001Good evening everyone. As the saying goes, this best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loudly for all to hear. So tonight, we are delighted to welcome Elorado High School Choir under the direction of Mr. Mark Santiso. As they bring the sounds of the season to our board meeting during this especially busy time of year filled with performances, rehearsals, finals, these talented students continue to shine and share their joy through music. At this time, I'm pleased to turn it over to Mr. Santiso as he will share a bit more about the choir and tonight's holiday selections. on Christmas day. There will your s play and wild and sweet the words repeat of peace on earth good will to all to ring singing on its way. The world revolves from night to day. A voice, a
002child, a chance of life, of peace on earth, good will to all. Ring the bells on Christmas. Ring them loud. Ring them. Ring them loud and strong. Tell the nation that love has won. Let them join our song. Sing the bells on Christmas. Ring them loud. Ring them. Bring them. They are tidings of joy out so all the world can hear. I found my head. There is no peace on earth. I said for hate is strong and mocks the song of peace on earth. Good will to all and heal the bells more loud and deep. God is not dead, nor do he sleep. The rope shall fail the right pre with peace on earth good will to all. Ring the bells on Christmas. Ring them loud. Ring them. Swing them loud and strong. Tell the
003nations that love has one. Let them join our song. Ring the bells on Christmas. Ring ring. May our tidings of joy resound. Oh, bring the bell. Give them a quick moment to reconfigure and put those bells away and then we'll do la. La F la. La thee all year passes La the new and blesses la sing Glorious all together. La the wind and weather la. Oh la. H la. >> Thank you all. Thank you for having us. It's been a pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you for being here. So, thank you for your patience tonight and thanks to the Elorado Choir for their performances tonight. Also, in the festive mood, the season would not be right without cookies and our nutrition services department prepared cookies and they're outside. So, if there's a break
004and you need to go or you need to take a break and get a treat to stay awake, please help yourself. Okay, I'm officially going to reconvene regular session at 6:20 and there is nothing to report out from close session. And if you can join me in the pledge of allegiance. Ready? Begin. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Let the record show that all board members are present, including our student board member, Ariana. And before we approve the agenda, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Kim. Thank you, President Anderson. Before our board reorganization, I want to take a moment to recognize and thank our outgoing board president.
005>> The agenda first. >> Oh, sorry. Sorry. I thought you had that on there next. I apologize. >> Nope. >> Where am I on the agenda? >> We're amending it. >> Thank you. >> We're amending the agenda. >> Okay. So, we're amending the agenda for the December 16th board of education agenda as presented. Thank you. before calling. Thank you. I was like that's not in my agenda. Thank you. I apologize. Um I did ask President Anderson to remove consent item number 26.5 to approve me memorandum of understanding with ABC Education Group. It is not a necessity at this time. The student services group brought it forward and um they've figured out that it is not something we need approval for for this time. So we're going to ask that that be removed. Thank you. That's
006not in my script, so apologize. >> We'll get it together. >> Thank you. >> Do you need a motion? >> Yes. >> I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as amended. >> Second. >> We have a motion by Mrs. Blades, a second by Mrs. Quantero. All in favor? >> I >> Five to zero with an I from our student board member. Okay, now we're having our public comment announcement. Public comment cards are available in the foyer with the cookies. Cards must be completed and turned in prior to their designated time for public comment. Provided a maximum of 3 minutes per person. If translation is needed, an additional 3 minutes will be given. Please let us know and we can if we know ahead of time, we can ensure we are prepared. Civility policy education
007code 220 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, nationality, race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, or any other characteristic that is contained in the definition of hate crime set forth in section 422.55 of the penal code, including immigration status. Additionally, if there are any disruptions or interferences on the board's ability to conduct its meeting, the disruptive parties will be given one warning. If the destruction continu, you know, I got four grandsons living with me. I just tuned all that right out. That's a familiar happy noise in my opinion, not a disruption. Um, the president has found you disruptive in violation of penal code section 403, education code section 32210, and the board president will order you removed from the meeting under Government Code 54957.957.95. If removing one or several disruptive parties
008does not restore order, the board president will exercise their authority to clear the room in accordance with government code 54957.9. Now I'm going to turn it over to you again. >> Okay. Sorry, I was too excited. Okay. I apologize for that earlier. We're going to get to my item here. Before our board recognition, I want to take a moment to reorganize, sorry, to recognize and thank the outgoing board president, Miss Marilyn Anderson. This evening marks the conclusion of Miss Anderson's first term serving as board president. She was elected to the Placentia Yorbalinda Unified School District Board of Education in 2020. And over the past year, she's led the board and our district with dedication, thoughtfulness, and a deep commitment to public education. As board president, Miss Anderson guided the district through a significant year of
009important work. Work that was centered on strengthening academic achievement, supporting organizational excellence, and keeping the needs of our students, staff, families, and school community at the forefront of every decision. Miss Anderson is also a familiar presence throughout our campuses. She consistently attends school events and celebrations, taking great pride in recognizing and supporting our students. During her time on the board, she has made it a priority to visit all 34 of our schools, underscoring her commitment to ensuring every student receives the very best education our district can provide. We're grateful for her thoughtful leadership. Thank you, President Anderson. And as a token of our appreciation for your hard work and dedication, we have a commemorative PIL USD gift to present to you this evening. Please join me in giving her a round of applause. and trustees.
010I'm now going to turn it over to you for any additional comments you'd like to make. Marilyn, it's been an honor to serve as your vice president. You have had um led us in a in a the search this year. Um so many things that came across our plate that you handled and and led us through. So, I really appreciate the work that that you did and the work that we were able to do together. Just want to say thank you as well. Being new to the board, um I was really um grateful for your leadership this year and um the lessons I've learned and the way you patiently and thoughtfully um consider all your decisions. So, thank you. >> Okay, let's move on. Um, at this time, I'd like to make a motion to
011elect Carrie Buck as president of the board of education for the period December 16, 2025 through December 15, 2026. >> Second. I have a motion by Mrs. Anderson, a second by Mrs. Quantero. Is there any questions, comments? Okay. All in favor say I. >> I. >> Any oppose? >> Nope. >> Okay. >> Did you vote? >> I I um I Okay. Just making sure. Okay. The motion carries three to two with an I from our student board member. So, at this point, our new president, Mrs. Buck, is going to take over. >> Okay. Here's the gavvel. Thank you. Okay. So, moving on to uh board vice president. I'll take a motion. And I'd like to make a motion to elect Trisha Quantero as vice president of the board of education for the period of December
01216th, 2025 through the December 15th, 2026. >> I'll second. >> Okay. We have a motion by Mrs. Buck, second by Mrs. Anderson. All those in favor? I >> I >> You vote. >> I >> and opposed. >> No. And from our student board member, would you Yes. I All right. So, that carries three to two with an I from the student board member. And then moving on to our board clerk, I'd like to make a motion to elect Marilyn Anderson as clerk of the board for education of for the period December 16th, 2025 through December 15, 2026. Second and opposed. Oh, I'm sorry. We had a motion by um Carrie Buck and a second by Trisha Quantero. All those in favor? >> I I >> I and opposed. >> No. >> And from our student
013board member. >> Okay. So, that motion carries as well. 32 the vote from our student board member. Okay. So, that brings us next to our approval of minutes. Could I have a motion, please? >> I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of November 18th, 2025 as presented. >> Second. >> A motion by Mrs. Anderson, second by Mr. Frasier. Any comments? >> All those in favor? I I >> I >> Okay, motion carries 5-0 and a yes from our student board member. Okay, now that brings us to an exciting point of the evening and our golden bell award. So, I'll pass it to you, Dr. Kim. >> Thank you, President Bug. I'm really excited to recognize our staff. Um I was fortunate enough to join them and watch them be honored.
014Um, thank you, Miss Gray, and and um, at the time, President Anderson were able to accept on behalf of PILUSD. Um, and Jamie was able to be with us as well. And it was a wonderful evening. And as exciting and fun as that was, I'm even more excited that you all were able to join us tonight so that we can recognize you this evening. I'm going to hand it to Miss Gray so that she can recognize staff. So, I have the distinct pleasure of introducing the person who will be recognizing our preschool leadership team this evening, our principles and educators who have received the prestigious Golden Bell Award. Before she does so though, I want to take a moment to acknowledge the leader whose vision, determination, and belief helped bring this recognition to our district.
015I have had the opportunity to watch Jaimeie Nash step into the role of director of special education this year with both courage and clarity. Jaime is one of the kindest and most thoughtful leaders I know. Quiet in nature yet resolute in purpose, she approaches complex challenges with grace, always keeping students and educators at the center of her work. Prior to taking on this role, Jaime led our uh district special education preschool program with a deep commitment to inclusion. Under her leadership, inclusive practices for our preschoolers have truly come to life. She has helped our team see through both data and lived experience that when students have access to the same curriculum, highquality instruction, and their general education peers, they don't just improve, they actually thrive. So, the Golden Bell Award is a reflection of our
016district's innovative practices, Jaime's belief in our team, the team's tenacity, and the collective desire of all involved to honor and elevate our youngest learners. So without further ado, it is my true honor to introduce Jamie Nash, our director of special education and a colleague I am deeply proud to work alongside. Thank you. Good evening, President Buck, trustees, superintendent Dr. Kim Lebron Esparza and Executive Cabinet. Tonight, I stand before you with immense pride and gratitude to celebrate a remarkable milestone. Preschool staff across the district have earned the Placenti or Belinda School District's first California school boards association Golden Bell in more than 10 years. Now in its 46th year, the Golden Bell Award celebrates excellence in education and schoolboard governance by recognizing innovative programs that make meaningful differences for students. These awards highlight best practices across
017instruction, operations, and student support services with a strong focus on access and positive student outcomes. This year, CSBA received 263 entries across 23 categories. Each one rigorously reviewed by a panel of experts from school districts and school county offices of education throughout California. Only a select number of programs statewide earn this distinction. This award recognizes the district's preschool inclusion initiative. A bold and transformative shift in early learning. From the beginning, our mission was clear to ensure that children with disabilities have access to highquality preschools alongside their typically developing peers. In the fall of 2022, following your uh 50 vote in support of an inclusion resolution, the groundwork was laid to focus on our youngest learners. As a result of the expanding preschools and our co-op models, student outcomes have improved dramatically. Before the implementation, only
01810% of our students in our preschools and special education were recommended for general education. Today, far more students are successfully transitioning into inclusive settings. So now I would like to invite the extraordinary leaders who helped bring this vision to life. From Orange County Head Start, Jessica Thompson. Will you please join us at the dis to be recognized and received your own golden bell. Jessica and her team led a groundbreaking partnership with Orange County Head Start, resulting in the first co-op preschool classroom, the first of its kind in Orange County. Through navigating complex regulations, staffing, and operational challenges, they demonstrated what is possible when collaboration and purpose drive the work. I'd like to invite our co-teer, Alicia Brown. Alicia and Jessica and the team at Topaz Head Start daily commitment for the past four years has
019made inclusion a reality for all the children they serve. Next, please join me in recognizing our district preschool leadership, Dr. George Lopez, the executive director of early and expanded learning and Sylvia Questa, our director of early childhood education for continuing the essence of this initiative by making co-taught models part of our preschool landscape across the existing and newly opened preschools for over the past three years. Now, I would like to invite and recognize the dedicated preschool staff members who are here tonight whose work made this success possible. From Wagner Preschool, our co-teer Amy Ortland, and we have our Linda Vista team here tonight. So, director of the preschool, Sandra Flores, AND OUR co-teers Ashley Matson and Jennifer TERRY from our Morris Preschool. We have our school principal, Kelly Ferrell, and our co-teer. Yes. and our
020co-teer Kim Okonnell. And from our Glen View preschool, we have our co-taught teacher, Chrissy Bernazi. And now, a special acknowledgement to our preschool teacher on special assignment, Joy Goodrich. Her leadership, advocacy, and steadfast commitment to the vision has been instrumental in supporting staff and ensuring highquality implementation across our programs. While tonight marks a time to celebrate, it also marks the beginning of continued work ahead. Our collective responsibility is to expand inclusive opportunities as students transition into elementary school and beyond, ensuring that belonging, access, and high expectations remain central to every educational experience. This Golden Bell Award belongs to every educator, every leader, and every partner who believed in this work and dared to do things differently. It represents hope, progress, and the promise for a brighter future for all the children at Pilusd. And to
021all of the preschool team, even those who are not here tonight, we want to thank you. Your passion is changing lives, strengthening our district, and setting a powerful example across the state. Congratulations on this welldeserved honor. And now we would like to invite our board members to join us for a group photo to celebrate this incredible achievement. >> Maybe we should go behind >> the camera. Are we >> probably Where do you want? Where do you want? >> Yeah, >> good work. Even better. >> I love it. >> As you sneak away, don't forget to grab some cookies on your way out. Um, thank you so much for all the work that you do each and every day. Um, I have a grandson you've just met and it's incredibly important to all of us that
022the work that you all do continues and it really builds kids brains. Um, 85% or 80% of their brain is is built before the age of five. So the work that you are doing is really really changing lives. I mean literally changing lives. So, thank you so much and I can't wait to see what the data shows in the years to come and how the work that you do help us meet that and beat that achievement gap. Thank you. >> Whoops. >> That's okay. I don't need it. >> Dropping the >> If anybody else wants to pop out for a cookie, please do so. Um so that will bring us next to our public hearing. Um a public hearing will be held regarding the adoption of resolution number 2516 accepting the annual and 5-year developer
023fee report pursuant to government code section 660001 660 and 660007 for the period July 1st 2024 through June 30th 2025. And the public hearing I will call open at 641. Does anyone want to speak to this? a second. I'm not seeing anybody jump up. Okay, seeing nobody running to the podium, we're going to close our public hearing at 6:42. And that now brings us to presentations and we'll have an update to provide um a board with for student achievement. And Dr. Kim, um I'll pass that over to you. Thank you. Um I'm excited this evening to bring uh Dr. Dr. Wilg Grrey, Mike Young, and Dr. Liz Leon uh to talk to us about student achievement with some new metrics and some new tools that we now have available to us. Um it's not the
024same report as what you have been used to because they had utilized the dashboard uh the the California dashboard for the last couple of years in terms of looking at our data. And um I think we'll all learn together as we grow um the ability to dig down deeper and find the data analytics that will help us take action and that will inform our strategic plan. And this is just a first step toward that. I look forward to the conversation we're going to have at the end of u Dr. Gray and um Mr. Young and and Dr. Leon's presentation and we will take feedback from you all because as iterations continue we will make it better and better that is aligned to what interests you have and our goals within our strategic plan. So this
025is a first step of many. >> All right. Good evening President Buck trustees superintendent Leblanc Sparza executive cabinet members. We are pleased. Do I need to It's not a big screen. >> There we go. We are still pleased to present our 2025 CASP English language arts and math student achievement data. We will cover the performance of our students as an overall group and the achievement of our three largest student groups. socioeconomically disadvantaged students, English learners, and students with disabilities. With the release of the California dashboard data in November and its availability in the new frontline analysis tools this past week, we are able to look at our data in new and more contextual manners. This presentation is designed to elicit further wonderings and generate critical questions from everyone to foreshadow the strategic planning process that
026PLUSD will undertake this spring. The premise of this presentation is that data points in isolation are rarely actionable. If we are given data points without context, it's almost like trying to solve a puzzle with just one piece. The picture is incomplete. Context help us find meaning, gauge what is normal, celebrate successes, prioritize necessary actions, and analyze metrics that need attention. Throughout this presentation, we hope to contextualize the achievement of our students in a manner that will help frame the next steps that we will take. We recognize that schools and school districts are complex interconnected systems from for which we can extract and examine myriad data points similar to our own complex human systems. To help set our framework, we will look at the sample at a sample slate of five data points typically measured during
027a physical exam at a doctor's office. While each provide some information on how a patient is doing, they provide little insight into necessary actions without knowing what typical measurements are. And therefore, the patient is left wondering if they're healthy. So, to answer the question on the screen, most of those are good numbers with some work to be done for the EGFR rate. I'm not going to try to pronounce what it stands for, but it indicates kidney function. So the doctor would recognize that while many things are going well, an action plan is needed to address the area of need. We will walk through a similar analysis celebrating the many positive outcomes of our district and recognizing needed action. Tonight, we will start from the macro level when we compare PYUSD outcomes to statewide averages. The
028graphs on the screen show statewide and PILUSD performance in ELA and math over time since 2019 to the most recent data in 2025. Our district is the thicker blue line and the statewide performance is the yellow line. Note that there was no CASP data in 2021, excuse me, 2020 and 2021 and that each of these graphs show the post-pandemic dip in 2022. Our overall percentage of students that met or exceeded the assessed standards has consistently outperformed the state as a whole by approximately 20 percentage points in ELA and math, which is something to celebrate. And we are showing trends to return to our preandemic levels of performance. As heartening as that news is, the reality is that our district has different demographics than the state. So that is not an applesto apples contextualization. Thanks to
029the new frontline data analysis tool that we have, we are now able to contextualize our ELA and math data to gain deeper insight. As a district, 45.7% of our students has been have been identified as socioeconomically disadvantaged. 14.4% of our students are English learners and 13.4% of our students have an identified disability. And some of our students fit into two or three of these student groups. On the screen are the locations of 11 other unified districts that had similar percentages of English learners and low socioeconomic students last year with enrollments of at least 2,000 students. The districts displayed here have populations of English learners within 6% of our demographics and at least 39% of their students are lowincome. We are the orange dot down in Orange County. Percentages of students with disabilities are not available
