001I will now call this meeting to order. We have a quorum. This meeting is being webcast live and recorded. The recording or webcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. Close session items are as follows. 2.1 Recommend reinstatements. 2.2 Public employee assignment reassignment appointment. 2.3 public employee discipline dismissal release complaints. 2.4 4 Conference with Labor Negotiator. 2.5 Conference with legal counsel existing litigation. 2.6 Anticipated litigation. Public comment on any closed session will be heard at this time. Pursuant to board policy, the board may limit individual comments to no more than 3 minutes and individual topics to 20 minutes. It's recommended you begin your comments by stating your name. Seeing there is no one here, the board will now adjourn to close session. Welcome. We will now convene the regular session. Alandre Morin
002will serve as a Spanish interpreter for this meeting. Meeting attendees who would like to listen to Spanish interpretation of the proceedings, please pick up the headphones from the table located in the back of this room. This announcement will now be shared in Spanish. Thank you. This meeting is being webcast live and recorded. The recording or webcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting. Members of the public who would like to provide public comment on items listed on tonight's agenda. We recommend that you fill out the public comment form, the green form located on the table at the northeast corner entrance of this room. Please hand the completed form to acting board manager Leam Martinez, who's in the back of the room before the item comes up on the agenda. We recommend you
003complete a separate form for each agenda item on which you would like to comment. Liam Martinez is in the back of this meeting room. Members of the public providing public comment, please use the microphone on the stand in front of the room. We will now do the pledge of allegiance and with um trustee Kenneth. Thank you. At this point, I want to report any um action taken in close session. So, the first one in closed session on a motion by board member Odto and a second by board member Gamoyan. The board agreed unanimously to appoint Michelle Reid to the position of interim principal of Mount Whitney High School. Michelle Reed has served as the director of expanded learning for the past three years. Prior to this role, she held several leadership positions at Vicelia Charter
004Independent Study, including seven years as a principal, two years as an assistant principal, and four years as a learning director. Earlier in her career, Miss Reed taught fourth and fifth grade for seven years at Snowden and Freedom Elementary Schools in Farmersville. Miss Reed holds a bachelor of arts in liberal studies and a master of arts in educational administration and supervision from California State University, Fresno. She holds a multiple subjects teaching credential and an administrative services credential on behalf of the board of trustees. Congratulations to Miss Michelle Reid. In close session on a motion by board member Gamoyan and seconded by board member Belt, the board agreed unanimously to appoint Jacob Hutchinson to the position of interim director of expanding expanded learning opportunities. Dr. Jacob Hutcherson has served as the coordinator of athletics for the past
005two years. Prior to assuming this role, he taught business for six years at Golden West High School. He also serves as adjunct faculty for the college of sequoia. Dr. Hutchinson served eight years in the United States Navy as a data analyst before beginning his career in education. Dr. Hutchinson holds a bachelor of science in technical management from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, a master's degree in business administration from Texas&M University, and a doctor of education and organiz organizational change and leadership from the University of Southern California. He holds a CTA teaching credential and an administrative services credential. On behalf of the board of trustees, congratulations to Dr. Jacob Hutchinson. Last but not least, in close session on July 22nd, 2025, a motion by board member Odo and a second by board member Gabby. The board agreed
006unanimously by a vote of six YA's and one absent to appoint Sandra Flores to the position of director of business services budget and payroll. Sandra Flores has been employed with Woodlake Unified School District for the past 19 years, most recently serving as chief financial director. Prior to her tenure at Woodlake Unified, she spent seven years at the College of Sequoas. Miss Flores brings extensive experience in financial operations, including accounts receivable, accounts payable, budgeting, payroll, and other key areas of fiscal management. Miss Flores holds a bachelor of arts and management and organizational development from Fresno Pacific University, and a mers of business administration from California State University, Dominguez Hills. On behalf of the board of trustees, congratulations to Miss Sandra Flores. Moving on to 3.6, revisions to enclosure items and adoption of the board meeting agenda.
007There are revised item enclosures numbers 5.1, 5.2, 7.22, 7.24, and 7.25. Do I have a motion to adopt the board meeting agenda? A motion. I'll >> second. >> On a motion by board member Gabby, seconded by board member >> Viegas. Call for the vote. >> Motion passes 70. >> Oath of office and installation. Introduction of oath of office, installation of school representatives to the school board for the 2025 2026 school year. Our presenter is deputy superintendent Mark Thompson. Good evening board uh board president Naylor, board members, uh superintendent, this is an exciting moment in time as we start the school year and uh you know a tradition in Vice Unifi is that we truly value student voice and having a student board member on our board who is a voting member is important and powerful
008and so just excited today. This is our opportunity to install our six uh board member student board members at this time and so we will get started with that. students, if uh you hear your name, please uh go ahead and stand up. We'll kind of line up in front of the microphone so we can do our oath of office together as a group. Okay. So, our first one uh is Mariana Ramirez Morales from Mount Winny High School. Kevin Rubio from Sequoia High School. Sophia Diaz from Redwood High School. Yasmine Rangelia Technical Early College High School. Laya Kresbach from El Diamonte High School and Aureli Soldierano Diaz from Golden West High School. >> Perfect. And I love that you guys turned and face the audience. You got that picture. But if you'll do me a favor,
009let's get those pictures. All right, students. If you would, I'm gonna actually have you turn to the to our board. And what I would like you to do at this time, take one step back and maybe get a little closer to the microphone as a whole group. Like squeeze together so you can hear. So we're going to recite this together, but what I'd like you to do first is please go ahead and raise your right hand and repeat after me. I state your name do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and and the Constitution of the State of California that I take this obligation freely
010without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of student representative to the board of education upon which I'm about to enter. Congratulations to each of you. Well done. Let's give them a hand. At this time, I'd like to invite our board along with our superintendent, come on down and let's get a picture of all of you, all board members together. Mr. Deo will be doing that. So, now we're going to turn around on the other side of I believe this table. We we're going to slide over and then we'll get a picture. story. Thank you. All right. Now, at this time, please hold for just one moment. We do have a poster that's actually a poster that sets our commitments for this school year. That's
011up in every single classroom in our entire district. What we would like to do is for our board members, all of you, take a moment and sign that uh that document and that will be something we will be using here in our district office for this school year. So, please go ahead and do that at this time. There's three pins, so feel free to use all three at that time if you guys would like. Yes. We're almost there. Thank you for your patience. Executive cabinet, if you could get by to and sign that quickly, that would be wonderful. Thank you. And at this time, I'd like to welcome Mariana Ramirez Morales up to the deis. Excited to join to join our board for this evening. excited to see all of you serve and such a
012wonderful opportunity. So, welcome to the deis and look forward to uh having your report tonight. Moving on to focus on student learning 5.1 spotlight on good things happening in the district, our superintendent Kirk Shrum. >> Thank you, President Naylor, board members and everyone. We are back and excited to be back in school. We're on our fourth day now, I think it is. And uh if you're doing subtraction, that's like 176 left or something along those lines. Uh not that anyone's doing that, but we've had an exceptional start. And I certainly want to thank everyone from our students, our parents, our staff, um you know, community really pitching in to make this uh the best first day ever. And we'll have a little slide on that here in a little bit. But a lot of things
013have been happening as we get ready for school to start or got ready for school to start. Uh many of our sites held different versions of orientations to give parents the opportunity to come up to school uh learn about power school, have a campus tour. Uh over 500 7th graders at Valley Oak came to a special uh event uh with web leaders uh to connect to do classmates. Devisadero Middle launched their first ever summer connection event uh to ease the transition. Uh and so those are just a couple of examples, but so many of our sites held different events throughout the summer and the leadup to uh the first day of school. Uh we had our uh East Joy League football media day a few weeks ago and so that's where all of our comprehensive
