001gala in at 5:30 for the April 3rd regular board meeting of the Pacific Grove Unified School District. And our first thing, which I just did, was the call to order. And I'll now start with the land acknowledgement. So, good evening. As we begin this meeting, it's important to pay respect to and acknowledge that we are on the traditional land of the Aloney, Kosanoan, and Eselin people. And additionally, pay respect to elders past and present. And I think we're on to roll call, which is up to you, Dr. Abs. Yes, we are. Absolutely. President Dr. Hazen, I'm here. McNary here. Trusty Atmar, I'm here. Trusty Shamas here. And Trusty Wax here. Great. So with that, we have the adoption of the agenda. It's a full agenda tonight. See if there's anyone in the room with public
002comment or online. Nothing there. And so going to the board, I'll start just to say it. As I'm sure you all are aware, it's a very very full plate and we have two discussion items coming later. So, I just wanted to suggest, but everyone can do whatever they want that we be cognizant of time and ask questions concisely and such that we can make sure we get to the items that we I think there'll be people here that will want to see. So, with that, any other discussion of the agenda? Whoa. Can I get a motion? I will so move. Okay. I'll second. Motion made by Trusty Otmar, seconded by clerk McNary. All in favor, please say I. I. Passes in this case unanimously. 5-0. So now I will identify our closed session topics. Item
003one and two are negotiations, collective bargaining session, planning, and prep for the PGTA and CSEA for 2425 under government code 3549.1. Uh we have a public employee discipline, dismissal, release, leave complaint, government code 54957. And then conference with legal counsel on existing litigation pursuant to government code 54956.9. And with that, is there anyone in the public that would like to comment on the close session topics? Not I will go ahead and adjourn us to close session and we will be back at 6:30, I think. Okay, see you guys then. I'm Gatalas back in from close session and I'm going to start really quickly by reading the outcome of our close session topics. For item one and two on negotiations, information is received and direction was given. From item three, information was received. And for item
004four um in the matter of OAH case 20250739, the board voted unanimously unanimously 50- in close session to approve the settlement agreement as presented. So with that, we now have the pledge of allegiance. Could I get uh maybe Imagigen, would you be willing to lead us in the pledge of allegiance? Just this way. Yeah, you caught my eye first. Sorry. Excellent. And I will now hand the mic over to you, Dr. Adamson. Wonderful. Well, good evening and welcome. It's always just a pleasure to have a full room in front of us and especially when the room is filled with students. So, welcome to each and every one of you. Uh we are fortunate enough this evening to have two presentations. Uh we are going to begin with our elementary students and it is my absolute
005privilege to introduce uh our teacher who's going to be uh talking a little bit about the first presentation. He happens to be our orchestral teacher for elementary students this year, his first year with us. And in fact what you will be seeing today is uh really the product of uh students in fourth and fifth grade many of whom I understand uh are playing musical instruments for the first time ever. So at this time it will just be my privilege to invite you up to the front Mr. Cohen uh to introduce yourself and then just introduce the students. Thank you for being here this evening. Hi, good afternoon. So, my name is Mr. Nathan Cohen and I am the band and orchestra director for fourth and fifth grade at Robert Down and Forest Grove. And it's
006been such a pleasure um you know starting students in fourth grade and I I think it makes such a difference uh starting students on musical instruments early. Um, I'm I'm really excited to develop the program and send these students off to the middle school with real skill sets and, you know, um, being really excited about music. I want to thank, uh, Miss Priest for having us at the middle school for their music festival a couple weeks ago. Uh, when we came back from the field trip, the students were just so fired up about music and really excited uh, to spend the day listening to music and playing music with their peers. Um so this evening we have a little short video clip uh from our presentation at the middle school as well as some little
007video clips from um different classes you know throughout the weeks and we have a couple students uh that will come up and talk about the program and their experience. Thank you. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, [Music] 2. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Thank you. [Music] Woohoo! [Music] Show [Music] Happy birthday. [Music] Yes. Hallelujah. [Music] [Applause] I'd like to invite uh some of our students to come on up. you'd all come on up and then uh each one of them has a couple words to say about their experience in the program. Mac, would you like to go first? Uh Milo, sure. I knew my Uh hello, I am Milo Costa from fourth grade and I am in fourth grade and
008I love music dearly. In fact, I love it so much. My favorite thing to do, it's my favorite thing to do in school. I'm a percussionist, so I bang sticks on leather and metal that has a very satisfying sound. It's pretty fun. Mr. Cullen makes us makes music really fun to learn. He's really patient and doesn't pressure us. He is, if in my opinion, he's way better at playing the trumpet than Dizzy Gillespie. I love doing all the music, too. It's like a tap dance with your hands. The most I like about it is when you rock, you can't stop. I'll listen to Chop I'll listen to Chop 3, one of my favorite rock songs for 20 minutes on repeat and then all and play all my stuff. Thank you for letting me present and
009um I don't I uh this might be a possibility but I really don't want music cancelled in our in our school. Uh go ahead. Sure. Okay. Thank you. Bye. Hello. My name is Mac Rollstead. I go to Robert Down Elementary School. I'm in fifth grade and I'm playing the cello. I chose this instrument because it sounds beautiful. The most difficult part about playing the uh cello for me is moving my fingers on the fingerboard. The most fun part about playing the cello for me is learning how to play new songs and new notes. I think the recent concert at PGMS went really well and we all played great. Finally, I think music is important because it sounds beautiful and it can relax people. All in all, my experience in orchestra with Mr. Con has been
010awesome and I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn and play an instrument at school. Hello, my name is Juliana Paty and I am in fourth grade at Forest Grove. I started playing violin this year as part of the elementary instrumental music program with Mr. Cohen. Although trying a new instrument like the violin can see initating, Mr. Cohen has been a huge help to every step of the way. He measured me to get the right size instrument. He advised me on which violin to get and he gave me a new rosson each time mine didn't work or broke. Plus, he engages seamlessly with his students and he makes learning to play together fun. Finally, I was pleased to play with Forest Grove and Robert Don students together like a real orchestra at the Binn School Music
011Festival. Mr. Cohen did a fabulous job at preparing all of us to play our parents our parts together after only 6 months of class once a week and a handful of orchestra practices with just Forest Grove students. It was quite thrilling, exciting, and impressive accomplishment. Seeing the middle schoolers play was an added bonus as it inspired us to continue learning and playing in hopes of one day being able to play like them. I am really looking forward to playing together again in May. So, hi, my name is Alas Cohen. I am in fourth grade at Robert Down. I play French horn and band and drums and orchestra. We practice songs so we could play them smoothly. I like being in music class because Mr. Con is my dad and we progress through new techniques each
012practice. Hello, my name is Regina Zavvada and I go to um Robert Down and I'm in fifth grade and this is why the music program is um really fun and has been a great experience for me and the other fourth and fifth graders at Robert Down. Um it gave us an opportunity to try an instrument if we had not before and work on it through the year and decide if it was something we wanted to continue in middle school and possibly beyond. I live for music, so signing up for this program was an obvious choice for me, but it was difficult to choose between band and orchestra. It's fun to practice and play together, and we recently got to play in front of an audience at the middle school, giving us a chance to perform
013together and share what we learned this year. My favorite song to play with the band is Bandroom Boogie. We haven't played that one yet in front of an audience, and I can't wait to play it for our next performance. Mr. Cohen is a nice and helpful teacher and he makes learning new instruments very fun. It's not always easy for m for us, but Mr. Cohen gives us ve very careful directions to make it easier. All in all, I really enjoy the music program. Thank you for having us. share the building. Well, I'm going to just on behalf of everyone in this room say another big thank you and one more round of applause I think for our students who are here speaking and what a joy for us to actually see the the product of
014the year's work uh and to hear you know learning a musical instrument is is an incredibly hard thing to do. uh whether you've it's the first time you've picked up a musical instrument, I'm just looking to the six students who are here with us today or if it was you've maybe been doing it for a few years already. uh the fact that you will all be able to have been able to come together to master something uh in such a short amount of time is is incredible and that takes dedication uh and it takes you know definitely a a passion and a desire to do that and as I'm hearing from all of you I think the theme as all of you spoke uh that came through for me was uh that it is fun
015right learning an instrument is fun and I think one of you made the comment that uh Mr. Cohen uh has really helped you. Uh the whole idea of all of you coming together, right? Forest Grove and Robert Down that was fun, right? Learning together was fun. So how wonderful to hear that and uh to just see that music is alive and well at our schools. So what I have for all the for the six of you today is we have certificates that I'm going to ask for you to be able to take back to uh all of the many students. I understand there are almost 120 students total. So, normally we do individual certificates, but that is a lot uh for us to do. So, we're going to figure something out uh as far as
016that goes. But for today, we have certificates for each of the individual classes that I'm going to ask the six of you to uh be responsible for taking back to uh your the rest of your peers. How does that sound? Does that sound good? And so, in the meantime, I'm going to ask each of you to come up individually to just accept those uh on behalf of the rest of your students. So I can now ask the six of you to come up and let's give them all one more big round of applause. We are going to take a photo. So once I give him to you, I'm going to ask you to go ahead and stand in front of the dis uh and we'll go ahead and move from there. With your cans, that
017is one of my favorite. I'm going to go ahead and give that to you. Let's see. Thank you. May have to ask two of you to Let's go ahead and step the bias and I'm going to recognize your teacher in a second. Okay. Just in front of the DA there. And while they're taking their positions, I do want to take I have a certificate for you, Mr. Cohen, for uh just everything you've done to bring about a love uh and the creativity amongst the students that you serve. That's definitely been evidenced in the video that you put together for us today and just what the students have shared themselves, right, on how much they're enjoying this. Thank you to you uh for everything you're doing for our students. Let's put our hands together for Mr.
018Cohen. Ask the board and our student rep and assistant superintendent who come on forward to join us. And I do want to just mention these certificates are representative of uh our culture of we and our three core values uh which are belonging, safety and prosperity. And I think there's no uh better way other than music that really can truly bring those three core values together. But in particular, the one that brings comes to the forefront for me is belonging, right? It truly allows everyone to be able to stand out uh but also blend in right with your talent. So again, thank you all. And we're going to do a photo. It had to I think Dr. Adamson, you're still on the mic. If you don't mind, we'll go ahead and introduce our next one. So,
019as I said, we have two presentations for you this evening. Uh, and our second uh is our culinary arts uh group who are here tonight being led by Chef H. Ericson, who I just love love using that, Chef Jim or Chef Ericson, but I'm going to go with with the second. Um, I know they are fresh off the heels of just a pretty big uh competition called ProStart and I know they are here this evening to maybe talk a little bit about that. I also got once again, it all just seems coincidental when you're here, uh that I got to visit yesterday as they were uh putting together one of their popup uh bakeries and coffee shops as part of uh the uh visual and performing arts vapor week at the at Pacific Grove High
020School this week. And so I got to actually taste some of their lattes and uh ice cream and other goodies. So, um, that's always a delight and it's just amazing every time I'm there to see, you know, the new creations and the lights that you're all putting together. At this time, I'm going to invite you to the to the front, She Ericson, to talk a little bit bit about your students uh and this incredible program we have. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, that's a tough act to follow. I am so impressed by the poise and talent of our elementary school students. So, I just wanted to acknowledge that and let you know I'm very excited for when you come up to the high school. Um, so, um, as
021was said, uh, I'm Ericson. I'm the culinary arts instructor at Pacific Grove High. Um, I've been teaching there for 10 years and this is my third year um, as the culinary coach. Um, and I wanted to start out by saying that never before have I felt more supported and encouraged and excited to come to work and do what I do as this year with this board, uh, with this district office, um, and with my administrators and all of my colleagues. And of course, most of all, I'm just aed by my students who just never failed to show up and bring their very best. Um, these guys, this journey starts early. Um, with me, it starts with the first year that they take my culinary class. Um, and from there on they continue to hone their
022skills um, and bring them up to the level where they're ready to compete on a state stage. Um, so this this is a huge competition that's put on by the California Restaurant Association. Um, it's part of a larger national competition from the National Restaurant Association. Um, and it's just unbelievable what these young people do. Um, as I said, the pro the process starts the day they set foot in the classroom. This year, it started the day they walked into the classroom and from August till, well, really now, it hasn't let up. Uh, we went to competition in February and uh, immediately upon their return, they were asked to jump into a National Restaurant Association golf event in Pebble Beach. Uh they made a wedding cake um for uh for a local business and uh visual
023and performing arts week. So it has just been nonstop hard work and talent. I I couldn't be more proud. But enough from me. Um although I would be remiss because he's not standing here next to me if I did not acknowledge my husband Jeff Ericson. He uh has been the u management the business management coach for the past two years. and um has done an absolutely incredible job. So yeah, I couldn't do anything I do without that guy. Um but I would love to invite my students to come up and share more of the experiences from their own words. You guys want to come up? Hi everyone, my name is Destiny Craft and I was captain of Pacific Grove High School's red team. The teammates with me here today are Deva and John. Um, two
024couldn't make it, Fang King and Robbie Meek. Um, on the culinary side of competition, we had to cook a three course fine dining meal. Um, with two identical plates each, so we had six whole plates. Um, each team has 30 minutes to prep ingredients and an hour to cook using only two camping burners with no other electricity. The experience has taught us all an immense amount of teamwork and time management because you have to manage your sports, your family life, culinary practices after school and chef was there for hours on end for us. I've been lucky enough to participate in the culinary prostar competition for the past two years. Um last year our culinary team brought home fifth place out of 31 teams and this year my team out of 31 teams made sixth. Um,
025we face private art schools and public schools alike. Um, and yet we've still made it to the top ranks of competition for the past two years. Um, and all with the help of our wonderful culinary teacher and po. Um, the amazing experiences and skills my teammates and I have gathered will be with us for the rest of our lives. Thank you. Hello, my name is Zach Fernandez and I was the captain of Pacific Grove High's ProStar management team. Uh these past two years as a captain have been amazing working with uh my teams and building business plans that will be recognizable for years to come. Uh Vera, Olivia, and I who are sitting next to me uh along with Ruby and McKenzie who are unfortunately not here tonight worked countless hours in and out of
026school to curate what we called Cruz and Coffee Company. Cruis & Coffee Company was our low rider inspired mobile coffee kitchen with the Latin inspired menu of coffee, kinchas, and churros. I chose to embody the Latin theme as a tribute to my Mexican parents who have been by my side through thick and thin and constantly continue to support me every day as a culinary group from smalltown Pacific Grove. All of our teams placed incredibly high both years, competing against private art schools and returning teams who've mastered the curriculum. Last year, my team and I brought home third place in our first year competing. and this time bringing home fifth with almost double the competitors. If there's one thing I've learned, ProStart competition is not just about winning. ProStart is about the experience and education you
027receive along with connecting with some of some of the top industry leaders. As a senior in high school going off to attend university for entrepreneurship, the skills that Chef Ericson and her husband Po have provided me with are something I will cherish forever. Po was our management team's coach and helped us tremendously with problem solving and calming us when stress stress levels were at an all-time high. Chef and Po, we love you and we thank you for the opportunities and skills you provided us with over the years and continue to give us while you still have us as students. The culinary program Pacific Grove High is a hidden gem because you're not just cooking. You're learning basic life skills such as problem solving, working under pressure, teamwork, and most importantly, building a family. My culinary
028family means everything to me and I'm devastated to not be a part of next year's accomplishments, but excited to see where the legacy this group of people started continues to. Thank you. Hello, my name is Ella Smith and I was a part of gold teams. I was a part of the gold team for this year's Pro Start Cup. I assisted in making the entree along with my teammate Matias. The two other people on my team are Eli who made our appetizer and Caitlin on our dessert. For our entree, we made a mole rubbed rack of lamb with a quinoa salad and sweet potato mash in the middle. Our appetizer was an entre chili scallop ceviche with a micro mango salsa on top of a tostada shaped scallop shell. Lastly, our dessert was a threem t
029leche chiffon cake with lime curd and a coconut creme. The overall prost experience not only taught me culinary skills, but also taught me work efficiency and team collaboration. My team and I worked non-stop in creating our Mexicaninspired menu. As well as this, we had to trial and error hundreds of of different dishes and techniques. Being able to go down to LA, network, compete, and enrich my learning experience has creating a lasting effect on my overall culinary journey. Oh, is this a video? So, I think this is you guys getting set up. Yes. So, there they are on the competition um floor. This is down in Los Angeles. And uh this is the 20 minute setup. The first thing that happens is they have to do product checkin and all of the ingredients. We have to
030bring all of the ingredients. Nothing is supplied. Um and so it has to come in at the appropriate temperature. So we face we face this gauntlet of uh chefs with thermometers and um yeah. So here Kenzie absolutely everything they do is being judged. It is wild. There's the lamb. The last one was the catfish. The southern inspired. There we go. And I did just want to I also wanted to acknowledge one other person who I think I saw come in the back of the room, but Shia Shia um was also part of our team. um not in an official position, but boy did he he work like you know it was all on the line. He worked hours and hours right along with these guys getting ready for next year. So um I'm very excited
031to have him come back. All right. Well, I feel just exhausted hearing about it. I feel stress already just hearing Oh my goodness. Wow. That that is impressive. I got to see a little bit of the menu prior to you, you know, heading out for the competition and see a little bit of the the practicing in action. Uh, but clearly the amount of work and effort and dedication that goes into this, I mean, you've got to love what you do. And it's clear that you do. And I think each and every one of you definitely has a career, right, if this is something you choose to do and moving forward. And that's exciting. Um, so I definitely would number one, I'd like to thank you on behalf of the board for being here with us
032this evening and sharing a little just a taste of some of the incredible things you do, but we do have certificates for each of you. So I'm going to ask all of you if we could all hold our applause till the end because there are a few of them. Um, I'm going to ask for your forgiveness in advance on the pronunciation of some of the words and if I say it completely wrong, then just whisper in my ear and I I'll say it again the correct way. I promise. And I know I could already see with the first the first one I'm going to mess things up. So I apologies in advance. Uh when you when you do come up, come up and take your certificate and then if you wouldn't mind standing in front