030with this tool, but there is often little variance across districts and most are near the statewide average between 11 and 14%. We will be examining our highle student achievement data within the context of these demographically similar unified districts from throughout California tonight. This is different from our prior practice of looking at neighboring district data because geographic proximity does not provide the same level of contextual feedback for us. Mr. Young, our director of secondary education, will start our review of data in new ways in order to give some insight into our analysis and initial takeaways using this tool. On this chart, we can see four years of CASP performance data captured in the ELA indicator, which correlates the overall average distance from standard score for every tested student and participation rates in language arts. The years
031displayed are 2022, 23, 24, and 25. When we compare our ELA indicator, again, the thick blue line, we find ourselves consistently near the top of the group year-over-year for the past four years. And we are showing promise to return to our prepandemic levels of performance. In fact, in 2025, we had the top performance indicator compared to the 11 other like districts and have earned the green level performance on the California school dashboard. On this chart, we can see four years of CAST performance data captured in the math indicator which completes or correlates the overall average distance from standard score for every tested student in participation in math. Once again, our math indicator is the uh thick blue line places consistently year uh year after year at the top of the group for the past four
032years. 2025 we had the top performance indicator compared to the other like districts and have also earned the green level performance indicator for math on the California school dashboard. The outcomes on the previous two charts are a reflection of the hard work and dedication of our teachers and that our district is making great strides to return to prepandemic levels of achievement. We will now move on to some newer methods of >> one question real quick. Sorry. >> Oh, sure. >> On back on those charts, it says 22 23 24 25. What's the dates of those testing? I'm assuming it's the spring of that year. Correct. >> Correct. So the 25 is the spring of 25 which is school year 24 25. Correct. Got it. Thank you. >> And I have a question too. Um usually
033everything's like weighed by percentages, you know, and this isn't really this giving us a line. Like what percentage is our line at? Because it says like we're doing great, but if the rest of the state's at six, you know, if we're at like 50% and everybody else on these lines is below 50%, then are we really doing that great? So what's what is our percentage at right now? >> What's the average? Because all we're seeing is lines, >> right? So um the way that the California dashboard measures our um achievement is by distance from standard. Right? So the distance from standard that we're comparing ourselves to is the minimum uh standard uh scale score um for uh level three or four. Um so based on our essentially um how far away we are from that
034bottom level score uh shows how uh how how much higher we are in that standard versus the other districts. What would our number be then? I guess for people who like when we look at the graphs like I'd rather do it numbers >> like right here if the zero is the baseline correct >> and >> that's the that would be uh at standard >> the standard so being above and the 0.25 25. So we're right there. Probably the number would be around 12 from the standard. >> Correct. >> But what's >> Yeah. Like it's valid. Like if we're comparing 20% achievement to 30% achievement. Yeah. It's better, but it sucks. >> So I mean I guess the point is like what's that what's the average? What's the line the standard number? >> Thank you for
035that question. So when we look at the percentage of our students that have met or exceeded the standard for ELA, we're at 67.37%. >> Okay. >> Um in 2025 and then for math, we are at 56% which again is about 20 percentage points higher than the state the >> but it's still not 56% of our kids are at grade level. >> Correct. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. just as a dashboard isn't really the best I guess representation of the scores and that's why it's so confusing I think too >> and part of my suggestion will be wait till we get to like the last five slides of this because we will dig into where we can clearly see we need to dig in and and make some improvement >> right >> thank you
036for those questions we'll now move on to some newer methods of displaying data One of the more interesting insights from our new tool front line that can be visualized is student achievement by grade level. In this graphic, you can see the grades that are assessed 3 4 5 6 7 8 and 11. Going up the left side of the chart in rows. Those represent the grade levels. The columns across the bottom represent the 12 similar districts we are examining today. The colors represent the ranked achievement levels of each grade within that district to give insight into how student performance changes over time for that district. Therefore, red does not indicate poor performance for that grade. Rather, that is the grade that has the most area for growth within that district. Our column is surrounded by
037the light blue rectangle. and we have scored between 62 and 69% met or exceeded standard and a green indicator on the California school dashboard which is higher than our comparison district and statewide averages. As you can see on the screen, a commonality is that achievement rates in ELA tend to start lower and rise as the grade level increases. With most districts having their 11th grade students demonstrate the highest rates of mastery indicated by the row of dark green at the top of the chart. >> Mr. Young, I'm going to step in here. to your point um both of you, if you look at the squares that are red, there's definitely indicators where we have stronger performance versus areas where we definitely can see we've got to dig in and figure out where is it that
038our students are needing help, needing support, needing to attain a skill set because they're not being able to demonstrate it. And so this is just yet another visual that we can look at. And honestly, you have to look at about five to get to a place where you're like, "Okay, I have a pretty good sense of what are all the patterns telling me because you can hide a lot of things in averages." >> I would love to just go to the last five then. >> Well, no. So, but the the colors still are related to being above or at the average. Correct. >> But you see, if you look standard, sorry, the standard. >> If you look in ours, like the low the red in here, like in four, like three and four, like that's
039very low achievement. Eighth grade, low achievement. But then 11th grade we had high achievement. So I guess that's how they're looking. >> Yeah. It's >> Yeah. And then it drops. >> It's it's telling you or indicating relatively within your district based on the grade levels that are tested which grade levels perform higher than others and lower than others. >> So it's just relative to our district and those other like districts. Conversely, uh when we examine the achievement of math compared to grade level, we can see that our similar districts show the opposite trend in that as student grade level rises, student achievement declines. Also notable is that student achievement in math is more dispersed within each of the districts whose data is displayed, indicating that achievement gaps widen over time. Dr. Kim, can you share
040more insights and critical questions that come to mind from these findings and what leading indicators can districts monitor to address these needs? >> Between these two heat maps, there are a couple of questions that I have to ask. Um, you know, first of all, I would argue that the math pattern that you see is predictable but not unadressable. And what I mean by that is as math builds upon itself, if students are missing skill sets, as we continue to move them up through grade levels, that accumulates over time. And as we get more and more complex, there comes a point in time where there's a greater and greater percentage of what they cannot do. And so when we look at our student performance in grades 7, 8, nine, you're going to see a greater and
041greater number of students who are unable to meet standard or are barely meeting standard, one of the two. Either way, not setting them up for success. whereas you don't see that same pattern of achievement in English language arts because English language arts isn't that same sequential uh course that you see and so we will look at this to say hang on a minute one of the first things I see is it eighth grade in both of these heat maps I see a dip I see us having a trajectory in five six seven and then a dip in eight so my question is is our curriculum doing for our students what it needs to be doing in eighth grade and preparing ing them to meet the standard. Are the practices that we're using being effective? These
042are all questions that we can ask as a part of our analysis of the data that these tools are going to give us an opportunity to dig into. So stay tuned. We'll keep going with that. Hi. Uh next we will examine our data on a more granular level by examining the performance of our three largest student groups. Our low socioeconomic student groups uh that comprise 45.7% of our district are English learners that make up 14.4% of our district and our students with disabilities that represent 13.4% of our students. These student groups are focus of student outcome analysis because in short schools across the state and nation and to some extent schools around the world have deca decades of outcome data that shows that students belonging to one or more of these groups tend to perform
043at a lower level than their peers. It is extremely difficult to close these achievement gaps. But something that we strive for as a district is part of our moral imperative to support the needs of all students. Each color represents the achievement of a group of students. Blue displays all students. Red displays low socioeconomic students. Yellow displays students with disabilities and green displays English learners. Our data is the solid line and the statewide data are the dashed lines. When we compare the pairs of lines in each color, we can see that our students in each of these groups have consistently outperformed statewide averages in English language arts. Now, we will look at the same graph for math. Again, blue displays all students, red displays low socioeconomic students, yellow displays students with disabilities, and green displays English
044learners. Our data is a solid line and the statewide data are the dashed lines. When we compare the pairs of lines in each color, we can see that our students in each of these groups have consistently outperformed statewide averages in math. One of the next steps we will take is to examine the performance of our student groups relative to their peers among our 11 like districts. This is often called an achievement gap analysis. This is a new style of chart, so we will briefly review what it displays across the three columns before sharing any takeaways. The left-hand column shows the achievement data for students in a given at promise group, while the right-hand column shows the achievement of students not in that group. For example, students with disabilities on the left and students without disabilities
045on the right. The center column displays the difference in achievement between these populations. This is the gap that we referenced before. On the next slide, we will look at gap analysis for students with disabilities, English learners, and socioeconomically disadvantaged for the 2024 CAST data. as that is the most recent comparison available in frontline. We will see that one of the side effects of having such high overall performance levels is that it often creates large gaps between students in at promise student groups and the overall averages. These charts on the screen show achievement gaps for the 2024 English language arts assessment for the 12 demographically similar districts sorted from the top to bottom by the size of the achievement gap. Their data demonstrates comparison data for three student groups are shown. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students versus not
046socioeconomically disadvantaged in the upper left. English learner versus English only at the top right and students with disabilities versus students with no reported disabilities in the bottom center. Starting at the upper left and moving clockwise, we can see that PUSD has the fourth biggest achievement gap for our low socio economic disadvantaged students, the second largest achievement gap for English learners, and again the second largest achievement gap for students with disabilities. Next, we will move on to examining achievement gaps for the 2024 math assessment for the 12 demographically similar districts. Again, sorted from top to bottom by the size of the achievement gap their data demonstrates. Again, comparison data for three student groups are shown. Socioeconomically disadvantaged students in the upper left, English learners on the top right, and students with disabilities at the bottom center.
047Starting in the upper left and moving clockwise, we can see that PILUSD has the largest achievement gap for our low socioeconomically disadvantaged students, the largest achievement gap for English learners, and the second largest achievement gap for students with disabilities. Dr. Kim, can you provide some insight into what these past two slides indicate and how we will approach these needs? So as you asked the questions, you know, we started out having the conversation that PIL is not an average district. We have very high expectations for our student performance. So comparing ourselves to the state is merely just a benchmarking for us to look at and see, you know, how are we doing as far as the state goes, but more importantly, how are we doing compared to districts that have similar demographics to us? Then how
048are we doing compared to ourselves? Are we getting better each and every year? are we climbing? But then we dig deeper and ask the question, are there student populations that aren't even coming close to our overall average? And the reality is you can hide a lot of things in averages, especially when you have a high average. When you look at it and say 70% of our kids are meeting standard, but if only 50% of almost half of our kids are not meeting it, there's there's a huge achievement gap at that point. and somewhere we need to do some things differently for some students because they're not able to access learning in the same way. And so for me, one of the first things that I asked the team to dig into is looking at the
049areas of our dashboard that we get from the state that don't show up green and why is that? What what students are struggling and how do we know and what do we need to do differently for those students? And these three graphs for both ELA and math clearly call out a need for us to dig into the data and figure out why are these students not having the same educational experience as their peers who are meeting who are meeting standard and what do we do to show up differently for those students. And then overall, we still have to have very big goals with regard to I mean, as a parent, I'll be the first person to tell you that if a 100% of kids aren't meeting standard, I don't want to be that parent that
050I look at and go, it's okay for your kid to not succeed. It's not okay for any kid not to succeed. That's just a hard stop for all of us. But the reality is we have some big work to do in relation to a number of our students that show up for learning every day with a very different skill set and a different home life experience and a different life experience that they need us to do some things differently for them. Thank you. So um just to reiterate, so what does this mean? Um we continue to demonstrate high overall achievement compared to statewide averages and similar districts. Similar to the patient example at the beginning of the presentation, while most of our data is good, we have some work to do in that regard. We
051have significant achievement gaps for our English learners, our socioeconomically disadvantaged students, and our students with disabilities that need to be addressed. Given the enduring nature of these needs, a comprehensive strategic approach will be used to continue to push the envelope of overall attainment levels while working to raise the achievement of all student groups. and the district leadership team decided that trainings for the 2526 school year would focus on literacy and academic language given that our English learners and students with disabilities were struggling to access academic language in their ELA and math courses. Our curriculum and instruction initiatives and professional development offerings this past summer and throughout this school year are displayed on the screen. Light blue offerings are for elementary teachers, gold topics for secondary teachers, and the lower left quadrant of guided language acquisition
052and development strategies reflects our district-wide initiative outcome or outcome data for these initiatives are being monitored via attendance at these trainings by formative assessment data and by monitoring implementation in our classrooms. Are these trainings mandatory or are they voluntary? >> Um, they are voluntary trainings. The um district-wide initiative training in the lower lefthand corner. Um, Jose Cabrera, our assistant director of state and federal programs, travels to the school sites during one of their staff meetings each school year. So, each teacher will hear about that one. >> So, so when we're talking about implementing all of these things, >> if you don't attend the training, you can't implement it. Correct. Correct. >> Okay, please. >> Thank you. Um, actually the training that we have um specifically for the reading difficulties risk screener um is mandatory so
053that uh all of our K through 2 grade teachers were trained um this summer. Within that training there was uh one hour to know how to implement the reading difficulties risk screener and then the five hours it was six hour training. five hours were so what next and what do you do to change um classroom practices to support and provide intervention for students? So I guess the question is so K through two was mandator was that was a mandatory they all got it but what about the rest of the grades if it was voluntary how do we know that it's being implemented in the classroom because if some teachers are implementing it isn't that going to affect the outcomes of the students in the other classrooms whose teachers are not implementing it wouldn't we think
054that we'd want all of this to be mandatory so everybody's getting the same opportunities. One of the limitations that we've had um having been uh in this district for 5 years is the um honestly the ability to provide release time and to have substitutes. I'm really excited that we are starting to have that happen specifically this year and with that opportunity to release our teachers during their professional day to receive the professional training as it should be rather than uh after school. So, one of the huge limitations we've had is we haven't had the ability to release our teachers during the day um because of such shortages as you are well aware for the past couple of years. And so now we are on the other side of it where we have that opportunity to
055do that. And as a matter of fact, we um have scheduled trainings this year where we are going to be releasing our teachers during the day and um we have that set up for all of our kindergarten teachers. That's coming up as well as first grade teachers, second grade teachers. And then we're going to cycle back to kind uh kindergarten once again specifically to ensure that we meet the needs for reading difficulties risk screener. What we're going to do to close achievement gaps for our students when it comes to literacy is we know that's all part of um learning even within math. >> So that was K1 and two. What about the rest? >> Because some of these are like third, fourth, fifth, sixth, like what about the rest? >> Some of the trainings are
056grade specific. Correct. >> Yes, absolutely. And so we are starting with literacy and then the hope is that we continue to have the support of uh subrelease time so that we can extend that over to the other grade levels but we're being very strategic about focusing on early intervention um so that we're not having to close achievement gaps later down the road for students when it's much more difficult um in third fourth fifth etc. So that is the goal that we continue to then provide that professional development during the day for the other grade levels but we're starting with um K through 2nd >> and and what happens if a teacher refuses to implement these new practices to help the students. >> So that's um where our administrators come into play like having been a
057principal myself what um other alternatives do they have if not to help support and close achievement gaps for students. And so there are um reservations and there's research that you know um backs this up and sometimes it's not out of defiance is that our teachers don't have the skill set yet. And so for that reason um I'm very proud to share that for math specifically we are um building the capacity of teachers supporting and teaching teachers. We right now have um 13 of our math fellows that are going around to support 30 teachers. So they're coaching, they're taking video, they're of dialoguing with each other. So sometimes those reservations don't come out of being defiant, rather, show me how. And and that's where our administrators come into play and say, "Okay, you know what? If
058this is hard for you, what do you need? Do you need to go visit another teacher? Do you need to have another teacher come and co-lead and co-e with you? Do you need um to uh watch yourself on video?" And so that's the support that we have been doing. And um also grateful to share that our math fellows their scores have consistently outperformed um other colleagues is why now we have 30 teachers that are saying sign me up sign me up to have another educator show me how and that model we are replicating for language arts as well. So we're really working on prevention and having teachers support each other in that work. >> Thank you for those questions and Dr. Leon for stepping in. So which takes us to our our ne next slide.
