help solve the conflict when Sophia and Carol are mad. I thought you were my friend. Well, you shouldn't have called me a jerk then. Well, you started it. >> No, you started it. Okay, maybe you can go to the kindness keeper. Maybe
011not. So, do you guys have a problem? Yeah. No, big surprise. Don't worry, we're here to help. Let's use the problem-solving steps to solve your guys guys conflict. Let's first state the problem. What would Uh I feel blank because blank when blank. I feel sad when someone calls me a bad friend because that hurts my feelings. Well, I feel mad when someone calls me a jerk because that makes me feel mad. Okay. Now, let's think of solutions. What would help you solve the problem? I think she should stop stop calling me names. Well, I think we should both apologize to each other. Now, we're going to explore consequences. For example, what would happen if we took Carol's solution and you guys held grudges and were still mad at each other? Looking at Sophia's solution, where
012you guys would apologize to each other and you guys could be friends again. If we apologize to each other, then we wouldn't be mad at each other and we'd be friends again. Well, if you hadn't called me a jerk, then the situation wouldn't have wouldn't have happened. Well, now we're going to pick the best solution. For this, we're going to vote on the holding grudges and being mad versus apologizing to each other and being friends. I think we should apologize. I also think we should apologize. Okay. Now you guys are going to face each other like this and apologize to each other. Who is first? I'm sorry I called you a jerk. I won't do it again. I'm sorry I called you a bad friend. I won't do it again. Good job, girls. You both
013earned a kindness sticker. Before kindness eagles, conflicts sometimes ended with students angry, crying, or walking away. Now students have peers who help them slow down, listen to each other, and solve problems calmly. One way we help students feel connected is by being morning greeters. We know some students may come to school feeling nervous, lonely, or upset. So we welcome them with a smile, waves, and encouragement. We want every student to feel team or they block his hands. We also revived the buddy bench. This is what the buddy bench used to look like, and this is how it looks like now. My family and I stripped off the peeling plastic and gave it a brand new coat of paint, and now it looks inviting and comforting. In fact, on the very first day we announced the
014revival of the buddy bench, another kindness eagle and I saw a student sitting there looking sitting alone looking sad. We sat next to him, talked with him, and helped him find people to play with. By the end of recess, he was smiling and happy. We believe small moments can change someone's day. We also help them achieve their kindergarten playing goals. The younger students say that they feel that they feel special when older students come help them play with them. We model kindness, fairness, and problem-solving. We created a kindness eagles game. For games, students can join for recess. Some students come with friends, and some students come because they want someone to play. It helps students feel included and connected. We also invited students of our cluster school to make kindness commitments. Students wrote promises on
015paper hearts about how they wanted to treat others. And then, we added it to our kindness tree. At first, it was just branches, but little by little, it filled with kindness. It reminds us that kindness school grows with everyone helps. We know the kindness eagles are making a difference because students choose to often talk to us about conflict before talking to adults. Since we're similar in age, we can relate better to them. Sometimes, students even stay after the bell to finish solving problems with them. That shows they feel heard and understood when their peers help them solve conflicts. As a kindness eagle, I have noticed more students including others. They're more patient, too. As a kindness eagle, I have noticed kids playing together appropriately and smiling more during recess. While the kindness eagles have helped
016many students, being kindness eagle has also helped me. When I was new to the school, I felt lonely. But being in the kindness eagles has helped me develop confidence and friendship. Being a kindness eagle makes me feel like I have a purpose because I get to help people feel good about themselves. Work done. Being a kindness eagle has made me feel like Being a kindness eagle has made me kinder because when I have a conflict, instead of getting mad and just complaining, I can now ask for help. Being a kindness eagle has taught me that even a high five or smile can help others feel seen and cared for. My leadership skills have improved because I can model kindness and help solve conflict. We learned that kindness doesn't have to be something huge. Sometimes smallest
017moments matter most. A smile, a game invitation, a kind word, or helping someone solve a problem peacefully. Small moments can change someone's day. And lots of small moments can help change a whole school. Thank you. That was great. >> Love it. Charlie's going to be so upset he missed Thanks. Uh that was really, really great. Thank you all. It was amazing. Amen. Yes. Well, I thought it was extremely well rehearsed because you had that timing down pat. And I've read about you in the Almond newsletter, so it's so nice to actually meet you in person and I just wanted to thank you for coming tonight to share with all the good work you've been doing. Thank you so much. It to the consent calendar. All consent calendar items are considered to be routine and will
018be approved in one motion. There will be no separate discussion of these items. If discussion is required, items may be removed for separate consideration. Are there any questions from the board? Are there any requests for public comment? Would any board members like to provide comments on this agenda item? Can I get a motion to approve the consent calendar? So moved. Can I get a second? Second. Okay, I have a motion to approve the consent calendar by Stella seconded by Brian. Um all in favor say I. I'm in favor. Any opposed? Okay, the motion passes unanimously. Any requests to address the board? Does Look, there's nobody here from Los Altos Teachers. Okay. Um from California School Employees Association, Kim Blackshear. Hello. I would like to take some of you to thank Carrie. She helped spearhead a
