001Good evening everyone and I'd like to call the regular meeting of Los Alto School District Board of Trustees to order. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. A recording andor 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. >> Stella here. Jim >> here. >> Vladimir >> here. And I am Shelley Sir here as well. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. And I understand we have some students who will lead us in the pledge today. >> Remove your hats and hoods with your right hand over your heart. Ready for I aliance to the flag of the United States of America
002and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Would any board members like to provide comment on tonight's agenda? Okay, seeing none, uh, may I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? >> So move. >> Thank you, Vladimir. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Brian. Motion to approve tonight's agenda as presented was made by Vladimir, seconded by Brian. All in favor, please say I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Close session report. No action was taken in close session bill. >> Superintendent. >> Yes, just a short update. Um, tomorrow night is our new family information night. As of this afternoon, we've had 207 registrants, which is really terrific. Of course, this
003year we're doing a one location all together. Um, tomorrow night 6:30 at Coington in the multi. all of our principles will be there. Several of our teachers and students and um our PTA andor ambassador andor parent um helpers who want to talk about their school. So, we are excited to welcome people and share a little bit about what it looks and feels like to start being led students and families. Um, and really wanted to give a special thank you to uh Farley Lodge from Golden Eagle Sports Camp because they are providing us free child care for students three and up. Um, so their parents can attend the new family information, which is amazing. Um, and then the other thing I wanted to just share is, you know, I was able to make it to just
004a few schools this week, and I love going to schools in January because there is a little magic that begins to happen in classrooms in January. You know, everybody got a nice break through December. And kids are they remember their procedures maybe with a little reminders, but they are like on it. And between January and May, am I right? Things just flow in classrooms. And it's so fun to see. It's like the most highly functioning time of the year. So, it's just really fun be off and about. >> That's wonderful. >> Okay. >> All right. We're going to move on to probably the best part of this meeting, uh, our school presentation. Tonight, we have Gardner Bullis joining us. We're really excited to be here. Thank you. >> Well, I already know all of you
005and many of you, but um I'm Kate Smahorn. I'm the principal at Gardener Bolis and I'm really excited to be here today with several of my students, their families and staff. Um so I have Nicole Savon who's one of my fourth grade teachers, Shannon Tong, who's another one of our fabulous fourth grade teachers. And then I'm going to be pulling up four of my really awesome students. And pretty much the entire presentation is going to be done by them tonight because that's who we're all here to see. So I'm actually going to pull them up and I think we're going to be putting them right here smack dab in the center of the owls. Is this a good location for them? Excellent. Um and so we have Lena and we have Reese and we have
006Doney and we have Mina. and we're all really excited to be here tonight to present to you on some deeper learning that they've been doing um related to empathy and problem solving um around how we can keep our campus clean and also do some design around what that looks like. Um so I'm going to turn things over to them and at this point my primary role turns into slide clipper. Um and I think I'm turning things over to Juny to get us started. Juny you are up my dear. >> Our project began with a persuasive writing dude. the challenge, finding a way to help our school and write. We thought it would be simple, but what we discovered changed everything. We spotted many people leaving trash behind on the lunch tables. We know this probably
007happens at every school, but it has a big impact on our school custodian, Mr. Pump. Many people don't think about the fact that he goes home at some point, too. He works hard every day, and adding more trash to our campus adds to his work life. Plus, trash can easily blow away and wind up in bushes, storm drains, and the environment beyond our campus. We realized that by helping Mr. Fall, we could help someone who helps our campus every day and help the environment, too. We started by gathering data and documenting our learning throughout the process. Going from left to right, the first picture is of when we found many handy salt chip bags and wrappers. The second picture here shows how we found many test result papers, homework, and other stuff that can be
008written on paper. Lastly, this photograph shows a classmate documenting and taking notes in their ELA notebook. We learned a lot about documenting our learning. At first, we wanted to write about whose job it was to clean up, but then we realized something important. Almost everyone always knows they should pick after up after themselves. Clean up after to ourselves is part of being kind and respectful in the grizzly way. A few people thought it was Mr. Paul's job to clean up, but teachers helped clarify that he has different cleaning jobs, not to pick up after every student when they could pick the their trash themselves. So, the real question was much deeper. Why are people following the rules? And how could we define better systems to help? This shift in thinking transformed our project from a
009simple writing assignment into a design challenge that could create a lasting change. With this design challenge, we started by building empathy for the problem. We had four main steps. We observed students on campus and asked them questions to learn about their perspective on the situation. We also interviewed Mr. Paul and talked with him to understand his daily challenges and learn what would actually. We also learned about global trash problem like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch to learn why keeping trash out of the environment is so important. Finally, we learned about other solutions like Disney 30 rule. Review about that in a minute. Along the way, we continue to take great notes and document our online learning in our notebooks. Here's a picture of the fourth grade interviewing Mr. We all had some key takeaways from