059So in addition to the already planned and occurring professional development, we will conduct similar frontline supported analyses and other student of other student outcome metrics such as our college and career indicator using similar processes to and incorporate that in our strategic plan. Uh so Dr. Kim, would you like to give us further insight into how this data and some of these questions lead into that? >> I would just point out that this is a baby step in the right direction. And I would tell you that the tools that we have um are at a level of altitude that I would argue are not nearly actionable enough at at the state level. And so by utilizing front line is one of those first dipstick measures that ask that allows us to ask the question how are
060we doing compared to who we should be comparing ourselves to and how are each of our subgroup populations doing. Are there some students doing better than others? So, if we look at our overall average and say 70% of our kids are meeting standard, but we have less than 50% of two of our different student group populations that aren't, we can't get to that 90 without getting those kids to standard. And so, needing to to make that happen is some of the adjustments that and and we can will it to happen. We can say it will happen, but if we don't dig in and figure out exactly where their skill set deficits are and address those through intervention and RTI and and MTSS best, you know, those tiers of intervention and and practices, it's not going
061to happen. It becomes a wish rather than an intention. And so in all of this, this is a starting point. We have a new tool to really dig in and say who's not doing where we think they should be and why. And there are still more tools that we need to get to that level of action so that as we do the strategic planning process and we identify some of our goals and our priorities, we have the tools necessary to figure out exactly what we need to do for students so that we can get them to meeting standard. And part of it to your point is, you know, we have to give people not only high-quality curriculum materials. Um, we have to help them invest in in our teams to have strong high-quality professional learning
062so that our teachers feel effective and and efficacious in in doing their work and they have the tools that necessary to do it, the materials necessary to do it. And then we have to to look at the data and see how's the data, what is it telling us? Are students achieving? Are they not? and then from there digging in and having conversations about what do we need to do differently and what do we need to continue to do. All right. So, at this point, uh, thank you for your attention and we welcome your questions and suggestions for further data dives you'd like to see. >> Question. Sorry. Does Frontline actually look and disagregate? Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. disagregate does front line disagregate the cast scores by um topics or subject matter. So can we go
063that far down on Front Line or not on Front Line? There's other tools. >> There are other tools that can um the tools the the dashboard that we have that is the state dashboard will not get us to that place. Frontline will get us to subgroups, subopuls and how they're performing. But there are other tools that we're going to have to get to to really look at what are the areas within the standard that our students need to work on, need to meet. >> So I think the uh the there's a lot of numbers and graphs and it's great and it's fantastic and I like it. Um the thing that I think obviously would be the most concerning is the fact that we're on the top of the achievement gap. We don't want that's the
064place you don't want to be at the top, right? That's that's the thing that's interesting as we're breaking this down and then seeing like I just flipped over to the dashboard and we're green in most places, blue in a like we're great, we're doing great and you look the achievement gap and you're like that's a problem. Specifically, uh the English learners at 11% in math. That's that's really bad. >> Math is a universal language, too. >> Well, should be. Depends on how they ask a question. That's very true. >> You can do what I would call naked number crunching really well without having to have language. But if you're going to problem solve and really get into when we look at the National Council for Teachers of Mathematics Standards, they really do have to have
065some language skills to be able to dig into it. And >> isn't it true though, and tell me if I'm incorrect, when when they implemented Common Core, it used to be that it didn't really matter what language you spoke. math was everyone was across the board because math was that universal language. But as common core came in and they started implementing more English and more paragraphs and more writing into common core, that's where the disparity started. I would say it, yeah, I would say the gaps have always existed. As a as a math teacher for the last 35 years, I would tell you that people have been able to compute, people have been able to measure, but people's ability to apply math skills to a real situation requires language. It just does. And so I
066would say we started giving students more opportunities to demonstrate that application of math. And we began to see that the connection of your ability to reason, your ability to decode, your ability to compute all together told us how mathematically powerful you really are. And that's where the problem exists. >> Cuz I'm just I'm seeing a lot of the districts that are using like non-common core and Singapore math, their their rates are so much higher than ours. And so that was one thing I was wondering is if there if there is if that is true if switching over and not having common core and going into like more of just the old school math if that would help our English language learners if that theory is correct that people are saying >> depends on the test
067though too. >> It does. It depends on what are you measuring it against. You know, what are you measuring it against? Because if your assessment is a high quality assessment and it is designed to assess what skills you value, then you need to make sure that your curriculum and your teaching align to that. >> Yeah, I want to say something. I forgot. It just it left me. Sorry. >> Okay. One of the things that I would really like to see is our achievement gap with the el our long-term English language learners and see how they're doing. Um, I think it's great we're starting with the younger kids, but we have gaps in the in the other grades and I want to know what kind of things we're doing there to address those and how we're
068um what the process is for identifying those those students with those gaps and being able to address it and the supports that we're giving to the teachers and the students. So those would be my two big things. >> I just remember. Sorry. Um as far as language, the academic language that especially els need >> that um will help them on the test. I think that goes across both subjects. I mean if you have the academic and English language arts, it's going to transfer over to math. So I think that's where our focus um really needs to be in that academic language that you don't hear every day is one thing that definitely hinders the ELLLs and low econ economic status as well. So that's >> Did didn't we remove our EL coordinators at the high
069school levels? >> I had heard that. And so I'm just curious how if we're moving removing the coordinators, how are we um having the teachers, you know, gain some leadership and effectiveness if if that's true >> in the moment? I do not know that, but I will get back to you. I I can look into that. >> Anyone else? Well, >> uh one I do have a question and I'm just kind of curious. It's nice seeing districts that are similar to us. What do we look like with these same reports on geographically closed districts? Did you run that just for fun? >> We did run it just for fun and we can if if you would like how about I put that in your Friday update. Would that work? We can do that because I
070know Will and I have looked at that. Um and then part of what we looked at was wait a minute their demographics look so different than ours and so that's why we went to the similar but if you want to look at the ones that touch us so to speak then we can do that too. >> Just curious. Yeah, we can give you both >> because it's we can see the same gaps and everything, right? >> Oh, yeah. The beauty of the tool is we can do both. >> Cool. >> I I just I want to say thank you for bringing this tool uh the amount of data that we can find is is so there's so much of it, but to be able to to drill it down and bring it to some point
071where we can really analyze it and see where the next steps are. Um, I would love to see grade level like what does that look like across the grade level? We saw the the heat map that shows that we improve in English and go down in in um math, but is that actually happening with each of these three sub populations? And are there um potential classes or schools or um or grade levels that are doing better than others that we could use to start to mimic that and and build from there. Um I think we spend a lot of time celebrating the wins and really saying good job, but when we dig down that the dashboard doesn't show us any as much as we really need. So digging down into this, this is where you
072actually have an impact. If we don't do that and we just, oh great, we have a bunch of greens. Well, big deal. Um, but we're not making any difference. And if you look back um at the conference that we went to, they show they were talking about achievement gap specifically. And looking across the last 40 years and it's this achievement gap is still the same. Um, and nothing has changed. So, I I appreciate the fact that we're going to try to figure out how to do it for our students and and comparatively looking at at other districts. So, thank you. >> Well, I kind of think too and we have a board have talked about this is that and the reason I was asking the questions is because we've all said that we need to
073have our our the one thing that we're here for is for students to be able to learn and to achieve. And so, as you've said, we've been stuck in this same position. And so I do think that as a board it is should be important to us that our teachers are utilizing the training and that in every single classroom they're all receiving the same type of education. We can't have one teacher attend training and another teacher not and then have a certain group of students. I mean we need to have a standard you know that we set because it's going to start you know with the teacher you know for the students to achieve because if you have one class doing one thing another class doing another then that is not fair nor is it
074equitable you know to the students. I think that you're right and there are a lot of things that we can be flexible with and and give teachers the ability to be creative in some ways as long as we support them and in the the base that we're working at. Some of the consideration and I appreciate um Dr. Liam kind of going through it a little bit. We're working on the the K through two and then we're going to build from there. It's the same process as we talk about curriculum adoption and doing it in stages so that it's effective for all of our teachers. It's not everybody learning all at the same time. We can build that train the trainer model within there and understanding that it might not be exactly the same that one
075year, but the ultimate goal and the plan and the schedule is already in place that this will um this will cycle through. So we all come to the point where we're learning and we get to that the mastery. Um but sometimes it takes time and we do have to stagger it a little bit as and as you look at u our substitute teachers we don't have enough to be able to do that all at once. So being able to stagger it but I do agree that we all we need to get to that point. We just need to look at how can we quickly get to that point without it being too overwhelming. I think another piece too is another piece too is that we have to I was going to put it right here
076um have to consider too is the gift of time as the years have gone by and I agree it's been um an ongoing issue but as the years have gone by you've had less and less planning time less and less time for PLC's less and less time to look at your data and really um be able to um examine it and see what you need to do and yeah everybody does get trained on the same curriculum, same methods, same but you have 30, you know, 30 learners in your classroom. So the way the teachers need time to take that training and individualize it to their groups and the students. It's not a one-sizefits-all model obviously because we see the achievement gap. So I think giving them time to plan and to really look at things
077and even team, you know, team teach. sometimes teacher schedules or school schedules don't even allow them to even team teach with their, you know, fifth grade partners or sixth grade partners or whatever it is. So, I think really giving them the time, the tools, and also the flexibility to tweak those things that they've learned inside their classroom to differentiate for each of those students because that's I mean, you have 30 learners with probably 20 different types of learning and 20 different skill sets. So that one training does still need to be tweaked and turned into what is individualized for your classroom. >> Perhaps the OCSCS model where remember the teachers were raving about that period of time that they have sit down with all the departments and they can have the training and they get
078to talk and discuss and >> you know that collaboration time. >> Yeah, the collaboration time that they said was super helpful and they were able to discuss the students and there was you know at that school they did have I'm not sure if they still implement it. Is it still one of the thing that's going on over there or did you guys change it? >> Teachers have the one collaborative day based on the material revision that we worked through over the summer. Right. >> You're able to make it. >> Yes. So that was that you know they have that over there and they seem to love it and it's been working and so maybe it's something if we want to be good at this instead of just throwing stuff at teachers and then saying maybe
079it's some type of schedule we can do at all of our campuses so teachers have more time to collaborate with each other and work on things. just a thought. >> I think you're talking about a couple different things. I think the conversation that you all are having is really looking at both the art and the science of teaching. I mean, you know, there is a science to it, but there's also an art that a teacher brings to it. And both of those things are are incredibly important to help meet the needs of all of the learners in their classroom. And you're right, I I would tell you after 35 years, I have adequate planning, said no teacher ever. I mean the reality of that is we don't uh I mean in our schedule we don't
080there's never enough to and and if people had a sign significant amount of time to really dig into their their data and to really develop a depth of understanding of of their curriculum and their standards certainly that just by logic would say we're better and better at mastering our craft. And so looking at that, I I've begun having conversations and I think one of the beauties of of having moved around to different states is seeing the way different states approach the master schedule and how we approach, you know, non-cont time, how we approach teacher professional development. We've already begun looking at and having conversations around have we tried this, could we try this? Um how do we free up enough time where we can invest in our educator skill set so that folks feel like
081they're adequately supported to meet the needs of the learners in their class every day? And then finally, I want to address what Carrie, what you you spoke about with regard to looking at some of these data um slides up there. Your point is the perfect one, which is we saw a heat map of grade levels just globally in our district. We can look at that and just our English learners. We can look at that in just our students who experience poverty. We can look at that with just our students who experience a disability. We can dig down school by school even in some of these pieces to really look at where are we getting it right? where are we really succeeding? And then how do we go in and really look at those practices so
082that we can replicate those? And how do we look at other districts who may be getting results in specific pockets differently than we are and how do we share with them what our successes are and how do we learn from them what theirs are? Because that micro adjustments that need to be made is where we get to the level of achievement we're looking for. >> Awesome. Anybody else? Thank you so much. Thank you. >> All right. And now that brings us to our student board report. Um Ariana Mahia, are you ready? >> Go ahead. >> Okay. Good evening, President Buck, trustees, and superintendent Dr. Kim. I'm excited to be here tonight to share recent updates from our comprehensive high schools and alternative campuses. Buenav Vista Virtual Academy has once again been recognized as one of
083the top online schools in the nation in NISH 2026 rankings. According to NISH, BBVA earned a overall grade of A+ and is ranked number five best public online high school in America, number two best public online high school in California, number seven best public K to2 school in California, and number 15 best high school teachers in California. Lastly, elementary students will present their holiday performance followed by the PTA's Grinch Miss Pancake Breakfast for both BVVA and Park View um families. El Camino has had the opportunity recently to recognize several students for their outstanding achievements in many ways. For instance, last week 50 students received chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate at break to thank them for the dedication to coming to school each day during the third marking period. Additionally, El Camino has started an
084honoral program to recognize students who are excelling academically. For the first quarter, 16 students made honor role, earning a 3.0 to 3.4 GPA. 21 students were awarded high honor role designation for earning a 3.5 to 3.8 GPA. Finally, nine students received principal honor role recognition for earning a 3.9 to 4.0 GPA. The EDHS coral program hosted their holiday show Tinso on December 11 in the performing arts center while the Elorado ASB program put on their winter rally on the same day. The highlight of the rally this year was the kindergarten classes from Brook Haven joining the Hawks Nest to sink for all the Golden Hawks, including the award-winning Elorado band is performing in the pack tonight, December 16th. The music and hawk pride is a beautiful combination every year. Finally, although a lot of us
085get a winter break, the student athletes and coaches at Elorado have will be practicing competing as they all get ready for league play in January. On Thursday, December 11th, 120 students, Espiranza students visited Ruby Drive to participate in their annual holiday exchange, a very cherished tradition. Espiransa students delivered gifts and in return were warmly welcomed with songs, cards, and crafts. Additionally, Espiransa's boys basketball team is off to an impressive 12 to1 start and will face your Belinda High School this Thursday night in what is sure to be an exciting matchup. Finally, Espironza's AP Capstone students are deeply engaged in the research phase of their projects. Freshman career classes have completed interviews and resumes. ASL students spread holiday cheer by singing carols around campus and Spanish classes are preparing for a celebration nida after finals on
086December 17 where students will share tamales and agua fresca. George key student George key school is looking forward to the sunrise rotary and key holiday lunchon and visit from Santa on December 12th on at 10:30 in the George Key courtyard. Venture Academy thanks the school and district staff who came out and supported the Venture Academy holiday boutique which took place on December 2nd through December 4th. Venture students crafted many holiday items including painted wooden nutcrackers, jewelry, Christmas ornaments, bookmarks, and many other gifts. Lastly, Santa's Cookie Shop, a musical presented by Venture Students, will be performed tonight, December 16th, at 6:30 at Esparansa High School. And Venture Choir will be caroling at the district office tomorrow, December 17th. A special thank you to Miss Carmen for her dedication to our venture students. The Orange County Music
087and Arts Administrators have announced the 2026 Orange County Outstanding Arts Educators and the Orange County Music and Arts Award recipients. Congratulations to Valencia's very own choir director, Miss Megan Arton, who received a distinguished career service award. Also, congratulations to students Griffin Davis and Cassie Queen who were selected to perform with Hug Jackman Students Choir as a part of his candle light master class. Lastly, last week um Valencia hosted their annual PA teacher event to fund raise for their stu for their friends at lot 318 in Placentia which serves at risk youth and their community through education and providing resources. Their Belinda High School honors civics students had a extraordinary opportunity recently as they delivered their researchbased speeches at the Nixon Library. In preparation for this event, students engaged in extensive inquiry analyze analyzing sorry historical
088sources, evaluating evidence and developing informed conclusions that shape the content of their presentations. Additionally, the Yerbalinda winter sports are in full swing with their victories and their girls varsity soccer team is heading to Hawaii over winter break to play three games versus different high schools. Finally, congratulations to the Mustang Bang and Guard on their Disneyland performance. And a special congratulations to Connor Heron on being invited to participate in the PCC tournament of Roses Honor Band. You'll catch him on New Year's Day on TV. That concludes my board report today. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ariana. And and this is your last night. You've done an amazing job um in your term as our student board member. Thank you. And I would just for advice and um information for maybe the next student board
089member, can you share with us um what your biggest takeaway has been and what advice would you give to the next student board member? Now that my time as a student board member has come to an end, I have had the opportunity to reflect on these past few months and truly appreciate this experience. One of my biggest takeaways is the collective effort it takes to make decisions that genuinely support students. I value and appreciate the thoughtful conversations that take place knowing that decisions are made with students best interests in mind. My advice for the incoming student board member would be to come in with an open mind, stay engaged, and not be afraid to speak up on behalf of all students. >> That's great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And I'm going to
090pass to Dr. Kim so we can recognize you as a full board. Thank you, President Book. Tonight we are going to take a moment to recognize and extend heartfelt thanks to Ariana uh Mia, our outgoing student board member. Throughout this semester, Ariana has represented her schools and our district with professionalism, thoughtfulness, and genuine dedication. Her student reports were consistently thorough. Her feedback was insightful, and her presence at our meeting was a bright spot. She brought the student voice to the table with clarity, confidence, and purpose. And we're grateful for your service. Ariana is set to graduate early next month as she wraps up her final weeks at El Camino Realel High School. We want to congratulate her on this exciting milestone and we wish her continued success as she begins the next chapter of her
091journey at Cypress College. Ariana is as a small token of our appreciation this evening, we're pleased to present you with a commemorative plaque in recognition of your service and your contributions. Please join us all in giving Ariana a well-deserved ROUND OF APPLAUSE. AND IF YOU ALL WANTED TO SAY SOMETHING, feel free to jump in and then we'll take a quick photo. I am going to jump in because it's been important for me and this is going to be very like you're going to say, "Oh gosh." It's been very important to me that at every board meeting my nails are done because I sit next to her and her nails are just like amazing all the time. So today I didn't have my nails done and I'm happy to say that she doesn't either. But I
092asked her last board meeting I said, "Oh my gosh, who does your nails?" She says, "I do my nails." So um if you don't need a side hustle, I'll be your first customer. But honestly, like it's been such a, you know, so much fun sitting next to you and your input and your enthusiasm um is has been so fun and I, you know, have had a um great time getting to know you and I wish you so much luck and so much success. >> Thank you. It's been great getting to know you as well and your um genuine care you can tell for your school and your district is um very apparent and I'm excited to hear um the things that you're doing at El Camino and what El Camino is doing um as a
093school and I'm just excited that you were able to represent your school and show us the wonderful things that are going on there and I know you have a lot in your future you're going to accomplish and that if this is just a jumping off point, you have a long way to go. So, I'm very excited to see what you accomplish next and what you have down the road. Um, whatever it is, we're here to support you. If you ever need anything, don't feel don't be scared to reach out or give us a call. Congratulations. >> Graduating early, let's go. That's that's big stuff. I mean, uh, just the fact that you, well, you took this on and you're graduating early means you can accomplish a lot in a very short amount of time. I
094don't think that there's any reason that you will not succeed beyond your wildest dreams and all that you do. So, uh, keep it going. This is it's been fun and I have no idea about the nail thing. So, I'll leave that to Leandra. But I'm sure side hustle, go for it. I just wanted to thank you so much, Ariana, for coming and representing all the students throughout our district and for being an example and um representing your schools so amazingly and I'm just I just know you're going to do wonderful things and it was fun. Um, I went to a career day at El Camido and I sat in on a class that she was actually looking into. So, um, I think you're in good hands. You know what you want. You know what you're
095going to do and and you're going to score huge on adulting. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Ariana. And thank you to the team at El Camino. um what you are doing and highlighting students and making sure that every student from every school has a voice is incredibly important because you all have different experiences, you have different input and um I'm thankful that you've brought her forward because she's been a gem. Um please keep in touch and we look forward to seeing what you're going to do next. >> Thank you. Yes. Picture. Yes. All right. Not only does Ariana have support from her high school, her middle school also sends support and and love your way. Okay, so next that brings us to our superintendent board report. Dr. Good. Thank you. Good evening, President Bug,
