001Are we? Yeah, we're good. We're ready. >> Great. Well, good evening everyone. Um, Trusty Chhatroy is joining us electronically. Um, and so I will be um running the meeting on his behalf, but he is here. Uh, so good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order in open session. Welcome to this evening's hybrid board of trustees meeting being held both in person and virtually. This meeting has been made accessible to members of the public on the link at the Morland School District website and on board docs. Any person who requires accommodations to access this meeting has been asked to contact the superintendent's office within 24 hours of this meeting. This meeting is being recorded and may be published online at a later date. And the flex like that's me. So if we could all
002rise >> ready 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. All right. I will report out that there was no action taken this evening in close session and move to approval of tonight's agenda. >> I'd make a motion to approve tonight's agenda. >> Thank you, Brian. In a second. >> I will second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. Comments from the public. Brian. >> Hey, it's great. >> It's been It's been a while. >> I know. Uh members of public may address uh members of the public may address the board on any subject of concern to you, including those not on tonight's agenda. However, provisions of the Brown Act preclude
003any action as an unaggendaized item. No response is required or permitted from the board or district staff and is already uh and has already stated no action be taken. The board, however, may instruct the superintendent to follow up, which may or may not include placing the item on a future board meeting agenda. If you'd like to address the board this evening, please complete the blue card comment card within the first 15 minutes of the board meeting uh being called to order in public session. On the card, please list the agenda item or items you would uh like to speak to. If your comments do not pertain to an agenda item, please write public comment. When your name is called, please come to the podium. State your name and organization that you're representing. Comments are limited
004to three minutes per board governance. Do we have any public comment? >> No public comment. on to the superintendent report. Dr. Cod. Oh, hello. Good evening everybody. Welcome back from our February break. Um, we can go on to the presentation. Um, as we finished up uh the Yep, you can go there. As we finished up the week before break, Baker celebrated Lunar New Year and students and families came together. There's some pictures there. This is the year of the horse, which I'm not quite sure exactly what that means, but I know it is the year of the horse. Um, and so we want to thank our parent volunteers for helping make that a special celebration. We do this often in our schools where our parents come together and we celebrate the different traditions and histories
005and cultures of our family. So, I wanted to show that. And then a new tradition perhaps on the next slide, snow day at pain. So, MEF awarded an enrichment grant to Payne Elementary where they brought snowball, real snow, snowballs in the students uh led different science experiments with the snowballs. Um that was right before break. And you can see so there's a catapult. That one's on the That one's on the right. And how far could they get the snowball to go? And then the one on the left, I believe they were building structures that could hold up three or more snowballs. So that was a they many of our students have never seen snow, touched snow, felt snow, and so it was a really exciting opportunity for them. Next slide. So we have got um
006a reminder that we have parent tours still over at Morland Middle School. The remaining ones will be uh excuse me, sorry, uh this Thursday, February 26th and Monday, March 2nd, from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. It's a really great chance to be able to see classrooms and learning in action. So, we want to invite anyone who hasn't been able to come on a tour to attend one of those, too. And then on the next slide, we have our first ever Morland job fair where we've got I think over 40 people signed up to come on March 11th right here. We'll have a special job fair just to if you would like to be a teacher whether it's general education or special education teacher in the Marland school district. Uh all of our school will have
007an administrator here. Some of us will be here. It will be a great party. I think Michelle, you might even stop by. Might might stop by. Um, so you all are welcome and that should be a fun event on March 11th. And then lastly, let's all get wild for Morland. We've got the MEF 5K coming up on Saturday the 20, let's see, 28th of March. Um, we will convene here at 8:30 a.m. We kind of convene out on the field right in front of the district office. The race starts at 900 a.m. You can walk, you can roll with a stroller. There no dogs. Um, but you can bring your whole family. It's a community event. It's a really fun event and staff can sign up for free this year. So, thanks to MEF for
008that. Um, we will be here. And that is what I have for tonight's comments. >> Do you recall the early bird registration deadline? I remember it off the top of my head. The early bird registration deadline, I believe, is actually this Friday. Is that right? >> The end of this month. >> That's kind of why I thought we might want to promote. >> Um, so it's cheaper. I was I was only thinking about staff. Sorry. We're free. >> No, that's okay. Well, >> so if you get in by the end of this week, it will be a cheaper registration fee than if you sign up after this week is over. >> Early bird registration. Go to mehome.org. That is the website to sign up. It's really easy. I did mine today. I encourage all staff