033of the DAS. Um Sherea Panchel. Wow. And of course with the first one we we never follow the directions. So there we go. Thank you Sherea. Just go ahead and stand in front over there. Great. Matias Stella Garza. Vier Barry. John Stegy. Is that all? Okay. Olivia Englehorn. Destiny Craft. Craft. Yea Yevdash. Did I say it right? Yava. That's okay. Yava. Oh, that's beautiful. That's beautiful. Elias Jones. Or is it Elas? Elias. Okay. Very good. Zack Fernandez. Zack. Let's give them all a big round of applause. Oh, we missed one. What is your name? Come on up and get a handshake from me, Ella. We will make sure we get a certificate from you as fix that. Okay, this is the team. Wow, how proud you should stand there with those certificates which as I
034mentioned earlier represent what we stand for uh here at Pacific Grove, our culture of we, but more importantly our three core values of prosperity, belonging and safety. Uh and definitely the two that stand to mind for me right now, prosperity and uh and belonging, right? Because the thing that so many of you mentioned, those of you who talked, you talked about building a family, right? And just the time management that you're learning, the life skills, right? The prosperity comes in in your ability to take those life skills and apply them once you leave our high school and move on out into the big the big wide world, right? You are destined for greatness. I can absolutely tell each of you. So, congratulations again. I would at this time like to go ahead and and recognize
035yes, your chef. Uh it's just been a pleasure for me to get to know you over the it's it's been what almost two years, maybe a year and a half at this point, Jen, but um from the moment I met you, I knew there's something special here. uh just from how the passion that you talked about in the work that you do uh in just the love and the care and attention that you give to the students that you serve. Uh and then yes when it comes to that attention to detail when it comes to the preparation for competitions like this which allow our district to shine but more importantly gives our students this opportunity to go on uh and just take the world by their hands. Right? The world is their oyster when we
036open it up in such ways. So thank you for just making that opportunity available for our students. uh if you would accept this certificate on our behalf. I did want to and I do want to right you you mentioned him your sidekick in so many ways but I know he was a big part of the competition and so I would like to go ahead and also recognize Mr. Jeff Ericson as well. Thank you for your work. I'm going to invite the board and our student rep and assistant soup to come around to the front for some photos, please. Don't. Okay, we're now on to the communications um IV section of the agenda. So, we are going to start with our student representative comments. Please, Juliet, go right ahead. Um, okay. I'll start off with our
037community high update. We're happy to announce that the community high school senior Anthony Garcia Trinidad was named region 10 winner of the Association of California School Administrators. Every student succeeding award for 2024 to 2025. Anthony will be recognized at the ACSA State Leadership Summit in November 2025. Congratulations, Anthony. Multiple students have graduated early and the students and staff look forward to the official graduation ceremony on May 28th, 2025. For our Pacific Grove High School update, we have Vapa Week going on this week and we started with a rally on Tuesday and our staff rock band was fantastic. All week there are activities on campus to celebrate the visual and performing arts. Our cafe from culinary had coffee and they had lots of desserts. There was t-shirt designing and ceramic tile/murals in um our 3D art
038room. There's student bands playing throughout the halls and we had a sting quintet. Our Sades dance is going to be this Friday and it's western themed. Our prom is coming up on May 4th and our senior Disneyland trip is on April 10th. We have graduation May 30th, 2025 at 5:00 p.m. in the Breaker Stadium. It is not at 3 p.m. as stated on the announcements that were delivered. That's it. Thank you so much and for the corrections as well. So, we'll go now with um board member comments and written communications. I'm going to start just there were a lot of emails. We I think I totaled up 16 emails regarding TK kindergarten class sizes at each site. uh one email about marine science for next year and one email about uh in support of the
039ethnic studies curriculum. In terms of a comment, I was going to comment on VAPA week. I do have one of the Vapa t-shirts on and I heard through the grapevine that about particularly the coffee cart and the request for an ongoing barista club. Maybe there something that could come about and raise some money at future events. So that was one thing that came out. But um just again it's we're getting close to the April break. I know that a lot of staff and students are probably tired at this time of year, but we got a about two more weeks of or a little less than two more weeks just to plow through and, you know, get to that point. So, I'll go around this way if there's any more emails I missed or comments. Thank
040you. Um, I had a couple more emails. One about birds in room 32 at PGMS. Um, another invitation from the Monterey Chamber of Commerce for their annual dinner. Um and then uh an additional email about um PE in TK. Um as far as my board comments, I feel like we've been a lot together a lot. Hi. Okay. Thank you. Um we've been together a lot the last like six weeks, last five out of six weeks as a board. um with meetings and I just wanted to thank you guys up here at the dis for being dedicated and committed and keeping showing up. Um a highlight for me this week was that I got to attend the ethnic studies information night at the high school for incoming um 9th grade families and it was kind of
041the first opportunity for families to get a look at the curriculum that's going to be proposed for next year. And um Dr. Hagquist did a wonderful job um as well as Brandy Lopez who's going to be the ethnic studies teacher and you can just tell her passion and love for the course she's going to be teaching um and how that's going to grow. But um there were community partners present and I felt that that really spoke to how this course was created. um partners from our Native American community, our local Asian-American community, our African-American community, and our Chico Latinx community all came together to put this ethnic studies course together specifically for PGUSD, keeping in mind the communities and the diversity that we share right here on our central coast. And I loved the ending
042of it, which was just like this is an ongoing discussion, right? We're all here to just keep learning about each other. what you don't know. Like just keep showing up. You just keep asking questions and thinking critically and being willing to have the conversation. And it felt like that was going to be possible in Miss Lopez's classroom is to be able to have difficult conversations about differences and different subjects. So, um, I'm really looking forward to that being a part of our programming in the future. So, thank you Dr. Hequist and Miss Lopez and Dr. Adamson. I appreciate it. Thank you, Trusty Otar. Um, I received the same emails, so I won't um repeat that. I'm going to keep my comment short. Um, and it really is just to uh give kudos to um the
043room 32 art class that they wrote us a letter about a bird that got trapped in the art room that came through a window and um requested screens be installed so that it no other bird had to suffer the same trauma. And I thought that that was really, really cool that they did that, that they were looking out for a being beyond themselves. And so I just wanted to call that out. I thought that that was pretty awesome. And that's all I have. Thank you, Jesse Schmas. Um, yeah. on. Um, I wanted to mention that Caesar Chavez Day was on Monday and um, I'm not sure why it's not a holiday for us, but um, so I quizzed my grandson and his friend on did they know who Caesar Chavez was? And to my surprise,
044one my grandson's in fourth grade and his friends in third grade at Force Grove and they both did very well on my test. So, so the teachers are are doing it, you know, and I'm really proud of that. Um because I I wasn't sure. And um the other thing was we had a great Rotary track meet um on Saturday and there was over 30 30 schools and it it's so invigorating with all those different kids and then the older people helping and um it was it was really a a quite eventful day. They had a taco truck there that was it was big. Um and then the other thing is um who is our student rep today? I I did we introduce her? It is Juliet and she is standing in for William Howy. Do
045you want to introduce yourself, Juliet? Yeah. Um yeah, I'm Juliet Souza. I'm a senior at Pacific Grove High School and I'm the ASB vice president. Oh, okay. Congratulations. And then it said on our thing that we were going to honor William or We're not he was unable to be here this evening. So we are putting that off to our our May 1st meeting. Okay. So So what I wouldn't wanted I can just say it to Juliet. Um, you can pass this on to William, but what I'm interested in is feedback from you guys about your experience on as a student rep on the board just to inform us about, you know, what you think works or doesn't work for you, but I'd like to get some feedback from William and you two. So, thank you.
046You Beth Ceplay and on to you trusty walks. Uh yes, I received the same emails. Um and just to uh I know the culinary team is gone now, but it is so um holistic in what they're teaching too. Like I know I saw with the the coffee card, I think like there is a large degree of branding involved with that. And so because of the business and culinary taste, it's just a great opportunity to go cross-disciplinary. Um, I think I missed this last week, but I I attended briefly the Steam night at Forest Grove where my daughter uh manned the 3D printer. Uh, but again, Mr. Bradley and everyone uh did a great job organizing that. So, thank you. Um, there's also a great PG Pride event that, uh, I saw Trusty Hazen and Chief
047Rogman at, many people. Uh, and it was great. um walked away with a lot of Legos as a as a bid winning. Um and I'd also like to congratulate the Breakerbots on kind of their progress um with uh a couple regionals and a Pinnacle a Pinnacle regional and then a San Francisco regional. Um uh yeah, very cool. And then finally, on a personal note, I'd like to thank uh Crystal Godet for kind of organizing a mock trial field trip. Uh for fifth graders, uh we went down to the courthouse and uh they all did mock trial, which I had never done. And it was it was great. It was so informative and it was an amazing experience. And they all seem to really relish it. And um uh unfortunately, I feel like Miss Patel's daughter
048did steal a cookie. Uh, so it's a tough break, but that's justice and that was good. Thank you so much for your comments. Um, I have had so many meetings I couldn't remember what was this week and last week and when we last gave comments, so it was good to everybody did a much better job than me at keeping track. So with that, we'll go to superintendent report. Dr. Adamson, my goodness, you all had such great things to highlight this week. That was fun to hear and some I've got in mind, so I'll just keep those briefer. That works really well. Um I really wanted to start with just a highlight of some of the community input uh opportunities that we've had available the last two weeks. Uh there've been three that I want to
049make note of. And last week we had uh our TK and kindergarten uh guardian parent guardian and parent night. Uh and that was really well attended both in person and online. So, uh, that was just neat, you know, just our our new incoming, uh, families, you know, just that chance to be able to provide information, get a chance for them to, you know, meet our teachers and our principles at the school sites and just ask some really good questions. So, that was that's always a delight. We also had our LCAP uh, community input uh, session last week uh, and also very well attended both in person and online. And we were able to have four different smaller discussion groups that were led by some of our administrators uh and had a really good discussion group
050online as well uh led by director binder. So really good input we were able to gather as a result of that. Uh and kudos in that regard uh to Dr. Hagquist who you know really is responsible for leading that up and and and leading the work uh that really goes into putting together our old cap uh plan itself. That's our three-year plan as a district that drives you know so much of what we do. Uh and then our third engagement event that uh Trusty McNary already mentioned was our ethnic studies uh evening uh last night which was predominantly for our incoming 8th grade families uh to really get a chance to get a sneak peek at the curriculum. Uh we're really excited to be you know preparing to launch this next year. Uh uh we'll
051be piloting piloting the program obviously but uh just as trusty man you say kudos to you know Dr. HQquist and uh Miss Brandy Lopez who've really done so much of that work in working with our various uh uh organizations and our you know um our local partners uh who you know really represent the the four key uh ethnic groups that we'll be studying uh through that that curriculum. uh for many of you who don't know this is uh you know it is a requirement uh through uh state legislation that we are uh you know that we are able to offer a ethnic studies course for all of our students who will be graduating uh through the class of 2030. So next year is the first year we'll be offering it. Um and we're just excited
052about what that means. I think it just aligns so beautifully with our culture of we are now, you know, three core values, belonging, safety, and prosperity. Um, and that's definitely so much of what we heard last night that was reinforced by the feedback and the input that we received from our family members and community members who were there. Uh, and we're just excited about how this is going to continue to adjust and adapt uh, prior to our putting it out to our larger community and then bringing it forward to the board for, you know, official approval um, in June. So, lots to look forward to there. Uh, let's see. Just I think my my second section I've got four, you know, four highlights to to share. So, number two, really just, you know, I always
053try to highlight some of the the big happenings at at our various school sites. And so, it's already been mentioned a few times, but uh visual and performing arts or vapor week at uh Pacific Grove High School this week was definitely a celebration of the arts. And to really be there on campus over those three days, it was a transformation. And I, you know, look to the back and just see Principal Amira and uh assistant principal Kell. I just kudos to you and your team and students and staff for, you know, putting on such a successful week. It was really just incredible to be a part of that. Um you know just some of the highlights we had chalk art, there were flash mobs, musical performances, live theater, uh action art demonstrations and then as
054you heard you know our culinary uh arts you know group were putting on the city lights coffee and bookshop. Uh there was also an ice cream throwdown where you know students and I think you mentioned it Juliet gave were given the chance to sample and vote on creative flavors created by our you know culinary students. I from what I understand I I got there at the end so I I didn't see the actual performance today but I got to see it on video. Uh but definitely um a a huge uh you know hit at the end was the uh faculty rock band from what I understand with singer you know Mr. Keller there at the back who knew who knew and uh how fun but just how fun to see the students enjoying that and
055just everyone getting into the spirit. So really great job to um Pacific Grove High School for putting that together. Uh the second highlight I just wanted to you know make mention of we had uh Forest Grove uh they had their STEM night last Friday night and from my understanding just a really big success. Um you know we had uh with Mr. Bradley, you know, heavily involved in the launching of Lego drones, uh, 3D printed masterpieces, uh, just really lots of opportunities for hands-on, uh, learning that students got to be immersed in. So, you know, just kudos to Principal Arun and her staff and clearly the PTA was heavily involved in that. Just that strong reminder of when we talk about, you know, this culture of we we can't do these things alone. And so just
056how critical it is, you know, that we are able to have our parents and our guardians through our PTA to really help put on incredible events like that. So we're so grateful for that. And then really I think the third uh you Juliet had mentioned uh just the award uh that um we have one of our community high school students will be receiving Anthony Garcia uh Trinidad uh the every every student succeeds award. And this is something that I understand we maybe haven't uh given and presented in in years past and taken advantage of. And so once again, kudos to Principal Omira for taking the initiative, getting the team together. It was an incredibly collaborative team with our community high school team uh in really being able to identify that student and the fact that
057you know he gets selected right throughout our our entire region out of so many students who had been nominated for that award. um to really just the representative of the resilience you know that that this particular student has shown. So there will be opportunity he'll be we'll be bringing him here at a future board meeting to recognize officially but just something really exciting for our students. Um my third highlight just really is sports related and again it's been mentioned we had our 55th annual road track meet on Saturday read by led by our coaches Tracy and Ryan Traayel um and clearly you know as you mentioned uh you know trust just a huge success um you know with so much going on but you know I think as I was reading the highlights from that
058we had um there were a lot of aliterations that were used in the description I just wanted to share it because it's so much fun seeing them um distance dominance uh making leaps through the hurdles um let's see the um throw team showdown and then you know relays round it out that just gives you a taste right of what was going on in one given day. So again they're doing amazing things. I know they had another, you know, meet last night. Um, and our girls, particularly the boys, I think they were, um, up against Monte Vista Christian School um, and really, you know, came to a victory with 8161 with the girls. Uh, very close. It was, you know, they battled through. They fall fell short, but a very close, you know, final score there
059as well of, um, 5679. So, just great job to them. And then was my closing. Yes, you know, we have spring break coming up. I just in a little under two two weeks. And you know just my message to everyone take that time right to be with you to just rest relax rejuvenate you know be with families and be you know do the time you know it is a gift of time for you know our families and students to um do some wonderful things to recharge as we get ready for this final stretch cuz it's going to be here before we know it but it's an exciting time of year for so many reasons. So back to you President. Excellent. Now we're on to communications item D which is the safety report. Thank you, President
060Dr. Hazen. Uh just one update tonight. It's related to our comprehensive school safety plans. Uh this board approved our comprehensive school safety plans or CSSPs uh prior to March 1st which first is the obligation uh through California Department of Ed and the Marian County Office of Education. Uh we are doing a review though of the CSSPs and uh we are now required through law to include educational continuity plans uh which is a guideline to help schools stay open and learning continue during emergencies or disruptions like natural disasters or pandemics. uh just some of the key components of what we're working on related to the CSSPs um and folding in our educational continuity plan uh technology access communication planning alternative instruction support for our students who require additional support and then monitoring and adjusting uh of
061that plan and as everyone is aware we bring the CSSPs forward every single year. uh we make revisions to those plans and uh our team right now is working on a revision which we do plan to bring back to the board uh in late May or in June uh prior to the July one start to revise uh the previously approved comprehensive school safety plans uh for the 2526 school year. And that's my update tonight. Thank you. Great. So now we're on to section five, which is individuals desiring to address the board. And this is a reminder this is for non-aggenda items. If there's an item coming later, um, please hold your comments and I'll probably duplicate that. But public comment on any item of interest to the public that is within the board's jurisdiction will
062be heard. The board will also take public comment on each specific action item prior to board action on each item. So, any individual wishing to comment on a specific item on the current agenda are kindly asked to wait until that item is being discussed. The board will allow a reasonable amount of time for public comment on each agenda item, not to exceed three minutes per speaker and no more than 20 minutes per agenda item pursuant to board policy 9323. Um, speakers will be called sequentially until there is no speaker coming forward on the agenda item or the amount of time allocated for the agenda item has elapsed, whichever comes first. Please, if you do have similar comments to a previous speaker, try to provide some space or opportunity for other viewpoints. I'm recognizing that 20-minute
063limit. Um then also please note this meeting of the board is of the board of education is a business meeting of the board conducted in public. So the Brown Act limits the board's ability to respond to public comment. The board may choose to direct items to the administration for action or place an item on a future agenda. So with that, we will start out with our community members that want to speak on non-aggenda items. Please come forward or raise your hand online. So, why don't we start online and then we'll go in person just Yeah. Hi, this is Mike Gibbs. I think we're starting online first. Yeah. And um I just want to you know you all have some tough decisions to make and I'm just been sitting here thinking about the future of uh
064the young talent you're going to be producing over the next few years and um you know I think about the programs that uh that kids are going after. you had a lot of bright kids already up here in front of you and u the hard science is and the technology as you well know are going to be the most attractive uh jobs the most uh competitive situations and the long-term career opportunities things like cyber security um astrophysics at Caltech and those kind of things I would just encourage the kids to the young students to set a goal I'm going to go to Purdue and study cyber security or I'm going to go to Berkeley and uh and study something else. And there's been a lot of talk about successful entrepreneurs. Elon Musk right now is
065in the news as most of you know. And he's created maybe some of the greatest companies over the past hundred years. I don't have to remind you, but companies like Starlink, excuse me, which now has 40,000 terminals in Ukraine, uh, aiding the survival of their people and their soldiers. you just uh witnessed. If you didn't see it, go watch the YouTube video of SpaceX uh rescuing the two astronauts that were up in the space station. Uh if you haven't seen his YouTube video of the $10,000 sustainable unfoldable house, it's a house in a box. It's really a neat thing he's been working on. And if you've seen the news, Neurolink uh is a company that he started to help people who have uh who are paralyzed and have other issues. And Neurolink just introduced a