010the research and empathy building portion of this project. >> 98% of people are nice to Mr. Puff, but there is still room for 100%. And you might think 2% is very little, but with kindness, they have too much. It is important for everyone to be respectful and thoughtful and kind towards each other and towards the environment. After interviewing Mr. Paul, I learned that it's not his job to clean up after students and that people around the world should throw away their trash and trash cans or the trash blows away into the sea and underwater animals eat it and get sick. Also, a garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean has formed and it is twice the size of Texas. Scientists say that almost every single has pieces of plastic in its stomach. So, it's really important
011that people around the world do their part to keep plastic and trash out of the environment. Even little actions like picking up your up trash you see on campus or on the street can help even if it isn't your trash. One of the main things that stood out to me was one of the things the second grade teacher Miss L said she had asked us whose job is it actually to clean up after us and after our school. Some of us meaning many of us replied Mr. Paul. But after we did more thinking, we changed our points of view. It's us. We should clean up after ourselves, not him. We are responsible for our own messes. A lot of people don't realize that every person on Earth contributes to the big trash patches piling up
012everywhere, including in all the oceans. Well, some of the many problems are basically solved because people took a stand. And that's what we need you to do. In the Mediterranean, people took a broken down tractor, fixed it up with a few mechanics, and made a trash scuba rubber for the leftover waste they couldn't get to. I'm not saying that the schools need robot custodians because that would take away Mr. Paul's job. But I am saying we need to pick up after ourselves. It's not about the thought, it's about the action. Remember all the thoughts you had to clean up? Now's the time to do. Don't give up on your dream to live on your carelessness. Some people think Mr. Paul is tough, but he's actually really nice and cares deeply about our students by keeping
013the school clean. Also, when he's clean up after students, it's harder to do the other parts of his job, which is not good. Another key takeaway was Disney's 30 step rule. The Disney 30-step rule is a park design principle starting that a trash can should always be within 30 steps or about 30 ft of any guest. A rule established by Walt Disney after observing that gu would only carry trash that far or dropping it. Just knowing something is important is not the same as having a solution for a problem. Disney's 30 step rule is a good example of something we learned about that was a design creative designer solution to our trash problem. Our next challenge was to use what we had learned to design our own solutions to the problem. By this point, we
014had a clear sense of purpose. We connected with our school and our class community. We had a sense of agency and we were ready to continue by learning. Time to design. Every one of us created our own solution based on how much we learned. Do people have the same solutions to the specific problem? We recorded our entire thinking process, wrote and typed up a proposal based on our research and interviews and showed how our ideas evolved from the first brainstorm to one of the final proposals. When we presented our ideas to parents, teachers, and community members, we noticed everybody had a different idea and thinking process. Some students looked at the lunch area design and suggested adding more trash cans in strategic locations. Others designed reminder systems or made student leadership roles. A few proposed
015gamifying cleanup to make it more fun people for people and kids will want to win the cake. And if everybody does this and everybody does and wins the game, then we win the world. Hi, I'm Lena and I'm about to tell you all about the exhibition of learn. This was when we all presented our proposals and learning process to our parents and other students parents. I really like presenting to my dad. I felt rewarded because he took time out of his day to come and see my work. In this specific picture, you can see us here informing adults about how our actions impact the world around him. There aren't many photos to look at here, but there is a lot of focus and dedication dedication to our school. I appreciated how my mom took time
016out of her out of her day and came to visit the exhibition. I was proud of how I got to share my work with her and tell her about the pollution happening all over the world which is affecting animals in the bad. I also thought it was so it was so special that the parents took time to learn about our projects. Plus, having to explain our process made us really understand our work. Plus, this was a great chance for us to learn more about our classmates ideas. This project was really special because we worked on an authentic problem in our school, not a madeup scenario from a textbook. We also learned to understand the problem from multiple perspectives before jumping to solutions. Finally, our ideas came in from us based on our observations and conversations
017with our stu school community. are three next steps. The first is to show and tell Mr. Paul about our project and track. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it to the exhibition of learning. So, we hope to have a Mr. Paul day sometime in the near future. This next step is after that is to narrow down our solutions and ideas. We will probably have a class and grade book, do some research, and try to figure out which solutions help our campus the best. And one of the final steps to make our school really come to life is to prototype and test the ideas we voted for. With a little help from each and every one of you, you this could work just by being kind to nature and kind to everyone around you. One of