009and families and community to get in through the registration um and come join us for some fun. >> Great. Thank you. Work members communication. Anything there? >> Sh. >> Nothing from my side. >> Okay, great. Move this right along on to reports. the 2425 Morland district financial audit report. >> Yeah. So, we have uh Hugo from Christy White who did our audit for the 2425 uh school year. So, we're here to present it. Uh I asked him to present all 95 pages. He said no. He's going to shorten it. So, you get the short version. >> Thank you for that. >> Good evening. Thank you so much for having me. I'm Luna and I'm with Christie White. I'm here to present the uh it's good to it's good to be here again with you and
010I'm here to present the results of the uh financial statement audit for the year ended June 30th 2025. So our responsibility as auditor is to issue an opinion over the financial statements ensuring that they are materially stated. Um and uh there really is four components. You know one who scans the someone who scans the audit report will see the word opinion opinion opinion. There's really four opinions we give. Uh one is over the financial statements, one is over internal controls. Um and then the other two are over state and federal compliance. Um we did issue an unmodified opinion which is the best opinion possible. Um and I also always like to state that this opinion does not address the fiscal solveny of the school district. that's done with your multi-year projections by your uh business
011team in like the first interim, second interim and those those types of reporting periods. Um so I I will read the read a modified opinion statement um on from page one. I'll just read it word for word. Um in our opinion the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respect. the respective financial position of the governmental activities, the business type activities, each major fund and the aggregate remaining fund information of the Morland school district as of June 30, 2025 and the respective changes in financial position and aware applicable cash flows thereof for the year that ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted at United States of America. Um so you know what in order to issue this opinion there were a series of um uh the procedures that we had to
012go through the audit guide and um for internal controls uh we look at u cash dispersement so the checks that are paid out uh payroll transactions the accounting in them to make sure that it's uh it's the proper accounting for the different employee type deposit process you know that when money comes in we make make sure that it's not only um fully uh the transaction is fully was fully there with support uh but also that it was timely. Uh and then when it comes to the financial piece so when the books are closed after the books are closed we do what we call the year- end audit that's typically uh going to be after you see the minor actuals come before you Septemberish um then we we dive into the financial statements and we're looking
013at accounts payable accounts receivable that's where we're looking to make sure that everything is materially stated um well for the for the internal control financial reporting uh there's no significant deficiencies to report no material weaknesses and um that they were in compliance um with Gatsby standards. Um now the federal component when it comes to the federal piece of the audit, we utilize the federal compliance supplement and that's just the you know fancy term say like audit guide. So uh as you know there this year it was we the district normally receives the report by December 15th but because the federal compliance supplement came out so late that's why I'm in here in February instead of January. Um anyway, so the reason that this is important is because federal funds are restricted. So each federal program
014has their own u audit guide, you know, that we have to follow when we're auditing these funds. Um we the district as a whole spent 3 approximately 3.2 million in federal funds and we tested the child nutrition cluster. Um and uh upon testing of this program, we found we issued an unmodified opinion. Uh no significant deficiencies or material weaknesses to report. And the final piece I'll go over today is the state compliance. It's really it's really tough to not have findings in state compliance because it's not this doesn't only fall on the um on the business side. This is the organization as a whole. So this we cover pieces from the instructional side which is the you know instructional materials piece component. There's uh the LCAP there's comprehensive school safety plans but really it's a
015lot of different areas that fall under the umbrella of state compliance. Um, and it's not like the other areas where we can deal with materiality where it's like, oh, they're materially stated, so it's good. It would say compliance, it's so black and white either. You could be off by one word. For example, the SARC, if one of the one of the um one of the ratings is off from the fit form to the SAR, you know, that that has to be a finding. So, it's tough to not have findings. And um, you know, that being said, the district had no findings in state compliance. We issued an unmodified opinion. No more zero weaknesses, no findings, and no significant inefficiencies. Um, so that that concludes my presentation. If there are any questions, I can take them
016out. >> Um, one question for me is like you get to pick which which of the federal programs you're going to review. Correct. You don't do all of them. You you pick one. >> Well, yes, but there are u there are certain rules. So, if a program hasn't been tested within the last two years, then we have then we have to select it. Also, the in order for it to be considered a major program, it has to be over the $750,000 uh spending threshold, but that's going up to a million dollars. So, in order in 2526, so for next year's audit, it's going to we're a major program. It's going to be cons it's going to be considered major if it's a million dollars or more. >> We don't have very many of those. >>