066a chip and it's called blind sight. And he claims that by the end of this year implanted uh people who have previously been blind will be able to uh to see. So, you know, whatever you think of Elon Musk, and there's been a lot of protests and burnings of Teslas, uh he would be the model of somebody who uh is smart, gets things done, and uh and has interesting technologies. If you're a student and you're looking to graduate and go to a school, do something that's going to hook on to an Elon Musk type company or kind of an inventor and a person. So my last suggestion is that uh that the school district you're you're going to be facing some very difficult money decisions, but every crisis is also an opportunity. Where could you
067put money into a high-tech uh state-of-the-art science and technology program that will attack that will attract parents and students from the Bay Area, from Silicon Valley to come uh to PGUSD and go to school and I think you have that opportunity. I hope you grab a hold of it and I'm here to help out if uh if you need it. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comments. Um next we'll go in the room direction. Um one of the many things I love about being part of this district is that we strongly believe in being upstanders. So when the district hires people to represent us, it's important that we make sure they are re representing our message as well. The culture of we, our belief that bullying and harassment is not acceptable. Period. When
068we're made aware of this happening, we need to take action. Let's not be bystandards. Let's not push it off as someone else's issue to address. I truly believe that we are better than that. I love this district. I bleed Forest Grove Green. Um, let's do the right thing. So, I'm asking the board, the superintendent to do the right thing. Let's walk the talk. Thanks for listening. Thank you very much, Mis. Anyone else in the room or online? Hello. Uh, my name is Caitlyn Vanzanton. It sounds like you got my email. Um, but I'm here in person because this is a really important issue to me. I live um I live in Pacific Grove. I live within the district. My son is five and headed for kindergarten and I have a little girl who's turning four
069next week and she'd be eligible for TK. Due to my older son's birthday, we didn't enter him in TK last year because he was not eligible. didn't make the cut off and we were worried he was going to start out behind all the sun behind all the students who had a year of TK under their belts. So, finally getting him started and hopefully her um at our local school is something we've really been looking forward to at last week's orientation meeting. I really enjoyed hearing from the teachers who are going to be teaching all the students in Pacific Grove next year. I'm here tonight because during that same meeting I was concerned to learn that we may not be allowed to attend our neighborhood school. We live six blocks from Robert Down Elementary School and
070within its boundary line. I've been looking forward to walking my student my kids there. Um all the other kids on our street walk to Robert Down every day and we were hoping to be a part of that. um being moved away from our neighborhood school even for a year would be disruptive to our kids education. Um and I don't think it would be disruptive to any child's education. And I don't want to see any of our kids moved around if they don't have to be because they're going to make friends and make connections wherever they start. If Robert Down doesn't have enough teachers to teach the kids within its boundaries, then I'd like to see us hire another teacher so that we can teach those kids and keep class sizes down. I learned at the
071meeting that you could have up to 24 four year olds in a class, which would make it hard to meet the needs of those tiny busy bodies and minds. Um, I appreciate the bud budget constraints the district is facing. I don't envy your position. I think you have a lot of really tough decisions that you've been making, but I want to see our teachers supported in every way possible and our kids as well. Um, and I'm hoping that the decision to hire another teacher could be made sooner rather than later. We were told we may not know what school we're attending until this summer. And that makes it really difficult to make plans and it creates a lot of anxiety that you can probably hear in my voice. Um, so and I just wanted to
072end by thanking you guys because you take a lot of time to serve on this board and to do all this work and um, I appreciate it. So, thanks. Thank you so much for the comments. Um, Dr. Adamson, did you want to make a quick comment and just about the agenda item? I all I want to say is thank you and there may be, you know, additional comments as well. We do have an agenda item towards the end of tonight that I was going to, you know, speak to. No, and that's okay. No, I just really want to say in case you're not planning on staying longer. Um, you know, I think just a a quick little summary to that is really, you know, so much of this is premature right now. And that's really
073what I'm going to say more about in in the presentation. Um, that really, you know, goes into a little bit more detail about the fact that, um, you know, we are in the pre-registration, you know, mode right now. and you know for us to be able to make any definitive decisions you know one way or the other right is it it is it's early um I think the one piece I do want to say that you know I say later on is you know if program changes are needed and the enrollment is telling us that we will absolutely you know make that choice if that's what the need is and so if we are looking at the kindergarten program for example and the the numbers show once we open enrollment in May that that's where
074the need is you know we are we are absolutely prepared to do that um I think what we're just asking at this time is and I know it's hard it's just you know that that patience and knowing that we are going to make the decisions our priority is always and this is probably the if this reassures it all is to always place students first and foremost if we can at their neighborhood schools um and so you know I think that's just make those little comments and there'll be more detail in the presentation later right but again thank you comment yes another comment so um I also am in a similar situation. I know that this is being addressed later. Um I have to go put my child to bed. So I got to I have
075to run and this is kinder specific because we live my student will be an incoming kinder and he was not eligible for TK that within the bounds and so that is directly affecting us this year. If you know if he was in TK I would feel a lot more confident about his spot for next year. But because there is this chatter it's directly affecting our family. We're really stressed out. I went to Robert Down. I we live two blocks from the school and we have been telling my son this is your school. He knows where he is going to school. He has been excitedly talking about how he is an otter, how he's going to go to school where his mom went. And Dr. Adam Adamson, you mentioned three times tonight about belonging and how
076it is a core value. How is my child who's going to tell him that he has to go to Forest Grove when everybody on his block, all of his friends are walking to Robert Down? how is that going to make him feel this sense of belonging? And so I just really hope that you keep these core values in mind and that I I do think that we need a definitive answer because these are young children. These are our babies and this should be a time for us to be joyfully anticipating kindergarten and prepping our students for this transition. not being fearful and anxious about are we going to, you know, we we should know where we're going to school far before um August or even the summer. So, I really hope that you can keep
077that in mind and keep what's best for our children top of mind. So, thank you. Thank you so much for your donuts. Anyone else turn the rumor online on the non-aggenda items, community rumors? Okay, with that, it's now time for PGUSD staff comments on non-aggenda items. No one rushing the mic. So, I will go on to our item VI or six on the consent agenda. We have items A through H that we will open up for public comment if anyone would like to say anything about the consent agenda. Okay. If not board, any discussion on the consent agenda agenda? Anything that needs to be pulled? Right. Seeing nothing. I'm now looking for our student rep. Any concern or comments? Okay. none registered. So, um I would like to ask for a motion to approve the
078consent agenda as presented. Also move. Okay. And then a second. I'll second. So, uh motion was made by clerk ner and seconded by trusty schmas. Um student rep, would you like to vote first for us? Yes or no? Yeah. Yes. Perfect. And then um all in favor on the board say I. I. Any opposed? If not, it passes 5-0. So now on to item seven, our action discussion. So the first item on that, I think we're going to get to hear from our assistant superintendent Jordan about our tram. Yes. Thank you, President Dr. Hazen. Uh so this is the 29th, not the 28th, but the 29th year, the district has went out for a tax revenue anticipation note. Uh so I bring this item forward every single year. We're bringing a resolution forward to adopt
079a tax revenue anticipation note of not to exceed $8 million. Uh the district relies heavily on its property taxes, if not predominantly on its property taxes. And um those of you that pay property taxes understand that it's April and December are the when the property taxes uh receipts are due. So for a school district like ours that relies upon those property taxes for its revenue, uh when we start the school year, we're already about four months behind when we received our revenue, unlike a local funding formula district that receives equal aortionments every single month. Um so by the time we hit the months of November sometimes October, November, uh the district's uh ending fund balance or beginning balance in that year has already been depleted because we are awaiting our new property tax revenue influx
080uh which is paid in December, realized by the district the first part of January. So almost 8 months go by without revenue to keep the district supported. Um cash flow is is key to um running any sort of a business as well as a school district. We have liabilities every single month that we have to pay and the TR this district has used successfully for 29 years uh to maintain those cash flow uh to to maintain the proper cash flow for this school district. So tonight I am bringing forward resolution number 1150 for the issuance of a tax revenue anticipation note for the 2526 school year. And if there's any further questions I'm available for that. Thank you. Excellent. So, we'll go ahead first to public comment. If there's anyone that wants to comment on
081our trans one online, please go ahead. Hi, this is Mike Gibbs again and I first I want to thank uh Mr. Jordan. I I asked him a couple questions early in the week and he was very prompt in answering the questions and I realized that uh this is a fairly regular calendar event trend. Um but I'm just thinking over the past couple years and it seems to me and maybe somebody can answer this question. Um here we're looking at not to exceed $8 million. What was it last year? I think it was under $100,000. And if I remember right, the previous year was 50, something like that. Not sure. I could be I could be quite wrong. And of course, it's unknowable for what it is this year, but a max of $8 million. Um,
082knowing what's going on in the district now, I guess I I'm just a little bit concerned about the um, you know, the topend amount. And that means it's available. So you don't have to borrow that much. It could be a million or six or seven. But I think the paperwork that I read in the excuse me in the agenda report in the packet anticipated a shortfall in that September November time frame again correct me if I'm wrong. I believe that the anticipated shortfall excuse me was six to seven million dollars if I'm not wrong. Uh, so it it seems like that's jumped up a little bit. Well, more than a little bit. And u I guess the question is how is the money going to be used? I'm I'm guessing to cover operating expenses. And
083you know, if you got a deficit between income and expenses, that's where it's going to be used, I'm guessing. And Mr. Jordan was very uh complete and it looks like the interest rates going to be somewhere around two 2.8% and then there's a COI and which is basically a fee for that. And if you do borrow $8 million at that rate, you're looking at a couple hundred,000 of interest and fees. The only thing I would say is that um I I just wish the school district was a little bit more transparent about the forward-looking budget. I had to dig around to find this information. uh I don't know if it's going to be covered in the newspaper or not, but uh it would be helpful for taxpayers in the community and and parents to know
084how much money how it's going to be used and why are we facing such a large um shortfall. Let's just put it that way. Last point is I made a point just a few minutes ago. The district should be investing in leading edge technology to educated students for uh 22nd century jobs. Let's just put it that way. Why not put aside, if you have the money, $100,000 and build a um, you know, a forward-looking uh, cyber security program or astrophysics program in conjunction. Most colleges and university let you dip in on Zoom and and beam some of that stuff in. I think it would be Thank you so much for your comments. Um, we're going to go on. Any other public comment either in the room or online? Okay, seeing none, I'll now direct back
085to the board. Are there any look around see if anyone wants to Okay, got Trusty Omar, please. Um, just for clarification sake, what we're approving tonight is the maximum amount that we may borrow and we are not discussing um percentage rates or anything like that. It's just we're um voting on the maximum amount. That's correct. Yeah, the board will vote for resolution not to exceed and then that will come later. Perfect. Thank you very much. Okay. Oh, trusty wax. Uh just in regards to last year which you answered uh to the board, we paid about uh 21,000 in the cost of issuance and 114,000 in the actual interest for the TR. Um, so it's about 100, oh boy, $35,000 uh per year, which is not nothing. Um, if we had a larger reserve, maybe we
086could borrow even less, which would reduce our uh our fees basically. But, uh, again, as you stated in your initial presentation, this is just because we get taxes at different times of the year and we have to pay people. Um, so it's just a timing issue, which most districts seem to do in our situation. Um, so all I'm saying is if we had a bigger reserve, that would be great. Um, and we could possibly take a smaller train. Um, but this all seems pretty good and normal to me. So, thanks for your work on it. I know it's a lot of paperwork. Y just seconding on the point you brought up, Trusty Wax, about the fact that the reserve would help cover this. I mean, would we need about like a 24% reserve to not
087need a trans issuance? Is that the right number? Uh, that's that's pretty accurate. So, the district has to carry above a 3% reserve for economic uncertainty irregardless of of utilizing a TR to inner fund borrow if that's what we're talking about. So, yes, around 20% reserve uh for the inner fund borrowing of the Tran and then another 3% on top. So, around 23%. Okay. And then the the only other question I was going to ask about that is have there been any CSBA or statewide push to try to get ASA districts paid alongside LCFF or is that a non-starter because that would be another way to if the state could cover some of that. So you are you are either this is a whole this could be a board study session. You're either a basic
088a district or you're an LCFF district based on a formula that uh is developed and that formula is based on property tax revenue. So, um, either your property tax revenue exceeds the LCFF base aortionment, I I presented that in the second interim, or it does not. If you're underneath, uh, that that base revenue, you you receive a local control funding formula aortionment. If you're over it, you keep your tax revenue and, uh, we are a basic a district that is, but I guess I'm asking, could the could the state actually provide the TR itself? Like, could they actually fund us and we pay them back with property taxes or is that just like No, it's a private financing cash pool option. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the reason I say that again that unfortunately unless we
089carry a 23% reserve a TR is a necessary part of doing our job. So thank you. Yeah. At the same time I think when you see $8 million not to exceed it's kind of a big scary number. So the questions I think make a lot of sense. Um, and I agree with you, Trusty Wax, as we're moving forward and making long-term budget development a priority. This is definitely something to consider how we want the TR to be involved or if we want to go another direction because I think we've talked about this as a board and it's like what are the other options and when you have cash flow shortages for some months and monthly expenses, you we have to pay our bills essentially. Um, so it feels straightforward. Um to me it's like a
090loan. Um so if there's nothing else I'm happy to make a motion on staff's recommendation on the item. I'll second. Yep. So um motion was made by clerk mary, seconded by trusty otmar, student rep. Uh yes. Okay. Um all in favor please say I. I. Any opposed? Not the passes 5. We look forward to seeing it again. the next step. So, next item is resolution 1151. And I think Dr. Adamson, you're going to present quickly and then we're going to hand the mic to Yes. Well, this is something we do annually and it's our pleasure to have Dr. Hagquist read the resolution for us in recognition of AsianAmerican Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Thank you, Dr. Hagquist. Uh, good evening trustees. Larry Hagquist, executive director of educational services. I would like to um dedicate this reading
091to my mother who immigrated to this country in 1967 uh not long after she fell in love with an American GI who was stationed in Busousan and in Korea. Um, this is after she was forced out of her homeland in uh, North Korea and um, had to uh, survive with her family in South Korea for some time. And uh, it's my pleasure to read this dedication. Whereas Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, AAPI Heritage Month, is an annual celebration that recognizes the historical and cultural contributions of individuals and groups of Asian and Pacific Islander descent to the United States. And whereas the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community is an inherently diverse population composed of more more than 45 distinct ethnicities and more than 100 language dialects. And whereas according to the July 1st, 2022 Census
092Bureau, Asians represent 6.1% and Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders make up.3% of the total population of the United States. And whereas California has the largest AsianAmerican population in the United States and the second highest proportion of Asian-American residents after Hawaii. And in the Pacific Grove Unified School District, Asian students make up 9.4% of the population. Pacific Islanders make up 6% of the student population. And whereas the month of May was selected for AsianPacific American Heritage Month because of the first J because the first Japanese immigrants arrived in the United States on May 7th, 1843 and the first transcontinental railroad was completed on May 10th, 1869 with substantial contributions from Chinese immigrants. And whereas Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders have played a key role in the American history since the first Chinese immigrants arrived to the
093United States in the 1950s following the California Gold Rush. And whereas there are numerous historical Asian-Americans and Pacific Islander contri contributors to the United States, including activists, actors, architects, athletes, artists, authors, creators, doctors, entrepreneurs, inventors, musicians, performers, political leaders, scientists, singers, writers, and so many more. And whereas the Pacific Grove Unified School District celebrates Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month and recognizes the significant contributions that Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders offer to the community at large. And now therefore, be it resolved that the Pacific Grove Unified School District Board of Education hereby declare May 2025 as Asian-American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. We urge all community members to join us in recognizing Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders. Thank you so much, Dr. Hackquistan, for the personal background on that. That means a lot. Um, I'll open it up now
094for public comment. No one online, no one in the room. Um, board, any comment? Yes. Um, shouldn't it be 1850, not 1950. Okay. And uh it's not it's passed and adopted by us, not by Monterey Peninsula. Awesome. Correct. Yeah. Okay. Yep. Two good points. Um, and I just want to point out that our uh amount of population in the our district is, you know, pretty substantial and that's um to be celebrated and recognized and I I'm glad to hear about Larry and um and I hope that every time we do some one of these I just my my mind thinks like well does it just get read and then lost or, you know, not not really followed up on in any meaningful way in the classrooms. And that's what I'm hoping that, you know, that
095we do have some curriculum that addresses this um appropriately. Very good points. I think the ethnic studies program really gives us an opportunity. And I'll follow your comment quickly just with the point about it's a very important history lesson to learn about the history of Pacific Grove and the Chinese fishing village and even some of our more recent history where we've changed our internal celebrations to be more um more uh act accurate with regards to past history and um I think that's another important reason again to have that because of our and city was founded in many ways um upon the backs of Asian-Americans. So, any other comments? Thank you for bringing that up. That was that was in my head, too. But thank you for vocalizing it so well. I really appreciate that. Um
096no, uh thank you for Dr. Hug's personal notes and recognizing this month. Um, just to follow up, I also worry about kind of just um reading the resolution and and nothing happening. But even before ethnic studies in high school, at least with prior months, my daughter has received um specialized lessons about, you know, particular contributors of note in Black History Month or women's history month and that sort of thing. So I think there is appropriate uh criter curriculum being developed or in place you know across the schools which is very heartening. So um with that I think I will go ahead and make a motion to approve resolution 1151 as presented by Dr. Hackus. Can I get a second? Good point. And I Yes, good point. With with the suggested corrections with the suggested corrections.