019CTAG. So you might have heard the Teacher Advisory Group, TAG, and then we decided this year to try CTAG, and it has been a wonderful opportunity to bring in some people. Some people are regular faces that we see at CACY meetings, and actually several people are people who've been in the district for many years and actually do not tend to raise their hand. One of them actually told us outright that she's never been to a single meeting or an opportunity to meet board members or anyone else in the district. She sticks to her little classroom. And so it's so wonderful to hear from them and hear kind of their thoughts. And Lindsay has also been a part of it so that we can come up with an action plan for some additional steps. But the
020big thing I took away that I wanted to share was also over and over again they said that when you guys come on and you take that extra moment to say hi, how is the year going? Hi, since the tech specialist to say, are your computers ready for school? That little moment of saying that you see them really does mean a lot. And so, I just wanted to encourage you that when you do have that opportunity to come on our campuses, classified staff also love to hear see from you. And also that they don't feel like always people realize what they're doing the behind the scenes and it really sticks with them when somebody says hi. We actually have multiple people can name. Three weeks ago, so-and-so came into the classroom and they checked in
021with me. Two years ago, so-and-so, I got to talk with them and it was such a wonderful opportunity. So, when you guys do take that moment, it really stays with them and it really helps build that relationship. I think it helps people also raise their hand for more support cuz actually a lot of it that we heard from also was not problems. It was actually a lot of like, this is what I'd like to be the my next steps. I would love to have more opportunities for training, more opportunities to meet other people. And so, I think that's actually our biggest place of growth right now is connection and those time ways to meet people where they're at. So, I just wanted to thank you both. Thank you, Karen. Thank you. Okay, to provide public
022comment 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. For community comments, this time is reserved for the public to address the board on items not on the agenda. Community members wishing to address the board are allotted one, two, or three minutes per speaker subject to an overall time limit of 30 minutes per item. The board and administration welcomes welcome this opportunity to listen. However, the board is not permitted to discuss or take action on non-agenda items except to instruct the superintendent to review the matter further and report back to the board at a subsequent meeting or place the matter on a future agenda. The board may make a
023brief comment or ask clarifying questions. This time is reserved for members of the public and employees to address the board on items that are not on the agenda. The board is not permitted to discuss or take action on non-agenda items except to instruct the superintendent to review the matter further, report back to the board at a subsequent meeting, or place the matter on a future agenda. The board may make a brief comment or ask clarifying questions. Looks like we have one speaker um for this. Uh Vladimir Ivanovic, you have 3 minutes. Good evening, administrators, members of the board. I'm Vladimir Ivanovic, a resident of El Sereno and a former member of this board. I'd like to share with you some questions about the 10th site that I think it behooves you to answer. First one
024is, what are you going to do if no school ends up occupying the 10th site? There's a non-zero chance that you will not be able to force BCS to move to the 10th site. And since no LAUSD school is interested in moving there, what are you going to do with an empty campus? Second question is, why are you adding capacity when our campuses are currently underutilized? In 2019, our enrollment was 1/3 more than this now, and forecasts are for continued but slow decline. So, why are you adding capacity when there's no demand? Question number three. What are you going to do if building the 10 site or since your taxes are passing with a future bond measure? I don't think the community understands that building the 10 site for PCS will result in adding perhaps
025between $600 and $1,200 to every homeowner's property tax bill annually for 30 years. Given the outrage on Nextdoor about the $15.31 annual mosquito tax, I think the [clears throat] blowback is going to be severe. What then? And number four, how are you going to mitigate some security serious security issues? These are really need You really need to address these if you want any school to move to the 10 site. Thank you and I'm happy to elaborate if you're interested. In any [clears throat] case, I left the one pager on the table there with some more points to do. Thank you, Vladimir. No questions? All right. Thank you. Happy to have a conversation if you want. What's that? I said I'm happy to have a conversation if you or anyone else would like to go over
026those points. Well, I did have one question for Eric. Um is it part of our plan to remove portables from the Block and Eagan campus uh except for the ones we plan to use for our sixth graders. Any unused portables would be removed. That's correct. Yes. Okay. All right. Now on to this evening's action and discussion. Uh since since you put in Okay. I'd like to invite Claire Crane, our student and staff wellness student coordinator, and Alyssa Heinz, our school psychologist, who will share an update of this year's mental health program. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. It is so unfortunate that we have to go after that wonderful presentation by our >> [laughter] >> Okay. Um I'm Claire Crane, coordinator of student services. Um I am here with Alyssa Heinz, who's one of
027our school psychologists at Oak School. Um she also has also helped out at uh several other schools as well. Um but we are here to talk about my favorite topic, which is mental health, and give a little update about kind of where we were this year and where we're headed next year. Um so, just kind of um why we're talking about this right now, we continue to see students daily, um sometimes planned, sometimes unplanned, um but all of our mental health providers are open for business every single day. Um we prioritize student needs above anything else. So, if we have meetings or other things that are scheduled, if there is a student in crisis, we drop everything to support that student. Um and for many families, schools are the first point of entry for mental
