2/10/2026 - NMUSD Regular Board of Education Meeting

001Oh yes. Um we are at 4:34 opening the meeting now. Sam will do a roll call. >> Trusty So yes here. >> Trusty Murphy >> here. >> Trusty Pearson >> here. >> Trusty Mroy >> here. >> Trusty Anderson >> here. >> Trusty Crane >> here. >> Trusty Wagan >> here. >> Dr. Smith >> here. >> And now we can move to the adoption of the agenda. So moved. Trustee Anderson has a question. Oh. >> Uh, yes, please. I would like to pull item B6 for further elaboration with with our staff and perhaps bring it back next month. >> What is it? B6. B6. >> What number? >> B6. >> Uh, >> approve the memorandum of understanding between someone care soup kitchen and Newport Mesa Unified School District. >> So we can move that to discussion

002action at the end of the agenda today. Well, we >> the reason I would like to pull it from this agenda and bring it back for the next agenda is there's information programmatically and about the organization that we don't know. So discussing it like I don't think we have enough information to discuss it. So that's why I would like to pull it. I spoke to Dr. Smith about it. There there hasn't been an existing tutoring program there since before COVID. And if you'll look on their website, there is not an existing tutoring program. And so I just want to make sure that we're offering high high quality evidence-based for our students. And I think there's more information that we need before we approve it. >> Yeah. Sorry for any confusion. Um when I mentioned that

003items can be pulled, they're they're pulled to that existing agenda item at the end of the meeting action discussion and then it's determined by the majority of the board whether there is or isn't enough information to move it forward. Um, I guess in theory the board could say now that they would vote on that item not to agendaize it where they normally agendaize it, but typically that's where we move it. Uh, and then if they determine that there is enough information to move forward, then they can table it and bring it back to the next meeting. But our past practice has been to move it to that item >> unless there's been an error or something where we have to reconsider. >> Yes, I if we can move it to discussion action. Um, I feel

004like there is enough information to keep moving forward tonight. Um, if anyone wants to move to adopt the agenda with that amendment to move the item B6 to the discussion action item 18. Okay. Um, I move that we move item 6B as suggested by trustee Anderson to item 18, which is discussion action calendar for further board discussion as per our common practice. >> Second move by Trusty Crane, seconded by Trustee Murphy. >> Roll call. Sam. >> Trusty. >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yep. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. Trusty Mroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wag, [clears throat] >> yes. >> Great. The vote was unanimous. And now, do we have any community input on close session items only? >> We do. So, um, Trustee Pearson,

005can you read the >> I'm ready this time. This is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the closed session agenda only. Comments on closed session agenda items are limited to three minutes per comment up to 20 minutes per topic. A speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person. >> Um so we have um speaker Ariselli Ava de Lassol from speaking on public employee item. Good afternoon, President Ursul Siry, um trustees, uh Superintendent Smith, and our cabinet. Um, I'm here today to really just um come and say hi and thank you all um for the time that I've been at Newport Mesa. And I'm here with a heart of gratitude for having the opportunity to work for Newport Mesa for all of these years. And um have

006all the opportunity to impact so many students. During my tenure here, we've accomplished over um half a billion dollars of work, $512 million of work in the facilities department um has managed. And um and I'm hoping to continue to work with school districts in the future. And I just wanted to come and say thank you and let you know I'm going back to school to get my bachelor's degree. >> So I'm going in reverse order. My daughter and I might go to school together. um she's just graduating high school and um really just wanted to say say thank you to all of you and um I will be watching everything that happens at the district and I hope nothing but the best for everyone here and I want to commend all of you for all

007of the good work that you've done over the years and past board members um and all the benefits that our students have had from from your support. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to mention Tracy. She is an absolute saint and um is able to navigate very difficult situations in a positive manner and and leave positive relationships in place. And so I just want to make sure to um commend her for that. >> Thank you. Thank you for that. And um now we will move to close session where the items are public employee discipline dismissal release, conference with labor negotiation, public employee evaluation, and we will return to open session at 6 p.m. Thank you. Okay, we'll call this meeting to order at 6:04 6:04 p.m. Um,

008in close session, the board of education took action to approve the resignation agreement and general release number 202501HR. The roll call vote was seven eyes and zero nos. Um, can we now have the opening ceremonies? Um, moment of reflection led by Charlie Leett. >> Place your right hand over your heart. Ready, begin. I aliance 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. Um adoption of the minutes. Roll. Um moved or second. >> Second or so moved. >> Second. Moved by Trusty Wagan, second by Trustee Crane. Um Sam roll call vote. Trusty Soyu. >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. Trusty Mroy >> here. >> Trusty Anderson >> here. >> Trusty

009Crane >> here. >> Trusty Wagan. >> Yes. >> Great. And now I will turn it over to um Vice President Murphy for student board member report. >> Sorry. Um okay. Student board member reports. Hi. Hi guys. Thanks for being here. We appreciate it. Um, the topic for this meeting is it's budget season. I I'm sure you all saw we were just in a budget study session. So, we thought it was important to ask if you see any evidence of wasteful spending at your school and how could it be corrected? Um, I was going to say I was I worked out this question with um my mentor Charlene Metuay. We had fun coming up with it. So, thanks Char wherever she is. Um, so anyways, uh, Charlie Leit. >> Good evening, Superintendent Erilo, board president Wagand,

010board members, and members of the Newport Mesa Unified School District. My name is Charlie Leverett. I am the student board. Thank you. The student board member representative for Monav Vista. The question I was asked to answer tonight is it's budget season. Do you see any evidence of wasteful spending at your school and how could it be corrected? One area of wasteful spending that I have noticed around school is food that is prepared by the district is wasted every single day. This means money is being spent on food that never benefits students. A better solution could be tracking which foods are actually eaten and adjusting portions or menu choices based on that data. Unean but safe food choice uneaned but safe food could also be donated to local food banks or community organizations instead of being

011discarded. These changes could reduce waste while still supporting students and surrounding community. Thank you. Have a good night. >> Thank you Charlie. Thank you Charlie. with it. Very interesting. We were actually just talking about that subject. So, thank you for bringing that up. Uh Kenley Lopez, please from Costa Mesa High School. [clears throat] Sorry. Good evening, Superintendent Smith, President Shilu, and Steam Board members. I'm really excited for today's topic since I had the opportunity to survey over 250 students and it was not an easy topic to find an answer to. Recently, teachers started to implement gander pouches on the middle school site to prevent student from using their phones during class. However, it has not shown the outcome that many teachers expected. Somehow middle schoolers find a way to escape this mandatory rule which led

012to teachers which led teachers to to stop enforcing this rule during class time. Additionally, the students are concerned about the massive waste of paper for school materials slips and the unclean facilities in including rooms and support fields. A student suggested creating a digital system to replace the current charity system. Having a staff constantly checking the facilities and creating a spaces where student can put their phones while learning. Now moving on to our lunches. I understand that it's complicated to choose what students should eat on a regular day. However, the student feel tired of having pizza almost three times a week. Also, there is a huge problem with the options you get past 10 minutes in the cafeteria being the most common one, an iced peanut butter bread or a sandwich. As member of our of

013our school community, we should not only focus on the things to improve our environment. That's why I decided to ask students about the uniqueness you can find at Costa Mesa High School. The first thing is the first thing is our diverse community and I quote, I think our studentr run clubs are unique. The students at CHS focus on diversity among our clubs as they have so many options to choose from ranging from Latino culture club to choose club. Every student has the ability to choose or make a club that fits their interests. End quote. Secondly, we have our we have our inschool and after school programs including including ROPs, AP honors, the college and career center and amazing theater. Last but not least, the students love our school band and staff including teachers, security, the

014school community facilitators and counselors. I think this is a good time to say thank you to all these people who make our school unique for everyone. I also wanted to say thank you board members for taking the time to listen to our school community and making sure everyone gets what they deserve. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. We try. We try. I think Jeff is now writing notes. It's bathrooms and food now is what you're what you're hearing. Um, okay. McKenzie, please from CVM. Good evening, Superintendent Smith, President Ersolu, esteemed board members in the Newport Mesa community. My name is McKenzie, and I want to thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of Corona Delmare High School. When I was asked this agenda question, I asked my ASB and my peers what

015they thought about wasteful spending at CDM. One of their points was that what that was brought up was yonder pouches. Many middle middle school students do not use them and instead hide their phones in their bags. While there's a new law prohibiting K through eight students from using their phones during school hours in California, there might be other solutions that require less spending since the pouches aren't very effective. We can maybe solve this with stricter enforcement by teachers and punishment for using their phones like maybe detentions. Students also suggested that physical textbooks should be transitioned to online. With the rise of wait with the rise of technology innovation, it seems logical to transition to online interfaces and reduce spending on textbooks. The majority of students share that they have not opened their textbooks and instead

016rely on resources that teachers provide instead. Since all students are provided Chromebooks at the beginning of the year, we could look to switch textbooks to online while still ensuring that all students have access to them. The last thing that was mentioned was a surplus of apps on Class Link. I've noticed that I've never used most of most of these apps for my classes and many also agree that they don't feel like they are being used to their full potential. Is there data to see the usage of these apps? And is there a possibility of cutting the ones that are maybe not as used? But overall, in my opinion, CDM does a great job of spending money in the resources in efficient places that truly benefit our students and staff. Thank you. >> Thank you. Great.