018my solutions is that we should leave our extra cardboard trays that are clean on our tables. Then we could transfer the clean ones to our steam. Maybe we could find a way to get compost bins, too, to help. If we had compost bins, all the lunch foods that don't get eaten and go bad the next day. They go bad the next day and nobody can eat rotten food. They all get trashed or recycled. And as you should know, if anything that's not recyclable gets recycled, all that paper stuff gets trashed and added to the big trash bin. So, I hope we can get a compost bin for my second solution. And now for my last problem solver. I'm looking to get another grading. In the 2022 to 2023 school year, we had up, but a
019lot of new kids came and went during this in between year and didn't get to experience the a green cake. Those are just a few of the many solutions that the grade has come up with. >> We'll see. Also, if we brought some of our solutions to life, we could stop pollution here and gardener bullets. One solution I have is in fact my friend El's idea. We thought that maybe sometimes we could have a group of students picking up leftover trash. But adding to that, students should always pick up their trash no matter where where they are. It's never too late to start fixing your mistakes. My solution was that we could add a basketball hoop to one of the trash can. Then people would want to throw away the trash and maybe if we
020were lucky, look for more trash to get more shots. My idea at first was to get reusable trays and a dishwasher, but then I thought that would be too expensive and I kind of hooked on to Junior's idea about reusing the trays or composting. >> And that is the end of their presentation. >> They bring some samples of their boards up here. I know they are down on the ground. Um, but for example, while Reese is speaking, I did hold up he does have a sample model of his basketball. The friends, if you did just want to hold them up for a second so that the board kids could see them. Um, and then I did let them know that you might have some questions. >> That was wonderful. And I just love how you
021rooted your whole your project in the empathy of board members. Anyone have a question? >> I have one question. a little unsure about asking it because I may not be current on my information, but isn't our PTA have a green team that is collecting? >> We just started. It starts tomorrow collecting the plastic. >> So, can you help and one of your solutions help collect for that project as well? Maybe like for one of the ideas like now that we have a parent green team, we can also have a kid green team because the parents shouldn't clean up after the kids' mess because it's not their mess. We should clean up after ourselves. >> Great. >> I would love to know like at the end of the semester like what happened like what did you
022implement? How did it work? The whole like all of that. I think that'd be really exciting to see like how it all worked out. This is very very impressive and I'm just so um overwhelmed by the the level and the depth of the work that you all did and just the various steps that you did in this just researching what other folks are doing like like Disney talking to Mr. of Paul, which I thought was so sweet and so sweet that you that you really rooted what you're doing in empathy for someone other than yourself. That's great. >> Any other questions? >> Well, thank you so much you guys. Thank you so much for coming. >> Is that okay? over really quick. Right over behind me, >> right? Give the students a few minutes to
023if you would like to. You're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. >> Not quite as interesting as >> Thank you for coming. But this was a little impressed. So >> embarrassed. Sure. Righty. Right. On to the next thing. >> Move on to our consent calendar. Are there any questions or comments from the board on tonight's vis? >> Yes. >> Have a correction to the minutes? And I shared it with Marcy. I believe that correction has already been made. So, >> okay. Any points? >> Okay. >> Um, are there any requests for public comment on this agenda? >> Seeing none, public comment is closed. Um, in that case, can I have a motion to approve the consent calendar with the uh change that Jim has already provided to Marcy? >> So move. >>
024Thank you, Vladimir. I have a second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Stella. Okay. Motion to approve tonight's consent calendar with the um correction that Jim has already shared with Marcy was made by Vladimir, seconded by Stella. All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Employee request to address the board for the Galtos Teachers Association. Alex Schroers. >> All right. Good evening. Um, thank you and appreciate my uh fellow educators here to uh say while we make this statement. Um, since last school year, LATA has been really intentional about wanting to work together and build relationships with our schoolboard members. And I want to be really clear about why this matters to us. Um, LATA, we're the organization that is made up entirely of educators in this district. Um,
025we're the people working with our students every single day. We're delivering the high-quality education that you all envision for our students and our community. And we love this work. We value our relationships with students and families. And many of us will spend our entire careers here serving these students and families. Because you are the policymaking body of this district. We believe that it's vital that we have a reciprocal relationship. a relationship where we can share what we're learning in classrooms, where we can raise concerns early, where we can seek where you can seek our input um on the decisions that affect teaching and learning. Your constituents include the residents of the district and the employees of this district. Hearing from all stakeholders, especially those implementing the policy every day, is crucial to making decisions that