014sites have a chance to come together with their competitors and talk a little bit about how the school year will look. And I think our teams kick off this Friday. Um, and they chose the coolest day of the year to do that. And so we wish uh all of our uh Vicelia teams best of luck. Uh stay safe and hydrated as they begin competition this week. We are very proud. Now you've heard these names before, but you may have noticed in the paper that we had two athletes who were chosen as the county athletes of the year. Um, and so first was Jasmine Stewart and Chris Kriezmann who were recognized by the Times Delta as Tillery County athletes of the year. Stuart is a three sport athlete who captured the East Join League Central Section
015Division 1 and Central Section Masters Triple Jump Championships as long as the East Join League long jump title. She's the school's record holder in both events. And Kryson, as you've seen before, culminated his outstanding junior year as state and national wrestling champion, including the 2025 CIF state title. So, congratulations uh to both of these, and it's good to see we didn't leave room for any other uh school district in the county there. Uh spotlight on community events. Again, many of these occurring over the course of the summer. Our expanded learning opportunities program partnered with California Adventure Camps to offer students an incredible week of hands-on activity. Uh there was uh community nights uh ninja warriors course uh that I had the chance to attend and participate in uh which was really fun. Hundreds of community
016students and families were at these events. There was a laser tag event. I think a couple of our board members had a chance to check that out. New this year. Very proud of our work at Creekide Campus as our students work to uh integrate into our school culture. Creekide campus held a week in the wilderness event getting to know facilitated activities each other. Um and just a great way to get ready to get back to school. Um and all this work aligns with our strategic plan to help students feel supported, confident, and connected through those transitions that they go through. I want to give a special spotlight to our family community resource center. Uh several events again over the course of the summer getting ready for school to start. Uh American Indian back to school
017supply event served over 168 students with backpacks, books, and supplies. Also, an event in partnership with the Vicelia Police Athletic League hosted a community back- tochool event brought together over 700 765 students. An incredible turnout um from our community and our students. Many local businesses and organizations volunteered people and time for this event. There was the A&W root beer uh float van that was providing uh free floats at 9:00 in the morning, but there was a long line. Um and free haircuts. Over 90 free 90 free haircuts were given that day as well. Uh these events highlight the importance of our theme around strategic planning, empowering students, connecting families and the community. Spotlight on professional learning. HR team did a great job. We've had new teacher week, uh, guest teacher training, cooperating teacher training, and
018all together welcomed over 146 new teachers to our district. And new and returning staff had the chance to participate in what's become a yearly classified convocation event, which was great. It's held downtown. uh we kick it off and then our classified uh team employees have a whole day of professional development that they get to participate in choosing sessions that align with what their interest is and what they'd like to advance their skills in. Uh and then this year we also brought together our certificated staff uh earlier in the first week of school uh and had a great kickoff at Mount Whitney and then they went back to their sites to continue their day of learning as well. And so uh excited had two great events. Congratulations to our nutrition team. They won the Turn Up
019the Beat award. Now, this is an incredible achievement. They're one of 21 California school districts, and there are a lot of California school districts to win this award for excellence in summer meal programs. Um, our district stood out by providing highquality local inspired meals, nutrition education, and creative community engagement. Um, and again, all these are provided at no cost. And our board knows that we've we've heard commentary in the past. Our nutrition teams made a great effort uh to connect with community, to connect with students to really bring some of these things into their programming. And so uh it's it's great to see that effort uh now a year or two down the road from that resulting in this recognition. So congratulations to that team. Another great event many of us had the chance to
020attend. Uh Redwood held an event to honor back in April board. You unanimously approved the renaming of Redwood's academic building after Edmund Weissinger, a pioneer and civil rights activist. We held a ceremonial event on Friday to unveil the name to the community. Great student speeches. You can really feel the impact of their work on that campus. Uh and nearly 100 individuals attended the event alongside local media stations. As I referenced before, I believe we had the best first day ever. Uh we I was out at many sites along with our team. Uh we had eager parents, uh eager students, uh ready to come into school, excited teachers to welcome students back who had been preparing. Uh buses running, food, meals being prepared, supplies being distributed. Uh all in all, a great uh back to school,
021best first day ever. uh and we're looking forward to continuing that to have the best school year ever as well. And so as you can see from those photos there, routines uh engagement and learning was happening from day one. Um and you can just really see on our campuses, especially at elementary school, the impact TK is now having on uh kindergarten, all of those things all the way up. So just a really exceptional day. I again thank all of our staff, our teachers, um our parents, our students as well and our community for showing up and welcoming students and families back to school as well. So, uh exciting day and we're uh continuing that excitement as we're into our first full week of school as well. And I'm not going to go through all these,
022but obviously, as you can imagine, we had a lot of social media posts leading up to the first day, really working to make sure our parents and were a aware of anything that was new or just what you needed to do to be ready for school. And so, uh, you'll see quite a few posts that went out. We had about a post a day for about the first, you know, 10 or 15 days leading up, uh, followed by also information in parents inbox, uh, email as well. And I will say, by the way, if if you are a parent out there, um you can have access to everything you need to know about your child and how they're doing in school all the way from kindergarten to high school. We just need you to make
023sure you're logged into your P school account and we have an email address. And so if you have any challenges or need help with any of that, reach out to your school office. Uh we have a great percentage of families that are connected and signed up, but we want every parent to be signed up so that you can be updated ongoing on how your child's doing, plus receive any alerts or text messages should there be any sort of information that we need to share. So, just want to continue to plug that as well so that you can get all of this information for your child to be ready for school. And so, that concludes our spotlight. Happy to answer any questions. Any board member questions? Thank you. Moving on to 5.2, strategic plan update, ready
024for year 1. Deputy Superintendent Mark Thompson. >> All right. Good evening again, board president Naylor, board members, and superintendent Shrum. This evening, I'm excited to provide you with our strategic plan year 1 readiness annual report. This report is centered on what on the work that we completed in 2425 school year, which we're going to call for tonight year zero, and also give you a quick look at uh 24 20 uh 2526, which is our current year, which is year one in our strategic plan. Okay. This slide is our blueprint slide for why a strategic plan. So I just wanted to bring your attention to the top piece is really where our board of education and our school board along with our superintendent really built a mission vision statement for our district along with a theory
025of action and core beliefs and commitments. with these they listened to our community and really leaned into what our community was saying they wanted and they came up and so because of that they've now challenged us as a school district to come up with a strategic plan a five-year plan that is focused with three themes. So that's that middle and that's what I'll be talking about tonight. This the third piece of it is those bottom two which is basically how do we align and we show accountability for our strategic plan. So, in essence, our board worked with our community, set an expectation. We built a 5-year strategic plan, which is launching this year. Uh, this is year one of that plan. And the bottom piece, which we won't get into tonight, but is the accountability
026piece and the alignment that we'll be showing our board and our community over time, the work that's happened and how that's affected our students learning outcomes. This is our strategic plan. It's very small print as you can fully see, but I wanted to give you just a quick overview of our plan. I know this is something you've seen before, but I want to give you a few numbers. We have three themes. We have 65 strategic actions. We have 54 action owners. We have 11 cabinet leads. And during year zero, which was this previous year, we had over 15 trainings which were held for action owners and cabinet members to prepare them for the start of this year one. board. You have seen this previously uh but and it's also on our website for anyone that
027would like to see it. But this shows how we have organized each action over the next 5 years. Each action is broken down into four phases. Research, design, implement, and monitor for continuous improvement, which again is something you guys have seen in the past. This is just a reminder slide of what you've seen in those research design, implement, and monitor for continuous improvement is that we do have targeted indicators that our action owners are using in order to create a baseline of expectation of what it will look like to move an action forward. Um, you can't start implementing something if you haven't designed it and then you haven't researched around it. And then once you have and you have implemented, how do you continuously improve it year after year so that way it continues to