017Next we have Harbor Council PTA report. >> Good evening, Trustee, Vice President Murphy, Clerk Pearson, Trustees, Superintendent Smith, Cabinet, and community members. My name is Martha Florur and I am the Harbor Council PTA president for four more months. Uh happy soon to be Valentine's Day and the upcoming President's Week break. God knows we need it. Um our PTAs are now completing their mid-year financial reviews, beginning the nominating process for next year's leadership, and finally identifying those PTA members and staff and others deserving of the California PTA honorary service awards recognition. Our current PTA membership stands at just under 5,000 which is 95% of our goal. 25 of our schools are at over 100 members and the remaining units are just within striking distance. This month's CAPA challenge was to secure 17 new members by February

01828th in honor of Founders Day on February 17th. If you haven't joined at least one PTA in NMUSD, I encourage you to do so. At our meeting on January 6, Lori Hernandez made a great presentation about all the enrichment opportunities this board has um stressed um for our elementary schools um will be experiencing over the afterchool program from robotics and Odyssey of the mind to battle of the books. We are especially excited to enjoy Ignite the Night on May 15th, May 11th um to see all of the exciting competitions. Our pre our unit presidents were so appreciative of the information. A very special shout out to Eastluff PTA and their staff for providing the foundation and impetus for Battle of the Books districtwide. In closing, we all watched this week the tragedy of Lindsey Vaughn's

019shattering uh career shattering accident. She wrote, and I'd like to quote yesterday, and I'm going to call it the five inches because that's what it was. She quoted five inches. While yesterday did not end the way I had hoped, and despite the intense physical pain it caused, I have no regrets. Standing in the starting gate yesterday was an incredible feeling that I will never forget. Knowing I stood there having a chance to win was a victory in and of itself. I also knew that risk d that racing was a risk. It's always was and always will be an incredibly dangerous sport. And similar to ski racing, we take risks in life. We dream, we love, we jump, and sometimes we fall. Sometimes our hearts are broken. Sometimes we don't achieve the dreams we know we

020could have. But that is also the beauty of life. We can try. I tried. I dreamt. I jumped. I hope if you take anything away from my journey is that you all have the courage to dare greatly. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself because the only failure in life is not trying. I believe in you just as you believed in me. And so to our students, our faculty, our staff, and our community. Let's be like Lindsey Vaughn. Life is too short not to take chances on yourself because the only failure in life is not trying. I believe in you just as you believed in me. Thank you very much. Enjoy the evening and the time off for with family and friends, but remember this. Please be safe. [applause] >> Thank you

021so much. And thank you for bringing the February joy with that sweater. I love it. Thank you. >> Um, next up is CSA President Amy Ching. >> Hi everybody. Um good ne good good evening presidentuel trustees superintendent Smith cabinet and guests there was a significant amount of discussion earlier today at the uh special board meeting and I took a lot of notes and I'm looking forward to digest digesting the information and working uh in collaboration with the district on some ideas that could hope um we could benefit classified and student outcomes. Um, I [sighs and gasps] wanted to make note that um, several of the lowest paid classified positions involve daily direct contact with students, including hundreds of instructional aids, supervision assistants, transportation, and nutrition services staff. Many classified employees live within the district's boundaries,

022which means their students are their children are students within the district. They are all directly impacted by the decisions you make. Health care costs and affordable housing continue to present challenges. I would like to thank the board and the staff, executive staff for the discussions that were had earlier and your commitment to supporting student outcomes while also exercising fiscal responsibility and for your understanding of the value classified employees bring to the district. I hope you all have a great President's Week and as always, we look forward to continuing to do the good work for students, staff, and the community. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Amy. And next up, we have NMFT President Rhonda Reid. Good evening, President Ursulu, Trustees, Superintendent Smith, Cabinet, and guests here tonight. As we are well into the second half

023of the school year, I wanted to thank NMFT leadership and site representatives. They do so much behind the scenes to support and and um encourage their colleagues. What I love about this group is when they have an issue or a concern, they approach it from the perspective of student impact and student outcomes. They ask, "How does this affect my students? How does this help me be better prepared to help them? So, when I was in graduate school, I worked at Nordstrom. At the time, Nordstrom was the gold standard of customer service and known for how they treated their employees. I do miss the employee discount. when when um when a customer had a complaint or an issue, the Nordstrom um family and Nordstrom would take it really seriously and it usually prompted a personal letter

024from one of the Nordstrom families because the Nordstrom's would say is for every issue or concern or complaint, there is many people behind that complaint that never came forward. So tonight, I'd like to highlight one of the concerns that I know several of you have received letters from the educators and and it's about the staff meetings. They're the meetings that are on a separate day from the designated meeting day which is early out early start. So it's after school twice a month for 45 minutes. This is double the time from last year. So, your educators are working tirelessly. I think you um can see from the rising and increase in test scores, they're really working towards those student outcomes. And right now, many of them are feeling like they're rewarded with more meeting times, working

025longer and working harder, which seems counter to counterintuitive. We all want our teachers to be their very best when they're in front of their students, when they come alongside their students, and when they reach out and pull their students up. We all acknowledge that increased teacher collaboration directly impact student outcomes. And I think we could work together to find a more efficient way to disseminate some of the staff information that's procedural in an efficient way that would not contribute to burnout and low morale. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. And next up we have community input on non-aggendaized items. Um, Clark Pearson, can you read the word? >> This is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items not on the regular meeting agenda. Comments on non-aggenda topics are limited to

026three minutes per comment, up to 20 minutes per topic. A speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person. By order of the Brown Act, section 54954.2, the board will take no action nor have any discussion on non-aggendaized items. The superintendent may provide clarification during superintendent comments. >> Great. So, first up we have um the Newport Harbor tennis coaches item um Elrich Navatel. [applause] Hi, good evening. Uh, okay. Timer is there. Uh, I'm representing my daughter who is part of the Newport Harbor team. Um, recently their confidence has been shattered by the, uh, I don't know how to say that, but the change of coaches at Newport Harbor. Um, for once we had great great coaches. Uh, the B family, we've been practicing with them even before they were coaches at Newport Harbor

027and they were great. um world-class coaches. They have been professionals for years. Um my daughter has a lot of confidence in those people in what they say, in what they ask from her to progress and so on. And I couldn't uh imagine better coaches um than than those guys over there. It was it was really great. So I know that other people are going to speak about this. Uh we don't understand why they've been removed. uh nobody has been able to give us a compelling reason. So, it feels like it's very unfair and I'm personally here tonight to hear what people have to say about it and to ask for either um um disclosure of the compelling reason why they are not coaches anymore because it's a shame uh or if there is no such

028reason uh to uh for you uh the committee here. I'm not sure how it works, but for people here to to reconsider the situation and to see what can be done because they are really the best coaches I think that uh anybody in the district can can have. So, um that's all I have to say. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And next we have is it Haley Sites? Haley [applause] Hi, my name is Haley. I'm a junior at Harbor. As a transfer this year, though, I've known Cam for a while as he was my coach in fifth and sixth grade. And from the amount of coaches I've had, I can confidently say Cam, Carson, and Sid are the best coaches I've had. This decision made by the district of firing was abrupt and confusing with

029no answer of clarity. As these coaches were people we all admired having each day we stepped on the court. These guys brought the energy and commitment for us to keep improving and growing as a team each day. They built the program up to the best it's been. Especially with the leadership of Ecuador. They showed up for us consistently prepared and invested in our success. They always pushed us to be the best players we could be each day. Always encouraging us to get on the court and play. Losing the team losing them would set the program back just as it was gaining its momentum. Our team culture became so strong because of them. Losing coach Cameron Carson instead would be a major mistake. Thank you for allowing us to share our opinion. >> Thank you. [applause]

030Next is Audrey Solomon and then it will be Kate um Gil. Audrey. [applause] >> Hi everyone. My name is Audrey Salman and I'm a junior at New Harbor High School. Many of you may already know me as I serve as the representative of Newport Harbor. high school on the Newport Mesa Unified School District Board. And if you don't, that's okay. Um, [laughter] I feel somewhat out of place on this end of the discussion, so bear with me as I share my thoughts. I am up here tonight as a result of the recent dismissal of the Newport Harbor Boys and Girls Tennis Coaches. As someone who has had three different jobs by the age of 16, I understand the importance of the relationship between employer and employee. My worst fear would be getting fired out of

031the blue, let alone being fired without any prior notice for reasons that were kept for me. Unfortunately, this is what has recently happened to our school's tennis coaches, Cam Carsten, and Sid Ball, a father and son's trio who have devoted themselves to the Newport Harbor High School tennis team for the past year. I'm here as a student who is trying to represent her side of the story. A student who's confused as to why the coaches she adors and respects were discharged so abruptly. I'm not asking for reversal of this decision. Not yet, at least. All I'm asking for is clarity. In this confusing time, my teammates and I want to know why this has happened. If at the very least, we deserve answers. As I mentioned, I'm a junior, and my time, the NHS tennis

032program, has seen four different coaches in only three years. This cycle is not sustainable. The players are becoming burnt out. Having to prove ourselves in skill and attitude each season, only to have to repeat the entire process under new leadership the next season is exhausting. In all honesty, it takes a toll on our mental health and has even made me consider not playing next year in my senior year. But I don't want to give up because this past tennis season has been the best, most productive one yet. In fact, the most productive one the school has seen in years. We have not ever had coaches like these before. They care about us deeply and individually in a way no other coaches have before. It is a tragedy that we are now without them because after