028health services, um and it's often times their first introduction to mental health services. Um that's why we think that early intervention is so critical because we know that mental health has an impact on learning in the classroom. So, just um a little refresher um and broad overview of the supports in Los Altos. So, at our elementary campuses, we partner with a organization called Adolescent Counseling Services or ACS. So, they are mental health trainees who are at each of our seven elementary sites, um and they support students um in the counseling setting. We also have a fully licensed uh marriage and family therapist who's at one of our school sites who sees children. Um and then our junior highs, we have full-time therapists at at each site, and then um we have our wellness centers, which
029um we just opened last year. I know several of you were at the opening, so we've been up and running for about a year now with our wellness centers. And then district-wide we have nine school psychologists who are at each um, site across the district. Um, additionally, the psychologists partner with Stanford, so we have a relationship with Stanford where um, every other week we consult with a Stanford psychiatrist. And the role of that consultation is really to provide um, the school sites with services for any cases that are really acute or that span beyond the scope of school services. They help us to connect um, partnerships within the community. And then recently this year we just added um, an on-site psychiatrist through Stanford who is mostly stationed at Santa Rita this year, um, but his
030role is to be able to see families directly, consult with students, parents, um, and he can do some assessments as well. Additionally, we have a partnership this year with Pacific Clinic Services, um, and they are the the larger company that took over CHAC. Um, but the benefit of working with them this year is that um, we have signed a partnership with them and their program is called Bloom and Soar. And they will see students outside of the school setting, so any students who either we can't see in the school setting or might not be appropriate for school-based services, they will take the students and um, see them for counseling services. They provide family counseling services as well. Um, one of the great benefits of them is if families do not have access to mental or
031sorry, to insurance, they will help connect them to insurance and get services for families. Um, and then of course we do see students who are in our special education program and then 504. So, pretty um, wide scope of services. I'm going to have Alyssa jump in and talk about what elementary um, or sorry, what sites what services look like at the elementary sites. Um, so it can really look like a few things. Um, individual counseling is what most of us are doing most of the time um, when we're seeing students. Um, this is very tailored to their needs, so depends on the student, it's case by case. Um, we also do small group support, so this could be social skills, it could be working on coping strategies. I don't know who was here when the
032tree fell on um but we have very specific groups that was that were helping students process that event and work through it. Um so it really just depends on kind of the cluster of needs that we're seeing and how we can work to address them as a group if that is what is appropriate. Um and then for crisis intervention and check-ins, um this could look like threat assessments, risk assessments. Um and when this happens, it is a drop everything you're doing um and we do within our psych group have other psychs um Monica and Layla Monica who if we feel like we need more hands on deck, if it's not something that we can do on our own and we just want more eyes on the situation, they also drop what they're doing and come
033over and help support with that. Um and then looking at numbers for the year. Um when working with ACS, we have had 163 referrals. Um so 163 students that were referred to be seen and 151 of those have been seen. The number is a little different because maybe it was that we were referring them to be seen outside of school, maybe their needs were a little bit bigger than the scope of what we can address within the school setting um or potentially student or parents deciding it's not something that they want to proceed with. Um so 151 is the number of students that we're seeing total. Um and then on top of that, um individual students seen by school psychologist um is 54 students um and then that's across our seven elementary sites. Um that's
034not including our um middle school numbers. Um As I mentioned, ACS ran several groups. Um one thing we wanted to highlight is this year and last year when we started partnering with ACS, we do have um continued support from Spanish-speaking therapists, which has been really helpful. Um it's something we really appreciate. And then new this year, ACS is um offering community counseling program a community counseling program, so we can refer parents and students to that if they need continued support. Again, if it's outside of our scope. Um so, there are currently eight families that are working with that, and then we have four more that are moving towards receiving that service as well. And then, a nice little note to kind of highlight um our students really appreciate the support. Um it's something that's really
035meaningful to them, and bonds are created that are, as Blair said, it's sometimes the first access points to therapy. Um so, "Dear Ms. Elvie, Ms. Elvie, you help me when I'm sad and scared. I like when you play with me, make projects with me, and play games with me. You're the best counselor ever. Sincerely, your student. P.S. You are the best counselor ever." They wanted to drive that point home. Okay, um then I'm going to talk about our junior high services. So, at junior high, um we also do one-to-one counseling. They have small groups of four. Um like I said, there's full-time mental health therapists, and then our wellness centers are really up and running this year. Um so, at Block, there are currently 17 individual students who are seen on a weekly basis. At
