1/20/2026 - NMUSD Regular Board of Education Meeting

0014 p.m. Call >> the meeting to order. >> I'm calling the meeting to order at 4:04. >> Nice. >> Roll call, Sam. >> Trusty Soilu. Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Maroy >> here. >> Trusty Anderson >> here. >> Trusty Crane >> here. >> Trusty Wagan >> here. >> Dr. Smith >> here. >> All righty. Uh number two, adoption of agenda. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. Okay. Okay. Moved by Trusty Crane. Uh seconded by Trusty Wagand. Roll call vote. Sam. >> Trusty Soilu. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Mroy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson. >> Yes. Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. >> Okay. So moved. Um and the vote was >> 6. All right. Community

002input on closed session items only. >> We don't have any. So >> So we don't need to use Okay. >> All right. >> I'll save you the >> Thank you. >> There is none. All right. We will now move to close session. The items are A conference with real property negotiator, B conference with labor negotiator, C public employee discipline dismissal release, D public employee evaluation, and we will return to open session at 6 p.m. All righty, everyone. Call to order at 6:01. Opening ceremonies. Moment of reflection. Pledge of allegiance. Is Audrey here? >> Yes. >> Audrey, please lead us. >> Place your right hand over your heart. Ready? >> Ice to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation indivisibley andice for all. All right. Number

003nine, adoption of minutes for 12925 and 121025. Do I have a motion? >> Um, a second. >> All right. Moved by Trusty Pearson, second in by Trusty Crane. Sam, roll call vote. >> Trusty Soilu. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson, >> yes. >> Trusty Mroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. >> Homebright. And the vote was 6. Number 10, recognition. Recognition of fall athletics sports champions. Assistant Superintendent Torres. Uh Dr. Shaka will do the honors. Thank you. Good evening, Vice President Murphy, members of the board, Dr. Smith, Executive Cabinet, all of our parents we have with us tonight, and as always, my very favorite, the students that are here tonight. We are proud to recognize three fall CIF champion teams. student athletes

004whose dedication, perseverance, and teamwork have led to excellence at the highest level of high school athletics. Their success is not only a result of their hard work, but also the commitment and guidance of our coaches as well as the unwavering support of the families who make these achievements possible. I'd like to begin by inviting up Dr. Jacob Haley to introduce our CDM girls tennis team and then after that, our CDM girls flag football team. Dr. Haley. >> Yes. Good evening. Uh, Vice President Murphy, members of the board, executive cabinet, uh, distinguished guests. It's an honor to be here today. Our school opened in 1962, and tonight we are celebrating the 108th and 109th CIF team championships at Corona Delmare, which is the most in the southern section. So, we are super proud of that, and

005uh, you bet. Um, and what's really neat is both our coaches that you're going to hear from tonight uh, live and kind of are part of our communities. And it's made such a difference for us. It's my pleasure to introduce our tennis coach, Jamie Gers. Jamie, come on up here. Did a fabulous job. Jamie. Hey. No, Jamie coach. You're not Jamie. Geez. And he graduated from CDM. >> I was I was told tennis. Yeah. Yeah. We I can I can adjust. >> Here he is. Coach the coach Jamie. Yeah. There he is. Yeah. Yeah. You got mic. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Okay. >> Talk about team. >> All right. I'd like to uh thank you for having us today. Uh it was a wonderful season for the girls. I'd like to thank principal Haley and

006athletic director Brian Walsh for all their support throughout the year. This was a memorable season. Uh these don't come along too often. So I we had a lot of fun in this season and the girls performed excellent under pressure. Super proud of this group of girls and um wonderful group of student athletes. So, great season, girls. >> Uh, from left to right, Paulina Briggs, Sasha Briggs, Julia Cross, Emily Lou, Addison Dakola, Eliza Jensen, Gigi French, Julia Fontana, Maddie Jackson, Olivia Lou, Michelle Wyn, Bin Patterson. That is the 2025 CDM girls tennis team. Oh yeah. >> Yeah. >> One second. Take a few. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three. You guys doing great squats in the front. Nice workout. All right. coach. Great job. >> Thank you. >> And now uh the first

007uh championship for girls flag football, a newly adopted CIF sport. Uh we have 1992 graduate from Corona Delmare, part of the Back Bay Bombers baseball team, the one, the only Theo Rous, our coach, who's going to come through to talk about our girls flag football team. >> All right. Thank you for having us. >> I uh uh I will not give the total record. It wasn't great. Uh but we won our last six games. Um, could not be uh could could not be more proud of this group. Uh, extremely young, first of all, a lot of freshman. There's a lot of sophomores. I'm not going to give myself the certificate, but I'd like first up, uh, our offensive coordinator, Josh Calvin. defensive coordinator Joseph Weber. Uh, one of our one of our many freshman uh,

008Maddie Adler. And we have Mia Balbanian's playing basketball tonight. So, but I want to give her a shout out. And then Hadley Barrymore is not feeling well tonight. Apologies. Uh Brenn Bole, uh our star linebacker. Reese Brighting, another one of our star freshman linebackers. Hannah Chase, who makes the best cookie in town. Uh Devin Kum is not here this evening. Uh we have Nolani Davidson is not here this evening. uh ASD all sunset league all CIF two-way starter uh Anna Sophia Dickens she also wrote a book they can get on Amazon uh Olivia Fong is not here tonight uh guy is not here Johnson we'll give a shout out to her she's a multisport athlete water polo player but she's not here tonight our only senior uh and the best blocker including the Rams Uh

009Salem Madden, uh Sam Mloff, our freshman corner, Shiva Mor is taking on Fountain Valley tonight. And then uh big game, Brooke Morris, our uh our junior. Uh Mia Paliferry, another freshman, great upandcomer. our uh our burner Shannon Perau, our great receiver, Morgan Fam, is not here tonight. Uh we call this one violent violent Violet Prohaskca. Our great center, Hudson Rasik, our CIF player of the year, the best rusher, and we're making her the best quarterback in all of football, Addison Stern. And then our allpurpose player, Maline Vador. Just want to give a quick shout out to all of our fans. Thank you so much. Schoolboard's been awesome to us. The stuff you've done with our field. We really appreciate everything. The entire community has just been unbelievable. So, thank you. You guys, you know who

010you are. >> Tall and less tall. >> Right. If everyone could look at this camera and then we'll give some time to the cameras behind me. One, two, three. Over here. Over here. Keep looking. Keep looking. Keep looking. I know. I just >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> All right. And now I'd like to bring up Dr. Sean Bolton, president of Newport Harbor High School, to to introduce a team we've grown quite accustomed to recognizing here in the boardroom, Newport Harbor Boys Water Polo. >> Thank you. Members of the board, Dr. Smith, executive cabinet, distinguished guests, thank you for honoring our boys water polo team tonight. And I just want to first start off by thanking everybody from the board level to the superintendent's office to executive cabinet for the new pool. The

011modernization of the aquatics complex. It it was a smooth project. Very few glitches and we have a brand new aquatics complex that we're very very proud of and we christened it the right way. Just very very quickly, I'd just like to remiss if I didn't thank facilities and maintenance and the business office for just doing a fantastic job overseeing the entire project. I think a round of applause is in order for all of them for what they did. So unsung heroes there. But uh just just very quickly, Coach Sinclair's our coach, alum of Newport Harbor, teacher now at Newport Harbor. Three brothers went there, mom went there. 33-1. We beat everybody up and down the state. We're ranked number one in the state. Number one in the country. That's how we finished. The team we

012lost to, we beat three times, including in the state champ, five times, including in the state championship game. and members of this senior class on this water polo team. Two are going to be serving our country in the United States Naval Academy. So congratulations to them. Two will be going to Stanford, Berkeley, Santa Clara, UCSB and a handful of others senior Harvard and a handful of others. John Hopkins who's also a valadictorian by the way and then a handful of others who uh have a a number of options. But finally just the last point we did a quick query today. first semester, three levels of water polo, over 50 young men in the program, 3.71 GPA, so they're true student athletes, represent the school through and through every which way. Coach Sinclair, >> right, I'll

013be brief. Uh, everything Sean said, uh, totally agree. Um, of course, no, these guys are incredible, uh, wonderful representatives of this great community. Uh, the school, the school district. you guys would be really proud of how they operate uh on campus in the community in the pool and uh want to give a really important shout out about the the pool. I mean, it's incredible. Um when we got to play that first game, these guys were just beaming, so excited, so happy. The community came out rocking and rolling and uh to see that get done so fast for these guys to have an amazing senior year is really incredible. So, thank you guys for everything and uh we're going to keep rolling. You guys in two rows tall in front. >> Who scored more goals? Ready

014everyone? Look at this camera and then we'll give the camera behind me some time. Keep looking over here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And then now >> two in case. Congrats. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Great job. >> Congratulations. >> Well done. Just let everyone go. All right, everyone. Number 11. Um, it's student student board member reports. Um thank you student board members for being here today and for asking um your schools a very important topic for this month and that is do students feel safe at school and what more can the district do or provide to help students feel more safe at school? And Audrey, let's start with you. >> Okay. Um hi, I'm Audrey. I'm a junior at Newport Harbor High School. Um, I really liked this question because usually we get

015asked, you know, what do you want to see to make school more fun, more engaging, but this one felt kind of like the real deal. I mean, it was about safety. It's important. And, uh, when I posed this question to our student body, I was pleasantly surprised that they gave such positive feedback. Usually, it's complaints and like, we want more service dogs and cleaning our bathrooms, but they actually had good stuff to say. I mean, they pointed first of all to the number of security guards that are on our campus at all hours of the day. We have um Frank, we have Greg, we have Lamar. They're all super close with all of our students and we just like making those personal relationships. We feel that we're being protected at all times. Another example is

016the frequent emergency drills that prepare us for whatever disasters that Southern California brings. We don't know, earthquakes, whatnot. um sometimes more frequent than we might even like because I think we can all understand that that shrill sound in the middle of an AP class is not always welcome especially if it's a 30-minute detour but we all understand that it's very important and our admin Dr. Cusk at Newport Harbor is very um ritualistic. He always says the same thing every time. So we always know what to do and it's ingrained into our memory at this point that whatever happens, we know how to handle ourselves to best be safe. There's also certain rules on our campus that you know like if you're cuz with the open campus, it's something it's a unique characteristic of our school

017that not other many high schools have. We don't have a gate or a fence or anything. It's just people can walk on and off and I love it because you see some random people like walking their golden retriever and you oh thank you take a break to go to the bathroom you can you know pet a dog or whatnot but we understand that that could pose a threat. We have certain rules such as it you can't wear a hat on campus unless it has a Newport Harbor logo so it's easy to identify someone that might be hiding under some sort of um disguise things like that. Students just mentioned if there were any improvements to be made. And I know I kind of joked about it at the beginning, but bathrooms, they're just very um

018seems run down. I feel like their words, not mine. We live in a nice community and um it just seems that the bathrooms aren't always up to par. And just how does that play into safety is students, they want to feel safe. The comfortable is a part of being safe is what I've come to understand. And I mean, you take a lot of comfort in knowing that you can go to the bathroom and have all your needs be met and just overall feel good about that whole experience. And lastly is just better Wi-Fi connection. I'm not sure if students are really worried about their, you know, lives in that area, the Wi-Fi, but I think a couple students just said that um, you know, in case of a disaster, they would love to know that

019they could communicate with someone immediately and not have the phone just ring through or that text message not go through. So, that was something that was on their mind. But other than that, we feel like safety at Newport Harbor is a real positive. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Audrey. Next is Jeremy Lure from um Early College High School. >> Good evening, Superintendent Smith, esteemed board members, and members of the community. Tonight, I was asked to speak about how my peers and I feel in regard to safety on our campus. When I first saw this prompt, I knew it would be a bit difficult to gather student feedback and be able to or that would be able to inform district decision-making than the prior prompts. The topic of campus safety at ECS