033everything we've been through, we deserve that type of leadership. To end, I will add this. If you need any further evidence of the impact that Cam, Carson, and Sid have had on our school culture and team spirit, please understand that these girls behind me have experienced the discharge of three prior sets of coaches. The coaches have walked away without a second glance backward. They didn't care. The players weren't affected. But not these coaches and not these players. This time is different. Never before has there been a response from the community such as the one you see before you tonight. Please consider my words in sharing your side of the story as I have taken the time to share mine and consider their return for all of us. Thank you, [applause] Kate Gil. Next is Kate

034Gil. And then after that will be Cassidy Miller. You guys can start coming. [applause] >> Hi, my name is Kate Gil and I'm a sophomore in New Pearl Harbor. I don't have a lot to say, but I'll make it brief. I think everyone was a little distraught and upset by the sudden leaving of our coaches. And I think we're all confused and what answers that we were told cannot be given to us. And I think we've grown so much as a team with Carsten, Cam, and Sid. And we've learned so much from them. And like how Audrey had spoken about and Haley as well, we have had three sets of different coaches in the past two years. My freshman year, I had two different sets of coaches. And sophomore year, it was just really nice

035to have the same coaches and have that special bond with them and just grow a relationship with them and grow a foundation as a team. And I just think it's going to be hard to rebuild another relationship with a new set of coaches. And I just honestly think I had so much fun sophomore year with them and learned so much from them. And on behalf of me and my team, we would really like our coaches to be reinstated and for Harvard. Thank you. [applause] >> Great. Cassidy Miller. Then John McKay McCra. [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Cassidy Miller. I'm a sophomore and player on the Newport Harbor tennis team. When we found out our incredible coaches were abruptly fired, we were devastated. The three of these coaches have taught us each not only

036tennis but good sportsmanship along with persistence and how hard work pays off. I would like for the board to understand how exceptional these coaches were. They have been teaching tennis for decades. We are so thankful and lucky to have them. They also created a tight-knit bond between all of us on and off the court. We have never had coaches this good, which is why we all come here today pleading in order to get them back. We hope that the board will have our best interests in mind and bring our coaches back to our team. Thank you for your time. [applause] >> So, John McCrae, then it'll be Erica Palm Carson. [applause] >> Good evening. Um, I'm John McCrae. Thank you for the time. Um, yeah, Sid, Cameron, and Karsten, they were a breath of fresh

037air to this program. My daughter is a sophomore and she's now on her third coaching staff. And it is frustrating. It's disappointing cuz these these guys really brought uh passion and they the these girls really were going in the right direction and it's hard to have such turnover. Um, it's my opinion that this was a political decision. I read an article in a newspaper and there was some sort of contract disputes. I don't know a whole lot about it, but uh I think it's sad that these girls are going to be affected by some sort of political decision. Thank you very much. [applause] So, next is Erica Palm Carson. and final is Michael Moran. [applause] >> Good evening board members. Thank you for hearing us tonight. We appreciate this. Um, as you guys are well

038know, um, we were all completely blindsided by this decision that was made to have these amazing coaches fired. Um, I'm actually alumni of Newport Harbor myself. I grew up playing varsity tennis all four years, so I understand what it is like to be these students here. and the uh my daughter is only a sophomore and I finally felt like they were having these guys come coach which they have the best background and they live and breathe and have a family of tennis. Um I grew up very similar to this and I feel what I'm hearing from even the past 5 years the boys and girls tennis team has kind of been pushed aside hasn't been taken as seriously as some of the other sports and it's not a PE cut sport. these kids have worked

039really hard since they were five years old some of them to get to this level and not having the coaches for them um just seems crazy to me especially being here of where we live and what we've done to get our kids to this level and what it could do for their future. So, what we're asking, I guess, is the transparency, like what what was done. If something was really done that bad, we should have the right to know. Or if it wasn't, what can be done to reinstate them or um at least bring knowledge to us um so we can get our coaches back and get these kids back motivated to play and be a part of a team. So, thank you for hearing us tonight. [applause] Michael Moran. [laughter] >> Last but not

040least, here you go. >> How you doing? My name is Mike Moran. My daughter is a freshman over at Newport Harbor. I might need an interpreter because I'm from the Boston area originally. I got chance to meet these coaches on the side. got a chance to talk to him in depth. I coached from machine pitch up to pre high school in baseball. One of the biggest things about being a coach is connecting with kids. Every one of these kids connected with these coaches. They're all left in the dock. None of them know why the coaches are gone. It's kind of leaves them with a feeling like they've been deserted. I don't know much about the program. We came from Marinus Christian School first year over here. But I think it should be something that should

041be disclosed to the parents as well as the kids, you know, unless it's something that's really inappropriate to hear. And I just think personally the guys are professionals, ex-professional players. No one qualifies more than they do as far as coaching. Thank you for your time. [applause] >> All right, Mr. Moran. I'm from the LOL area, so I can translate for you. Don't worry. [laughter] Um, next up we have um the Banning Ranch topic and Jeremy Lure. >> Good evening, Superintendent Smith, esteemed board members, and members of the community. My name is Jeremy Lure and I'm here tonight to speak about the plan development project on the Banning Ranch property which will be discussed at the March meeting. The first I ever heard of Banning Ranch was at the past January meeting. From that point on,

042given my position as a student board member, I felt at the very least inclined to look into the issue and form my own opinion on the proposed development. In the past few weeks, I have researched what I could alongside some peers, and what we have found so far has been deeply concerning to us. I'm sure some of what I am going to say in opposition to its arguments are are are arguments you have already heard, possibly ones you disagree with. However, I ask that you can reconsider them and keep an open mind. Starting off big, I've heard repeated mentions of how this development will set the district up financially to create new and innovative programs for students and generally become more financially secure. And I mean, I'm sorry, I just don't see necessarily how that's

043true. On the highest end, the 99-year revenue estimate released to the public was $1.7 billion. And I know that sounds like a lot of money, but in terms of how long 99 years really is, that seems unreasonably small to me. I mean, I like to think I'm pretty young, but I don't think I'll even be around at 99 years. Beyond that, the revenue is almost non-existent for the first 5 to 15 years of the project. So, while I trust this board to be responsible stewards of the funds, I don't know what the board will look like in 15 years and what their priorities will be. That brings me to my next major point of contention with the project. I've heard varying promises of affordable housing over the past few weeks. While no developer can sustain

044in a project of 100% affordable housing, the public has no information about whether or not these units will remain affordable for the remainder of the lease or only the first 10 to 20 years or how many of the units will even be affordable. Given that this is one of the selling points of the projects, I think having clarity on it would greatly ease the concerns of the public. And now my final point is the environmental concern and the potential legal hurdles that go alongside it. I think it goes without saying that this land is incredibly important to protect naturally speaking. It is about 11 1/2 acres and about nine of those are actually green space and natural land. The other two are a concrete portion that has had various uses over the years. The Randall

045Preserve overall is around 300 acres which makes that 11 acre number seem rather small. However, that is a dangerous mindset to have. If the coastal commission allows the development of these 11 acres, it sets the standard that allows individuals to develop the next 11 acres here and the next 11 acres there all across the state and that'll add up and the undeveloped land across the state won't seem so substantial then. It is because of this that I ask, shouldn't the district be setting a good example? Please do not be the ones to set a precedent of developing land and harming what's turned over to the future generation, the generation of which you have all taken an oath to serve. Now, I am not rigidly opposed to the development, but unless these major concerns are addressed,

046I can't be certain developing Banning Ranch will best benefit the public and the students. Thank you. [applause] >> Next, we have Olivia Olivia Stockdale. Hello, Superintendent Smith, esteemed board members, and community members. Based on researching publicly available materials and discussion surrounding the issue, the banning ranch development as currently proposed will not provide the claim benefits of family, staff, and community. With the cost of living increasing, families will not be able to reap the benefits Newport Mesa provides. I'm not swayed in either part in any particular direction, neither approving nor rejecting Flint, but I do believe public land should be used to its fullest extent for public good. Currently, we the public do not have access to specifics regarding the banning ranch proposals. These unanswered questions prevent important dialogue as without public scrutiny, ensuring all all

047parties succeed. The project appears concerningly to be focused on profits rather than balancing our community's needs and the need for funding for schools. On a more practical note, West 16th Street does not have the infrastructure to handle an additional 200 people or more or there's not even a protected left turn lane onto Placentia. West 16th Street and surrounding areas are extremely industrial. There are no parks nearby past Talbert. The only ones are hidden in neighborhoods far away from those who need the access to the green space the most. When considering these proposals, questions about collaborating with the city to provide infrastructure to avoid hurting local residents, businesses with and businesses with con congestion and continued access to green space need to be answered to ensure the benefits can be realized and practical to those who

048are affected. We want information and concrete mechanisms to ensure the promises will actually benefit constituents. What employees will actually qualify for affordable housing? What are the income requirements? Are there any seniority requirements will employees eventually be able to own? How much housing will actually be available? How many units will be there? And is there enough space for families? How much will be reserved for NMUSD staff compared to housing reserved for helping families stay in the district? This is truly to benefit students and families by helping them stay local. How will we ensure long-term affordability? The district will have a constant stream of revenue with this project. But this begs the question, what will the funds be used for and ensure they're close to classrooms? These programs are said to help students which take the funding