028yield the growth that you're desiring? So you might ask the question, okay, so reporting, where are we at in the reporting process? The reality is this, we haven't started yet because we just started our strategic plan this school year. But with that being said, each August you're going to get an annual report. This tonight is a condensed version of that report, but each year you're going to get one in August. So tonight for year zero, we're just giving you that annual report to just what kind of wet your wet your appetite for it. But going forward, you will have processes where you're getting continual updates on where we're at. So where exactly are we at? This shows our master plan timeline for the strategic plan. Currently we have ended year zero which again isn't a
029technical term but we wanted to prepare ourselves so that way we could be ready for year one. Tonight you'll get a highle overview overview of the work that happened in year zero and a preview on a few targeted actions that you can look forward to seeing being implemented in year 1. So in year zero what were we focused on? We had two main objectives and the main objectives was one is launching of the foundational strategic plan basically organizing it right getting a roadmap getting priority student outcomes which you built getting an assessment system on ensuring that it's happening district-wide work workflows how do teams work together when do they work together who works together and also a system of reporting so I'm going to go over a little bit of that tonight and the second
030thing that we're really focused on is well it's nice to get oriented and prepared, but we also had work to do still. And so, what else were we doing? We were doing some things that were intentionally designing and researching in order to be ready to implement year one uh on certain topics. And I'll share those in just a moment. So, first to organize and I've mentioned this before, we organize work by we developed action owners. Owners consist of coordinators, directors, and in some situations administrators. They are trained to lead the work teams through the four phases of development. They have three to five member work teams but pull other team members as needed. Sometimes principles, others on school sites and different places to get their expertise, but would be only for like a meeting or
031two depending on what the work is. So they can target in on and get expertise on targeted work. Not that they're always on that team meeting because they got to be at school sites and folks have to be able to morph into different positions and opportunities to speak at different groupings. So again, three to five is the core team and they're able to pull others for expertise in targeted areas. Action owners, every action owner with every action has developed a work plan. So, what they did, and I and I'll briefly go over this as I've shared this before, they started with their current state, and they started to dream of what their five-year ideal state would be. Once they had their 5-year ideal state, then they brought in for year one, what do I need
032to do to get to that 5-year ideal state? What do I need to do year two, year three, year four, and year five? Once they've done that, then they went back to their year 1 and said in a quarter, meaning by August, what are the couple actions I need to take in order to move my work forward? So that's what they did. And they develop progress indicators on where success will look like for that quarter. And so that's what they have built out in their work plan. The work plan is continually updated as they meet with their team and also when they make decisions or hit milestones of things that they've accomplished. While they're doing that, we have cabinet leads. While action owners have the work plan, cabinet leads are trained to coach, stamp the
033work, and provide collaborative opportunities for action owners and work teams. Meaning, they're gluing things together. They're saying, "Hey, this action and this action actually have a lot of commonalities. Let's bring those teams together." They're coaching their team members, the action owners on moving the work forward. and also they're the ones signing off on that work is getting done and that it's to the quality that we expect. So our cabinet leads, this is the document they use. They provide uh progress reports quarterly that are used by our focused area chiefs to develop the quarterly reports. So again, you can kind of see this process or this layer of work that's being brought up. Next one I'll briefly talk about is our focus area chiefs. They put all the information together and summarize the work so that
034we can provide a quarterly summary to you, our board, and our community so that we can be transparent uh on the forward movement of each strategic action. So, you might ask, well, what does a quarterly report look like? I've shared this briefly with you before, but this will be what a quarterly report looks like. It'll give you an update on the progress that we're moving in the research, design, implement, and monitor phases. It'll be colorcoded. It will be a one pager that you can really see it for each theme. Um, and then there will also be narrative on the bottom right that tells you updates of what's going on and why that's happening. Then those quarterly reports will turn into by annual reports that will look more like this that will give you actually more
035detail for each theme area. And so you'll be seeing these. So that other one, the first time you'll see is in October and we will share that with our community. Um, these happen in January and June. They're a culmination of two quarterly reports coming together and that data being brought together. It gives you even more detail on the progress that we are making. Now that was a lot on organizational that might not be the most exciting for everyone in this room. It is very exciting for me because I love organization and to be able to see and why I say that is this. Our strategic plan is an intentional design to align our work and to be able to show what it's doing and working together for a common good and a common goal which
036is that every student learning every day. But now I want to take a few minutes let's move away from the organizational part and let's just talk about some work that's been done to set the conditions for the strategic action to launch well for year one. So, we're going to go into theme one, high expectations and high achievement. And we're first going to start off with AVID. In year zero, the AVID and EL team prepared for the launching of AVID Excel in middle school and AVID ALD in high school. These are elective classes designed to provide designated English language development. These classes focus on language acquisition while utilizing AVID strategies to prepare students for college readiness. This summer, 45 staff members attended a three-day AVID summer institute where they learned uh together and collaborated as a
037team. The AVID launch event on August 4th provides students with the time and resources uh uh provide teachers the time and resources for a strong start to the school year with AVID foundational strategies and processes. Next, in English language development, this summer, 45% of our elementary teachers participated in targeted professional development focused on implementing the new Wonders ELD curriculum for grades K5 and the EL companion grade six. for grade six. The training equipped teachers with skills to pull the to pull and and do an analysis of student performance data, identify specific language needs, and integrate core curriculum lessons that accelerate English language acquisition. You might ask, well, what about the other 55% of the teachers? They're scheduled through the school year, and we'll have that training done. The team's already working on that. Next, in
038advanced learning, the groundwork for full implementation has been completed. The work was informed by comprehensive research into effective practices including the study of model districts and interviews with elementary school principles. The development process included special uh program consultation with student services uh sped and elop teams to ensure alignment, equity and coordinated approach to meeting the diverse needs of all students. The communications team has supported the creation of a unique website. So, individual websites for each elementary school, showcasing the enrichment opportunities offered at that site and providing families with a transparent, easy access to program information. These are events that are happening after school. Parents, please look at your your school website and you can find there to get signed up for your students. for the district mathematics plan. Work has been done to align school
039sites with math cast requirements to improve student success. Initially uh focusing on 11th grade, we quickly realized we had to expand to elementary and middle school based on needs. Course content standards were cross reference with CAF's interimm assessments to uh to learning by incorporating CAS style questions into lessons. analyze question types and rigor and use class openers for practice with some school sites also using paper tutoring for support. Additionally, 11th grade students included study packets, online resources, tutoring, and flexible scheduling. This was important as we recognize we did not have a third-year math. What I'm excited is this year uh through the work that you have done, we will have third-year math, and so all of our juniors will be taking math before they take that test, which we're very excited about. pathway expansion. In