097I'll take that friendly amendment from Trusty Shaw and Trustee Amar. Good point. So, we will be adopting it with a suggested corrections. May I get a second on that? Oh, I'll second. Okay. Uh motion made by myself, seconded by trustee Otmar, student trustee. Uh yes. Okay. Excellent. And all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? Nay. And I should say when I go to you, Julia, please feel free if you have a comment you want to make, too. Don't view it just as a vote, but we do value your voice in that. So, thank you for participating. Um, and now we're on to item C, the resolution 1152, proclaiming May as mental health awareness month. Wonderful. Well, I know this is uh, you know, very dear and near to all of our hearts. Uh,
098and later on the agenda is the adoption of our uh, the job descriptions for our mental health therapists. Uh but again just the ability for us to identify a month uh specifically to the needs of our of all individuals right it's not just about our students it's really about our staff as well and our family members uh just highlighting the importance and the need uh for us to you know take that time for ourselves and take care of ourselves uh and so it is my pleasure to invite uh trusteem to read this resolution for us. Thank you, Trusty Almar. To do this, um, this is resolution number 1152, resolution proclaiming May 2025 is mental health awareness month. Whereas National Mental Health Awareness Month, is an important opportunity to recognize the impact of mental health for
099all Americans, including students, teachers, and staff at the Pacific Grove Unified School District. And whereas we support and thank mental health service providers who work with people living with mental health conditions. And whereas our school district recognizes the importance of removing stigma from the conversation about mental health. And whereas according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness and AMI, one in five adults in the United States experience a mental illness each year. And one in six youth aged 6 to 17 experience a mental health disorder each year. And whereas suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10 to 14 and third leading cause of death for people aged 15 to 24 according to NMI. And whereas our school district prioritizes the social, emotional, and mental well-being of students. And this school
100year invested more than 1.5 million of its LCAP funding toward mental health support. And whereas our school district works to provide additional mental health supports for students in need through Monterey County Behavioral Health. And now therefore, be it resolved by the Pacific Grove Unified School District Board of Education that we recognize May 2025 as National Mental Health Awareness Month. And if I could just take a quick moment after that just to say to anyone that's listening and everybody in the room that a big piece of this is listening. A lot of times we sit down with somebody and we listen just to speak or we wait and listen just to speak or to relay our story in order to empathize with someone else. But there are times when someone's just trying to talk to get
101their message across. So, I just want to encourage everybody in this room and everyone that's listening to just take a pause and listen. And if you hear something that's concerning, please talk to somebody. Get help for somebody. Um, reach out. It's um it's an essential. And I've said this before, it's food, water, mental health. This is at this point it's survival. And um that's all I have to say. Thank you for listening. Any other um I guess we now go to the public comment section. Any public comment on this resolution. Um now on to the board comments. I'll start just with a quick one that I think all year is mental health year, particularly this year for me. And I'll give a shout out to my mental health therapist who has helped me get up
102in the morning and get through the day many times. So it's hopefully something that when I grew up mental health and having a therapist was viewed a little bit as a negative thing, you know, something made you weak, but the way you said it well, you know, food, water, and mental health in this day and age especially, it's very true. So I proud to say that mental health and therapy has been a big part of why I'm able to do what I do every day. Yeah, I would just like to agree with both of you. Um, and also on the aspect of listening that um, you know, suicide is something that sounds or is scary and uh, yet many many people consider it. And so I just want to encourage people to not be afraid
103to discuss it if someone actually mentions it to them. U not to freak out but to go ahead and and be usually if someone actually says something about their own suicide and it's uh it's reaching out for help. So take that opportunity to to uh be the helper. Great. I'll just say thank you Trusty Abar for reading that as well. And sure, please. I just wanted to take a second to give a really big thank you to all the mental health therapists um in our district. They work very hard and um I'm just we're so fortunate to have people like that in this district. So, thank you very much for the time and the dedication and the love you give to our students and probably some of the staff, too. Yes, trusty wise, go ahead.
104Oh, sorry. And then I didn't see you. I sort of to piggy back on Well, thank you for reading and a great note about uh not living in a in the shadow if uh you know someone who is considering suicide or having ideation. Um but in terms of mental health I when we first came here and Chief Rogamin was the principal at Forest Grove um the amount of like social emotional learning that he um incorporated into the whole school and now I see is districtwide is just such a change from um the 80s 90s and it's so incredible you know the way that um everyone from 5-year-olds to 11 year olds, the main people that I hang out with, uh really six technically, um talk about their feelings, their emotions, and what's going on um
105is so valuable not uh you know to them, but also to us as parents to know what's going on and then also um like Mr. Gibbs was talking about for the economy ahead. There are going to be so many seismic shifts throughout the remaining decades of the 2000s and being able to navigate those mentally is going to make you um so much more adept at at navigating the economy and the world. Um so social emotional learning and mental health are just so vital. Um as Trusty Atmar said and it is a really big benefit to have such a great staff of uh of therapists and counselors and and helpers and teachers who just are so um focused and um keyed into what their students need. It's a great addition or great benefit. Thank you Trusty
106Merry. Sorry I overlooked you that that's okay. I think it's all been um covered really well at this point and um I do appreciate how seriously our district takes um mental health um and how important it is and I like you said I think it's more than just mental health therapists. It's counselors, it's teachers, it's classified staff, it's your librarian or your custodian that might be the person who checks in with you. So, thank you everybody for taking this seriously and for prioritizing um the health and well-being of like everyone in our district because it's a big deal. Um and for being willing to talk about it, too. Um great. Okay. Thank you so much. So, I'll see anyone like to make the motion. I'll make the motion. Okay. Excellent. Um can I get a
107second on that motion? I'll second. or I should say adopt a motion to adopt the resolution um was made by Trusty Omar and seconded by clerk McNary. Um, student trustee. Um, I just want to say I think our high school especially have done a really good job at promoting mental health awareness and our leadership class in specifically um, in past years for mental health awareness month we've done a lot of like notes on lockers on like little sticky notes and chalk art with positive messages and we'll like write on the mirrors positive things because the mental health month also is happens to be the same month as finals. So, it's kind of a lot for the students. So, we've tried to do a lot to really encourage our students during that final month of school
108and make everyone feel good. Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that. Um, so with that, I will do a roll call. Oh, yes. Student trustee vote soon. Sorry. Yes. Okay. And roll call vote. Uh, all in favor is not roll call vote. Everybody, all in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed? If not, it passes 5-0. Thank you very much. On to item D, the student computing device refresh plan. We have our director, Brian. Good evening, Matthew Binder, director of edtech. I'm going to go ahead and uh share my screen here and uh just share with you a little bit of what we've been working on for the past several months. Oh, I am muted. I am muted. We got a delay in the shar. Yeah, it Yeah, I muted. There it is. All
109right, get started. Thank you. All right, Director Alghazi and myself, we're glad to be here tonight. Sorry for that, uh, auditory disruption a moment ago. Um, so, uh, we've got, um, we're coming up on a crucial moment of decision regarding our Chromebook and iPad fleet. and we're going to share with you a plan that we've created with broad input from not only staff uh IT staff, administration, teachers, but also uh students as you'll see uh some of the considerations as I mentioned we're coming up here uh on year five six of our current uh Chromebook fleet student devices. Uh we bought these in 2020. They are the Dell 3100 model. They're um coming to a a point at which they're starting to show signs of slowing. Um and uh we really have to take in
110into account that they will be uh um unsupported uh in 2029. So uh this is kind of our preemptive uh strategic plan to kind of get ahead of that uh inevitability. Our current iPads at the lower grade levels uh were kind of purchased across multiple years and they're at um uh pretty much in the middle of their lifespan. Uh but you know how Apple is with uh their um new product releases and the applications that can be installed on those products. Uh it's they they run a pretty tight um business model timeline. Let's just put it that way. All right. Next we continue up. I'll give you a little glimpse of the process so you understand that this was actually a very comprehensive thought intensive uh um process of of the work involved. We um
111did a across the board inventory uh to see what what was going on with regards to the current performance and also uh surveyed high school students. As I told you, um we wanted to get some input on where the high school students felt about what their performance uh what their current model uh performance um features and how that was matching their learning requirements. Want to thank principal Omera at the high school for actually distributing that survey. Um we did some uh comparisons across the board of what was currently available in terms of model of Chromebooks and then um started really looking uh at um pricing models and uh looking at competitive approaches to to refresh plans. There's a number of different options. We can go with leasing, we can go with across the board purchase,
112we can go with incremental purchasing and you'll see what we've kind of are proposing. Um then we created a timeline and this was based on not only that 2029 endpoint and we kind of backwards mapped that but we also looked at where things were with regards to um our current fleet and really wanting to extend the life of the current uh devices as as much as possible to really get as the full value out of them. um you know, we we purchased those in 2020 uh uh in one foul swoop and um that was in the middle of the pandemic and uh it it really was a a large sum to to bring on 2,000 new Chromebooks into the district back then. So, we were kind of looking at different ways of of um being
113a little bit more strategic and and and building in some flexibility around how we could actually move forward with a sustainable long-term plan of of refreshing student devices. I'll come back to that timeline in a little bit. So, let me give you some uh results in terms of the survey and what we looked at and what we were able to gather with our uh uh research on the model and the pricing uh evaluation that we did. And we'll go ahead and start with our students. Uh they gave us some good input on what their preference was with regards to screen size. The current screen size is 11.5 for the Dell 3100's. um smaller than this about the size of the tablet that you have in front of you Mr. wax and so yeah um so
114we were curious what the what the input was what the feedback was from the high school students in particular as you can see there kind of uh there were only a quarter of the students surveyed that actually said that you know they were fine with it but if you factor in non-preference as well as uh current size and slightly larger it's it's a significant number of students that would probably prefer a larger uh Chromebook book uh of all the features of their uh experience using Chromebooks, they want a faster device. Not surprising. I mean, these are 4 gigabyte uh 3100s are starting, like I've mentioned, starting to show their their age. Okay, so that was overwhelming. And I definitely wanted to highlight the fact that the funding for anything that we're doing in our department
115thankfully and we have uh a lot to obviously a lot of appreciation to extend to the broader Pacific Grove community for passing the measure ADT tech bond. That's that's where this funding is coming from. Uh a little bit about the edtech bond as you might recall$18 million over about 18 years general obligation. We're by the way ahead of that by uh by about three or four years in terms of our spending. In other words, we are saving more. So, it's not lining up to eight one year a million dollars. We're actually ahead of it. We're actually um uh probably um based on I believe it was a board decision to to structure the spending at $750,000 a year, which is actually given us quite a bit of cushion. tech projects and improvements as you saw
116is is the main use of that u source of funding that includes hardware software that includes uh updating infrastructure and security. All right. So we did a a competitive pricing evaluation with four of the leading technology providers in the industry. Um, and we were able to uh look at what benefits each of these quotes would provide, what um options were available under each of these quotes, and we settled on um the one here at the very top as you can see. Go ahead and click it. One more click. There you go. Trfera is the company we were looking to go with uh because they really provided a nice package for us. They included asset tagging for inventory. They included Wi-Fi configuration. They included um free shipping on any returns for manufacturer defect or manufacturer warranty.
117They included um uh enrollment in our enterprise system at a very reasonable price compared to some of the other um vendors or the providers and all these features going to save the tech team. Yeah, absolutely. For us, absolutely. So, uh, the selected model was the HP G11. We actually, our first fleet purchased in 2015 was HP G3 at the time. We're now up to G11, Ford. It is, like I mentioned, slightly bigger, double the processing speed, and will obviously um, be much more appropriate device, especially for the high school students. They're doing a lot more sophisticated work on these devices these days and we think this is a good match. Uh we arrived at this uh not only based on the high school survey feedback but also getting a hold of this device along with
118the other three or four models and we did a physical inspection top to bottom with the tech team. Looked at everything from key placement to the thickness of the bezel bevel and the bezel and then we also looked at ports. We looked at uh the um the hinge, you know, durability. So, there was a lot that went into the decision to go back to HP. Um along with, of course, manufacturer rep uh reputation and some of the customer feedback. If you really wanted to geek out on some of the tech specifics, there they are. But you can see 8 gig. We're going to eight from four. We're going to a 14inch screen. We're also uh with an updated processor and um high definition uh screen. All right. We feel the benefits for this kind of
119phase deployment um are pretty obvious. I mean we we are now using measure A incrementally instead of as a one-time lump sum which gives us more flexibility when we're doing budget development. We've got a flexible installation schedule as you will as you saw in the timeline, but it also allows the tech team to really kind of deploy these devices more strategically, more targeted. And then we have an extended uh use most importantly of our current fleet because we can then shift them to the lower grade levels, fill holes, remove broken or damaged devices, and really get as much use out of out of those devices as we possibly can. So we are starting with the high school not only because the need I think the computing need is greatest at the high school but also
120gives us the opportunity to put larger devices in the hands of the larger students and then we can then move those smaller units back to the to the other campuses like I mentioned just to really extend the life of those uh devices as much as we possibly can. As you can see here it alternates between iPads at the very lowest grade level. We will start at at first grade and then shift those down again to kinder. This is a direct replacement. We're not uh showering these campuses with more devices. We are removing what's there and replacing new and updated and more powerful and higher performance uh devices. And as you can see, it just works its way across the timeline. So happy to take any questions you have about our process about how we arrived
121at this proposal and uh definitely want to give uh some acknowledgement to our tech team across the board. Director Alghazi has been working with me closely on this and we definitely um couldn't have done it without all those involved. Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentation, Director Binder. With that, we'll open up as usual to public comment either online or in the room. If not, we will go to the board. Is there anyone that would like to make a question? Trusty McNary, then Trusty Wax, thank you for the presentation. Um, and I appreciate you answered one of my questions already about what we're doing with the devices after they leave the high school. And it sounds like they're going to be used at lower level sites until the end of life or until
122they're replaced. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, that works. Um I noticed we didn't go with the lowest quote. Can you just explain a little bit more about why we chose this vendor? Why the we the vendor? Yeah, absolutely. And I mentioned some of the the features that were included in this quote that were absent on those others. That includes like the asset tagging inventory management already set up. They're actually labeling those for us. They're enrolling them in our Wi-Fi uh system. So when we open when a student opens it up, it already connects and logs in. Um it's um we have also buyback options with this vendor for some of our Dell3100s that we know we're going to have a surplus of eventually. They're giving us top dollar on buyback and if they're destroyed or damaged, they
123will actually pay us a $5 per unit recycling fee just to give them give those devices to them. So those are the kind of benefits that we recognize with this um provider compared to others. Thank you. Mhm. Um, I think my last question is just kind of thinking about the world of tech and it changes so much. So, if we're doing a three-year plan to buy Chromebooks, I guess the way my mind kind of works is like if we're choosing a Chromebook today and we're not going to be putting it in a classroom for three years or like we're selecting a product today for the first I think for the first roll out only. Yeah. Your first roll out is fall 26. Thank you. So, we're not okay. Yeah. Next fall. And so, moving forward,
124that was the that was my question was like, if we're making this plan, are we buying this product? And then moving forward, as technology improves or changes, we've committed to a product that is now, you know, outdated and slow and all those things. Yeah. No, that's valid. But we will be receiving these upon approval and they will be deployed this summer so that students can start using these devices in phase one of this plan in the fall. Okay. And will this contract come back to the board? So what we're asking for is approval for just phase one which is the Chromebooks at the high school. Correct. Thank you for the clarification. I really appreciate it. Just for clarification, right now we're getting, sorry, we're getting uh the HPs now for this phase. As you say,
125technology changes, we may go to a different vendor and a different product for the next phase. Yeah. Okay. That's what I was curious about. We're going to do everything we can to keep it consistent, of course, just so that there's some uniformity in the fleet, but but yeah, things are going to change. We know that rapidly. Yeah. Um but we're we're ahead of it right now, I think, with this approach. I appreciate the answers and the clarification. Thank you. Sorry for answering. Trusty Wax, do you still have a comment or question? Um, yes. So, would it be first of all, because of Apple's retail scheme, whatever. There's there's no outside vendor. It's just their straight education discount for the iPads that would be purchased. That that would be phase two, I guess. Correct. And there
126are some uh resellers that will work with school districts and and buying in bulk. Uh iPads, not directly from Apple and they do offer um warranties as well. We are exploring that. We've got some time to look at the best pricing. uh we have purchased directly from Apple in the past and we've also purchased intermittently some iPads uh in really uh on on an urgent basis if we we know we need some quickly. Um, you you may have recognized some of those requests on past measure A uh lists from a provider, non-Apple provider, but with full manufacturer warranty and in some cases extended warranty and in some cases a lower price and you know these these are right out of the box just like you would buy from Apple. Okay. Yeah. I guess um so
127I had a couple case uh questions about with the iPads are protection cases and screen protection figured into what you eventually will bring to us. Okay. Yeah, that's included that will be included in the package for sure. And so the the Chromebooks that you're recommending have a military standard. the PDF is very long, but like basically these are okay to be dropped and yeah, they're reinforced uh edges around the, you know, the main unit. Um, from what we understand, reading further into that description, it sounds like an industry like slogan. Um, quite honestly, it's like when I think millet, I think like it's a reinforced hard shell case, but they use that term quite loosely and I think it just means that they've reinforced the plastic around the main body of the device really. And
128and they have to do it within a certain width and then they can claim it's what you just Yeah. Um, and then one more quick question for you. In terms, maybe this isn't your area, I guess, but is there any thought of like doing a a pilot or a smaller cohort of devices that are not iPads, like maybe like some ecooters or something for um because, you know, I only know what my kids do. um a lot of Google Slides, which makes sense for a Chromebook, I guess. But some of the other things, I'm not sure if the full capabilities of an iPad or Chromebook even are beneficial or or kind of overpowered in some way. Basically, if there there would be different learning outcomes with a a color ink or an e- in device
129of some sort. So it's interesting you mentioned this because we did actually reference some language uh in our edtech plan uh to to this effect and in other words we would be researching options other options alternatives to the iPad um that were basically more Google friendly I guess you could say since that's eventually where students are headed into the enterprise system of Google. Um but based on the feedback that we've got that we've received from our primary level teachers first kinder teachers uh you know the applications the apps that are available for iPads are far you know varied and more uh available more readily available compared to what's available on other tablet uh types like uh I guess you could say it would be like yeah it would be like Android would be the alternative.