017Right. Right. So, it's really there's not really a whole lot to choose from. Okay. I appreciate it. And really, Chris, I mean, you're stepping into it. You've stepped into a role. You've kept a tradition that's important to us actually about making sure that you're a good partner for our auditors and that our auditors feel confident in the work that the team is doing. Um, and that's you you don't get much better. I mean, it's not a very sexy construct, but but it's a pillar in, you know, if you're a board member, I'm never going to be able to dig through financial statements to know whether or not there's malfeasants, whether or not it's it's operating well. And you're a great presenter. So I you know so it's really important that you come in and give
018us that validation that somebody with the right level of authority and uh understanding looked through and that to the best of our abilities you know we're operating um well >> I do want to add that your staff's a pleasure to work with very responsive I I love working with more than school district >> thank you I had a quick question uh remotely Okay. The uh over a period of time I'm assuming that what's the typical coverage of um items that do get audited? Uh like I know there's there's obviously thresholds but over a period of time like let's say over a period of 3 years or four years does every program just because of the nature of rotation get audited or it's an enough sampling that you get good information to move forward from. Does
019that make sense? Yes, it does. So, if uh we we we strive for 40% coverage. Uh >> okay. >> But we do but we do also go uh we don't only test the major program. There are also non- major programs that we test. Uh if it's the first time of a if it's the first time of a program operating, for example, we select that one just because we want to see how we want to see how it's new. We want to see how it's being handled. Um >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. And again, just to re I really appreciate I know um you presented in in a very short while, but I do know that there's a hefty 95page report behind that. So, thank you for all of the hard work
020from everybody to get to that. My >> pleasure. Thank you. >> And I'll just echo our gratitude. Um obviously the business office uh key key player here, but it also touches all all of the different aspects of the district. And so it takes really a really um phenomenal team to continue to bring forward this kind of data. So thank you to all of that hard work that happens. >> Yeah. Do we need to accept that report? >> Uh so our next item is to accept this report um as of June 30, 2025. I'll be happy to make a motion to accept the audit report as of June 30, 2025. >> A second. >> I will second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> Thank you so much. >> Sorry for such a long
021drive. >> No, it's always a pleasure being here. >> Drive carefully. >> All right. So, on to 6B. Resolution 62526. reduction of particular kinds of service of certificated staff. >> So, we're asking that you um permission or approve the re resolution to reduce some staff for next year based on um program needs and financial decisions that made. Um some of these reductions will be full positions and some of these reductions for example will be partial positions or um reduction in hours. So, not a full-time position. >> Questions? >> Any questions? >> It's never an easy, >> it's not an easy topic and and we know that we're in the business of people and it makes all the difference. Um, so we have to be careful, we have to be thoughtful and um, so I just,
022>> yeah, we had >> it's not an easy ask. We had some hard conversations today. >> I was going to say, do we we >> we've had some hard conversations um in rolling this out. We don't want to catch anybody off guard um in trying to treat everybody with dignity and kindness as much as we can and explaining the situation. We did do um the road show where we kind of went to all the school sites and explained the financial situation and that we have a thousand students less than we had 5 years ago um and the deficit spending. So I think staff is understanding um but it's still difficult >> of course. >> Yeah. You know the smaller harder decisions done frequently help us avoid larger >> correct >> more drastic more complex decisions
023later. And so >> I'm always sorry that you know there's always a person at the end of that decision no matter what direction >> we take in that. but that by making decisions, you actually start to let people move on with those things. And you're continuing to have an ability to to make kind of the next decision that we need to make. That kicking up the can, which so many of our peers have done really in an effort to be kind, generally speaking, has left most of those districts having to make some really just harder and incre incrementally harder sets of decisions um until you really have very few options. And so I know that you guys take a a a very thoughtful approach. It's one of the things I appreciate about it, which is
024to say, is there any other way? Are there avenues that we can do? Are there other ways we could find federal dollars that pay for, you know, like I I do feel that we've we explore all of those avenues for you get to this position. >> Correct. >> Um and I think you can then look at the person across the table and say that confidently. I mean, we we have done the all the work that we could do to find avenues that we think otherwise. Uh, and this is a tough decision and this is just on the best interest of of the district for the future and that's again really hard for the people that bear that. >> Correct. >> I feel it's never a pleasant experience. >> May I just say one thing? >>
025I just want to thank our partners um MTA and MCSEA. So Bobby uh is one of our bus drivers. he is going to be stepping into the role of the vice president of MCSEA shortly. So he is here representing MCSEA. So I just wanted to thank them for their partnership. This affects both both their members. Um and it is not been an easy um the last few weeks in making these decisions and we feel for all of the individuals whether it's shortened hours or whole position or partial positions. And so I just want to say thank you um for the collaboration and partnership and I think the transparency has gone a long ways to to build that trust. And so um thank the team um thank our partners and just thank you to all the