040year zero, we expanded opportunities for our employees by enhancing our inspiring principal pathway for current assistant principles and coordinators by creating an articulated 2-year program scope and sequence. This year, we will welcome our third cohort of aspiring principles who will begin their program this month. Also, in addition, our pathway design team spent the year building out a candidate criteria, application process, and program content and design for a brand new admin prep pathway. This is for teachers that are interested in administration, which we will welcome our first cohort in September. Next, I want to go to theme two, empowering students, families, and the community. And our our next one is this. Facil Unified First Steps to Early Learning program is currently serving, this is our part C for infants and toddlers, 48 infants and toddlers and
041their families. Referrals are received on a weekly basis with the goal of serving 144 infant, toddlers, and families by the end of this school year. So excited about that work that all got started this year uh preparing that work. Um, also in year zero, the comprehensive school safety plan has been thoroughly reviewed and redesigned to ensure full alignment with California state guidelines and requirement. The updated plan went from 32 pages to 112 pages, which incorporates all required components as well as new safety systems, training protocols, and procedures. Input was also taken from our law law enforcement partners to strengthen the plan and ensure best practices. This fully encompasses all safety measures. And you might think, well, 112 pages that seems like what are we doing, right? But actually what it is is this. It actually
042is outlines many different situations and you can pull it as a user manual for specific situations and it's a very friendly couple pages, but it's just covers the breadth of all things there. Um, so it's really used for a manual for administrators and staff. This is a living document and will be reviewed and updated annually to ensure that is supporting our school needs. Last but not least on this one, in year zero, we focused on defining the term uh in CTE defining the terms expand and enhance. We conducted a comprehensive audit of our systems, identifying the needs to update course outlines, pathway standards, certifications, recruitment, counseling, interventions, and alignment with industry standards. Additionally, we we assessed our current state of our facilities. uh in order to expand our CTE programming for year zero. Our last
043one is theme three which is organizational efficiency and effectiveness. Um and I have three here. Um in year zero we enhanced our network security by researching, selecting and implementing the initial phase of in of multiffactor authentication or MFA districtwide. At the end of this last school year, MFA was enforced on all Google accounts for the 400 managers uh site managers or uh school uh district managers and site managers. It requires staff to confirm their identity in two ways before uh um accessing our systems. Onboarding for our new management and the remainder of our staff will begin in September with all staff being on boarded by the end of the school year. Again, that's to protect our data. Next, over the past two years, our district teams laid the groundwork for the implementation of P school
044perform the district's new online platform for employee evaluations build. Uh beginning this year, all evaluations will be completed and signed digitally in the P school platform. This upgrade has resulted in a streamlined evaluation process, reduced paperwork and greater transparency throughout the evaluation process. The Power School perform platform also provides efficient pathways for managers to give timely, meaningful feedback throughout the year that supports their team's professional growth. So excited about that work. And last but not least, during the this last school year, we focused on improving our hiring practices and reduced the overall time it takes to hire employees by establishing procedures that empowered hiring managers to schedule their own interviews and adapting HRD workflows to ensure all positions were screened within 72 hours and all offers made within 24 hours after receiving interview results. We
045have reduced the average hiring timeline for classified by 12 days and the average hiring timeline for certificate employees 19 days uh that we've decreased that time. We're very excited about that work and how we onboard our new employees. Okay, that was a lot. That was year zero. So now where are we at? I want to quickly let's move on from what happened in year zero and let's just focus our attention for just a couple minutes on what is to come in year one in our strategic plan. So again now we're looking at year one here. So year one we have 18 strategic actions that are in the implementation phase. We have 55 in research, 38 in design and three in monitoring. You're like Mark that is in count 65. You're 100% right because some of
046them in one year are doing two items. they might be doing research and design. So it's okay. Okay. So in theme one, high expectations and high achievement, we have 28 actions. They are all there. Um they're identified on this slide. While it's hard to read, uh each of these actions will be addressed over the next 5 years. Now let's narrow in a little bit. In theme one, there's these six actions that are on the board there will be implemented in year 1. You'll be updated on the implementation of these actions over the course of this school year. Now, out of those six, I want to highlight one action in theme one that is design and implement the VUSD model of a highly effective classroom. A highly effective classrooms are the foundation for improving student outcomes
047and this work is grounded in tier one embedded practices to ensure coherence and sustainability. In 2025, our focus will be on defining, training, and supporting instructional infrastructure, the systems and practices that provide consistency and clarity for high quality teaching. We will ensure every classroom has uses board adopted curriculum, instruct instruction meets the rigor of the standards, and lessons aligned to to pacing guides and students receive the sports needed to accelerate their learning. In collaboration with administrators of school leadership, we will we will conduct site visits to monitor progress and identify need for additional supports throughout the year. What I'm really excited is about this one is that there will be ondemand professional learning modules developed on the highly effective classroom that will be developed and made available in our new staff resource hub. So very
048excited about that. We'll make it easy access for staff members to see those things. Next theme two, we now have 20 or there's 21 actions here. Again, like theme one, uh they will be addressed over the next five years. In this theme, we have eight actions that will be implemented in year one. And let me narrow in on one. So I'd like to highlight one action in theme two that is to create collaborative systems to support parent awareness and involvement in their schools acade and their students academic progress. This year we will be developing a collaborative system that strengthens the partnership between schools and families. One focus will be creating a day in the life of a student, a digital experience where parents will see what students engage in during a full instructional day. We
049will also take a deep dive into literacy blocks highlighting the intentional design of reading and writing instruction. And as the year progresses, parents will have the opportunity to digitally view model lessons in phonics, writing, and reading, helping to build a shared understanding of how students learn best. These systems are designed to bring transparency and alignment between home and school in support of student success. Finally, I'll move on to theme three, um, organizational efficiency and effectiveness. And it does have 16 actions like this. You will hear about these over the next 5 years. In theme three, there are four actions that will be implemented in year 1. Again, you'll be reminded of those. Let's target in. Uh the one I want to share with you is the design and implement a public financial dash dashboard. Over
050the next year, we will continue to establish and refine a stronger financial policies and practices and preparing to launch our public-f facing financial dashboard. This tool is designed to give our community a clear view of how we allocate resources and connect spending decisions directly to district priorities. As we look at the 2526 school year, our focus will be on implementing and communicating this dash dashboard broadly, ensuring that families, staff, and community members have accessibility, easy to understand information on how resources are used to support student learning. Finally, board, as I conclude, the strategic plan will work to open opportunities for our students and families. It directly implements actions that you and our community have requested for us to meet our district mission of every student learning every day and our vision of all students are
051empowered to achieve future success. I look forward to coming back to you with the report on our district pro process over the next 5 years. And in our reporting process, as you can see up there, our next time that you and the community will get an update from us will be in October. That concludes my report and I will remain for any questions. >> Thank you, Deputy Superintendent Mark Thompson. Uh, any board member comments, questions? >> Sure. Yeah, go ahead. >> First trusty go. >> Wow. I was trying to take notes. I mean, that's amazing. Thank you. Um, very excited. Um I'm on um several state committees and we are so advanced compared to the other state things like with safety and our partnership with the Vicelia Police Department. So many school districts do not
052have that. They fear for the safety of their kids. They're depending on state legislature to pass laws to keep their kids safe. we keep our kids safe and um that's amazing. Um I can't wait till October to get another report. Thank you, Mark. Amazing. >> Go ahead, Trusty Belt. >> Thank you, President Joy. I Mark, I I too am amazed at the amount of work and it is a lot to try to take in. What's exciting though is that we not only have uh specifics, but we have now details within the details. And that's what we've been looking for rather than it be just a cloud or a a pie in the sky kind of um dream. It these are measurable. They're reportable. And then actually everyone can actually work with them because we're all