130there's really a limited number of uh learning applications compared to iPad. So, we've kind of shelved that a little bit, but there, you know, I was in a T-Mobile store the other day uh I had to upgrade my phone. Speaking of uh and they've got basically a a tablet version of of a you know I guess a Samsung Galaxy or something and it looks pretty nifty but it seemed to be pretty uh pretty inexpensive compared to a new iPad. But you know this is where things are headed and we we'll continue to look and and do a scan across the environment see what's available and if we have an alternative we'll bring the teachers in and do some piloting. Yeah, for sure. But right now, I think the iPad is really still the leading device
131of choice for the primary level. Okay. I was going to ask a quick question and it's going to start with an assumption. So anyone please feel free to tell me my assumption is incorrect. But would the I mean if processing means or greatest at the high school, would it make any sense to do kind of a like trickle down approach to buying new device at the high school then passing them to middle school and passing on apologies to middle school principles and elementary school principles in the room. But just thinking from a processing standpoint, is that something that's It's an interesting idea. Yeah, it really is. Um it can be done for sure. I mean, I'm sure there's there's ways of of managing that kind of roll out. Um, these are deployed. They're put in
132cabinets. It takes basically the entire tech team probably a few days to get these into a certain school. Um, and then, you know, combining that. So, there could be some logistical challenges with making that work. Um, not to say that that can't happen. We'll we'll we'll take a look at I think that's an interesting idea. Park in the parking lot. you can, you know, please reach out to the site admins if it comes to a point where I think um, you know, we're looking at that third phase with the middle school getting their fleet and now we've got HP G5 or something along those lines that are available for the same price point. That might be a a worthy endeavor. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Great. I I don't have a question really. I just wanted
133to say um thank you for checking with the students because uh that's important and now they can feel heard and have bigger screens and um a faster processor. Yeah, faster processor. But yeah, I think it's great that you checked in and thank you principal Omira for distributing the surveys too. Yeah, it was very revealing. I mean some of their input was I mean because we gave them some some free free text uh you know option to response to what are some other comments and yeah surprisingly none of them want or not none of them but definitely very few of them wanted a touchcreen we also asked about that well I was surprised that they didn't uh that the screen size was mid-ranged it wasn't the largest I think that that's pretty neat it's it's great
134you asked thanks for Very very cool. So can I go ahead and get a Do you have another comment even with my early comments? Go right ahead. Looking at you, Trusty Wex. This is more a question for another trustee trusty Juliet. Uh how as I'm not in a high school, how how are these deployed? Like do you are they ebooks like e textbooks used on these devices or are you using these to do work like Google classroom stuff that sort of thing? Um in most of my classes at least we just use it for Google classroom or like multiple projects that we're working on like Google Docs or Google Slides and we do less like of the e textbook. We just use normal textbooks in our classes. Yeah. With that, would anyone like to make
135a motion? I'd like to talk now. I will move. I will second um that. So motion was made by Trusty Otbar and seconded by Grumpy Trusty Hazen. Um yeah, so with that student trustee, thank you for comments. Any more you'd like to add or vote? Yeah, your name on that. I'd vote yes. Okay, awesome. And a reminder, we're voting for just the first year plan here. Um, all in favor on the board, please say I. I. None opposed. It passes 5-0. And I'm going to declare a fivem minute recess for mental health. Reconvening now at 8:44 and we're on item E under action discussion, the mental health therapist itinerant job description. and um Chief Director Rogman is waiting so patiently up at the microphone because he's going to be presenting to us next. Thank you
136very much, President Hazen. Um once again, I'm Buck Rogman, the chief human resources officer for the district and uh I'm bringing uh before you today the job description for the mental health therapist uh itinerant. Um you will recall uh through our budget discussions that we are restructuring the mental health uh therapist position in the district so that uh we can serve our students with disabilities with district employees that fall under the designation of mental health therapist. Um we first had mental health therapists brought to this district in 2022 using uh funding from um that we got from both the federal and state government for COVID relief. Um when that funding expired, we ab absorb the cost of our mental health therapists uh with the general fund. Um, as we're looking to reduce the burden of
137on the general fund, we were realized that two of those mental health uh positions could be funded um from the uh expenditures that we were making for a contract for services with uh Monterey County Behavioral Health and um a third mental health position could be funded with one-time funding um from resource 6762. It is a one-time music arts and discretionary grant. So, two of the positions would be a per permanent track. One of the positions would be temporary for 2520 26 as the district looks to um see what kind of adjustments can be made due to the budget so that we could um in the long term make that third position possibly permanent beginning in 2627. But what is before you tonight is just the do job the job description that uh has the um
138services for students with disabilities in included in that job description in the document that's in the board board packet and that's before you this this evening. Um the the uh new language is is red and any uh language that's been stricken has also been stricken and read. And so, um, really the biggest difference is that the mental health therapists now would be able to serve the needs of our students with dis with disabilities in addition to the gened students that they that they current currently serve. So, I'm welcome. I'm I'm happy to answer any questions from the board at this time. Thank you very much. And we will go out to our favorite people, the public, for their comments first. and not our favorite but one of our favorite people I should say and then
139now back to the board if there's any comments or questions for this position. Yeah. Um well I don't want to take up too much time so music to my ears. I I am. So I I highlighted just some questions about um the duties and only because um I'm just interested in how um some of these things will um materialize. Um but I'm thinking that I, you know, maybe this is not the time to to question some of this. It's not questioning. I just want to um have a little discussion about it. But this might not be the time to do that. So I would just make one comment and that would be um that we consider um making use of the adult ed program when it comes to parents and um helping them know more
140about mental health issues of students. Um because in in this description, the job description, it mentions a lot about the therapist, you know, communicating with parents and and we know that that takes a lot of time and and there's hopefully we're going to have um a later discussion about how we implement our mental health um curriculum. So, I'm just going to throw that out there for Barbara to chew on. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Trusty Omar, I may be brief. Um, my question is about the change in um the essential functions, the duties of the essential functions. um the IEP process um can be very involved and can be very time consuming. So the concern that I have about the duties for the mental health therapists um including IEPs, my concern is that there the
141time that is remaining for general student council or general student mental health assessments or um needs that there may be a gap there. Um because when I'm looking at this, it talks about, you know, maintaining case management records, intake forms, upload service logs, conduct mental health assessments of students with disabilities as part of the IEP, evaluate students with disabilities, social emotional needs, develop appropriate intervention strategies. I know as it stands, I mean this doesn't even I'm going to make the assumption that this also includes 504s, but as it stands, I know that even just dealing with 504s can be time consuming. And so if we have three mental health therapists and their itinerant, the needs of IEPs across the district, I mean, I don't see how there's going to be a lot of time left
142over. um that could be utilized for just general mental health needs. And so that's very concerning to me. I wonder if you can speak to that. So um I'm I'm going to take a stab at trying to address that and then um if I leave any gaps, I'd welcome executive director Court Anthony to come up and talk a little bit about that. I think that one of the things that you see in the bullet that you talked about the maintain the case management records such as intake forms, treatment plans, progress notes, referrals, and any other pertinent pertinent logs. Um those are the kinds of things that mental health therapists do on a routine basis with all the students that they serve. So um like those specific duties would not um add to the current load
143that they that they carry. when you're talking specifically about the IEP uh responsibilities that uh the mental health therapists are going going to have um they will not be involved in the case management of um students that are on an I IEP. They are going to be another service provider that will make a contribution to the services that a student receives. Um so the resource specialist um uh a uh special day class teacher um you know uh they are the ones that are going to carry the case load that would um be the ones that are in charge of drafting the entire IEP document and then the mental health therapist will make a contribution to that document but it's going to be specifically to the mental health needs that the students have. So I think
144as far as the demand for the IEP, um the mental health therapist is going to be responsible for helping to set a mental health health goal and then also pro provide the services that are in the IEP for the counseling and the therapy that's going to um go toward helping achieve that mental health goal. So, it's going to be kind of a blend of the services um that they'll that they are going to pro provide to the gen ed students and then also rise that level of service for students that are on an IEP. Um clearly it's going to be more of a demand than they currently have on their on their job. I you know I I I don't want to misrepresent that but we wouldn't bring forth this model if we didn't think
145we'd still be able to serve the needs of the gen ed students. I think also one of the great things that came out of the budget budget meeting is an awareness that um we don't want to provide services in isolation of each other that we want a coordinated approach to addressing the mental health of our students. So um not only we don't want the mental health of our district to be the sole responsibility of mental health therapists that um we've got great counselors that also that also are going to be you know involved in this. We want to expand the program by bringing in um CSUMB students who are um you know uh working toward their credentials, but also we want to continue to improve the ability of all staff to address our students in
146a way that's sensitive to their mental health needs. Um it's been having been in the district for as long as I have. Um it's been inspiring to see, you know, the advance that we've made in our awareness with with regard to mental health of our of our students. Um and uh you know even the even with the resolution that we passed here this evening um I think it's appropriate that we bring forward this job description and have this discussion on a night where you know we're talking about the value of me mental health to the district and I know I'm starting to go on President Hayes and I apologize for for that. However, um I I hope that that sheds some light on sort of what the mental health therapist role is going to be
147in the IEP pro process. Yes, they're going to attend the meetings of the students that they're providing services to on the IEP and their contribution to those meetings is they're going to have the goals for for that student and then also give a progress report on how the student is uh doing. And so that's will eat into the time that they could pro provide service to the genet students. Yet um we think that having three of them on on staff for the district is still going to be able to pro provide um that good pull out support that our gened students will need as well. Okay, cool. And um do you see this kind of lifting some of the um strain that's been on the counselors so that they're going to get a little bit
148of like breathing room that they can actually get out and be with because it's like you said, I mean, we don't just have mental health therapists. There's also counselors and teachers and all that. But do you foresee this giving them a little bit of space that they can Right. some some of the feedback that we've gotten from the from the counselors is what a benefit has been to the district having the mental health therapists um you know involved in addressing these these needs of our of our students. So by keeping three in the district I think we maintain you know uh some some support for our counselors in that in that manner. Um when we've talked about the benefit of the mental health therapists uh being you know employees of the district and also serving
149our students with dis disabilities I think that the benefit we're going to realize is that feeling of um ownership and belonging and we talk about those priorities for the district for our students but it's also for our adults and when we have the mental health therapists that are part of you know a PG family serving our our students uh and our students with dis disabilities. I think that our efficiency in serving our students with disabilities is going to increase. And by that I mean they won't be going to one person for the special ed services and then going to another person if they need something outside of that special ed service, right? it's going to be the same person that can serve both both those needs and that will be a more efficient model than
150what we have now. And then just a final thing is um and I believe that this is what's happening, but just um that the district is checking in with the mental health therapists and the counselors to make sure that they have what they need and that they're not being spread too thin, that there's not a feeling of um overwhelm. Right. And I think that, you know, when we talk about trying to put together a mental health team and and uh you know that that that's going to help to systematize those check-ins and I know that executive director Cork Anthony has is it monthly meetings? Monthly meetings with um you know uh not only the mental health therapists and the counselors but the school psychologists as well. And um so there's an opportunity for um you
151know a conversation to take place along those lines at those meetings. Well, cuz I want to make sure their mental health is okay too. 100%. Help yourself first, right? Yeah. Okay. Thank you for that. Sure. Uh quick clarification. Does every IEP necessitate a mental health therapist? No. Okay. Okay. Is do you have a rough number? I don't have a rough number. Um, but uh in my own experience at the elementary school um and Yolanda helped me out, but I would say the ma the vast majority do not. Is it is it is it safe to say that? Yes. That the vast majority do not include mental health as part of the ser services. Great. I'm excited to hopefully bring this back on because that's what we uh voted on a few weeks ago and I'm
152glad that we're hopefully holding up our end of the bargain. So, thanks. Right. With that, do anyone want to make a motion? I'll make a motion to approve the job description as presented. Second. I'll second that. A motion made by clerk with Mary and seconded by trustee Ross. Um, wait a second. Did Yes. No, we're good. And I will say all in favor, please say I. I. I. I. All opposed. Okay, that passes 50. I was forgetting to go to the student trustee, but I don't need to do that since she has gone home to hopefully do a little bit of homework. Not too much. Okay, with that, we have again um Chief Rugman on IMF. Thank you, President Hazen. Um, and uh, I'm excited to bring this uh, job description forward along with a
153couple ofUS um, that are going to establish a uh, vocational assistant uh, culinary arts position within the district. Um, when uh, this this one comes with a little bit of a story. Um for the past uh two years there has been an instructional assistant. Um well this year and last year there's been an instructional assistant serving in the culinary arts program. And this year we uh did not have or we weren't able to fill the instructional assistant position. So we hired a substitute. And the substitute served for more than 60 days. And when someone serves for more than 60 days in um a uh CSEA position or a classified role, they are entitled to permanency status within that and meaning that they can put be put on a progationary track for that job that they're
154serving in. So, the first me memorandum of understanding you're going to have is the one that establishes the permanency rights um for a job that began on August uh 23rd and the permanency rights are going to begin on October 22nd serving as an instructional assistant. What we re realized when we took a look at the instructional assistant job for uh culinary arts is that because it's part of the uh career teched tract and the responsibilities of um an assistant in that class are different than um kind of a gen ed in instructional aid. We realized that the district had a need for vocational assistance. So, um, we, uh, worked with our the CSEA local record representatives, our, uh, CSEA local president Lesie Tur Turinelo and our representative Sarah Herrera and, um, put together a job
155description. um working also with uh Jen Ericson who was here earlier as well as um Amanda Anderson who was serving in the role at that time and put together a job description that really fit the role of um a culinary assistant. So um we uh put together that job dis description and established a pay range. Um and so the second memorandum of understanding that you're going to see here tonight establishes that voed assistant culinary position um and uh makes it retroactive to January 1st, 2025 that um is going to establish the date um that would um be the date of hire for that position. Okay. However, the date of hire for the employee is October 22nd. Okay. Um it's kind of kind of confusing and um I'm happy to explain if you have questions. Um
156but the third document that you see then is actually the job description which also is going to require uh trustee approval tonight. So to summarize, the first establishes the date of hire for the employee in an instructional assistant role. The secondou establishes um the vocational assistant co culinary arts and that's going to be retroactive to January 1st, 202025. It's the same employee that is going to go from being an instructional assistant to the vocational assistant, culinary arts. Um, and then the third thing that we're approving is the job description. Okay. Um, we'll open up to the public here if there's any comments, requests, none online and none in the room. Yes, trust. Um, I guess this is possibly most about the the last uh item that we just approved but also goes along with this.