036Egan, that number is a little bit higher with 35. Um but we just we um a lot of our funding for our mental health counselors and our wellness centers is through grants, and so we collect a lot of data for um grant purposes. And so, we just did a big data collection in March. And um as of March, we had 3,579 mental health touch points. Um and so, that could either be students who are being seen for counseling, students who are in crisis, students who are visiting wellness center, um check-ins, conflict resolution, um just so a wide variety of mental health needs. Um so, when I broke that down by the number of mental health counselors that we have across two sites, that means that um a mental health provider is seeing about five students
037a day. Truthfully, I think that number is actually a little low. I think it's actually more students than that. Um but this is just based off of the data that we are collecting hard hard facts with. Um, and then I want to highlight our wellness centers a little bit because this has been a huge success. Um, we've gotten a lot of really positive feedback. So, our wellness centers at both of our uh sites, wellness center at Egan and they call it the Thrive and Vibe Center at Locke. Um, they're dedicated spaces for students to relax, engage with peers, have a snack, play some games. Um, really excited that they are both tech-free zones. So, when you go there, you won't see students on computers or um engaging with friends um using technology. Um, and it's
038really a way for our mental health therapist to connect with kids that they might not otherwise connect with. Um, and they are there. Uh, it's open every lunch and um at some sites it's open for brunch time as well. Um, they do our our um therapists do such a great job of with programming. So, these are three events that I wanted to highlight. So, at the start of the year at Locke, um they host a pizza party and it's um specifically for tailored towards newcomer students who are new to the district, who haven't been in LAUSD. And the focus is really on integrating them into the Locke campus and helping them make connections. Um, so this year, um they had over 50 students to create some pizza and um chat at lunch together. Um, we
039celebrate um kindness week. And so, at both of our sites, the students were doing random acts of kindness. This picture here is of students writing chalk positive chalk messages on um Locke's campus. They also sent cards to each other and to adults. Um, and then the last is the biggest hit, which is um the farm that comes to Locke. And so, they intentionally schedule this during state testing and they bring animals to campus. Um, so there's chickens, guinea pigs, um a pony came. Um, and they're brought there so that And that's open to all, so you are welcome to come and sign up for that. Um, and then I just want to say that, you know, a lot of the work that we do, we're we're really thankful for our partners. We cannot do this
040um on our own. So, I know, you know, we've I've already mentioned Stanford and ACS, but we also um Amity Community Clinic Services, but we also are so thankful to LEAF who provides a lot of our funding for um ACS and at the elementary level. And then, um I spoke earlier about grants, um El Camino Hospital District um heavily funds one of our mental health therapists positions up at junior high. So, really appreciative of their support. And then, just kind of looking ahead and next steps. Um so, what we know is that students and families are utilizing the supports that are in place. Um one thing that I'm really proud of is mental health is becoming normalized um at our campuses. And so, students are, you know, more willing to talk about it and um
041it's not such a uh the counseling centers are not uh associated with the stigma of shame. Um it's it's something that students are are really utilizing and it's becoming normalized. Um our wellness centers have been a huge um success. Uh we were able to get off the ground due to funding from Valley Health. Um unfortunately, that funding is ending. So, right now, one of our challenges is looking ahead and how we can continue sustaining these programs that we have. Um I have asked for an additional one-time increase in funding with El Camino. Um we hope to hear in June Yeah. um if we get that funding or not. Um so, kind of thinking about creative ways to sustain the wonderful programs that we have. And I just want to end on um a positive note
042that we truly have incredible mental health providers at our campus at all of our campuses. Um it is such an honor for me to work with these amazing humans every day and I can confidently say that they care so deeply about kids and I feel really, really confident that our kids and our families are in really good hands with our current providers. So, very, very thankful for our mental health providers. That's my update. If there's any questions, I'm happy to answer them, but thank you. And just to say before we started, if anyone would like to provide public comment, please submit a speaker card. Um are there any questions from the board? I have I have a question. Um you had mentioned at the junior highs that the wellness centers are open at lunch. Some
043sites they're open for brunch. There's only two sites. I'm just wondering if they >> [clears throat] >> You you meant days at different Okay. >> Yeah. That's what I meant. >> At both campuses. Yeah. That's what I thought. I just wanted to Clarify. Yeah. Thank you. Yes. All right. Yeah, and we would love I mean ultimately we would love to get to a place where they're open all the time so that students can access them during the day, too. Um you know, it would be ideal if they could Students having a really hard time in the middle of class, they could access the wellness center in the middle of the day. Right now we're just trying to figure out the staffing. We're learning how to make that work. Okay. There are no requests for public
044comment. Are there other board discussion? Well, I just wanted to thank the El Camino Healthcare District for the support that they've provided. And um yeah, we're grateful to their board, you know, that they do offer us this grant money, and I really hope that we get the grant program money this for next year. Agreed. Yeah, and they have been such a a long-standing partner with us as well for years. I mean, I think we're going on 10 years maybe now of their funding. So, we really really benefit from them. All right. Personal comment as well. I think Thank you for the presentation. Thank you for all the work you do. Uh you know, it's always very important, so you know, if the grant grants go away or we can't get any increases, then you know,