026truly support our students and our staff. I've reached out to multiple board members and I've been struck by the concern that meeting with union leadership somehow conflicts with good governance. I want to be direct. It doesn't. Uh protecting your negotiating team and maintaining the integrity of the bargaining process is absolutely important and we stand by that and we're committed to that as well. But that's fundamentally different from isolating yourselves from the input of the educators who make this district work. When board members are unavailable to meet with us, it sends a message. And I don't think that's the message you want to send. It says that our voice, our expertise, our concerns are not as valuable as other constituents. And that troubles me because we care deeply about this work and we care deeply about
027the community that we serve. The invitation stands and I will continue to reach out because I believe and we believe that when you get to know us, when you hear directly from teachers and leaders doing this work, you'll see that building this relationship isn't just good governance. It's essential. And in the coming months, we have our CTA board dinner. We'll be extending the invite to you. We hope to see you there where board members from all across our county and union leaders from all across the county get together in a social place. So, thank you. I hope you'll accept. >> Thank you. >> The California School Employees Association, Kim Fletcher. Today was a great day to highlight the work that our custodians do. They get a lot of recognition for the normal things that everyone
028thinks they do, but I thought I'd take a moment just to share some of the things that you might not realize that our custodians are doing. This will be a little bit gardener heavy cuz that's my experience. But last week, Paul got to answer a surprise fire alarm. So, he got to go and work with us while we were desperately poor Eric calling him repetitively because we couldn't get the fire alarm to turn off while he's trying to manage that situation while still doing all the other work of cleaning the bathrooms because kids still use the restroom in a fire alarm situation. Also, they get interviewed by children, but also they're out there during lunch building relationships. My own son was a child who followed Mr. Raul at Springer all year one year and he
029helped every Monday and Wednesday were helping Mr. Raul days and he got to go pick up trash and Raul is one of his first lunch friends when he really didn't know how to make connections with other students. Our custodians quietly are doing real relationship work. They're part of our community. They're helping our PTA set up for events. They're the ones taking down those events. so many of the things that we do wouldn't happen. That wonderful presentation was all put up by Mr. Paul. He was there at 7 a.m. getting those tables out the next morning getting them down because we have music the next morning and so making our school just function. We always think of them as doing the cleaning part, but there's so much more that is happening behind the scenes of functioning
030and really helping our community be what it is. And it just takes time and hours and thoughtfulness, which so many of our people have. Yeah. >> Thank you, Kim. >> Right. 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. Community comments. Oh, 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-aggenda 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
031make a brief comment or ask clarifying questions. Okay, looks like we have four on this topic. So, um, three minutes each here. We'll start with Jessica Mullen, then Gavin Williams, then Amanda Shirt, and Jenny Peek Dave. >> Good evening. My name is Jessica Mullen. I'm a parent at Santaorita. I want to iterate and comment on a recent email exchange between myself and trustee Shali and the district's leadership team, the offer of one-on-one and small group meetings to discuss ongoing concerns at Sanita School. I appreciate the time. I appreciate the effort that the district office is putting in, but I need to make very very clear individual meetings are not a substitute for constituent engagement. When the issues are systemic, parents are actively sharing and comparing communications from this or board and district leadership. When viewed
032collectively, it feels like concerns are being managed in silos rather than addressed openly. That perception matters because it is eroding trust and trust is already very low. What is especially frustrating is the tone we keep encountering. What more do you want from us? You get the most resources at your school. That framing is the problem. We want what we want is for the district to listen to teachers in classrooms, to parents, to the lived experiences of the students and the constituents of this community. We want kids who need IEPs to get them. We want kids who need AIDS not to share an aid, but to have the legally required aids. We want measured research-based approach that reflects the specific needs of our community. Santaorita has different demographics and therefore different needs. This is not about
033more versus fewer. It is about the right resources. Parents do not believe the district when they say we have more resources than other schools. That statement alone is not meaningful. What builds confidence is evidence-based support and clear effective strategies. Consistent check-ins with the Sanorita community and constituents. Right now, it feels like a lot of generic surface level fixes, one-on-one meetings, and siloed conversations. What what we need is a targeted high quality support tailored for our students and our community. Less cheap, sheen, one-sizefits-all, and more direct product, thoughtful investment where it counts. This is also a governance issue. There is a very clear disconnect between what families see day-to-day, your constituents, and what the district leadership believes is happening in classrooms. That disconnect should concern everyone on this board. And it makes our requests even more
034urgent, not less. We were asked to be patient during the leadership transition. We were patient. We showed up. We waited. We gave time and space. And things have not improved. In fact, they feel like they've only gotten worse because this is not a sight level issue. This is a district leadership failure. We are done being asked to wait for oversight and support. We need it now. Trustees serve this community, our constituents, not the system. Oversight is not a defend. Oversight is not defending a narrative. That's good. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Gavin Williams. >> Hi everyone. My name is Gavin Williams and I have two topics I wanted to speak on today. Uh as a concerned Sanorita parent, uh the first is my continued interest in the performance data that was shared at the
