PGUSD Board Meeting February 6, 2025

001this calling to order the pgusd school board uh regular meeting on February 6 2025 and I'll start with our land acknowledgement so um good evening as we begin this meeting it's important to pay respect to and acknowledge that we are on the traditional lands of the oone costan and esselin people and additionally pay respect to Elders both past and present so I think we have now a quick roll call vote absolutely president Dr Hazen I am here C McNary here trusty otmar is on her way trusty shamas here and trusty WX here and next item uh with four out of five of us the adoption of the agenda are there any Walk-Ons or things we need to be aware of no Walk-Ons but that there is one adjustment the student presentation that we had scheduled

002is not going to happen it was our culinary arts group uh from the high school and they have a big competition coming up in Los Angeles so uh we will have them in March indeed so yes nothing for this evening fortunity Grace so um with that is there any public comments on the agenda as presented either online or in the room seeing none the board any discussion questions concerns okay if not I will make a motion to approve the agenda without our unfortunate presentation but totally understandable since they're competing can I get a second I'll second so the m was made by myself and seconded by trusty shamas and with that we will take a vote to approve the agenda um you're welcome to vote or not on this one all in favor please say

003I I I I um any opposed that passes 5 Z so with that I will identify the close session topics right and then we will adjourn so we are going to meet in close session to consider matter matters appropriate in accordance with and gov code so item one is negotiations collective bargaining session planning and prep with the pgta for 2425 government code 35491 um negotiations number two collective bargaining session planning and prep with the cssea for 2425 government code 35 49.1 um item three is Public Employee discipline dismissal release leave complaint government code 54957 and then we also have the superintendent goals review midyear check-in so do we have any public comment online or in the room on these items seeing none I will go ahead and adour to close session it is currently 6:30

004I'm gathering us back into Open Session and I will start by reporting action taken and close session for item one negotiations information was received in Direction given for pgta item two negotiations with CSA information is received um item three Public Employee displine dismissal release leave complaint information was received and input was given and then we're pushing item four till after the meeting so with that we are now doing the pledge of allegiance and maybe Beth can I ask you to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance this evening thank you so much and we're now going to jump right into item four Communications we were very fortunate to have a little taste from The Culinary Club that's going down to La next weekend I'll just quickly say on that that um they had shrimp and

005grits and growing up in the South the best shrimp and grits I've ever had was in pugan porch in Charleston South Carolina and this was really darn close so congrats to them it was really impressive um so first Communications we have our student rep um leading us off item a hi oh sorry um I'm ASB Vice and I'm here to give our report on Pacific gr high school so first off um all of our students students have picked their classes for next year and our seniors are applying or waiting for responses from colleges trade schools and Military um thanks to M Mr Keller Mr Morrison and Mr leam our digital Marquee panel is in main hall and now fully functional this has been very helpful in the past couple weeks in providing timely information to

006students in real time each day our ASB events so far um last week we had a winter ball on the first um our winter sports rally was today and our winter sports week was all this week it went very well and next week we have a feel the love Spirit Week for Valentine's Day um some sports updates are wrestling the boys team competed in the Cypress division championships of pcal last Wednesday and division weight champions from PJ s were Darius hutchingson Timothy sa sabala Jimmy lier and Adam modder girls basketball team has continued their undefeated season with another League win over Stevenson in the past week and girls and boys basketball will both be competing in the CCS playoffs and for Community High School the students at Community High School started the New Year in

007an exciting fashion as they had each the opportunity to tour Montery Peninsula College on January 16th 2025 included on the tour was a presentation by the NPC professor of psychology along with a picnic lunch trip and a trip to the campus student union to experience Student Life at MPC and that's it thank you so much and so we're going to go around for um board member comments reading Communications I think um why don't we start with trusty shamas and head towards me and with trustey wack so that's okay okay um I received emails regarding um importance of stem and steam education um the Spanish teacher um mental health therapists um digital learning teacher and consequences of proposed budget cuts concerns of proposed budget cuts and um yeah so so I'm sure we all got those

008same emails and appreciate everyone voicing their concerns and um we take that seriously um the other thing I want to say is I went to the pg High basketball game last night it was so fun so fun and uh so great to see the gym pretty full for girls basketball so um and it was like old home week there were so many alumni there and their parents and um old teachers and coach buler was there I mean it was it was a really fun night so kudos to them thank you um so I also received many many emails um about tonight's packet um Spanish mental health everything I'm sure that we all received um I read them all multiple times just I want to say that out loud multiple times um and we do take

009those emails very seriously thank you very much for everybody that took the time to write to us it's important that we hear your voices um so we know how you feel and how the community feels um I also went to I went to the boys basketball game last week that was super fun I'm looking forward to the game on the 14th so that should be a blast and I think that's also senior night am I right so I'm looking forward to that um ditto on all of the written Communications and thank you to everyone who has written and texted and um reached out um I think I'm going to start with a bit more of a serious note and um that's just because there's so much going on in our community in our state in

010our country and um specifically with regard to our lgbtq plus Community um and I know that we are in California and the legal proe protections for non-binary and transgender youth um haven't changed but there is a lot of increased national attention and so this is going to have an impact and it already is um so the state has put out resources that if you're a young person um or someone who's young that you care about is in distress there is the 998 lifeline and never aba.org and the saluna app um as resources for anyone who needs to talk um and as a board I think we can say that no matter who you are or what your story is like you belong here in pgusd um and and during these really crazy times I think

011we all need a little joy and so for me that has been music um and I didn't grow up um in the musical arts but I have a middle schooler who is an aspiring thesbian and very talented and so I had the honor of going to the CCS Honor Choir performance in Watsonville over the weekend and these are kiddos who participate in their school choir and then try out to be part of an Honor Choir they we had about five kiddos from the middle school and I think nine or 10 from the high school along with Mr merer and Mrs bullar and the kids practice for two full day straight singing all day long with their fellow choir mates from other campuses and on Sunday they come together for a show and it's just it's

012just beautiful I mean it's so moving to listen to the creativity and see the hard work and the love and the joy and the passion that they pour into their Craft um and so for me that was really big highlight um and for anybody else who is looking for another highlight or some fun I am a Middle School Parent so this is kind of where my my weekend's full um Madagascar this weekend the middle school is putting on there are shows on Friday night Saturday twice and Sunday um it's been put on by Mrs bullar and Ashley beam and there are so many kids in the production and they are dressing up as animals and if you have them middle school or no middle schooler you know what a big deal that is to be

013willing to dress up as a penguin because it's middle school so um I encourage you if you have a couple hours this weekend to come out check it out it will be hilarious and a really good time so thanks that's my comments thank you so much and just following on trust MC's comments our district culture of Wei does take the safety of belonging of our students first and foremost and so even if you don't feel that way now Al right now you're not alone there's a lot of people that feel that way and here at the district we hope it's a safe space and um I will finish or start and finish somber unfortunately tonight but I just do want to recognize that this is a Beyond difficult time for many people personally and professionally

014we're in Uncharted Territory with constant uncertainty and challenges that can weigh heavily on us as individuals and as a community the federal Administration is discussing the dissolution of the Department of Education right now for pgusd Fe that the elimination of this department would jeopardize Federal funding programs supporting students with disabilities and and initiatives that would promote education of all of our students so I do plan on asking tonight the district office what this should mean in terms of loss of funding and resources later I also want to emphasize that I recognize the importance of a job not just in terms of salary but identity it's a source of purpose connection and stability it provides a sense of belonging and the opportunity to contribute to something larger than ourselves so jobs not only provide the financial

015security at a stake but also the relationships routines and shared goals that give our days meaning so these positives we Sorry these positions we are discussing tonight make a positive difference in our District's children's lives so I recognize this personally more than many in the room might know but also as a board member and I carry the weight of the decisions with me these decisions are not taken lightly so I will end my comments there and move on now to the superintendent oh sorry trusty wax thank you very much I will end with trusty wax like I was saying um good evening thanks for coming um in terms of communication I have also received uh the emails um advocating in favor of keeping positions um but within those emails are also um testimony about how

016amazing all teachers but uh the teachers under consideration for um a reduction are and it's it's a horrible way to get a compliment but it is still a compliment um just how much you impact everyone's lives um so for everyone in the audience thank you thank you so much um along with some other board members uh there is a air of un uncertainty about what's happening in the nation and I'm only going to speak for myself but I saw that um LAUSD uh has this card on their website um and I I realize that a majority of our population will not be affected by this but you know it's I think there's a service in spreading the word um so you do have constitutional rights do not open the door if an immigration agent is

017knocking on the door do not answer any questions from an immigration agent if they try to talk to you you have the right to remain silent do not sign anything without speaking first to the lawyer you have the right to speak with the lawyer if you are outside of your home ask the agent if you are free to leave and if they say yes leave calmly uh give this card to the agent if you are inside of your home show the card through the window or slide it under the door um there is a flood of things happening which is part of the strategy of uh the new Administration to enact their goals which I understand um but along with the culture of Wii and the administr the new administration's current focus on dii I

018think it's important to remember that it's um that they're they're currently not targeting um inclusion in the future they are erasing um inclusion of the past they're removing the story of the tus gmen they are um taking away the history of women programmers and and people who serve um and that is uh the Dark Ages um to me that is modeling up history and um worth and it is very much telling the story of History just through a very particular lens and I I have many disagreements with the administ rtion um on a variety of things but this is truly one of the more well I won't even rank it because I think there are lots of damaging things um but it is alarming and um I think as a community in our small in

019my small position we have to call it what it is um and I think what's also highlighted by everyone in this audience um versus the quote unquote process of what's Happening nationally this is transparent this is a discussion I will speak for myself but as you he heard everyone values your input and that is what a democracy is in my opinion um so I think we're going about it the right way and also I'd like to remind everyone that right now now tonight is not the beginning of a process but depending on your scope we are in the middle of it everything that is happening is because of housing costs enrollments lack of child care because people have fewer kids and then we get less money as a district so nothing is siloed off to

020itself when you are thinking about issues as I am now especially in this uh privilege role I think we have to think about how everything interconnects that we are not just making a decision on the thing that we decide on but it's lasting effects so when we um take away child care that is a financial implication for many people that affects our community down the line and that is what we are dealing with uh right now as we approach these topics so uh I appreciate you all for being here oh man I totally forgot this one communication thing too Miss Grogan has emailed twice this is a real nonse or and a real tangent but miss Grogan has emailed twice about poetry out loud and uh congratulations I don't I forget if Juliet mentioned it

021but congratulations to Liliana p p l p uh great job you are uh the third place in the Poetry out loud and that's radical so congratulations thank you so much for ending us on a high note there too that was important to me um we now have the superintendent report Dr Adamson well we took one off my list so thank you for that trusty work it's wonderful very exciting um just before I start you know the beautiful artwork around us I hope you take some time just to admire it again thank you to Forest Grove um Mrs Carrie serper in the room here just for letting us have it and we we're going to keep it in in very good guardianship right on Ocean Guardian so thank you for that appreciate it um you know

022I just also want to start by acknowledging just that it's so wonderful even though it's not for for good reason to have this room filled uh with so many of you and uh who are here tonight for a very important topic that's number one on our agenda this evening um so I just want to call that out I know several of our trustees have said that just that we are so we're grateful for you for your advocacy for being here a part of the process um you know and and I know it's it's hard decisions that uh that Li in store of and there'll be plenty of time to talk about that but I really just want to start by acknowledging and thanking you all for showing up this evening even with the weather right

023you know and so you're here for important reasons and we appreciate that um I did want to just mention mention to Juliet I was at the high school earlier this week and it was I did not even know that there was a digital Marquee and now that it's working so again just kudos to the um Mr Amira and Mr Kell there for getting that back up and running and uh it's just a great way of advertising some of the great things that are happening there so good for you um I know it's been kindness week the last you know few weeks at at all of and all of our schools have in some way done something to celebrate that I was invited to Forest Grove today for a jamy or Jammy dance Jammy jamy Jam

024dance party um I wasn't able to make it because we just had a lot going on here today but I'm so sad I missed it but I'm sure it was you know wonder if I look forward to seeing some photos for that but what a great way right to spread kindness dancing and pajamas um the oh you cancel it oh so I will have to perfect I will be there good in my Jamies um okay so that was that one let's see and then I was you know just privileged enough to attend uh Robert Down's book Night Last Friday Night to read to students uh you know it was raining I know that evening and really cold so I know the participation was a little lower than it's been I I got to do it

025last year but it was so just how awesome to see all the students there cozy eating popcorn uh and so many of teachers they reading and and parents as well uh to students at principal Brownfield I did a really great book as well and so just wonderful you know I think anytime we can be in front of students and share that that Joy with them the love of of reading um I did want to say just tying a little to what you've you know were referencing as far as you know just immigration policies and you a little bit of that fear that's within our community now and everything you were writing about you know reading about knowing your rights I just want to do a shout out to uh principal Martinez and assistant principal Arts

026uh they held uh Tuesday earlier this week at the adult school a class specifically on that topic for uh we offer a class here through the adult school on immigration and uh and uh English is a second language uh for for adult Learners and so for many of them you know those are applic they're going through that process the immigration process now to already become citizens and so um it was really just incredible information and just a really good safe space you know to allow everyone to learn more about you know what those rights are so again thank you for offering that I did want to mention I had a wonderful H visit here at the district office today in my office from paraprofessionals Mr Neely and Mrs Vanessa who are both with our adult

027transition program uh was located at The Adult School uh but they came out with two of their students uh today to interview uh me and my uh assistant Mrs vus uh to really ask questions about they are in the process of putting together a recycling program and so they are visiting all of our schools and interviewing the principals and staff there uh but I got to be first and they had 15 questions for me that they had collaborated on together uh using technology a little bit of AI as well but I was there were some questions that you know lucer had to help me with a little as well and uh you know just kind of asking along the lines of it I won't go into detail with it but yeah they they were they