045I'm certainly supportive of figuring out other ways to avoid scaling back these services. It's obviously a needed service. Yeah, that means a lot. Thank you. It's we care a lot about it, so thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Fun to see you here, Alyssa. >> [laughter] >> Page 17 says Measure M and E bond project budget revisions. If anyone would like to provide public comment on this item, please submit a speaker card. Uh Well, good evening. Let's see. We met last week in a study session. And we reviewed uh project list for Measure E. E. And I also kind of did a review uh summary of uh some positions that need to be made. So, we're going to bring those to you today. I'm not sure if the I think
046I was talking, didn't I? Oh, that's okay. Patience. Sorry. I'm good. Um so, uh in the in your board packet, there are the couple items and I'm going to go over the the um the spreadsheets first and then I'll go over the memo and kind of explain the action that has to go with the statement. So, the first item in front of you is a Measure N. Uh that was passed in 2014. Uh we did some financing with some bond anticipation notes and some sales. Uh all of Measure N has been authorized and sold, so there's no more remaining authorization uh to sell bonds. Uh the last one was 2 years ago. >> [clears throat] >> We paid off the remaining bond anticipation note. We had a $79 million note, but we had $85 million
047in authorization. So, the district needed a little over $6 million. That money needs to be spent. Uh we've been working with our outside auditors and then also the Bond Oversight Committee to make sure that there are some spend down requirements when you have tax-exempt bonds. Um it's nice that the bond money earns interest, but you also have to spend down requirement. You have to reasonably spend uh 85% of the bonds within 3 years. And so, one of the actions tonight will be asking you to make sure that we allocate the rest of the remaining bonds of funds that are available to manage to the San Antonio campus project. The the list you have in front of you is a several pages. The first one is really just showing you all the bond dollars per measure
048and that were spent at each site. Um and so, there is a little bit of a project at each site. Um some of the newer projects, we will bring every project to the board. And as I mentioned at last week's study session, anytime we change the budget or allocate funds to different projects, we'll be bringing that for a budget revision back to the board. So, the board will be able to commit those funds to other projects or move or or decrease the scope or increase the scope as needed. Um so, when you look through this list, we've got all the different projects. Some of them are going back 10 10-plus years. Um the the district borrowed some funds to do for both legislation for both charter school at Block School and at Egan. And they
049had to pay off the line of credit. So, that's what the Wells Fargo line of credit is there for. Um bond counsel has reviewed all the budget transactions. All the expenditures have been audited every single year. There've been no findings or irregularities at all. Um The very last page is the San Antonio campus. Um as more um consulting contracts become, we have really one big contract left and that's for special inspections. Um and special inspections will be going out for bid, but we're going to budget about 850,000 for that. Um and once we get the pricing from them, then we'll adjust accordingly. The purchase of the site is on there. The encumbered amount is the full contract for the design build. So, at this time, as of published publication, we spent about 5.3 million on
050the design build contract for block construction and their design team. Uh there's a lot of different consultants on here. There is 3 million in contingency and then also in the 100 and uh 16 million dollar contract, there is um there's some uh project construction and design contingency. We don't anticipate needing it, but uh once you dig into the dirt, you don't know what you'll find. So, we're hoping um the good news is that it seemed one up today. So, I visited the site today. The construction fencing is up around Kohl's and kind of on the uh around the property. They're working very uh closely with Federal Realty to get the rest of the parking spots at the 24-Hour Fitness. It's difficult because people work out 24 hours a day. So, they're working on getting those
051uh parking stalls fenced off. They'll be comp- completing that tonight. So, that's the first document and I just want to stop and pause here if there's any questions on uh about Measure A. Okay. The next item um is when we had our study session last week was we were looking at uh a potential project list really for phase two. Phase one is going to be the San Antonio campus and then work is going to be required for middle school model, which will also happen in the fall of 2028. Um you know, when we look at um the overall project, we try to line up I got to talk to the person who's like sitting here. The other uh handout that was uh handed out ahead of time, let me pull my up. Is we have
052phase one, which is the San Antonio campus. Phase two is middle school model. And you can see there's some notes on side of where we're at in those. Um Once we get this budget approved, then we'll be working on getting a contract hired. Two, the first project is really San Antonio campus starting construction, that's already done. But then really look at the middle school model. What is going to be done if you can walk? We'll try to get a an architect hired this summer. And then same thing with Polk, Almond, and Santa Rita. So those that'll be phase two. Uh we'll be revising the budgets. Lots of great questions um from school sites and parents and board members about reducing scope as needed. Um really right now we want to be as conservative as you