157There was no range on the previous job description and there's a range on this uh job description for vocational assistant. So it's one of the changes that we're looking to make in the human resources department is to begin to include the ranges on all of the job descriptions as well. Um, I know you asked me a question and I'm giving a long answer, but um, as part of a classification and compensation study that we're currently negotiating with CSA, we want to put together a standardized job description um, that would be modeled after the one that you're seeing here before you. So, the previous range for an instructional Well, the range for an instructional assistant is 30. for an instructional assistant working in special ed, it's 31. Okay. But I mean the job description for the
158mental health therapist, there's no range. Okay. And that is because it's not a CSEA position. It is a classified job, but it's not represented by that union. Okay. Thanks for that. Okay. Sorry, I didn't I didn't understand. I thought you meant the previous job description for this. Um, Buck, so this new vocational assistant position um is really dependent on the CTE program. And if the CTE program goes away, then this person just becomes a regular instructional assistant. Um, that's an e, excellent question. Um if the CTE program went away and the person was placed in another position um we would have to negotiate the reduction of the position with CSSEA and identify where that person should should land and if that person landed at a job that was receiving a reduction in pay then that
159has to get ne negotiated with B basically it's a layoff right so if the program goes away and the position goes away, then it's a layoff. And the importance of the employee being an instructional assistant and getting a date of hire of October 22nd is that that employee then um would have the seniority rights over any employee that's hired after that date of hire in the role of instructional assistant. And um is it kind of the the norm now for CTE classes that they have a specified um assistant? Yeah. As um this is the only job description that we have in the district right now for but in other districts other sorry that's all right. So other other districts will have uh vocational assistants that serve other classes. There might be a vocational assistant for
160a CTE class for auto. Mhm. Right. And so that's the reason why this is vocational assistant-colinary. Um, if the district expands it CCTE program and one of those classes necessitates an aid, I would anticipate working with CSEA to develop a job description that would be specific for that CTE assistant. Okay. Okay. Um, so I have a question about the increase in expenditure. I've got a couple questions. We'll start with the increase in expenditure. So this this person has been working as an aid and now that there's a position being created there's an expenditure increase. I guess I need to clarif I would like to clarify [Music] um why so the increase is reflecting the change of the job going from an instructional assistant which was paid at range 30 to being a vocational assistant culinary
161arts at a range 34. And the reason why the range was increased is because um there's elements of this job that require a higher level of c certification than we require of our uh in instructional assistance. Plus, this person is going to be responsible for supervising a kitchen and helping to um en ensure that proper safety is being used around things like sharp sharp knives and that um so because of the greater responsibilities and that nature, the compensation level was negotiated at a range 34. Can you tell me what the annual uh rate is for range 34? I'd have to look at the salary schedule. Yeah. So the difference between 30 and 34 is what you see. So when it says the expenditure increase of 1,228 to fund 01, that's this year because it's only
162a portion of the year. It's from January 1st until uh the end of the school year. for next year, the difference is going to be an increase of $2,470. So, I'm about to say something that's going to be really unpopular. Um, so here it goes. Um, we've just had a riff as everyone knows and I, as I sit here, this didn't really occur to me until I'm looking at this and we're talking about expenditure. I guess I I do have a problem with creating a position when we've just had riffs. So, my preference is uh not to create this position. And I don't know how many kids are in the class at one time. Um I understand that Chef Jen probably needs an assistant. I don't know if that would be a full-time assistant, but
163I think that this is something we need to look at if this is not a permanent position now and this person is there as a a substitute basically that this is an opportunity to re-evaluate and perhaps save some money um as opposed to creating a position. And part of the reason that I'm bringing this up is when we were doing the riffs, I said out loud, I think we've said yes too many times. And this is an opportunity for me to question it and to look at this and kind of I guess say no and ask that it be brought back as something that's less than fulltime or if we can re-evaluate this. I'm just not comfortable, I don't think. And I'm sorry I didn't give you any heads up about it, but it's just
164sort of coming out now. Okay. Thank you. One just quick followup on from that is my understanding from the presentation is this is a position that we were unable to fill in the past. This is one we've floated in the past. Is that correct? Correct that we had an instructional assistant um working in the class last last year and so this year we um sought to have an instructional assistant working in the class as well. we weren't uh we we did not find one so we hired a substitute, right? Um the substitute worked out great and so we were able to employ the person as the instructional assistant. So this is a position that currently exists as an instructional assistant. So it would actually require us to do a layoff, right? Which we and the
165deadline has passed. The deadline's passed for that. So yeah. So the other question I was going to ask on that is just like what would the student loss be? So if this if I mean having this assistant I assume allows for a larger class size. Is that correct? Like so it does and having the assistant in the class um one of the things that's been um really impressive with chef chef Jen is that she's welcomed in um students of all like uh neurotypical of abilities and so um it also allows for the safe you know inclusion of some students as well. Thank you. That's all my questions. But thank you for the point brought up, trust out, and thanks for the response. And I I think um one more thing is, you know, we're going
166to be uh discussing TK and Kinder later. Um and I'm not prepared to make a decision about this. I do not think that we should add another position. I think that if we have um an instructional aid position that could be utilized in other areas of the school, I'm I'm just not comfortable with this right now. and perhaps it can be brought back at a later time after we've discussed um TK and Kinder because that also has to do with finance. And just in the spirit of that um I would much rather see this at a later time. I know how the rest of the board feels about it, but that's where um I'll chime in. Um, what I'm hearing is that this position existed and was floated because there's a program need like our
167culinary program is growing and the teacher we have a need for the program to have expanded I don't know teacher participation instructional leadership whatever. So is that how this came about? Yes. that um the demands of running the culinary program, you know, uh um necessitated the hiring of an instructional a uh assistant and that occurred last year. Okay, that that instructional assistant position was added last year. Um this is just reclassifying the this this is reclassifying the position um more appropriately to serve the needs of a culinary class. Okay. And that makes sense. And I think um I think the reason this we have this in our binder is because of kind of the odd nature in which the hiring process took place. Um it's a I think that kind of we have there's like
168a bigger picture than it's a new position. It's a job that we currently have existing and filled in a capacity that we're now going to update and change the job description probably because that's something we were really working on across the board in addition to it's it makes sense in this situation. Um I don't see it as a as a quote new position. um that way. It just seems like this is kind of just a weird way to get to uh establishing like the position within our district having twous and then a job description isn't kind of the norm. But um I am comfortable with the slight expenditure increase. This isn't this doesn't feel like a big piece of the budget discussion. It's more about like making sure our students have what they need in
169this program that's already being funded and already has someone serving in that role. So, it's being utilized and it's valuable. So, I'm in favor of uh moving forward with it with the proposal um and the slight increase in expenditures of $2,000 for next year. Yeah. And I will agree with um your comments trusty Omar that it doesn't feel right to be adding costs given what we've been doing but at the same time this is a small cost and we can't you know we can't cut the position because the notices have passed even if we wanted to that would have been something we would have had to decide on um and this is something that's gone through CSEA negotiations as well so I I do feel doesn't feel 100% right just again because it's we're trying
170to be austere but I do think in this point I am in support of the of this theseUS as presented. I Buck, I think you may have mentioned this, but the why is the immediate expenditure increase of $1,200 uh less than the annual increase of $2,400? Excellent question. The immediate increase is the retroactive payment that's going to make up for the difference between being an instructional assistant and the vocad assistant culinary that begins on January 1st, 2025. Okay. Sorry. Yeah, if I may. Um, so it is important because the fiscal impact the cover page says to fund 01. That's incorrect. This is tied to restricted resources to our CIG logo and then our GSP grant. I just I'm sorry. I just needed the point of clarification and Mr. Keller wanted to say right at the
171beginning and so we're so sorry, you know, it was right in the throws of all of the trustees having their comments and so you know we yeah had we allowed that at that moment it would have you know probably prevented right a little bit of this. Now, I'm going to propose a motion with that in that that new information particularly that we pass theus as presented. Um, if anyone wants to second or do you want to make a Yeah. To confirm this is coming out of CTE, correct? Which is which is grant funding. Correct. Yes. Take back everything I also we have a motion on the table. Could I get a second for that motion? I'll second the motion. Okay. So, uh motion was made by Trusty Hazen and seconded by Trusty Wax. Um all
172in favor, please say I. I. I. Please don't be mad, Chef Chen. All opposed. So, it passes 5. So, there's no reason to be mad. Um next we have the proposed board calendar. Dr. Adams. Wonderful. I'm just going to say you made a comment earlier Tracy about you know just being brave and you know sometimes yeah we are brave and we say the things and you know again just yeah again apologies. All right well the bill calendar uh we are um what I'm presenting to you is a slight change for our next meeting in April. Uh we had the special meeting originally scheduled for April 24th. We're proposing a change of the date um to April 22nd. uh a reminder that will be our our cap study session. Um I want to just assure that
173um you know that works for everyone and once that is approved tonight we'll go ahead and change that on the master calendar as well. Any comments or concerns with that change? I have a question. Oh, public comment first. Is there anyone in the public that would like to comment on our board calendar? I was checking my calendar just to make sure that I have that marked, but um if not, we'll go to the board and see. Um I think trust or clerk and then trusty wax. I think one um one item that's listed on our agenda for tonight's meeting is the school resource officer update and that's um not on our agenda for tonight, which is totally okay. But I I think if we're planning on moving it forward to me, it's really important like
174for the public to be able to track issues and things that may be of interest to them for like them to know when our meetings are and kind of during an LCAP study session on a Tuesday doesn't feel as accessible and um community oriented is maybe having that discussion in another way. So just going to throw that out there. We'd be open to moving it to May 1st if the, you know, board makes that as a preference. And in that way, you're right, the old cap can be, you know, solely dedicated to that from the 22nd if the rest of the board agrees. Putting we're put we're putting the um SRO contract on May 1st since since we bumped it from tonight because the city wasn't ready. Oh. Oh, and you're looking at your calendar
175now. April 22nd. I can I can show as long as it's before 5:30. No, they're usually applying. Okay. No, I can I can I'm good with her. Okay. Um, with that, I will go ahead and make a motion to approve the calendar as modified with May 1st on the SRO and the 22nd being the date for the ELCAP study session instead of the 24th. And that will start at 5:30. That will start at 5:30. We could propose it potentially starting at 6:00. If if you get back to us and you aren't able to change or import an appointment, I'm happy to keep it consistent, but I do want everyone there. So, yes, I'll just say let us know right now. Yes, we're approving it as 5:30. I second the motion or the proposed board calendar.
176All in favor, please say I. I. Anyone opposed? It passes 5-0. Motion made by myself and seconded by Trusty Wes. So, we're now on to item eight, the information discussion. And this first item, I think Josh has a guest from the East Coast joining us on the facilities master plan progress update. I I do. Thank you, President Dr. Hazen. Uh we have Norrisa Sparks online. Uh but before she uh is ready to present, we appreciate her sticking with us tonight. Um we are giving a progress update to the facilities master plan. Uh on your board cover page, you can see we covered some of the key milestones which uh was the community and staff engagement that was done through um through the course of a few weeks as well as our community outreach survey. Uh
177we have a ton of survey data that she's not going to go through all of that tonight. Uh but essentially the plan this evening is just to kind of give you a status update as to um where we started uh what has been completed and what the next steps are to finalize the process to bring forward a facilities master plan uh to this board for approval. And with that I would like to introduce Nurissa Sparks with MGT. Hello. Um I'm Nerissa Sparks, MGT. Uh, I am the project manager and the director on this project and I'm just going to give you a brief update tonight on where we are and what our next steps are. Um, so if you don't mind changing the slide, there we go. Um, the point we're at, we had we
178have completed all of the actionable steps. So, we have pulled all that information together. Um we went through the enrollment projections, the capacity utilization. We came out and did the facility uh condition and educational adequacy assessments and then compiled all that information and and um most recently did the community engagement sessions. So right now we are at the point where we are uh composing the final plan, but I do have some information from the community engagement sessions to share with you. Go ahead and change that. that I'd like to share with you. Um we did hold um three live sessions and one online session and the first session that we held was a staff session and just briefly I'll give you some of the highlights of that. Uh from the staff session they were asked
179what the overall perception of facilities were and staff felt 44% of staff felt that they were good and then 33% felt they were fair. So those were the top two answers. Uh the top two planning objectives that the staff felt were important to them was building condition and safety and security. Um and the complete uh results of all of these sessions will be in the final report with all the answers um and all the potential answers that that they were given. Um but the next one with the staff uh the staff session was for school facilities. What what do you feel um are top priorities for uh school facility improvements? And the number one with staff was um reliable heating and the second one which was actually a tie was watertight building envelope. And um
180the third place would be secured and locked building. And with all the sessions um the the majority of participants felt that the approach to um planning and addressing facility needs was a combination of long-term investment and with short-term solutions to address urgent needs. So I won't repeat that over and over. It was the top answer through all sessions. So can go ahead and flip the page. Our next session was a community session. It was uh the AM session. And the overall perception, there was a tie between good and fair, 40% each. Um the planning objectives that were important to the folks that attended this session was building condition and improve utilization of building spaces. And then the facility priorities they felt were watertight building envelope which is the uh roof windows walls. Um the second
181one well actually they were tied. No excuse me the second one was no I apologize they were tied. The second one was reliable heating. So it was building envelope reliable heating and then CTE programming came in third. So if you could move to the next slide, the evening session for the community, the overall perception was mostly good at 46%. Um the second was fair at 38%. The planning objectives uh building condition again came um overwhelmingly in front and the second one was equitable facilities districtwide was the second top planning objective for that session for the facility priorities. Um again watertight building envelope was number one and there was a tie for the second place at reliable heating and secure locked building. This is as you can see uh repeated themes. Um the online session which
182is the next slide. This is information we we just mostly recently compiled. We closed the online session I believe last week and just compiled the information. Um from the online participants we had about 238 responses and overall condition um the top one was fair at 39% and then 38% of respondents felt that the overall condition of school buildings was good. um planning objectives, building condition was number one, improved extracurricular activities came in second or actually tied for second with safety and security and then the um the facility requirements was again watertight um building envelope, reliable heating and security. Now I don't have a slide. You can stay on here because I don't have a slide for the next one. But just looking at the overall um overall with compiling all this information, 38% of participants
183felt that the buildings were good and 39% felt they were fair. Planning objectives as you saw building condition and safety and security were the top ones. And um for facility priorities, the building envelope, heating, and security again were the top items overall. Um you can go on to the next slide. So now we're into the next steps. Um the this master plan, we a lot of the information we've been receiving on what needs to be in the master plan and how it should be formatted is has been dynamic. But um we have pulled together the template that we're going to use to cover everything that's required by uh AB247. So all of those components will be in there that are required. Um I won't read them all to you. We can go on to the
184next slide. and the upcoming steps. Uh the draft report, our my target date is April 18th to turn a a draft over and then we will work with district staff to go over the draft and make sure everything's covered. Um and uh you know just basically edit and and do what we need to do to make sure everything is right and what the district wants as far as the plan moving forward. We want to make sure we capture what um is best for the district and you know from the view of people who are there. Um and then we'll of course get the eternal feedback and then the final report will be composed and we will have our final presentation for the board on June 5th, 2025. So that is my PowerPoint presentation and I'll
185be happy to answer any questions. Thank you so much for the presentation. This is an exciting topic. Um I would like to open up again to the public first if there's anyone either online or in the room would like to comment. Look like we have one hand online. Hello, this is Jay Tully. Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. Great. Thanks for uh having this discussion. Um, so I am the the chair of the rec board for the city of PG and I just wanted to first um acknowledge the great collaboration that we've had with the PGSD. um our recck department is able to offer um soccer and basketball because of the um the ability to use the fields and the courts. So, it's a it's a wonderful collaboration, but I hope that we can
186also take this opportunity to um envision a bit more um with the master plan. Um so, I have two requests. One is that the PGSD engage with the city uh possibly through the joint um subcommittee and engage in some visioning of what a master plan could be in conjunction. and second at the um high school and Forest Grove. It seems like there's just such a wonderful opportunity there because it's it's really the heart of the city in a lot of ways. Um, I mean, I know there's the downtown, but really the high school is is almost geographically in the center and there's a lot of a lot of community um, a lot of housing in the area. There's bus stops and there's already a great infrastructure there with the fields, the tennis courts, the pool,
187and we could really have something special with some collaboration with the city. Um, I would also offer that that was one of the spots. It was actually the number one spot offered as the skate park, but it didn't work the last time we tried to go at the skate park because it was not city land. So, if that could be included in some discussion, that would be really appreciated. Um, and I just want to um thank you all for the the effort you're making with this with this master plan. I think it's going to be a uh could lead to some great improvements for the city. So, thanks very much. Thank you very much for your comments. Anyone else online or in the room? Okay, with that we'll go back to the board and if
188folks are okay, I might I have a few just quick thoughts. Um I saw the point about community input will be gathered if applicable on the draft plan, but um how how would we recommend the public given surveys and community sessions already happened still participate? Like should they be emailing us today? Should they wait for the draft plan? Um, I think that's more of a board discussion and decision. Um, I mean the the some school districts have like for example shared the draft plan on their website and ask for you know community input. Um, some districts bring the draft plan to this body and review which is a plan that we have in place and then we you know do that through public comment. Um, so really it's a kind of the discretion of the