020may be a bit different because we have a much smaller school and community as compared to some of the other high schools. Still, I'm happy to report that a majority of students I surveyed had a very similar response to the ones Audrey did, which was reflected in our recent California Healthy Kids survey responses. Between our small learning environment and experienced and dedicated staff, ECS is a safe environment and its students feel safe attending school. Before I jump into a few of the concerns that I did hear, I definitely wanted to echo the concerns with Wi-Fi. I hear that almost every day from our students. However, there were still a few concerns brought up that I'm currently getting answered by my site principal. These questions are mostly centered around our recently installed security cameras and how

021they work. I'm currently in the process of speaking with school administrators and campus safety, after which I'll have a better understanding of how these cameras work and what their purpose is. I can then disseminate that information to other students and parents to ease confusion and ensure we are all aware of how the cameras work to make our campuses safer. More alarmingly, however, students have shared concerns with me regarding ICE, specifically the seemingly increasing indiscriminate enforcement practices. it. I understand that there are currently protocols in place to keep our campuses and students safe. Beyond this, if there is any opportunity for students to voice their concerns and contribute to disc the discussion, I and I'm sure some of my peers would welcome the opportunity to be part of that. Given how important this issue is, I

022implore the district to continue working diligently to maintain the safety of all students at all our schools, undertaking whatever new measures are necessary to continue the important work of keeping our students safe. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jeremy. I'm now Rosalyn Ruez from Estansia High School. Good afternoon, Superintendent Smith, board members, and the community. I am still on cloud9 having the opportunity to represent my school and you will probably hear this about a hundred more times. Our topic of this week was, "Do students feel safe at school? What more can the district do or provide to help students feel more safe at school?" One student said, and I quote, "Just keep doing what they're doing." This was funny to me because this is a topic that will always be either really negative or really positive

023and never in between when you ask a group of teenagers. But serving as a student on student council representative at EHS, I informed myself when principal Halt and assistant principles Miss Chamberlain and Mr. Lark asked students this exact question. students shared that they would really benefit from reconstructing one of the stu the student parking lot as well as a safer campus surrounding. To expand on this, it is a it is quite easy for someone to get on campus grounds such as a student parking lot as well as the now constructed uh theater. This was a topic students and student council were in agreement too. To conclude, the district does and continues to do their best in protecting the safety of their students overall. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Trusty Pearson. All right. Uh

024on to item 12, the um HCPTA report. Sorry. Sorry, Martha. I just have HCTPA up here. >> Limple up here. you know, been in the district a long time, and it's amazing that bathrooms are still an issue after all these years. Bathrooms. Uh, good evening, uh, Vice President Murphy, Clerk, uh, Pearson, board members, Dr. Smith, cabinet. My name is Martha Flur, and I am the president of the Harbor Council PTA for six more months, and then we move on. Um, our membership continues to grow. Uh we have 4,900 members and I want to give a big shout out to Whittier Elementary School. They topped over 146 um gaining 136 in the last month and a half. So they are really they are really moving forward. We are preparing for Sacramento Safari February 23rd and 24th.

025That's when we go up to San uh Sacramento as a group from fourth district, the largest district um PTA in uh uh California. And thank you, Carol. I know that Carol Crane is um going to be joining us, and we encourage anybody else who would like to join us for that uh meeting. We are um inviting several of the top-notch people, including we're trying to get a hold of Linda Darling Hammond, Ra, uh Ron Bont, uh we are looking at getting Pikmack, um he's retired now, but Mike Fine, uh Ken Kapon from the ledge analyst office. So, we're looking at a whole host of individuals. So, we're encouraging you to do that. We are also having an advocacy forum this Friday. Any PTA member, it's going to be on Zoom at 10 o'clock. And we're

026really doing um promotion on teaching how PTA members can advocate not only for um PTA and their positions, but also how to advocate for to you as a school board for their schools and also for the parents because parents need to know how to advocate for their own students as well. and some many of our students um and parents are really kind of intimidated by leadership and people in authority. So, we're looking forward to that. We are also going to be thanks to one of our colleagues on the school board in Irvine, we are doing uh February uh March 19th at 10:00 a.m. in the morning at the Orange County Department EB. We are um it's being paid for by uh Lauren Brooks who is a school board member in Irvine and we're going to

027be presenting the dignity index which is about how uh we look at individuals and how we treat individuals and how we classify individuals and getting it breaking it down and and going from one I hate these people I'm going to kill them to you know let's accept what they you know accept them and and accept our differences and treat them with all dignity. So, we encourage you to if you're a PTA member, you're welcome to attend. Um, we also want to thank um you all for inviting us to participate in the visioning uh uh strategic visioning. Kind of disappointed that there were only 14 parents that didn't represent all the schools, but we know it's a work in progress. Um, but we are also uh Lisa Bowler and I attended your session and we are

028looking forward to the continued courageous conversation. and that's what I'm calling them regarding Ebittes. Um I think that this is a you know this is a key issue and we're looking forward to having that conversation. At our January meeting, we spent an entire hour with Jeff Dixon, CBO, uh Lance Fidnik, um on and um now our new fabulous Facilitron conduit is what we're going to be calling him. Um Raone Torres um regarding issues relative to Facilitron, our facilities, uh fees, um and and scheduling issues that have come about. Um probably part of it is because now that you all are paying for uh fabulous art programs, they have now all of the art, the drama programs, the performances at the elementary schools has just risen to a level that now demands um performances of a

029greater caliber than on an multi-purpose room. And so there's there are issues with access to our uh four fabulous theaters. Um there's there's fee issues. Um and we're trying to figure that out. And Jeff, we're going to be having some um focus groups because there are some issues on on scheduling and who has priority um because of some of those issues. Um and being charged for some things that we're going, you're charging us for storage. That was kind of interesting. But Jeff doesn't know about uh Facilitron, so he's getting a a good work. So we are really excited about the next uh five months and we're looking forward to the discussions as as you all go about um adopting the new strategic vision. Thank you. >> Thank you Harvard Council PTA for all you do.

030Appreciate that. And now we have reports from CSEA and NMFT. Amy Orband first. Amy here. >> Hi. Um, my name is Amy Ching. I'm the president of the classified employees union. And so, good evening, Vice President Murphy, Superintendent Smith, Cabinet, uh, trustees, sorry, trustees, cabinet, and guests. Um, I would like to thank Trustees Anderson, Trusty Crane, Dr. Smith, Assistant Superintendent uh Tracy Nib, personnel commissioners Meyer and Matoy, and members of the CSEA field office for attending the installation of our executive board earlier this month. Your support and really the entire board's support reflects your intention to build strong relationships that provide steady leadership for classified employees and focus on positive student outcomes. Thank you. Thank you to all of you for your leadership and support. Last week, the district acknowledged two classified employees of the

031year. Sunonny Deng from IT and Martin Wrangle Lopez, a custodian from Astansia. And I don't want to get ahead of myself because I know the board will formally be recognizing them in May. But I just it was so important and I wanted to make sure to acknowledge them today. Um, and then for those of you in attendance, um, in the audience or following along on YouTube, you'll notice that the district's TA with other bargaining units on tonight's agenda is a little bit different than CSEA. Um, this along with other contract language means that we're meeting with the district and our um, partner Tracy um, again to discuss the uh, impacts and finalize 2526 negotiations. and we expect nothing but positive outcomes because we have a really great relationship. And that's it. Um, as always, we

032look forward to continuing to do the good work for students, staff, and the community. Thank you. >> Thanks, Amy. Rhonda, I don't know why I name my glasses like this. Print is giant. Um, good evening, Vice President Murphy, trustees, superintendent Dr. Smith Smith, sorry about that, and cabinet and guests here tonight. I'm happy to share since our last board meeting, the district and NMFT negotiations team sat down and we were able to reach a tentative agreement. The TA was overwhelmingly passed by our members. And I also want to first and foremost thank our members, our NMFT members and the community who have passionately advocated and supported our educators efforts. To the NMFT negotiation team, Kirby Piaza, Tammy, Tamara Fairbanks, Jeffrey Vunami, Qen, Tanya Tanya Golden, and Anthony Ciss. I know the process felt like a

033marathon. We started in June. They gave up most of their summer unpaid. So, their tireless dedication and leadership is inspiring. I'd also like to thank you trustees. The NMFT members are grateful that we've been able to reach an agreement that included retropay. And to the district's negotiation team, we appreciate your collaboration during the process. I know some of the meetings were passionate and spirited, but the district's team was always cordial, respectful, and professional. So, we look forward to continuing the conversation when we meet at the table again, which is coming up very soon. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rhonda. Alrighty. Uh item number 14. >> 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 three minutes per comment

034up to 20 minutes per topic. A speaker may not relinquish his or her time to another person. Um by order of the Brown Act section 54954.2, Two, the board will take no action nor have any discussion on non-ag agendaized items. The superintendent may provide clarification during superintendent's comments. >> All right. Thank you, Trustee Pearson. We do have four comments. Um, first up, Charlene Atway. Good evening, Vice President Murphy, board, Dr. Smith, cabinet, guests, and students. I really appreciate it. I love seeing the students here. My name is Charlene Matoy, and today's name tag, I am here from the Newport Mesa Schools Foundation. I'm here to again thank the district for all their support in the foundation's efforts to celebrate teachers and their innovative and creative ideas and how to ensue and and enrich all of

035our children in addition to doing all the things that they have to do. This is the fun part. I wanted to let everyone know that our uh window closes this Friday. So, dust it off, tap it up really fast, stay up late if you have to because we have money to give away to teachers to do good stuff. I also want to thank very much um the finance office as well as our education team of Mike Shaka and Gabe Deal who work with us to bounce things off and is this right? Should this be there and does this sound teacher-like? So, we really appreciate the fact that it's a collaborative effort and also to let anyone watching know, we will accept money at any time. Newport meeschoolsfoundation.org or we just got approved for n-mf.org. So,

036we don't have to write all those words out and misspell them. But it's really easy to help give donations and grants and we really appreciate it. Thank you all. Our foundation dinner to celebrate grants and the teachers this year is April 29th at the Oasis Senior Center. So, we look forward to seeing you all there and celebrating. And I did it again short. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Sher. >> All right. Next up, we have Kenley Lopez. Good evening, Superintendent Smith, Vice President Murphy, and Steam board members. My name is Kelly Lopez, and I'm speaking on behalf of Costa Mesa High School. I would like to bring to your attention an issue that has been affecting my school community for a long time. Last week, I had the opportunity to survey multiple

037students from different grade levels. And they all agreed on one thing, the poor condition of our bathrooms. This has been an an ongoing problem since 9th grade. Most of most of our bathrooms are closed throughout the day, making it difficult for students to return to class on time because they have to walk further to find an open restroom. Also having a lack having lack of paper towels, soap and working sinks prevents students from having a fully functional restroom. A student expressed their concerns about safety since vaping, smoking, and using restrooms as a hangout spot and fight spot has become something common among our age group. And I quote, "They are absolutely disgusting. No one at the dome at the dome has a whole bunch of graffiti in the furthest stall. Girls hug the bathroom to

038vape and drink. It always is a mess in there. One of the sinks doesn't even work. Hardly ever paper towels. Floor is disgusting. End of quote. Here's another one. Restaurant being closed, then me having to walk around finding one that that's open, which in turn gets me in trouble with my teachers for taking a while. I'm open to working with anyone. Oh, sorry. End of quote. I'm open to working with anyone to guarantee a solution to this problem and make sure students have functional restrooms. Thanks for for your attention to this matter and for listening to my school community. >> Thank you. Um Jeff, I hope you're taking notes about the number of times bathrooms bathrooms have been mentioned. >> Consistent. >> Yeah, it's consistent. >> Um all righty. Next we have Chelsea Cody Waters.