028were pretty in-depth questions that they had so just a wonderful opportunity and such a great way of showcasing you know our our students that particular program on really building Innovation and creativity uh and empowering our students uh they were so professional in the way they articulated themselves taking notes as they went and just an honor I'll be highlighting it in my next newsletter for sure but had to you know to share that um also got to visit you made mention uh Dr Hazen of uh Chef Erikson's uh kinary class and so they were originally you know scheduled to present the beginning today they'll be coming back in March they have a huge competition uh coming up uh towards the end of February uh it's a state competition where they'll be the entire culinary arts team

029will be performing but they we got to have a little bit of a taste test uh tonight and they may be back a little later tonight so if you uh stick around you may get to taste a little of it yourselves but so impressive three course meal this is sort of you know five-star restaurant level um you know food that they're preparing and I'm eager to see how they do in in Los Angeles they're all really excited about that but I got to talk with them in their class earlier this week and just really hear about the process looking at the menu how developed it and just a lot of incredible learning that they're all taking on um I did just want to you know share out we had our community engagement event last week

030Wednesday at Forest Grove I want to really just acknowledge and thank Dr hagquist for his coordination of that all of our our site leaders and staff who were there representing and sharing out the work that uh you have all done uh towards your uh cultural proficiency planning um it wasn't as attended as well as we would have hoped and we also ended up not having a lot of time as much time as we had planned for uh feedback at the end and so we will be scheduling in the very uh near in the immediate weeks a followup of that a part two where we can really just purely Focus that on input and really working at promoting that more so we can get more families there to he voices and anyway my you know last

031piece speaking of community input we have got a couple of those events that will also be starting in March and April March you will uh be seeing uh Flyers coming out soon on our uh Community invent to um input uh session to get input on our facilities master plan and as you'll recall that is specifically uh something that we'll be putting together to identify priority projects based on community input uh to identify how we'll be spending the funds from major B which our community uh you know so unan unanimously and graciously really voted for at the last election so that will be forthcoming I really encourage you all to be a part of that we'll have staff sessions Community sessions we really want to be sure we capture everyone's input and then elcap input sessions

032will be starting as well so you'll be seeing notifications for all of those coming forth really I think I'm gonna go ahead and stop there and hand it back to you EXC I think we have next the safety report all right thank you so quick storm update mon County continues to be other underwea uh severe weather watch and uh strong winds and rain expected through this week and next week we'll continue to monitor the weather and send out uh timely updates to families regarding transport and safety conditions at our campuses uh big five you can see these are up here at the dis but we now have our big five flip charts they've been delivered to each one of the school sites all the classrooms and offices will display them uh each trustee has one

033and then we have one in the hallway there um this is a quite an upgrade from I think what we had in the past in the classrooms which might have been there for about 20 years so good good information and it's what we're training on regularly and routinely at our school sites uh the Santo County Office of Education along with mcoe our County Office education held the uh big five train the trainer cohort on February 5th from 2: to 4:00 p.m. uh both director Martinez and principal side Brownfield attended uh some of the topics that were uh were covered were the review of the big five protocols development of inclusive practices upcoming changes and additional guidance forthcoming uh cohort members will also have the chance to debrief regarding current trainings future trainings challenges and successes

034so um more to come alongside uh on the big five training with our uh County education uh we do have an active shooter attack attack prevention and preparedness training uh at the high school in on March 6 from 345 to 445 uh that is also sponsored by the mon County Office of Education in partnership with the FBI uh San Francisco office uh to arrange active shooter prevention and preparedness TR preparedness training for all high school Educators and staff additional information uh related to that item will be released over catapult as we progress uh some other items and training over at the adult school the Medics for Life CPR infant uh child adult first aid training is being held on March 17th uh the Medics for life will train 25 of our adult our Adult School

035staff uh CPR AEG training and first aid training uh under our uh General threat and assessment training U our all of our sites have now been trained on the we got your back trained the trainer instructions that took place over the course of a few weeks at our at our four School sites all School sites have completed the training and we're going to roll out the we got your back training curriculum in the spring uh and continue to supplement that curricular uh material with big S Big Five safety training and that's it for my safety update thank you so much um so now we're on to item five individuals Desiring to address the board and so I do want to remind I'm going to read this out this is specifically on items that are non-agenda

036items that we're starting with we will have other time for agenda items but this will be the time when I kind of re the rules so to speak and it's small but I think I still don't need glasses yet um public comment on any item of interest to the public that is within the board's jurisdiction will be heard the board will also take public comment on each specific action item prior to the board action on each item any individual wishing to comment on a specific item on the current agenda are currently asked to wait until that item is being discussed the board will allow a reasonable amount of time for public comment on each agend agenda item not to exceed three minutes per speaker and no more than 20 minutes per agenda item pursu to

037board policy 9323 just a quick update or comment on this is because there are so many people in the room at the end of 20 minutes um the board can vote to extend the public comment so if we're approaching that I'll just remind folks in the room if you're to say something that's already been said I do encourage you to keep you know time in mind give them support for what they said but um not need to take the whole three minutes again and go over that time the speakers will be called sequentially from online and then in the room until there is no speaker coming forward on the agenda by item or the amount of time allocated for the agenda item has elapsed whichever comes first this meeting of the board of education is

038a business meeting of the board conducted in public so please note that 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 for if there's any non-agenda items uh if we have any community members here in the room or online we'll start one in the room and then go online thanks my name is no make sure you're sorry mic there thank you good evening staff members board my name is Mo Amar and uh I had the fortune of having three kids go through Pacific Grove UniFi school district and I'm happy to report to you that every one of them has done exceptionally well thanks to the program thanks to the

039teachers and thanks to PG unified I'm very proud of my kids and their accomplishment this year I have two kids at Forest Grove and next Gras and next year I'll have four grandkids at Forest Grove and the reason I'm before you is to share with you that I live right across the street from the high school and you are a great neighbor I I live in best shas's neighborhood I'm thank thank you for allowing us to use the gym and the all the facilities and the track and I can can be happier uh finally I'd like to share with you that around a month ago I had a minor concern with Forest growth that I brought to the attention of principal art burn and I just wanted to share with you the experience that I

040had she was simply amazing she was professional she was cous and I'll tell you I've never met her but I I could not believe a public servant she belongs at the rich scon or a beach company uh she went out of her way to make me happy and and I thank you uh for doing that and then my last comment is for 30 years I served on the local board and I administered a local board and I know the position you're in and I know it's a very very very difficult position and I know it's not it may be on the agenda but I just want to tell you they do a phenomenal job and we live we selected Pacific Globe because of the school district and because of the teachers and I could live

041anywhere in the world but this is where I want to be and I'm hoping that my great grandkids would go to Pacific Grove unified thank you very much thank you very much for your comments we're gonna jump online real quick and then we'll come right back to in person so thank you Tom sorry Gibbs hey Mike Gibbs you have three minutes yes thank you it's Mike Gibbs thank you for showing up on this uh kind of crazy evening with the weather um I a frequent uh speaker here and uh I understand that there's some changes coming in the school district and I'm not here to remind anybody except what the facts are and Pacific growth school districts has experienced uh drops of enrollment and uh the scores are uh mirroring what's going on in the

042United States and they're not where they should be um I know there's a lot of concern about the what's going on with the Department of Education I just went online and uh the federal website for the Department of Education is temporary temporarily U suspended but what I would like to say is is that everybody is concerned and the about budgets and money and this is only going to get get more severe as we go forward but I'd like to remind everybody that the Department of Education at the federal level has a 240$ 240 billion budget and the stated goal by this Administration is to return to return $240 billion in Block rants in Block rants to State and local districts right so that's I have no reason to not believe that that's going to happen

043uh so I think we should just hold our water a little bit and actually see what happens and it may turn out to be the kind of a thing that it will be more money and more local control not less let's see uh Mr wax mentioned that uh I didn't quite get the comment but something to the effect that the T Tuskegee Airmen were were erased I'm not sure what the comment was um that's not simply not true uh and I didn't hear Mr wax mention that the last Tuskegee Airman whose name is Henry Harry Stewart he was the last of 355 Tuskegee Airmen he passed away on Sunday at age 100 they had a glorious service they've been honored for the service and they should be honored for the service and I don't believe

044anybody has any intention of erasing the history of those fine service members to this country last thing I would mention is that the na scores were reported a few months ago and scores dropped again across the United States and particularly for minority students so I'm looking for federal money coming back to State and local districts uh for a better even better education at the Civic Grove unified school district thank you thank you for your comments back to the room thank you very much Dr haen trustees uh superintendent uh I am Dr Tom Moore I'm president of the mon Peninsula soccer league and also of California soccer association North I apologize for the mask I was not feeling so generous as to want to share the cold I have with any of you in the room

045instead uh if it's possible I'd like to call up principal omea or uh Stan po here either the coaches I don't know if any of them are here um as many of you know for the past 15 years we have been running a fundraising program uh over at Pacific Grove High School in support of the boys and girls uh High School soccer teams uh the past year we actually had a very good year um I think maybe post covid folks wanted to get out and uh do some more exercise I can't guarantee that we'll have a good year next year like this but I would like to present two checks uh one is for uh $975 for the boys high school soccer team and the other is for $975 for the girls soccer team request

046and that brings the total over the past 15 years to $144,500 127 that we raised for the programs here uh I can tell you that our players and our team managers very much appreciate uh the ability to make use of the stadium facility so we thank you very much for your excellent cooperation I hope we can continue this going forward and we are looking to expand the program in a kind of unique way if anyone has ever heard of walking soccer where no one's allowed to run we'd like to try and do some demonstration games I hear there might be some folks some buyers in the uh in the local audience so we will keep you posted as we go forward on that so thank you very much thank you very much for the comments

047and the donations as well um no one else online no one else in the room okay one more for the room y quickly it is the week of the school counselor and so I'd like to say thank you to the school counselors for all the support that they give us at all levels we couldn't do our jobs without them and they really make this place the culture of we that we all say is important thank you thank you very much for the comments Sera and with that we will go on to pgus the oh staff comments y okay no one online no one in the room we will now go to item six the consent agenda so items listed under the consent agenda are considered to be routine and may have been discussed at a

048previous board meeting there's no discussion of these items prior to the board vote unless a member of the board requests specific items to be discussed or removed from the consent agenda each item on a consent agenda approved by the Board of Trustees shall be deemed to have been considered in full and adopted as recommended so we now will open up to public comment for items this is items a through Q on consent and if anyone has any questions or concerns they want to raise public no okay no public comment um board discussion did anyone have any oh one raisee okay on consent yes please online looks like meler you can't hear I can hear me yes yes thank you so I'm Miss Bei I'm the mental health therapist for Forest Grove and Robert town I've

049been doing this for 15 years and the children are the reason why I do what I do and they drive me and the teacher drive me and the admin are my biggest cheerleaders and that's what I wanted to say so I am privileged and honored to have had had this experience with you all whatever you guys decide whatever happens tonight let it be whatever whatever it is it may be whatever it is that's all okay thank you sir this is comments for consent agenda though so we'll take those into account I appreciate you um raising them but this these are items a through Q on consent um with that do we have any board discussion on these items any around nope not seeing any okay with that would anyone like to make a motion to

050approve concept I'll make a motion to to approve consent on staff's recommendation okay motion by trust MC can I get a second I'll second seconded by trust shamas so all in favor please say I passes oh all oppos please say nay okay it passes 5- Z so now we're on to um item seven information discussion item staff recommendation for reductions and this is um Chief Rogan's item I think who's I'm going to go ahead and open it up and then chief program and will be sort of just walking us through some of the proposals that we have so um you know I wanted to start by saying that you know obviously this next item we're tending through this presentation to address our District's Financial Outlook uh and obviously also in addition to that propos proposed

051necessary adjustments that we are bringing forward uh for our staffing and programs before we begin I want to start by just acknowledging the weight and impact uh of these decisions every position and program that we're discussing in relation to the budget represents dedicated professionals that who have served our students and community and I think as has been expressed those are not decisions that are taken lightly that many districts across our state were currently facing the expiration of onetime federal and state funding this was funding that was provided for post-pandemic learning recovery and mental health support while funding allowed us to implement valuable programs and higher additional staff it was never intended as a permanent funding source which is why we are not now faced with making some of those difficult reductions our current projections for

052this year and two subsequent fiscal years show a deficit which now requires our action to ensure our District's long-term fiscal stability as we navigate these challenges we're trying to be guided by two principles and I think this will be something that I know is going to come up through the discussion even through through input because I think number one that ability for us to allocate our Resources with student needs are greater so think that obviously has you know been the number one priority and then maintaining essential services that directly impact student achievement I think it's important to note uh as we go through what we're presenting this evening as far as those proposals and again I want to be very clear that these are proposals uh the positions that are being considered for reduction uh

053not all of them are necessarily funded through one-time dollars in tonight's proposal that you'll see that we have uh prioritized maintaining two Mental Health positions and our elementary intervention support which clearly are two areas uh where students needs We Believe are greatest keeping these essential Services of course means making reductions in other areas while I know that these are difficult decisions we as a district do have a fiduciary responsibility that requires us to take action to correct the ongoing deficit spending in which we currently find ourselves the recommendations that we're presenting this evening to the board uh reflect consideration of both our fiscal obligations and our commitment to Student Success but that that said I'm now going to ask Chief rogman our chief uh Human Resources officer to really walk us through some of those

054proposals and give a little bit more information and rational behind each of them Chief rogman thank you Dr Adamson I'm H Buck rogman the Chief Human Resources officer for pgusd and um just want to Echo the words that uh you gave um about just how difficult uh the recommendations uh are to all all of us in the uh room um and uh talk a little bit about the considerations that uh guided um the decisions that were made to bring these Rec recommendations forward um first of all when we're looking at the con considerations we're looking at the uh ones that are budgetary in nature um at the first interim report in uh the month of October um the district was facing an $868,000 um de deficit to the unrestricted general fund um this is the

055key number when we're looking at the de deficit because this is the fund that relies on a continuing source of funding to come in to help us uh keep a balanced budget um currently the budget is not balanced um that we are facing a deficit of $868,000 another one of the budgetary conerns that we have is the expiration of one-time funding some of the some of the positions that we T that we're going to be talking about here this evening are funded through One onetime funds some uh some of them were funded out of the general fund and then when onetime funding became available where we would be able to fund those Services Under onetime funding we adopted that funding in nature and once those um funds begin to expire um the unrestricted general fund