053held accountable. I'm excited about seeing what this day in the life of a student is because I actually envision uh in the future a virtual reality headset that parent can actually see what their classroom looks like and um anyway but um thanks for all that work and I'm excited like u trustee goya mentioned to see now everyone as we start to pace this what does it look like and what does the end result particularly when we want to make sure that all of our areas of math, reading, writing are shored up in in what we've been looking at. We've been looking at can we anticipate can we even set as a goal we and we've wrestled with that as a board that this is where we're at. Can we see 10 20 30% growth? I
054believe that that's the minimum we need to see. We we cannot continue to go same O same O and say well yeah you know it's a 30% of that grade level is that grade level. No that's not acceptable. Um what's the only thing acceptable is we hit at a B level that means 80%. And then we shore up the rest. It's not like the majority need to be shored up. And currently that's what we're facing. So thanks for making measurable incremental uh and then something that we uh steps that we can actually all buy into. Matter of fact, I'll say this for all of our attendees. Even the board are now in Keenan Safe Schools, you know, which you're going to isn't that amazing? We are now going to spend some hours which all of
055our staff has gone, oh, I'm way behind on that. we're with you because we want to make sure we're all held accountable to make sure that all of the different aspects of what a healthy school district looks like um is adhered to even by us. >> Thank you. Any other board comment? >> Just real quick, shout out to HRD on uh lowering that timeline. I mean there's nothing I one of the most important thing is getting the right people hired. So I mean that's amazing. Nice job. >> Agree cuz that that is one. Uh I appreciate the time and trying to get that condensed. Any other comments? Thank you. >> Moving on to 6.0 general public comment. Uh general public comment on any topic not on the agenda may be heard at this time. If
056you have public comment on an item listed on tonight's agenda, there will be opportunity for you to share your comments. At that time, the item comes up for discussion by the board. Pursuant to board policy, the board will limit individual comments for general public comment to no more than 3 minutes and individual topics to 20 minutes. To comply with the Brown Act, California's open public meeting law, board discussion is limited to items on the agenda. Therefore, when receiving public comment for items not on the agenda, the board's role is limited to receiving such comments, and the board may not engage in dialogue with the public. The board thanks the public for its participation in public comment and understanding of the board's responsibilities. It is recommended you begin your comments by stating your name. And I
057do have one. I put it there. We go. Thank you. Uh Patrick Hempil not there. Okay. Good evening board and superintendent Shrum. I'm VUTA president Patrick Hampill and I just wanted to take a brief moment to say hello at the start of the school year. After spending year one getting my feet underneath me, it is my hope that I will have the opportunity to communicate with you all more individually this year as well as in this public forum. I'm excited about the many opportunities at hand in our district. Though also aware that there are many challenges that we face as I'm endeavoring to communicate more effectively with you all as well as my own teachers. I want to extend that same challenge to you. I encourage the district to continue to seek out open and
058honest lines of communication with teachers. After only a single year of doing this job, I'm utterly convinced that clear, concise communication along with a responsive listening posture is one of the most key factors in extending the successes of Vicel Unified as well as pushing our district forward. As I stated in my convocation address, I firmly believe that we have exceptional teachers and staff at our school sites. Being in the classrooms on a daily basis, they are one of our best sources of feedback, problem solving, and ingenuity. Their voices are important and must continue to be valued. I hope collectively that responsive communication continues to be a priority as we start this new year and seek to meet the challenges that have been put before us. Thank you for your time and I look forward to
059an outstanding year. >> Thank you. Any other Oh, okay. Moving on to consent agenda. Uh item number seven. Would any board member like to pull an item from the consent agenda? >> I President Naylor. I'd like to pull item 7.35. >> Okay. Trustee D. Young to pull item 7.35. Any others? I would like to pull item 7.15. Okay. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the remaining items on the consent agenda? >> I'll move, please. >> I'll second. >> Second. And a motion by board member Belt, second by board member Gabby. Call for the vote. >> Motion passes. Seven votes. Yes. >> Okay. So, >> and student Yeah. and student board member votes. Yes. >> Thank you. Yes. Um Okay. So, I'll refer to trustee um D. Young on for 7.35. >> Oh, sure.
060Thank you. Um no. Um I was reading over this. I just like to get a little bit more information. I think the public would really like to know about, especially parents, about uh added safety measures for the district. Could so could someone just give us like a quick like what it is, how does it make us safer? Um like how is it going to be used? Just that sort of thing. >> Sure. So you're referring to our board item on the Raptor alert system. And so uh this is just a continuation of our efforts to continue to make our schools safe and secure but also accessible that we talk about a lot. Uh when I got here almost four years ago now um we heard loud and clear from our community about safety, academics and
061communication as some of the key concerns. And so one of the early things that we did was enter into an agreement with Raptor uh which provided a kiosk as people came in. It allowed us to run a background check that expanded into uh the early alert system uh where we now have a have a site where we run all of our drills uh and also uh it's an app current version on the phone so teachers in the event of a lockdown or something like that can see up-to-date continual information uh from their site uh as well. Um and it also uh sends out that alert. Um, and we also installed most recently our Verata uh system where people buzz in at the door once school begins. Um, and so one of the enhancements that Raptor
062has now come out with and uh very familiar with this, we had a system very similar to it in Georgia where I came from called Centiggics uh which was uh an alert badge. And so basically this is an added layer onto the app that currently exists. So right now if uh a teacher needs to alert the office or um you know uh needs to you know put a school in a lockdown uh you can do that through your app which is great but maybe I'm teaching or I'm walking around campus and I don't have my phone with me right or or something like that. And so the badge system is basically an additional layer. So very similar to the size of of your current badge uh is and there's a little button on it. And
063so basically it has two functions. One uh uh alert uh when you punch it three times notifies the office, hey, I need some assistance. There's something going on. Uh and then uh seven or more initiates a lockdown. This is all researchbased uh very similar again to what we had familiarity with. And we know in an emergency every second counts. And so this just gives us one more opportunity to alert. Um when you're on campus with the badge, uh it alerts through the Raptor app as well. And so our law enforcement can see the location of where that and our school admin can see the location of where that alert came from. Uh and so it's all part of the same system. It's just an added layer. They just came out with uh the badge alert
064about a year ago uh as an advancement in their system. So that's kind of the the high overview of what the uh system does or what the badge does, I should say. >> Oh, sure. Yeah. So what I'm hearing is you can actually use it for a multitude of things whether it's like contacting the office for behavioral support or >> right obviously the app has a lot more pieces to it. So this is more of a like you know hey I need some help or there's an emergency. So really a couple of not m you know uh one alert and it's what we set it up with as a system. Um and so we met with the team last year uh in the spring we had our technology team present. We had our maintenance team
065present. We had uh representatives from VUTA, Patrick was there, I was there, uh representatives from the police department as well uh to see this and all decided um that this was just something that we needed to continue to do um just again while we hope a teacher or a staff member never has to use it um it does add one more layer of connectivity. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. >> Any other board comment on that item? Um to clarify for item 7.15, >> do I need to take action? Oh, sorry. Okay. So, let's go ahead. May I have a motion to approve 7.35? >> All motion. I'll second. >> Okay. On a motion by board member De Jang, second by board member Vegas. Call for the vote. Doesn't want me to vote. After much struggle, >>
066I vote yes because it won't let me. Oh, there you go. >> There you go. Uh, motion passes 70. Student votes yes. >> Okay, moving on. The reason why I pulled item 7.15 is just to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest. I am just recusing myself from voting because I do have a family member that is recommended for tenure this year. >> I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Call for the vote. Oh, hang on. No, don't >> after much struggle. Motion passes. Six yes, one abstain, and student votes in the affirmative. Yes. >> Thank you. And so, congratulations to all those on who uh made it on the tenure track. Appreciate it. Okay, moving on to item eight, student representative report. Miss Mariana Ramirez Morales from Mount Whitney High School. Good evening.