053can in budget. And as we get closer to design and construction at every phase, just like during the design build phase, uh the budget will be revised. And there'll be revisions during schematic design, design development, and then construction drawings. The scope and the project and the budget will get tighter as we go. But you have to start somewhere, just like in our multi-year projections, we have kind of a big number. And then as we get closer to the budget year, it gets tighter and tighter. Uh very similar to a bond program, just the multi-year expenditure plan. This will be uh phase two. Um then at the bottom of the um document has um the program cost. This is the the cost actually run the bond program. Um we haven't hired a program coordinator yet. We
054haven't hired accounting yet. We will be doing that soon. Most likely late summer, early fall. There's project contingency and then also program contingency. So if one project comes over run, we can pull from those dollars. Um and then anytime when we have a budget, these are limited funds. Um so our expenditure right now are 380 million and then the revenue is um 380 million as well. I tried to highlight in the very bottom uh on the last page is looking at the revenue. We have remaining measure N dollars. We have in fund 210, those are proceeds from lease revenue when we had the Cole Shopping Center open, we were generating revenue. We earned some uh, we had a developer give us $5 million, that is in there. Uh, we try to be very deliberate and
055we'll bring that back to the board at a later meeting with the bond audit that comes back of separating the bond proceeds versus non-bond bond proceeds. Uh, we have measure EE fund 212. We have potential state funding in TVRs. Uh, we're not committing the TVR money that's in there with $10.3 million that's sitting in fund 210 that it we're not asking to commit that finance meeting. Uh, so the overall overall total um, revenue at this time is 380 and this number will change as we get true interest numbers, if state funding comes in, then we'll be able to adjust the revenue and we'll it will bring that back to the board at a ready time. So the memo, um, try try that kind of highlight uh, where the board is looking at the memo uh,
056exactly what action we're asking you to take. The memo's highlighting the amount of fund for at time of publication they're actually in use fund. So the mid measure N is $150 million additional budget and then we're asking the board tonight to commit the remaining measure N funds, approximately $15 million. The reason I can't give you the exact number because if we pay for something today, the number changed already, right? But how much is actually remaining, but we want to have the board commit the remaining measure N funds uh, to spend those down. The bond oversight committee um, they're kind of have an interesting job. They're overseeing two bonds, so there will be a very slight lapse where they'll be overseeing the last couple of dollars of measure N and then once we start spending measure
057EE, they'll have to oversee both bonds, but it won't be for very long. The way construction goes and if we're on time, measure N will be spent down probably by the end of the calendar year. And then we'll start using other proceeds which be fund 210. So, the measure EE budget is now in a separate fund which we kept separate and that's called fund 212 and the board approved that fund to be opened up last fall. We're going to commit $126 million to the phase one of the San Antonio campus project. We're asking the board to commit phase two projects of 56 million and then the future modernization projects are unallocated and once we the projects we start getting them lined up, then we'll allocate funds for them and identify which school they're going to
058then. And so the total budget I have it there is 380 million and then the last one is fund 210. These are there's an approximately $11 million in there from the building fund. We were holding that fund for some lease revenue when we had the Waldorf school. That's kind of what was going in there and then we started putting in some other funds from the San Antonio campus. So, that fund right now has 11 million 11 million dollars and we're asking the board also to commit the the remaining funds that are 210 except for the TVRs that to commit that also to the San Antonio campus project. Once those funds are are depleted, then the only other revenue source we'll have is is potential state funding and then remaining measure EE fund 212. So, this
059is an action item. It's a lot of movement, but we're trying to Anytime you're closing out one bond program and then starting another one, this is pretty common to do that. I have any questions. Bond counsel has reviewed the action and has no problems with the action asked of the board to take tonight. So, this is an action item, and we're asking you to approve the budget revisions to measure N and EE bond projects. Um Okay. Are there any questions from the board? Are there any requests for public comment? Board members would like to provide comment. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve the budget revisions to measure N and EE bond projects? So moved. Can I get a second? Second. Okay. Is there any further board discussion? Okay. I have a motion by
060Stella to approve the budget revisions to measure N and EE bond projects, seconded by Brian. All in favor, say I. I. >> I. Any opposed? Okay. The motion passes unanimously. Okay. District facility standards. If anyone would like to provide public comment, please submit a speaker card. Jamal Kevich. Okay. Uh in previous meeting that we gave us the draft standards, uh made any like typographical changes and things. Uh I wanted to point out there's one section that is a placeholder for landscape standards. Those have not been developed. We had a nice meeting with the Living Classroom. They were like, "Hey, can we ask like what type of plants I guess to make sure we have native plants?" So, we'll get some of their feedback. We also want to have time get feedback from the Living Classroom,
061from some of our ground staff of what things are easy to maintain, uh because when we plant things, we want them to be drought tolerant, easy to maintain, and safe around kids. Um so, that we will address those in future. There's also some educational specifications that we'll be bringing back the board. Part of our master planning and and really for state funding is that we're required to have a facility master plan with a 10-year you know, with the different maintenance plan and then you have just some educational specifications so we'll bring those back. So when we're applying for state funding we can get a lot for that. So this is a action item to approve the district facility standards and Sandra um I think she really enjoyed picking out carpet and all the different finishes