056has to take them on again and then the third factor with uh the budget is that we're looking at um multiple years of deficit deficit spending which is uh leading us to the point where we are this this evening when we were looking at Staffing as far as the conversation goes we um we're looking to match the Staffing to our to our student needs Dr Adamson alluded to that in some of her opening comments um we also are looking to staff according to the con contractual class uh goals and not the maximum class sizes so when we're looking at the reduction of staff at um any of our sites one of the things that we wanted to do is make sure that we could maintain Staffing levels that would be sufficient to maintain um the

057goals that are written into the contract and not um staffed all the way to the maximum and then uh thirdly uh we're also looking at a reduction in the goods and services Services uh expenditures that the district has um as far as the adjustments to the budget that we're looking at here tonight um what we're looking at are reductions as well as additions and then also additions using existing funds to offset the contribution to the Gen general fund so what's going to be presented here this evening are going to be a series of reductions to help us address that $870,000 um structural deficit that we have but we're also going to be looking at additions that we need to make at uh some of our sites in order to um ensure that we can meet

058student needs um for those pro programs and then we're uh also going to look to see areas where we currently have um contracts for services where we could eliminate the contract for services and hire staff using the money that's currently being spent on those contract for services just want to let folks in the room and folks on on line know that when you see the funding amounts that are attached to either the reductions or the additions what you're looking at there's a figure that represents the salary as well as the statutory benefits and so what that means is the contribution to health care as well as um the contribution to the State Retirement System in the case of uh the State teachers retirement system in case of the certificated staff and then also the Public

059Employee Retirement System when we are looking at our classified staff um the goods and services reduction um that uh we've been charged with is a minimum of a 3% reduction to all Department budgets that minimum uh standard that we're looking at would result in a savings of $131,000 all of the Departments are going to make um as much of a cut as we possibly can so 3% isn't the goal it's the it's the floor that each of the Departments that are going to looking at making cuts are going to try to exceed that 3% limit to the greatest extent that we can as we work through the budget de development process we are going to be looking to cut any extraneous expenditures that we current currently have so that we can alleviate the pressure on

060um the budget deficit and then retain as much staff as possible um in terms of the reductions that are being recommended first of all at the district District or itinerate level um the first uh is taking our principal and special assignment and re reassigning the principle officially to be the assistant principal at the high school currently the principal on special assignment is serving as the principal of the high school but this um re assignment would result in a savings of approximately nine n ,000,000 the other itinerant put position uh that we're looking at is the Dig digital learning teacher uh position um that is uh a position that provides um digital lessons in in including steam lessons to uh our students in grades K through 8 um as well as adding uh support at the

061district level um for our director of ed education um this uh position also was uh integral in the design of the flex labs and kind of the a version of a computer lab model at our sites to a more flexible Learning Center so that true steam lessons could be taught as opposed to um digital lessons where students walk into a lab and sit at a program at a computer um and uh experience tech tech technology that way these are more Hands-On lessons that are taught in a small group setting um that use tech technology as uh the hook into the lesson and then also teach our students um some 21st century learning skills uh in terms of the reductions at the elementary school we're looking at a 4.0 FTE reduction in classroom teachers once again

062the letters FTE stand for full-time equivalent and um this would uh result in a savings of $511,000 um and again these are uh across both of the elementary schools in in the district the second item on there is a 1.0 full-time equivalent reduction of um the elementary Spanish teacher um the elementary Spanish program serves grades four and five through throughout the D district and um each of the classrooms receives two 45 minute Spanish lessons every week um once again it's serving grades uh four and five at both of both both of our schools and that reduction results in um $139,999 we're also looking at a 1.7 reduction in the instructional assistance at uh the elementary level um 375 of that reduction that's being recommended is a current V vacancy and the intention of the district

063would be to leave that uh vacancy un unfilled and then also reduce the current uh level of instructional assistance Staffing by uh 1.35 in terms of assignment and it would look at uh reducing those hours of instructional Aid time equally at both uh School sites um it uh equates to approximately a five hour reduction at each site for the instructional assistance number four um is a 1.0 reduction in uh the itinerate uh mental health therapist this mental health therapist is listed as itinerate because uh this person serves uh both Robert down and uh Forest Forest Grove so we have one mental health therapist currently that serves both uh of our elementary sites and that reduction would result in um a $178,600 full-time equivalent reduction of a classroom teacher when you're looking at um you know

064a fractional reduction at the second secondary level which you're looking at as a number of sections that are going to be reduced from the M master schedule and so at the mid Middle School this would result in three sections and a total of 77,6 $695 if someone's teaching a 1.0 that is five sections uh under our current current contract a five section assignment equals a 1.0 full-time equivalent so the recommendation at the middle school is a 60 full-time equivalent reduction which equals three sections number two is um a 2.0 FTE reduction in the mental health therapist currently there is one full-time mental health therapist that serves the mid middle school and there's another 1.0 mental health therapist that uh serves the high school the combined reduction amounts to 363,462 at uh the secondary school level

065in terms of additions uh the first category that we're going to look at are the itinerant per personel um one of the things that has occurred this year is there are teachers that are uh nearing their case load maximum and so the district has identified a need for a 1.0 full-time equivalent special education teacher which would result in an addition of a 157,00 773 the idea would be that this itinerate special ed teacher would have the ability to take on the case loads of teachers when their uh case loads look as though they're approaching the maximum it also would help us uh balance out the case loads um at the beginning of the school year as well um this uh special education teacher would be able to serve any of the sites that are in

066the district that required um a a reduction in the case load um we're looking at additions at the elementary school it's a 1.0 full-time equivalent inter intervention teacher and this is the result of an expiration of one-time funding currently one of the intervention teachers at the elementary school is being funded out of onetime funding that we received through the covid learning recovery funds um this teacher was funded out of the unrestricted general fund before Co struck when the co funding allowed us to address learning loss in our students we were able to code this intervention teacher to those onetime funds with the expiration of the one-time funding the unrestricted general fund is going to assume this cost so that we can maintain the level of intervention Ser services that are available at the elementary level

067um when we're looking at an addition at the high school uh we're looking at a 1.0 full-time equivalent classroom teacher so we can reduce the number of staff that are currently teaching a one time or a 1.2 full-time equivalent at the high school a 1.2 full-time equivalent remember when we're looking at the high school or the Middle School we're looking at sections that equal a full-time equivalent assignment so while a full-time assignment is five sections there are a number of teachers nine that are currently teaching a 1.2 full-time equivalent at the high school that means that they're teaching six sections instead of five and the intent of this uh CL classroom teacher would be to add another person to the high school staff so that we could reduce red the number of our high school

068teachers that are teaching a 1.2 full-time equivalent the reason why um the addition is 5856 is because basically what we would be doing is replacing uh well we would be taking five of those teachers that are teaching a 1.2 reducing that to a 1.0 for all of them to come up with the 1.0 assignment the cost of hiring a new person is $58,000 more than maintaining 1.2 assignments for those five teachers in other words if we hire another person and bring that person on board so that our teachers will not have to teach 1.2 assignments there is an increase in cost of approximately $58,000 to alleviate that pressure on the high school staff um now I would like to turn things over to executive director uh Yolanda cour Anthony to talk a little bit about

069um the ic's approach to mental health therapists as we move forward based on these recommendations um thank you Chief rogman um good evening trustees um before I speak to this cost neutral restructuring plan I think this is probably a little bit a slide can do later but so I wanted to talk about first and foremost the current work that our counselors along with our mental health therapist and our school counselors do to support mental health this is really a um Team approach to everyone that supports them and I just want to highlight some of the current things that are in place and what they do thank you for that slide so in our current structure we have like tiers of support you know tier one tier two tier three and tier one basically means is

070all the activities that really Foster a positive social emotional skills for all of our students whether they're at risk for mental health challenges or not so is what we call Universal supports our tier two supports are like our targeted intervention there crisis management followup the counseling that's more intensive um and it's groups like social friendship anxiety groups um sometimes working with students that are um SP parents are experiencing divorce um so it's a short-term counseling 6 to 12 weeks depending on the need of the student So within our school counselors and that structure they are our tier one and our tier two support at the elementary level they do provide individual and group counseling they do lunch groups they do social emotional learning um classroom lessons um they're using pil Second Step a program and

071so it's they're in all classes with this with the teachers and the students uh they collaborate a lot with our families and with a external agencies like Ohana um they provide parent workshops and they also do check-ins at our secondary level um at Middle School um they also do individual in group counseling they do lunch groups um they have a group that supports our lgbtq plus um there as well um they have embedded um within the advisory um and then at our high school um there's tier one counseling support and there's also with our um at uh Outreach counselor 5504 coordinator that provides some of that tier 2 support for students uh they all at some point collaborate with external agencies they do they all do student check-ins and um they're all available for Crisis

072Support as well as doing Wellness activities which is what we again Wellness activities is a cheer One support for them so with imental health therapists uh they really focus in on the tier one tier two and the tier three and at the elementary level also again doing those groups as well lunch groups collaborating with families outside agencies uh probably more so than our school counselors uh they are definitely doing student check-ins with with all students um they're part of Crisis they do a lot of Crisis followup and um they do sometimes uh assist with tier one it just depends on which side it is and there's various levels of different sites and then we also have in our groups our school psychologist who also support at our site so they are you know part of

073teams they're doing ING with students as well they're collaborating with teachers uh on strategies and offering support as well so there's this a circle of support for our students um as you see there um so in collaboration with um regarding students with IEPs right now the current structure is that we have Services through MCC Monteray County Behavioral Health and that's an outside agency that provides services for mental services for students on IP so that that's part of our external agency that uh we help support students on IEPs so if we talk about a restructuring plan um what we're looking at in terms of our school counselors is really to continue as to how they currently function not adding more to their plate continue with their working in groups and counseling and individual and group and

074classroom lessons um you know supporting 504s uh collaborating with families um same thing at the middle school and high school what that support looks like in terms of supporting students without IEP would consider that level of support and um at Pacific middle schools they have a a relationship with Ohana and so hopefully we'll continue that contract for next year as well uh and in terms of tier one two three again school counselors that won't change they still will be part of ssts to still will do check-ins those levels of support will change what we're looking at restructuring is that we have this contract with Moder County Behavioral Health and they currently when I look at their scheduling and the students they see and the amount of number of students they see I'm looking at this

075really basically about 60% of the time just really spent servicing student on I so there's room you know and at the other piece the other piece that as fiscally that what we contract out for is about $358,000 so to supplant that with actually having our own mental health therapist which has always still continues to be my dream like have our own people in the house because there's a lot more coordination when we're working with outside agencies that are behind the scene so with to have bring on to mental health therapist to support our students with IEPs and still contining the support they also provide to students without IEPs and um back to the circle support here um I I want acknowledge I mean at the root is our teachers they are tier one students are

076coming to them first um then we look at our counselors who provide tier one and two support uh we're looking at our school counselors who do all tiers and um then our mental health counselor Mental Health therapist through tier two and three and surrounding the students at all tiers as you see the side administrators that support um at all levels from their needs I just again want to acknowledge that this is the circle of support that we provide our students we continue to provide our students we will'll continue look for opportunities to uh work with and explore working with agencies uh specifically with we're reaching out to um the colleges to see we can have interns brought on to also offer additional and'll help support to our students as well okay thank you um our

077next slide I think oh will be uh assistant soup thank you thank you all right so I'm GNA cover the fiscal impact here um related to everything that was just discussed by director cork Anthony and uh chief rogman in response to the district's ongoing efforts uh to address the year-over-year deficit spending as uh discussed by Dr Adamson initially Chief rogman uh the staff's been working through the 252 uh 2526 budget development process to achieve a 3% or higher reduction in all expenditures for the 25 26 year that's our next school year with the district's total combined expenditures projected to be just around $50 million next year and our unrestricted expenditures expected to be in excessive 39 million the district's goal was to reduce approximately 1 uh 1,652 922 to provide immediate relief to the unrestricted

078general fund you can see that on the slide bullet too I should again I should again note that the projected deficit that I'm speaking about this year the 86848 is only a projection and it was a projection at first interim first interim is from July 1st through October 31st we're now in February um merely a projection at that time which is a couple of months old the 2425 projected deficit at first interim will be evaluated once again during the second interim reporting which is done uh March uh March 20th and unfortunately projections at this time are indicating a higher deficit this year the 2025 deficit will also compound into 2526 with step and column increases to Staffing FTE and potential additional classrooms with military families moving in during the fall and in the spring next

079year which is something that this District experiences regularly this is why the district is targeting uh 1, 24775 which is the net savings uh and not the projected 2524 uh 2425 deficit of $868,000 at first interim it's important to note that no reductions have been proposed for special education resource 6500 director cork Anthony just discussed how we were going to shift some of the funding around um and that's important because that would not in increase the district's unrestricted general fund contribution to special education the district's unrestricted general fund contribution to special education um over the last three years has went up almost $2 half million to just under $8 million um and it's going to be just over8 million next year as our projections show Additionally the recommendations of 2526 additions as you can see

080here to the unrestricted general fund of 37884 are being included uh the net fiscal impact of the reductions and additions is expected to yield $1,247 75 in savings to the unrestricted general fund for 2526 the reduction is a key step in aligning our expenditures with projected revenues and we're working toward a balance and sustainable budget finally I do want to emphasize that the Staffing additions and reductions we carefully considered or we're carefully considered in collaboration with our sites and our site admin teams the ultimate goal here is to play The District in position to develop a a revenue neutral budget for 2526 and that's not something this district has had in a number of years there are two important unknowns that still remain and I think it's important to share those tonight if Elementary 2526

081enrollment numbers increase between May registration and October 2025 start of school the district May once again be able to hire teachers and staff to align with enrollment revenue actuals for the 2425 year have been underperformed performing and projections at this point in time revenue is underperforming by $175,000 less than projected that's where we're at right now we won't know those totals until the end of the fiscal year which won't be reported to this board until September of 2025 so should either or both of those two issues occur the district May once again be faced with potential deficit spending in 2526 I would like to thank everyone that participated in this process uh and the understanding as we navigate these Financial uh difficult financial decisions and um I would now like to turn it back over