067This is my report. To start off with, El Diamonte High School. Eldia Monte kicked off the school year with a big minor spirit. On August 6th through 7th, we welcome students back at minor roundup and freshman orientation, introducing our new principal, Mr. Bergus. The energy carried into the first day of school on August 14th with a spirited welcome at the gates, followed by senior sunrise and a hype welcome back rally on August 15th. A huge shout out to assistant principal Morgan Taylor for securing various new community partnerships, including a major one with Raising Canes, who will sponsor our icebreaker dance after the first home football game at Community Stadium on August 29th. This year is already off to an amazing start. Go Miners. Golden West High School on Golden On August 17th, Golden West hosted
068roundup for returning sophomores, juniors, and seniors while Lean Crew and ASB welcomed the class of 2029 at freshman orientation, followed by the icebreaker pool party. On August 14th, ASB kicked off the year with a spirited welcome back rally featuring performances from band, dance team, cheer team, and drum line. The celebrations continued on August 15th with Golden West's senior sunrise. Matt Winnie High School. Matt Winnie had the best summer bridge including all the freshmen who attended the freshman orientation. We were excited to offer the experience with all the freshmen this year. Our seniors came out strong with 50% of them attending our senior sunrise taking pictures with backdrops and a balloon arch. Many were also sporting the 2026. The Mount Winnie Icebreaker was a success by providing swimming and games such as cornhole, Jenga, Connect Four,
069and diving contests. We are currently in our welcome back week, surfing into the new year. Redwood High School. Redwood High School kicked off the school year this past week with a series of exciting events to welcome back students and staff. Freshman orientation led by Link Crew ASB and staff welcomed over 600 freshmen, helping guide and support them through their first days as a Redwood Ranger. Later on, sophomores and upper classmen attended Roundup, a chance to pick up schedules, reconnect with friends, and grab their super fan and senior sunrise shirts. Staff members were were also welcomed back with new staff shirts and name badges for their doors. Teachers also got a boost with help from the FBLA club, which supported teachers by helping with classroom setups to lighten their workload. On Friday, the entire student body
070gathered for the icebreaker rally, where freshman Carson Woomer officially broke the ice to help launch the new school year. Later in the evening, the fun continued at the icebreaker dance, which was more than just a dance. The event offered swimming, food vendors, karaoke, carnival games, and time to spend with friends on the turf. We can officially say Redwood students and staff have kicked off the school year with a bang. Sequoia Sequoia held its second annual ASB summer camp on August 7th and 8th. ASB students came in and prepared the school year for our first day. Students who are new to Sequoia participated in our bridge program on August 5th and 15th and 16th. This program helps students acclimate to our campus and the expectations we have for them. It is a fun-filled day welcoming them
071to our campus. Sequoia Senior Sunrise will take place this Friday morning at 5:30 a.m. Music, breakfast, burritos, and a photo booth will be available for seniors in attendance. BCIS. On August 5th and 6th, VCIS had all students attend our roundup where they were welcomed by over 50 VCIS staff members who worked the event. 96% of students attended this welcome event, getting them prepared for a great start to the school year. At Roundup, students engaged in an elective showcase fair and also learned all about how VCIS supports students. They even had their school pictures and many other fun engaging activities. It was a huge success. On the best first day ever, VCIS students all attended a teacher meet and greet where they were introduced to their independent study supervising teacher for this school year. And lastly,
072VTEC. VTEC held its annual roundup for incoming 9th graders and upper classmen. During this, the ninth graders were welcomed by the ASB officers and a rally kicked off the year on day two, encouraging student engagement. BTE held its annual senior sunrise to celebrate the last first day of the senior class with games and memorabilia. Btech will hold its academic awards on August 29 to celebrate over 60% of students who excelled last semester via CASP and academics. VTEC will host its annual club rush this Friday to ensure that students are included in the campus community along with the diversity VTEC offers. And that's the end of my report. Thank you so much uh Ariana that was a great report. We love that one of my favorite parts of the meeting. Uh just to hear about all
073the events happening and you did an amazing job. So thank you so much and welcome. Moving on to item number nine, board member reports. We'll start with uh Trustee Belt. >> Thank you, President Naylor. The former work by Mr. Deo and his position uh overseeing ELOP. I want to give a shout out. Thank you. And our former director of of ELOP, Michelle Reid. The day camps were one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Uh, I went to Shannon Ranch to see the um I guess it was the second of three weeks of these day camps and we had to actually persuade them not to let Andy use the laser tag. But we had a lot of fun watching not only the engagement but the practical teaching from professionals. They had professional basketball
074player, professional soccer player, professional uh singer, songwriter who taught students how to write and sing music, as well as of course the laser tag and lots of other fun things. But I want to thank all of our staff because I know it took um a monumental effort to actually have the school uh site being used a week before school started still. um our maintenance staff, our custodians as well as all of our teachers who had to like come into classrooms after the uh day camp was finished or work around them. It was well worth it. I hope to all of you that these 400 students at the two different campuses both at Shannon Ranch and at uh Conor received far more than just opportunity for parents to send their kids to something for the day.