026employees. I know some are watching and listening. So um thank you for the support. >> All right. Well, with that um do I have a motion to approve resolution 62526? Make a motion to approve resolution 62526. >> A second. >> I will second. >> All in favor say I. >> I regrettably. All right. Uh resolution 72526 criteria for seniority order for certificated staff. >> So this would be in an instance where you have two employees with the same exact um hire date. um how we would decide if it came to that decision of who was going to get laid off. So this would be the criteria we would use if two employees are were identical. Um so we look at the contract and kind of what's in the contract and then we just follow procedure
027and we're just asking that you approve this procedure. Oh uh just questioning so it would be in specifically this order one would be the bilingual certification uh special ed then next would be if they were different or in breath of credentials >> specifically in those orders last fourth would be the professional preparation advanced degree that would be the last between people that are hired on the exact same, >> right? So, you have to how do you differentiate >> might >> not be relevant. So, then you move down to the next one. So, some someone might have years of experience prior to coming to Morland, >> right? >> But they might be a new hireer to Morland next to someone who was hired the same day. So, that's when you're saying like years of service, teaching
028experience. It could be teaching experience in a previous district or something else, right? So we have to look at all the variables when making these decisions. >> Understood. >> Any questions or comments? >> So that is helpful. >> You want to go with a motion? >> Yeah. Uh I'll make a motion for Oops. Sorry. Hold on a second. >> A second. >> Uh so you're going to do the motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve >> uh 2025 criteria for seniority order for certified staff >> and I'll second that. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. Resolution 52526 reduction in force of classified staff. >> So this would be kind of the next two items are the same as um previously except for with the classified staff. So again,
029it's a reduction in force for classified staff. Um, again, part of these positions might be hours like someone might have an added bus duty. >> So that's a normal thing that we would lay off every year that time. They might be assigned to a different So some of these are kind of natural things that we do every year. Um, so that would be like the bus duty might be a couple people at different sites having like a little point little extra. So those add up to be a full-time. For example, if I'm an instructional aid doing bus duty, maybe the next year I'm not going to do it or I'll be at a different site or bus duty won't be required. So there are some rout like routine things that we do lay off every
030year like small little pieces and then others will be um full positions um kind of tied to our preschool changes um and intervention hours might be reduced. And just remind me um obviously everything that was said previously applies to everyone in the district. Um the reason for voting or taking this action and now is because we have a March deadline. Correct. And so there is certainly an opportunity should it not be needed after the fact to resend or to um go a different direction. This is just to make sure that we're being compliant. >> We have to be compliant to notify all staff of any non-reelect, any kind of layoff by March 15th. And so that for us would be March 12th this year since we have a no work day on the 13th and
031the 15th falls on a weekend. So it's also cut our time a little bit. Um we do have to have approval from the board to lay off these hours. So, we do come to you at this time and then we'll be meeting staff after um if it's approved. We'll be meeting the staff before March 12th, give them notification. But of course, if somebody if you're laid off and between now and the end of the year, someone maybe resigns, then you get to we bring you back. Um with classified there, um a bumping chain kind of happens sometimes where you can bump into another position. So, it is a little bit more involved with classified. Um, so we have to notify anyone who might also get bumped out of their position because someone has seniority. If
032I held if I held a position in preschool, but previously I held a position in another category and I have seniority over somebody, I could bump them. >> Okay. >> So for classified, it is more involved the notices that we have to give. Um, we do have to notice kind of more people unfortunately. Um, but then we often rescend them because so often jobs open up and we're able to welcome people back. Um, I understand why the law was made to give people enough time, but it also um scares people sometimes um when we we might have opportunity to bring them back. Especially the classified side, we have high turnover for instructional aids all the time. Um so just you don't have a position now, you might have one. Yeah, that's that's why I raised
033it point. Yeah, for sure. >> And for like the special ed people we this is a projection based on what we know of students needs now, right? But students needs change >> like so to me that's always like a common there's a placeholder not of people but it's like depends on um need right so like >> as students are moving on or moving or whatever it turns out to be. So, I mean, I appreciate that we have to notice people, but sometimes it's like, boy, it's like you're really it's it's unfortunate. >> Correct. >> Yes, it's unfortunate because especially for the classified AIDS, as you said, openings happen. >> Follow the law. >> Right. Anything else on that? >> All right. With a heavy heart. Do I have >> heavy heart? >> I I'm sorry.