082to Dr Adamson for some closing remarks thank you assistant s John so I think just a few things before I you know we and we're going to open up to public comment and then ready you know ask for the board to sort of weigh in and discuss and and give a chance to answer questions as well but you know I think number one how I began right how hard this is um but again our ability to be able to look at where we are fiscally responsible decisions and we have to make some some hard and tough decisions as a result of that you know Chief rogman had indicated in his part of the presentation that you know the 3% reductions that we're looking at uh through other expenses you know that is we absolutely have

083Our intention is to exceed that 3% and that is really the process that we'll be following through the budget development process to look at every possible expense where we can make those reductions in the coming weeks and months so three things I want to make mention of that is you know that everyone has in their minds I think number one that yes you know every area of the budget will will be examined uh we are you know actively engaging I know that at our at our at our sites staff are uh sharing some of their you know creative ideas on you know what they are anticipating and what they are seeing that we could possibly you know be additional uh suggestions so I know that we are you know working actively with them and and

084seeking some of those some were shared during the site visits that we did over the last three weeks we went out to meet with with our staff uh but I know that we'll be seeking more of those um and then I think the other thing that you know I want to be said you know when we're looking at staff reductions you know it feels it seems hard to think about salary increases so I think this is one of the reasons why entire management team has agreed to take a one-year freeze on all step and column advancements so that is an additional piece that we'd be you know taking on from the management side of it so as I turn it over to our trustees I you know on that final slide I would you know

085was at there were you know three final closing pieces that I really want you to keep in mind as you're making these decisions and uh that would be number one Financial sustainability student centered prior priori prioritization uh and then long-term viability would be the three components we really need to consider and you I just think as we regardless of where we land tonight and the direction you give us if you're going to say to us you want us to come back with additional proposals you know it it's see where that goes um I think the important thing for us to know is that bottom line this needs to be a wake up for call for us as a district we absolutely as we are planning budgetary you know the budget for next year and the

086longterm you know the 5 to seven year outlook from here you know as we're considering programs and uh and looking at at where our expenditures are we absolutely need to take a hard look at you know where those funds are going uh and as we plan ahead make decisions in accordance with Staffing and programming that is sustainable right I think the reason we're here today and and having to make these decisions is because you know how that funding has been spent in the past has not been sustainable and and I know we keep saying it the onetime funding but that is a reality that is going away and so we are being forced to really you know make some adjustments there and um is this it what we're proposing tonight you know we're open to

087you additional ideas and and suggestions with that but um you know the the reasons are are are grave and you know that's how we'll be moving forward with it so this time I'm going to hand it over to you Dr Hazen for um great so really quickly before we go a public comment I will apologize to our student trustee I forgot you again at our um uh the consent agenda so just to give you a thought you don't have to do anything now but I'm going to give you just the option if you want to speak first or last on the board because this is a tough item so think about that when it comes after public comment I'm happy to have you go last if that's what you prefer so with that we are

088going to open public comment just remember the 3 minutes per item 20 minutes total that can be extended by the board should it go so you go ahead please and yep lineup will go again online and um in person back and forth so why don't we go ahead and start in person thank you the pgta neg negotiations team urges the board to direct staff to explore all long-term budget solutions to secure the district's Financial Health for the foreseeable future we encourage the district to consider cost-saving measures such as Elementary School con reconfiguration adjusting School boundary lines and reassessing professional development Consulting fees just as teachers are continually asked to do more with fewer resources District management should also share in the responsibility the board should explore innovative solutions such as having District management serve as

089summer school administrator rather than spending another $10,000 on a stipended additionally District leadership should critically um evaluate the professional development offered to teachers ensuring these opportunities are truly relevant to 21st century teaching and learning let's work together to explore creative systemic change to ensure the health of the District budget and support our students thank you thank you so much for your comments if I can ask to if one of the the the um snaps instead of claps just because it'll help help the keep motion want you to show support but just to keep us going because we have a lot of people please go right ahead there's no one online right now so we'll come back online if anyone raises their hand I would like to provide a students perspective on the mental health systems

090at the school currently and if you do proceed with reductions to these essential Services the increase strain that that will put on these current systems um I have the most exper I have most most of my experience is with Miss Cordova um and she has been instrumental in helping me reach who I am today as a member of the queer Community I have seen the good these programs do the student population is frequently struggling with issues at home their identities and interpersonal conflict I was struggling through freshman and sophomore year and without Miss Cordova's support I would not have been at a place where I could mentally contribute to the pghs community my work as a member of the robotics team and as the rainbow Alliance president would be diminished if not non-existent without her

091support these achievements influenced the high school community and my ability to get into college I am one of the lucky ones there are people in worse situations than me who benefit and rely on the school's Counseling Services giving students a place to find coping mechanisms EX is extremely important after the covid-19 pandemic I struggled with anxiety that continues to affect my life today Miss Cordova gave me a space to understand and tools to cope with my anxiety the pandemic still affects everyone who went through it and it is important to acknowledge it will have a lasting impact on children who went through it making it all the more important to keep our existing Mental Health Services I implore you to keep to care for the health of students in this decision thank you thank you

092very much for your comments um still no one online please go right ahead next person good evening ladies and gentlemen good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board my name is Charlie and I'm a third grade student at Florest Grove Elementary this evening I'm here to speak out against budget cuts throughout PG Unified School District I feel that cutting teachers will have a really negative impact on me and my peers for example Mr Bradley who teaches me about coding and logic which I feel like I'm going to need my entire life some of those things he uses are code.org or manyu robots which aren't only fun but he also learn some really cool stuff with him for example the last thing that we did with him was learn how to code little computers called microbits

093it was really fun and I learned some really cool stuff in the process and a lot of this stuff someone in his Very Room can make a career out of for these reasons I feel that budget cats in the district are a really bad idea thank you for your comments so much um anyone online leis if I don't see your hand I'll assume it's a zero so yeah we'll just keep going thank you so much members of the board I stand before you as a concerned parent based on the proposed budget cuts some of which are claimed to be due to covid relief funding ending which we have known for years will be the case and should have made a better plan for as a district at least one of the positions being proposed to

094be cut the digital learning teacher position was created pre pandemic 7 years ago and as such was not established with covid funding I do understand the need to remain fiscally responsible with the budget which at times requires difficult decisions to be made however I urge you to carefully consider the impact these Cuts will have on our students and District in the last year there have been several articles that have been paint that have painted The District in the negative light in the few positive articles that have discussed pgusd has been in regards to our Innovative Tech Ed Tech spaces as well as the steam programs what is it that sets Pacific Grove unified apart with we remove the things are unique to it and that we are being recognized for we know the community of

095PG is such a key factor in our wonderful schools but the fact remains that our enrollment is declining so what sets us apart for a new family trying to select the best place to settle we all know the costs of this area continue to increase and our facilities continue to grow more and more outdated monist Elementary is the closest to us with families being able to purchase cheap cheaper housing right across David Avenue they have year-over-year Captain moment they use the same English curriculum with all the same and in some cases more opportunities for students to shine through robust CL robust Club options and competitive choir and Robotics programs we already see that the high school level we lose PG raised students each year to monter high to take part in programs not offered here

096students and families are seeking educational experiences to push their students forward and as we have seen will move to areas to offer what they're seeking we need to capitalize on the specialty areas that we do have to engage and keep our families and students by keeping these programs than no other school has at the elementary level it shows that the district prioritizes fostering a robust education from a child's Foundation an argument is being made that we need to cut these proposed positions in order to prioritize funding for interventions I agree that interventions are important but what we are do what are we doing to push our exceling students on so that they do not become complacent Learners what do we offer to challenge them and get them thinking creative cre L furthermore what opportunities for

097Success are we offering our students who find academics challenging what are we doing to prioritize these students besides removing programs like Steam and Spanish where they could shine and build skills for the future I urge you to consider the long-term Outlook we need our programs like Steam and Spanish at the elementary level for all types of Learners and to stay competitive as a district our steam class alone impacts the education of 721 students yearl at elementary and more at Community High and our smash program sets all of our fourth and fifth grade students in the District up with a strong Foundation before they enter Middle School keep our programs for our youngest lenders and get creative to find a financial solution to the funding issues we were aware of years ago thank you so very

098much for your comments and it looks like we have one person quickly online um looks like Dr pel uh yes thank you um and thank you for the opportunity to speak and um I want to agree first of all with um the previous speaker um about the the importance of these two particular programs that have been slated to to be cut and the value that they've added to the district I know um it was something I think like five or six years ago the first time I remember coming to a board meeting and it was actually to speak in favor of adding sanish uh programs at the elementary level and that was a really long and hardfought um victory that we have just started to implement and um it was something that we prioritized I

099think because we understood what an advantage it is to our students um to be bilingual or to have the ability to to gain that skill and how critical it is to get exposure to foreign language at a young age it's just impossible to learn it as easily if you don't begin to middle school or high school and um secondly with the digital um the stem lab teacher uh that that program in the flex lab I think has really um been such an Innovative and Incredibly valuable program to the students and I know that was listed as a district um position but cutting that position really does affect students because that's a teacher who's you you know in the classroom working face Toof face with the students um and giving them skills that are you know

100really in demand as well as just really engaging and keeping the the students enjoying being in school I know also I believe that we received um measure B funding to um do uh work on that particular space in the stem lab and so it uh you know I'd wonder what we are going to do with having money to build up the space if we don't have the most important part of that program which of course is the staff the teacher so I know it's difficult um Financial Times and really difficult decisions I appreciate that um and I thank you for your hard work trying to find a solution I just urge you to please uh consider Creative Solutions please listen to uh the recommendations from the teachers and staff who I think really uh have

101great ideas and they're the ones who are there in the classroom with the kids day day after day um and try to find solutions that don't um remove uh programs and teachers who are uh bringing such value to our students face to face every day thank you thank you very much for your comments and we'll go back in person now to um M fren good evening my name is s fuden I'm the school counselor at Robert down I'm very concerned about the massive cuts to mental health in our district I understand that there's a budget deficit and you're all doing quite a bit to figure that out but removing mental health is not not just irresponsible it's a decision that will directly impact our students it places our students at risk increases absenteeism due to

102mental health challenges and increases Behavior behavioral challenges for our teachers which directly affects the learning of other students over the years your Elementary School counselor's responsibilities have increased we are now your 504 cordinators that takes a lot of time we provide social and emotional learning lessons twice monthly to all of our K through five students we support parents and students in need and organize special programs throughout the year by removing mental health therapists our school counseling programs will have to focus solely on students with high needs prevention will be a thing of the past and we will be meeting the needs of students moment to moment a Band-Aid so to speak your school counselors are not mental health therapists we are preventionists our work is not just about addressing crises but about preventing them over

103the past two years the district's value on Mental Health saved lives countless mental health interventions have occurred I would seriously continue your conversations about the decision to remove mental health therapists from our schools covid might be over but California's youth experienced the second largest increase in depression and anxiety among all states last year we are in a youth Mental Health crisis in 2020 14% of Youth recorded a major depre depressive episode in 2024 that went up to 19% in 2020 22% of Youth reported having an anxiety disorder in 20124 it went up to 27% how can you remove mental health therapists from our schools when there is upward trend of both depression and anxiety in our youth it's not enough to have therapists just our high need students with IEPs mental health affects all populations

104and it truly baffles me that we're continuing to have this conversation we were on the right track for a while um I do agree with what Yanda shared about having our mental health um County Mental Health or mental health therapists for all of our um IEP students in house I think that's should have happened a long time ago but removing the mental health therapists for the general population is a mistake thank you thank you for your comments I think we have um Mr Gibbs online as well next comment uh thank you this Mike Gibbs I don't have a lot to say other than I appreciate the work of the staff and Dr Adamson making very difficult decisions um it's great to see the kids that are impacted or concerned about friends uh speaking out it's

105absolutely critical uh I don't have any ideas or suggestions other than uh there may be money coming from federal government that's remains to be seen um I would suggest if it hasn't already been done contacting our representative Jimmy Panetta and and he's probably aware of this already but positioning Pacific Grove unified uh for any federal funding or block grants it would be coming uh to the state and to the local districts um it's a proactive uh action doesn't cost anything and it may have been taken already if it has it's the right thing to do last this is about people and it's always difficult but I spend 30 years in business addressing these kind of issues and there's also a cost to process uh so I if it's not been done some analysis of process

106within the school District takes a lot of time takes up money it takes up budget uh process I mean uh the budgeting processes or the Contracting processes or any processes that allocate resources to maintaining acquiring uh and operating uh there's a lot of cost in the actual process itself taking out waste or taking out steps that are not productive uh maybe it's not the first step but I'm sure it's somewhere on the agenda and there are plenty of people here in Pacific Grove who could help with that on a on a volunteer basis so good luck with this and um it's a tough decision thank you for facing it right now thank you thank you for your comments we'll go back in person in the room hi I am Lauren Davis I am the resource

107teacher at Robert down and I am sharing the lead negotiator role with Mary quindell um pgta recognizes the district is facing a challenging budget year however nearly all propos Personnel Cuts Target certificated staff are teachers Cuts should be as far away from the classroom as possible School District budget cuts are falling hardest on those who work directly with our students the teachers support staff and Specialists who shape the future of our children every single day time and time again when budgets get tight the cuts come from the bottom up not the top down the very people who nurture educate and guide our students are asked to do more with less while larger class sizes fewer resources and reduced support we urge the board to direct staff to explore cuts to management so that the impact

108is shared across all levels of the district not just by teachers and those working most closely with students we cannot afford to balance budgets on the backs of our students and those who serve them every position lost every program cut and every resource diminished takes away from the quality of Education our children deserve if we truly value education we must demand a budget that reflects those values one that prioritizes students and the Educators who stand beside them every day let's work together to ensure that our schools are places of growth not sacrifice our students deserve nothing less thank you thank you very much for your comments uh we have one more person online I think Lisa is the name my eyes aren't failing me it is Lisa yes thank you um I'm Lisa Ogburn I