075It was engaging. It was building. Um and and well done by California Adventure Camps. So again, thank you for all that it took. Matter of fact, we even had local staff staffing. Uh a lot of our uh part-time employees who are subsiders or part-time with CSEA positions took positions to be a part of the day camp. So, they actually were able to earn some extra money in their time off in August. The second thing that I'd like to bring up is um do I dare do this? Vanoce enta and that's my worst Spanish ever, but that was the title of this book which was the night before school starts. One of the most amazing things about Bicell Unified is a community that sees that they're partners with us in education. Neighborhood uh church has adopted
076Houston school for how many years now? Probably getting close to 15, I think. Uh and they actually have programs and connection with our students there all the way until they graduate from Redwood High School. And last Monday I volunteered to be a part of an evening where they took this book. You're saying they they published their own book that introduced the staff, introduced the norms of school and then uh a teams of us were the welcome wagon. We went door to door. It wasn't have the families come to the school. The school and these volunteers went to the families. And I I had the opportunity of working with um first grade teacher and I was going to Yes. Sundo, Mary Sagundo, her husband Paul and their daughter and our team of four went to more
077than a dozen houses and we said, "Hi, welcome back to school here in 3 days. Here's a balloon and a book to get you excited about you're welcome. you have a place at Houston and and you're a bear that will not have nightmares but have good things. And so I I again want to thank Neighborhood and other churches who see the value of adopting schools and making a difference, making a connection far more than just uh the daily grind. they are extending themselves and of course the community center is coming along on that postage stamp part of the property that we sold to them as well. The other thing I wanted to highlight of course were our convocations that we all attended. Not only were they exciting to see I I I couldn't imagine uh
078how many I we we hear numbers but when we actually see half of the convention center full of all of our classified folks when we went to Mount Whitney and you could not find another seat in Mount Whitney of all of our certified folks that we saw all of our staff there for that kickoff. But then at the convocation for CSCA, there were 20 or more breakout sessions and I attended a few of them and they were insightful, encouraging um everything from uh how to engage uh people into your sphere of what you're doing, how to properly defuse situations, how to actually understand more about your payroll. I mean the breakout sessions were vast and involved and complete and then the highlight of course was the folkloral from Ivanho Elementary School who danced at the
079very end of that morning. Uh and of course uh Stephen Amson and Frank Salazar who did their crazy what was that game called? What Escobar? I said u it was it was like a what was it? Minute to win it. That's what it was. Yes. And of course, uh, they had a raffle like the certified did and went home with a large TV. So, all that again is to encourage all of our staff. You are all valuable. I do want to thank the six different school sites that I attended to for a few minutes on the first day ever, the best first day ever. Ivanho, Principal Razner, thank you. Principal Tomkins at Elbow Creek, Valley Oak, Franco, uh, Golden Oak, Principal Shelling, Compass. I actually go to Compass and saw Principal Stag and the refreshing
080that we've done there as well as the challenge of what we're trying to help provide for those students that are there. It's not necessarily for all year. It might be just for a few weeks or a few months, but it's meeting needs of our um emotionally challenged students. And then of course I finished the morning with uh principal Majarian at Four Creeks. Each school excited about what's coming. I realize that in the first few days it's kind of like um a honeymoon. And I had a I had a middle school teacher tell me it wears off in about 3 weeks. So uh I I know you're bracing yourself, but we're in a good place. And then of course the most exciting thing of this month was to be at Redwood High School the other night
081and see this commemoration uh of not only naming the building after Mr. Whistinger, but recalling the the end of segregated high schools in California, which is pretty unique that it started with a father here in Vicelia who went all the way to the state supreme court and said, "Yeah, I don't think this is what the constitution had in mind." And from then on, we now have integrated high schools throughout the state and and elsewhere. But in 1890, it was a unique, wonderful new setting for us. And so, thank you to Redwood leadership, Dr. Grid Iron, and the students there, uh, who who learned the struggle of meandering hoop, you know, all going through all the hoops to get this to happen. But they didn't get any push back from us because this was a good
082thing. And it will be now for posterity of going, this is what you do when you stand up for what's right. So, thank you very much. Board member Viegas. >> Thank you, President Naylor. Uh, I wanted to say welcome back, but also thank you to everyone who's been working just year round the clock, including students, including parents, including, you know, our our custodial staff making sure our facilities are good to go. Uh, instructors who are, you know, teaching band camp or color guard in the summer and our visual performing arts to, you know, the athletic practices that happen. Um, I know many of us are just working year round uh the clock prepping for the fall and prepping for that day one. Uh, including some amazing things happening from our link crew leaders at these
083freshman orientation so they come in comfortable um already having new friends and relationships going into school and into these transitions. So, just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone not only who's coming back but who's just been continuously working all throughout the summer and uh looking forward to another excellent school year. Thank you. >> Thank you. Board member D. Young. >> Thank you, President Naylor. Um, I'd like to first start by apologizing for missing the uh July board meeting. Um, I was actually attending um as a volunteer and as a delegate for CSEA's 99th annual conference. Um, and uh I asked if they could reschedule it and they said they couldn't. So, um, I probably will miss a lot more July board meetings unfortunately. But um it was a lot of fun in
084Reno, Nevada. Uh I had my commitment as, uh on the education committee for education days where we trained about 1,800 classified staff over 3 days. Um and it was all wellreceived. Um I'm looking forward to next year which is going to be our 100th annual conference in Las Vegas and um it should be a big deal. And I'd like to also say a thank you to Katie Kaine who's administrative assistant over at COOS. Um it was a lot of fun. She was actually nominated as one of the members of the year. And so we actually got to see uh Dr. Calvin, the superintendent from COS give a speech on her behalf, which was pretty cool to see, you know, the valley represented there. Um and I got to thinking that wouldn't it be really cool
085if we could get Kirk up there and get a couple of our staff members. So, I think that might be something we try to do this year because that would that would be really neat and it's at the Paris Las Vegas. So, uh that's also a plus. Um, so, uh, next I I'll keep this short and I just wanted to focus on this because I keep thinking about this just because of circumstances, but I had a great conversation with our, uh, VUDA president about how, you know, why teachers teach and like what the main purpose of education is. And we got to talk and and a couple things that came to my mind were a couple of teachers that affected me in my life to this day. one of them uh Al Vanderine who recently
086passed away um and another teacher Mr. V who I had in m middle school. Um I had the opportunity to actually tell them you know later on as an adult how much they affected my life and you know that's a profound thing when you think about it and teachers don't always know that. And so when I was able to see these individuals, you know, just out in the wild, I took a moment to tell them because saying thank you to someone is very important, especially if they've made a meaningful connection and changed your life. And that's what my hope is for this school year. And whether you think you're a terrible teacher or you're the best teacher in the world, there's going to be a student who you affect in that way. You might not
087always know it, but they're out there. And so, I would just like to leave with that. Um, hope we have a great school year. Uh, summer's over. Welcome back everybody. And thank you, >> Trusty. Good boy. >> Well, welcome back everybody. I got to go to several sites on the first day. Best first day ever. and kids look happy, staff look happy, facilities look great, and I want to say the honeymoon will not end. Um, I just think there's a lot of things in place that are going to keep our kids on track and keep our kids happy. Um, we have amazing teachers. I want to thank you for all your hard work. Um, I know when I was teaching, you don't really take summer off. you're planning, you're going to professional development. I want
088to thank you for spending that extra time. Um, I want to encourage parents to go to back to school events. I think it's really important that you meet your teacher, meet your principal, your vice principles. Um, get to know them and engage there. And again, thank you staff for a great first day. Thank you, Trusty. Good I mean KB. >> Yep. Just to echo that. Thank you so much for all the hard work. Thank you for our facilities crew. They were not off all summer. They were working hard to open up that first day. And um yeah, welcome back and I'm super glad kids are back, especially my own. All right, >> board clerk Otto. >> Yeah, just echoing the same comments. Um welcome back to everyone. Thanks to all who made the first day
089of school happen. It's a big darn deal. And uh wishing everyone a great year. >> Thank you. And I I want to say the same thing. I just appreciate, you know, I know the first two days were difficult. I didn't want to come the first day because I know how difficult that is cuz we've all been there. Um but I went the second day just to one and I want to thank the principal Cravens for letting me just tour the campus. Um and just want to wish everybody a a great school year. just remember that you do um as teachers and as staff, you have the biggest impact on our youth and one comment from you could change the trajectory of that student's life and so just remember that when you're out there because you