096trustees and executive cabinet members. I want to start out by saying I am so genuinely grateful for the efforts of all of our employee groups and the way that they made sure to benefit our students who are less privileged in our community um supporting throughout the holidays. It has been so very touching to see. The generosity of our employees is truly remarkable. Um we appreciate their willingness to support our entire school district community during the holiday season and all year round. Each year, the Association of Placentia Linda Educators, known as Apple, and the California School Employees Association, chapter 293, known as CSEA, coordinate donations for PIO USD students and families in the district's McKenna Vento program. McKenna Vento is a nationwide program for students who are living in transitional situations such as doubled or tripled
097up with families for economic reasons or living in homeless shelters, campgrounds, or cars. You may have noticed CSEA's annual sock tree, which has been on display outside the boardroom for a few weeks now. Employees from across the district were encouraged to purchase and donate new socks to hang on the tree, which will be given to PILUSD students and families in need at the end of next week. This year was no different as Apple members adopted 33 PIL families to gift toys, clothing, and other other necessities. Employees from 20 schools purchased and wrapped these items to help bring joy to dozens of children and their families this holiday season. And thank you to the Apple team for inviting me to come watch them be Santa Claus that day. It was a whole lot of fun to
098watch them hand out gifts. The Placentia Linda Unified managers known as Plum hosted their annual holiday breakfast and toy drive on December 15th. The group of managers donated over 130 toys and gift cards to be distributed to the district's Title One schools. Lastly, I want to thank our board members for joining me in making your own Santa's workshop. Collectively, we adopted nine families to give toys, clothing, and other necessities. So, thank you all for your generosity as well. A special thanks also goes out to leadership teams in each of these groups for coordinating really thoughtful events. Thank you all. And I want to highlight something coming up that I'm really excited about. Strategic planning. I know no one gets excited about strategic planning other than me, but I am looking forward to beginning our strategic
099plan work in January. To support this effort, I've invited a small team of former colleagues from two different states with specialized expertise in teaching and learning and student services to work alongside us for several days in January and February. Their insight and recommendations will be shared with all of you and will help build our priorities and action plans within the strategic plan. They're going to meet with district leaders, school leaders, and teachers to lean in, listen, and learn. I've also asked a trusted project manager who's worked with me in the past and has supported major district level initiatives to partner with me in guiding this process. I want to be clear that no additional funds were allocated for this work. this support. The supports are being funded through salary vacancy savings created by current leadership
100vacancies, allowing us to invest strategically without impacting our budget. I'm grateful that these leaders have agreed to come in and help us reflect on what's working well, where our strengths are, what our data says about our current priorities and work, and where and how we can get better. This work will be a critical foundation of our strategic plan, one rooted in listening, collaboration, and shared aspiration. In the new year, we're going to invite the voices of our students, our staff, our alumni, our family, and families, and our community to help shape a clear and compelling vision for the future of PILUSD. Together, we'll reflect our strengths, thoughtfully examine our challenges, and define the profile of a PILUSD graduate. This strategic plan will be our northstar, guiding our goals and anchoring every decision we make as
101we move forward with intention, unity, and an unwavering commitment to student success. And finally, happy holidays. I want to wish everyone a restful, safe, and joyous holiday break. I hope this time provides an opportunity to slow down, recharge, and spend meaningful moments with family and loved ones, and frankly, those that just bring you joy. Thank you to all you do each day in service of our students and our community. And we look forward to welcoming everyone back in the new year refreshed and ready for all that's ahead. Enjoy your time and make good choices. That concludes my report this evening. Thank you. So that now brings us to public comment. Uh public comment is an opportunity for the public to provide input to the board of education. And during the public comment period, board members
102will not dialogue with the um speakers or make comments regarding the information shared. Um but we can direct the staff to to um connect with everybody afterward um and make sure that we follow up. So we have six speakers wishing to speak tonight. Each speaker will have three minutes. Thank you, Jeremy. And I'll call up the first three and then I'll call up the next three. So, Gloria Johnson, Jeremy Kelly, and Meliss um Melissa Samson, uh will you come up first? Hi, uh Gloria Johnson, Apple President. Uh because the holidays are upon us, I wanted to remind us about gratitude. Uh, this is not a naive statement. As the representative of your local teachers union, we know we're facing many challenges in PIL. I I hear about them every day and there's a lot of
103work to do. But we acknowledge that by working together, there is much we can accomplish. I personally am grateful for the support and respect I've received in this new position. I'm grateful for being offered a seat at the PIL table to contribute and not just be present. The work that happens in the classrooms is our purpose and that's why we're all here. It makes sense to value the expertise and experience of our educators. I was recently reminded by an old friend that this is our vocation, not just a nineto-5, a work of heart, if you will. And nowhere was this more evident than at Apple's annual adopt a family event last week. Uh, shout out to Apple's own Sarah Hartman, Maris Holly, and Maria Alvarado at the Topaz Family Resource Center for their tireless devotion
104in organizing it all. Uh, the room that holds our rep council meetings was filled with presence, uh, filled with gratitude, accompanied by wide eyes, gasps, and tear force was covered, and it was an awesome sight to behold, to provide one moment in time for these families to know that someone cares about them. a moment when they can take a deep breath and smile amid their many many troubles uh was the best gift and by far the best day of work I have had since I have become president. So on behalf of Apple, happy holidays and we look forward to everything the new year promises. Thank you. Hi. Uh, Dr. Kim, uh, executive cabinet, President Buck, and the rest of the board of trustees. Uh, my name is Jeremy Kelly. I'm a teacher at Yerbalinda Middle
105School. Um, I've been in this district as a student from kindergarten all the way through. I was a special education aid. I did my student teaching in this district and I've taught in this district for 17 years now. This district is in my blood. Um, and um, I want to wish everybody happy holidays. Um, as we make our way towards winter break, it's time to spend with friends and family and cherish the time we have with them. However, this isn't the case for all families. And unfortunately, there are some pretty startling statistics in regards to one of the most tragic events that one can deal with, and that's suicide. According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10 to 14 and 25 to 34 in the US. According to
106the CDC, a person dies by suicide every 11 minutes in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, twice as many people die from suicide as homicide in the United States. According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, one in six adolescence in the US ages 12 to 17 experiences a major depressive episode. And according to Mental Health America, almost 60% of youth with major depression do not receive mental health treatment. However, according to the American Psychological Association, 80 to 90% of people who seek treatment for depression are treated successfully with therapy or medication. Over 20 years ago, a student in this district, Amber Craig, um died by suicide. Her family decided to, in their heartbreak, try to help other students who might find themselves in a situation similar to their daughter,
107and they created the with Hope Amber Craig Memorial Foundation. for as long as I can remember and since I've been a teacher in this district over 17 years ago we've had an assembly for our seventh and eighth grade students um with the with hope memorial foundation uh the last couple of years they've paired that down a little bit to just our seventh graders but we still had that um we've always held it through social studies which is what I teach so this year when I asked my principal um when that meeting was so I could fit it into my uh yearly calendar um I was informed that the district had decided to end their partnership with the foundation They presented over 2300 times reaching over 350,000 students. These are the statistics they give with over
10892% of students reporting that they feel confident in taking steps after the presentation to help a friend who is exhibiting the warning signs of suicide. I've personally seen the positive impact this program has had on our middle students. Every student leaves with a card that provides information to help them if they need it. I have my own in my wallet. I've carried it and I have used it for a family member. I still carry this card with me. Um, students get information that they absolutely need. I've walked students to the office to our counselors after these sessions because they're able to recognize the warning signs in their friends, in their family, and in themselves. Lives have been saved by this program. I know that it's money and I know that budgets are tight, but for
109me, this is an an expense that we cannot afford to give up. This literally saves lives. There are students that are alive today because of this program. Thank you for your time. Good evening. My name is Missy Samson and I'm a former PIL employee with 20 years of service and have been a longtime member of this community. I formerly worked in student services with Tom Craig and on the eve of his funeral, I wanted to speak tonight in remembrance of him. Tom Craig served for decades as a crisis coordinator supporting student, staff, and administrators during some of the most difficult moments when people were in crisis, overwhelmed, or grieving. Tom showed up. No matter the time or place, he followed up, checked in, held our hands, and most importantly, cared deeply for all the people
110he served. Tom was an intellectual, passionate, and deeply principled man. At times, that passion was intense, but it always came from a place of integrity and genuine advocacy for others. His intentions were good, his commitment unwavering, and a sense of responsibility to this district and its people was unmatched. In the fall of 23, Tom was placed on administrative leave, followed shortly by Richard Molindon, a decision that deeply hurt both men and wrongly pushed them out of an organization to which they had years of commitment. What followed was a period shaped by some self-s serving agendas and lack of safeguards and human resources to protect people. Some people chose to leave, some were forced out or resigned, and others felt that they had to keep their heads downs just to remain. In that kind of environment,
111speaking up against injustice carried real risk. But you know what? Tom would have spoke up anyway. That is what is so hard. For those of us who knew Tom, there is a painful gap between the support he gave so freely and what he did not receive for these past two years. For that, I'm profoundly sorry. He deserve better. Today, this district is in a period of change. As I look to the left of the DAS, there are so many empty seats and so much change. Only one remains from that time. I will simply say environments like the one that failed Tom and so many other good people did not take root or persist without leadership that allows them. With the new superintendent, I'm hearing a renewed sense of hope that PIL can move forward with
112the integrity and ethical grounding it once held in such high esteem. What was done cannot be undone, but how we choose to move forward and who we choose to entrust with leadership matters deeply. For me, honoring Tom means choosing to be braver. It means choosing integrity even when it is difficult. And leading with the same care and courage he consistently modeled. I will always regret that I was not able to stand up for him publicly while he was alive. Still, I hope his legacy at PIL lives on in how we treat one another, how we support one another, and in the moments that matter most, how we stand up for each other. I will miss him deeply. He was so good to me, and he was so good to PIL. May we all remember him
113for his compassion, dedication, and humanity that he gave so freely. Thank you. Thank you. And our next three speakers fora Aby's Holly Peach and Marita Lupita steps. Good evening. My name is Freda Abbis and I'm a senior at Espironza High School. Over the past four years, I have been deeply involved in my school community through participation in multiple sports, clubs, and advanced placement courses along with being a committed member of our advanced choir. I recently had the honor of performing for many of you on Monday, an experience that reflects my passion I hold very close to my heart and one that may now be taken away um away from me due to recent decisions. On Saturday evening, I learned through a friend, not through the school or my district, that I would no longer be
114enrolled in second period AP literature uh class due to staffing allocations. This news was both shocking and confusing, especially as it came during my finals week, and students had received no prior communication beforehand whatsoever. And at no point were students informed that these changes were even being considered. When I attempted to speak, seek clarity, I was met with silence. Teachers were instructed not to share information and my request to meet with the principal was cancelled with an explanation that I needed to consult my C counselor. However, I already had done so. Students deserve transparency, particularly when decisions are directly impacting their um education. Being told you'll find out Friday through a counselor or being denied meetings altogether creates the impression that critical information is being um deliberately withheld. This lack of communication is not only
115disheartening, it's deceptive. Students like myself are now forced into impossible choices to drop a courses we have invested significant time and effort into or taking an online class that requires near total self-study. We are being penalized for striving to challenge ourselves academically and make the most out of our education. While I understand that Espironza is one of the smaller schools in the district, that does not diminish the fact that there are students in those classrooms. students who are eager to learn and pursue advanced coursework. Um, and this is also not the first time Esparza has been disproportionately affected. The district has also eliminated our French program, our German program, teacher pathway, film pathway, math tutoring, and even a portion of our campus. Cuts that other high schools in our district have not experienced to the
116same extent. We're not numbers. We are students with goals, passions, and futures. We should not be facing these consequences of poor financial management simply because we want to be well-rounded um driven individuals. The emotional impact of these decisions is compounded by the lack of honesty and timely timely communication. I urge the district to reconsider this decision and allow and allow Espironza to retain um our second period AP literature and fifth period AP language arts because these um classes are not expandable. They are essential to students who rely on them for academic growth and future opportunities. and students were assured these classes at the beginning of the year and it's unacceptable for them to be promised then taken away without transparency or student input. Uh these decisions affect real lives and real futures and students deserve
117a voice in matters that directly impact their education. Thank you for your time and consideration. Okay. Um good evening. My name is Holly Peach and I am the ELD teacher at Espiranda High School. I want to take a moment to speak about the critical need for an ELD coordinator, especially in light of recent changes. This year, the ELD coordinator period was removed from a few high schools. Yet, it remains unclear where that decision was made, whether it was a district level decision, an individual administrative decision, or a site principal decision. I was at a department meeting and it was announced that we had $21,000 we had to spend and I was told it would be easy to justify spending for EL. I'm not sure, but this made me wonder if the money was available because
118the coordinator period was discontinued. Um, hang on just a second. I hope I'm wrong. What is clear, however, is the impact that not having a coordinator at each site will have on our students. Currently only one of our high schools has a coordinator period while three do not creating an inequitable level of support across campuses. Our English learners have so much untapped potential but without intentional mo monitoring and advoc advocacy that potential often goes unrealized. I have been told that the counselors will now be monitoring helping to monitor. The counselors were surprised to hear this. Needless to say, students need to be regularly monitored, encouraged, and guided through their language development journey. Grades must be closely watched so struggles are addressed early before students disengage or fall behind. An EL coordinator also ensures that parents
119are informed and supported, particularly around ELPAC testing, what it is, why it matters, and how it impacts reclassification and graduation pathways. Without clear communication, families are sometimes left confused and students are disadvantaged. An ELD coordinator coordinator identifies barriers, connects students to support, collaborates with teachers, and ensures accountability. I recently collaborated with many teachers to ensure that Espironza completed all monitoring on time. I think we may have been the only high school that was completed on time fully. Without this position, we risk overlooking students who are capable, motivated, and ready to succeed if given the right support. Restoring and standardizing the ELD coordinator period across all high schools is an issue of equity, access, and student success. Our English learners bring resilience, talent, and promise to our campuses. It is our responsibility to ensure that their
120potential does not go untapped. Thank you for your time and consideration. I have the time, the ability, and the enthusiasm to fulfill this role. Please reinstate the coordinator period. We are the link between teachers and students. Thank you for your consideration. Good evening everyone. My name is Maria Lupita Stubs. Uh nice to meet you Dr. Leblanc and welcome. Um again first of all I want to wish everyone of you in here um and on the DAS merry Christmas to you all and happy holy days. Um, I wanted to start with um saying how glad I was to hear that there's going to be some corolling and uh some las padas um from your report um Ariana. Uh that's um really great to hear. I also want to congratulate to whoever uh put up the Christmas
121tree again out there. I love the ornaments. I really truly u think it's a great cause over there. Um this in contrast with the um following events that I'm about to describe to you um that I've um experienced and witnessed myself over here in our schools. Um one of them is that is the third year in a third year in a row that um I witnessed and experienced PTA banning Santa shaped cookies, stocking shaped cookies, Christmas tree cookies, or any crafts for that matter that have any resemblance of motive of Christmas. um they're just not on point and everybody wants to keep it at um snowflakes and snowmen to be on point precisely their words. Um the other aspect of of this um uh that I want to share with you tonight is um about
122teachers asking kids to write about when did you find out that Santa was not real. So a prompt given in one of our schools um this year and also last year a teacher saying it's just like when you know you still think Santa is real. So that nobody told to me I've experienced it. So can we please just um remind our you know staffs and administrators that that is not okay. We don't make those kind of questions. We don't again we don't go against parents um you know beliefs instill in those kids. Um the last but not least u violation multiple violations of the parental notification 6164.3 where very very very serious incidents have happened to kids and parents were not called they were not notified. the parents found out through other parents. That's how
123the kids crying or the parents found out found out upon pickup. And so I'm talking about major medical emergencies like a seizure where the ambulance wasn't called and certainly the parent wasn't called. When the parent arrived, the parents um themselves had a panic attack and that's when the ambulance was was called. Another one a kid in lower grade um a kid was hit multiple times in the bathroom and again the parent wasn't called parent found out and was told verbally oh yeah this this happened you know this and that so other ones um Mr. Gordier over here is very well aware of this and so um none of that is uh coming up in the recaps from the principles and so um we do have a parental notification and we just want to make sure
124that you know Dr. blank. You know, these are our children. We, you know, we hear about suicide. We hear about those things. I hope the parents are the first phone call that comes out of those situations when somebody observes something's off with the kids and especially when incidents happen. Thank you again. Merry Christmas. Okay. Thank you. We'll move on now to our general functions. Okay. So, our first general um function is an action item to approve the 2627 school year. Need a motion and a second. I'll make a motion to approve the 2026 27 school calendar. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Mrs. Anderson and second by Mrs. Quantero. Any comments, questions? >> I I I have a com I I have a lot of questions. Obviously, this is still an extremely hot topic and
125I guess um my question is to to Mrs. Anderson is how did this get on to the agenda again? Because in 20 was it 2022 we did the semester thing or was it 2023 was last year? 2020. Yeah. So, we decided to try to like meet in the middle, push the semester, you know, because the um concern was, you know, kids are taking finals after um winter break. And so, we adjusted, we made those adjustments and everything was okay. And then all of a sudden, this was just brought forward again. And so, why was this brought forward? How did it make it to the agenda? What what's the circumstances behind all of this? We received an email. >> Who's we? >> Or I guess I did. >> Okay. >> Received an email requesting this to
126be put on the agenda as per our bylaws that community members can place items on the agenda. Um and they they just have to give us 10day notice just like us. Um that is our rule and that is within our jurisdictions. So the request came I believe March March or April I'm not exactly sure but that we had very full agendas. So we we pushed it was supposed to be on the June agenda. It wasn't. Um we pushed it because again full agenda it was agendaized in July, August, September was all on the agenda those months and we discussed it as a board. Um in October it was also discussed and in November um I researched and looked looked up those dates. This has been an a reoccurring issue where multiple people have come to
127the board, teachers, um talking about the inequity of the semester and the problems that it's causing. Um this so that is how it came to be on the agenda. >> Okay. Cuz I was just curious because I've asked for several things to be put on the agenda and you refused to do so. You guys even had a Brown Act violation for refusing to put things on the agenda. So I was just curious >> that is not true. >> It actually is because it was cured in May when you finally did put on the agenda after you refused to do it in April >> because you had a Brown Act violation. >> It is up to the of the superintendent president on the agenda. The decision doesn't but it fits within the agenda which can continue.
128Excuse me. It's just what that it was. >> I'm not done. I'm not done yet. >> You had a Brown Act violation because Mouserino contacted three board members and did not want to put the men in women's sports on the agenda. You had a Brown Act violation for refusing to put on the agenda because he pulled the board and it was cured in May. I asked for Prop 50 to be put onto the agenda. I refused to put on the agenda. So, we've had a lot of things that we've been asking to put on the agenda and it's not been put on the agenda. So, that's why we're all curious here because the four of us allegedly didn't know anything about it being placed on the agenda. So, I'm just asking what the origins are
129of putting this on, especially when it was just done in 2024, because the community would like to know. All of a sudden, it disappears. There's no vote on this. It's just this discussion and suddenly it's just being moved and would love to know with that's why just asking for the for the background. There's no need to get upset about it. I mean just because we didn't do a study session with Todd Robbins for a potential brand act violation for you guys like was done to us doesn't mean that the brand act violation. >> You actually you did and it was cured and I have the mean Todd Robbins. Yes, you did. >> Yes, you did. It was cured in May when you had to put it on the agenda. Yes, it was. So, my concern
130is this, and I'm going to vote no on this again tonight, is because the 26 to 27 school year, it's 6 months, what? 6 months away for our athletes. So, we're going to graduate in 6 months and then in July, our athletes are going to come back. They're going to have their twoe dead period. And then this is really going to affect people's vacations. It's going to affect our secretaries, our high, you know, a lot of our secretaries. they're going to have shorter vacations. We have families who've already made these decisions. Um, you know, and they've booked vacations. A lot of people have wanted to take advantage of that we do start later. And so when everyone goes back to school in that first or second week of August, they they make their vacations, you
131know, for those last weeks. So people have already said, "We're not coming to school. You will lose two weeks of ADA." It's been estimated that we will actually spend an extra $3 million in electricity bills by starting two weeks earlier. So, I'm not opposed to moving the school calendar, but I think it would be respectful for our parents, for our students, for our staff, and for everyone to leave the 2627 school calendar as is with the original start date. And then we need to go back and we need to push it off into the 2728. And then if we're going to start talking about that because it sounds like people are actually there's more people that are upset about this than are happy about this. But it also seems like if we were to do