062and cabinetry. It was actually really it was really nice to have Kimberly Dickerson there. Very artistic and has way better color scheme design than I do. So I appreciate having the extra support. So it was really nice. This is an action item to approve the district facility standards. Are there any questions board? Are there any requests for public comment? Are there any board members like to provide comments? I yeah. So I'm I sent an email to Eric cuz I want sort of understand the context of this and because in particular the data port standard I just sort of as I was skimming through I noticed that it was sort of talking about 16 data ports for classroom which seems like a lot in the year 2026. Um and so I just to make sure that
063I understand this document correctly like basically this is so that when we go out to for bids for contractors they understand exactly what we're asking them to do, right? And that you know, we end up with the same thing at every school rather than like the contractor on one school or designer sort of calling for one set of stuff and other schools calling for other set of stuff. The goal here is that everything will be done consistently but that there's still scope for when we're drilling down and doing value engineering on a particular project like this is not like the last word and like we said this and then that's what's going to happen and it's just sort of current base layer, right? And then I think it's on the like the first two pages
064of the of the document, there's a thing there for revisions. And so anytime we make revisions, we'll note that in the document so we'll have kind of historical reference. An example I use is a great one. Sometimes when we're out in the when you're doing trenching, you'll put in a couple extra conduits cuz you might need them later on. Same thing with a classroom, you might want to have extra conduits, but it is expensive to run the cat cable cat six cable from the um from the data reserve rack all the way to the classroom. So we'll be working with Val and our tech team to make sure we're not over-engineering or something, you know, and there's also value of the wireless access points that are right there. Those are pretty good in most classrooms.
065We want to have some flexibility, but yes, well, value engineering is the term where you have as you do construction drawings, the contractor will say no, you don't need that many, you need two, and then they'll help us then that's how you that's how you save money. Right. Yeah. Well, that's my question, right? Like it doesn't, you know, and then it's hard to see us, you know, pulling 16 cat six cables to a TK classroom, for example, right? So Yeah, in the old days I think when we had computer labs and things like that and everything was plugged in, but now there's so much wireless with the Chromebooks and other things, it's not as needed as it used to be in the past. Thank you. Hello. Okay. I Yeah, I actually also have a question.
066I just assumed, but I would like some confirmation that there were about like who was consulted on all the materials and standards and so forth because it's more complicated than like what the typical homeowner would know, right? Yeah, we we had meetings with all the maintenance and operations staff, several meetings with them over asking them what what type of products should we be using and what what has been working well what is our standard and then we also had a sign up some administrators we had a couple principals one elementary one middle school so we try to get good stakeholder input the site administrators like the principals generally they just want to make sure the HVAC unit is quiet and functional they didn't really care if it was a train or a carrier but but
067those are important things controls functionality so those are the things that the maintenance staff really look to and then also you know you want to have the same fire you want to have the same carpet the color might vary a little bit but you want to have some similar standardization and like Brian said that it makes it easier to repair easier to maintain everybody knows how to maintain that flooring material the carpet most of which is easier to but yeah standardization is the best way to do it we're slowly doing bells and clocks and things like that trying to get things more updated I also appreciate that the another thing I think is so life we want stuff that's also cheap and easy to maintain like we're not things we're not going to have trouble
068getting parts in 10 years and we're you know we want like stuff that's off the shelf and we're confident that for the next 25 years it's not going to be an issue something dies to find replacements any other comments can I get a motion to approve the district facility standards for new construction and modernization so moved I get a second second is there any further board discussion I have a motion from Stella seconded by Brian to approve the district facility standards for the new construction and modernization all in favor I any opposed the motion passes unanimously board policy up And one would like to provide comment on this these 10 minutes. Your card. Yes, just one board policy tonight for discussion. It will come back on the first for approval. This is our inter-district transfer
069policy with some updates from CSBA and a small change to the agreement with the employees for Mountain View Los Altos High School District. A small change there. Any questions from the board? Any public comment? Any discussion from the board? Okay. So, board and administration comments. We always start with you, Carrie. Thank you. I wanted to mention earlier that we had the most fun last week. We did a meeting of student ambassadors. Through good students from all nine schools, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. And we asked them about their perspectives on their student experience. What's working, what could be be better, if they could change one thing tomorrow, what would it be? We talked with them about our middle school model, got their input on electives. And then I my group was all about student supports.