049and not even and potentially not even benefit the constituate and who are affected the most who lose valuable green space and historically are underresourced. I ask this board how they will ensure it benefits all of the community because the only preference I have is that this decision is lined with bringing the greatest good to the students and the public. Thank you for your time. Thank you. The next topic is the um zone pack meetings. Um Mr. Cole Cressilious >> tried. [laughter] >> Hi friends. I'm Cole Cressilius, a parent at College Park Elementary. Um I'm here to say a couple things that I'm really proud of this district and a lot of what's happening here. Um, I'm sort of hot off the heels of a strategic planning meeting that I was able to be a part

050of in the fall and looking at ways to uh build zone pride alongside Michelle Murphy and a PTA president at College Park. Uh, we are kicking back up a zone pack meeting for Costa Mesa schools. Um, those under Costa Mesa High. Um, had some awesome meetings with Jeff Giles and David Waldrum there. um and had an amazing call with uh the folks in CDM, the facilitator there who bridg who um was super supportive and is actually going to come and join us for our first meeting as well. So very very excited about what that will mean for not only the high school but all of the elementary schools and building that excitement towards what we all get to um experience as Mustangs and what will come of that. uh related, I had an amazing meeting

051with Mr. Jeff Dixon and Gabe in the back um helping us think through in our zone about how we close the gap on school foundations. Um that is something that was brought to my attention during those same strategic planning meetings and um we have a lot of positive headway um on that front and I'll update you all more there uh when I have more information. But I just have been so impressed by the enthusiasm and energy that folks have for this district, how supportive everybody I've talked to has been. So, I just want you guys to know that. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, we do a little thing at College Park called the bike bus. It happens every Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m. It is a set route that goes around the College Park neighborhood

052where students, community members, families are able to join it anyway. And we grow and we grow. We had about 40 or 50 people riding this morning um to not only bring attention to safe routes to school, but also to let our neighbors know that we're proudly going to school in College Park. The one thing as I've done this process and been a part of the safe routes to schools that I wanted you all to be aware of um I work closely with the city of Costa Mesa and a few other things and um talking with their public works department one thing that was has been surprising to me is that considering school transfers in our district generate on average about 600,000 to 800,000 additional car rides. that makes school routes less safe. Something to consider.

053Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Next up, we have Chelsea Cody Waters. Good evening. My name is Chelsea Cody Waters. I have a daughter in first grade at College Park. Last time I spoke, I gave an introduction into the inequities that we've seen between our wonderful neighborhood school with very good vibes um and the many other schools in our district. The school choice system has a major impact on our school and a lot of parentled resources are unattainable if 40% of families don't enroll. I'm here today to speak about the inequities in our afterchool program that cannot be addressed without active district support. >> [snorts] >> We have the largest afterchool program in the district and very few enrichment opportunities. [clears throat] The district provides zero enrichment opportunities for TK and K when most parents leave

054College Park and 3 to four for first through sixth grade. When we talk about the many reasons families are choosing to enroll in other schools, enrichment is certainly one of them. Since new families are judging our school based on their first three months in TK and the district's stated intent is for families to go to their neighborhood school, it doesn't make sense not to offer enrichment for TK and K. While it's true that a lot of opportunities at other schools are fee based, those preferred schools in our district provide over five times the number of opportunities for their students each year. While I understand the district's position is that additional opportunities for a fee or funded by the PTA should be organized by parents, there are systemic roadblocks to providing those as well. The district

055has provided some contacts to our PTA for additional enrichment opportunities, which is great, but our already overly taxed volunteers are being asked to navigate a convoluted series of regulations, opaque and arbitrary rules, and multiple decision makers with substandard resources. The system seems designed to give us the runaround. We need more than a person to call who will tell us to call someone else and that person to call someone else and then to be told there's no space at the end. We need the district to organize real resources to help us get from point A to point B. As an aside, with the largest afterchool program in the district, we squeeze nearly 100 students into our MPR every afternoon for an hour before parent pickup. Our [snorts] NPR is often loud, hot, and stuffy even on

056a pleasant 70° day. It downright boils in higher temperatures, which is not a healthy environment for our kids, and certainly is not a good environment to learn in. The fans recently installed serve only to move hot air around within our NPR. What message does it send to parents when they pick up hot, sweaty, but very happy children from the free afterchool program at our title one school while across town their kids are playing in small groups in feeas based enrichment programs? Let's put action behind our words and show parents at College Park and parents zoned for College Park that you care about the health, well-being, and education of all of our students from 8:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thank you. [applause] >> Okay. Next is Colin. Um Colin Cody Waters, a bit taller. Hi. I'm

057Colin Cody Waters. I'm a father to a first grader in the Mandarin program at College Park who's enrolled in the after school care program, which her and I both love. Uh and we're big fans of Cole's bike bus. We ride every single week. Uh, and it it inspired my six-year-old and my four-year-old to get their training wheels off and to wake up, get out the door early enough to catch the bike bus. It's it's awesome. Uh, and I'm here to speak on behalf of the many, many parents that want our neighborhood schools to be the best choice for every family zoned for them. As Chelsea mentioned, there's a big deficit of afterchool enrichment at College Park. And at College Park, we don't have the institutional knowledge to create and run parentled after school programs. Most

058suggestions are met with resistance and some reasons why we can't. Whether it's space, equipment, time, or process, there's very limited paths for parents to get involved in after school. This was my experience as a new parent at College Park last year, and I've seen [snorts] many parents get bounced away in the same way. They come in with eagerness to be engaged and to participate, and they're told, "No, it's not possible. We've never done that or we don't know how to do it." and compare this to the other schools in the district which over 40% of College Park families choose instead and you will see clearly defined ways to engage in how the PTA is able to subsidize [clears throat] or fund enrichment programs. We don't know what's possible or what works. We're hemorrhaging families due

059to the lack of meaningful engagement and enrichment and now we lack the knowledge, we lack the resources and we lack the will to make these things happen. Our school needs templates for engagement and how to provide parentled after school opportunities. Uh we have a small PTA with limited time and next to no teacher engagement. The gap in my view is in practice. We don't have the procedures. We don't have the precedent and we're lacking willing partners to help us blaze this trail. School choice created these problems and school choice continues to be the reason we struggle to solve them. I'm asking for help in breaking the feedback loop. I want to know how other schools help parents navigate these hurdles so that we may quite literally take a page from their book. Thank you. Okay.

060And last we have Jeremy Rose. So, hello Superintendent Smith and Board of Trustees. I guess you saved the best for last. My name is Jeremy Rose and uh I'm just here to really introduce myself. Uh really there's three parts of me. The the first part is a husband of 25 years to a first grade teacher uh who works extremely hard day in and day out. Uh the second part is I'm a father of two. Uh my son's a sophomore at college at Chico State and my daughter's a freshman on the girls basketball team at a different excuse me tennis team at a different school. So sort of ironic I'm here this evening. And the third part of me is I'm a business owner for 20 plus years. Uh I have a business of two and

061a half years of called Enzone Sports that would do enrichment sports after school programs like we could do at College Park for example. But uh as far as Enzone Sports uh we are all over Orange County and we are excited to come come to Newport Mesa School District. Uh my backgrounds in parks and recreation and my first job was at the city of Costa Mesa at Kellybrook and Paulino and all their afterchool programs. So I'm looking to come full circle now as a business owner. Um, as far as endzone sports, we work with kids from TK to sixth grade. Uh, some of the school districts we're at currently is Fullerton, Tustin, uh, Placenti Belinda School District, and we just started at the Irvine Irvine School District, uh, through IPSF. We love children. That's it. The

062passion is there. Um, my coaches do this because of their love for kids, just like the teachers, the paras, and everybody else in all the school districts in Orange County. As far as our sports, we're a multi-sport program, so the kids don't get bored. As far as the sports that we offer, it's soccer, te-ball/ baseball, basketball, flag football, and recently, as a tennis player myself, um, we've added tennis. So, we have little kids tennis rackets and a small tennis net that we bring to the schools. Uh, we provide all of our own gear. Um, all my coaches are fingerprinted, DOJ, all that wonderful stuff. But the most important thing, as I mentioned earlier, is really the passion. Uh, we're all in this room for one reason, and that is the passion for children. As a

063father, uh, as a business owner, and uh, you know, we're looking to pass the love of sports to the kids. If if someone plays club soccer, club basketball, they're really not for us. you know, they they they're playing five days a week, four days a week, and so on. But if these are like if these are kids that want to learn, hey, to kick a soccer ball or learn how to dribble or they don't they don't fit in or something like that, or even if they are a better athlete, you know, they could be for us as well. But we really want to give all the kids from four years old to 12 years old an opportunity at the Newport Mesa schools to have a chance to play sports. Parents don't have to drive, which

064is as a parent is really nice. and uh we would love the opportunity to be part of the district. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Next we have superintendent comments. Dr. Smith. >> Yeah, thanks for the information. We'll make sure that uh staff is is aware of um all of that and and those opportunities. Uh you know, Cole, just so you know, too on the strategic planning work, uh that draft should be ready pretty soon that we'll send back to the group that you're a part of. uh grateful for your continued advocacy. Excited about um the zone pack. It's been really really successful in the proonomar zone for a lot of years. One of the things it's able to do um which I'll get to in a minute is share ideas and resources

065and and ideas about resources, best practices. It's also a great way to dispel myths. And I know that that's one of the things that the Costa Mesa zone is really excited to do. Such an amazing zone. I mean, all of them are. Um there's so much to celebrate there. And I know that this zone pack will help lift that up and correct the narrative where it's incorrect. So really really excited about that. And the foundation part I heard the meeting went well also and so you and the rest of the public know this is something we've noodled in the district even beyond site level foundation. Some uh the leaders from the Anderson deans at Anderson Elementary have had this idea for some time that we should do a district-wide foundation that goes after specifically corporate