039Good evening. My name is Chelsea Cody Waters. I have a daughter in first grade at College Park and a son entering TK next year. We live in College Park and we love walking to school every day. I'm standing in front of you today after spending a year and a half at College Park, talking to other parents there and to other schools, touring other schools, and researching the district's current policies, all to understand how to make College Park work for our family rather than relying on test scores to dictate where they go to school. A lot of attention has been paid toward high school outcomes, but our children are in their elementary schools from when they're 4 to 12 years old. These buildings are where they will define their academic selves. In our district, some students

040see their families welcome and engaged in the classroom. They join in on fun classroom opportunities like sewing a stuffed animal each student designs and writes a story about. In other elementary schools, students never see their parents or other parents invited into the classroom. Through systemic disparities like family engagement, the district is clearly acknowledging that they have different sets of expectations for each community and student from the beginning of their education. They're just four years old. This is one real example of many which your teams would know about if they chose to interview and engage with the more than 40% of parents that leave the Costa Mesa zone for elementary school whom you all serve. In absence of any action by the district to make real change on a timeline that affects our students in school

041now, I will continue to use my allotted three minutes to give you examples of these inequities. I'm not asking for College Park to be identical to Newport schools, but I'm asking for our Costa Mesa zone elementary schools to serve the neighborhoods they are in. Again, over 40% of families zoned for our school leave. Neighborhood schools need to serve both title one students and the families buying $2 million homes. Separate is never equal. The district enables a system that pulls resources into the Newport Magnet and East Side schools and their privately funded foundations. Meanwhile, the less advantaged schools are fed platitudes about how the curriculum is the same and therefore everything is equal. There are certainly things that could be done quickly if the district chose to make action a priority. Not all resources are financial.

042There are plenty of incredible, kind, and caring people at College Park. But one thing missing is institutional knowledge to set a cultural expectation at school that parents are partners in their children's education. All of our parents deserve regular communication and opportunities to meaningfully engage in their classroom. College Park parents need the structure and support to get grants and funding to create the experiences all of our families want for our children in school. Give us the resources and we'll help College Park shine. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chelsea. >> Next we have uh Paige Conrad. Hello, Vice President Murphy, Superintendent Smith, board members, community members. My name is Paige, and my daughter started TK this fall at Mariners Elementary. I vote for you, Christa. My education from kindergarten through college was strictly in public schools, and

043my mom taught public school for over 40 years. In more ways than one, I am a proud product of the public school system. Teachers, administrators, and counselors opened doors for me, built my skills, built my confidence, and ultimately empowered me to have a professional career. Since I graduated high school in 2007, most of my school days took place before 2004 when the assault weapons ban expired. Since then, the number of school shootings per year in the US has continued to grow. Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that the most important thing that can happen on this subject is sweeping legislation at a federal level. I am not here to say that it is the sole responsibility of this body to tackle the issue. I'm here to say since my daughter

044started school, I have been so impressed with the programming and support offered in our district. From free farmers markets to sessions on the impact of AI on family and school life and as we've heard abundantly tonight, updated facilities for athletics, the bathroom's not so lucky. It's clear to me that this district cares deeply about its families. But what I would love to understand is what are we doing to ensure we're using researchbacked strategies to prevent gun violence in our community? Do students have adequate access to mental health services with recommended ratio of mental health professionals to every 500 students? Are we leveraging the BS smart program developed by Every Town to educate parents on secure firearm storage? Does every facility have a single point of access, appropriate fencing, and interior classroom door locks? I'm new

045to this district, but the anxiety I feel at every single drop off is why I'm here tonight. I'm here to ask the question about what are we doing currently? How is more work being funded and prioritized? How can our district lead the way in preventing gun violence with proven strategies? School was a safe haven for me and that's what our kids and our teachers today deserve. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Next we have number 15, superintendent comments. Thank you, Dr. Smith. >> Thank you. So, a big uh thank you again to the Newport Basa Schools Foundation for all the help they provide our teachers. Um keep keep going. uh they need the support and we love seeing their innovation. A lot of that innovation comes from the support they receive. Uh

046loud and clear on on the bathrooms. Thank you students for bringing that up. It's wherever I've worked and in all the generations that I've worked decades. Um this continues to be an issue and we have to solve it. Um and I know Jeff wasn't kidding when he said he's taking notes. Um and I think the other element that I heard tonight that we have to continue to work on is um safety in those environments. It's not just having clean restrooms, which which is important. It's not just having supplies, which is also important, soap and paper towels, etc. But it's also the safety the students feel when they go in to use a restroom. Um, and so it's something we have to work on and continue to focus our efforts. So students, thank you for your

047voice and for keeping that in front of us. the um I I'll think Chelsea publicly, she's done a lot of work to help us kind of focus on, you know, ways we can improve in the district to make sure that all schools are desirable for their communities. Um that the best option for our families is a school in their neighborhood. That's a commitment that we have in this district. She and other parents really help us with this. some of the things that we mentioned in the way of resources and she pointed out that not all resources are financial but I would just want to point out that this board has um done some things that other districts haven't had the courage to do. One of them is a weighted student formula so that our westside

048schools get additional resources that they can use at their discretion. Again, that comes out of the general fund. That's not a a government subsidy. That's not title one. That's this board saying um where more is needed, more is given. Uh and they do it with financial resources. Also, the money that was given to all schools to fund science camps and field trips. What we noticed was that our westside schools, some of them were being excluded from these very very important opportunities because they couldn't fund raise enough to even do what what we would consider essential, right? To go to science camp, to go on some field trips, and to have these academic experiences. So this board to my left approved the funding for that so that whatever they do fund raise they can do some

049more innovative creative things and I think Chelsea and some of the parents are talking about after school activities they might be able to bring uh with some of those resources uh which which is important. Um family engagement is huge. We know that students whose families are engaged do better in school. Research is clear. Uh this district leans into that. We try to be better about engagement. Um it's something the board makes me focus on every single year and they expect us to get better every single year. So certainly we can make improvements there. We do um want our parents to feel welcome on campus to volunteer and we work with our teachers to see how appropriately to do that. Um law is very clear about volunteering. The board sets a priority that parents can visit

050classrooms um and our employees have rights within those classrooms and we try to navigate that so that both ends are met and students benefit. But work to be done there and we're grateful that she and others keep this uh in front of us. Again, um our goal is to make sure that your best choice is the one in your neighborhood regardless of your neighborhood. uh and we have work to do there, but this is a board with the courage to address from a policy level and a staff with experience in realizing these goals in other places. And so we're very very hopeful in that regard. And then with with regard to um you know school shootings, thank you for mentioning that this is not a school issue. Um that this is a bigger issue than

051that. Um but I did want to because the parent asked clarify some of the things that this board has done. They brought in Okayak um the intelligent incident command for Orange County uh the experts in that space to come and use their research and their knowledge to figure out what we needed to address. And the first step was a protocol so that every school has is trained in the same uh emergency protocols. I love you guys was the one we landed on um and the one we use here. Um the Okayak report mentioned other things that we should focus on and so this board prioritized those things and you'll see um if you're here for our budget workshop uh in February that a lot of our spending down our reserves intentionally was to address school

052safety. So, it's things like uh locks for every door, window coverings, uh buzz entries at the front of the school, uh some fence repair, but before we even got to that, they they invested heavily in cameras, AI enhanced cameras for security on campuses, uh ballards, etc. So, working with the experts, we're really trying to check that list and do the work that we can do. And the board takes funding out of the general fund to do this. Anderson was a big big project last year that we realized as a safety concern we had to make significant investments. So, thank you to the parents that keep this in front of us. Again, we're working with agency experts in this regard. Um, we're investing our resources. We're working with parent groups as well to say what other

053things can we do. Mariners has a group that talks to me about this very issue with a specific project that they would like to to see come to fruition. Uh the point is thank you for keeping this in front of us and thank you to the board for having the courage to make these investments from the general fund in things like safety and making sure that all neighborhood schools are as great as they can be. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. >> Uh number 15, Trusty Pearson. >> This is an opportunity for the public to address the board regarding items on the regular meeting agenda. Comments on 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. Speaker cards

054for items on the discussion action calendar may be held until that item is considered by the board if the speaker prefers. >> All righty. Thank you. Um we have nine speakers who would like to speak. Um, when I call your name, you could let me know if you want to speak now or when your item is called. All righty. Um, first up, Terry Welsh. >> Um, I can wait until the item comes up. It's item 18. Okay, that's okay. >> No problem. Thanks, Terry. Jay Humphrey, >> I'll speak now. >> Okay, Jay. Good evening board. Jay Humphrey, Costa Mesa resident and father of two kids who went their entire first through 12th grade in Coast Mesa's uh Newport Mesa's uh school system and happily so um I come to to speak on actually a close

055session item uh your land over on the end of 16th and your uh need to take some action on it. I would recommend that you take action for Randall Preserve and look at their offer to buy that land. The truth is is that while you may want to retain ownership, once you put housing on that land, you effectively have lost all the control that you might have had before other than you might get some uh trivial rents in the future and the cost to get there may be higher than what you expect to be. Um the real choice is to look to see what is good for the total community because who you serve is the community at whole as a whole and that's not only as a school board but also as an active

056board of things that happen within the community and the truth is is that that piece of land really is associated with the Randall Preserve has always been physically part of it even though it's owned differently. It's always been a land that has um certified uh habitat and um endangered species associated with it. So to do whatever you're going to do with it, you're going to step into those kind of places anyway. Rent a preserve in fact is exactly that, a preserve to take care of those kind of situations and leave it for our future community. The people that you're educating today and educating in the far future are people that need to have that option and that resource available to them. And you can help do that by taking a step that actually helps the

057community, helps the Randle Preserve, and helps your future community by making sure that you address and look at their offer. And if you're not happy with it, try for another one. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jay. And um my apologies. I should have mentioned I'm so sorry. I should have mentioned with the number of speakers, we have 2 minutes and 13 seconds available for speaking tonight. Hi, good evening. I'm here. >> Oh, I'm so sorry. >> Pardon me. >> Sorry. Julie, are you Julie Kennedy? >> Okay. Julie Kennedy later. >> Jenny Callahan. >> I'll wait until after. >> Okay. Deborah Koken. >> David Tanner. >> No. No sir. >> Item 18. >> It is great. It is. >> That's the item it is. Yeah. >> Oh, okay. >> All right. David Tanner, >> are we

058at item? >> No. Wants to wave. Yeah. You want >> You can speak now or right before the item. You You have an option. She's just letting you express your option. >> I'll speak item. >> 18. Okay. >> Uh Richard Huffman. Okay. Uh, Elad Levy, >> I'll speak later. >> I think you must be Jessica. >> Nope. >> Okay. Uh, Jessica, unfortunately, you have to fill out a card first. >> Oh, yeah. That's me. I'm Jessica. >> Okay, Jessica. >> This maybe. >> No, ma'am. Did you fill out a card? >> Uh, I was not told to fill out a card. >> I'm speaking about the Randall Preserves. >> Okay. You do need to fill out a card. >> Okay. >> Um, so those are up at the front. >> Yep. >> Thank you, Jessica.