189board. That's a really good point. Um, I was going to add just kind of three off-the-top thoughts and I'll say again, thank you for that presentation. It's really cool to see a lot of the alignment. The one thing I won't say that worries me, but just one thing is, you know, watertight building envelope and heating like this is basic stuff. And I know we've been having issues with this, but I'm hopeful that with, you know, because of funding, not because of us as a district, but I'm hoping that some of that we can cover with measure D, series D, right? Um, in terms of the maintenance stuff, I I mean what what I would my comment on that would be that what the district and the board's direction has been over the course of the
190last four years is um accurately aligned with what our community wants because we have been already directing measure D funds towards uh watertight building envelopes. I believe that uh when director Anderson came on board with us three and a half years ago or so that was one of the initiatives he brought forward which was building envelopes first and foremost as a priority. So I think it kind of reinforces maybe some of the decisions that this board has made over the course of the last three years. Perfect. Um, that's what I was hoping. And the the other thought from that is, you know, and I know this wasn't the spot for it, but like I'm really excited for that creativity, the like the future thought of what are the buildings that we need? What um temporary
191structures can we replace with permanent structures to meet educational needs? How do we align the facilities master plan with maybe educational continuity plans under the CSSP? because there might be a need to have more creative teaching solutions for god forbid the next pandemic or whatever we have to deal with. Um I really really want to push this opportunity again for that creativity as to what our campuses could look like. So that was my comment on that. I'll just say that's my second one. The extracurricular activities one that came up is something I know we've discussed before. Um it is not just something that supports our students, it supports our city to have good fields. Um things like signage. I know Trusty Shamas you brought up before having you know that just again how can we
192be creative to use that city PG partnership. I'm really excited again to hear what's coming from that because I know it will be um and I didn't have too many questions on the presentation because I thought it covered those survey results well. It was nice to see that overall alignment. So anyone else on the board? Um, thank you for the presentation and the work you're doing to put this together for our district. Um, I kind of have a similar question. I guess I have a question out of what I heard from Mr. Tully and it's like I'm curious when we get to do the dreaming and imagining like could we some odd years from now be like the responsible owners of a district skate park? I don't know. But I think I'm just curious like
193for members of the public and for ourselves as board members. You know, I've been coming and sitting through these meetings for like many years. So I have a list of things that have come up over time that I would love to put somewhere. So I'm curious like where and when as a board are we going to see the plan and then be able to say, "Oh, what about this?" Because one concern I have is like I I want this process to happen, but I want it to be community engaged and informed. And so if we have to slow down a little bit to make sure like people's voices that want to be in the room are heard, I'm okay with that. Um, but I guess my question is just like when when for some of
194that, you know, the dreaming or the creative thinking or I'd like to let assistant, you know, s John answer that as well and even like to hear from Nerissa, but I think for us, I mean, I think that happens, you know, through the upcoming process. I think as we bring to you forward to you sort of an initial plan for approval that's your opportunity that's your input session right I mean you as the board you know get to do that as well I love the idea of you know I mean number one yes the community would get to be a part of that but even the idea of putting you know sort of a draft of the plan online and getting the community to sort of weigh in I think sometimes when you see ideas
195that are already there you know more ideas come out of that right you know so I I love the idea nissa that that's you know you know still you know an option And I agree I think you know we've had a time out on this to sort of gather the input and start an initial draft you know of that but that doesn't mean we have to be done by by July you know I think we we the board feels that there's a need to extend that as we you know gather more input to make the plan robust and that it's you know really indicative of of everyone's voice included and what we envision for our district moving forward. This is huge amount of money that we have. It's a huge endeavor. Our whole community is
196involved in this right. It's you we have this money because of our community and and you know individuals that make that up. So um assistant dorm what else do you want to add to that? Yeah um I would only uh mention the fact that this is I mean developing a facilities master plan is kind of like well we have the needs assessment and then the facilities master plan. These are like the first few steps in a much broader process uh which includes I'm going to well highlight uh the fact that we finalized a request for qualifications for architects, a request for qualifications for construction program management. I'm going to be bringing that to the board here in the next month as as kind of a part of this. Um once the board adopts a facilities
197master plan, that's act it's kind of like the outline and then all of the fill-in in between takes place once we have an architect of record on board, we have a program manager on board. I see Nissa nodding. Um that's when the district starts to develop projects in collaboration with our community partners. So um you know that I think that well I don't think I know that facilities master plan is really to identify what are our highest needs first and also what is the lowhanging fruit that we can attack first right and then there is everything else in between. So um you know we are like I would just say we're you know 20% through the process here maybe 25% by the time we actually adopt a facilities master plan and then there's a lot
198left to do uh tied to our architectural uh firm back tied back to our um joint subcommittee with the city. If there are programming decisions that this district wants to make as a res related to um you know let's just say expansion of extracurricular uh fields and so forth. Um we would have to engage at the subcommittee level with our city to determine if they too have off-site improvement development funds available to partner with us on. So it's for further discussion. Um, I'm really happy to see this district is taking the steps that it's taken so far, but there is still a lot left to do here. And, um, I think that within the first, let's say, 6 months of next year after next school year after the district adopts a facilities master plan, if
199we do, uh, our architects are going to help lead us through this process that they're all very familiar with. That was really helpful for me. So, thank you. I appreciate you was a much better answer than mine. assist John. Oh, go ahead nurse. Okay. Um, I also wanted to add that a facility master plan is a living document. It is it is a um it is a directive but um let's go back to the building envelope which I can say uh director um John has done an amazing job of tackling a lot of that. But um we do give directives such as you know you need to put a roof on um building D at the high school. That's a you know a direct comment. But we also um put in directives that say well
200CTE programming needs to expand. You need to expand existing or expand spaces or build purpose built spaces for uh new CTE programming. But we don't say what that looks like. That's up to you. And that's what makes it a living document. it it just you know some things are very direct and some things are just you know a direction. Does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah. And that's all very helpful for me. So I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks. Um I'm not quite sure where would happen on the process I guess be because it's a living document and complicated but um it would be good to see somewhere along I guess earlier rather than later to see like the most creative uses that school districts have done with their facilities like the most creative partnerships or
201something because I think we think it's just one one thing or maybe a skate park. Um, but if we see if we see other living examples of of creative uses um that might be helpful to kind of broaden our horizons. Thank you. Okay, that is not a something we need to give you any um motion on, but I think hopefully you guys have good direction from us and thanks for giving this in this update. It's really helpful. Okay, we are now on to item B, universal pre kindergarten and we have Dr. Hequist, I think, on this item to present. And we'll just note the time as he's coming forward. It is 9:43. Do we want to try to pass an extension now or do we want to try to get through this and interrupt in
202the middle? Okay. So, does anyone have a motion on the timing of the meeting since we have to end at 10 without it? Do we have to go back into close session on the second negotiations item? Okay. No. Yep. No, we we gave Yep. They're the same. We do not. Yes. Okay. I'll make a motion that we extend the meeting till 10:30. I'll second. Okay. All in favor, please say I. I. All opposed. Okay. It passes at least five 50 as far as I could hear from NAS. Um, okay. Thank you. Sorry for that delay, but thank you, Dr. Quest. Okay. The implications within Pacific Grove Unified. uh for your convenience and for the convenience of anybody uh in the room or listening uh I've created uh an executive summary um that will provide a
203little bit more detail than I will be able to do with my slideshow which is uh on page 131 of the board packet. Um so first of all I would like to um provide a little bit of background and to um understand the way UPK works. uh we have to go back quite a few years all the way back to 2010 um where you had Senate Bill 1381 uh the kindergarten readiness act of 2010 um which drew upon research in early childhood development indicating that the younger students in kindergarten classes uh were uh not fairing as well academically and uh socially and emotionally in kindergarten. And so the legislation initiated two things. Um there was uh the initiation of a change in cuto off dates. Um and uh along with that was the creation of
204a uh transitional kindergarten class to house the students who were um at that time being excluded from the kind kindergarten courses because they were too young. Um so a little bit of background here. uh that began a roll back in cutoff dates. Um so students um in 2011 and 2012 the cutoff date for kindergarten was uh December 2nd. Students must turn five by December 2nd in order to qualify for kindergarten. Um, so you had uh four year olds, th those students that were four all the way up until December 2nd in the kindergarten class. And those were the students that were struggling, that were not fairing well. And so there was a slow roll back of those dates so that the four-year-olds were um no longer being included into kindergarten classes. Um, and it went
205um to November 1st in 2012 and 2013. And that rolled further back to October 1st uh in 2013 and 14 and finally to September 1st in 201 uh 14-15. And so by that time you really no longer assuming that school starts around September 1st. Uh you no longer have the fouryear-olds in the kindergarten classes. So the question is is where do those kindergarteners go? And you can imagine um you know the the questions that were being asked during the time like where are we going to house the kids? They were formerly in kindergarten um where they go now and that's where you have the implementation of transitional kindergarten. Um and so what the transitional kindergarten accomplished was it provided a space for those students that were being displaced uh due to the roll back um
206for um to to access learning. So it was essentially um the first year in a 2-year kindergarten program for these students and it's still defined that way. So in um the students who had uh November 2nd to December 2nd birthdays were the ones that were being displaced. And so that was a real small group of students that were being offered the transitional kindergarten. And then that group of students grew a little bit more, right? Because you have another month added along October 2nd to December 2nd. And then by 2014 and 15 uh it's rolled all the way back to September 2nd. Uh that window between September 2nd and December 2nd. Those are your TK students. And it remained that way for several years. Um, we had a TK, uh, the first year of a two-year
207program, uh, and a kindergarten which housed basically the 5-year-olds. Uh, moving forward to uh, 2021. So, this is flashing forward about 5 years and you have AB30 um, where you begin the expansion of that transitional kindergarten program. So um basically you have the expansion of that date range from September 2nd to December 2nd. That December 2nd date gets pushed forward. Um and so uh students who turn five within the below windows would have access to TK and this is in 2223. So the range used to be between September 2nd and December 2nd and in 2223 it moved to between September 2nd and February 2nd. So it expanded the numbers of students basically by extending that window. uh and then it was a yearby year uh expansion um and that uh by 2324 uh the window
208was September 2nd to April 2nd and then uh by 2425 our current year uh the the window was September 2nd to June 2nd uh where students could turn five. Um and then in 2526 the UPK guidelines say that any child who has their fourth birthday by September 1st will be eligible. So you would have that expansion that now has uh circled the entire calendar and come back to September 1st. Right? So it would be September 2nd to September 1st. Um well throughout this process there uh has been the option for LEAs uh to um allow for early enrollment. Um these are students that are just outside the window. Um these are the younger students that would be just outside the student um that that eleas could uh opt to um include those students in the
209classes. So um they these are students with birthdays that fall just beyond the cutoff dates mentioned in the previous slide. Um the current cutoff date as of this year as mentioned uh in the previous slide uh is June 2nd. So uh as of this year eleas have had the option to admit early enrollment students. Um and uh it should be noted that PGUSD has not exercised this option, which is why students with uh birthdays between June 3rd and September 1st, those summer birthdays um are not uh currently enrolled in TK classes. Those would be the youngest students. They would be three-year-olds um entering into the TK classes. Um and uh additional requirements uh in the legislation come along with admitting those uh youngest students, the three-year-olds into the TK classes. Um you'll see here that
210uh had Pacific Grove opted for early enrollment, um the legislation mentions a 1:10 ratio. So that changes the studenttoteer ratio. It goes from 1 to 12 to 1 to 10 with the early enrollment students. Also, class sizes uh um go from 24 to 20. Um and that is what uh the guidelines of UPK um call for. Um but it's interesting because we are in a unique situation as a basic aid district. This is all contingent upon the uh it it says uh condition of aortionment and it should be noted that as a basic aid district uh Pacific Grove does not receive an aort uh aortionment uh for any of this implementation. So um we're presenting uh three options uh for the district um and uh what are our choices for in PGUSD uh if number
211one is the option of maintaining uh the current cutoff date. So this would maintain the current cutoff date of June 2nd. That's what we're carrying right now. Which would exempt the district from the early enrollment requirements thereby avoiding the additional costs and staffing con consents. Basically this says that we just continue doing what we're doing right now. Uh and that would have no fiscal impact because there's no changes. Option two would uh extend the cutoff date. Uh so this would be to fully follow the UPK guidelines. Um and that would be to extend the cutoff date to September 1st aligning with the state's UPK expansion and complying with requirements for districts that are receiving an aortionment for that expansion uh which include the 1:10 adult to student ratio and a class- size maximum of 1
212to 20. PGUSD would not receive the aortionment to support this expansion like non-basic aid districts. So it would uh be costly. Um uh with our current numbers, current projection, uh the potential fiscal impact would be uh $227,427 and uh potentially higher if we exceed the 60 students. And then option three uh would is the option to extend the cutoff date but maintain current class size maximum. So uh considering PGUSD is not receiving an aortionment from the state for its TK expansion uh extend the cutoff date to September 1st in alignment with UPK guidelines but maintain our current 1 to 24 class size uh and add an additional add additional support staff member to reach the 1:10 adult student ratio. This would essentially add a non-eing staff member to lower the adultto student ratio. Uh this
213in option would also increase costs however not as much as option two um outlined on the previous slide. Um and then the district recommendation. I'm going to hand it over to Dr. Linda Adamson um to um discuss the next two slides. Thank you Dr. Hequist. did such a nice job of a lot of information covering a lot of years and you're really making it so easy to understand and follow. Thank you for for doing so. Um so the slide really you know before us is really what we are recommending as a district is really to maintain and go with option one which essentially is you know maintaining that current cutoff date of June 2nd for our um incoming TK students uh really you know following that age requirement of you know the the date by
214which they turn four. Um and really you know the rationale is listed you know one of the reasons being as it you know is one of the most fiscally um you know sound and um responsible decision you know when when looking at the fiscal components of it um I think you know just adding to that you know while we value you know early education you know more than anyone I think we've proven that over the years in just the development of the incredible robust TK and kindergarten but you know looking specifically at TK currently program that we're able to offer you through the ability we've been able to, you know, just I think, you know, the the teachers and the staff we've been able to hire, uh, you know, really is evidence of, you know,
215how we've been able to serve the needs of our youngest learners and I think that's something we want to be able to continue to maintain. Um, you know, so that's, you know, definitely, you know, one of those reasons as well. Um, I do want to reiterate that, you know, this is definitely a decision that we're making for next year. It's something that allows us the time to then, you know, continue to evaluate. um funding continues to be an issue, right? And I think as Dr. Hagwist has has referenced uh for us to you know do any of the other two options you know the the fiscal impact to that really would uh you know have a negative impact on the reductions that we've already proposed that really allow us to make that move to put
216us on the trajectory to you know maintaining and and moving towards a balanced budget. So you know that's definitely a concern. Um it also in maintaining our current numbers, in maintaining our current ratios, you know, really just allows us to maintain the quality, you know, of the current program that we're offering. Um when looking at, you know, those students who now fall into that window that of period between June 2nd and and June 3rd and September 1st, um you know, we will continue to offer our current preschool programs through our co-op and our state preschool program, uh to really meet the needs, you know, of our younger students. Um, I really, you know, we're we are at this point through the pre-registration process. We have an idea of of a small handful of of students
217who that would impact who we want to have that ability to be able to reach out and meet directly with those families to have those conversations. And that has already begun. Um, and to really just make sure that they're aware of what those options and, you know, what would be available to them. Um, you know, where that decision to be made. I think the final piece to this, the funding component is, you know, we are actively working uh you know, with the state uh currently uh assembly member Addis uh is advocating active actively on behalf of all basic aid districts within the state of California uh to advocate for fundings and we are you know banding together as basic aid districts to you know really do the same. Uh we just submitted you know a
218letter this week directly from Pacific Grove. Um I think the challenge with that is if any funding does come through that would really only apply you know planning purposes would be you know for next school year. So again I share that with everyone now to just know that this is definitely you know something longterm that we'll continue to evaluate and analyze and continue to adjust and make decisions on. I think for now the decision we've got to make for planning purposes really uh you know speaks to next school year and that is the reason and we're really identifying option one as that recommendation. my final slide and I know it's going to feel a little like I'm switching sort of direction and it's not necessarily the direct topic of this presentation but I feel just
219because this has been such a heavy topic and something that we've had so many of our um kinder and TK families reach out to us in the past week uh specifically on the topic of enrollment and how those uh how placement is determined when it comes to our two elementary schools. And so I really just want to finish with just a few highlights um and bullet points that really speak to um you know that particular subject because it's related and and it's not. But because you know it's been something that we've been fielding so many questions on these past few days, I really just wanted the opportunity to highlight these. So I'll just go through them briefly. Um, you know, I think first number one, when we're making those decisions related to enrollment and and
220placement, um, you know, we we definitely I want to remind everyone and I said it earlier tonight that, um, we are in the initial pre-registration stage and so, you know, any decisions on that remain premature. You know, it's always been our practice that registration opens in May and we make those start making those decisions at that time. And I know I think you know we have families you know I think hearing you know the possibility of there could be movement and I know that that causes stress and we've heard from you know many already this evening. Um but again I I just want that to be known you know it's still very premature and until we know for certain what those numbers are we you know cannot you know begin to make you know definitive
221decisions. Um I think you know I want this this comment to be known that you know we have two exceptional elementary you know school programs you know both who have incredible teaching staff and I think one of the benefits of that and what we see and that we're so proud of is that our staff you know make it a priority to uh to build strong relationships with their families and clearly that's the reason why our families don't want to leave their neighborhood schools. Um and so that to me is a good problem to have. Um, you know, it just speaks to the importance that we place, you know, on those connections that that we we build and make. Um, number three, again, it is that our always our priority to try to accommodate our students