070So, are they accessing the wellness centers, mental health supports? What might be getting in the way? And it was just such a fun after school event. So, I want to thank Sandra for also running a table group. Kelly Rafferty helped plan it as well. And then the 21 students who who came and participated. We did a little exit ticket with them. And the final question was, if we can be more student ambassador meetings in the future, would you be willing to participate? What feedback you have for us? 100% Yes. And even with the hearts. It was just such a fun event to They speak Carrie's love language. It was so fun. And speaking of love language, Emily mentioned we had our classified confidential team advisory group meeting last week. That was my teacher advisory group
071today. And it was our final meeting. So, it was also just a really nice opportunity to reflect on the year, what things we've accomplished. The voices from teachers and classified staff. So, that's just been an honor to work with those two groups. Our topic today was around district communications. And again, just feedback, what's working, what could be improved. Um and we got a lot of feedback about they love our district power page, which is all of our curriculum and instructional links and materials. They'd like to see more of an employee power page. So, where can they find information about HR matters or how to submit a work order. So, that was very helpful to to chat with them. And then Eric and I worked this weekend to finish up the LCAP draft, all 90 pages
072of of fun that we'll be reading to you in the future. We just sent it off to the county today for review. Um And so, with that, I've been going around to all the schools and just doing very informal input sessions during their lunchtimes. It's been just really positive. So, I wanted to just thank all of her for the support and let you know, we're excited to bring that document to you and thank Eric for his partnership. We know you spent a lot of time on it with these numbers all updated. Of course. That's right. I always want to acknowledge Elizabeth. Um we are a team and uh we've been working really hard on getting the budget ready. We're almost done. And then the state may revise came out and they had revised it. It's
073called the LCFF calculator. So, um it didn't come out till this afternoon. So, uh we had to kind of redo our our budget, I guess, um for next year. Um so, I want to acknowledge Elizabeth cuz she's helps us she's the like um uh very quietly in the background and working. She's working with all the principals, meeting with them, going over their budgets for next year, uh with some of the changes with their funding model with PT and A, which has been great. Um I've got great news to share, which I was very excited. I got it late on Friday. Um you know, we were uh we had our credit rating upgraded from Standard & Poor's, which issued Measure EE. And then we got a a very bizarre email from Moody's, who's the other large
074rating agency. And Moody's says, "Hey, there's pressure to give you guys an upgrade." As I love upgrades. And so we met with Moody's. We had um maybe an hour-long meeting with them 2 weeks ago. And then last Friday they came out. Um Moody's has upgraded us from double A to triple A. So um they used uh large tax base uh and good reserves. Thank you to the board for supporting to increase the reserves. Um uh prudent management. And that's really the board is also managing. It's not me, Carrie Sanders. It's also the board uh helping us manage our budget and improving our budget. So really it's a team effort. And I was just I can't I just want to say how excited I am. As I take it take it well, you're upgrading in the
075same light year. And that's that doesn't happen that often. So I was very excited. Yes, I was very excited. I'll make sure our friends at the town clerk office know that. But Um but how we feel And then I also want to acknowledge um uh Claire and Alyssa that were here tonight. Uh such a great thing for kids. And really to have that opportunity. Uh years ago we were partnering with CHAC. CHAC has dissolved. Um I'm on the board for CHAC and we're slowly unwinding that joint powers authority. There is a little bit of funds available. We're hoping to get the funds distributed back to the district. Uh there's about 300,000 roughly in change. We will use those funds to help pay for some of these services. So that will kind of augment um the
076lack of some of the grants. And then if the clerk has done a nice job working with El Camino applying for grants. So So, can get some of the grant funding uh extended or increased from El Camino, get some money from Tracto, will help us kind of bridge maybe a year or two of funding for some of the therapists at the school sites, which is a great thing. And I want to acknowledge Kim and all her great CSEA colleagues that were honored last last week for Reagan. And I want to thank all the staff for helping set up all the chairs. So, the custodians, the grounds, the staff, you know, there's at this time of year there's a lot of setups and take-downs for all the events. And so, then either they have to stop
077doing their regular routine work and just help set up. And it's really a very positive like team effort. So, I want to thank him and the CSEA staff for doing a great job. And again, I always acknowledge Elizabeth again if I can cuz she really works very hard. So, anytime you see her, please let her know cuz I appreciate her immensely. So, thank you. That's true. Anything else? Right. No, no. Uh well, in addition to a lot of the fun end-of-year celebrations that I've been fortunate enough enough to attend. Some of them Sandra already mentioned, so I won't call them out again. But, I also had the pleasure of touring Covington with our newest trustee, Brad Eggers Troy. And I held my final school ambassador meeting for this school year. Good. Um we >> [clears
078throat] >> did Covington. Uh I recently been to Gardner Buddhas. We have Egan and Tierra Linda on deck for this week. So, making our way through the Slowly but surely. The first rotation through. And then you'll you'll have And we'll start again. Wow, okay. That's good. Yeah. Um [clears throat] I I It's that time of the year, so I don't remember when we met and what I've done. But, I went to the champion lunch, went to the Hoffman Awards dinner, and this past weekend I attended my daughter's college graduation with a LAUSD student. Holly is at her daughter's high school college graduation this evening, so those are all good things. This is it. Adjourned.