059>> Sorry behind you. Sorry about that. >> Hi. Thank you. Appreciate you guys taking the time. Um, Jessica Madison. I have three kids in the school district right now. Um, ranging from middle school to elementary school. Um, also speaking about item 18, it is sensitive land as you guys know. You're probably going to hear a lot of that tonight, but it's really important that we look at this not only for what's happening right now. It is true what the gentleman before said. Once you put homes on this land, nobody goes and mows down homes to go back and put a school in. If we're looking to invest in the community, there's lots of other endeavors with California to put in housing in places which will bring more of a need for a school in this

060location. I think it's a bit premature to do this at this time and I really ask you to consider what happens with the Randall Preserve right there and ask you to consider um what will be the future needs of the community. Thanks. >> Thank you. >> All righty. And on to item number 17, achievement. Dr. Torres. >> Uh, yes. Tonight we have a wonderful team from secondary education um coming up to talk about how we as a district have really invested in helping students K12 make those career connections all the way from kindergarten to graduation. So tonight we have Keith Carmona, our director of teaching and learning for secondary and our amazing um CTE team. Rachel Clappenberg and Lisa Snowden for you this evening. >> Good evening, Vice President Murphy, members of the board, Superintendent

061Smith, and uh also thank you to our uh trusted partner, RO Superintendent, uh Dr. Brian Dozer, uh for hearing some wonderful things that are happening in the world of CTE. Um we have the pleasure of um being in front of you at least once a year talking about some of the uh wonderful things that happen um in a lot of our schools and we've shared with you over the last couple of years about uh the amazing CT programs that occur at our middle and our high schools. Um today uh we are going to expand that continuum and really kind of uh help build an understanding of all of the things that are happening uh K12 in our district related to uh career technical education. Um, and so really the work that uh we do within

062CTE is begins at the PK level and continues through uh 12th grade. So certainly we're aware of all of the programs that occur in secondary. Um but that begins with career awareness at the very youngest levels where students are learning about work and then it moves into career exploration where they're learning about work, career preparation that they're learning through work and finally that kind of capstone piece of the CTE world where they're learning for work. And so um our two uh amazing coordinators in our CTE office are going to walk you through some of the great things that are happening PK-12 in our district. Thank you and uh thank you Dr. Smith and trustees. So in elementary career awareness is about self-discovery. So Victoria Elementary has been our pilot site for the career connected schools

063initiative pilot um which is using the uh Ryasc common language to help students learn how to articulate their own interests, strengths and values. We've moved from staff training and student assemb as assemblies last year in year 1 to family engagement as the focus of year two. When students define who they are today, they can envision their career for tomorrow. Uh we do hope to grow this initiative from this pilot. Continuing the focus of career awareness in elementary, we've been creating intentional spaces for families to join us on the journey. One example of this is for the last two years at the college and career fair, we have strategically invited our elementary students and families uh to the college and career fair, creating the pathway playground, which is a space for hands-on CT exploration for our

064younger students. Um, and there's also family focused Ryasc workshops. By engaging our families at the foundational level, we bridge the gap between elementary curiosity and our graduation goals. So, moving into career exploration, um, Project Lead the Way allows students to explore STEM careers. Our science specialists are able to spark the curiosity in grades K5 with the launch curriculum and then deepen the exploration now in grade six with the gateway curriculum which is also the curriculum we use in 78. This intentional alignment prepares and excites our students for our engineering pathways awaiting them in our secondary PLTW programs. Um then in middle school in our CT courses, students are able to engage in active discovery through hands-on projectbased simulations such as building robots or solving medical mysteries like our two-wing students uh in our right photo.

065And this tests their interests and prepares them then for our full high school high school pathways. All right. So then in partnership with uh Coastline RO, also in middle school, our annual career exhibit days allow every seventh and eighth grade students in Newport Mesa to explore pathways that are tailored specifically to their feeder high schools. Here at the bottom you'll see our Newport Harbor um high school students and teachers that came down to Enen. um as well as afterchool RO programs and broader career section sectors. Um we would love to invite you to come join us this spring. Those are happening next month and then ENSEN in March. Um and the dates are at the bottom and we can send those to you. They're very exciting days. It's a lot of hoopla. And then moving

066from career exploration into career preparation. Um, our high school CT pathways provide the specialized environments where students begin to master their craft. These students are receiving hands-on technical training, earning industry recognized certifications, and participating in work-based learning experiences. We did have an all-time high of 335 CT completers across the district last year. Very exciting. Now, I'm going to turn it over to my partner Good evening. As students move along the continuum to career training, real world application is where learning truly comes together. These internship opportunities during the school year serve as a capstone experience. While students earn credit while applying their learning within local industries, building both technical skills and professional networks that prepare them for life after graduation. We are also in our third year of offering a summer internship in partnership with Coastline

067ROP and CEO Leadership Alliance of Orange County, which is a coalition of CEOs from 60 leading employers focused on preparing students for the workforce through hands-on experience and professional connections. this summer. Through this summer internship experience, students are mentored and work on hands-on projects with professionals, students gain clarity on career pathways while building connections to the local workforce. And students who complete the program also earn a $500 stipen. This slide represents the group of local industry leaders during the summer who open their doors to our students transforming their businesses into extended classrooms. Now we have some students who are going to share more about how this summer experience impacted them. If I had to describe my light bulb moment, I would probably say it actually happened on my first day of internship because I was

068surrounded by all the people who have a passion for the environment to make the community in Orange County a better and a cleaner place. I was just really inspired by that and just having conversation with them. Through that I just decided to pursue my education in sustain sustainability and environmental science. >> During my summer was interacting with patients goal and exactly what being able to apply my knowledge onto my what I would have to do if I were. This summer I took an internship with Whisk Aero and what made me really excited about the internship was it was um a field I was very interested. It was in aerospace engineering and in the internship um we worked making an autonomous EV toll for the 2028 summer Olympics and it was really exciting because I really

069want to be an aerospace engineer and I had that hands-on experience that I don't think um anything else could. Providing experiences like the internship to students really matter because it gives students an opportunity to get real world professional experience before they actually go into a job. They can see if it's a job they really want to pursue in college or if they need to switch their focus. >> Sorry about the video and the sound. We'll make sure that you have access to that. So, as you heard from our students, the impact is real and applications are now open for juniors for the high school cohort and current seniors can apply for the college career exploration experience. >> So, what's next? Uh, February is Career Technical Education Awareness Month. Um, we have a robust campaign that's

070going to take place um, in all of our social the Newport Mesa social medias highlighting uh, the incredible programs that we do have in our district. And we really would love it if we would have, you know, members of our community or even our board of education, you know, share the great news and the great things that are happening in Newport Mesa. Um, just as a way for us to be able to extend those partnerships. You saw some of those companies uh, that we're working with. We would love to be able to expand uh, to expand that. So, you know, any way that you can help get the word out would be amazing. Um, lastly, we invite you to to come check out um some of the upcoming things that are happening with us. Um,

071you know, later this month, we have um some teacher collaboration happening. Next month, we have our annual stakeholder engagement meeting where where we meet with CTE partners and we make plans for the coming year. Um, and then in April, we have our district robotics competition. So, thank you very much for allowing us to be here this evening and we're happy to answer any questions. >> Thank you. Uh questions questions from the board. >> Trusty Wagan. >> Thank you. Um this is a great presentation. I love learning more about what we're doing. And as I sit on the Coastline RO board, thank you um Superintendent Dozer um over there for being here. Um, this is just great and I I love I mean I get firsthand knowledge on what what you guys are doing. You guys

072are a phenomenal team. Um, but I'm really excited about the elementary um opportunities as well and you're talking about um there was something on one of the slides that said spring 2026 pilot app creators. Can you explain more of that? >> Yes. Um so when we've used PLTW curriculum um in our secondary engineering for a long time and so a couple years ago our science specialist adopted um and so it's a launch and the way PLTW does elementary it's K5 so we realized in sixth grade we need our sixth graders to be getting their middle school curriculum and so last year they piloted and then rolled out the science of technology course um because that middle school curriculum is like more coursebased, um, less grade level based, and so they have choices. And so this

073year they said, you know, that course is phenomenal, but we still have room and we want our kids to get even more. And so App Creators is another PLTW gateway course. So we have three or I'm sorry, four science specialists that are registered for the training. Um, I believe they start next month and so they'll get PLTW trained. they'll try it in there. So, it'll be about eight elementary schools since they each serve about two. Um, and then if it goes well, we do have some planning to do. We're working with it because as you know, building apps, it's very can be a little tech heavy. Um, and so if that goes well, then we are hoping to have all the science specialists um at the elementary level trained and roll that out next year.

074So then our sixth graders will get two PLTW courses in Gateway. They'll get science of technology and app creators and they are building apps and app creators as well as there's some intro lessons on just computer science what is a virus. Uh it makes me very excited because we have um computer science programs at most of our secondary sites uh middle school and high school. And so while we have a lot of bridges for the engineering the app creators really kind of helps create that bridge for computer science. So if it goes well we're hoping That's really exciting. Thank you. Um and I have actually been uh visited the um at the junior highs for their um >> their career exploration or or actually the the middle school career exhibit days. And it's it's really

075awesome to see because the um it kind of gets the um junior high school students excited about high school, but also getting them to see what they what they can do and meet um the teachers as well as students. I think that really is um sets us apart from other Coastline RO um districts that uh maybe don't feature teachers and students um at these exploration days. So, we're doing something different and it's really great. So, I really appreciate it. >> Thank you. Uh Trusty Anderson, >> um I just wanted to say thank you for doing such a great job. Um I'm coming to the DLC meeting u Miss Noden and explaining so well about all of these programs. I I feel like you could have been there for five hours. Parents had so many questions

076and we're really engaged. >> So, it's so exciting to see this go from a one pager to expanding to four pages. So, thank you so much. >> Um I was wondering one of the things that I hear often when I'm um talking with the Stansioone students is the desire to work in fields around teaching around being a child psychologist. A lot of the fields that they're experiencing um with people at their school site. And I know I've brought this up before. I know we have the the child development at Mesa, but that's something that continues to come up as a need and as a passion for Estansioone students. So, I just want to again recommend that um and maybe expand that again because I the psychologist piece and nurses and those kind of things have

077come up multiple times. Um and then I just would love to if we can continue to push this out, anything that we can do to help. I know um Newport Harbor has such an amazing internship experience for students. So, the more that we can have that for all of our schools would be awesome. So, please let us know if we can continue to help or if there's other fields specifically that um you need help with. Thank you, >> Trusty Crane. >> Yep. Um thank you for the presentation. I I'm just um I got on the board in 2020 and since then the trajectory of the CTE program has been amazing. Um and what I do like is the balanced approach of the zones including alternative education sites. I love seeing the Backbay Spider Lab. My

078gosh, I was at Backbay in December. They were making skateboards. I mean, actually, they had the flat every every step from design to construction. And I can't wait to ride on one once it's done. >> I'll have a helmet on for sure. >> Yeah. But the point point being is that not only have you expanded the program we we have the pathways, you've also made sure that's balanced and it's hitting every kid from the one who wants to build something to one who wants to code and the one who wants to create animation cartoons. So it's just wonderful that um let's just keep keep it going. And I do love our partnership with cosign rop. You've been a great partner. your energy, your positivity and your relevancy has been a you know great a great

079addition to our partnership. So thank you. I am interested in do you have the number as far as like the internship interest? How many kids have applied and just I'm just interested to know. >> So I just checked today and application does close on February 15th at 11:59 p.m. Um but I checked today we have three students who have applied. Um, but I know just in previous years, um, >> that's what I mean from previous years. >> Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you meant like this year. Um, previous year, um, it's been growing every year. Um, so I hope to have at least 30 students, um, participating this summer. Um, but we probably started, um, in the low teens the first year and then the high teens the second year. >> Great. Thank you,

080>> Trusty Wagan. So, on that note, this is these are great opportunities. Is there something that we can do to promote this more out to I mean it sounds like I mean I can only imagine when my kids are juniors seniors I'll be like let's get something to do in the summer right and so like is this something that we can promote more to the high schools and to our our parents as well? >> Absolutely. Um, so we have uh we work with our public information office and Annette and her team um will be uh doing some social media on the internship opportunity and I'm hoping we can include some of the video snippets that we did because it's really the students talking about the experience. I even know we have a student in the

081in the audience today who also did an internship over the summer with where Malcolm um so he's here as well. Um, and then we'll be reaching out to the school sites and having them um, send out the flyers and do social media and post on their website and everything. >> Perfect. If you apply, are there like limited there's limited spots, right? So, if there's 30, how many people apply? How many spots are there? Is it really competitive? >> It can be competitive. Um, we are also part there are a few other school districts that participate as well. So, um I will tell you though that all the students that did apply this past year did get an internship site. Um and so I'm hopeful that we will have the same uh success this year. >>