035last meeting. Uh the data presented bucketed Sanorita and Alman together in terms of performance of at risk populations. I'm curious to which the modest gains that were seen were driven by almond and whether or not Sanorita had much improvement at all. Similarly, I'm interested to learn if the non-atisk populations at Sanorita are also performing uh worse than district or or comparable to the district. I think these two questions are are important to diagnosing the magnitude of the performance gap at Sanorita. Is there actually an improvement in the non-risisk population? Yes or no? And are the non-trisk students also at a disadvantage relative to the dis the rest of the district? Yes or no? I'd like to actually thank Greg Drummond who reached out proactively to me after the last meeting and we're actually getting together
036tomorrow to try to tease out some of these questions. I don't anticipate any roadblocks, but I'd ask for your support in uh in our investigating this topic. Uh my second topic is more qualitative. I think everyone knows that Sanorita is struggling. Um, from lawsuits to expulsions to public news stories of student abuse to continued worst in district performance, Sanorita is hurting right now. What I'd like to say to everyone in this room is that leadership in times of crisis means showing up. Uh, we need leaders who keep communication open. Uh, they need to let people know we hear you. Here's what we're going to do about it. We need transparency to the greatest extent that's allowed given regulatory requirements. We need community engagement and we need people to be there listening to hear, you know,
037to hear tough questions even when answers might be difficult. My opinion, which I know is shared by many in the community, is that this isn't currently happening. Closed door one-on-one meetings, a few one-offs, isn't going to cut it. Uh, I think leadership means showing up when times are tough. And I'd also ask the board to ask LD leadership to 10x their community engagement with San Rita on these myriad of issues that we're currently facing. and for all of us in this room that are in positions of of power or influence to up our game and to show up for Senorita. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Amanda, I'm sorry not pronouncing your last name correctly. Short. >> Uh my name is Mandy Short and I'm a parent at Santaorita Elementary School and Egan Junior High.
038I want to comment on the lack of communication from parent requests for the district to hold a Sanantaorita based community meeting or other forms of engagement in order to hear our many concerns about the state of the school, specifically the escalating behavior issues that are happening across grade levels and impacting students abilities to learn in a safe and controlled environment or play carefree in the schoolyard. While I deeply appreciate and am personally participating in the offer from the district to hold one-on-one meetings uh and these meetings are a great first step to understand our deep concerns for the future of our school. This is only one step of many that need to take place so that all voices can be heard. Our school demographic is more unique than any other school in this district and
039for that we are deeply proud of our diversity. But it also means there are parents at our school who do not feel comfortable speaking privately in one-on ones with school leadership. There are families that hold two or three jobs that can't come to normal meeting times or board meetings to give public comment like right now. There are families that have language barriers. We need creative ways to engage our full community in addition to one-on-one meetings which naturally lead to information silos when our community critically needs transparent understanding of what is going on and what is going on. In a matter of weeks, many red flags have been raised that Sanorita families are frustrated and not feeling heard or don't feel safe to raise their concerns in the current channels offered. There have been horrific anonymous
040comments on Next Door citing current bullying cases and litigation. There have been interviews with news shows from a parent about abuse from campus aid. This is not healthy signal. These are cries for help. We need all of your help. We are confused and worried for our school and for our kids. It warrants more engagement across many channels with our community to get to the root cause of these issues and start developing meaningful solutions. I ask the district to further to find further appropriate and inclusive channels to hear these voices for our great school. I further ask the board of trustees to find ways to either participate or review this feedback firsthand. I would like to challenge the district that we get a plan by the end of this week with next steps for engagement to
041be presented to our Sanorita community. We've gotten little information in these troubling recent events. Thank you. Thank you, Denny Pek. >> Okay, great. Hi, I'm Jenny Peek. I am a parent at Gardner Bolis. I'm also the PTA president there. Uh, but I'm not speaking as PTA president. I'm speaking as a parent. Um, as a future Egan Viking uh, family, um, I am excited to say that Egan will be staying on campus. I think that that's very, uh, important to, uh, our family and our community that Egan is staying at its campus. Um, we uh joined this uh school district when we moved here three and a half years ago because of its small uh school site uh ideas and I'm really excited that that will continue on in the future and my kids will have
042the opportunity to still ride bikes and be within the LSD district. So, I want to say that the next point I want to say is that I don't envy you as the board as you have to make these really difficult decisions in the future of how to spend the rest of the uh the measure E uh the uh the bond money. Um but I do feel like I need to advocate for Gardner Bolis um because of this and the students um and their daily experience. I'm not sure if you are aware, but the third grade to sixth grade students at Gardenner Bullis are in portables on a daily basis, and those portables are reaching their 20 years. I believe they are 17 years old right now. Um, and so that's something to be aware of.