109am a special UC ation teacher in the district and I just first want to say that it's very commendable that special education spending in the district has gone up considerably over the last two years and as a teacher in the classroom I do feel that I have all the materials and software and Hardware that I need to support my students and that's recognized and I see that I also see the case load numbers creeping very close to 28 which is the legal limit and an itinerant special education teacher makes a lot of sense on the surface but when I think about how that would function I've I'm concerned my first year here in the district I was an itinerant Elementary School teacher between Forest Grove and Robert down and it was very difficult getting to

110know the teachers effectively and in a way that I felt like I could really support and understand what was happening in the classroom and case management is about 25% of what we do as special education teachers the remaining 75% is boots on the ground it's um observing the student in the general education setting collaborating creating academic supports like graphic organizers scaffold and in inter instruction and targeted intervention and working directly with the student so my concern is who will work with these students who is going to provide the services that the to the students the in the um I have a hard time with that word but the the the mobile special education teacher case manages there's a reason there's a state limit of 28 because it's not reasonable to ask a teacher to effectively

111support more than 28 students with their special education needs and as having been an itinerant teacher it's very difficult to establish the relationships in multiple schools the relationships that are needed to really support that student I um again I I think an itinerant special education teacher to handle some of the case management makes a lot of sense but it raises a a concern which I feel is real and valid and needs to be addressed before this position is staffed thank you thank you for your comments we'll come back in the room Mrs richond Sally Richmond Pacific Grove High School um I have many thoughts that I would like to share but since I am limited to the three minutes I will say that I am asking the board not to make any decisions or directions

112today uh specifically we were told that this would be an open and transparent uh process this is the first time that we've heard the plan we were able to look at the one-page summary of it on Friday so I would ask that the um pgta and CA be given time to think about what we've heard and come up with our own recommendations I don't believe that you should be hearing only from the district office but that you should be hearing from everyone in the community so uh that's my request that you hold off on any decisions we were told that uh there would be a meeting in two weeks and then a decision would not be made until the beginning of March and so um even if you could hold off for two weeks I

113would appreciate it thank you thank you very much for your comments we at the 20- minute Mark I'll look to the board is there anyone that would like to make actually I'll go ahead and move that we extend by another 20 minutes public comment I'll second that okay um all in favor I should say student trustee are you in favor of extending the public comment okay all in favor I I any opposed good evening everyone my name is Mark W Clark I'm the um Pacific Grove middle school Spanish teacher and I'm coming here to Advocate um to keep the Spanish teacher position at the elementary school School uh it's no secret that we're living in an increasingly globalized world where Spanish is the second most spoken language in the United States in California it will

114become the most spoken language um within the next two decades bilingualism is important for a number of reasons especially in a school district where we are valuing cultural proficiency um in addition to um improving job prospects for students later in life um and cutting Spanish programs would flat out put our students at a disadvantage um Additionally the um academic and cognitive benefits of studying second language um are well documented well known and um starting at a younger age um has shown more favorable outcomes for students um additionally students who are bilingual um have better multitasking skills and overall brain function additionally um I touched on this about being uh a point of equity and inclusion we have many students in our district who come from Spanish speaking backgrounds and it's important for them to see

115representation in the curriculum including in our Spanish classroom um cutting these programs could alienate them also limit their opportunities um and especially with our heritage Learners and connecting with their Heritage and connecting with their culture uh students or I'm sorry schools should be looking to expand language access and not reducing it I think that it would be a major step backwards for pgusd to eliminate the um Spanish teacher at the elementary school thank you thank you for your comments Mr Clark Mr no one online Mr Rivera Justin Rivera I'm one of the parents uh I have two children in the system one in high school and one that will be entering Robert down uh next year I have severe reservations about a reduction in staff I Echo the concerns of everyone here and I really

116am still left with a lot of questions as to exactly what this is going to mean you presented us some beautiful numbers on the budget but what's the student staffing actually going to look like what do those case load numbers per counselor per individual actually look like you've mentioned that we want to tailor this to the students and we've mentioned that there's a reduction in enrollment but what do the percentages look like I work in Corporate America as a manager and I know hard decisions sometimes have to be made and if the percentages in terms of Staffing to each individual student if the result of this budget proposal is that there is no actual quality of Education reduction I might be forced to agree with it but I would really ask that every alternative be

117explored first when I lived in Chicago we actually picked a school dist District within Chicago public school that was a cluster magnet school so you lived in the area but other students wanted to go there from around the entire city and the reason that school was so phenomenal was its teachers and the parents that were working together every year we fundraised as a school and supported three Elementary School teachers with the fundraising and when I say explore every possibility that should be a last resort but it is one that I am happy to explore if there are no Alternatives I want the best future for my child I want them to be competitive with Europe with multiple languages in math and science and cutting funding is the wrong way to go thank you for your

118comments yes please next in person hello I'm Christine Breuer I am the librarian or Grove I have no notes I had no intention to speak but when I saw the circle for the mental health thing and it said first it said teacher and as classified we actually have a lot of kids who come to us with their problems because we are consistent year after year with those kids they see us they come into the library I have somebody in here's daughter who comes in every day and says hi bestie I have somebody's Grand daughters who fight over whose favorites you know they are we we are their consistent I remember one year where people were complaining about this girl acting up on the bus and I said well wait did you know that she's about

119to be taken away from her adopted parents because there's somebody cross country who is a aunt or uncle that are going to take them away now we get told things on the playground that they don't hear about from the teachers or the teachers aren't told these things we're a constant we are important and we're a safety net for those kids because they see us also these AIDS work so hard they take stuff home they help each other out and we're needed on the playground we don't have enough eyes every day at Forest Grove as it is and so we need we can't lose another one if somebody calls in sick we're stuck we just are so it's a hard case as it is I don't know what we're going to do without another set of

120eyes at lunchtime I don't know what the plan is who's going to be watching the students that's all I have thank you thank you for your comments and go next in here in the room excuse me as spent the last two years as TOA where I thought it was rough being a substitute bouncing from classroom to classroom each day and then I went back in the classroom and realized I had forgotten how rough it was being a full-time teacher the classroom's a lot harder than before students had been through a lot the first day back in my own classroom the first student came in and declared hi I'll be with the counselor for the rest of the day it was nice meeting you the student or the student who runs into the classroom and notes

121I have to see the counselor now there are student who I will go months without sing at times it seems every student in class either needs help or to leave class students daily leave class to go to the bathroom and catch their breath classwork is the last thing they're concerned with which makes Gren challenging particularly contacting home I have to contact parents and Guardians who see their children struggling and now their students history teachers concerned about their progress in learning unit 2 the Industrial Revolution sometimes I get email responses that would be in clear violation of the pghs handbook making teaching even more difficult the most recent difficulty is imagining a school with less counselors and teachers I truly have no idea how that would work students who are in need of emotional support would

122have less help teachers who are already tired and if they're anything like me leave work sometimes feeling defeated would now have more students and I want to point out that Mr Bradley not only teaches but is the go-to for any digital Assistance or program in the district which at times feels like every program I do not understand the logic everyone in this room claims that students are the priority yet the people who deal with them day in day out are now being asked to do more with less thank you thank you for your comments Miss deer I think you're next good evening I had every intention of not speaking tonight yet here I am uh my name is Sher derer I serve as the head teacher of Pacific growth Community High School our culture of

123we needs to include students who have fallen through the cracks at multiple stages of their careers um in this District they work to complete their high school education as a last resort at Community High School um I urge our district to remember that although we're small we do have two high schools in this District if one more time I hear about the high school um okay so right I'm getting emotional these proposed Cuts impact us exponentially we rely heavily on the digital learning position um as we travel to the flex lab each year multiple times um so the statement that it's a k through eight position is not correct it serves ninth through 12th graders as well we also rely heavily on the mental health therapist in the district and when I say heavily she's

124a core component that position is a core component of our daily program we have two full-time teachers that teach the entire curriculum that create and generate and Implement all projects and also right grants these two individuals these two positions complement our program um in in in in multiple ways um I urge you to take your time and to review this budget and I thank you for your time thank you very much um Last Chance anyone online or in person that would like to speak if not we will go and again student trusty will give you the option would you like to go first or last you get to pick okay thank you I also wasn't planning on speaking but I just think that if we really are working on what's best for the students and

125really care about all the students in this District budget cuts should not be going towards the people that directly interact with all the students because the students like especially with me mental health and all of that like if you take out mental health and therapists it's really just going to all fall the teachers even more and they already have so much on their plate so I just think if there's any alternative ways we should really just get creative with coming up with other ways to avoid cutting out uh that kind of stuff so yeah that's all I have to say excellent so I think we'll go to this end of the room with trusty WX and then come back towards me if that's okay um thank you Mr rogman uh for the presentation and all

126the speakers uh for your advocacy and and stating uh what you think about the situation um I would also request that the district come back with some more Creative Solutions um I am very new in this role so I do not know the legality of anything but it does seem like we have some sites um I know that there are some deed restrictions on real estate but we can get creative with um doing a long-term lease and getting some revenue from that as well as perhaps providing housing for the community um I think we can look at I I understand that there's a 3% across the board um goal in this first consideration um but I think we should strive and I know that it's the goal uh to cut the materials budget as much

127as possible in the in the areas but I think there should be a higher goal um to and not just 3% um personally um I think we are making some renovations to the David school campus and I think we should also consider um increasing the rent to be more in terms with the market for mbcs which would be more revenue and um I think all that is to to say the financial situation and the declining enrollment uh is incredibly worrisome to the long-term uh prospects for this District um someone I think you maybe I'm sorry if it's wrong but um we advertised the measure b as expanding science technology engineering and Mathematics and expanding counseling and mental health facilities uh um I know that we cannot use this money for salaries but I do think

128if we want to maintain the spirit of this Bond we might be able to um include some more maintenance funds on these projects to measure B and save money out of the budget again I know nothing about the specifics Mr joran is truly a wizard and the amount of numbers that he throws out is uh daunting and buzzing to me and I don't know how he keeps it in track but I think my goal is to just um Echo the sentiments of so many people here where I would like to see some more creative options um I also think that I I truly respect Dr Adamson um relaying that the management is taking a freeze or is in favor of that when looking at teachers and management I I think both of y'all are integral

129um one cannot Act without the other at the same time if we want to preserve jobs um that we do I think very small reductions into this is again hypothetical but people who are 12.5% over the median income in Pacific Grove if there's a way to save money just to show some solidarity with the students to save some money I think that sends a message to Residents or this resident um as well as teachers that it's not just the Frontline people who are bearing the brunt of this um I will also say again I'm talking about cuts and more Revenue but I strangely uh agree with Mr Gibbs um um I like getting a dig at him every once in um um I I am so because of my experience with uh my son's teacher

130right now I am like so uh adate or uh in favor of increasing instructional aids for meting in K through2 because all all the statistics show that that sets you up for Success um again I don't know what the union deals are but if we had multiple 20 hour workers that is a cheaper salary and the outcomes I think would pay a huge dividends in terms of um our goals our academic goals as a district um and I know this is very tough and I'd like us uh to all make space like the wicked meme uh for realizing just how tough it is and I appreciate uh everyone's work out in the audience and out um in the office so thank you thank you Jesse Shas well I do believe that this District as long

131as I've been a part of it is um values counseling um that is a characteristic of this District historically historically if you compare our district before Co but if you compare our district to other districts you would see that we have a higher rate ratio of counselors to students than most other districts at least in this County so we you know that's where we sit in values um I do think that when we got the mental health therapists in with the co money um you know there was a great need of course for them and um from what I'm hearing that continues to be a great need um but that does present a problem when you haven't been structurally providing that salary you used incoming one-time monies Co Monies to pay for this and um

132not knowing maybe that that the need was going to be ongoing so it you know it's a big um expense and um there may be some creative ways that we can still provide some of those Services um without having the you know the same amount of people but in different ways um and I I don't know yet but I think there are some ways that you can look at um how you provide what kind of services are most needed for students um it's hard to know I have it here in my notes like okay a mental health therapist um where is the greatest need for that is it a site one site more than another one age more than another um are there other can we access similar Services through other agencies um do they

133offer something different from the counselors which I was hearing they do um rather than just adding person power to the existing counseling um preventative methods I I'm totally for that and I think that's um Avenue that definitely should be enlarged and um but that doesn't cover anything that's existing right now as far as maybe crisis that people are students are going through so um I'm not clear about the um the mental health therapist special education the addition there um is it a teacher or is it a mental health therapist I mean somebody said something about the um special ed and I wasn't in it looks here like it's a mental Health therapists do special ed there's an addition as for a resource um an RSP teacher so resource specialist and that would that is to

134serve special Aid students but then uh the the mental health therapist the two positions that we're proposing retaining they would serve the needs of both special education and general education uhuh okay okay um and then the other thing I'll just say is that I totally totally support AIDS I don't want to see any AIDS cut I think AIDS uh as Miss Gruber was saying you know they are you know that backbone that um catches students when no one else sees and um they have a way of just being with students that is different it's totally different than with the teacher um students can be more open with someone that they feel is just you know their buddy out on the playground um so I definitely and plus AIDS help the teachers I mean the teachers

135need the AIDS so I'm totally supportive of more AIDS I'll leave it there thank you so much um trusty outar is it hot in here you guys or what like sweating up here I don't know if it's my nerves or if it's actually hot but um okay thanks uh so I'm going to start this off um by just saying that first and foremost Our obligation should be to the students I and in turn to teachers and AIDS and those that are directly facing our students I look at the options that are presented and I'm asking that the district staff bring back options that are not student facing we cannot say that we value the health and wellness of our students and in the same breath say but we're going to cut a bunch of stuff

136we're cutting mental health we're cutting AIDS we're cutting teachers we knew this covid money was going to run out this is not a secret we've been deficit spending I take responsibility for sitting up here and saying yay maybe one too many times and I just I cannot sit here and be okay with our kids being pushed to the front of the cuts it's not okay with me um so I'm specifically asking if the board is if every it sounds like everyone's on the same page but I would like to see options that are not specifically are not student facing I do want to hear recommendations from staff so if those are coming I'm very interested in seeing um ideas creative IDE ideas I think that people with boots on the ground have a better idea