082That's awesome. >> But we're always looking for more partners. >> Um and so you can certainly reach out to me um if anyone would like to find out more about how to partner with us. >> Awesome. Thank you, >> Trusty Melroy. >> Um I just want to say uh thank you for what you're doing. I um I got to experience that wonderful culinary day >> and um I think you should kind of talk about and tell about how successful these kids are in that culinary program that is at Newport Harbor. I was th I haven't stopped thinking about that day since I left and um and I think it's just it's fabulous and maybe you could share with the audience kind of about who these kids are and what they've achieved in that program. So

083yes, we have a an amazing culinary program at Newport Harbor High School. Um it is a four-year pathway because so students can enter into the ninth grade or they can enter at 10th or 11th. Um, so we have we have courses all through their high school experience there. Um, students are I mean their knife skills are amazing. I mean they you know they can cook better than than I. Uh my niece took two years of the program uh before she graduated and she definitely outperforms me in the kitchen for sure. Um the students are developing leadership skills. They're planning meals. um their catering district in school events. >> Um we also have an afterchool baking and pastry program that we just offered there. Now that we've kind of updated the kitchen a bit with some

084new equipment, um we do know that it is a popular program. So we've offered an afterchool program there now. So all of our students in the district can enjoy that which is great. Um the students are just amazing. So we look forward to having your your colleague come by and and see what's happening because we'd love to get our kids to work. >> And didn't somebody um win a national award from the school or several or recognized um across the nation? >> It is an award-winning program. They win many um awards either through ProStart, which is the National Restaurant Foundation um competition or through their FCCLA competition. So, they they usually end up going to nationals. Amazing. >> Thank you. Anything else? >> Oh, thank you. I also have loved seeing this program grow and

085how amazing it is. Um, I read somewhere you guys are in talks about helping with special ed, having some of our special ed kiddos be involved. Um, where are we with that? >> Yeah. Um, so we've been working with Dr. Nichols. Uh, we took him on a tour just last week, was it? Yeah. All the days kind of run together. um of Newport Harbor. And so we're slowly touring them through all our programs and trying to create strategic partnership because what we've seen is we have special ed enrollment at our lower levels are um introduction, but where why aren't they not going through and becoming completers? And so that's a question that Lisa and I have been working kind of with our data team to dive into. Um I know you probably know our wonderful

086coordinator Joy Cordia. we sent her this week like, "Hey, can you write some queries for us because we really want to see where those students are going?" Um, we're going to work with him uh Dr. Nichols this week at a kind of transition meeting. Um, we also something we've did um this year for our career exhibit days, most of our middle schools actually bring the students from their PE class because PE is something every seventh and eighth grade student. And we realized we weren't hitting adaptive PE. So this year we made an intentional thought like we need to make sure that those students are invited and that adaptive PE teacher knows about it and so they're bringing their students um as along with our gened PE. Um so it's on our forefront and we're kind

087of diving into the data because we really want to do a lot more work there. >> Thank you. Thanks. >> Yeah, >> thank you everyone. I will just say um thank you for show for highlighting my son in one of the pictures. So it looks like he's actively engaged which I appreciate seeing very much. So um >> she knows exactly. >> Yeah, he's he's he's not hard to miss. Um >> luckily he's hopefully not watching this meeting because he'd be cringing. But um uh anyways, everything I hear about our CTE programs is amazing. So, I just again can't echo what our trustees have been saying. I mean, the expansion and the growth is just tremendous and we're hearing across the board that um it's really it's really working for our families and for our students.

088So, thank you. And also CLA, that's fantastic. Um so, so wonderful. They have um that's great that they're partnering with our district and really helping out. So, another great catch. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you. Alrighty and on to uh number 18. Um or sorry, yeah, no, number 18. Item 18. Um the the number of uh speakers has gone to 10. We had a couple more um come in and so we are we have to limit uh the amount of time to speak to two minutes. Um, so first we have Elad Levy. >> Can I speak a little bit later, not the first one, please? >> Oh, sure. >> People like to do it after the report especially. >> Yeah. >> Before the report. report. >> Um, >> okay. Um, all right, Eli, you'd like to

089wait until to be the last speaker. >> I don't mind being the last, but also after the agenda. it the agenda item has been is number 18 is is what we're discussing right now. >> So yes, you can be first. >> Yeah, you can speak now or at the end of the group. >> Okay. Uh Richard Huffman. Uh good evening. Uh, I'm used to speaking at city council meetings and planning commission meetings. So, back here after a few years. Um, I urge the school district Oh, my name's Richard Huffman. You just said that. Costa Mesa resident. I urge the school district to reconsider the Coastal Corridor Alliance proposal for the parcel. This plan provides immediate funding without risks of development delays, complications of lease agreements, and declining value. It would expand community access to parkland

090and nature-based education and permanently protect sensitive habitat. Coastal Corridor Alliance has a proven record of restoration at Fairview Park and can extend that stewardship to this parcel and the Randall preserve. Preserving this land aligns with local sustainability and open space goals reflects our shared commitment to education and environmental responsibility. Finally, I ask for greater transparency. Why pursue highdensity housing on net on on on excuse me on or near sensitive habitat when more appropriate sites exist in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa. It took 20 years for us to save and preserve the Banning Ranch. Join us in protecting this final 11 acres from five-story apartment buildings that could be built in more appropriate locations. Orange County has enough concrete covering it. Thank you. >> Thank you, David Tanner. Members of the board, David Tanner, Newport Beach

091resident. Uh, I'd like to give you a little background so you know who I am or who I was. I'm retired, uh, but for 47 years I was in the land development, uh, environmental consulting, permitting business. I worked for the government side. I worked for the developer side. I, uh, dabbled in it myself with teams of people. So, having said that, um I noticed on your agenda that you received a number of development proposals uh for this surplus land, and I'd like to offer you my recommendation on where you go next. Uh that was something that was on your agenda. And so, um I'd like uh for you to ask your staff to identify the good and the bad features of each proposal to be discussed at a future board hearing. Uh I recommend the

092board uh authorizes staff uh to determine for example the feasibility of residential use given a number of factors including the probability of litigation uh given the history of litigation of such use proposed on the banning ranch. That was the first thing when I saw it, I said, "Gee, is this going to get sued?" Whatever it is you choose, but have staff look at that. Uh have the staff look at the on-site infrastructure improve or off-site infrastructure improvements required to accommodate the different proposals. Uh there's a wide range of land use. You're looking at whether it's single family or high density. I think it's something like 40 units to the acre is the highest one. uh but uh uh look at the difficulties in uh achieving the off-site infrastructure and the costs and uh the time

093it will take. Determine the availability of water and sewer, things like that um to serve for each proposal. Um determine what permits are required for each proposal, the likelihood of obtaining these permits and the pressure to build affordable housing. Some of your proposals I noticed did not include affordable housing, but that's a big item these days. Uh whether it's >> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. I'd like to give this to staff. >> Yes, you can give it to Sam. >> Thank you. >> All righty. Next, we have Deborah Koken. I just wanted to emphasize that this property is in the coastal zone and it does have endangered species on it. So that that's going to severely limit the amount of development that will be permitted by the coastal commission. So um that's something to keep

094in mind when you're looking at your options. I would really like to see this area preserved uh with its valuable habitat and its endangered species as part of the Banning Ranch. And um I hope you'll give that consideration. Thank you. >> Thank you, Jenny Callahan. >> Please excuse my voice. I was screaming all weekend. I'm also a first grade teacher. Um, good evening. Thank you for having me tonight. Um, I do want to express also my concern about the proposed lease of the 11 acre of undeveloped land near the Newport Costa Mesa area. This land is not just empty space. It is one of the few remaining natural areas with ocean views, open habitat, and sensitive wildlife. Once land like this is developed is gone forever. No amount of mitigation, landscaping, or replacement planting can

095truly restore what is lost. This area supports fragile native plants and animals that depend on undisturbed land to survive. Many of these species are already under pressure due to climate change, pollution, and shrinking habitats. Developing this land, whether for office buildings, commercial, or housing, would permanently disrupt these ecosystems that have taken decades to establish. We're living in a time when environmentally responsibility matters more than ever. Coastal open spa space plays a critical role in protecting biodiversity, reducing heat, supporting pollinators, and preserving the natural beauty that defines our community. These lands also act as buffers against erosion and climate impacts, something especially important in coastal regions. I want to be clear, this is not about opposing progression or ignoring community needs. Affordable housing and economic development are important issues, but placing dense development on sensitive undeveloped

096coastal land is not the right situation. This land belongs not only to us but future generations. Our children and grandchildren des deserve the chance to experience open skies, ocean views, wildlife, and natural spaces. Not just photos of once what once what existed. Newport and Costa Mesa are known for valuing quality of life, environmental stewardship, and thoughtful planning. Preserving this land aligns with those values. Selling or leasing it for developmental purposes may provide short-term financial gain. Please consider. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Julie Kennedy. >> Hi. Good evening. My name is Julie Kennedy, a resident of Costa Mesa. To be honest, um I don't have a lot to add. I think these other folks are probably a little more articulate. Um, but I did want to add my voice and the preservation of this land.

097Um, what did I write? Want to reiterate what everyone has said. I urge you to consider or reconsider because I'm not sure if the first proposal was considered. Um, that wasn't clear. Uh, the Coastal Quarter Alliance's offer to acquire the property as they are guaranteed to act as excellent stewards for an area of land that has a rich history and direct impact on our environment. Not only would development of the land destroy sensitive habitat and influx of human population and interaction without environmental oversight would negatively impact the land that people have spent decades preserving. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Terry Welsh. Hello school board. My name is Terry Welsh and I am the president of the Coastal Corridor Alliance and I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you tonight about this item. Um, I

098think everyone in this room agrees this is an expensive place to live and I I think it's very admirable that the board is trying to create subsidized workforce housing for their staff. However, Banning Ranch is the wrong place to do it. Now, it is um our belief that the rare habitat and biological constraints on this property preclude development of any type. And we've written a very detailed report. We gave it to you last year. I want to reintroduce to the record. And I'd ask you if you're going to read anything this week, please read this report. We'd be happy to walk the site with any of you or any of the developers. Now, when you consider that this 11 acres of butts into the Randall Preserve, uh it's um please read the draft resource management

099plan for the Randle Preserve. It's in the works right now. Um but I can tell you that the preservation of Randle Preserve, uh this was something that that literally took decades and the hard work of thousands of people and lots of private money and lots of public money. So it is our recommendation that this board look elsewhere to build this workforce house housing. Try to find a place that it actually can be built where it should be built. Now luckily for you there going to be a lot of opportunities. the housing elements of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa envision the building of uh over 16,000 units of housing in the years ahead with over 7,000 of those units designated for lowincome and very low income. So, there's an opportunity. I would ask that you table

100these six development proposals and engage the community and try to find an alternative site. The Coastal Corridor Alliance would be happy to participate in that process. Finally, please consider our offer before you to purchase a property for conservation. It's a serious offer. It's a very fair price. It's based on what was paid for Randall Preserve. And thank you very much. >> Thank you, Shaina Breeslo. Good evening. I'm a teacher here at Newport Mesa Unified School District. And yes, I've been waiting all day to speak to you and I've also talked to my students about this uh proposal and I have their letters as well. Uh we support the preservation of the entire property of the D banning reserve. We request the Coastal Corridor Alliance proposal be reconsidered. We encourage better transparency. It remains unclear why

101the school district would do this, especially on such valuable land. This is an ecologically important ecosystem, a habitat to a a diversity of animals and plants which depends on the vernal pools for survival, many of whom are on the endangered species list, such as the California natcatcher, the burrowing owl, and our favorite, the fairy shrimp. We have already lost so much due to urban development. This would lead to increased erosion. Again, the incredible habitat loss and more runoff from harmful pesticides. Banning Ranch Preserve is a critical space for both the ecology and an environmental education and stewardship of the community where we can have Newport Mesa students have field trips there and learn about the habitat and ecology. What a great opportunity. I have all my students letters, their opinion essays here. Who can I