090guys are amazing and the kids need you. So, hope you have a great school year. Superintendent report. >> Thank you, President Naylor and board. Yes, excited about the new school year. uh great kickoff at convocations and we talked a little bit about some of the successes that we saw last year. Um and as uh deputy superintendent Thompson mentioned in his report now as we work to align our systems through our strategic plan get clear on our expectations really bringing parents into what does that learning look like and feel like so that they can support their kids at home. I think we're going to have another exceptional year. Uh also want to echo uh as the board has said and we've said before a lot of our teams uh that provided um student supports during the
091summer, the orientations, the camps, uh our facilities operations team, um all of those folks uh that just worked extra hard to get us to have the best first day ever. Uh want to shout out another group, our family and community resource center. Um, not only did they do a lot of the events that we saw as far as making sure families had supplies, uh, but they also do a lot of our residency, do a lot of our new students coming in, uh, and we had some boundary changes and other things this year that take a little bit of time to work through. And I know many of of that team have been working really, really hard to make sure students were able to start school uh, and have sometimes not the easiest of conversations. And
092so I just want our family and community resource center team to know how much uh they are appreciated. Um and the other thing I would say is uh we've been very lucky I think probably this summer as far as temperatures and we know that uh we have some uh higher temperatures coming this week. Uh and our schools are aware of our heat protocols as far as uh when we have to curtail activities how that might impact after school events as as well. all of our principles received an update and a reminder of that information on uh last week and so we're ready for that and uh but I would just like to encourage and remind our families make sure your kids have water bottles all those sorts of things right so that they stay hydrated
093and uh we get through this little spike in the temperature and hopefully uh get back to um I don't know the cooler 90s I don't know whatever that might be but uh we're ready for that and uh again we're off to an exceptional start thank you everyone in VUSD and our community for making that happen. >> Thank you. Moving on to administrative panel recommendations. 11.1 recommended reinstatements. May I have a motion to approve the recommended reinstatements? >> I'll make a motion. >> I'll second. >> On a motion by trustee Viegas, second by trustee Gabby. Call for the vote. Uh >> measure passes 70. Student abstainates. >> Moving on to the general agenda. 12.1 2025 2026 45day budget revision. Chief Business Officer Nathan Hernandez. >> Well, good evening, President Naylor, members of the board and superintendent
094Shum. So, um, the item we've got before you tonight is our 45day budget revision required by EDC code that we provide an update to the board, to the community, um, on changes that have impacted our budget as a result of the enacted state budget. Um, so that 45 days was August 11th. We put that report up front. The item before you tonight is an information item. So, we will share what was included in that report. um provide an update on on the state budget as well as um share where where we project our budget to be in our multi-year outlook uh based off of those changes um that were in uh in the state budget. And so we've included some of some of those uh are not in our budget yet because the state hasn't
095issued allocations, but we've included them here um to provide some some estimates of what that looks like. Um, so we like to remind ourselves that the budget's not just a a document with a bunch of numbers. Uh, well, it is a document with a bunch of numbers, but it shares the board's priorities and how uh we meet our vision of every student learning every our mission of every student learning every day and our vision to achieve future success as well as um now implementation and prioritization for our strategic plan. Um, and it does help uh to set the conditions for student learning uh within our district. Um, so I mentioned a little bit about what we'll go over this evening. Um, and so we'll jump right into um this the state budget update. There's kind
096of three themes with the state budget. Um, the first is really around uncertainty. Uh, there's some uncertainty in in the federal budget and we know u we'll see over the next couple of months as they uh have a proposed budget that has some reductions to education. Um but we'll see over these next few months whether that um you know what what gets approved out of the federal budget. Um the in the state budget there uh there were some extensions to the tax deadline based off of the fires that happened in Los Angeles. And so although the state did issue a budget, their revenues are still a little bit unknown based off of those those returns. So there's some uncertainty there. Also the state has continued to rely on one-time actions to develop their ongoing budget.
097So, um they've used up all of the Proposition 98 reserve balances. Um they've used deferrals and things that are not really uh reductions to to balance the budget, but they've taken these one-time actions um to to balance the budget. So, we have to watch again what happens with state revenues going forward. Um and then I'll talk a little bit more about in and some of these additional funding sources, one-time funding sources that are in the budget. So, all of these other things happening, the state still continues to to fund the the Prop 98, the education budget. It was actually a a good budget for education this year compared to um what it could have been based off of of projected revenues. So, um this shares our timeline and where we are. We're always working in
098a couple of different fiscal years as we're closing out last fiscal year and our budget and accounting team also doing a lot of work over summer to get budget prepared but also now closing out books. Um and so we're at that that point where we've launched the fiscal year. We're closing out last year and we're getting ready to prepare in our ELCAT process and other things uh in the fall for the 26 27 school year. So always working juggling a few different school years. That's really hard to read. There's a lot on there, but um that's essent this is essentially what was in our 45day revision. So we had the the and the the new additional funding that is for TK. So TK um transitional kindergarten moved from a 12:1 to a 10 to1 ratio.
099The state provided additional funding for that that we didn't include in our adopted budget, but is now in our in our ongoing budget. um some additional funding with the expanded learning opportunities program uh where the state moved the tiers and so we're now funded from the higher tier which is about an additional $10 million to our budget for this year and it will work this year planning on how uh we are uh how we will prepare for next school year with those additional funds. Uh Prop 98 is the VAPA funding. So, it's some additional funding with uh Prop 98 just based off of the cost of living adjustment, the COLA, as well as our additional uh TKERS, our our three-year-olds that are in our our classes right now. Um and then the impact of negotiations.
100So, those um happened at about the same time as we were uh preparing our budget and so now we've included those cost in our budget. Um the estimates that we have are for some of the one-time funds. So, learning recovery, there was some additional learning recovery funds for this year, as well as uh what's lovingly referred to as the Spudbug. Um, but that's the student support and professional development discretionary block grant. Because we love acronyms, we call it SpudBug. And that that is additional $8 million in uh one-time funding. And so, I'll show how all of that impacts um our budget for next year through our multi-year projection. So again, a lot of numbers, but they again dictate how we how we spend our resources. So the first column there, 2526 adopted budget. That's the
101budget that we brought to the board in June that was approved. And we see on this is just our unrestricted budget where the majority of our expenditures are. We had a a slight deficit there, just over a million. So when we brought in the additional TK funding as well as the negotiated um increases for salaries, our deficit moved to 6.7 million projected. And then as we look to next year, that projected deficit is about 4.2 million. So as we talk about targets for balancing our budget next year, we're looking at that 4.2 million on the unrestricted side. On the restricted side of our budget, this is where we have all of our one-time costs and expenditures. And so you see in the 2526, our adopted budget deficit of 8.6 million. Those are those ongoing costs
102or those are those costs that we had in our budget that we were using previous revenues to to support learning recovery. Basically, this is the last year with learning recovery dollars. And so we have some one-time monies that we're moving into 2526, that middle column. So we do get to a surplus in the current year, 2526. But as we look at 2627, a deficit of 7.3 million. And that's the work that we're going to do this year to balance our budget. The 4.2 and the 7.3 about an 11.5 million deficit as we look to 26 27 that we'll need to address through our through our processes. So, in the fall, um, as I mentioned, we'll start with through our LCAP process, um, through our board workshops, through community meetings, gathering feedback from, um, our community,
103our staff, our students on how we want to prioritize our programs and services so that we can align our ongoing revenues with our ongoing expenditures, bring our budget back in balance. Um, and so we'll do that again this fall. Bring recommendations back to the board in uh December so that we can actionize it for the 26 27 school year. So that is my report for the 45day budget provision. Happy to answer any questions. >> Any public comment? Any board member discussion? It's a lot. So thank you so much. Um, this isformational only. There's no action required. Moving on to item 12.2, notice of intent to employ certificated personnel and approval of provisional insure internship permit request. Assistant superintendent of human resources development Ben Dylan messing with me. Thank you, board president. Uh board superintendent, just
104bringing forward to you a routine item, a request to approve the PIP for one of our special education teachers who will be moving into that role in our district. Okay. May I have a motion to approve the notice of intent to employ certificate personnel and approval of provisional internship permit requests? >> Some moved. >> All seconded. >> Um on a motion by board member Gamoyan, seconded by board member Belt. Call for the vote. Are too fast. >> Motion passes 70. Uh student votes yes. >> Moving on to 12.3 warrant list. July 1st, 2025 to July 31st, 2025. May I have a motion to approve the warrant list? >> Move to approve. >> Second. >> I'll second. >> A motion by board member Odto, second by board member Viegas. Call for the vote. What is with
105this thing tonight? >> Motion passes 70. Student votes yes. And that adjourns our