132it the way that we originally had talked about doing it and we go, "Okay, we're going to stagger it a week back, you know, one week back the first year and then the second week we'll go back the second year instead of just boom, we're doing this all now." I mean, we have teachers who are saying, "I'm not going to teach summer school." We have aids that are complaining about this. I mean, it just kind of was pushed off. And I think because it was done so poorly and it was done with um, you know, even in when we were talking at the surveys, the surveys are from like 2022 when it was done by Mike Matthews and we all agreed as a board that that survey sucked. Like the community said it sucked. Everybody
133said that it didn't give you a lot of choices and it was a very, very poor survey. So, I think if we're going to do this correctly, leave the calendar as is for this year. Just let it go. Original start date the light late week in August. We have Dr. Kim here. Let her do a survey which will be good for our community and they can actually feel like they have a voice. Let us look at that data and then say, "Okay, 2728, here we go. this is when we're going to start to move it and give parents and give our staff and give teachers the opportunity to be able to plan that's a year and a half away now they're looking at a start date okay I'm a year and a half out this
134is going to happen versus in 6 months where people are so upset with us they say we don't care we're not going to go to attend school and so that's where I am with this and I have had so many people upset about this we already are losing kids in the last year we've lost over what four or 500 kids. I mean, we just can't lose any more trust from our community and we need to be doing things right and that's respectful of people's time, of people's vacation plans. Um, people are going into homeschools now because I mean, look at this whole thing. People value their vacation time. They value their family time. This is a time that our parents and our staff and our students, they value this time. So, it's not going to
135do any harm to just keep what we what our plans were for the 2627 school year and then start the following year. So, that's that I'm just going to state my piece. I'm stating that my constituents are asking for that and that's um that's my argument for tonight. I have some questions about logistics. You've done transition before at a very high level. Um, one of the reasons why we brought you here, uh, and I think probably the biggest problem with this calendar has been the communication period. Full stop. Um, what would be the logistical what would it look like logistically for us to postpone this to the 2728 school year and be able to start the communications early so that people can prepare for that? cuz if I mean cuz constituents are upset there's there's
136a growing concern about the calendar um and I think probably because the way the communication's been handled in your experience what would the logistics look like if we were to theoretically push the 2627 calendar back to aligning with this school year and then moving forward what would that look like to change 2728 I would tell you first of all building the calendar for 2728 28 29 2930 is going to happen no matter what we do tonight that's we we need to do that work um and as I had I think stated in our previous meeting um my process for having done this I'm going to first start by saying I have never met anybody who loves the calendar and wants to do it at least Let me start by saying that it is it is
137hard to get to everyone. And while yes, you guys have heard from people and I get it. There are people who are very passionately upset about this. There are also people on the other side that are not contacting us. And the survey data that we do have did very clearly say like that it's it's six of one, half a dozen the other, 50, 60, 40 back and forth. And and so I I would say I would at least put in the room I don't have a horse in the race, so it doesn't matter to me. I I wasn't here when you guys went through this process, but I want to say that whichever way you go, you're not going to have people happy with it. So, you have to decide which way you're going to
138land. I would say in going through the process of doing the 27, 28, 28, 29, 29, 30, we will do a survey to your point. um that survey will be live and what that means is you use survey tools that allow people anybody that does the survey gets a chance to see how many people have answered it and what is the breakdown so that folks understand when it's finally done. You can see no really 75% of people wanted this or only 50/50 and the district's in an odd position and they're going to have to flip the coin and make a decision one way or the other. So that's going to happen. And then honestly, we will ask we will ask questions that give us the opportunity to see the will of the community in terms
139of do you want to start before or after Labor Day? Do you want to start, you know, do you want to end before or after Memorial Day? Because that's going to determine how that lays out. Do you want a spring break that's in March or in April? Do you want two full weeks in at winter break? Do you want them to come mostly before Christmas and have little time after or do you want us to go to school right up to Christmas so you have the time after? I mean there are questions like that that you ask so that you can build it and then with that data a committee of about 10 to 12 people get in a room and build out those calendars. And then from there that committee brings to you as
140the board this is our recommendation as a committee and here's why. Here's what the data is that we studied. Here's how we built this calendar. Here's what we're proposing to you. And then you guys adopt it. So that's the process that I proposed to you last month that I believe will at least even if I I cannot promise you that everybody's going to love it. I just know that now. But what I can tell you is that people will see the transparency in how people responded provided they do respond to the to the questions and usually people will if they can see the data and they know they have a vested interest in when we start the school year. And then from there, you still will be in this position again making a decision. Do
141you support the calendar that they're proposing? I don't think I answered your question. Sorry. >> No, you did. No, you answered my question perfectly because you laid out what the process would be. The process to get the calendar that we have has been we talked about it a few times. Yolanda did a lot of work on it. I don't want to discredit any of the work Yolanda did. did an amazing amount of work and I think for what we were given it it was it was a great solution. Um but what you just laid out was a lot of community involvement, a lot of transparency, a lot of communication which there were not hardly any of those things um in the way that that it went this time. So then let me ask you this
142follow-up question. If we are to revert the calendar at least we don't accept this calendar. we make a 2627 calendar that's more similar to this year. Would that be a better solution in case the change for 2728 is maybe only a 5-day earlier start or a 3-day as opposed to going backwards from what we changed that's drastic for 2627? >> I guess Kim, can I jump in too? Like I'm looking here. So, if we were to if we were to do this calendar tonight and you're talking about like the 26 27 school year, we would start on August 13th. But then when you're talking about going into 2728, you're saying that like you could have that discussion with people about like do you want to start after Labor Day? Do you know? So, like technically
143we'd be pushing dates forward. We could be doing all kinds of different things based on that survey. So, my that's what my contention is is that we hold and like our normal start date would probably be around like August 20 something. whatever it is. So, do we just hold let the calendar just go and then then you do that work for the next three years and we say, "Okay, like what do we want to do? Do we want to start before Labor Day?" Like or or those questions in and we just handle it because what happens if our surveys come back skewed and we start people then we're starting people like August 13th, but then the next year, you know, we're starting them 5 days later. >> Yeah. My question is if if we change
144it and then change it, >> I don't know. >> That's my That's kind of my issue. So that's why I'm saying why don't we just hold steady on what our calendar would be and so there's really no effect and let's just do it correctly for the 27 28 and on. >> Trisha please go ahead. >> Oh thanks. Um the way I see it too is that um unfortunately the calendar has been a victim of circumstances as many things this last year. This all should have been I know we're referencing start dates but we didn't have a start date for 2627. We had no calendar for 2627 and all this process should have been started in August or September of 2024 because we knew then we did not have a calendar for 2627. So um through
145everything I mean like I said somehow fell through the cracks whatever it may be. Um my question is and it stinks all around. I agree. Um the notific the shortness of time um puts a crunch on it. Um but my question would be have we looked at um like between the school years if we do to change it to August 13th is there sufficient time and has it been looked at of um sufficient time for cleaning the schools maintenance um like secretaries vacations and things like that who work 11 months rather than the 10 of a teacher um and how has that how has that been taken under account? I would say anytime you're going to change the calendar, you're going to change the number of days that first year that we have, wherever it's
146going to be. Um, so whether you do that now or whether you do that a year from now, it's still going to be whatever year you change it, it's going to have an impact on the employees one way or the other if it's going to get changed. And that's assuming it's going to get I mean it if it doesn't and folks say, "No, we love it the way it is." But I'm going to assume that the reason why we continue to have this Groundhog Day conversation um is that um you know if if there was a obvious path forward, you all would have taken it. Staff would have taken it with leadership transition and all of those things. Part of the reason why people sort of got to the analysis paralysis point is that you've
147got so many people on both sides of this issue that feel so passionately about it. Um what I heard in our meeting when we all met was that you know it was interesting because we had elementary teachers in the room and we had secondary teachers in the room and they had the dialogue and discussion with each other. I again coming in I really it it doesn't matter. I work 12 months out of the year. So I was like okay what do you guys want? And what was interesting about that was folks going back and forth in the discussion about well I have you know this happens for us in terms of sports and and all of our activities and our kids having to start early. Well then we have you know this on the back
148end and and the give and take and the willingness to listen to one another was a really important part of that process. And as they looked at it trying to figure out when they moved the dates on the calendar. The hard part about it if you've never done calendar before is the number of days that the state requires of you and then on top of it beyond the the number of days that you have you have to figure out where the semester's layout you know in terms of balance and then from there where it got really interesting because the group asked well can't we just not can we just move three or four days or 5 days well the way that the current the calendar works for 2627 if you do that then you of
149um students and staff coming back for one or two days after Memorial Day. And folks looked at us like, are kids really going to come back for the Tuesday after Memorial Day as their last day? Are teachers going to come back for the, you know, the Wednesday? And so folks had a real conversation about figuring out how it lays out? Some years are really just hard. They don't lay out quite right. And so where it seemed like a reasonable, well, let's just not move it by a week and a half. Let's just move it by four days and then we'll move it the next year a few more. But the way the calendar lays out, it would really make it awkward at the end of the school year and we would have an impact on
150student days and and adult days in that process. And so it that's where we all kind of looked at each other and went, "This is going to stink either way, isn't it?" Okay, let's try to figure this out. What's the best place? And and so what we brought you was literally after 2 hours of discussion and figuring out and trying to move the pieces and I would argue seven really smart people in the room trying to figure that out. So if there was a really good answer, they would have come up with it. If there was a really good obvious answer, you would have come up with it at this point. But your point is a good one that when you move it, if we turn around and ask people, do you want to go
151back? Then it's going to feel a little bit like back and forth. And we have to accept that that's a risk. If we really are going to ask people, how do you want it? The willingness to say we'll go back if people really hate it has to be in the mix or else we don't ask that question. Does that make sense? do you think it's worth then making the change with that being a risk as opposed to holding course and doing it the correct way? >> I would say if you change it your risk is if people say we liked it better the other way and we have to go back then it's going to feel like we've flip-flopped back and forth. That's a risk that we have to take if we're going to go
152ahead because the reason why you went to the week a week and a half. My understanding was a to try to balance out semesters, b to try to give students, especially in high school, the to to lessen or minimize the inequities of having so many fewer days in that first semester for students who are taking semester AP classes. That's a distinct disadvantage for those students over the ones who are taking it in the in the spring. Um, and they need to be able to do it in both ways. And then from what I understand from the conversations we had were were the student athlete conversations around students having to start so much earlier that they lose so much of their summer. That was the conversation and and that teachers engaged in. And again, it still
153goes back to the which way do you want it? Um, if we're changing things to improve the balance for our high school kids, going ahead and changing it is the right decision. If the the decision is to say we don't want to impact and disrupt making a big change for our community, then you leave it alone. >> And I didn't answer your question. Sorry. >> Well, I think but I think the whole thing is what what we're just trying to say is we're not opposed to doing it correctly. And if it needs to change in the 2728 school year when we start that three-year process, then that's fine. But what we're saying right now is is there's a lot of people who are for they're okay with the change but they said look we already
154have plans like there's the twoe dead period. You know people looked at the end of this school year right as it is you know they know there's a twoe dead period for CIF people anticipate the camps and I mean really with the high school athletes the people who are impacted are the fall sports. I mean once my kids were in high school you know they were all fall sports. So we we understood that we had the two weeks to take our vacation and then basically it was done with. Um and so I think that that there's that understanding, but then you also have the winter sports and the spring sports whose camps are now being affected. They want to attend because they want to be able to play. And so that's just my thought is
155is can we just keep it what our original start date would have been which is which was comparable to you know the 25 26 or 20 um and then do it correctly and then sit down and then work it out for 27 28 you know 28 29 and go that way like it's leaving is like almost just holding and say you know we're not going to rush this we're not going to do this right now can we just leave it this way and then then we'll take action we'll do the surveys correctly will do whatever needs to be done appropriately because like we will all admit as a board those surveys that they sent to the community like I got one because I had kids in this you know school district it sucked I was
156looking at it and there were so many complaints about the survey because it wasn't it didn't really give any of the choice it was either you have this or you have that was it and so the parents you know were upset and so I'm just trying to think of the secretary I'm trying to think of all the people that are going to be affected with that and is Is it worth it if if we can just, you know, hold off another year and then go? My next question is, I know 2627's a really wonky year because um Labor Day is late. So, technically, we wouldn't even be starting the week we usually do. We'd probably start the week before that. So, it was going to probably change by a week, correct? Because it would have
157been like September 3rd starting when we usually start at the end of August. >> Okay. So yeah, I think you're looking at the dates it would have been. >> You are right in that it is later. Yeah, it would have been pushed back a week anyways. Our start date technically if we were looking at Labor Day. >> Okay. Yeah, Labor Day is later this coming year. This year I guess a really weird year to to look at. >> Dr. Dr. Cape, can you give us like a little historical background on the calendar of No, she she did some research about how it's never come to the board for a vote and how it ended on the agenda tonight. my understanding again in my two and a half months of wisdom in this process. But yes,
158um when I got here, one of the questions I asked uh Yolanda Mendoza was where are we with the calendar? And she had done to Todd to your point, she had done a considerable amount of work. She had um gathered the the data include I mean the survey data that I don't know 23 22 23 um she had that data. My understanding is that she built out a model. Um she shared it with leadership of of our associations asking them for feedback. I think um our CSEA folks did a survey as well. Long story short, as great she had data, she put it all together. She came back and said, you know, based on all the feedback that I have, here's the proposed calendar based on based on what we have. Then she shared that
159with you all. I would say my involvement when I when I got it in front of me cuz I asked the question, who gets to make the decision on this piece? Because different states do it differently. Some states have a statute that the board has to take action. Some it can be the designation of the superintendent. In our district, it so happens that the last two calendars were decided by the superintendent and it was shared with you all because we went back and looked at that. It was not something that you all decided at the >> dised at the dis but we had >> you may have had feedback on it but it but it was decided ultimately. >> We had feedback but we didn't vote because historically we've never voted on it. It wasformational,
160>> right? just like it's not just like it's not um approved or it's not um uh sent through for um with our associations. They don't have to approve it or not. It really comes down to what the staff is sharing and what the superintendent is is is giving us. >> So, and we we never had consensus on the calendar. It was just >> okay without violating close session. I disagree with you 100% >> about the last time that we spoke in close session. I disagree with you 100% because I remember this completely different. >> Yeah, >> I disagree too. So >> with you. >> So let me let me finish. >> That's just our recollections. the the question that you asked then I think Yolanda made the assumption that associations were actively asking employees for
161feedback and they provided their own feedback. It was a it was a communication glitch between the two honestly and so when I asked a more specific question we realized that what feedback we had was from a small group of people not from a large group of people. So that's when I asked permission to bring together um representation from both associations in a room and try to look at what Yolanda had put together based on the feedback and the survey data that she did have. Long story short, once that we kind of worked through that, um, I brought you back what recommendations of minor change and tweak that that the group did come up with that felt at least a little bit better, which was not coming back on a Friday, even that much earlier in
162the month of of August. Long story short, I brought it back to you all. I explained to you kind of what the conversation was among the people that I met with the seven eight folks including folks that are in this room tonight and um said I'm going to push it out if you guys are good with it if you're ready to go because we've gotten as much as we can get at this point in time and we're getting significant feedback not about the calendar but about we need to know one way or the other and so we did say I think at the end of maybe the October meeting that we would get it out by Thanksgiving if I remember right. And so at the November meeting, I asked you guys, are you know, can
163I get this out? And I think there were at least three of you that said yes, go ahead. Two of you said, I'm worried about changing it. And so we went ahead and put it out because we were trying to get it out to everybody as as folks said to go. Is that helpful? >> And also to be clear, it wasn't a vote. It was more it was a discussion and how we felt about it and what we agreed with. >> Feedback that we all got was people who maybe went back and listened to the board meeting and or watched it in one way, shape or form or another weren't sure like did you vote? Did you not? And so folks were asking the question of clarity going did I make the decision? Did you
164guys make the decision? wasn't. So, I think it got brought back up here so that you all could be clear um communitywise to say, "Do you want us to move forward with this one or or don't you?" And um like I said, my horse isn't in this race, so you guys have to decide. Um I did a abbreviated process that we had time to do for the getting it out to folks, but yes, the next process, you now know what I intend to do with it. Can I also just ask a question about now that people are likely have had um some people have already booked trips and have planned things. Um and I've gotten questions about I already have a a trip planned. I'm going to miss the first week of school. Um we've
165have taken that into account and and and there should be no penalties if if this moves forward and and that occurs. Um could you maybe talk a little bit more about that? When people have reached out to me and said that, I mean, I've said the same thing that I would have said to a family in the state of Colorado that said, "I'm not coming to school and you didn't call us snow day." You need to make the choice that's in the best interest of your family. You need to do what you decided and we'll honor and we'll respect that. And we realize that with a change that may impact some people because of where we are right now. and we're going to have to honor and respect that and move forward. If that is
166the decision that we make, we can make that happen. We will figure it out for people and people should take the trips that they have planned and we'll keep going. And I've heard actually for a positive spin on it. I've actually heard some great feedback and um people are happy it's changed because of summer camps and daycare and people who are in, you know, regular everyday 9 toive jobs that it's hard in August to find child care for their kids or a camp for them to go to because most of them are closed because we're one of the only districts who starts later. So, I've heard positive feedback on the other side as well of, you know, having that opportunity to have them start sooner and not having to worry about them. What am I
167going to do for this next two weeks um with my my student um because I don't know where to put them. So, on that side, >> I'm sorry. Are are you saying that the teachers and the secretaries and the staff um that they get unexcused absences from work? Because I think that that's what some teachers are saying is, hey, we have vacations. Some se, you know, people are saying we have vacation plans >> and we weren't we weren't we weren't anticipating coming to work and so what are we going to do with all of our employees who weren't anticipating working during this time? >> I think we'll have to figure that out. But the reality of that is if somebody's going to miss, they're going to take leave in some way, shape, or form. That
168may mean that we have to let people use their sick leave for that because normally teachers don't have vacation leave typically. Do you know what I mean? And so we may have to figure some of that out. We have to problem solve if we're going to do this. If if we're going to move forward with this, we need to be reasonable in how we accommodate that for that one year because that's where we are. Um as far as students go, we'll have to figure that out. And you know, we can work with students with, you know, if if you're going to take the trip, take the trip. We'll figure it out. And the reality is no matter when we do this, if there's a significant change, these issues are going to come up. Period. >>
169The the my thing is is I understand the issues are going to come up. I just think that when people are anticipating a certain thing and they've made their vacations and stuff, I mean, people probably aren't making vacations a year and a half out, but they are making vacations 6 months out. Like I was telling someone, I said, I completely understand because I would look at the camps. I would look at when the last thing I knew I had two weeks and so those in those two week time that was when our vacation was and then I knew that we were pretty much you know weekends and you know long long weekends and stuff if we wanted to do any vacations further in the summer. So I understand that but I also sympathize with people
170when you know they have that vacation or I have this time and and things are already scheduled and planned. So, I just think it's different when you're talking about six months versus, okay, this is a year and a half. You have a year and a half now to plan. >> Yeah, I respect that people do plan out probably further ahead than I do. And that's okay. I respect that. >> I don't plan out that far anymore, but I know this is going to affect a lot of a lot of people, but going back to our data that we just um looked at. Also, we have to consider that 45% of our population is low socioeconomic status who probably are not planning vacations. I love my vacation, don't get me wrong, but a lot of people
171don't always plan an annual vacation. And so, we have to really look at the majority of who this is affecting. And by looking at that 45%, I would have to argue, and like I said, I hate to say it, but argue that that's not the majority of the district. Just as a flip side, just being a >> and I would say I would say it I mean student-wise is going to be a much lower number. um in general of kids like if if 5% of the student population misses the first four days that's I mean that turns into a big number but in in the scheme of the big picture at some point there's going to be a problem my concern would be more of the staff missing and those issues but if if we