137of what's needed um than maybe people that are a bit more removed definitely more than what I would know um I'm questioning what that 3% of materials and supplies looks like what are we cutting is it student based materials um I support keeping Spanish I support not touching our steam program and keeping digital learning I support not cutting mental health I have concerns that the mental health therapists um it says special education right after mental health therapist special education needs are high uh my fear is that it's going to leave the rest of the students without the mental health therapist that they need um I think that this could have been a little bit more thoughtful when it was brought forward I don't appreciate a one page I mean I've read a thousand page packet

138before and this is one of the most important meetings we're having as a district and there was one page without a lot of information which left a lot of people to and for a lot and it created fear in our district and I don't really appreciate that either so I don't know if I should be sitting up here and I'm not trying to chastise or point fingers at all I am just simply voicing an opinion I represent the community I represent the students I represent everybody here I am Community appointed and so I feel like I'm speaking on behalf of just the community in general and also myself but um so I think that that's kind of where I'm at um I don't know what more I could necessarily say but I am definitely in

139agreement with what our student rep says if we're going to be pulling mental health um it's going to put so much more pressure on the teachers and then at the same time we're taking away AIDS it's just this is a recipe for disaster um as far as health and safety of our students and our staff for that matter so um that's where I'm at and I'm looking forward to hearing Creative Solutions that include um Everybody everyone should feel this pinch not just the people that are serving our students and our students I do have a question though and I appreciate that you guys came forward with freezing step and column but we create another situation there where that's one year it's a beautiful sentiment and I love that that that's there and yes please do

140that but it is it's one year and okay it will continue on but not you know small percentage wise so while it's appreciated it's not a viable Solution that's going to continue through time so um finding finding the money I think we can do it finding the money without touching students and without having students feel the pain I think it's possible if it's creative enough and I think that what we've been presented with is the opposite of what should have been presented in the first place and that's all I have thank you um McNary thank you um I do want to say thank staff for I think imparting on this budget Adventure because as a parent I've sat here and watched lots of meetings and left almost every time with questions about how we were

141financing things how did we add this how did we add that how is it going to work in the future and I'm not a finance person so common sense says if it's a one-time thing then you're going to have to find another money source so I thank staff for being willing to take on the budget Challenge and I think this is something as a district that we've been saying for years is that we structurally deficit spend and in order to do things differently we have to take a hard look at what we're doing so I do think that the intention um and the effort was was in the right is in the right place and I do think that you know with the short timeline that we've tried to turn around from what I can

142see and I hear what you're saying about the unions not seeing this proposal yet though that staff has had meetings and is and admin has had meetings and they're willing to continue the conversation so I'm appreciative of that as well um so many important valid points um for me this becomes a question of like what are our values and if what are we going to cut and what are we going to keep um I think I still have a few outstanding questions that I've heard and I kind of wondered too and I just want clarification on so if I could ask um did we look at cutting positions at the district office and management level I'm getting Bor well I tried opening the window but there's a Gil fors are gonna go fly aspiring work

143together I mean the simple answer is not there's nothing you know on and so the answer you know trusting is not we we have not have we considered have we considered looking at Cuts I mean I I hear the points about students student centered um focusing on students and and avoiding Cuts in those areas so I'm wondering more holistically if there is an opportunity to look at other options I don't know have those options been explored looking at cuts to management looking at cuts to the district office Jeff I mean we we have we considered that obviously during and I'm hearing loud and clear that you want us to go back and ready and look at that and so that will be the direction I think we're going to take tonight from from the board

144uh I think as far as management themselves if just looking at those pure positions um you know I think it would be hard for us to determine where it's you know we've got princip we've got one principal at each of our school sites we've got a principal and an AP at the middle and High School I I can't see middle and high operating without an assistant principal um at the district office level our directors we have you know one person departments um you know already you know just examples if I look at our you know Educational Services Department that's one director with an assistant who you know leads all of the work of the district and and I know it said I mean we are we're a small District but um and I've said this

145you know talked a little bit about this at our staff meetings and I you know maybe it's well received maybe it's not but I mean the reality of it is that you know they regardless of how many students the work is the same if you're doing a pilot program and looking at new curriculum if it's the AL cap that's being designed I mean that is all handled I mean those are massive projects that yes in other districts there is sort of some additional layer of just even if it's a coordinator so I think as we looked at that just the sheer amount of you know work that uh that each of those managers takes takes on on um I know there's been you know talk about you know we just even at the district office

146then you know sort of the the different layers of support and again I mean say that in the majority of our our departments we don't have that we you know in our um HR department and our business department is probably where we have you know additional layers where we have you know some V clerical staff and fiscal officers to really you know do a lot of the work that's needed um but all there you know I refer to just the recent audit that was done by school services two years ago and they came in and and did a thorough evaluation of our district office staffing what they came out was that we were we were um severely under staffed and their recommendations were to add additional positions which we did not do um you know

147we did our Communications you know audit a year ago which was you know requested by the board and uh what came from that was you know the need for a director of communication which of course we we did not do so I think you looking at that um it comes down to you know just what what the roles and responsib ities are that everyone takes on um is there an ability for us to look and see is you know that we can do something there to reduce there always is right of course I think it's just a matter of knowing then that you know some of those responsibilities which I know that we've taken on over the past you know at least two years for from our the offices the office staff at the school

148sites uh would ultimately have to you know then you know maybe we have to be returned you know to our our office staff which you know that was done to relieve some of that burden you know from our school sites but um you know that's kind of a long answer to you know your your answer have we done and and have we yes you know it's just going to be you know hard to determine you where those cuts are I think ultimately you know the way I see it the and it's at the sites as well I mean right I mean everyone is stretched there's more responsibility that's been added on to EV every role I think across the district no matter where that is if it's at the site or the district office that

149people are doing more with less and with less time you know just in education itself there's just been more reporting more accountability you know components that have been added into the role and that is even more so at the district office level you know when you're looking at business in HR and even our ed services and student services department so um yeah it's just a lot of compliance and Reporting pieces that that are added to the work that's there to support students as well um I think the only other piece I'd add to that as well is you know just even within if I take the last two months um you know we have had you know substitutes have been have been a challenge and so there are days where you know there's a teacher

150who we cannot fill it at the school sites and who's filling those substitute positions our directors are going out and you know serving in that in that you know in some of those roles so um it's not happening every day obviously but again it's you know there are you know times where you know that's an additional strain so just an example of you know I think where everyone's trying to do what they can but um again if that's you know the direction that we're carrying then absolutely you know we will be going back and looking creatively at everything absolutely yeah okay thank you okay um we have proposed at the elementary level for the equivalent for FTE and um knowing how much we value our class sizes as a district can you are they going

151to be impacted I mean what are we what are we honestly what can we expect for kids in a kindergarten class next year kids in a fourth grade class next year do we have an idea or we kind of like I don't I don't know no we definitely have I mean that that is all based on enrollment and without I don't want to sit here and and sort of give confidential because though I start saying grade levels right that's that's now impacting you know we haven't had those conversations but all I can assure you is you know when we're looking at those those four FTE that is a direct result of what the enrollment is showing for next year that where the need is for for teachers and so you know as an example right

152if we've got you know one currently at any grade level I'm just going to use oh goodness I won't even use an elementary level right I'll say you know let's say ninth grade right I know it's middle school but just you know bear I mean High School bear with me um you know if we had three classes currently right that of you know ninth graders that really are you know small in Nate this isn't going to be a good example I'm not even going to go there um ah without using the gray levels you know just you know taking and TK for example right I mean last year what we when we we went on what the enrollment was and what our numbers were in the summer we added a fourth TK class um you

153know to really allow you know for for two um but you know not all of those students you know showed up at the beginning of the year and so really what we're you know we we we've got to consider that for next year when we look at what our our TK enrollment projections are um yeah well I can't say more I'm so sorry and you know but just to know that really it is it's based on you know what our enrollment projections are looking like still no we're not going to be maximizing the class side like going over I mean it's still going to be very manageable you know we are we we we R you know I think we're rowned for keeping those class sizes small here at Pacific Grove um and and that

154you know continues to be you know a value right and a priority but um even with the reductions we're doing we're not going to be at our at our Max sizes you know even close to them I would say y Dr Adams if I may um to answer that question kind of in a more narrow Focus um we talked about dror or sorry doctor I just gave you promotion Chief uh Chief rman talked a little bit about class size goals and maximums and when we have the projections for enrollment next year which I presented to the board in January um and again without getting into grade level specifics the projections for next year with uh a buffer right that's with uh unassumed unknown students coming into our district but we do have a calculation that

155I run every single year that gives us those assumptions um we won't have one class size that even hits a goal let alone a Max these are still very small class sizes so that's where the reduction came from in looking at next year's projected enrollment plus potential increase these are the class numbers the class size cohorts that we believe would fit our student population still at a very low number uh per class and if we're talking about the elementary level you know I will only talk about the one example that you brought up um you know having um two TK classes with 11 students in them which would then become two kindergarten classes with 11 students in them that does not seem to meet the it's nowhere near the goal it certainly isn't anywhere close

156to the maximum and it's probably not the best learning environment for students even at that age to be in a group of 11 students it's tough for small group instruction there's a lot that goes into that so that's what we're that's what we are looking at here when we brought forward the question you you brought forward about the Four elementary teachers um none of the classes we have projected to be uh uh above the goal most of them are much lower than the goal we're still seeing class Sciences of 19 and 17 and 21 and 19 and so on so with class siiz goal of 2526 and maximums of 2728 that's not what we're discussing here and that's not what we brought forward we were extremely conservative uh when we made these assumptions I hope

157that helped answer the question yes thank you um and then as far as Federal monies go we know our onetime sources are going away and then the rest remains uncertain is that fair enough yes so f monies about $2.6 million is gone about $661,000 is projected as um our projected receipts that we plan to receive um but again those are just projections I won't know that until the United actuals are finalized this year we also don't know what our projections for revenue on the federal side will look like next year so the 661 I mentioned that's this year that's just because I've done the interim reporting already um and some of these numbers are changing I mentioned it earlier tonight um as we speak because we just closed second interim which was July 1 through

158January 31st we're working on second interim reporting right now and revenues down expenditures are up and we're still waiting on additional revenues that have not been yet realized which might result in increased Revenue it may result in even more reduced Revenue this year uh especially on the federal side we don't know do not we do not know okay um as far as I think I'm kind of in the same boat as trustey otar with regard to the mental health services from the way I see it it sounds like increased responsibility for our mental health therapists who will be dealing with students who have IEPs and then students who are not on IEPs I I just wonder how the case load which I imagine will continue to grow will be able to be absorbed and we

159can see people getting some of their needs met correct and um you know uh we want to have an honest and open conversation here at this meeting and so when you have you know a contract for services to handle all of the special L needs of the district and three mental health therapists that are currently serving the gened population and some overlap with the special ed students they're not doing the services that are required of the IEP but there are still students that are on an IEP who go see the mental health therapist currently at the uh various sites so um when you take a reduction of you know those basic five entities combine them into two um then what we have are the special education Ser services that are being served by part-time contract

160for services being absorbed by those two employees that we would retain so there would be a portion of that service that would be special ed the remainder of the service would be available ailable to the gened population but that's the model that's being proposed in what you have with you tonight okay thank you um I think I share your concern as well that Mental Health Services are going to continue to increase for our students and um that really concerns me I think as a parent as a community member because when you can't when your mental health is not in the right space you can't access anything your school work what to wear in the morning um remembering to eat breakfast anything else so um I um I think that for me is a area of

161concern I am glad to see that we are retaining the reading intervention teacher um I mean I think as a parent my kid was one of the ones who this was a struggle and so um and it was also time so being able to have that ability to catch up and be able to access the rest of your education like third fourth and fifth grade um I don't see how kids can access like some things I mean even language and digital learning and all of these wonderful Advanced exciting Innovative programs if we don't have reading support um first so I'd be interested I want to keep that and I'm also interested in the AIDS um that trusty shamas mentioned if there's any ability to retain those as well so for me it would fall on

162the instructional assistance in the mental health and I do say this because I can see that with a majority of the board having spoken so far this item is coming back um on the other end of the coin I do think as trustees we have an obligation and a financial responsibility to turn our turn our budget in a different direction um we've all we've I think this has been said for a long time and nothing maybe has been done I don't know um I can say from what we're experiencing right now if nothing else there was just a lack of long-term planning a lack of planning for sustainability um and that's impacting our students and that's why we're sitting here with this awful decision um and so I just appreciate that we're willing to take

163on um and that we're going to get creative and figure it out but I don't know what the answer is right now and it sounds like we're going to have another discussion and I would love for the unions to have um all of the information that you know we're going to have so that we can all be on the exact same page so that's it for me thank you trusty McNary um I will go last here and I'll start I mean thank you to the staff I mean Buck Linda Josh oranda for this difficult presentation this was obviously not easy to make and do um this is not a reflection on you guys is a very difficult issue right now in my opinion thank you to everybody here uh the public staff the student Representatives

164the students that spoke the um board for your comments you know and I just a little bit of background I realize that our state mandated timelines are the reason we're discussing riffs now before we even know our final budget and that's really frustrating but again I think that the district is doing this knowing those timelines and and I'll remind everyone too that be clear this is just a discussion with direction we're giving but we're not voting on this this is not making a decision so this is not the end of this topic and I think everyone here agrees with that um as has been said a number of times here I mean the packet simply did not make me feel confident that the district has explored fully explored alternative non-student facing solutions to addressing our

165shortfalls and it's not to say that that isn't the right answer but I'm not there yet um further you know I have as has been mentioned again serious serious reservations about losing fundamental programs such as Spanish and the elementary um our Tech position not to mention regarding mental health the point brought up about the bond is a huge one I mean we are building space for these and proposing cutting the positions um but I'm also really disappointed that as a broader community and I'm talking Beyond our district we simply don't have the Mental Health Resources necessary to support our kids here on the peninsula and that's not something we as a board can solve but it's something we have to deal with as a community a small community so I do want to feel but