034I was trying to find the mute button. I did have one super tiny uh correction to the actual resolution document itself. Um it says it on the signature line it has your name correctly, Heather, but it says Shelley Hong in the in the paragraph >> in the text. >> Good catch. You know, very good catch. Yeah, >> that was it. It was, as I said, it's a minor net, but uh we might want to correct that. >> Yes. Have a motion to approve resolution as amended. >> All uh a motion to approve uh motion 52526 as amended. >> I'll second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> All right. resolution 82526. >> So I want to say in full transparency when as we're transitioning from board docs to diligent when things were uploaded
035into board docs and then transferred and it went live there. I don't know what happened but wrong things were attached. So we we will correct the attachment says um 07 but the correct one is 08. So we >> the text is all the same. It's just that number >> you'll have the number corrected. >> Okay, perfect. >> Anything else? >> So that is the if people have the same hire date again. >> Any questions or comments? >> It's the same to me. >> No, it's hearing none. Do I have a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve resolution E of number 8 2025 2026 which is the criteria for seniority order of 57 >> and I'll second that >> as as amended >> as amended. Yeah as >> thank you. >> All in
036favor? >> I I >> All right. 6F MCSA initial bargaining proposal with the Morland school district. So, we are going to be bargaining with the MCSEA union um this year for next school year. We are proposing a 2-year agreement. Um this is their sunshine list. This contract is fully open to um all articles. The MCSA has opened appendix D 38 9 10 11 12 13 15 16 and 19 to be open for discussion during um negotiations. Um Morland is opening 8 9 12 and 13. So our articles are also in here. I did give our sunshine list to MCSEA. Again, it was on there and disappeared when it was commissioned. So, I will add ours to next board meeting. And we ask that you approve MCSDA's list for our negotiations. Any questions or comments on
037this? >> I always feel like there's really nothing we can do because we're approving their list. So, I can't say no. I can't say >> more like accepting. >> Can't ask any questions around it. So, I'm going to say apparently yes. >> Well, it's an acceptance. We're accepting the list. >> And it's transparency. It's really for public transparency purposes. >> It is. >> Yes. I would I would like to motion to accept. >> Thank you, Ryan. >> Yes, it was. >> And a second. >> I will second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. I. >> I. >> On to tonight's consent. Any questions or comments on tonight's consent? >> All right, hearing none. Do I have a motion to approve the consent in aggregate? >> Offer a motion to approve the consent uh
038in aggregate. >> A second. >> All in favor say I. I. I. >> I. >> Future meeting dates. >> Anything going on with the March dates? for anyone. >> So far so good. Excellent. >> I know that we need to still work on school site visits. >> School site visits. Yep. >> It is. And it's here somewhere. >> Yep. Um I >> think I'm looking at the document and I think we have one, two, three, four sites confirmed and we still need uh one, two, three to be determined. >> So the baker on March 19th um is Shriram and I are we are we waiting to confirm that or >> I think that they we had something along the side. I think that they're >> Ryan was also Oh, sure. >> I think it was
039my name was on there because I had done papers previously previously. >> I think >> I'm rolling I >> That's fine. >> It could be mis >> that was how we we wrote it in that depth, right? Because it was like it was either going to be the pain or >> or Baker, I think it was. Well, how about we we can meet on this because you and I can connect on whether or not we can just consolidate to a date. Um, >> We need to get there, >> but I want to pass this time up >> for sure. >> Anything else on future meeting dates? >> I just had one just because we had our lovely auditor here. Um, they're aware they could phone in. I always feel badly that he's driven. >> I
040make him drive. >> Yeah, I know. >> Yeah, I do give I do always give him the option. You he likes to come. >> Okay. I just I want to make sure >> you're doing the bond audit. >> If we if we get an unqualified one, you can phone >> I do I do give them the option >> means more when they're here in person and it's unmodified >> is to look at us in the eyes and say unmodified. Okay. Um I just want to offer that see if my other board members agree but okay. >> I do though appreciate that he does make that drive and afford us the opportunity. Yeah, >> I appre I appreciate it. >> All right, announcements, reminders, requests. >> I just have one announcement. I wanted to formally thank
041Heather for stepping up uh and uh presiding on two meetings while I was uh out. So, really appreciate um your uh support here, Heather. Thank you. >> Of course. Of course. Thank you. All right. Uh we are adjourned. Shwaram travel safely.