102pass that on to? Thank you. Thank you. Uh Ashley Ray Lee read her letter. He shouldn't build over habitats that animals, insects, or any creature lives in. Would you want your home to be taken? You're destroying animals homes by building over their habitats. So many creatures have been hurt by people building over their land. There's very little nature, but when people take care of it, it expands, and that's a good thing. You can build an You can build in an area where there's no animals and no nature. If you take care of the If you don't take care of the nature, animals will not survive. Thank you. >> Thank you, Elad Leving. Good evening committee. Thank you for having us. The same thing I want to emphasize. Um I have two kids over here in

103the school district, kindergarten and third grade. Love this area. Enjoy this area and learning a lot about it. Learning also about all the nature and what we have. We have very little bit of it left here. Mostly we have apartment, houses, buildings, variety. There is old businesses that going away, old construction that being rebuilt as new communities. That's beautiful location to do those stuff. But this piece of nature that we have, once we build there, it's gone. We will never be able to restore it. Once we took it, if something during car train is damaged, no matter how much money and effort you pour into it, it's gone forever. Now, we have a very big question standing in front of us. What we want to do with this piece of land are we going to

104benefit in which way? what we want to teach our future kids. Once we have it, great. If we lose it, it's gone. Do we want to teach them in the classroom what we had? We want to take them to the nature and show them what we have. Thank you. >> Thank you everyone. Um, moving on now to the report. Superintendent Dixon, you ready? >> Yes. Thank you. assistant. >> Sorry, assistant superintendent. >> I'm not trying to get rid of any. >> Okay. Well, good evening, school board. Dr. Smith. Um, let me just start off by first saying there is no action associated with this item tonight. This is purely just an update on the RFP process which began several years ago and we'll talk through where that started and what next steps could potentially happen.

105But for now, please note and I'll re reiterate this later in the presentation as well. This is not an action and we're not asking for any decisions tonight. So, as you know, when we talk about Banning Ranch, it's a little over 11 acre piece of property on 16th Street in Newport Beach. Um the board had previously appointed a surplus uh land committee, also known as a 7-Eleven committee. Um and that committee met from November in 2023 through March of 2024. Um inevitably that they were at tasked with deciding whether or not to declare the banning ranch property as surplus property for the for the district, which they did. So that 7-Eleven committee or the surplus uh committee um had recommended to the school board that the property be uh deemed as surplus and that we

106should seek a waiver from the school state board of education uh that would allow us to go through a request for proposal process. Um that RFP process began uh a couple years ago and it allowed us to solicit proposals from various developers. Um and we were able to define the terms of those proposals and what we are soliciting for. So like the lease term um what the deposit structure might look like for the fees. Um are there any environmental considerations? And we're going to I'm going to show you some of this on some of the projects that we're trying to make them compare apples to apples. Um but a lot of this was controlled by the RFP or request for a proposal. So when we submitted the or issued the RFP, we received six lease

107proposals and that's what the RFP was built around is doing a ground lease of the property. Um, we did also receive one proposal for sale or for purchasing the site and that's what you've heard from many of our community members tonight from the Coastal Corridor Alliance. Um, that was deemed as non-responsive because the RFP itself was seeking to get a ground lease um response and as I mentioned there's different factors like the rental structure payments and increases over time. Um, so the purpose for tonight is we're again talking through what that RFP process looked like and reminder there is no action associated with this. So here's a summary of the all the respondents that we had to our RFP. You can see each one uh the first two had a combination or a different not

108a rental option. It was a combination of forale products as well as rental products. Um, another nightaul was purely for sale, but the bottom four were all rental units that were being proposed. And again, the one non-responsive proposal from the Coastal Corridor Alliance, um, again, that was for a purchase and it was in the realm of $2 million for the purchase of the site. So, as we talk through each one of these, uh, what we've done, and I want to thank we have our attorney here, Andreas Cheltus, who helped navigate us through the entire RFP process, but a lot of work. These look very simple these next six slides, but a lot of work went into not only negotiating the terms which Andreas has taken us through up to this point and um doing the

109math behind what the proposals could look like because again these are all estimates and a lot of it's going to be based on what happens when they go through the entitlement process and the permitting process. So we'll identify the type of product and as I mentioned the first two proposers were uh different than just all rental units. the number of units that they had proposed, what that might look like in terms of of number of stories, are there any affordable housing or workforce housing considerations, what are some environmental considerations that may have come out of their proposal, and then we wanted to put together the potential revenue. Um, being a 99-year ground lease, that doesn't 99 years doesn't mean a lot to us. So, we wanted to look at what does the first five years

110potentially lead to or the first 10 years. um because then we'll know kind of more of an immediate impact at least for us. Here you see city ventures Jambbury Housing Corporation and I'm not going to go through each one of these elements but I will pause at each slide so we can and I'll maybe highlight a couple pieces but um this was attached with the posting of the agenda so hopefully the community's had time to review this as well. These are meant to be self-explanatory. Nightall Capital as I had mentioned was purely for sale units and they had about 169 up to four stories. Um all of the the proposing firms at least with regards to environmental considerations had had committed to engaging with stakeholders for the discussion. Some of the proposals had more specifics

111um like for example with Nighthall public access to Randall Preserve and working with stakeholders you'll see is a somewhat common theme in that section. The potential revenue for Nighthall in the first five years was the most significant in terms of being the highest that we saw. But again it's everything we like to put together. It's estimated because it's really based on that entitlement process. Now we move into the rental products. IA Majestic Realy. Um, you can see in a lot of these you'll see ranges of 28 and potentially up to 300. Again, that's just because they're looking at the constraints of the site and they won't fully know until they get through that process. They had a good amount of workforce housing proposed. Um, again, depending on the SE scenarios, but it could be up

112to 35% of all the units. When you look at National Core uh community rental, they had a very large range of potential units. Um but they were very cognizant when talking about the environmental considerations for the site. Um and they would have depending on the scenario for the number of units it could be as low as four stories or or maybe up to five to maximize the getting that higher number of over 400 units for Red Tail Multif family. Again, a lot of lot of proposed units for them. Four and five stories. um 25% for um workforce housing has been proposed and walking path around the perimeter of the property was in their their proposal. RSI Dream Communities was kind of um in the mid-range as far as proposed units. You know, the highest being

113about 40 units per acre. They had the range of around 20 units per acre. And again, their fee structure was a little complicated because it was based on um the developable acreage once it's finally determined. So they assume in their proposal they can maximize all full development of the site knowing that there's those environmental constraints. Um there was contingency language with their financial proposal that would be reduced basically prrated based on what they can actually develop. So what we've done now is we've had our presentation which is required by the state board of ed. Um at 30 to 60 days after tonight um the board may select the most desirable proposal. Um and that would be the the next actual action taken related to this RFP process and that would that would occur in March

114that meets that 30 to 60 day window of time. Um, and then in that open session, and it must be an open session, the board has to publicly state uh what is why they think a certain proposal is most desirable. Uh from that point, if there's a consensus on moving forward, uh we would have Andreas uh draft up the actual uh ground lease documents and finalize the negotiations and again have to come back after the March 10th meeting for another action item to approve those documents. So with that, um and I'll invite Andreas up here in case there's any technical questions. Um we're open to any questions you may have. questions from the board. >> I have a question. >> Trusty Crane, >> page 10, the slide 10, the one under core. Um, could you

115explain the two line items, percent of affordable housing and then percentage of workforce housing? Is this do we add these together up to potentially 50% or is it within the 30% margin? >> It's >> very good. Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Um there were a couple different scenarios with national core. Um one specifically they originally proposed 272 units. Within that 272 units you had two different scenarios or options just in that 272. one had a work for force housing component and an affordable component. They also had a separate one that would only have one of those elements plus the market rate. So you could pick and choose if you will and it would change the math and it would change what they were doing. Uh but that would be on the lower end

116of the scale of that 487 million uh over 99 years. Now in order to be somewhat competitive uh in a market like this and knowing that 99 years you can get a heck of a lot of money um on a piece of property. Um they also of course wanted to I think look at a higherend dollar-wise option. That's why they said you know we could get bigger dollars if we go up to the 402 units. Um but that wouldn't necessarily be their brothers but it would be an opportunity or or um something that the board could consider. That would get closer to that 793. That's why you see such a wide gap in that. So it's kind of more of a pick and choose um what you would what you prefer. Yeah. >> Thank you.

117Any other questions? >> Trusty Wagon, >> I just want to say thank you so much for all of this. Um, I know this has been a long process since it started in 2023. Um, and we've had many uh many folks from the community um, express their their opinions on it. So, thank you. Thank you for all that you've done. I do believe this is um a a great opportunity for the district to have some financial freedom. Um I do also believe that the the the property at hand right now it's you know it's cemented over it's chain link fenced. It also houses all of the OC fair's unused fairground equipment during the summer. So, um, making it, uh, making it, you know, housing an open space and the only place that would have some low-income

118housing in in that area of Newport Beach would would be amazing. So, I appreciate all the stuff that, uh, that you've done and all the opportunities going forward for our district and for the 18,000 constituents we have as students that we can offer a better education for. So, thank you, >> Trusty Anderson, and then Trusty Mroy. Thank you. Um, how many other surplus properties do we have in Newport Mesa? >> I don't have that number memorized quite yet. I know the surplus committee looked at multiple properties though. Um, but that's information I need to go back and get for you. Uh, I just don't have that memorized. around. Would you say >> a handful of I think they looked at six properties the committee did >> and what was deemed surplus um I don't know

119how many of them were deemed surplus by the committee. >> We all look we all looked at them, right? We all took a field trip and we went to all >> I'm asking for the meeting record >> to all of them. >> Right. But I'm asking for the meeting record. I think it's an important quality. >> Yeah. If I may, I just wanted to point out when we talked earlier about the advisory committee, the surplus property committee that met for Banning Ranch, that was separate from the one prior that met and discussed those six. So that was a little bit, you know, apples and oranges if you will. So >> yes. So overall though, so we have students here who have not had exposure to that. We have people who are listening for the first

120time. So around how many surplus properties do we have in Newport Mason? >> The the idea of it being surplus property would have meant that the board had to actually declare it surplus. I know there were six properties that the board took a look at. Whether or not they declared any of those surplus, I do I don't know. I don't believe you necessarily had a formal action to declare them surplus and then follow either the traditional bid scenario where you auction it off or going through a state board of education waiver process where you do a request for proposals. The reason for the RFP would be that you can negotiate and compare and not have to choose just the high bidder, but rather talk with people, negotiate, and pick and choose what's the quote most

121desirable proposal. But whether or not those other six were declared surplus, I'm not aware that they were. Yeah. >> Great. Thank you for sharing that. Sure. Um, and then I also was wondering, um, you know, we've we've we're having our budget discussion coming up soon, and I know one of the things a lot of us have been investing a lot of time in is, you know, what does education look like for our students who are starting kindergarten this year? What will things look like in 99 years? We don't really know. Um, and so I think for me, one of my concerns is I live in the neighborhood where Banning Ranch is. Um, there's very limited access to parks. we've actually opened up a lot of our playgrounds because there are no parks in our neighborhood.