166again as a board member as a parent as a citizen of PG that every single option for cost savings has been considered discussed before we consider riffs particularly of student facing positions and I'll come back to that um reconfiguration was brought up tonight I think this is a very similar issue where you know I've heard about this since I started listening to board meetings before I even came um and it's again like I said similar to what we hear tonight and with reconfiguration I hear that term but we've not come close in my experience maybe that happened 14 years ago before I was you know barely even thinking about having kids maybe um that what would reconfiguration actually do would it solve the problems we're trying to do would it make these budget shortfalls and

167I feel the same way here that we have clearly taken on different priorities um and you know additional cost as a board which put some of the blame on us but we now have to figure out how to make that sustainable so I did want to ask I brought this up at the beginning if you don't mind um assistant superintendent Jordan what would the loss of federal funding look like to the district and I'm talking about if doe were to no longer support education and be put under I don't remember what they were saying how much what percentage would we be losing to our budget approximately yeah it's hundreds of thousands of dollars I I can't give you an exact you said 661 this year we're getting that's the amount of money potentially in addition

168to the 2.6 million gone so again we're not yeah and there is exactly the special ed funding there s the county selfa pass through which does come from the state but that does come via the federal government um you know there's there that and that's about 1.6 million so there's yeah there is potential there I I don't want to speculate yeah no no the reason I bring it up then I'm happy that there's some in the community that have um positive aspirations for us getting more money for education but that's not the way I feel and we can't be planning for that hope and so planning for the budget now in many ways in my mind is a conservative approach and there might be more Cuts coming so something just to be again aware um

169you know I'm not going to ask now but I just you know the kind of thing information I need you know in terms of the proposed mental health changes reductions you know it would be good for us to know what's the loss in terms of handson hours of The Proposal like we're getting some ideas of it but like I mean that's the kind of thing we need to look at is what's the money compared to the loss and services um you know is it currently the majority of the students without an IP currently seen by medal Health therapists it doesn't sound like that but it would just be good to know again not necessarily tonight but I think these are the kind of decisions that we will help information will help us make these tough

170decisions um I think again you know how many years and you can probably answer this one off the top of your head Josh um but how many years have we had deficit spending in the structural deficit you know in a row and if you can't that's fine say come back to me it's fine yeah come back to me okay but I I just say that because again as a board we you know we have been making these decisions to reprioritize and spend as costs go up in budgets we've gained some onetime funding we've gained some increases in property taxes um we've done some good things like you know trying to raise more money by putting you know um you costs on uh business construction but you know there's other options like parcel taxes are not

171going to solve our problems today but are things we need to think about if we want to offer more resources we need to find the funds to do that and again not our job as a board to come up with Solutions but us to help set the priority for the district um you know looking at the numbers which again you've done an excellent job presenting multiple times you know I'm not convinced that we are going to get away from reductions in force this is not the you know I would love to um fiscal solvency is one of our major tasks as the board you know and structure structural deficit spending is something we were told not to do um by the state and so we have added these priorities that did not exist in the

172past things mental health things like stem things like Spanish um but you know like a board number of board members have mentioned here we need to see all the options all the Creative Solutions um that align with our clear District priorities again before I'm willing to uh support reducing student facing positions as well so again I thank you for bringing this um I hope this gives a bit of direction I don't know if there's any other comments we' want to add I'll go back again student rep as well that might have come up but okay um I I just want um to be mindful of the fact and it's probably pretty obvious we're going to have a February 27th meeting um but after that meeting we're up against a wall as far as time goes

173so when things come back to the board I'm hoping that what we receive is something that's thoughtful and creative and thorough and has really been um sort of fawned over a lot um this what we received tonight feels like it was sort of like a here you go and I'm looking for something that's deeper deeper than that so that we can all um feel like we've been heard and so that everybody is being involved in this district office that we're looking at every position executive assistant can we combine them again not my space to make decisions but um you know receiving information from people that are gon to are willing to put the time in and offer it and actually really absorbing that and um taking it in and putting it on paper and letting

174the board decide what's appropriate for the district too um without too much of a filter I'd say I'd like a lot of options I don't know how everybody else feels but I'm okay with looking at a lot of options um so that we're doing what's best for the district and what's best for these students and what's best for everybody's Mental Health at this point yeah and and I'll follow on that and I realize it's not a longterm solution but grants you know things that we can do to I know it's putting a Band-Aid on a on a bleeding wound but you know I agree with the options thing I I will disagree again though I do think I think this presentation was mandated by the state timeline I don't fault the the our staff for

175doing that I appreciate the effort that was put in but I do think also given the sensitivity and given the needs in our community that it is we are going to need more before we can make a decision yep um yeah I I feel there's a lot of thought that went into what looks like a a condensed version but a lot of thought went into what to put together here um it it's it's always going to be painful you know it's it's the nature of the Beast um doesn't mean there aren't some other options that could be massaged out and maybe uh I don't know if if we're really giving enough of an I I mean when you just turn it over to staff and say get creative I mean there's not much Clear Direction

176you know I mean that could be all over the place I um so I you know I I have some ideas anyway but I I'll think about them but I I just feel that um uh I think what we are saying Help that's helpful to staff maybe is what our priorities look like so um if staff's going to go back and massage this and maybe come up with something different you know they they need to know like okay what the board said was you know mental health this this and this you know so so they have a better idea of um what exactly would be palatable to the rest of us otherwise I I don't feel like we're giving them enough uh you know uh Direction here could I ask him do you do would

177you like more specificity as a district office on this or do you feel like I mean youve heard a lot of different areas I mean yeah i' ask for a little advice on that it's say non- student facing non- student facing I me that's what I mean that's what I'm hearing from all five that we don't want to do any student facing positions is that last resort saying I mean absolute absolute Last Resort I feel like really what you're saying is it has to be district office if it's not if we're doing any positions right is that specifically again I'm not I'm not sure about the the legality of this but I I believe that both the staff and district office or it I I'll say this in my view um I would rather take

178a if if I was getting a salary for this more than $200 which I'll give back um I would rather give back a couple hundred bucks a month and save the positions and save the quality as to making it a binary choice between district and staff in reality if we the the cuts if we just did it from the district office I don't think would get us to where we need to be so I think it has to be holistic in that sense of um uh how do I say this uh sucking I guess I mean I think it's going to be painful um but I believe that a reduction in force would be more painful um again I don't know if that's legal but that is what I'm saying in terms of the the

179option of either district office or School sites I think it's going to have to I think it's going to have to take some um our decisions from both Union and Leadership about um what to preserve in a way and if there are if there are cuts to Stepping column if that's allowed or feasible I don't think that they should happen personally I don't think that they should happen across the board uh you know there's really for instructional AIDS there's not much to reduce you know in that sense so I I think uh the the people above certain threshold to be determined by district office leadership has to um well they don't have to do anything I would I would hope that there is some um options presented about what that could look like if that

180was clear at all which it might not be but um yeah yeah I mean just to say I'm class sizes fluctuate enrollment fluctuates I mean that is a nature of the Beast that if you have a class with 10 kids in it at especially lower grade levels that's something that needs to be considered so I mean this is I am not comfortable saying every cut should be non- student facing but I the the point the the voice that I feel like I'm hearing is we want to see all the options before we are making the student facing cuts and if it's if it's you know we can get away with um you know reducing some I don't I don't want to say too much on that because I don't know what the options could be

181um but once we go through that if it turns out that the plan you presented tonight is the best plan to go forward then we have to decide if that aligns with our priorities and and vote yes or no on that but I just don't feel like we have the information right now fully to know if that is the only way forward it doesn't feel that way can I just clarify what I said by non-student facing I do understand that there will be classes that are small and to your point about having two Kinder classes that have 11 kids that's not beneficial and that's not realistic um so that I understand there are class size limits and minimums that are too small um and there's really not a way around that um when I'm talking

182about the non- student facing positions I'm talking about AIDS I'm talking about mental health I'm talking about Spanish I'm talking about Flex lab and steam program I'm talking about the other things are on that list that are not reflective of class size so I just want to thank you for clarifying that than you would it be um helpful to staff for the board to I guess set a couple of priorities as far as the options we would like to return because if we're saying keep all of this and start over I don't know if that's feasible right now um not feasible right now let's be real um for me I would like to see the mental health um portion of this see if there are other options or ways to preserve um a higher level

183of service um and that's not to say that all of the other programs and people um and cuts I I don't want to make comparisons because I feel like they all have value they all have Merit they're all important and we have to set priorities so um I would say for me if the district office is going or excuse me if admin is going to bring bring back um another proposal I would like to see potentially um the mental health reductions not reduced or creatively toed into something else or potentially even spelled out so we can understand the full scope of what our services will be um and I'm open to more than one option I know that makes for more work but just personally either way um yeah I do think we're gonna have

184to make Cuts I mean that's the reality is we're gonna have to make Cuts I don't think Cuts Like This have been made in this district from at least all the asking I've done around for quite some time um and it doesn't make it any easier um but we do need to start planning for our long-term Financial Health um so step one or step whatever it is I'm hearing mental health therapists I mean would it be safe to say across the board five of you feel that is a priority for sure like as a I I'll be honest yeah I mean in hearing I mean trusty shasa suggestion setting out these priorities I have a hard time making priorities without knowing the numbers like I said if we're if we're doing this reconfiguration I would

185want to know how many hours are we actually losing of touch with kids that's what's important to me and figure out what the cost of that is because I would say I mean if you were to talk about my top three if I were to make them but again I you know it would be Spanish stem and mental health but you know again if we could keep more and have more Creative Solutions obviously I would vote for that as well it's hard to come up with the priorities beyond that without knowing the the all the creative options ahead of us and I know that again that the timeline I mean trusting har brought that up the timeline may not be realistic to have every option out there in what 21 days but I think we

186need some some more to chew into um before making difficult decisions like this um you know when I when I add up the three salaries for the mental health therapists that's $542,000 $542,000 so they're these are extremely qualified highly trained people um I don't know that we can't I'm not going to say replace but that we can't augment mental health services without the service of a therapist so I mean that's luxury we were given a luxury and I'm not saying there isn't obviously there was a need you know people used it kids used it but um is it realistic to keep that level of um extreme that's that's you know that's what I mean how many other districts have mental health therapists you know it's and you know that's that's an expense so if that

187is the priority of the board then it's the prior priority of the board my feeling is that um I'd like to look for ways that you provide augmented Mental Health Services that don't cost $542,000 I'd say if we're looking at salaries though just specifically um looking at salaries that aren't student facing like that I mean the way the the time that we live in right now it's getting more and more intense the need for pH for physical therapy for mental health therapists maybe Physical Therapy too is going to increase I mean I I don't think that we've seen the the peak of our Mental Health crisis quite yet and um I think it would be a total disservice to take that away from our kids I think that there are other areas in this District

188that are sorry guys but they're that and there could be some trimming that's done with certain positions that that um or reclassification or you know um taking a position away and bringing it back at a different step and column something that does not face these students and and um isn't as essential as mental health I mean it's what you said Jen like can't even eat your breakfast when you're in trauma space you know or you you can't even you can't sleep at night and you can't I don't know if anybody else has had anxiety but it's like it'll keep you up all night long I haven't slept in three nights you guys like this is for me causing a lot of anxiety but I mean for a kid it's like I feel like at this

189point yeah there's a there's a dollar sign on it of course but um these kids are our priority which they are we have to exhaust every single option to not take this resource away from them I I mean mental health is all we have it's really all we've got that's keeping us sort of grounded and it's you don't have that and we can't ask them to excel anywhere without solid mental health foundation and if we can do anything to maintain it $500,000 is a lot of money but at the same time it's if we take it we take a really good look around I think we could find it um it's not going to feel good but I think we can find it um and it's going to take a little bit of work and

190there's probably going to be some late nights and so I'm sorry about that in advance but we really are up against a deadline and uh it can happen though I have faith that it can happen and I think that you guys are going to come back with some um some better ideas that are less uh detrimental to our students but I hope that made sense what it yeah um I'll go to trust X and then I think I would like to just really quickly hear from staff if we're giving enough direction if we're not at this point and I and I'll put out there too this is a community decision so I appreciate the creative ideas that have been shared but if the pain is going to have to come from lots of folks in

191the district we should all be sharing these ideas as well um sorry trusty walks and then maybe feel comfortable I would again it's uh it's hard to prioritize things for me because my kids happen to use all of them but um I I would if we're having problems Staffing substitutes and then we're kind of proposing these reductions in elementary teachers that are because we want to not hit the maximum class size but hit a decent number I think we might be denying the reality of how much it cost to restaff that position in subsequent years like again I don't I don't know if a teacher can just be moved around grade level easily or not um but eliminating that position breaking up the um systems that that particular grade or school is working with and

192then the next year rehiring seems like um in inefficient way to operate in some respects um yeah that's all I'm like I'll go to staff just quickly to see if you feel you have what you need if I think I think we have enough P to I think there's some for the there's some comment here but there's some breath to it as well I'll just I'll just mention that and just remind folks that his the budget deficit is not going to go away I mean that is still the fundamental part of this that we do have to realize that the priorities we're setting if it's keeping all three mental health therapists which again is the board we need to make that decision with the right input these Cuts have to come from somewhere so it's

193something we need to just be cognizant of moving forward so with that I might suggest we take like a 10-minute break thanks everyone for attending excuse yes thanks W all okay session at 9:27 with a still full agenda so um we may be revisiting some of these things as we go but we're starting now with item 8 action discussion and we have an adoption of resolution number 1145 and I don't know if trusty shamas remembers I know I'm calling you out but I asked you if you'd be willing to read this item um which is the uh proclaiming March 2025 as women's history shall we stand no um well I wanted to make a little comment first and I as much as women have achieved uh there is still a great need to advocate for