172can commit to accommodating those situations Because the the reality of that is we don't have any numbers, but the reality of that is it's going to be a smaller it's going to be a very small minority that really have plans in place that can't be changed, I would assume. So, as long as we're committing to work with those people that are like, hey, I have I can't change it. We have to do something about that. So, >> so I um when we talked about it last month um I was at that point where I thought it was too much and we had jumped too far ahead. But at that time we were rolling with putting the calendar out. We had uh reached a consensus and at that point I said I will support the majority
173of the board and whatever that is. I think pulling it back now a month later, it's an additional flip-flop. Um, now people that we've posted the calendar that were waiting for us to post the calendar. They went ahead and did all of their their planning because it was it was there. So now if we bump it again, then we're going to have a just a different group of people that are going to be upset about that. And since this was put out, um, even though at the last meeting I said I, you know, I would support the board, but I didn't really love it. I still don't love it. Um, I do think it's really important for the semester break, the whole like motivation for me to even consider changing a calendar was because I
174wanted high school students be able to to have their their break at at um at the holidays and and be able to do that and not have to do homework. Um, so that unfortunately had some collateral effects with the the unbalanced semesters and that's something that we need to correct because that is still a problem. So, um, it's problems all around it. I really am appreciative of the three-year plan and the detail that you outlaid into who's going to be involved, how many people are we're going to try to get feedback from a whole process going out multiple years so people can project. Um, this is a a just a kind of a mess. Um, but it we need to make some sort of decision and I'm ready to make that decision. Are the rest
175of you? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, let's call for the vote. All those in favor? >> I I >> and opposed. >> No. Student board member I. So, that is four to one with a student board member. I >> I would also like to add to your uh process this next time. Could you add I don't know when you're going to start asking the questions. I would assume it's probably pretty soon. Um, but maybe after the start of the new calendar, how many people loved it or hated it just in general? Like when we do >> Yeah, but I'm saying like after the like after we've started the school year next year to be like, okay, how was the transition actually? We have all these ideas of how terrible it's going to be or how great
176it's going to be, but when it comes down to it in on September 15th, >> right, >> and you've gone through the transition, how did it actually work? I think I shared with you at one point in my previous district um we changed start times and end times to be more um developmentally appropriate because we had some real challenges with what we had and after students had been in school for a trimester then we asked the question um did people get did they adjust to it that kind of thing so we can kind of take that same methodology. >> Yeah. Yeah. I think it's going to be interesting what next the following June is going to look like because we're not going to be in school at all. Um, okay. So, with that, um, we've
177made the decision on that. I'm going to call for a 10-minute break and we'll come back at 5 minutes tonight. >> All right. Thank you everybody for joining us and rejoining us. >> Yeah, I texted this I'm going to overprove everything. >> And for our next item, like a motion to adopt the 2026 board of education meeting schedule. >> Second. I need a first. >> So move for um a motion by Marilyn, Mrs. Anderson, and a second by Mrs. Quantero. Any comments or conflicts or concerns? I would just like to have a robust conversation about this like we did the last calendar. >> Okay. So, um I do actually have a request. Um I would like us to consider moving this to uh 7:00 start time with the 6:00 uh um our closed session just
178because I am a working person and I work until 5:00. So, it's challenge more challenging for me and so um just a consideration >> opposed to that either. I think participation wise it would give people a time to get here as well. >> Yeah. I >> Okay. >> As long as we can as long as we can commit to very short meetings. >> Yeah. Can we like >> Well, we definitely want to have 11:00 or any of that. >> 9 p.m. and we started at six. >> No, we start at five. >> We start at five. >> So, that would mean start at >> We start at six. >> Like start close session an hour later and open session at 7. until 11:00. That's why we pushed them back before, >> right? >> Yes. Which
179makes it challenging to get up in the morning as well, but it's a lot more difficult to get here on time with traffic and various things. Although I am working more from home now, so that's good. Um, but it does have an impact on my calendar. >> What if we just change it by 30 minutes? Would that be helpful >> instead of a five o'clock close session? It's always going to be better because >> two of us are going to two of us are always say >> Trisha said we should phase this in as well. We just need TO PHASE IT IN. >> HEY, let's take a survey. Kim, can you set up something so we can see what the other one >> like I think that would be helpful >> in 15inute increment. >>
1805 minutes every month >> and eventually by the end of the year >> I think we lost >> we've lost it. 2029 >> honestly though could 5:30 work because I just remember when we used to start close session at 6 we weren't getting out of here till like midnight. >> Yeah, >> that's my only thought. Like let's try if 5:30 doesn't work then we can always come back and push it again. >> All we got to do is bring it back. We'll we'll you know we won't make you wait six months. >> I'm okay with 530. That does help me a little bit. So 6 would be ideal, but 5:30 is okay. Like I said, in public wise, I think it'll be good. >> I'll take all the minutes we can get. >> 8 >>
181What do you mean? 8 time. >> Oh, no. That'd be too late. >> Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't I mean, I don't I'm just thinking of like these long meetings, you know, like that's that's why we didn't move back. >> Yeah. And we don't we don't want late meetings. We have had two meetings a a month in the past and they were shorter. Um there's a lot more staff prep time leading up to it because they're prepping twice a month. But maybe that's something that you could consider. And what I can what I can offer in terms of perspective um I've done it both ways. Um the cadence of a two meeting a month, what it tends to look like is your first week is all study session where you get all the
182background information from the agenda items, what are on the agenda so that we present that to you. You get a chance to discuss them. You give us your questions. You you let us know what you care about with each of those items. We get back to you in terms of of follow-through, followup, feedback on that Friday update so that the next week's meeting is nothing but action items. Your entire meeting is based on action items. Well, I mean, it's yes, you discuss it, but I mean it's it's literally just there's no presentations, there's no study session, there's it's just action items. So that because the first meeting is like your study, the second meeting is take action on the stuff you studied. And I kind of like that idea in a sense. It seems to
183be more transparent. >> Would we do close sessions at both or just at the meeting when we do votes? >> Typically, you only do one unless there's a really big issue that you just have to have >> like a special meeting, >> right? But typically, you only schedule that one once. >> So, your action item meeting usually, I'm going to knock on wood, is is no longer is no more than two hours max. >> That's that's the way my experience has been. if that helps. >> That also means we're blocking another day throughout the month, the evening. So, something also to consider. >> But then we could possibly do the 7:00 or the 6:30 time >> at least for your >> action. >> So, how can we have you craft this a little bit more
184um without adopting this and knowing that we have to because we're in January. Um what >> we just adopt a January a January meeting and then leave the rest of it open. >> Can we can we start in August? >> Adopted and amended and then amended. >> That was going to be my suggestion is go ahead and adopt it and then we will bring you an amendment to consider in the January meeting and then you could put it in place for February or March or whenever you want to for us to take it out in terms of cadence. that you can stick with the what you currently have starting at 5:30 on January maybe February and then at that point if you're ready then we can make the shift when you guys are ready >>
185and then could we also have input from our cabinet and everyone else all the heads have to be here as well >> and the work to the work that they would have to prepare >> we can but you need to understand that we serve in the will of the board and so we will make it work as we need to but um but that is our we All right, you guys >> for all of you. That is our job. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, can we amend this schedule and move it to a 5:30 start time with the 6:30 regular board meeting start time and then next month we'll bring back an amended one that we can discuss further. >> And if we do the two meetings, push it to six. >> Push it to
186six. >> But we will discuss that in January. >> Yeah. at our 6:30 open session on January 20th. >> A lot of people do like a lot of state council, a lot of school boards, they do do two meetings and that's more efficient, you know, than >> or for efficiency. >> Some of us >> and not, >> right? I don't disagree. I I would tell you that yes, those late nights are difficult because many folks have those early morning meetings the next day because, you know, we support schools and so we will do what we can to adjust it. But I would say either way, whether you all decide on one meeting a month or two meetings a month, we can make it work. I just, you know, my explanation to you about how we
187would structure it now that you know, if that sounds good to you, then we'll do what we talked about in terms of January. I'll bring it back for the January meeting. You guys can decide whether you want to switch it February or March, and we'll try it for a while, and if you like it better, great. And if not, you can always go back to one a month. >> That is true. Sounds good. And we request that the August meeting just be the one meeting. >> We still have no meeting in July. Correct. >> Correct. >> June has two. Sometimes we've had to be called in in July and schedule a special one for >> special board meetings. >> Yeah. Sometimes because of the end of the school year and the new school year starting,
188we have had to add one in just because of staffing. So maybe we consider it and then delete it. >> As long as we don't start meetings at 3:00 ever again, I don't care. >> Yeah, agreed. >> Okay. So, um, >> these were dark days, my friend. >> Let's take a vote. And this is the adoption of the meeting schedule with the adjustment to 5:30 start time for closed and 6:30 start time for open. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I I opposed. Motion carries. 5-0. Okay. Next 19.3. So we have to elect somebody for our district nominating representative to the Orange County Committee on School Organization. Um um >> Okay. So we need a motion and a second and then we can discuss. >> Okay. I'll make a motion that we select someone
189to be on our district nominating representative to the Orange County Committee on School District Organization and elect an alternate. >> I'll second. >> Okay. So, we have a motion by Mrs. Anderson, second by Mr. Frasier. Now, let's talk about who would like to serve. >> You you said you've been on you're on this, right? >> I've done it the last I've done it the last two years. It's fairly simple. >> Yeah, >> it's very easy. One thing >> one Yeah, one thing a year >> and you don't even know anywhere. I think it's email. >> Yeah, you can just mail it in. >> Yep. >> Cool. You want to do it again? >> I'll be happy to continue doing it. >> Alternate. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> You were alternate last time. Would you like to
190be alternate again? >> That's what my notes What my notes say is it was Mrs. Anderson and Miss But since she did the one email, you probably handle that. >> I can continue as an alternate. That's fine. >> Okay. So, the motion is to elect Marilyn Anderson as the district's nominating representative to Orange County Committee on School District Organization with Trisha Quantero as the alternate. Any other comments? Okay, we'll take a vote. All those in favor? I I >> and opposed. Motion carries. 50. Okay. Next. 19.4. >> I'll make a motion that we nominate people to serve as representatives on the California School Board Association Delegate Assembly Region 15 from April 1st, 26 to March 31st, 28. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Frasier, second by Mrs. Quintterero. Um this is for California School
191Boards Association delegate assembly. Um to be selected for delegate assembly, you have to have the nomination and election from your own school board and then from there that um those nominees submit an application to CSBA. It is a timeline. So if you don't get it in on time, then it's disregarded. Um, if you get it in on time, then that list will go to all of Orange County school boards as um as each district and then the district's vote to select their district or their delegate assembly members. Um, we have 22 delegate assembly member or 21 in um in Orange County and we're the second largest delegate delegation in the state behind San Diego who has 22. LA doesn't >> LA does not, believe it or not, because they have a lot of smaller districts.
192>> Um, I would like to be nominated again to serve as uh delegate. Um, >> I would also be interested in serving. >> Okay. The one caveat with that is you can only have two out of the five because you can't have a majority that were that are able to serve. Um, and you also have to be in position for two years before you can uh apply. Any questions, comments? >> In position for two years, >> you have to um be a school board member for two years before you can apply to be a delegate. >> Okay. So, I'll make a um All those in favor um we're going to call for a vote. All those in favor to nominate Carrie Buck and Marilyn Anderson Anderson to serve as CSBA delegate assembly. I I >>
193I and opposed. >> No. >> Did you vote? >> I I didn't vote. I don't >> Do you want to abstain? >> Okay. So, we're going to go three, one, and a one. And that motion carries. So, the next steps for um you, Mrs. Anderson, will be to look up that information, um submit it, and then our um staff on um Mrs. Newton will submit the vote of our particular board. Okay, moving on. 19.5. I have a motion to adopt board policy 6144.1, opportunities for alternative assignments or activities. Second reading. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion by Mrs. Blade, second by Mr. Frasier. Any um Dr. Kim, I'll pass to you. I would just point out that we had a robust discussion about this for first reading and um because we didn't have it
194in the agenda with the amendments that um some of our legal counsel had advised us, we brought it back for second reading um with those amendments incorporated in um but the discussion that we had was about the policy with those amendments in it. So folks do this has not changed from the last conversation that we had last month. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Does anybody have any other comments? >> I do. Shocking. Um, so I do want to add in this that as um I've been able to talk to Dr. Kim and we've been able to talk to legal counsel and talk to other um people about this. Um what's good about this is the alternative assignments or activities. This is like the the name. Was the title changed? I thought last time it said
195opt out. And so the title was changed. So, if anybody's confused as you're reading this, this used to be the title was opt out. But one of the things too that we um were kind of discussing was, you know, if there is like a computer class and you believe your child has had too much screen time, you can opt your child out for that reason. If you um you know, if social emotional learning is not something that you want your child to take part of, you can opt your child out for certain things like that. um as long as it doesn't fall under the discrimination, graduation requirements, or state standards. So, you do have a lot of um options. You know, if there's just some part of a class that you just don't want your
196child to be a part of, you you have the opportunity to opt out. Um and then also too, what was brought up was um you know, the issues of compelled speech. Um you know, your ch child does have a first amendment right. They cannot be compelled to state things that they don't believe. Um, so there's just a lot of things that have been um moving with this opt out, but I do think that this is a good opportunity as far as for parents. Um, you know, you kind of can still feel like you, um, have, you know, a say in what your child's education is versus before, you know, if you didn't agree with how much screen time was going on in their classroom, you really didn't have a say. So, I do appreciate this.
197Um, and I hope that this works out good for the parents who um, you know, have shared their concerns. >> And just to be clear as well, it's not just opt out of whatever you want for any reason. It's deeply held personal beliefs and personal experiences. Correct. So, >> which I mean that falls under parenting and any anything that you deem for your child to be important, which is why I think this is good because it it gives parents more choice inside of the curriculum. um as and the thing that it also does is it takes the burden off the district from having to notify for all the things because I think that's the that's the heavy lift on the the mammud opt out is there's you have to notify within two weeks whereas this
198can be something where a parent says uh my kids I think screen time's a great example because it's like that's a that's a value that parents can have about how much they want their child to be on or off screens because of the society we live in um that I think would be a very reasonable personal belief to say I my child is not going to be on screens that much. So therefore because of this curriculum being on screens then we need something else which I think that's that's really good. Um, the unfortunate thing about both of these optout situations is that I shouldn't say unfortunate, the reality of these two optouts is we we can't discriminate because that's illegal and we can't as a district and parents may have different opinions about how they
199want to handle things. And ultimately, parents still do have the choice because if you have a situation where you don't want your student involved in, it doesn't involve curriculum and it doesn't involve things that the district can control, then the only option is to pull your student from school, period. So, and I think that's it's important to know that that is an option. Um, we do have a homeschool program that has been changed and hopefully we can fix that part at Parkview. Um, but there also I mean ultimately parents do have the the choice. This everybody has different circumstances. However, there are only certain things that the district can really control and most of it as at the curriculum level. So just remember that if you're looking at these things as opt outs like well
200I want to opt out of this class or I want to opt out of this school. That's not necessarily something that falls in under these guidelines. However, you still do have the power as the parent over your child if you decide to not be in the public education system. Period. So, just want to make sure that's clear. >> Or we have a great homechool or an independent study program that has the Buen a Vista that was highlighted today. >> It has changed, but yeah, >> Mrs. Anderson, any comments? No. Anybody else? Well, I do and I just wanted to mention I do think too that having this opt out is good because we obviously have all these charter schools that are coming in and that's what they continue to say is parental rights, parental rights,
201parental rights. And so it does show that we as a district are trying to respect parental rights and trying to give the parents what they want. So parents are our partner and >> so yeah. So I think that um you know with the mass exodus we've had over the last year I'm hoping that maybe there will be some trust that gets a little bit um parents will bring their maybe bring their kids back and learn to trust this a little bit again. >> Mrs. Anderson >> she didn't have anything to say. >> She was getting ready to start but then you added again. >> I thought she said no. >> That's okay. It's all good. Um, no, I'm just excited about this policy. It it covers uh last month I spoke a lot about this,
202but you know, one of the major things that I hear from parents is, you know, I don't want my child to read this book or my child has anxiety and this book um has some triggers and and this is a simple way where the parent can just take care of this. So, um I'm excited that we're we're finally passing And with that, we'll take a vote. >> I hope. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I I opposed. >> Motion carries. 50-0. >> All right. Moving on to 19.6. >> I'll make a motion to adopt revised board policy 5116, attendance and excuses, second reading. >> Okay. Um second okay now you can go ahead. We have a motion by Mrs. Anderson, second by Mrs. Quintterra. >> Okay so um since the first reading um I
203just want to point out a few things. We had three requests or questions. Um the first one was to add prevention in. So you'll see here that after the first sentence we added to encourage school attendance. The superintendent or designate shall develop strategies that focus on prevention and early intervention of attendance problems. And then we also had a request on the one two the third paragraph down to fix the run-on sentence. So we broke that up and after the word uh or the section of the sentence missed during the absence, we have a period and then we started a new sentence. And then the last one was actually a question about five CCR 421B where it states requires the school board to also approve any reasonable method of verifying absences due to illness or quarantine.
204And so, um, there was a request about what that actually referred to. And so, in conversation with, uh, Orange County Department of Ed, basically what that refers to is that, um, the board will adopt a policy and then the superintendent may issue administrative regulations, which we will have on this policy, but that there just needs to be basically the board needs to approve methods of verification on any policy. So, it sounded a little bit qu uh complicated with illness and quarantine, but that's just what the verifications need to be for >> and resolution. It was just really weird. >> Yeah. So, it's simplified. >> Yes, exactly. I was like, let me check into that. Well, so the team looked into it and yeah, that's what I thought, too. >> I just wanted to say thank
205you for making all the changes. Um, I went through my notes and everything and everything was in order and you guys did a great job. So, I really appreciate all the thought that went into that and fixing those issues. >> Thank you. We have a great team. All right. Seeing no more comments, take a vote. All those in favor? >> I. >> And opposed? Motion carries. 5-0. All right. Let's see. Um action items for business services. Uh we'll take a motion first, but um whoever is going to make the motion if they'll consider making a block vote of 20.1 and 20.2. >> Absolutely. I'll make a motion to approve 20.1. Approve the 2025 to 26 first interim report with positive certification. Positive certification indicates that based upon current projections, the district will meet its financial
206obligations for the current fiscal year and subsequent two fiscal years. And also 20.2 Two, approve the Orange County School of Computer Science Charter School 2526 first interim report. >> Second. >> Okay, for we have a first and a second. Uh, Dr. Kim, pass. Thank you. Um, I want to just acknowledge that um, Mr. Pepardo, Dr. Pepardo is jumping into the deep end very quickly. This is his second day and he is going to present the first interim report to you all. Um luckily he is quite the veteran and quite experienced in this work. Um he has worked side by side um with Joan for the last month on a couple of days each week to really gain a depth of knowledge as far as what work she was doing. And I have confidence that he's
207got background and and really has committed himself to make sure he really understands this. In fact, he and I worked on it yesterday together. So, um, John, I'm going to hand it over to you so you can talk our board through the first interim report. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. So, I'll do it uh sitting here and I can talk as fast or slow and answer questions during or after we serve at your pleasure board. So first interim report uh the topics tonight and I am going to talk fast. So please just say something when you have the question. Uh we talked a little bit about what is a first interim report are budget and assumptions changes since the adopted presentation which was last June. Uh the actual report itself some of our
208challenges that we're looking at and then the next steps and building the budget. The first item report is required by the state of California. It is actual revenues through October 31st uh and then to be presented to the board of education uh by December 15th. We're only a day late, so we sent everything to the county yesterday. They they understand our board meeting is today, so that's all good. It includes our current uh budget year 2526 and two projected years 267 and 278. And this is really our first big check. We do it uh the calendar is fairly straightforward. June we adopt the budget. September we have unudited actuals from the previous year. December we do the first interim report through uh October 31st and then we'll be back again at the first meeting in
209March uh to do the second interim report which is as of January 31st. We'll have actuals through then and our projection in we'll also have uh some better understanding of next year's budget after January 10th's governor uh governor's uh first budget when he releases his his uh projections. So uh uh possibly yes. Uh the uh so when you read the the the um motion there are three different assignments uh or certifications that interim reports have. First one is positive that we will be able to meet our financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years. A qualified certification means that we may not be able to meet our financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years. And a negative certification is that we will be unable to meet our financial uh obligations
210for the remainder of the current year or two subsequent fiscal years. Um and we're not anywhere close to those. So we'll move on as we look at our multi-year projections for uh the next two years and for the current year what we're looking at we know that salaries are pending for uh all the years we have not settled for the current year uh the statutory cola from the state projection at this time 2.3% for this year that was set uh back in miday uh 3.02 projected for next year 3.42% 42% for the following year. We anticipate those may be down a little bit from those, but uh that is what we're using at this time. Our enrollment, as you know, this year is about 21 uh7. We're projecting about a 1.8% decline in the next