122There's no green space. Um and so one of the things that I'm concerned about personally um is just the availability of having um access to a continuous parcel of property that continues Fairview Park and Banning Ranch all the way to the ocean and having access for everyone in a community, not 165 potential people. Um, and so the one of the things I'm concerned about is just um I think our district has a property base that's different than a lot of other districts. A lot of districts are reliant on state and federal funding and we're not. We're reliant on property tax, but we don't know what education is going to look like in 15 years. We already saw what happened during COVID. Obviously, that changed things dramatically. I got my MERS in digital teaching and learning

12315 years ago. We don't know what education is going to look like in 20 years, 40 years. We don't know if we're going to need all of the schools that we currently have. And we already have surplus property. Um, and so my concern is I heard a lot of people today and I've heard a lot of people in my neighborhood concerned with making a decision now that will impact our neighborhood and the community for decades and for the entire future ahead. So for me, I I'm really hesitant. I have a lot of concerns about this. Um, I was one of the ones who walked and I saw and I was concerned to see actually I was the one that brought the attention forward that there was fair property on that fair um, you know, equipment

124and beer stands and odd things on that property. Um, and got the um, broken basketball hoops removed that were on that that piece. Um, so now it is a lot of it is green. um 10 years ago that space looked even five years ago it was looked really odd um and disused and not cared for well and so I I just have a lot of concerns we're making decisions about something that will impact not just for 99 years but going forward and we really don't know what educ what education will look like and to do it for money to me is really concerning and so I that's my perspective Trustee Trusty Mroy. Um, I think that uh it would be important for you guys to talk about um why we are um in we want

125the workforce um housing because I mean I know why I want it because I want to keep our great teachers close by and I want to give opportunity to our police officers and our firemen and our janitors and our you know all the people who work in our great schools close by. And that was a big thing that we asked for in the proposals is that um an element of workforce housing that's not low income. I mean it's lower. I mean it's getting them in at a very low price and I think that gives the opportunity to keep great teachers in this area. And any thoughts that you might have or anybody else that would like to speak on it about that? Yeah, I know Andreas when he was going back and forth with the

126various proposers, um that was an area that he did highlight and made sure that they understood it was important to us. Um and so certainly that would be part of the final negotiations before those contract documents come up. >> Yeah, that's exact exactly right. Um even as early as January of last year when we formalized the RFP and sent it out, it talked about a workforce housing component that doesn't tie the board's hands. There was no percentage necessarily. um um told to any potential developers that you'd have to meet a certain criteria. It's kind of hey, what would the development community see as reasonable? The reason for that is it has to get built. You can say it sounds wonderful to have a 100% of the units out there be workforce housing, but it won't

127pay for itself. It won't pencil out. So, the developers typically will come forward with some manner of mix. 20% on a more affordable or workforce side being lesser than fair market value and 80% being fair market value or something 7030 7525 that sort of thing. So it pencils out. So that has been discussion with everyone. Yeah. >> Any other questions? Any Oh, Trusty Pearson, sorry. >> That's okay. Was that on or off? Um I want to thank you. I know there was so much behind the scenes, so much work done behind the scenes to get to this to this point. Um, including you taking us to all of the properties. Um, I really appreciated the fact that the district took the time um and spent the money to get us to all these properties. And

128I have to say, every property we we pulled up to, there was either a school on the property or it was a park with kids playing. When we drove when we came to this piece of property, uh like trusty WAD said, it was empty with just the fairground equipment there. Um literally hot dog stands and it really there really it really there was no I there was no other it was just it was blatant that this was the property um that wasn't going to move children or schools um and parks and open space. Um, and I do feel that as a as a board, we have to make sure that the district is financially in a good spot. And I do believe that allow um giving our teachers a place to live and staff our

129teachers or staff a place to live um and keeping those good teachers in our district is something that we have to think about and something that we have to have to move forward with. Thank you, Trusty Wan. >> Yeah, thank you. I wanted to reiterate kind of what Trusty Pearson said about the um other sites that we looked at. There were um six other sites. Uh five of those actually have schools and kids that go to school there, and we're not in the business of closing schools. So, this was the only one that did not have kids or schools. We like to keep our schools open. This was an opportunity for us as we're looking at it to say, "Hey, today no one can get on the Randall Preserve, right? There's 387 acres and we

130thought this would be a great opportunity for workforce housing to be in an area where they can access the Randall Pre preserve as well as use our uh district so we can um potentially use that money and we would use that money to fund what our schools what um what education looks like in the in the next you know 20 300 years just like uh Trusty Anderson said she doesn't know what it looks like we don't either. So that's why getting money so that we don't are not dependent on the inflows ex outflows of the budgets in Sacramento, we can fund those education initiatives from from the start. We could fund the extra science schools, the um the a lot of the the the programs that our CTE um presentation was all about. Um we

131can have more afterchool tutoring, more afterchool activities. We can have more teachers. um we can have more things on our campuses with the extra money that we're going to to have with a ground lease. Um you know, I think that there is a lot of folks from the Randall Preserve here and I totally, you know, appreciate all your opport all you guys have done for, you know, hopefully opening that land and that'll be great for the community and great for all these folks. Um I can't wait for that day to happen. um and and you know, appreciate the the offer, but um it was $2 million for 11 acres of ocean view land. Um and the median home in Newport Beach is 3.5 million on a 7,000 ft property. So for us, we were looking

132at leases and that's why that was a non-issue. Um, but also, you know, I just want to, you know, to to reiterate that we are looking at trying to do the best for our constituents and our constituents are our students. Our constituents is making sure that this area has the best education possible. And that's what we're looking for with um this opportunity as well as doing a common good by having opportunities for low-income housing where we know that there's a state mandate for. Um, and so that is how we're looking at this this opportunity. Thank you. Uh any other comments, trustees? Okay. Thank you, gentlemen. Appreciate it. >> All righty. Moving on to item 19, the consent calendar. And do I have a motion? >> So move. >> All right. And a second. Second. All

133righty, Sam. Roll call vote. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Maloord. >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. >> All righty. Vote with 6. >> And now we move on to item 20, the public hearing. 20 A public hearing disclosing the provisions of the 2025 2026 tenative collective bargaining agreement with the Newport Mesa Federation of Teachers. Miss Nib, >> I do need to gavvel first. There we go. >> I'm opening the hearing. The purpose of this item is to hold a public hearing regarding the financial provisions of the tenative agreement with NMFT and it is for 25267,791,63 inclusive of salary, statutory and health and welfare benefits. Just a reminder that the board will consider action to approve the agreement

134as a separate item. >> Thank you. The hearing is now open. 801. Are there any public comments? Seeing none, the hearing is now closed at 8:01. All righty. Thank you. 21. The discussion action calendar 21A. approved the tenative agreement between the Newport Mesa Federation of Teachers and Newport Mesa Unified School District, concluding the 202526 negotiations. >> So much. >> All right. I apologize. I'm losing my voice a little bit too, but um we are very pleased to bring to the board for approval the tenative agreement reached on December 16th with NMFT. I want to echo Miss Reed who was so articulate um earlier that the negotiating teams worked hard to collaborate and reach agreement um on key areas that related to evaluation tools, release time for SAI teachers, preparation time for SEC teachers, meeting time,

135including a 2% ongoing salary increase, a one time off schedule 2% payment, and increased district contributions to the overall health and welfare benefits program. We want to sincerely thank both teams for their commitment and efforts in reaching this agreement. The NMFT team included. I know uh Miss Reed listed them all, but I'm going to again because on behalf of our team as well, we're very thankful. Uh Rhonda Reed, the NFTt president, Kirby Piaza, Tamara Fairbanks, Kunowin, Jeff Fename, NFTt executive director Tanya Golden, and NFTt chief negotiator Anthony Ciss. We also want to thank the district's negotiation team that included Curtzer, Megan Brown, Mike Shaka, Amanda Estrada, and Spencer Covert. >> Thank you. Thank you, Miss Nib. Okay. Um, any discussion, trustees? Nope. Okay. So, do I have a motion? >> So, moved. >> Second. Second.

136Uh, roll call vote. >> Trust Soilu. Trusty Murphy, >> yes. >> Trusty Pearson, >> yes. >> Trusty Maroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. 60. Next. Um, item item 21B, approve the executive staff compensation and benefits for 2025 and 2026. Miss Snip, >> I think I'm on for the next few. Um so with our NMT agreement approved by the board, it is a we're bringing forward other staff not represented by an association of the district. The first group is executive staff whose employment benefits are affected by their individual contracts. Um executive staff has compensation and benefits parallel to other groups in the district. The recommendation is that the board approves that tonight. Any discussion? Seeing none. Motion. >> So moved. >> Second. All righty,

137Sam. Roll call vote. >> Trusty Murphy, >> yes. >> Trusty Pearson, >> yes. >> Trusty Maroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagon, >> yes. >> And the vote was 6. 21C approve updated management compensation for 2025 2026. M. >> Absolutely. Um we met and conferred with representatives of the management employee group. This leadership group includes multiple classifications such as principles, assistant principles, coordinators, and directors. Um the board previously approved a 1.5% salary increase and it is recommended that the board of education amend the previous approval and approve compensation increases as provided to MFTt. Great. >> Any discussion? Seeing no none motion. So moved. Trusty White. Second. >> Second. >> Trusty Mroy. Sorry. All right. Roll call vote. >> Trustee. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty

138Pearson, >> yes. >> Trusty Mroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. >> All right. And the vote was 60. 21D. Approve confidential and supervisor updated compensation. >> Yes. Oh, I thought you were saying something for 2025 2026. Miss Nip. Yeah, this is my last one this evening. Um, we met and conferred with repres representatives of the supervisory and confidentials employee groups. Now, these are leadership groups that include multiple classifications under the role of supervisor as well as positions such as executive assistance confidential and they are unique from other management staff. The board previously approved a 1.5% salary increase and it is recommended that the board of education approve a salary schedule adjustment to align with statutory Kalpers's reporting and approve the onetime off schedule

139payment that aligns with what was provided to NMFT. >> Thanks. Any discussion? All right. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All righty. What roll call vote? Sam. >> Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. Trusty Moroy, >> yes. >> Trusty Anderson, >> yes. >> Trusty Crane, >> yes. >> Trusty Wagan, >> yes. >> And the vote was 6. Um, all righty. We're moving past. Yep. Yep. Okay. 22. Uh, resolution adoption calendar 22A. Adopt resolution 090126. Resolution of the board of education of the Newport Mesa Unified School District, County of Orange, California. Findings pertaining to developer fees. Mr. Dixon. >> Yes. Thank you. So, this report is an annual report we bring to the board that is showing what we expended our developer fees on last fiscal year. You'll

140note in the report we ended with our fund 25, our developer fee fund with a little over 2.4 million last year. And I anticipate we're going to start collecting more developer fees than we have historically because one thing I I like to I want to point out in the report on page three of the report it talks about the type and amount of fee. And this is a little unique. So you'll notice that from July 1, 2024 through June 20th, which is not the end of the fiscal year, we were collecting $184 per square foot. um that is very low. In fact, that was the lowest in the county. We hadn't updated our developer fees in over 25 years. And so that's why um but thanks to the work the board did last year on

141April 22nd specifically, you imposed a new level one developer fee consistent with the statutory minimums. Um which because it occurred on April 22nd, you have to wait 60 days from the date of the adoption of the resolution. And so that is why we started collecting the new uh developer fee rates on June 21st through the end of June 30th. So we had a little over a week's worth of the new fee last year. This year will be all the new fee. So appreciate I actually watched that meeting and I appreciate the work that went into that. It's a it's a big deal and it's a big win for our district. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. Um any discussion, Trusty Crane? >> A quick question. How often will will we be uh relooking

142at these fees in order to stay up with the market and not wait 25 years? >> Yeah, we want to do it a little more frequently. Um but >> what's your what's your vision of that? Like every 3 to 5 years? >> Every 3 to 5 years is usually reasonable. Um because you still need to bring in a a school uh needs justification study and so there's a cost to that. So you don't want to do it every single year, but every three to five years seems reasonable. Thank you. >> Great idea. Any other discussion? >> Okay. Um motion, please. So moved. >> Second. >> All right. Roll call vote. >> Trustee. Trusty Murphy. >> Yes. >> Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. >> Trusty Mworth. >> Yes. >> Trusty Anderson. Yes. >> Trusty Crane. >> Yes.