066dollars that then can be dispersed to all school sites. based on need. I thought it was brilliant of them to bring that up. We've just had so many things we've been working on with the strap plan and and other things. We haven't closed that loop yet, but that's on the horizon also and very exciting. Um, with regard to after school programs, I appreciate that Miss Cody Waters also mentioned that um, of all of the schools where we fund or provide the afterchool programming, uh, the College Park has the most. So, we're doing more there than we're doing anywhere else. Um, the issue of the other schools where they're PTA or fund based or foundationbased. Um, I understand that there might be a gap there of of knowledge of how to do this. And I think

067getting back to the point a second ago, I think the zone pack will be a great place for folks who are in that zone that have different realities to share here's a resource, here's how we do it, here's how it's benefiting our kids. Again, we don't do those programs, so they're better to share how best to do that. Um, it was brought up several times about the choice issue, and that's always something, um, that, uh, you know, boards of education can look at through policy. Uh, we know that this idea of zone pride and, uh, pride in local community schools is is bubbling up throughout the district. Um so I won't be surprised to see something about that in our expressed um strategic plan. So we're excited about that. Um with regard to Banning Ranch,

068I would just say that uh it hasn't been agendaized for this meeting clearly and um when it is agendaized, we'll notify the public and I I know that the board are listening to all the things that have been said at this meeting. I would encourage folks to come back to that meeting and continue to ask those questions before the agenda item so that they can be addressed by the board um in open session and and they can have that conversation in a duly scheduled meeting. So look for that. We'll post it as we normally do with the the first item and I'm I'm sorry some of our students had to leave because I just wanted to um compliment everyone who spoke. It's we're always impressed by our students but we're most impressed when they come

069to meetings like this and advocate for themselves and their classmates. um the poise, their passion, it's powerful. Um and the parents at Newport Harbor in this regard, but this is typical for all of our parents um are passionate, but they're respectful and they're looking for ways to find solutions. And so I thank them for that approach. To be clear, and that's part of this bit on the agenda is um was mentioned this body and and in fact this body isn't the body to make those decisions. um decisions like this one are site decisions and there's not even an appeal to the board. So just to take them out of harm's way um I'm sure they have strong opinions too um but the process doesn't involve them just just to be clear. Um and and while

070this doesn't help at all and I recognize that before I say it, um we understand that transitions like this are difficult for our student athletes. Um and we know that it's frustrating for folks who feel like Audrey said, they deserve an answer. understand that it's frustrating when we tell you that may be true and still school districts do not comment on personnel matters. That doesn't help and I get it. What we can say is that we're excited about the future of the program. We've got two onampus coaches that are leading that program now. We're about to bring on a third. We believe that third is an on-ampus coach as well. Uh it'll be an additional coach for that program. uh the coach that's been brought in won a section championship here in Southern California and

071came in second in another. So really excited about where it's going. Again, I know that doesn't help with the concern that was expressed. Uh and I apologize that we can't and won't uh address the questions you're asking about personnel matters. Um but but that is our position. >> Great. >> Okay. Okay, there's no community input on agendaized items. So, we'll move to our presentation on achievement um the midyear report on local control accountability plan. >> Exciting times. Uh the as you know we have done the LCAP for the last at least a decade now and that's an annual report. Recently, the state added a mid-year report condition. And so, this is our midyear report that will share with the board and the public where we are on our major goals and investments. And Vanessa Gaye

072will walk us through this lovely presentation. >> It will be a brisk walk indeed. [clears throat] Okay. Good evening. Good evening, President Ursulu, Superintendent Smith, members of the uh cabinet, board, uh community members. Uh tonight, I have the pleasure of presenting the midyear report on the 2526 local control and accountability plan. Um as a reminder, this is a three-year plan, a requirement of the state. It's a document that aligns the budget to our planned actions and services and is approved by the board annually in June. the board priorities um support and um provide guidance for us in the development of our local control and accountability plan and we're going to be highlighting some key investments and outcomes um based on the priorities laid before us. We know too that the strategic plan will impact the

073future uh local control and accountability plan. So we'll keep that context in the back of our mind. There are a couple of required elements of the midyear report. One is midyear outcomes however available. Another is midyear implementation and finally u midyear expenditure data. So tonight's presentation will be a recap of some of the things that you've already been hearing about over the course of the year. Uh board presentations present uh implementation and outcomes on a regular basis. We're going to highlight some key investments and um priorities and then finally I'll show you where to find the 59page midyear report. So in terms of out imp implementation and outcomes as I've said there are board reports uh regularly uh the board two years ago asked for regular presentations on achievement. So starting in August of this

074school year we had a presentation on special education. Again uh hearing a lot about our summer school um programs our smarter balanced outcomes our elementary literacy assessment and intervention secondary math. Last month you heard about career technical education college and career education and then tonight you're hearing the midyear report. So you have been getting monthly reports on in um implementation and outcomes all along. In the uh midyear report, it looks very much like the local control and accountability plan. Uh we provide the baseline uh year one outcomes and then the year 2 outcomes. Many of them are annual outcomes reported on the California school dashboard. Some of them are mid-year data and they'll be denoted with a when um when they were available like as of January 15th or December 31st. In terms of the

075actions, we've added a column for implementation. And what you'll see is that many of our actions are occurring as planned. So you'll have the implementation as well as major expenditures where we were as of December 31st on how much out of the budgeted amounts. And a reminder that our plan is multi-tered systems of support. So we address actions for all students, some and few. We also have to provide an update on the budget overview for parents. So the first three pages of the LCAP is a graphic and uh we don't repres uh replicate the graphic at midyear but we do report on adjustments and so we created a table that crosswalks the elements of the funds that were budgeted and presented in June and then some adjustments as of December 31st. So all of the

076budgeted items match the uh the graphic organizer. In terms of our first goal, we want to highlight a couple of our key investments and implementation outcomes. Um to support high quality first uh best instruction in our first tier. Um we provide professional development in support of our core academics especially the mathematics with the new adoption and of course continuing to deepen our uh writing expertise um supported by thinking maps. And then we continue to metriculate cohorts of teachers to be expert in reading. So the science of reading um is uh for TK K1 and two teachers. Um we've also invested heavily in transitional kindergarten both in staff and in um facilities, materials and furniture. Um this leads to school readiness and kids um having high academics and belonging. The kids who have been in our

077transitional kindergartens slightly outperform at the onset of our uh other students. Not that we're not going to bring them all along, but we know that our transitional kindergartens paying off. You've heard about our early literacy uh wins and we're very pleased with the consistency that's pro being provided in tier one with our attention to foundational skills with the additional reading staff and with the the staff that is um trained and uh calibrated in valid and accurate assessment. Um also expanded learning. We've had a lot of conversation about the before and after school programs and about our excellent summer programs and the investment that it takes to make those programs a reality. And [snorts] the board charged uh us with developing academic innovation with providing acceleration and enrichment and moving students um to to new heights.

078And so we have staff devoted to that and activities like um uh battle of the books and uh science olympiad. So, something that we again want to highlight with our early literacy is a five-year journey which has really been on an amazing trajectory starting with the P3 literacy team that's now been expanded to P6 to make sure we're also really supporting the upper grade students. And one of the things that we want to highlight is um we've added over 500 TK students over the course of five years. So, we have gone from 180 all the way up to 685 this year. So, we've added a tremendous amount of students and staff to support them. Um, also I want to point out that not all metrics make it their way to the LP LCAP, sorry, metrics,

079but these come along and this is CLS, the correct letter sounds. And so, one of the things that you do see is that in second grade, we've made significant gains. And one of the things we're proud of is that we're making incremental gains year-over-year in many of our metrics. We also have some adjustments to point out. Uh, we're no longer using a cadence, so we needed to create some new baselines. We're now using dibbles which is very similar, very familiar but it's not exactly the same. So you'll see that we are not reporting and and they're not comparable. So we do need to have that new baseline. We want to make sure people note that. And then in terms of our secondary investments um we've really um invested in some key priority programs and you

080heard about again career technical education last month um and the pathways that it's opening for students. advancement via individual determination, over a million dollar investment in college and career readiness at our elementary and secondary schools. So, we're very proud of that. We're also proud that we need less credit recovery and intervention. We really had to expand it after COVID. We had a lot of uh funding, extra funding going for that and that funding is going away and thankfully we've really been able to get back on track with a lot of our students. So, we've been able to decrease the investment in credit recovery and intervention. Um, and we do still have the summer programs as Dr. Torres uh explained earlier in our board study session. In terms of professional development, we continue the journey with

081eliciting and responding to student thinking um layered in with thinking maps and a lot of content specific training in English, history, math, science, all the content areas and of course the avid professional learning um to deepen practices and again we have some amazing staffing but these extra staff support um instructional coaching in the classrooms and on campuses as well as our teachers on special assignment and administrative interns to support students who need some extra coaching toward graduation in some case management. So, couple of metrics to point out. Advanced place placement pass rates up. ADG completion a little bit mixed. We're taking a look at that. It's uh not down too too much compared to two years ago, but it is down compared to last year. So, we're looking at what we can do to enhance