043Also, they they have restrooms that house um that are in portables that are not meant for such high traffic and at least 150 students use those uh that portable bathroom on a daily basis. And so, I want to be make aware that um I'm here to advocate for these things to change. Um I understand that um there is a plan for a potential change in scenario two phase six for gardener bullets to get new classrooms to have not get new classrooms to get classrooms for third grade to through sixth grade but it is very hard to swallow to see that we're at the very end of the phases and this might not possibly happen if we have money until 2032 considering this was something that was also on the ideas for measure M back when
044it was first spawned. And so getting kicked to the very end is very hard to swallow as our community um continues [clears throat] to grow. Our student base has jumped um uh in student numbers throughout the year. So we are not the smallest school. So every classroom and every portable is being used and we are coming up to being at full enrollment in every grade. So, it is important and I want you to uh come take a tour of our portables if you are willing and have to make the hard decision of where to fit it in. But I would hope that you guys have the a chance to really think about getting that student experience for the gardener bullet to be moved up in the phases during the measure. >> Thank you everyone. Moving
045on to action and discussion items. Our first uh agenda item is the annual solar project performance report. >> Uh tonight we have uh Nick Denaprio and he's with Terra Verde. They are the asset manager for photovoltaic systems which we have uh at all nine of our school sites. These were installed at 2018 and this is their annual report. Uh Nick is gonna uh graciously give us a nice presentation on the end performance data and really let you know um how they're performing and then also the energy and I always say the cost avoidance right as Peny's rates are raising as you um I was sitting down and I looked at my P gen bill last month. It was a little bit colder this m month and I was like oh I wish I had solar
046in my house but I don't. So Nick's going to present and so thanks for being here tonight Nick. >> Thank you for the gracious introduction Eric. Um so yeah, my name is Nick Denafhrio. I am a project manager in asset management at Terra Verde Energy. Um my agenda is going to be an introduction to Terra Verde, a review of the um 2024 oh 2024 to 2025 financial performance, review of the solar performance, and then analysis of the electrical usage and then some time for question and discussion. A little bit about Terra Verde Energy. Uh we've been in business for about 15 years helping school districts and water agencies solve energy problems. Uh we have about a little more than $1 billion in facility planning over the last 15 years and that's our role is to
047make sure that your systems are working and that you know how well they're working. These are some of the other school districts that we help such as Kahhone Valley, Balor Unified and Oakland Unified School District. So this year the avoided cost of electricity for the district after taking into account EPA payments, our purchase agreement payments and asset management service from us was $79,000. We use a program called Solar Shadow in order to generate a fake bill um from when you didn't have solar and that bill would have been $1.8 million if you didn't have solar. So that's how we arrived at the $79,000 um example. The reason it's so much higher than the proform of projection is because the proform of projection was likely imagining that utility rates would not rise as quickly as they
048have since 2018. So this goes into a little more detail on the financial performance of the system which I've already gone over in broad strokes. The solar performance of the system was that the district's systems produced 94% of the expected energy that they should have. And then the electrical usage um total electricity usage at all sites was about 14% higher and the solar arrays held also 36% of the electrical usage from the district. This is a uh slide showing the total portfolio size, the operational year, the system size of each and the ownership. All of these assets are owned and managed for the district by Forefront Power which is a power purchase agreement um serer This graph shows uh the solar performance of all of the sites. The blue line is the typical year expectation.
049The gold line is the weather adjusted expectation and then the green line is the actual production of each system. Um so yeah, district systems produce about 94% of the expected electricity. This graph shows um 2024 to 2025 electrical usage. The blue line is the baseline utility usage, which is how much we would have expected the district to use. The orange line is the utility usage. So that's the power that's brought in from the utility. And then the green line is the solar usage. Um, so the system's offset 36%. And then the usage of the district as a whole went up by about 14%. And then this compares production in 2023 to 2024 and 2024 to 2025. >> Um the one that was performing the least was Egan Junior High and they had an inverter outage
050um for part of the year. So that explains like the drop there. >> I think the headings are accidentally identical. So you know which is meant to be which. >> Uh yeah. So on the right the uh 2020 on the right is the 2024 to 2025. Yes. Thanks for catching that. Sorry about that. >> Um and then this shows the electrical usage. Once again, it appears the um headings are the same. On the right, it's 2024 to 2025 and on the left it's 2023 to 2024. It seems like Covington Elementary School, which is where we are right now, appears to have the greatest increase in usage. And I would imagine it's because of all of those EV charters you guys have out here. And then yeah um any questions or do you want me to
051go back to any of the slides to check anything out? >> Thank you. Um board members question the you said 94% of the sort of expected is that how is that doing over time? Is that basically consistent with what we've seen in the past? Is there were there any >> that's quite consistent with what we've seen in the past. Um all of the systems at this district are performing quite well actually especially considering that you have a PPA provider. Okay. Is the PPA is there an obligation from the PPA to do I assume they do the maintenance repair when things break down and things like that. So, >> yeah. >> And we're only paying them are we paying them a flat rate or are we paying them for >> it's a little bit based on