143>> Trusty Wagon. >> Yes. >> All right. And the vote was 6. >> Item number 23, uh, the superintendent's informal report. >> Just want to alluded to a couple of, um, thank yous. Again, um, it's been a bit since we were together, and during that time, we've had some breaks, and during one of the breaks, we had an atmospheric river, right? um quite quite the occurrence, but it's meaningful because in years past we had a lot of leakage, even flooding in our classrooms. We had to move teachers. We had to uh replace their items that personal and district that were lost because of the water damage. And this board um budgeted for those resources to repair the roofs. our facilities and maintenance teams prioritize doing the work and staying on top of it so that

144the drains are clear so when it rains again we have these rivers and uh historic rains um we can handle it. Proud to announce that during that activity we only had a few minor leaks and given the amount of moisture that's huge. So to this board, to our team for doing the hard work. Thanks for keeping our our students and our classrooms dry as well as the other facilities. Um and then I want to thank our labor leaders as well. Um Amy and Rhonda for their advocacy, for their leadership, for their eboards, advocating for their teams, um passionately advocating for their teams, but professionally with passion. Um, and this agreement that was approved tonight, um, along with the work we continue to do with CSA, um, reinforces our position in the county, which is what

145we want for our employees. We want to keep climbing, getting further away from second and closer to number one, right, in all things, right? We're talking about the plan tonight. So, for your leadership, your eboards, thank you. and to our team here in the district for the work you did uh to land those planes for the betterment of our employees and our students. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your hard work, your passion, and your professionalism. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Um all righty. Next, we have item 24, board member reports and committee reports. I don't think we have any committees. Um let's just start down there at the end. Trusty Wagan. >> Sure. Um I had a Coastline RO board meeting uh last week um where um you know we had this lovely

146CTE presentation here but um we did talk a little bit more about um you know just expanding some of our opportunities for the afterbell classes and that's really what like cosign rop does and one is that baking um class at at Newport Harbor. So that's great. But um the design build um that's coming up in March, which is where Estansia took the win last year where they built that tiny house and the amazing group of uh six I believe let me just say six students uh five women, one man uh built a tiny house and beat everyone else. So that's coming up in March and I'll be going to that. Um but also this um Friday is the city of Costa Mesa uh district liaison meeting and I'm sure the um ideas of of ebikes

147and just everything else that we do with the city of Costa Mesa will come up. So um we'll report out at the next meeting. That's what I have. >> Thank you Trusty Crank. Um I intend I attended the Newport Mesa School Foundation uh meeting last week and what an amazing group of just dedicated uh adults that are helping us and partnering with us. Uh the focus was the the grants for teachers the and teachers. The application deadline is uh Friday this Friday. So they did say that the link will stay open till Monday, but just um put it in your head Friday. Um it's really money that is just goes in right into the classroom and affects the kids directly. So let's go teachers apply. Um we had a few battle of the bay at

148CDM and we had basketball and so girl men's basketball girls soccer and uh we had a tie in soccer and a huge win in basketball. I won't even I won't mention the score but it was a huge win. Um and uh la yesterday the MLK days of service um I went to the OC food bank and joined Eastluff Elementary families. There were about 130 uh bodies there, kids from TK to to like, you know, alums from Eastluff Elementary with their families. and we boxed 1,199 boxes on that day for um the uh the needy. And it was just a beautiful tradition. I I believe I've gone five years in a row and it's just wonderful seeing these kids so engaged, you know, so excited and doing it with purpose. >> Thank you, Trusty Crane. Trusty

149Anderson. >> Um thank you. Since we last were here, um I attended two DWAC meetings. Um as I mentioned before, we had le Lisa Snowden come and speak with all of the parents. Um which was really amazing to see. There are um like really great questions that came out of that. And one of the pieces of DWAC at the last meeting was putting together questions for the January meeting, which was to have the superintendent there. Um and so Superintendent Smith spent quite a long time um going over a lot of those concerns. A majority of them were around safety, which I think was a concern that we heard from some parents tonight. Um and the number one thing overall was bullying. I think we're continuing to see so much bullying on our campuses and parents

150not sure how to address that, how to deal with it, particularly cyber bullying. And so, um, I'm just thankful for a lot of the work that we are we're doing, but there continues to be a lot of, um, training and advocacy. And I think, um, there's just a lot of our students still that are not feeling safe on our campuses. They're not feeling seen. They're not feeling heard. They're feeling excluded. And so, there's a lot of work still to do on that. Um, but thank you, um, Superintendent Smith for being there and taking questions from the audience. Um, and one of those was I think there were two comments that were from parents um, including an early college high school parent who was there that said the difference in communication has just been huge. Um,

151and that she feels much safer and that she's able to speak and feels really heard. So, thank you for that. Um, I also attended the safe routes to school gathering at Kaiser Elementary which was lovely with Trustee Murphy. Um, and there was great conversation there and um, a lot of great ideas from some of the parents and some of the community members. Um, just new ideas that I some of them I hadn't heard before and some of them were neighborhoods that I know quite well. So, it was a really great time of having people put forward um, things that will help neighborhoods around the year but also specifically for our students. Um, and then also too just um, a a secondary piece that came out of DWAC. Um I just want to make sure that

152we are um communicating well and tracking how many of our students are using parent square. One of the concerns I have is we have parents who are not very techsavvy. And so I just wanted to know if there's a way that we can track by school if there's or even by classroom if there's 80% of the parents are using it if 10% are using it just so we have a greater understanding of that if that's the main way that we're communicating. Um, I know in the past what happened with Lexia was we saw parents were getting a huge list of websites and they didn't know which were academically based and needed for their classroom instruction time. So I would just love now that we've had parents square for a little bit to do some analytics

153to know how many students and or how many families are accessing that. And then lastly, um on February 14th, a day of love for lots of people um at IKEA if people um would like to donate some food and different toiletry items for those in our community who are suffering and feeling unseen currently um are not leaving their houses as often, they can drop off items at IKEA. Thank you. >> Thank you, Trusty Anderson. Trusty Mroy. Okay, I have um two really positive stories that I want to share with you. Um last week I was at uh Newport L their flag deck and um their principal Dr. G or Principal G, she was all bouncing around. I'm like, "What's going on?" And she said, "Oh my god, I'd love to share with you." So she

154shared with me something pretty pretty cool that she's doing. So, she has decided to have a meeting with every student from 2 grade to 6th grade one on-one to talk about their progress of the STAR benchmarks in reading and math. So, she goes in as she goes to every class one by one and pulls them out. This is over time. And if they've made growth from their last testing window, they get to choose a kids meal certificate donated by a local business. Um, she said it's the most rewarding thing that she's done and I just needed to talk about it because she's fantastic. She's fantastic. And the other thing I want to tell you about her is that Newport L has a problem with attendance or has in the past. So she has come up

155with a way to you know fight back on that or or fix the problem or whatever whatever you know get let's get it better. So I'm like what are you doing? And she's like, "So, I've identified the students that have attendance problem, and I said, if you hit this benchmark or this benchmark, I will make you cupcakes." So, she's had seen a huge improvement in attendance because she's rewarding these kids. It's fabulous. So, not only is she working on their reading and math, she's working on their attendance. And this lady's a rock star. I watched her get slimed the other day by the fire department and then she ran in her wets suit into the ocean and and cleaned off. I mean, she's Good job on that one. Um, bless. She's amazing. I mean, really,

156these kids are they're going to do great. Okay. And the second one is something that I received today in my email, which was just awesome. And this has to do with our staff here, you guys. Um it says, "Hi Andrea, I wanted to reach out to confirm that we are starting the literacy project, which is an amazing project um programming today at Wilson and Whittier Elementary Schools. We cannot thank you enough for helping make this happen. We have wanted to get these up and running for some time and thanks to you, we are finally making it happen. But this is the more important part. I also wanted to share that I have worked with a lot of different school districts and sites over the years and I have not seen so much thought and attention

157go into the implement implementation of a program. Lori Hernandez led the team and really made this happen. And I know it was it was definitely Lori, but I know that I talked to you about it and uh you know everybody's involved. But I just want to thank the staff um for making a really great thing happen and it's costing us zero dollars. So that's even better. So those are two really great things that happened this this week. >> Thank you, Trusty Mroy. Trusty Pearson. >> Well, I feel really shallow now that I say the Battle of the Bay was my two f my favorite events. Um she might be on to something now that Sprinkles closed, right? She might be. Yeah, she might she might >> she might be on to something about making those

158cupcakes. Um but my my favorites this week were Battle of the Bay. Um soccer was wonderful. I think three of us were at the soccer um event which was fantastic and Battle of the Bay I think what for basketball, men's basketball, which was so exciting to me. Um my kids played basketball, but Carol and I had to switch seats three times because everybody stood the entire game. There was the only standing room and you would think it was an NL playoff game because we literally moved three times and we ended up just sitting on the I mean on the court. I we basically were sitting out at the door standing at the door. We couldn't sit. >> Um so that was fantastic. I love seeing that. I love seeing the elementary school dads there with

159their younger kids. Um it just brings such makes the community so much better. Um and and um the old people like me, we I mean all the alumni were there as well. So it's fantastic. Um great to see that. The other thing was the Anderson school play. They did high school musical. Um it was amazing and it's always one of my favorite things to go see the kids perform. >> Mention Asher. >> Asher. >> Oh, and our our Yes. Thank you to our special ed group. We have one of our special ed students, Asher, who is being included on our CBM basketball. I should have read brought that email um on that on our CDM basketball um team and he made his first basket. It was one of those moments like you see on the

160news. Um and it was extremely special. Um and he's an extremely wonderful kid and I I thank um CDM, I thank the basketball coach to for including him and giving him that experience. >> Thank you, Trusty Pearson. >> Yes. Um I don't have too too much except for if I'm going to stay on the sports uh sports line. Um so unfortunately um Enson eighth graders did beat uh the Mesa 8th graders and that's always a tough one for me because one of my child children go to Enson and the other one goes to Mesa and so it's always a tossup but u congratulations to the eighth grade enson 8th grade basketball players. They did great. Um, also on the uh on the bike uh topic, yes, it was good to go to the um safe

161routes to school meeting uh last week. Again, I don't know with the days all run in for me, too. But um uh there was some great comments. There was some great ideas that were being presented. I applaud the city of Costa Mesa for all of their hard work and trying to um to bring in as many as many folks in the community, as many ideas, as much feedback as they can possibly get to come up with more better safe routes to school. So, um they have a website up. I do recommend everyone take a look at it for for anyone who's interested. Um I should have the website down. Do you have the website? Um, >> it's Costa Mesa SRTS. Safe routes to school. >> Yeah, Costa Mesa. >> They have a lot of data

162that they're adding. >> Yeah, Costa Mesa SRTS.com. Yes. Um and then um also on that note uh hopefully um parents and other folks saw in their um flyers that Costa Mesa is also having a bicycle safety education program, community bike skills workshop. It's a free event on Saturday uh this Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to to noon. It's at Costa Mesa City Hall. Um they are going to do bike skills free bike helmets. Um but uh that is also for while supplies last. Uh free bike tuneups, all ages are welcome. Um that website is walk more bikemore.org back/coastam mea. So um for all of you out there who are interested in uh in learning more about what we're doing with safe routes to schools and how we're supporting uh safety for our kids uh riding their

163bikes and their families. Um those are good two good resources for you. Um, I also wanted to say to So, I guess I do have more to say than short um to uh to Ms. Cody Waters and her f and her husband who I know are are still here with us. And um I just can't thank you enough for uh your involvement and support of what's best for College Park Elementary. Everything you said, oh my god, you're going to make me cry. Um uh so this this does make me cry seeing you advocate for that school and those students and those families for what's best for them. So I really appreciate that Christa. This is all your fault. >> Um so anyway, so uh keep letting us know what's working, what's not working at College

164Park. We really appreciate it. It's an amazing amazing school and um with your advocacy and the efforts of the PTA and the parents there it can be even more amazing. So thank you. Thank you for that. Um last but not least now I just wanted uh President Ersylu to know that we all wish her hope for her to feel better. So thank you. >> Oh that's right. You don't have anything to say anymore. Okay. >> Meeting adjourned at 8:28.