082that. Complete uh completers for CTE pathways also increased. And for goal two, our mental health wellness and engagement, we haven't made many changes. There's not much to say in this midyear. We have maintained the investments in staffing that we added years ago with the elementary counselors and role refinement. The social workers and behavior specialists are still deployed on an asneeded basis. Professional development continues deepening our positive behavior intervention and supports and um applying and deploying restorative practices when students uh misbehave. And then attendance and truency. We still need students to be here every day when they're well and to try and continue the learning. And so we want to highlight green is good. Green is good. And on the California dashboard, our district is all green except for one, and that's chronic absenteeism, which is

083yellow, but it's better than where we were. So chronic absenteeism is down. We're pleased with that. We hope to be down even more when the next dashboard comes out. Suspension rates down for all students, which is good. And then also in our LCAP, we had to identify some schools where they had student groups that were in red. And so what we've noticed is that many many of those schools also have gone down in their suspension rates for those student groups. So overall behavior a lot better. We're having alternatives to suspension. Um we're able to address that. Dropout rates down, graduation rates up mostly. So um again, little tweaks in some of the groups, but for the most part, we are moving incrementally forward. Our California healthy kids participation is down, but only a little. And

084the good news is, even though it is slightly decreased, we've had increases in perceptions of safety and school connectedness. We're pleased with the communication, connections, and committees that we are focused on in goal three, family and community engagement, particularly our unified parent communication and the adoption of parent square, one system to rule them all. We do still have all the rest of the ways to try and communicate out newsletters, social media, etc. And we do provide translation, interpretation as needed in our key languages. Um, as well as other modes of gathering input. We have amazing staff and so um, these connections are formed with these school community facilitators as well as at parent and family events at our school sites. And finally, our advisory committees are alive and well. In fact, DAC district English learner

085advisory is tomorrow night. For goal four, the board's priorities to develop maintenance and facility master plans. Our goal four in the LCAP is more expansive than that to include instructional materials, our access to broad course of study, credential teachers, and of course facilities and good repair. Um we're waiting on the state to put out um its updated credentiing data. Uh we do have uh data reported for every single school through the school accountability report card. All kids have access to uh aligned materials and our facilities uh are in good repair according to our facilities inspection tools. We also want to highlight our dual immersion. We have more classes. So we've expanded up to the high schools. We're currently at 10th grade. We have two more years of expansion and I understand we will also be

086expanding at an elementary school down to TK. Finally, we have mid-year expenditures. So we have our planned expenditures compared to our estimated actuals. Again, that's as of December. We are mostly on track with our spending. We have a couple of adjustments in funding sources, but for the most part, we're right where we expected to be. And if you want to read more, so much more, 59 pages, it'll be posted on the district plan page uh underneath the LCAP dropdown um starting tomorrow. And with that, I hope I hit 10 minutes. >> Great. Thank you. Any trustes comments? [applause] comments, questions, >> trusty Andrew. >> Uh, thank you. As we have transitioned to Dibbles, um, I was wondering if we have enhanced um, doing parent trainings on what parents receive either by mail or from their

087teacher. Um, I continue to do questions. I got one just yesterday with a piece of paper and the parent was like, I don't know what any of these numbers mean. It didn't it wasn't described. And I think when we had a previous meeting meeting, we asked that there would be a cover sheet or something from the district that would go along with it to describe >> what like QC means or what some of the things mean because the parents don't know. So, they're receiving a piece of paper that could be really informative and helpful and they don't know what it means. Yeah. So, if we have any parents who aren't clear on the information regarding dibbles, we're always happy to talk to them. So, just send them our way and uh we'll go back and

088take a close look at what was sent out and uh make sure that there is clarity. There was some explanation that went out to parents in regards to the shift that we have made and the state requirement to have a uh reading screener for kinder through 2 grade. and uh we're always happy to try and help improve both the communication and and any questions that parents may have on that. >> Thank you. And I I I think it would be helpful if there's something that we provide alongside it. I can send you what the parent sent me. And as someone who's a credentialed teacher, I also didn't know what like three of the codes meant. And so if if somebody like me is not able to tell them, oh, I know exactly what that means.

089a parent who may not have an education background who's just getting a piece of paper and wants to help their student is not going to be able to do that. And at the the amount of requests that I get on this, it's getting to the level where I really think we need to do something, please. >> Yeah, thank you for that. We're happy to look at it. >> And Trusty Anderson, is that just the uh Dibbles reporting? Uh that is the main one. But yes, I think just all of our reporting that we send out to parents for elementary, I think it would be helpful to explain when they're getting these very technical pieces of paper what codes mean, um what abbreviations mean. I think it would be really helpful. Thank you. >> Thank you.

090>> Yeah, just a quick question. Thanks for all the information. Um, is this also the time of year when you start going to the campuses and doing all the zone thought exchanges and putting it on the website so that people can >> We've just kicked off LCAP season. Um, I was at the PK-12 principles meeting last week and so we started there. We'll be at the district English learner advisory tomorrow night. Um, I have student advisory in April. So, we typically do all of the adult um, input first and then we do the student focus groups in April, May. Um we have eight schools at elementary. We kind of do a random sampling. We move those around and then we always go to the middle and the high schools. Uh talk to the student advisory

091here as well. Um so yes, the season is kicking off. We will do a survey. We are streamlining the survey. It will be shorter. There will be open ended comments. Um again, the opportunity to respond at each grade level because we know that your experience at elementary may not be the same as as middle and high. Um, so we will we were really working hard to streamline and make sure that parents hear through parent square about their survey opportunities. The schools are also going to have a leaderboard, so they're probably going to put a little pressure on you all because they get competitive. >> Thank you. >> Great. Anyone else? If no, thank you so much. That was really great presentation. >> Thank you. [clears throat] >> All right. Next. >> Yes. Good job. >>

092THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> SO NEXT WE HAVE THE consent calendar. Anyone? >> I move to adopt the consent calendar except for 6B which is going to go to discussion action >> and second. >> Second Pearson. And roll call vote. Sam. >> Trusty. >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Mroy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Crane. >> Yes. Trusty Wagan. >> Yes. >> Great. Um, with that, >> can we just move to the discussion? >> We can move to discussion action. Item 18. >> Um, okay. Item 18A, accept the financial audit reports for the 2425 year. >> Thank you. And I'm hoping they're here. We should have our auditor from Christy White. Uh, she is. Thank you. um she will present the report, but

093staff is recommending that you accept the audit report as presented tonight. >> Hello. Good evening. My name is Natalie Palma and I'm an auditor uh with Christy White Associates. I helped conduct the audit for this year. I thought I'd go over the process, our procedures, kind of tell you a little bit of what we took a look at, and then at the end, I'll go over um our overall opinion um or any findings that the district had. So, our audit covers a broad range of areas. We documented and tested internal controls in areas such as p purchasing and cash dispersements by taking a look at checks, invoices, and purchase orders. We take a look at payroll controls by taking a look at time cards and personnel files as well as cash receipt controls by taking

094a look at invoices again receipts and deposits. And we do this by you know we ask for like a listing of the expenditures for the year the deposits for the year. We take a sample and ask for a lot of support um that they graciously provide to us. We also conducted a single audit which includes the testing and internal controls and program compliance in two major programs. This year we tested the title one par a program as well as a special education cluster. Uh again we did this by selecting expenditures um expended by these programs as well as taking a look at the federal compliance specific requirements and making sure that they were met. Finally, we tested all June 30th, 2025 balance sheet accounts such as cash, accounts receivables, accounts payables, capital assets, and long-term

095debt with revenue and expenditures across all of the district funds. And again, we took we took a look at bank statements, reconciliations, [clears throat] debt statements, um, and capital asset listings. So, our overall opinion, so the financial statement opinion, the state compliance opinion, and the federal compliance opinions were all in modified, which is the best opinion that you can receive. Um, but that said, there were a couple findings this year in regards to the state compliance findings. Um the first is in regards to instructional materials um where ED code states that a public hearing must occur on or before the eighth week from the first day of school. During our audit, we found that the public hearing was conducted after the eighth week period. Um however, there are no question costs or penalties for this

096finding. Um and the district has ensured that it will happen before the eighth week going forward. Uh the second finding is in regards to the United [cough and laughter] learning opportunities program. Um according to EDC code um the program must run for a minimum of 30 non-school days and upon our audit we found that it only ran for about 20 of the 30 required days. Um however we understand that this decision was made to mitigate some of the costs um that the district would have incurred had it operated the full 30 days. Uh finally uh the final finding was in regard to the classroom teacher salaries wherein we found that the district did not meet the current expense of education percentage requirements for expenditures payments of salaries of classroom teacher salaries. Um which is about

09755% for a unified school district. Um I but I believe the district is working with the Orange County Department of Education to obtain a waiver if they haven't already um for the 2425 fiscal year. That's essentially all I had for you guys. I'd like to thank everyone at the district office. Like I mentioned um they're always graciously providing all of the support that we're constantly asking for in a timely manner. So and we look forward to working with the district again. Um does anyone have any questions for me? I know I kind of went through that a little bit fast. [laughter] >> Yes, Justiny Murphy, >> I'm [clears throat] sorry. So, yeah, because I didn't quite understand what you were saying at the end. The third finding was was what about teachers? >> Yeah, so

098the classroom teacher salaries um there's a according to EDCO they have to expend at least 55% um >> who's >> The district has to spend at least 55%. >> Yes. and it has to go towards classroom teacher salaries. Um, and it was just I believe it's just, you know, we've been seeing this across a lot of districts. A lot of the onetime funding for COVID and anything like that kind of skews that >> um that percentage a little bit. So, that's what we've been seeing consistently. So, [cough] um, so yeah. >> So, in applying for >> a waiver, >> yes, with the OCDE, um, I think you probably let me know if it has happened or not. Um but yeah there's a waiver that can be filed with OCD for it >> that will be

099applied to the audit. >> Uh not for the audit I mean yes for the audit but um for the penalty because there is a penalty of approximately 20 million but with that >> wait what? >> No sorry did I misspeak? >> Well I [laughter] don't know >> I don't have the auto report in front of me but there is a penalty that the waiver will mitigate um and it will get assessed. [gasps] So, just to jump in, it's less a penalty and more of they withhold your funding >> that you're allocated for. Um, we've already spoken to OCD, the exemptions in process. They just wanted to get this on the record here with the finding tonight and then um we'll get that going forward. >> So, then we won't be fined anything. >> No fine.