052the how much it's generated. It varies from month to month and year to year, but it's about 340,000 a year. >> But we're paying them for the electricity they generate. So, if they generate less, we pay them less. They have an incentive to keep the equipment maintained. >> Correct. >> Exactly. And the the good thing is it's a 20-year power purchasing agreement started in 2018, so it'll be uh done in 2038. But by having the power purchasing agreement, they're they have an incentive to make sure it's operating. And uh as technology changes, some of these inverters go out. It's they will come out on their dime, do all the maintenance that they come out, clean them uh during the summer for dust and and things that [clears throat] top their silicar so they're operating it
053more efficient. Um, so it's really it's having a power purchase agreement for this type of system is actually and pages. >> Mhm. >> Any questions, comments? >> Okay. Is there any public comment on this? I should have asked for that. >> All right. Thank you very much. Okay. Appreciate coming. >> Thank you for your time. Thank you. Good. >> Right. Next is 2026 board procedures. And I will announce if anyone wants to provide public comment on this item, please submit as. >> So attached was um an update to the board procedures. The goal was to um try to align it with the kind of timeline that lives within our handbook. I think we might have found one discrepancy. Um but I think it's fine to go ahead and approve it as is. >> Nice. Are
054there any clarifying questions from the board? Are there any requests for public comment? No. Okay. Public comments is now closed. Um, any further comment on agenda items, board members? >> Okay. In that case, may I have a motion to approve the 2026 board procedures? >> So move. >> Thank you, Vladimir. May I have a second? >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Stella. Any further board discussion? Right. Motion to approve the 2026 fork procedures was made by Vladimir, seconded by Stella. All in favor? >> I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimous. 2026 board committees and appointments. Uh if there's any public comment, please submit a speaker card. >> Oh, attached is a draft for you to consider around the committees and appointments. This takes into account Vladimir at our last meeting asking to
055be removed from his assignments. Um Ryan took on a lot of those assignments and then there were a few minor shifts in other committees, but now's the chance to uh either approve or say if you'd like to make some changes. >> Any clarifying questions? >> [laughter] >> clarifying questions from the board. >> Were there any public comment? Public comment is now closed. Uh would any board members like to provide further comment on this agenda? >> Okay. In that case, may I have a motion to approve the 2026 board committees and appointments? >> So move. >> Thank you, Vladimir. We have a second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you, Stellar. Any further board discussions? Right. Motion to approve the 2026 board committees and appointments was made by Vladimir, seconded by Stella. All in favor, please say
056I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? Thank you. Motion passes unanimously. Board policy updates. If anyone would like to provide public comment on this agenda item, please submit a speaker card now. Thank you. Um, so tonight you have a larger group than normal. Um, Marcy has been keeping up on the CSVA recommendation. So when you get into tonight, they're just here for discussion and they'll come back um at the next meeting. But you'll see as you review some of these, some of them are name changes from CSBA or policy number changes and others are more um context change. So there's a a mix of both. >> Are there any clarifying questions from the board? Okay. Um I see we have one request for public comment. Jessica Mullen. Uh you'll have three minutes. No. Good evening. My
057name is Jessica Mullen and I'm a parent at Santaorita. I wanted to raise concerns with the policy revisions being discussed tonight. It appears that BP2110, which clearly outline the superintendent's responsibilities and duty duties, is either being deleted or replaced with nothing comparable. If I'm wrong, please correct me. Now, the current documented provided transparency and accountability for the community and the board. Its removal leaves a gap in defining expectations for the superintendent's role. Additionally, revisions being made to board policy 2110 do not specify what role the superintendent plays on the district governance team or how the boards or how they support board operations. This lack of clarity is a tr is troubling at a time when families are asking for stronger oversight and accountability. I'm also concerned that the language stating the duties of the superintendent's
058office shall take precedence over any outside professional activities is being removed. In a moment when the community is struggling to get timely, specific support from district leadership, eliminating this language feels like a step backwards and reinforcing accountability. Finally, when reviewing regulation for the local control and accountability plan, I would like to clarify compliance in two key areas. Letter C, the parent guardian involvement and family engagement. What specific efforts are being made to seek parent input in district and school site decision-making? How is participation being promoted in unduplicated students and students with disabilities and connecting with parents within our own school community has showing that has shown that this is not happening at Sanorita or on a public level. Additionally, letter F school climate. How is the district measuring safety and connectedness through surveys of students,