194women around the world who are forced to live unfulfilled lives so I just thought you know I don't know that we've ever done this particular resolution before and it just made me think of you know maybe we don't think as women that we need any more promotion but we do and yet there's so many other women around the world that are living just horrible lives and we need to advocate for them okay so this is Pacific bro Unified School District's resolution number 1145 resolution proclaiming March 2025 is women's History Month whereas the advocacy efforts of the National Women's history project led to an annual observance of women's History Month which highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society and is celebrated during March in the United States whereas women of every

195race class and ethnic background have made significant and historic contributions to the growth and strength of our society in countless recorded and unrecorded ways whereas the leadership of women in elected office including the contributions of our own board of education trustees serves as an example of community and Civic engagement for girls and women in our city whereas women have been leaders not only in securing their own rights of suffrage and equal opportunity but also in the Abolitionist Movement the emancipation movement the industrial labor movement the Civil Rights Movement which create a more fair and just Society for all whereas despite these contributions the role of women in history has been consistently overlooked and undervalued in the literature teaching labor business and in the study of history and whereas the Pacific Grove unified school district provides

196opportunities for students to learn about the contributions of women in history through our Civics initiative whereas the Pacific Grove unified school district has encouraged Pathways for girls to pursue science technology engineering arts and Mathematics careers un and the under representation of women in non-traditional care careers by supporting teachers through professional development and whereas additional education is needed to increase inre the knowledge of all citizens relative to the contributions of women and opportunities for girls and women to develop their leadership skills and to eliminate bias in education and the workforce therefore be it resolved that the pafic Grove Union Unified School District Board of Education honors the contributions that women have made throughout history and commits to support efforts to improve opportunities for girls and women thank you so very much and I think with that

197we do have a quick moment for public comment there is any on this item if not um board discussion and I'll oh sorry b i most of the time you're heading to the bathroom so thank you very much for coming to the mic to speak thank you for making reference to my age president Hazen you I mean generally when is stepping up to get this way I call on them and then I feel silly sorry about the call out for you I just want to appreciate the board um taking a moment to recognize the contributions of women in history and I think that um you know as the father of a daughter who is um a senior in in in college it's um just been such a gift to have her grow up in a

198society where there are so many examples of women succeeding in roles um and having that success just expand over and over again because uh she has models and really the um wonderful conversations to have with my daughter right now are that she's not sure what she is going to wind up doing and I think it's because she has so many options that are in front of her now and um while it might be a little harder to make a decision going going going forward what a beautiful and powerful thing that she's living in a world where she's going to have some choices and truste shamas your words are so powerful in us taking a moment to rec recognize that that is not the case everywhere through throughout the world and so for us to take

199a pause and appreciate and just with deep gratitude understand the Incredible Gift that our daughters are are given to be able to assume a place of power and watch people run for president of the United States and um have that as an example for what a woman can can do um it truly worms my heart and gives me chills so thank you for doing that board thank you very much and again apologies for the oversight and any potential slights now going about for the record so I'll just start off a bit here too I mean yes again I I agree with your points um truste shabas I would argue too that even in our country some of these Privileges and rights are at risk of being eroded and so I think this is just a

200reminder that that the gains that we' have made as a district and as a state as a nation should not be looked at or taken for granted because they can be taken away sometimes much quicker than they can be given so any other board comments after that happy note okay if not we'll go on we're gonna uh Item B I was gonna we have sorry thank you um can I get a motion to pass this resolution I'll make a motion to adopt uh March 2025 as women's History Month I will Laura we second that so all in favor please say I I I all opposed that passes 5- Z thank you very much so now for Item B um I was going to suggest in the interest of time maybe I think we have to

201if it's okay with a board to go ahead and pull Item B and C to keep moving through um just that right correction discussion oh just under information discussion so we still have to do BC I sorry for got it I Mis communication okay so for item let's go ahead with Item B the adult education credential salary schedule revision I was talking about information items apologies again um so this is a presentation by assistant superintendent Jord thanks president aisen um yeah so BNC is now uh a bifurcated salary schedule there's been no schedule adjustments done to the salary schedule no changes in dollar amounts um what it is is a sers and Pur requirement that our uh adult education instructors have two separate salary schedules one for credentialed and one for non-credentialed uh employees and

202they need to be posted to our website uh as soon as we uh have this approved by the board this evening so again no change to dollar amount no change to salary schedule just a bifurcated salary schedule that now exists one for non-credentialed and one for credentialed employees at the adult school we now have time to go for public comment on um Bor do we have any comment on this item I feel um is this typical of the rest of the adult schools have a this is something that they've all been told to kind of create other school districts laas that's correct yeah this came out of change in regulations related to pers sters and then B which one which is what we're bringing forward for Google right now is the credential salary schedule revision

203okay okay um with that I will go ahead make a motion um to approve item as recommended by staff H can I get a second I'll second moved by myself and seconded by trusty schas all in Flav faor all in flavor all in favor please say I I I that passes 5- Z thank you um now for item C I assume similar presentation item C is the exact same thing except this is for our non-c credential salary schedule for our adul head uh instructors okay anyone in the public comment seeing none I'll come back to the board we had such a thorough presentation before I'm happy with this as well can I get a motion I'll make a motion on staff's recommendation well second um motion made by trusty McNary and seconded by trusty otmar

204all in favor please say I I any opposed that passes 5- Z so now on to item D 2023 24 measures a andd financial and performance audit report back to you superintendent Jordan yes so that's including the packet um page I believe it's 118 through 125 go back and look at those numbers but um essentially this is the uh the independent audit done on uh fund 21 for measure a and measure d uh this was a I think we had zero findings whatsoever all of the testing that was done associated with the award of contracts bidding and procurement and uh being being adherent to the regulations associated with uh Community funded uh Bond measures were all compliant uh again not one item to report here on this audit it was a clean perfectly clean audit

205for 2324 awesome I will go out now any public comment or question about this item no um for the board I'll go ahead and say again I think anytime we have these findings of none that's a sign that you've done a lot of work behind the scenes so thank you to Josh and your office um any other comment from the board I second that sentiment if not motion okay yeah s seconded by I'm kid yeah okay with that um I'd like to ask if anyone would like to make a motion about item D if not I will go ahead and make a motion to approve the audit report with no findings second seconded by trusty McNary I'll in favor please say I I I all opposed passes 5- Z so now we're on to the

206proposed Board calendar which I'm guessing we'll have an addition correct well yes and we you'll see it on there on February 27th and obviously we'll be bringing back the you know discussion from earlier but then it's also a chance for the um you know the alcap media review so that's something we required to do at this time and then we'll also have the csba policy updates the first reading for that as well so just approval for you know adding that February 27th date do we have any public comment on the addition of February 27th or the clarification on February 27th yeah with that I'll go ahead and go to the board any comments folks okay I have none as well thank you again for that and um I will go ahead and make a motion

207then to approve the proposed Board calendar with the additional details for February 27th can I get a second to that I will second that motion okay so that motion was made by myself seconded by trusty wax uh all in favor please please say I I any opposed no that one passes 5 as well so now we are on to the information discussion portion and this is where we we're talking about items BN C on information discussion um we will go ahead and put potentially on the 27th so that we can um yeah or or on March okay and so we'll go ahead and move to item D then do I do I need to get a motion on that no not we won't take any action on those too okay so then item D we're

208reviewing the budget development calendar for 2526 um again super assistant superintendent Jordan right so what you have in your packet on page 147 is the cover page for this item uh where delineates the 2526 budget development process uh starting January 13th when the governor releases his budget proposal January 9th which uh you can see in bold each one of the dates in bold is a board meeting so January 9th we did the review of the enrollment projections we did the review of the property tax revenue projections and we had the approval of the annual fiscal audit for the district uh you'll see that uh February 3rd we have we had the assistant superintendent myself and we had trusty wax uh as well there to attend the um the uh Capital advisor Governor's budget proposal on

209the third I will bring a summit of report back to the board in March related to uh the governor's budget proposal prior to the uh May revision uh March 6 she'll that I will be presenting oh so there it is the governor's budget proposal then some other dates to follow uh which bring us down to May 15 where the governor uh the governor uh the governing board holds the public hearing on the 25-26 District budget and the lcap onward down the page on 148 you'll see June 5th that's the statutory obligated date for us to approve the lcap and the budget and um which must be approved and submitted prior to July 1st of 2025 so that's it in sh what the 2526 budget calendar looks like questions with that we'll go ahead and move

210to Public public comment on the calendar and again this is another routine item we um discuss none online and none in the room I'll go back to the board any questions concerns comments for assistant superintendent Jord I look forward to hearing more as especially from trusty wax now that he's and expert on the budget that was a thumbs up for those listening onward so thank you for the help there and we don't have to vote on this but it's just a question of we give direction that we're okay with the budget seeing nodding I think we're good to go ahead and say thumbs up great job we will hear from you soon in March um and then the last item here is future agenda items I think we dealt with us a little bit under

211the the calendaring item um but again public comment on any other future agenda items that haven't been addressed see any one online okay thank you um it looks like it's Molly Daniels hi everybody can you hear me yes well so I just kind of it's a reclaiming of my time here at a moment because I had my hand up when you asked for public comment on women's history recognizing their contributions and I was completely silenced and overlook in that instant and that's something you guys might want to think about for I'm a woman and I wasn't even allowed to speak at that time so what I wanted to say is I wanted to you know highlight women's contributions to the US military as well and I didn't even get to say that because you didn't

212even give me a chance but thanks thank you very much for your comments and I'll take blame for not noticing the online person as well um but again thank you for your comments there any other public comment on future agenda item okay with that board any else looks like we got one person yes please just I have a couple of future agenda items um since I was at the high school gym last night um is is the high school principal here no he left okay has anybody been at the gym during a basketball game lately okay the PA system is non-existent almost I mean I you can't even hear s so um I think we might have some money and you know uh some Bond money that could address that so anyway I just want

213to put that on the agenda um and and then the other thing I wanted to put on the agenda was to discuss um possibly adjusting the um volunteering hours that we require for um the middle school and the high school someone made a really good suggestion to me that that they thought it would be more helpful if the those hours half of those hours were required to be turned in by the end of a semester and the other half by the end of that the last semester to alleviate all this running around at the last month of the school year to get all these volunteer hours in so I just like to put that out there and we can talk about that um and then the other item is um as you know I walk

214the track I live across the street from the stadium and I just am really concerned about um the security that we don't have at the stadium especially on the weekends you know at least during the week you know you have teams down there so you have some admin down there and stuff but there's a lot of stuff that goes on over there um for instance the the well I've talked to Josh a little bit about this before but you know we have equipment out there that doesn't have a place to be except out and um so so that's something to look into too like is there a way to stash some of this equipment but otherwise I mean we have signage that somehow people just ignore and one of the big things is you know

215it says no bikes inside okay well now we got a lot of kids riding these heavyduty electric bikes and they ride them on the field and if I see them I get them off okay so um but that's really a an issue and I would like to request that that the principles and coaches remind students what the rules are down there uh but we have we don't our our signage is very BL you know it's got one sign and I think it would be good to have a sign on the you know the um the half vence that surrounds the the track where you walk in the signage on the Forest Grove entrance is almost invisible because it's on the corner of the Cyclone fencing where if you're walking in on that side you would

216never even see it so people don't know people bring in their dogs um people are um they're also like doing things like um throwing balls against the concession stand wall I stopped somebody from doing that because it's crumbling you know so and then I just direct them I said hey did you know the Middle School actually has some walls that are built for that you can go over there um so I'm you know but I I just I'm worried that you know we put a million dollars into the glass renovation to replace the field and the track and you know it's it's something that we should be um concerned about just as far as how do we make sure it's safe there or um so anyway let's put that on the agenda can I can

217I make a slight potential adjustment maybe it should have come up at the calendaring but I mean I wonder if this is the both your first and third items sound like facility master plan type things not the reminding per se but I think think I mean that might be something to think about calendaring as well for future agenda when are we going to get our you know another time we're going to need a lot of community inlit and planning so if you comfortable with that I'd put at least the increased signage and especially the point you're making about the P system these are things that we need to have as part of our planning for you know potential Bond monies because I agree that there the other thing though I would like to address is

218you know do we think we might need some kind of security there like on weekends we open it up it's open to everybody we used to close the gates but we don't even close them anymore so it's open all the time and um you know people go in there at night sometimes I had a there's a Little Ride Aid you know um shopping cart down there I move it I do all kinds of it sounds take care without without going too far into an actual agenda item here it sounds like we might have a community security Force led by trusty shamas to help exactly so we just need to recruit a few more such as some of your neighbors we go think I'm SEC yeah so so yeah so I know I think that would

219be something just again to kind of it's just a reminder from the principal I think that's an easy one you we can take care of and kind of do we can do an update in the trusty updates on you know how that's going and that kind and even maybe the signage I know you know that was brought up recently at the middle school as well you know so we're looking at that so maybe we just do both the sign look at it at both the middle and the high school so we'll that that's an easy you know thing that we could do yeah security yeah a whole matter yeah um I'd also like to um maybe work with the local police department in the future about uh the safety training I'm not sure if it's

220every year or every other year but I know that they recently did a active shooter drill and since officer Hills on our uh School and PG PD is our Police Department it seems like maybe some training from them would be um more localized and just build more relationships with them in terms of safety train I think we should add that in that might be can I suggest actually you chat a bit with uh district office staff about what's been done and then we can help craft a future jend item from that my direction is to chat with Josh yes okay last chance if not we have Clos session reminding folks of to go back to one more item so um with that thank you everyone who was in attendance tonight and this meeting is adjourned

221for open oh we will come back and I will not adjourn it see I'm faking you guys um see who's paying attention and we will come back to adjourn at the end close okay I wasn't sure with Clos session that's a good reminder so um I will go ahead and make a motion that we extend to 11 so hopefully we will not take that sorry but yes second by trusty mcar May by myself all in favor please say I I I any opposed hold on okay for wait that was an I not an a you sure it's okay okay so we're going 5 zero we will try to come back before 11 you're already it was 41 luer for the record very understandably thank you guys so much it's now 10:58 and I will officially

222adjourn the do I have to report back at close thank you I was just remembering that we just um information was given I will say on item four the superintendent midar evaluation with that I'll adjourn at 1058 thank you very much