222and our families at this their neighborhood schools. And I reiterate that again and repeat that again. That will continue to be the ongoing, you know, priority when we can. um the fiscally responsible decisions. You know, obviously through that process, you know, we we have to be able to look at what the space is available before making it a decision to that really brings the cost of another teacher. Um if the if the need is there as I said that earlier, if we need to expand our program and adv and it it warrants an additional class and we going to be able to fill an additional class, we will make that decision, you know, as as the demand indicates. Um and we absolutely are prepared to do so and that is what we're doing in watching
223our enrollment and pre-registration numbers you know closely and carefully which we'll be doing over the next few uh weeks and months. Uh in the event that a different placement other than a student's neighborhood school is needed. Uh I just want to reiterate great care and consideration will be taken you know into those decisions. Um you know we we have a priority list on how those decisions are made. I I want to reiterate that the least amount of students possible will be impacted, you know, through that process. Um, and again, it would only be those decisions would only be made in the event that we had, you know, a decent amount of space, you know, at another school site where we we could accommodate those small numbers. Um, and again, I think just, you know, should
224the the need the expansion is needed, you know, to grow the the K program, we're prepared to do that. Um we are considering other creative ways of keeping students in their neighborhood schools and one of those does include yes if the the need arises and we see that that would work. Uh the creation of a TKK combo class. And so that is absolutely something that we you know would consider and look at if that again allowed for us to you know continue to be able to accommodate you know the majority of students at their neighborhood school as well. Um and once you know that final piece that all decisions are made with the best interest of all of our students and you know with the priority on you know impacting the least number of students
225um um you know o overall um and just yeah we you know thank everyone for their patience. I know we we appreciate the reaching out and the ability to have the ongoing conversations because that's how we're able to you know talk things through sometimes. I think you know some emails where parents will think automatically that they're impacted when when they're not necessarily. Um so it just allows us that ability to be able to explain further. But I wanted to end with that uh and then bring us back yes you know to the the age component and you know the option that that we are making for TK specifically. Um and I hand it back over to you President Hazen. Thank you. And I just want to note for again we extended to 10:30. We only
226have about 26 minutes. So, I'd like to go to public comment and then I'm going to divide the time up per board member just to make sure we can get through this item. So, is there anyone in the public that would like to comment on this item? Erica Chavez, currently TK teacher. Um, the purpose of SB 1381 in 2010 was to prevent a young group of students from do not doing well in kindergarten and beyond as they were younger than their peers. Option one completely defeats the past 15 years in early education in early childhood educ elementary education. We are setting up the summer babies to enter kindergarten without the benefit of our TK classrooms. They're expert teachers. My colleagues are experts in intentional and explorative play, social emotional learning and fostering executive functioning and
227in building inhibitory control according to the preschool transitional learning kinder excuse me preschool transitional kinder learning foundations of California and excluding the summer babies from that opportunity is counterproductive. I fully deep in my heart believe that what is best for our students is option one. However, I do and fully understand budget constraints. As the PGTA vice president, our unit has negotiated for and endorsed the fiscal compromise of option three. We are a culture of we and that includes our youngest learners. We say that we foster a place of belonging, safety, and prosperity. How can we say that when these students that these students simply do not belong because they were born in the summer? Thank you for your comments. Um, anyone else from the public? Yeah, please come on up. Going to slightly piggyback on
228my name is Alison Brooks on what Erica Chavez just said. Um, I don't believe that my daughter will personally be impacted and I still care a great deal. This community is so beautiful. I've been with most of the moms since our children were babies over at the co-op preschool and I care just as much about each of their child their children as I do my own. Um, and I feel very much like that picture of being a summer baby. You get hit twice because first you don't get to attend the TK program which is very different. I love the co-op preschool but it is not apples and apples. It's very different and I think they're both needed for a wide range of children. And as we all know, the lower grades, TK, preschool, we need
229a wide variety of um opportunities for them and a wide variety of of different types of educational styles to offer. So that being said, first they don't get to attend and then now that you're talking about possibly busing them outside of their school district, they're hit twice because they're not in TK. So they're not top priority. And so now they're one of the ones that might get selected to be moved to out of their district or not of their district, but out of their neighborhood school. So, I just wanted to bring that to light and I just wanted to express that I really appreciate all of you listening to us, reading our emails. Um, it's a really wonderful, beautiful group that just cares very deeply and we only want what's best for our children and
230what's best for our school and our teachers. Had the privilege of substituting quite a bit in TK and kinder at Robert Down. I am absolutely in love with this school. I used to be a teacher in Sacramento where the class size was 30 31 in a first grade classroom. I moved here with my family. We bought a shoe box of a home with no property for Robert down for this school and we're so happy to be here. And Forest Grove is amazing too. If we had bought a house there, I would want to be able to walk my child to school there as well. and I would want to bond with that community because our property taxes are what goes to the school to pay for it. I really feel that I have the right
231to go to that school especially. So, thank you for listening to me. I really really appreciate it and I appreciate your time on this late night. Thank you so much for your comments. Appreciate it. Any other from the public? If not, we have popped up. Okay, we let's go to the public. Thank you for catching those. L Hi, my name is Rebecca Top. Um my daughter is currently in TK at Robert Down. We pushed as hard as we could to get into this district. My the TOE family is no um they've been in the PG area forever. My father-in-law is one of 10. And so the PG school district has always been something dear to us. Once we've had children, we wanted to be in it. My son will be coming up into TK in
232about a year, two years. Um our biggest fear and what we're really pushing for is we love the teachers and to possibly think that we wouldn't have some of them is absolutely scary. We currently have Miss Fedoni. She is unbelievably fantastic and the thought of her potentially not being there for my son when he comes up is a little a little petrifying to us. And so we just would like to stress that and try and keep as many of our teachers in the school district as we can. I know it's difficult and I know budget cuts have to come into play, but we do want everybody to look at what these teachers bring to our kids with the stability, the love, and the success that they're really driving for our students. And that's just all
233they really wanted to express today. Thank you so much for your comments and then one more online and then we'll cut after that if that's okay. Vanessa, I think it's your hand. Vanessa, can you speak? See if we can hear you. If not, yeah, feel free to put something in the chat. And the microphone's not working because we can't hear you on our end. I will say just for the interest of time, I'd like us to move to the board comments again and maybe we can try if it goes through the chat, we can get at least read it out to get on record. So I will put us down for about three and a half minutes and try to keep track now of everybody. We're going to start right in the middle with um
234Trusty Apar and then move that way to end with clerk if that's okay cuz I haven't started in the middle yet. Yeah, it's fine. Oh, okay. Um so, of course, I have many thoughts about this. I'm just going to shoot them out as quick as I can. um as far as um not accepting um what's being referred to as summer babies, which I think is super cute. Um so these summer babies uh you know if they are not coming into TK then because they've missed the cutoff their next option is to go into kinder. Now, that would mean that there are um TK kids that have been in TK because they had a birth date that wasn't in the summer. They're moving on to kinder. And now if this summer baby goes to their neighborhood
235school, which I hope happens, um they are now immersed in a class that has already that has already established a connection. there is a social emotional um connection that happens. It's it's not highly I don't say highly academic but but really kindergarten in TK is has a huge social emotional impact. It's where they learn to grow. It's where they learn to form bonds and connect with each other. And after just reading thatou about mental health awareness and all the work that we're doing, I think if in the same breath we're also saying yes, but it doesn't apply to TK and they're just so young and how are they going to know? They'll know. They will show up in kindergarten. I remember being in kindergarten. You know, there are memories. And I what I don't want
236to do is start a kid's school career off feeling isolated or feeling out of place or not feeling connected. It's the beginning of a long career and we have enough happening in our world that we don't need as a district to start their journey off like that. As far as um moving kids to other to another school, I think that we can find creative solutions. I think that bringing an eight in and having a class that is older TK and younger kinder, I think we can be creative. Um, our kids education and the community that that they are going to grow in. I I think it'd be irresponsible to yank a kid out and stick them at another school and just say, "Well, it's just for a year." That sticks. It's a important continuity structure.
237It It's so important and if I just can't get behind it. So I really hope that as a district we are very creative and if we're going to spend money somewhere that's where I'd like to put money and figure out a way somewhere else that we can it's not going to be popular either but trim the fat because these babies need support. They need to start this journey off in a way that is whole and feels connected to their community. We're lucky to be in this community. And I just don't want our kids to um not be a part of that, not experience that from the beginning. Two seconds to spare. Trusty Schmas, you're next. Did Did you choose an option? Just right now it's just discussion. We don't have to have an action, right?
238But do do you have a preferred option that you want to mention? No, it's info and discussion, but it looks like staff is looking for a recommendation and a choice to be made for direction as far as option one, two, or three this evening. I would also argue that it's so early. We don't even have final numbers. I don't with our recommendation. Thank you. So, no, it sounds like we don't have to give you don't have to give an option. If you want to, you're welcome to, but you're an addition one for me. I I just think that, you know, yes, summer babies, but it's always going to be that it's continual, you know, where you you're going to have to draw a line somewhere. I mean, you saw the whole list of how we
239went from dates to dates to dates. I mean, it's continual. Uh what we can do as a district is, you know, provide good uh preschool options. I mean, and I'm not worried about um kindergarteners uh having to go to maybe a different school simply because we have such good teachers. They're going to feel welcome and you know, it's um it's life. Uh we have two schools. We have two really, really good elementary schools. And I hate the fact that they get kind of compared against each other. And I wish we would I wish we didn't even call them neighborhood schools because it gives that impression. And and listen, I you know, I this is something I've been I dealt with back in 97, okay? This is not new. It's not new, but you know, at
240what when I first came on the board, all the kindergarteners went to David Avenue. All of them. And then we broke that up and put them back to I don't even know why, but we did. So, but I mean, guess what? They survived, you know? I mean so yes it's it it seems emotional but try to look at it from you know some other supportive places parents can make the difference here whether parents are all stressed out you know then the kids get stressed out if parents go well you know we'll do it and we'll be okay you know the kids take their cue from that but the teachers I don't care what site you're that you got good good good teachers and they'll take care of those kids. But anyway, I'm option one because
241we can't afford the other two options. Excellent. One minute and 30 seconds to spare. Trusty Wax. Um I won't take up the full time, but Dr. Adamson, when you were talking about rep uh Assembly Member Addis and you said next school year, you mean 26 27, correct? Correct. Yes. Okay. Um, and I won't give any direction because that's not my job tonight, but I I would be curious. I don't know anything about their fiscal situation, but PG Pride just did had this big fundraiser. So, I would be interested in maybe seeing if there are some grant opportunities from them. I don't like the idea of funding public school through donations and that sort of thing, but um if the public feels strongly one way or another about it, I think that might be a good
242source um of of funding. Awesome. Thank you. That was amazing. You see how quick that was? That was that was the fastest I think I've ever heard you speak. Yeah. Okay. No, go ahead. No, it's fine. um because then you're going to have the crunch time for the clock. So, yeah, exactly. I'm in the last minute. I'm not going to take up too much more time. Um I do appreciate all the input we've gotten from the community on um both the early enrollment issue and um concerns regarding placement. Um I think Trusty Shamas covered some of what I would have said. Um, but I acknowledged too that like 6 years ago I was a kindergarten parent and it was really scary to think that my kid could go to a different school. Um, at that
243time TK was all housed at Forest Grove. So my kids did have classmates who went to Forest Grove for one year and then went to Robert Down. And the beautiful thing about our community is like we're 2 by two square miles. So you see each other at extracurriculars, you see each other at the sports, you see each other everywhere. And I really want to stay away from the idea that we have like the neighborhood school because I feel like it just divides us further. Um, and there's enough of that. Um, and for what it's worth, both of my kids went through Forest Grove from TK through fifth grade. Had a fantastic experience. I have a summer baby who's a boy born in June. And like I don't think whether or not he went through TK
244is really going to determine his lot in life. There are so many more things. And so teaching them that they can be resilient no matter what their first year of education looks like. Um I think that's on us as the adults in the room too to be able to say like hey we're going to get through this. This may not be ideal and it may not be what you had hoped for and it's going to be okay cuz we're in a great district. We have exceptional schools and exceptional teachers at both schools. So and for budgetary reasons which we've been discussing for the last four months. Um option one for me. So how was that on time? Awesome. We are well ahead. So, I'm going to hope we'll have some time to maybe read the
245comment at the end of the board just to get it on the record um from the public, but we'll do that last if there's time. Um I wanted to ensure I said it quickly, but you know, for everyone in the community again that has reached out, thank you so much. It's important to hear those voices, but it's important to say again, we have time before we know enrollment numbers. I know people want guarantees. It's I won't I wish I had some guarantees in my life right now. I'll just say on a personal level. Um, but that's not always the way it could happen. And we need to know enrollment numbers before we know this about the sites. And you bring up a good point, um, Trusty McNary, too. One site in the future might be
246the best answer. And that might just be based on facilities, that might be based on needs, it might be based on enrollment. And that's something we have to consider. And I'm not saying necessarily one site for reconfiguration purposes, using the dreaded rword, but one site for TK. um if that's something that's part of the facilities master planning document because again there's we do have two amazing schools in our elementary school um portfolio. The creativity that was mentioned same thing I'll just say again it's not just I I really like the idea of taking maybe the older TK kids with younger kindergarten kids if that's a way to make a new class and you know potentially um you know broach some of these issues. But you know the other point is I don't trust our government
247right now to do what we need to get the funding for these sort of things. So I do want to say like I do see us if we take option one this year um that it's a this year thing how do how do we work to get towards option two in you know the next year or two. Again the point was made we are doing riffs this year. I agree this is such an important thing but it's hard for me to say that this needs to be a priority above you know X Y and Z some of the especially some of the positions that we've we've had to you know issue rifts to. So those are my comments. Sorry we're not giving you many questions but hopefully it's at least giving a little bit of
248direction. Very helpful. Thank you. Okay. Um can I just clarify something because I don't want my comments to be skewed at all. When I'm talking about kids going to school in their community, I'm talking about the community of their school. I'm not talking about this neighborhood school versus that neighborhood school. This is not about Robert Down versus Forest Grove by any means. What this is is about it is about if a child is being taken out of Forest Grove to move to Robert Down, he's leaving he or she is leaving that community. I'm saying continuity is important for kids. I am not going to sit up here and tell a parent how to act in their home or how to parent their child or if they should show stress or not show stress. We're human
249beings. It comes out in all different ways. And so it is not my space to sit up here and say anything about that. And I don't think that we should govern how people raise their kids. I'm saying that community has come forward. We are a culture of we. That's what we're talking about. And if we are not endorsing that, then those we need to stand behind our words is what I'm saying. And I don't want this to be switched into something that's Forest Grove against Robert Down and it's some dramatic, you know, us against you. That's not what this is. This is about keeping kids in their community and not pulling them out partway through. Right. But but we have had I mean I'm just making the record again that trust we have had the
250kids that do TK at Forest Grove in the past. So I agree with you like in an ideal world but I mean Monterey has shut down schools recently and had to reconfigure and you know mine K through eight in one. I'm not talking about Monterey and I'm not talking about what's happened in the past. I'm talking about how we're moving forward and how we're moving forward in our new culture of we is to support these kids in the community that they're forming. And I don't think it's hopefully it doesn't happen. But I'm I'm just saying that it is my wish that we'll do absolutely everything possible to not do that because then you do end up with a parent that has a kids that's in second grade, let's say at Forest Grove, and then their
251child is at going in TK. You're shaking your head, but I'm That's not one of the priorities we've laid out in our ARS is that you wouldn't separate siblings. So again, I I just don't want to put fear out there. That is not something I I really do believe then we need to be super clear about it because the emails that I'm receiving are emails that are people are being fearful. So there's a list of priorities and it'd be great to have numbers and I realize we can't do much now and I guess now I'm off on a tangent but I just wanted to make sure that my comment was received in the way that it was meant to be received and it is not Forest Grove versus Robert Down and you know it was
252a point about continuity I think and that was and just didn't want it to be taken out of context by making it a war between schools because that's not and I don't think that that's where others are coming from either it is people when they say neighborhood school it is people wanting to walk their child to school that's the neighborhood they're talking about understood um can I suggest that we read that is that okay to read the chat just so it's on the record for everybody and then we can adjourn at the chat there was a comment that wasn't able to actually make because of microphone issues so I just want it to be part of the record so we're getting full public input as possible That's good. I I can read it. That'd be
253great. Uh from Vanessa, I have a summer baby who didn't qualify for TK this year. We have loved the co-op preschool, but that fact uh but that fact is that when she joins with her cohort in first grade, she will be one of the youngest student with only one year of elementary school and now potentially moving between schools as she is also an only child and wouldn't have priority. I don't love hearing quote this is life end quote and quote they survived end quote how can our kids have such different experiences based on their birthday thank you so much for your comments um with that I think we've given some direction we I mean the direction to be that some people have preferences for option one some have preferences for option three and what I'm
254saying is direction to come back to us when enrollment numbers are higher so we can actually make the decision need to make not direction on which option to take just direction as a board on our opinions. I think that's a valid thing to say. Um with that, yeah, we have future agenda items. I would propose we just kick that and adjourn the meeting unless someone really feels strongly otherwise. Few minutes. Thank you guys so much. I'll adjourn at 10:27. It's