211two years. Uh almost 400 students each year. Uh that really has to do with uh the entire state of California is declining. And I won't bore you with the birth rate of 21 children per thousand in 1990 when we peaked and we're somewhere around 10 to 10 12% per thousand today. So you can see we're just having less kids and those of us that have kids that are childbearing years understand that. So with that uh the attendance rate we're projecting because that's where we get our money from is average daily attendance. We're using 94.5% in each year and our health and welfare uh benefit increase cost increase each year at 8% projected for the next two years. So just a little bit on unrestricted revenue versus restricted. Unrestricted revenues and the general fund we use
212it for general education purposes. All of our teachers, our administrators, most of us that is uh we use uh the general fund unrestricted revenues. The vast majority comes from local control funding formula. We'll see that in a minute. Uh state lottery revenues, interest income, donation, those things that come to us that we then decide how it goes out. Uh and it's the general operating expenses of the budget and we'll see how big it is uh in a minute. Restricted revenues also uh restricted revenues in the general fund versus our other funds. I won't go into a fund as a set of selfbalancing accounts. Think of it as you have a checking account. You might have a savings account. You might have uh something other account. The money goes in and out there. There's a beginning
213balance, you add money, there's an ending, you spend money, there's an ending balance within that. That's how our funds are. they just have a few more zeros than most of us have. So, the general fund, special um restricted programs such as special ed, the categorical programs, all of the federal monies we receive are all restricted. Uh all the title funds and then our other funds, it's called fund accounting. We like to call it fund accounting. Anyway, so we have the child development fund, uh, our before and after school programs, fund 12, nutrition services, also known as food services, feeding our students, fund 13, deferred maintenance, using to maintain district facilities. I won't go into the 30-year history of that where the state used to match dollar for dollar up to an amount. They got rid
214of that um nearly 20 years ago. Now, we just have to put money in there from our general fund. uh capital facilities fund is developer fees and the redevelopment uh funds that we receive. Uh special reserve fund for capital outlay our money from the city of Yorbalinda settlement that we use to pay our certificates of participation debt payments that's coming up here in a couple items. And then the self insurance fund fund 67 is where we're doing our health and welfare payments or workers compensation property liability insurance. those items are uh in the self- insurance fund. So with that general fund unrestricted revenues, that's a great big slice of the pie. That's nearly the whole pie at 93.6% is local control funding formula um coming in at about $278 million. And then there's uh state
215revenues at about 3.5% $10 million local revenues about $8 million and a little tiny half million coming in from uh from child development fund to pay for uh overhead in that fund. So that's uh in general our general fund unrestricted LCFF students coming to school that's where we get 94% of our unrestricted revenues. That's how it comes in. How does it go out? It goes out in the big three which is certificated salaries, classified salaries and uh benefits. Uh so uh and then from there there's uh other items you can see books and supplies is a very small amount typically because we're an education institution. We educate people. We pay people to teach kids. uh services and other operating expenses uh almost 6 1.5% think of all of the uh services we receive and operating
216expenses including uh Southern California Edison and gas and water all the utilities uh consultants contract legal services is all in that area uh other outgo um is some transfers out to other funds and uh money that goes out to Orange County Department of Ed uh to educate some of our students. Uh there are two contributions uh that the general fund unrestricted contribute to. Uh number one is special ed at about $36 million. We all know the IDA promise from 40 years ago. Federal government has never made good on their promise. Surprise. And um so sorry that that wasn't political. Well, that's just a fact. Just a fact. Just the facts. Yeah. So, uh contribution special ed about 11 11.7% of our general fund unrestricted uh going there. And then there's another contribution to routine restricted
217maintenance account RMA which we're required uh to do a minimum contribution into uh maintenance to maintain our facilities since we got money from the state um program sometime in the past we're required to do that. Uh so that in general is where the money comes. So it comes pretty much from LCFF kids going to school and it goes out in all these uh various areas. Very very common pie for all of us in education. Uh the the money part uh revenue is about $249 million this year. Uh expenditures general fund we just saw $261 million. There's a red number there $ 122.1 million. That means when you take 249.1 and you subtract 261.3, you get a negative number. That's called deficit spending. So that's where it shows up right on that line. Surplus/deficit in parentheses
218in red uh is revenues minus expenses. So you go that's bad except that we have a beginning balance of $66 million in the general fund unrestricted. So we end this year with about $54 million. >> Yes. >> Okay. So that's where I got confused when we were looking at the board. Um the question thing I like put I I have multi-creens right now. >> Me too. >> The mine keeps going off. >> It said why is our deficit spending so high in restricted general fund? And it says we are not deficit spending. >> So it's complicated but on restricted we'll get to restricted next. >> Okay. >> Right. So deficit spending is is your supposed to be your current year revenues minus your current year expenses. Okay? >> Right? To the extent that you have
219a beginning balance and to the extent in the restricted funds, there's a we got a lot of one-time money >> some years ago and we'll see those are going away too. Uh but there's there's balances there. So in a technical sense, it is deficit spending except that when it's one-time money, you get it in one year and then you spend it over the next four years. It's not considered deficit spending, right? >> Got it. >> Yeah, that's that's sort of it's it's just a little complicated. >> H Yeah. And restricted. So this has uh this year projected for interim negative $12 million and we'll just roll into 2627 which shows a negative6 million and then 2728 at at 17.5 million. So if you if you think back to the um to the assumptions we had
220which is what is cola what is our ADA doing going you know COLA's 2.3% and our enrollment's going down by 1.8% 8% that doesn't leave a lot and then when you have increasing costs in the form of step and column and health benefits and utilities and all these things that's what we're looking at. So we have a trend here that looks like deficit spending. We're going to recommend you know attempting to eliminate that deficit for next year the $16 million. And then we'll talk about that in future board meeting study sessions that start at Yolanda promised me that she's got plans. So, make sure to talk to her. >> We have plans. I've seen plans. Yes, there are plans. So, you can see there where the beginning balance uh ending balance of $54 million this
221year. Uh then deficit uh next year ending balance of $38 million and the deficit of next year in 2728 is 17 million for an ending balance of 20 million.8 20.8 million. Right? You all see that in the bottom right hand corner. Okay, that's good, right? We still have $20 million. However, when we roll this into next year's budget 267 and you take the 2728 and you have to add a year or 28 29 if we do nothing, right? You can see you know what the deficit's going to be in the next year probably, right? 289. If we do nothing um another deficit of say 18 or 19 million you can see there that there you go that's it. So we're and that's why the state has us do two projected years so we can see
222what the trend is and we can act soon so that we don't get to that time and are in trouble like some other districts in the state. So, declining enrollment, increasing costs, low colas, it all goes together um and says we have to make some changes and this is where it shows right on that line. Uh, I understand the Orange County Department of Ed likes us to have a fiscal solveny statement. So, the board is fully aware of what's going on with our fiscal uh status where we're um we know current and two subsequent years because that's what we're certifying as positive that we're going to be preparing the budget stabilization plan to review and adopt prior to us doing the 2627 budget. So, we've got a few months in the spring to get all
223of this in line. Uh it'll it'll look at the ongoing budget uh planning uh reductions, uh staffing, positions, non-personnel costs, vacancies. There's a supplemental uh retirement plan right now out there that people are looking at looking to retire. And when you have that then you can you have vacancies and then you can decide uh how you go forward with staffing. So all those things uh under the assumption we're looking at Anita 16.1 million to maintain fiscal solveny. I mean when we look at the last page you can see there 16.1 that's where the number comes from. We're telling the county we know I know the superintendent knows and the board knows that this is what we're looking at. restricted revenues. So, um, uh, you can see there that the the pies split up a little
224differently than it was in unrestricted, right? There's the sources are more varied. uh state revenues um which includes special ed monies and restricted lottery monies and uh all sorts of restricted programs little over 50% 67 million. Uh the next largest one is a contribution in the $36 million ser for special ed that 28% the contribution in at 9.4% 4% is for the ongoing major maintenance uh account and there's some local monies we get about 2.7 million. And there's a great question for next year. What's going to happen with the federal government and their funding of education? Uh if I could tell you that I could probably make a lot of money on advising people, but uh nobody knows. Right now we are at about 11 million this year, 8.6% 6% of federal revenues. And that's
225uh the statewide average is close to 10%. So we're just below sort of the average of what districts are receiving from the federal government. Um you know 6 months ago it was a very uh it was 5 months ago is very stark picture. In the summer we were all really concerned and then it came through and now this year didn't change really. So what's going to happen next year? We don't know. My guess is Title One is a pretty popular program nationally. Probably not much going on there. Special education, uh, everybody knows the federal government hasn't lived up to their promise and I haven't heard any reductions in in in special education. Uh, there are some other title funds that they are looking at. Will they actually reduce them? Will they do a block grant
226and put a bunch together and reduce it by 10% or 15%. That's a possibility. I can see that happening. Um, beyond that, we don't know. We are planning though and uh there's people sitting over there at that table right there that are that are currently uh planning for next year and we're all looking at, you know, where we spend the federal dollars and where the flexibility is and what we might do and move as we go into next year. The good news is we may know in the spring what the government's doing for October one of next year but um we may not. So the money comes in revenues, the money goes out expenses. Same type of slices for uh classified certificated and and in and benefits except that you're looking at about 66%, you
227typically see somewhere around 65% of restricted money in people, right? You usually don't like to get higher than that because it can go away, right? And sometimes it's only for certain things and we're maybe buying a lot of stuff instead of uh ongoing people. So uh from there you see the books and supplies is way more than what we have in the general fund. Uh and then services about the same little bit of cap plow. So about $156 million currently in restricted expenses. talked a little bit about the one-time monies sort of as a as a going back in time. The uh learning loss mitigation educator effectiveness, you can see those arts music instructional block grant uh is due to be spent by the end of this school year. Oh, it's already gone. The 14.7
228million's gone. Right. So then there is uh the learning recovery emergency block grant L rebg. Um God we love acronyms. So uh that one they're still funding a little bit every year too. They're giving because they cut it by 30% two years ago when they gave it to us. Now they're giving it to us in little drips and drabs as it's going forward. But um you can see there of the 21 million uh after we're we're looking at about 7.8 million left. Uh this year there is one time student support and professional development block grant $6.7 million. We have um four years to spend it. Right now we've identified about a million and a half of that. Uh, and then the dual enrollment opportunities is also um all accounted for. So, of the $51 million,
229there's about 13 million left that hasn't been planned to be expended yet. There are some ongoing grants. The ELOP program, which initially was supposed to be one time not ongoing, and then it was, and then it is. And so ELOP is a very popular program going forward about 8% a year. Prop 28 that was a ballot initiative for arts and music and schools. 1% of the general fund that schools receive from the state. They give to us separately strictly for arts and music in schools. No supplanting. So you can't say, "Oh, I was going to cut the music program. I can save it with this money. No supplanting. So most districts expanded whichever offering. Some went art, someone went music, some tried both. Uh so about 12 million there. Multi-year projections restricted. So uh there's
230the the story there. We have $129 million this year, 156 in expenses, but we had 53 million and you saw the the one-time monies coming in from the previous. So that shows we're expending those. And you can see the deficit spending, so to speak, is declining as the one-time expenses, one-time revenues are being spent. And then those expenditures need to go away. Then we just put it all together. We put the the unrestricted revenues and the restricted revenues and we just add up those two numbers and put them on one slide. It usually doesn't show well in one. You really need to talk about them separately. The general fund going down to that, you know, low number is is bad. You can see here it just looks a little better or not depending on uh
231the perspective with the beginning balance of 119 million and you can see there the deficit uh spending between the two but the majority of 2728 is general fund unrestricted right ongoing. So that's why we do it separately. Oh there's a lot of numbers on this page. So components of the ending balance. There's our ending balance. uh unrestricted and restricted for this year. 54 million and 25 million equaling 80 million. It looks great until you look at the two future years, right? And then we just say what the reserves are within those ending balances, some textbook adoption, the declining enrollment, uh we know the restricted carryover and then uh reserves. However, as time goes on and you have less money, you say, "Okay, we spent the declining enrollment coverage and now you have to do something
232about it." And we know we're pretty close to wanting to do something about it now. Or school of computer science is actually within our budget, under our control. It's separately in fund nine. Remember, a self-setting selfbalancing set of accounts. So they have a beginning balance, revenues, expenses, and an ending balance. Uh the big news here was a decline in their enrollment this year versus last year, which really affected their LCFF revenues. Uh the line down there under expenditures called services and other operating expenses of the million5. Uh we are transferring um uh the prorated amount of our overhead within placenta urbalinda based on enrollment into this fund. So everybody in this I don't think anybody in this room is paid directly into this out of this fund right fund n but we're but a lot
233of us we all have a piece of it right we're we're doing the payroll we're doing all the accounting uh we do the support so we are charging indirect costs or overhead to it and to the tune of I think about one little around $1.4 $4 million. And that's why um you see that transfer up at the top transfers in from the general fund of the 1 498 a million498602. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> So the transfer into the general fund and the services and other operating costs. So we're we're let me just make sure that I'm hearing this correctly. So, we are transferring approximately $1.5 million in. Um, and maybe explain to me why we're transferring it in. What we're um accounting for in our expenses are um are we're
234charging them for all of the services that we provide that that they don't do at a school site. So, are we in in essence paying them up or transferring money in and then taking that money out because they can't cover the costs? >> Yes. >> So, how do we solve that situation? >> I mean, I like that we have the accounting correct in there, but there's still a deficit that's happening at a pretty significant level. So how there is >> so how do we manage that and I know we gave some additional support this year as was mentioned earlier to um for those days where we're doing professional development that kind of thing um looking at long-term sustainability what is that going to look like >> so I would say the first thing we're going
235to do with them is tr make sure we have a good um enrollment projection for them and then it has to be staffing at the site. Our staffing ratios have to be um >> please. >> Thank you. Um because I know th this one this one's a new one to you. >> Question for day two. >> Yeah. No, this one's a new one for you. I would say right now our team is looking at enrollment projections. um you know when we look at sort of the feeder patterns and how it was set up when we look at um grade configurations when we look at parents are starting to think about which they typically do at that December January time frame enrolling um especially if they're moving from one grades span to the next and we're
236looking at what are their enrollments going to be like I know that um our team has been working with them to advertise out to communicate out what the different programming that that is available and we're kind of looking at what students are we going to be serving? Um I would say our enrollment seems very robust in grades seven and 8. Our enrollment does not seem robust in grade six. And um I would tell you that philosophically I have questions um because all of the elementaryaries that feed into there are K6s and so we're asking families to pull their kids out at the end of fifth grade and put them there. And I would want to dig in and ask whether or not that's an effective strategy or not. And I think our parents are going
237to tell us that with with their feet. Um they're going to tell us that with their kids. And so as we think that through, my question is um if seven and eight is really rocking and and it's robust and and kids are doing well, we need to absolutely protect that. We need to absolutely support it. We need to make sure that they can do that to the best extent possible. If our parents are telling us we do want that sixth grade piece, then we either need to modify what our articulations look like or if they're telling us they don't, then we need to leave our elementarymentaries the way that they are and maybe we think about what the grade configuration needs to be going forward. Um, and so what I've asked the team to do
238is to really monitor what our applications or what our enrollment what our parents are are their commitments are for enrollment and then I'll bring you back that data in our in our 221 conversations that are coming up in January. I'll share with you what we've got and then I would anticipate probably a conversation back in the January board meeting on what does that data look like. Does that help? >> I I think too when we were talking about the when you mentioned the sixth grade part um originally it was just going to stay seventh and eighth but then what was happening was is they were talking about making everything in our district you know because we have some that are K through six and we have some seven and eight and so it's nothing's um
239consistent. And then also too, some of our private schools whose parents were looking to come in, they were also well, you know, we do sixth, seventh, and eth. And so we would like instead of having to like have my kids start technically middle school at sixth grade and then pulling them out and then putting them over there at seventh and eighth. So I think that that was why they created um the sixth grade and they knew it was going to be lower enrollment, you know, for the sixth grade. I don't know how low it is now, but I would say too that, you know, when Beth Fischer left that really we took a a a huge hit just because of the way she was treated. She had an EEOC right to sue you. I mean,
240there was all kinds of things that were happening, you know, here. And so, I think a lot of the parents lost a lot of trust. Um, that was what happened with that school. And so, and I also think too that we have staff that's in our district who are actually still talking badly about the school. And so when you have high school people, you know, talking badly about OCSCs and telling parents to move away, like we have to change that nar, you know, we have to like be able to change that narrative >> because there's a lot of parents who think that this is a good school and it's good for their kids, but if you have this type of like negative image of it, >> I mean, who would have thought cuz Bernardo had
241550 students when we opened up at OCSCS, we were at 780 and then all of a sudden, you know, you get that drop again and I think it's because the school has been demonized. >> I don't I I can't speak to that obviously not having been here, but I would tell you in the time that I have been here, that hasn't been my experience in terms of hearing that it isn't doing a good job. I I have actually heard that, you know, it has stabilized and the programming is serving kids in seventh and eighth grade. And I think the sixth grade class is much smaller, but at this point, the question is what does seven and eight look like? Um, I, you know, it's really easy for me to be the Monday armchair quarterback, but
242I can say that as I look at programming, I have some questions about how do we create a sustainability and how do we create um, the right articulations and I think our data is going to tell us that. I think that um when our parents make decisions about where they want their kids to be, whether that's for sixth grade, whether that's for seventh grade, eighth grade, when we look at dual enrollment, um dual language, all those things, that's going to all play out and then it's going to tell us what are our families telling us they value and how do we support that and then how do we if if we need to rightsize, then we need to have that conversation. But, um right now is the time that folks are actually applying. And I
243think too that now that you're with you being here like within the last year when we had you know them you know basically trying to take a sledgehammer to the charter school you know and like you know axe programs and make all these changes and stuff the parents I mean we were sitting in a study session in June asking who was making these changes who was doing all these things and nobody would fess up to what was happening and even the teachers didn't know what their schedule was going to be the students I mean so that was a huge thing with enrollment is that they just basically they just left left the school hung out to dry. So, I feel like if we walk in with a plan ahead of time and people know, parents
244know what they're getting into and they know what things are going to be about, then maybe the enrollment will go up again. But, I mean, literally this last year, I mean, you should, if you go back and watch study session, it was an absolute, you know what type of show. It was terrible. And like, no teachers, no students, no parents, nobody should have had to live through that. So I feel like if we can, you know, reverse course on that and give the parents the information and even the staff the information and stuff like that, we maybe enrollment will go up. >> As soon as we spend the time way on the front end, build and build and make sure we're doing it correctly, then it we're going to have a lot more success. >>
245Well, I just think practically I was going to bring up what Leandra said there about the end. they didn't have a master schedule going into this school year, which I think caused a lot of sixth grade parents to be like, uh, we're not going to transition. So, I I would be curious what tr what happens next year when we do have a schedule in a timely manner. Um, because that was that was a nightmare for I when that study session was gnarly. I mean, the the staff saying we don't know how to set the master schedule because we haven't been given direction and it was a nightmare. So anyways, something to think about. >> Sorry. >> No, no, no. That's what this that's exactly. I will keep moving and I'll just say that yes, we
246did trans uh we did charge them indirect costs of about 1,ion4 direct costs of prorated cost of a million447 and we needed to transfer in a million498. So without that transferred, they'd be about they'd have about $50,000. We talked a little bit earlier about the other funds. I'm not going to go into each of these numbers. Do you have any questions on any of these particular funds? I'll point to capital outlay fund 40 there that has the uh a little over $13 million this year and that's the money that we receive money from uh your Belinda and then we will be paying the coops out of uh off for the next uh eight or nine years. They're all positive. And the cafeteria fund uh has a plan with the state to spend down that balance
247because we're only allowed to have uh nine months of operating expenses. And you can see we're a little uh we're a little little over a little over that about a year. So uh but that's a good thing too to have money in that um fund. So the challenges uh we talked a little bit about federal funding. We don't know. Uh, Department of Finance talking about a $18 billion deficit in the state of California for next year, although they've got lots more money this year. So, it's interesting. We'll see what happens uh more in the spring. Uh, we know our declining enrollment is is tough. And welcome to uh uh the US. It's we're declining nationwide. um uh the low colas step and column rising costs we know those things nothing new there so tonight is
248the first interim in February we have scheduled the midyear LCAP update second interim as I said uh by March 15th and then always in June there's two board meetings because we have to uh do a public hearing for the LCAP first and then the budget on the same night and Then not at the same meeting, we adopt the LCAP and adopt the budget. Ah, thank you. I've come to the end. >> Great end. >> I love that. I love your presentation. Surprised you. That was great. It's done. >> Timeline is usually the last. >> Good job. Good job. >> Anybody have any questions? >> I I just love your commentary. Sorry. No, I love it. It gets It gets longer as it gets later. >> It's good. Yes. Yes. I'm I'm with you on that.