059parents, and teachers? And what actions are being taken based on those results? Is there a survey that has gone out specifically around safety and connectedness? Do parents have access to those results? Again, in speaking within our own parent community at Sanorita, these two very specific asks in our LCAP seem to need more promotion. These updates and emissions raise real concerns about transparency and governance, and I'm worried we are moving in a direction that doesn't keep our students and families supported and growing. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Just to clarify, we can't comment back. So, I know you asked for clarification. We can make we can make brief comments. Okay. >> I think um >> we'll have a conversation about the concerns you raised about 2110. I think >> off the top of my head
060I think >> um the things that you're concerned about being removed here are being removed here because they exist in a different policy because they reorganized the whole 2000. >> Speaking of policies today and could not find anything comparable. >> Feel free to read out. We can have a conversation. So, >> so I just wanted to ask a clarifying question for the public. How are the board policy updates um getting triggered? Like I mean I know the answer to this but I'm waiting to ask a question. >> So California School Boards Association CSBA they update all the policies u based on law um court cases things like that. So, um we get um policy updates four times a year and um it's I I don't know how they do it, but um they usually send
061a batch of anywhere from I don't know 15 to 25 policy updates, not all of them apply to Western High School District. And then from there, we um go in ahead and update the policies um based on what CSBA is recommending. So the version that we see um attached to the agenda is just the version that we received from CSVA. Um and then if we wanted to modify it or edit it then we would have the opportunity to do that before the next meeting. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Um and then I also just wanted to say that I think a lot of um Jessica's questions could probably be answered at a later time. Yeah. regarding the um surveys and and outcome. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> Thank you. >> Right. Moving on
062to board policy deletions. If anyone would like to provide public comment, please submit a speaker card. Now, >> this the same applies, right? either the recommended deletions because they either are out of date and no longer comply to ED code or have been moved and or renamed elsewhere. Thank you. Clarifying questions from the board. Any request for public comment? None. Okay. >> Any further comment? >> Okay. Thank you. We'll move on to board and administration comments. We'll start I want to thank Kate and all of her wonderful students tonight coming and it reminds me that we're in the kid business as much as I like to talk about solar and and all the budget items but it we're here for the kids and I thought that was a great presentation. I wish I had the
063Disney maintenance budget >> 30 feet trash can. I did I did appreciate um liking it to the Disney um and I want to thank Paul Borba is Paul's last name. He's been with us since 2018 uh so eight years. He's a great custodian uh and is really I really want to um really reiterate the comments from the the team and I love that he engaged with the students. Yeah, it is not our job to clean up after everyone. That's part of our job but it's not our only job. Right. And um I want to acknowledge all of our great CSSE employees, hope helping clean our classrooms, getting them ready for our teachers for the next day, supporting our clerks and secretaries. Uh Lewis, one of our maintenance guys, was out at Gardener Bulis on the
06430th during a windstorm rain uh to help get the canopy reinstalled out there, which was great. I know the kids appreciated their first day back. >> He also drove into the parking lot right as the fire alarm went off. >> The timing is always great. Um, our schools came out okay with all the storms. We had a couple broken branches here or there. Uh, we had our arborist out on site doing some preventive tree care. Uh, but overall the school performed all right because we did have a lot of rain and wind. Um, and I just really want to thank everyone and happy new year. >> I'll just add Valerie and I, Dr. Rogers and I uh as I've been slowly taking her around um the district. We last week maybe I think it was
065Friday went to the maintenance and operations um grounds because she didn't quite know where it was and what had so it was fantastic. Uh several of the M the groundskeepers were there. Our folks were there um kind of toward the end of the day. They were fantastic. They walked us through. It's the first time ever I've actually walked through the big warehouse there and each of them, what really struck me, each of them is so proud of the work they do. They each have like a section, a very in-depth section. Um, Lo who does a lot of the landscaping and whatever. Like this is his section and he's got shelves and shelves of technical things. Lewis was showing me his section and the vacuum parts. Like it was really incredible. and those guys are terrific
066and we're so thankful. It was fun. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> No, >> Stella. >> Uh I was fortunate enough to be invited to join the PTA presidents this past Friday and gave an update on school ambassadors. So, >> um I uh was fortunate to attend the OB PTA meeting last week. >> Um just see what they're doing and hear how things are doing. >> Um I don't have any announcements of what I'm doing, but I do have an announcement to make and that is I today I sent to the Santa Clara County Superintendent uh my letter of resignation effective March 11th. And as part of that, I'm supposed to give to the secretary, which I believe is Sandra, a copy of the letter. >> Okay. >> Can I ask you to reconsider? Uh, unfortunately
067the answer is I can't. It's irrevocable. I sent it US mail and it's out and that's it. Thank you, Brad. >> We can always point you. [laughter] >> We could um I don't feel I can support the board's actions and so nothing would change. >> Thank you, Brian. >> Understood. Thank you. Um, I went to the Egan PTA meeting. It's really great, I think, for board members to be out there and answer your questions with our parents staff. It's a good meeting. Um, I also went to the PTA president's meeting and I had another training of educational equity training last weekend. So, that was really good. And with that, I'd like to adjourn tonight's meeting. Thanks everyone.