100Like I mentioned, it would be potentially you get funding withheld. >> I mean, sorry. So potentially will the funding is the funding going to be withheld or >> No. >> Okay. >> For sure. >> No. With the waiver, yeah, it won't be. I can almost guarantee [clears throat] it. >> It's just more for reporting purposes. >> Thank you. >> Sorry to scare you. I don't think [laughter] it was. >> So, I just wanted to clarify that. So you said 55% has to be spent on salaries, but you're saying with some of our one-time funds, we have used those funds to get up above the 55% or no. >> Okay. So we are not >> a lot of those onetime funds didn't go to classroom salaries. They may have gone to technology or some of the

101support services salaries which do not count towards that 55%. So there's a lot of things maybe on the accounting side we can do to get us the credit that we I think we deserve from a financial piece on classroom uh cost for salaries. Um but also with the onetime money going away as we talked about earlier in our study session um it's going to kind of naturally rebalance itself as well. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Great. No other questions then. Um, anyone move to accept the financial audit? >> So moved. >> So, Trusty Peterson. [snorts] >> Second. >> Trusty Crane. And roll caller. >> Trusty Soilu. >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Mroy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty

102Wagan, >> yes. >> Thank you. Have a good evening. With that, we'll move to item 18B. Approve theou between the California School Employee Association and the Newport Mesa um school district regarding a one-time off schedule salary payment. Thank you. Uh we are very pleased to bring to the board recommendation for approval for thisou with CSA for the one time to um 2% off schedule salary payment. This one time off schedule salary payment is aligned with what has been approved for other groups and concludes negotiations for 25 2026. Um as always we want to continue to extend our gratitude to both negotiating teams for the commitment and efforts. >> Great. Any questions, comments or would anyone like to make a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> So moved by Trustee, [cough] second by Murphy and

103roll call vote. >> Trustee. Yes. [clears throat] >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Mroy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Crane. >> Yes. >> Trusty Wagan. >> Yes. >> Great. Thank you. And item 18 C approve executive staff compensation and benefits for 2520. >> Yes. Um with approved for CSA, um at this time it's appropriate to bring forward um a recommendation for the remaining executive staff. Um, a reminder, executive staff is unique in that their employment benefits are impacted by their individual contracts and are parallel to other groups in the district. So, the recommendation is that the board approves that tonight. >> Any questions or would anyone like to make a motion? >> Uh, so moved. >> Trusty Crane. Any second? >> Yeah. >> Is that

104Murphy? >> Okay. And roll call votes in. >> Trusty Soil. >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. Trusty Pearson, >> yes. >> Trusty Maroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. >> And item 18D, approved school uh approved schedule of board meetings from July 26 to June 27th. Dr. Smith. >> Yeah, we looked at the calendar um for pacing uh when we have to have certain meetings. We looked at holidays. Uh we've had the board tell us numerous times look at uh a long list of like religious holidays etc. We believe after multiple eyes have seen this that we've avoided those dates. So >> great. Um anyone like to make a motion? >> So moved. >> Um Trusty Wan second. >> Second. >> Trusty Crane.

105Roll call. Same. >> Trusty. >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. Trusty Mroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagen, >> yes. >> And now we'll move to item 18E, which is the item B6 that was moved from the consent. Um B6, I can read you, is approve the memorandum of understanding between someone cares Soup Kitchen and Newport Mesa Unifi to provide afterchool tutoring for the 2526 school year. Did you want us to describe before the questions or did you want the trustees to have the questions first? >> Um questions first. >> Okay. All right. We'll we'll go ahead and we'll we'll identify the item. Um and then um since Superintendent Shields will also describe that there's one line in there that

106may have confused trustees. We're trying to dous now per uh the board's direction um about any relationship we have where we don't take money. So it just clearly articulates that. So trying to do better at that. Um this doesn't apply to this group and so if it's confusing we don't mind striking it which is appropriate if the board wants to. If they decide not to that's fine. We can take it back. If they decide to move forward with it we can do it with the stricken language that uh assistant superintendent Shields can describe. I'll let her talk about the program and then we can take questions from the board. >> Thank you. So in this item uh what we have before us is we h so a little background we have an existing ELOP of

107course at Ray uh Dr. Hogart has also been able to create with site funds and site resources an AVID um scholars tutoring program that happens as you read four times a week and there are certificated teachers who see 20 to 40 second to fourth graders and what you have before you is this nocost support and enhancement where uh someone care soup kitchen would provide tutors and And the idea is that they would pay our high school students to be those tutors who would help the teachers in the classroom, already existing program, already existing uh credential teachers. They [clears throat] would be helping the teachers in the classroom, our materials, our plan, all of that on those small groups and allowing the teacher to have smaller groups in their time with students. Great. >> Thank you,

108trustees. Any questions? >> And this is something that the principal wants. >> Oh, she was co-developing it from the beginning. Yes. >> So, it's like a peer tutoring, more peer tutoring type of a situation. >> We just know that our younger students love working with high school students and they are a great asset. So the intergenerational opportunities we love to take and the idea that our students could be growing their resume, earning money, having things to put on their, you know, college applications and other jobs we just saw as a mutual benefit. >> Great. Um, Trusty Anderson, >> thank you for explaining [clears throat] that. So to clarify because I was still unclear. So my understanding was Dr. Hogard had developed AVID scholars or our tutor or the the >> So it's an aid the

109scholars tutoring program that's what she calls it okay >> avid scholars t >> so there are students so who what is the funding currently looking like that area is murky to me >> she uses her title one site funds and other funds to pay the two credentialed teachers there aren't other the only students are the elementary students there are no other students in there they're no high school students. Now in those classrooms, they're just the teachers and they're getting paid for their time. >> No, I mean the tutors. So who is funding the tutors? Where is that money coming from? >> Someone cares kitchen >> from what though? Like where is that money coming from? >> Someone cares kitchen. >> I mean I I don't >> It's still my time. >> Yeah. I mean, as

110most nonprofits, it comes from their budget, however they declare, but we have the someone cares soup kitchen um executive director here if he would like to answer that directly. >> Yeah, that would be helpful because it's it's unclear to me if there are students that our teacher has our principal has developed. I think it's helpful. Thank you. >> Hi, Trusty Anderson. Dr. Adam, executive director of someone cares Orange County. Um uh like Dr. Orsoyu mentioned, yes, it comes out of our general fund. As you may know, we've had a tutoring program on site for the better part of 25 years where we've upon recommendation from the schools in the west side. We've tutored on site, but moving forward, it seems more uh fruitful to partner with the school district rather than doing it independently from

111the school district. >> Okay. And so, when was the last time that you offered tutoring? I believe that was about a year and a half ago. >> And where was that? >> On site at someone cares. >> Okay. Because my understanding was it hadn't happened since co. So it happened more recently. >> Yeah. >> That's good to hear because it was concerning to me. Again, I had asked some questions and I didn't get a lot of answers. And so I'm glad that you're here and I'm glad that Michelle's can explain a bit more because to me it was there's a lot of unanswered questions. Um, so then also too there's a piece to it that talks about subcontractors is who would you envision are these subcontractors? What does that look like? >> Like who are

112the tutors? >> No, it it mentions subcontractors as a separate item at the bottom of the contract at the >> I haven't seen a contract yet. >> Theou >> I haven't seen anou yet. >> You haven't. Interesting. Okay. >> So that was on our side. Again, these are questions that >> Yeah. This is a template that we used and like I said in the beginning I it's great and then there's some lines that are from a prior template that aren't exactly correct >> so we can strike those >> that that is very helpful. >> My understanding was this was coming from someone care. So no again like that kind of information to me is really helpful if that's elaborated on ahead of time which is why I'm glad that we're having this discussion >> and

113I think that was actually a response to a lot of what some many of us have asked for was that contracting comes from the district to the providers. So um yeah so when you have a boiler template then the provider can adjust it when when he gets when he gets it. So thank you thank you for your response. Any other questions? >> No. Okay with that. Thank you for taking your time for being here tonight. >> All right. Thank you, trustees. >> Thank you. >> So, do we make a motion? >> So, can we um make a motion on the contract with the striketh through item that uh Miss Shields mentioned? >> Subcontractors. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> So, with that adjustment made um do we have a motion? >> So moved. >> So, move

114Peterson. >> Second. and quiet again. Okay, great. And do we need a roll call vote for that one? Yeah, >> roll call vote. >> Trusty Soil? >> Yes. >> Trusty Murphy? >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson? >> Yes. >> Trusty Mroy? >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson? >> Yes. >> Trusty Crane? >> Yes. >> Trusty Wagan? >> Yes. >> Great. And I think with that we are at the informal reports from the superintendent. Uh big thank you to our our students again, those who continue to come before us and advocate again for their classmates, for their programs, um for school lunches, for restrooms, um etc. I mean, really, honestly, um this is why we're here. We're here to serve you better, and hearing from you helps us do just that. So, a huge thank you to our