249It's good. >> I'm I'm almost on my third cup of coffee. >> I did have two cookies are really good. Who made them? >> Uh nutrition services. >> Wow. Well, I'm visiting them on Monday. I'm I'm visiting them on Monday morning. >> All right. All right. So, with that, we're going to take a vote. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries. 50. And thank you very much. And we'll move next to 20.3. >> I'll make a motion to adopt resolution number 25-18 authorizing the execution and delivery of documents relating to the sale of the 2026 refunding certificates of participation and authorizing s certain actions in connection therewith. Second. >> All right. We have a first by Mrs. Blade, second by Mrs. Quantero. Um, this item was addressed at last month's board meeting. Are
250there any follow-up questions? Would you like to make an comment? >> I would just say that um we are uh we are not selling any school property. >> Clarify the language here. The language the language is getting people all jacked up. >> The language and the language is very language just so right. So I'll just say that we know these are refunding of cop. So we're refunding it at a lower rate from the refunding that we did in 2016. And in 2016, we had basically the same language except that we had Espironza High School and Elorado High School as collateral in 2016 with a lower amount now owed at 60 million instead of 77 and the increase of property values. we now only have um uh Esperonza as uh as basically collateral. And how it
251works, it's a it's a two-step process. One is one is that uh we take the the property and we we put it in sort of a a trust. We we lease it. We give it to this third party um uh third party uh uh finance corporation that then says, "Oh, I have this collateral and investors, you give us $60 million to pay off these cops and the district is going to pay this for the next nine years." And we're holding this, but they're not holding a title. They're holding a lease hold on it. So there's no transfer of property. There's no escrow. There's none of that legal other than saying we're putting this up as collateral for the coops that the the $60 million we're getting to pay off at a lower interest rate. >>
252And then at the end kind of like that, but a lower lower low very low. Let's let's use >> refinance at a lower interest rate, saving money. Yes, that's what we're about is saving money. So, >> because I think the the clarification is important and and I emailed and asked the question. I said, "Hey, let's clarify what happened in 2016 because that's an important thing to say. We are using one less property as collateral in this refinance terminology refunding." >> Um, so let's not all get our heads in a tizzy because >> Yeah. When I saw that, I thought, "Oh my gosh, they're going to start. We're going to be in the register tomorrow that we're selling espironza." >> Thank God for not happening >> and this is saving us money. >> And it is
253saving us money. I just like to thank uh Jason Chong, vice president of FieldMen, who has been helping us through this and he has been sitting here really enjoying. >> He waited this whole time. >> He is there. I hope you enjoy. >> Sorry, Jason. I told I told him he asked last week, "Should I come?" I said, "There might be some questions. You should come." >> Uh, we had questions I think last. Yes, please. >> Take two. I made him I made him have a cookie. >> All right. Does anybody have any questions for Jason? >> No. >> Thank you. >> What other What other investment options do you have at the moment that we could be involved in? >> We'd like to How else do you save us money? >> Yeah. Can I
254I I have a question. Um, how has our staff been working with you? Do you get all of the questions and responses that you need when you when you have them? Thank you. >> Two days. It's coming up on a half. >> This doesn't expire till 2033. So, you got >> eight years. Pay it off. >> Okay. Seeing no more questions, we'll take a vote. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carries. Thank you for being here. >> Thank you, Jason. Thank you, Jason. Okay, next we have 21.1. Approve changes to the certificated management salary schedule. I need a motion and a second. >> I'll make a motion to approve the changes to the certificated management salary. >> Second. >> All right, we got a motion and a second. We have any comments, questions? Seeing
255none, take a vote. All those in favor? >> I >> opposed. Motion carries 5-0. Can we block grant? Can we block it? this 212 213 and 24 >> I think so. >> Sure. Okay. >> I'll make a motion to approve uh 21.2 21.3 and 21.4 in one block vote. >> Second. >> Okay. We have Mr. Frasier and Mrs. Blades second. Any questions, comments? Would you like to Yeah, >> all I would say is that um I feel like we've started to catch up with some of these. We've had quite a few. Um and when I got here, one of the things our CSEA um team asked me was, you know, can we get to some of these because we've been sitting on them for a while. So, I'm happy that we are getting these done
256for our staff. >> That was going to be my comment. I'm really glad that we're able to get these reclasses done and moving forward. And it's nice to be crossing the finish line on some of these things that have been going on for a long time. >> Yes. >> So, thank everybody involved for making this happen. >> All right. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carries 5-0. Brings us to the consent calendar. Actions proposed for the consent calendar items are consistent with approved practices and the district of the district and are deemed deemed routine in nature. The trustees each receive board agenda backup information in advance of scheduled meetings and are pre prepared to vote with knowledge on the block vote items. Does anybody have anything to pull? >> Yes. 2410 >> 264.
257>> Okay. Can I have a motion for the balance? >> I'll make a motion for the balance of the consent calendar. >> Second. Okay. All those in favor? >> I I >> I. >> That motion carries 5-0. And now we'll move to 2410. I'll make a motion to approve the subscription for CSBA meetings with CSBA effective July 1, 2026 through June 30th, 2027. >> Second. >> The reason I pulled this was we use diligent community or the software whatever we have now. And my whole thing is just to do the CSBA is a political lobbyist firm and I just feel like if we move our board documents and all of our stuff over to CSBA, we're just giving them a lot. Especially if um maybe next year we're able to pull out of it again
258and then so we lose our, you know, if everything's all with CSBA. I just don't I don't like the organization. I don't like how they don't support parental rights and I just think that putting all of our stuff with CSBA is just not not a good choice. I think diligent this community that this diligent community we've been using has been working and um you know it's a $30,000 fee just to be in this you know CSBA membership and now we're looking at another you know $5,000 for Gamut and then another $12,000 for this thing. and I just I don't believe in giving money to that organization. >> Are there other alternatives to this? I I know that there's you you talked about other softwares for the board meeting. Were there others that you considered before
259you brought this? >> I would tell you that I've used both Diligent and Board Docs and neither one of them are great. Um I I'm sorry, but that's just the honest truth. I mean I I've had to work through multiple different systems. Um, I'm not familiar yet with the Gamut system, but from the school districts that I have talked to, they seem to like it more than the other two, but I would I would say I haven't seen a school board agenda management tool yet that I feel like lives up to the technological advancements that we're capable of in other spaces. It just in general in the work that we do. So, I don't know, maybe there's an opportunity for some entrepreneur out there. >> Absolutely. I I would just say that's just not that's
260not been my experience. So, I'm hoping that Gamut is something that does a better job than ones I've used in past because they've been pretty clunky. >> I just moving to another software that we're not sure about. I just don't know if I'm on board with that. >> I use Gamut at North Orange County RO and it's easier to use than Diligent and more um intuitive and it's easier to take notes and to to track things. Um I find diligent to be a little clunky. Um related to CSBA, this doesn't come up until July 2026. So it will ex um we'll expend our our diligent contract. Um CSBA is not a political um lobbyist. It's an association that uh just approximately 5,000 schoolboard members across the state are membership of and it is led by
261delegate assembly. The people on delegate assembly are elected by their own boards. They're elected by their um their region boards and they make decisions for the whole group. It's not going to make everybody happy all the time because you have 5,000 people that are in our organization. Um, you have 260 delegates that that help lead that. So, um, >> you have 260 delegates that have to pay to be a delegate. It is a pay-to-play lobbyist organization. >> You have to pay to be part of that because they're pay to to get things together to put on conferences to put information out where >> to go to Sacramento lobby bills. Yes. >> Some of they do have a lobbying wing. um and that is directed by all of the CSBA delegates and the policy um the
262policy platform that we decide on and vote on on an annual basis. So um there are people on every side of the political aisle that attend CSBA and our members and you can't have a voice unless you're participating. So I am glad that we're participating again. So, since we're not since we're not getting in or getting out of CSBA, let's talk about the software. Um, can we wait and see if there's better options? I I just I don't feel I mean, we were talking about July, so we don't This isn't something we're in a hurry to do. >> I'm okay waiting. >> If we just wait. >> Yeah, let's wait. >> I know that we've had a lot of issues with Diligent and >> Well, I've never had any issues. >> I haven't had any
263issues at all. them putting it together and a lot of time solving issues and um >> like what >> I think um Mrs. Newton probably could share because since she spends the most time with it but I like just this last year like approving um she'll send me a draft and I'll like it's missing this and this and she's like I put it there and things just kind of disappear. >> We use diligent when I was board president I wouldn't have any issues with it. Yeah. And I know that this came up when we approved diligent in June and we asked to have research done and to look at other options. So I'm assuming this is the other option. >> Well, if this was done in June of this last year >> and that was
264with Allen, I think we should have somebody else take a look. I'm >> other options >> putting it on hold. But I think we need to address the issues before >> what happened the last time was it came to the board um for approval and we didn't even have time if we were to deny it then we would have been out without something. It came too late in the game. So this is early which is great. Um but but we do have some time to make that decision. >> Yeah. I would like to see a couple of options or at least at least I know you said you've worked with a couple of others. So if we could get some little more research. >> The only thing I would tell you is there's it's such
265a niche like thing that there's not it's not like Microsoft platform and Google platform. I mean >> teams have serving Yeah. Unfortunately, no. Serving um school boards is sort of this limited niche. So there's not a ton of options out there. And like I said, the two that I have tried are board docs and and and the current diligent. And I would argue that neither one of them are teams. Let's just say that. Um I would say overall um I I'm happy to play with Gamut and certainly talk with you Carrie and bring back at least some perspective or at least maybe some like walk people through some modeling of it to see whether or not people see that it's worth it. If that's helpful. >> That would be helpful. I did notice it was
266cheaper than diligent. >> Yeah. By a couple grand. >> Yeah. >> But you've also paid $35,000 to be a part of CSBA to get this program without being a part of CSBA. >> No, you cannot. So, it's really not a cheaper option. >> But we also choose to be part of CSBA. >> So much more. Three of you choose. >> Assuming that that would go forward. Yes. But if we're tied into something that if we get out of CSBA or something happens down the road and then we're tied up with well now you can't use our software. Uh I don't like that. >> Yeah. >> That is a factor. Okay. So we are or the consensus that we're going to pull this item. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. So that takes us to
26726.2. >> Do we need to um do you want motion to table? Just resend. >> I'll rescend it. Do I have a second on the resend? >> A second. >> Okay. All right. Moving to 26.4. >> Like to make a motion to approve the memorandum of understanding with Western Youth Partnership effective uh December 17th, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. And Mike >> second. >> Thank you. We have a a motion and a and a second. >> Um I am not against this. I I want to just further explanation to make sure this is going to be on top of the current services we already provide not in replace of. It's like our RBTs will still be in place. Everything we have obviously we need more help. So this is going to be more. Correct. Yes.
268This is like like a gift actually. They approached us and um this is a free service that they provide and we're going to build on our multi-tered systems of support. We're going to actually try to build more services for our most needy students. So we're looking at actually the feeder pattern of Melrose um Valad Valadez and then um Valencia and we had a meeting with them where they said they would come in and help us to provide services for the students and if the families need additional services they will also push into the F FRC. So this is an addition this is not to this isn't supplanting. >> Yeah. So, I want to make sure I've worked with them before and I know they're great. Can they services as a district? They will refer out
269to who can. >> Yes, they will. >> And so, okay, great. >> I have experience with them too and they're great. >> Yeah, I do too from previous districts and one of them came in and I used to work with them and I was really surprised. So, yeah. >> Great. It'll be a good a good partnership. >> All right. So, without take a vote. All those in favor? I >> I >> motion carries 5. Okay. And that brings us to board report. Mrs. Blakes, I had a lot to say, but since it is 10:15, I may just wish everybody a merry Christmas. Um, one thing and and the only thing I will say, the only thing I will say is that I was going to talk about is I really do feel like we do
270need to take a good look coming into the new year and now that John is here too, maybe he could take a look our facility um use agreements. Um, you know, we have a lot of our sports teams and either fields worked on and we're renting out their I've said this before, like I feel like I always say this. Um, and I did talk to Dr. Kim about it, but I just wanted to like reiterate it that I am mentioning this. Um, we have a lot of outside users using our facilities, but somehow our booster programs are having to pay for fields and they're having to pay for repairs and they're having to pay for all of this. And so there's got to be a way that when we >> including the pack, yes, we
271can go even beyond that, >> including the pack. Like I'm talking about any facility, any facility and stuff. And so all of that. And so we just have to have a better system because it's kind of like double taxation for our parents because they're paying the fees, they're paying stipens for the coaches, they're paying all of these things. And then it comes up, you know, you have these JV fields. I was driving by on Sunday um and you know there was a big softball clinic out there and it was great you know is they were having this great old time but I was just sitting there watching you had hundreds of girls on this field and I'm sitting here going okay so after this field is used you know the boosters are going to be
272responsible for having to you know their laser level it or you know recede the field or whatever. So, I just feel like we really need to sit down and look at this. And especially too, just on the news today, they were also talking about how the cost of youth sports is just like almost more like they're collecting more money than professional sports. It's so like everything is just like act just extreme right now. So, we want we want kids to be able to play. Um, and some of these these fees that these that our kids are having to pay, a lot of it is because they have to fix the fields and because of these costs are so expensive. So we just need to find a solution. Um that was it. And then also too
273I had a question about if the schools like when we have outside um transfers coming in if schools are open do they get you know that the choice do they still have the school choices even if they live like let's say they live in Elorado's area but they want to go to Esparonza. Um if the schools are open do they still get that choice? because a couple people have said that um they wanted to transfer, you know, they're outside of our district, they want to transfer back in, but their school of choice wasn't open to them. Um and so I just want to make sure that's still a thing. And um I will save the rest for the the the new year, but these were like the pressing things that I always get emails about
274all the time is just the sports, the facility uses, things like that. So with that, merry Christmas everybody, happy new year. be safe and like I will talk about Dr. Kim, I will second her. Uh, make good choices. Let's see. Um, well, since haven't had much done since, um, our last meeting, so it's going to be short. I did attend the, um, Elorado play, Failure, a love story. Um, it was wonderful, very intriguing and a different type of story. So, it was very, yeah, it was very interesting. It had me hooked. So, I just want to say a great job on that and I'm happy that I was able to attend. Um, I did attend the CSBA conference. I had a great um few days of learning and a lot of um information. Was able
275to watch the governatorial um forum with five of the candidates. So, that was um very informative and um like I said, a lot of the um sessions were very informative and a lot of different perspectives and questions asked that were really good and gave um you know, kind of a a different perspective to some topics. So, that was great to hear and um and again, yeah, just wishing everybody a happy holiday season um and a happy new year and I hope 2026 is wonderful for everybody and everybody gets to spend time um in the next few weeks with their family and loved ones and enjoy some great cookies and some great food and and making great memories. So, happy holidays everybody. >> All right, I'll be quick. Um saw the play was good. Uh saw
276some basketball games. They're great. Uh Christmas cookies in the shape of trees should be everywhere all the time. Uh and then lastly, uh there's a student that came up and talked tonight at public comment and I know exactly what's going on cuz my well know exactly what's going on. I've heard about all the information happening at Espironza midyear changing schedules because of staffing needs. It's I I just need to make sure I'm very clear in saying it's very strange for especially seniors with high level courses to have their schedules changed midyear this quickly. Like it I don't know how this happened or or what was the the the reason that it came up like this. Um but I think it's it's not affecting I don't think it's affecting a large amount of students but the
277students that it is affecting it is a large effect if that makes sense. um because they're highle classes. Most of them are AP that are getting switched around. Um one of them is a ceramics class that I know is being changed, but um anyways, I'd like us to dig into that and make sure that before anything gets finalized and schedules get moved around to cause some I mean, I wouldn't want my child to go from an in-class AP to a self-study AP the second semester of their senior year. that just kind of is a a big deal. So, um I just wanted to make sure I brought that up. So, thank you. Merry Christmas everyone. Uh and uh make wise decisions. See, a little bit different. Okay, I will try to make this brief. Um
278I attended the placenta uh prayer breakfast and it was a really fascinating uh speaker of um Jay Hewitt who completed the iron man triathlon in placenta as he was fighting um brain cancer. I attended El Camino career day which I already talked about. Um the a ammy magical cross country invitational. Um, it was really great to see our middle schools competing against other schools and to see the magical family there. Um, I attended the Espironza showcase. I always love seeing our students shine as they tell their experiences. I saw the the play failure a love story and its unique storytelling um format. I went to the venture Christmas boutique and took a friend and we had a great time shopping and purchasing things for the holidays. I also went to the CSB conference where I
279took a lot of classes to help me become a better uh trustee like uh advanced school financing for school board members, how to um how the impact the board can have on school discipline and policies and procedures and um things that are happening um throughout our state and our nation of of hot topics. and how to work through those better. Um, so it was just really great and I was honored to be there for the Golden Bell and accept it for our district and all the hard work that um, our teachers have done. So those are just a few of the highlights. I had lots of notes. Um, I attended the Winter Wonderland at Ruby Drive and I'm always and I also went to their um, holiday performances for TK and first grade. And what
280I want to say about this is the parent volunteers and the staff and all the work that goes to make these events. These things just don't happen. And I just am grateful for everybody in whatever school you are that that has worked so hard to make these holiday seasons exciting and provide programs and enrichment for our students and our community because it's it's just really important. I also had um the privilege of attending um mock tri mock interviews for our reach pil uh first Lego League and um I didn't know a lot about it and I asked um just a simple question and then I got invited to come and be participate in the mock um interviews and if anyone does not know about this program, they really need to research it. If you have
281a child that's interested in computer programming or STEM, it was incredible what these kids were able to accomplish and demonstrate and show just blew my mind away. And um I got to hear three different teams and then this on Saturday they competed in the regionals and one of our teams we have five teams in our district and three made it to regionals and two of our teams are advancing now to state and one of our teams went all the way won first first place at regionals. So, I'm really excited to hear how our students progress and move. And again, this wouldn't be possible without the Reach Foundation and all the parent coaches and volunteers that come and help these students um with their projects and things like that. It's a very complex. They're given a
282problem and they have to have to do all this research and solve it. They give an oral presentation on it. Then they have to build a robot that goes through um a track and has to complete things and they have to design it and then they have to give a presentation as well on what they learn doing it and how they modified their robot. They also have core value presentation they have to do. It's very complex and um I was just blown away by these students what they c what the research that they found how they problem solved how they modified and and things like that. If you want to know more talk to the reacher I can tell you my limited knowledge but um it was just great. So I just want to wish
283everyone um merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, however you celebrate this holiday season. Um, I hope it's filled with friends, family, and yummy food. And have a good night. >> Thank you. >> My phone's in my purse. >> And good choices. >> Make good choices. Um, I just have a couple of things to add. Um, the district lunchon that we attended, the students from the culinary programs from the high schools made our lunch and they were all fabulous. I um it and they got to share about the the meal and what the inspiration was and it it was just lovely. So, thank you for including them and having them um prepare for the day. Um I have a SNAC, the California Nutrition Advisory Council coming up in January. So, I'll report back on any new uh activities
284that are happening there. Um, North Orange County RO, we had our our um, organizational meeting last week and Marilyn Buchcci from Fullerton was elected as our president and I was elected as the vice president clerk for this upcoming year. Um, I also attended the play which was fabulous and I'm so glad that I got the invitation. Um, unfortunately missed a handful of things being gone um, for CSBA. It's a lot of the same performance night. So, um it was nice to be able to catch that one. Um couple of notes just from the speakers. Um I have questions regarding the AP class. So, I'd like to follow up with that as well. >> And then with hope Foundation, I am I'm concerned about that one as well. The With Hope Foundation has been incredibly important
285and I and I want more information about it. Um, and that's it everybody. Have a happy holiday. Get some nice rest and we'll see you in January. And that's it. Can I take Oh, so we now are moving to adjournment. Um, tonight we're going to end adjourn in memory of Tom Craig. Tom served our district for 26 years as a school safety counselor and coordinator of student services and crisis intervention. He was a source of comfort for many um during difficult times and many times he was the first to arrive during the time of crisis. His connection to our staff, students, and community is a testament to his dedication and we send our deepest condolences to his family and friends. Um many of his family members are still um employees in our district and have
286dedicated their lives as well. Um, on a personal note, Tom had um worked with my family on an occasion um many many years ago and helped us through a really rough patch. So, I hope that his family um can get some peace and comfort from um from the community that surrounds him. So, with that, I'll take a motion and a second, please. >> I'll second. And all those in favor? >> I. >> And motion carries 5-0. And we're adjourned at 10:29.