115students in the district. Um I I also want to thank our teachers and site leaders for coming together with our last dime with data. Um we continue to have these convenings where it's uh by choice after work. We do compensate a little bit. We feed them but the issue is how do we use our data and then have the experts help us get better. By the experts I mean our teachers and the room was packed this time. We thought maybe you know tough time of the year people are you know doing a lot of things uh and we had just about the same participation we had before. So I want to thank our teachers I want to thank our principles I want to thank the data team for putting this together. These are the types

116of activities that will make us the highest performing district in the state of California period. So thank you for putting in the time uh and for being there and it's a great sign for our district moving forward. >> Great. And with that, we have um brief board member comments. We'll start with trustee Wan and just come this way. Um two weeks ago, I attended the uh city of Costa Mesa leaison meeting. Um we talked about bike safety and safe rides to school and then a lot of the um safety um um safe walks safe walks to school, but also crosswalks as well. there was a lot of discussion. Um, and so I think some good things are going to come out of of those meetings and I know that we have some thoughts on some

117policies and things that we can partner with um to make our school and students safer on getting to and from school. And that's all I have. Okay. I I wanted to mention the unified sports halftime show at CDM between Estansia and uh CDM. It was absolutely amazing to see just the joy in the kids who are participating making shots and they're really good. I was impressed. Definitely better than me on the court. Uh I wanted to thank the sped department, Dr. Joe and also uh Rob for being there. I don't know your last I don't know your last name. No, Rob. [laughter] Just Rob. Just Rob. >> Just Rob. [laughter] >> So, that was what that was joyful and wonderful just seeing all the the the kids just uh students on the stand just cheering,

118you know, and all that. That was wonderful. I also wanted to um thank the district for sending a team to the countering the hate summit uh conference at UCI. I think uh it's just wonderful for us to develop our our staff professionally in that way and u I know also the Jewish Federation also came did their studentto student program at CDM which is also something that's wonderful and other schools should just um also include that program at during you know in their programs if they can at their sites and that's it thank you for Harvard Council PTA for mentioning Eastluff as one of the schools that facilitated Bob for so many years because now they're handing it over and uh it was a great legacy. I want to thank East Elementary and everyone who ever

119helped with the battle the books at that site. Um just wanted to recognize that. So thank you for saying something tonight. Um I was able to attend the community schools advisory at Ray. Um, and one of the things that was exceptional about this time was doing asset mapping with all of the different school sites and with the principles together, um, and the facilitators with their parent teams, um, which I feel like was really valuable. And one of the things that came up, um, for the school that I was with was, um, the level of reading and writing that some of our parents have and the expectations that we may have with something like a parent square is still not accessible to some of our parents at all. And so if that's something that we're using

120as our primary way to communicate with parents, we we there needs to be an alternative, um it was something that came up multiple times. And so I think that's that's why we have this advisory um to hear firsthand from parents what they're still struggling with and also to brainstorm practical solutions together. I was able to attend the Victoria Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, which was a joyous and amazing time of uh Canyon Park neighborhood pride. a lot of people who live in the Victoria Elementary zone um are have just diehard allegiance to their school and it's wonderful to see and there were so many parents actually that came for the first time and had been told you need to try this school, you need to do this school and they were like well I'm going to

121check out the school that's in my neighborhood and so it was really wonderful to see that um community connection piece taking place. Um, I'm also really excited tonight we approved the literacy project contract orou um as a former literacy project teacher myself. Um, I did that program at Pomona years and years ago and saw how impactful it was for students and having um a deep relationship while you're doing that. You get to hear um specific needs that are coming up. I I had a student who was living in a van with five family members and her teacher didn't know that. And if I hadn't been working one-on-one with her in some of that some of that reading, that wouldn't have come up. Um, and so lastly, I just wanted to congratulate the Estansia boys basketball

122team for being the league champions. Um, way to go, Coach Jav who went to Estansia. His daughter is in Newport Mesa. He's a teacher in Newport Mesa. So, congrats to the Estansia boys basketball team. Um, I got to go um with Lisa, with Carol. We got to go see Shawn Bolton, our um Newport Harbor High School principal, received the comm community service award, which is awesome and welld deserved. That was fun. Um, I'm excited about um I think it's February 27th at Newport L is career day and I have been working with the principal to bring in some um pretty cool people and um if you guys know anybody that um might be I love career day. I have a great story but I'm not going to tell it. But when I was in when

123I was a kid at career day, I had a famous uncle and he showed up and the school flipped out. So it's cool. So um I love that. >> Not say who you're famous. >> Okay. So he's not alive anymore. Um anyway, so career day to me has always been exciting. So you bring in like all these great great people and these kids just watch and learn and just they'll take one little thing away from it. So, if you know anybody, you know, a pro alete or just something different, you know, we have we have all the regular stuff coming, but anything different, I'd love to, you know, help out the school. I want to say, um, I've been bombarded with phone calls and concerns and questions regarding the Newport Harbor tennis situation, and I

124just want to say, you know, I don't have a um it's a it's on-site decision. However, what I want to say is I'm super proud of these young girls who came in here tonight. Regardless of my opinion on it, to stand up and fight for what they believe in, it shows that we're teaching these kids how to speak and stand up and fight for what is important to them regardless of what the outcome is. And so, I'm super proud of them for that. And um I thought I had one more. I guess that's it. So anyway, great. [laughter] >> Um well, that kind of goes along with my theme. My highlights for this month weren't really on in the activities I went to, but more the conversations that I've had um with the parents on

125my campuses. Um, and starting with these young women and and parents that came to fight for the tennis coaches. Um, again, I think that it was it was amazing. So, um, so thank you. Um, while I was at Anderson, my other conversations that were so wonderful this month was while I was at Anderson Elementary, I was talking to Chase Reef, who who was the president of their deans, and he had just had a son go through the the sixth grade play. And it was so cute to see how excited he was about the arts. is a man probably has never I mean his kid's like six foot and plays basketball but for him to you know want to help he was talking to the principal and hey what can the deans do to help make

126sure that every kid gets this experience um it was wonderful it was wonderful to see then I walked over to their PTA meeting and um those moms were you know on fire about AI mean they care about the AI the nutrition keeps coming up um at my at my schools and how important nutrition is to these parents um I also spent an afternoon walking with a bunch of moms from Autism by the Sea. And Rob, your name keeps coming up, the special ed. I mean, I've I've been working with these women for three years, and to only hear positive things. Um, you guys, both you and Heather and um, and Sarah did the coffees, you you guys did the coffee with them and sat and talked with all of them there. I know Rob, you

127meet with these women on a monthly basis and they they said to me, I then we're too, you know, we just want to leave. But he says, "When's the when's the next time we're going to meet? What what's what are we going to do?" And he's not just meeting with them, but then he's al also following up with them and and what they've talked about in their discussions, which so so thank you. You've made um that community extremely happy and and and they feel included. Um, and the Shawn Bolton thing was extremely wonderful to see to hear the parks and recrecks gave him the a special community award and to hear all I think all seven um commissioners on parks and wreck all had a a personal story about him and how they affected his

128their kids um and their lives. And it's just great to see our teachers now also going into the community infecting not just our kids and our schools but also the community. Um, so it was a great month. >> A great month. >> Um, okay. Real quick, uh, I think Cole and Chelsea are gone. I'm not sure. I don't see them. Um, but I are they >> Hi. Uh, so first with Cole, he's definitely gone. Um, but I He is. No. >> Anyways, uh, Cole, just wanted to thank you and Lauren. um they're the PTA uh leaders over at College Park for bringing up the Costa Mesa zone pack which I am so excited about. Um we are going to do great things. I know with these meetings, I know it's another meeting, but it's going

129to be uh it's going to be a great group. We're going to have representatives from College Park, Davis, Killybrook, Polarino, Sonora, Monav Vista, and Costa Mesa Middle School and High School. And so, um, I just can't thank the team at, uh, co at College Park, El PTA for bringing this forward. Um, so there's that. The meeting is not open to the public necessarily, so I won't give you the meeting date, but um, but it's just going to be a a good um, we're going to have a good time uh, coming together and learning more about what our schools can do together to make the Costa Mesa Zone Pack better. Um, and eventually we're going to get a Stansio one. I here it's it's on the horizon. Um the ne next thing I wanted to say

130is always Chelsea and your husband. Um thank you for advocating so strongly for the betterment of all of our students at College Park. Um I can't thank you enough for continually bringing up the issues that I know are so important to our students and our families. So uh as Dr. Smith likes to say, "We will continue to investigate and and we hear you and hopefully we will be able to help you with um bringing some resolution to your to the issues that you are so passionate about. So, thank you again for coming and and bringing these um concerns to us because we hear you." So, thank you. >> Okay. And last but not least, I'm going to mention two things that sparked joy for me this month. Number one is this new updated math pathway

131for Newport Mesa. It is a magical document that I have been waiting many years to see and this is really exciting that our math is going to be nice and orderly and and aligned and progress and math makes me happy. And the second thing for any of you that were watching the Benito Bowl on Sunday, um Lincoln Fox Ramadan, the little boy that was there that got the Grammy, he's one of our Newport Mesa students. So, I'd just like to say felicles and well done to you. Um, we're very proud that you're here. And with that, we adjourn at 7:46.