001i will call this meeting to order we do have a quorum i will read the items for closed session recommended expulsions recommended suspended explosions public employee assignment reassignment appointment public employee discipline dismissal release complaints conference with labor negotiator conference with legal counsel existing litigation anticipating litigation anticipated litigation is there any public comment on any closed session topics seeing none will adjourn to closed session board member representative gabriel campos from mount whitney high school she is taking student rep board rep braille alvarez place who could not be with us this evening welcome i'd like to introduce the interpreter linguist interpreter and translation will serve as the spanish interpreter for this evening meeting attendees who would like to listen to the spanish and interpretation of the meeting please pick up headphones from the table located in the
002back of the meeting room this announcement will now be shown in spanish linguistica interpreting and transition service a thank you this meeting is being webcast live and recorded the meeting or webcast may capture images and sounds of those attending the meeting and any member of the public wanting to provide public comment on items listed on tonight's agenda may fill out a public comment form it's a green form it's located on the table in the back of the room please hand your form to the administrative assistant daily smart before the item comes up on the agenda please fill out a separate form for each agenda item you'd like to comment on members of the public providing public comment please use the microphone on the stand located in the front of the room it's right there okay
003so tonight's uh pledge of allegiance will be led by board member catalina blair um there was no action taken in public in a closed session are there are revisions to the agenda and or inclusion items the revisions to the meeting handouts for the seating in enclosure number 6 15 17 20 22 and 33 okay so now we move on to spotlight on good things happening in the district interim superintendent doug cardoza good evening president guerrero board members and our community doug cardoza interim superintendent tonight we again want to spotlight some great things happening within our district and we would like to start off with spotlighting our academy of computer science at mount whitney high school let me see here comes our presenter president girl board members uh interim superintendent cardoza and community members uh my
004name is teresa pulich i'm the work based learning coordinator for the district and i prepare the kids to be work skilled ready i'm proud to introduce uh james mckernan he's the lead for the computer science academy thank you teresa board president guerrero board members interim superintendent cardoza and community members my name is james mckernan i am the lead teacher for the computer science academy um i wanted to let you guys know how much i appreciate your support for the academies as soon as i became a member of this uh bar academy i have been a big fan of all the academies um one of the things that i think that comes to my mind that i wanted to relate to you was we have internships leaders of tomorrow lunches field trips and all that other
005stuff that's really good for the kids but the bottom line is i have students that would never have the opportunity to do any of these things we just recently in my it class built pcs from scratch with parts that we were able to purchase for grant and i had so many comments from some of these kids that they would never had a chance to do this if it weren't for the academy because they don't have the resources to do so so that's the biggest thing that i wanted to say that it's just an awesome program i believe in all of our academies i tell students join them something join one of them um always getting comments from parents that they wish they had this and their kids i wish i had it when i was
006a student i probably wouldn't have taken advantage of it because that was kind of a knucklehead but um having the opportunity is is the option and i always believe that giving our students options when they graduate is what we're supposed to be doing and i'm just happy to be in it and i can't thank you enough again for supporting us um we're doing good things we're changing some of our our curriculum to uh keep pace with the the industry we just recently had a uh a new board or a partner join us brian waddle he's from amber studios he's a game designer he is based out of bakersfield but he's worldwide and we brought him in for a guest speaking engagement on last friday which was senior ditch day and i had a good half
007of my seniors show up to listen to him which was i was really pleased with him the rest of them that's senior ditch day but um he is going to open up so many possibilities for us and i'm just super excited for next year so thank you very much so great things happening with our academy so thank you very much a few things so we've got quite a few as kids have obviously come back to school and restrictions have been less lifted we have a lot more things happening and to showcase in spotlight right now so i wanted to spotlight crowley elementary school their third grade participated in the science matter learning opportunity provided by the cranium company we also had fourth grade students who were exposed to the gold rush fifth grades experience the
008very only colonial day so if you're on campus they were dressed up and doing all these cool things the sixth grade team recently visited the planetarium at tcoe enjoyed learning about our solar system and history they also participated in their first track meet pit peach blossom science olympiad these are the first events in over two years um our eagles have been hard at work and enjoying learning the whole way go eagles our next this is also some images from crowley elementary school so you can see the bow and arrows and some of the dress dress up they did during those events our next spotlight is mount whitney dance program the mount whitney dance program's annual dance show coming in hot was held march 25th and 6th at the l j williams theater it was so
009exciting to be in the theater and on stage with a great audience for many of our mount whitney dancers it was their first time on stage the mount whitney show featured all five mount whitney high school classes pioneer partners washington elementary dancers mount whitney high school staff dancers cheer chamber ensemble and the mount whitney band miss ariola is so proud of all the performances and grateful for the support of usd so great uh inclusion going on there this was one that was near and dear to my heart this is regarding spotlighting our compass and golden oak sl silk program so we received a letter and i wanted to share this letter with you it said dear mr mcfarland and mrs gibralt today was a day that i will remember forever your group was my absolute
010favorite group ever their respect kindness and joy for learning are contagious in the most delightful way your staff felt like they been my family my whole life the interactions between students and teachers were breathtakingly beautiful the mutual respect and love for one another completely renewed my soul today i thought the students came here for me to teach them but the opposite happened they taught me if all humans were as good to each other as that group that i was able to first hand witness today from golden oak and compass the world would sure be a brighter place so that was a pretty special letter um these this program serves um students who have definitely had some challenges and so to see these kids going out into our community and having experiences like this is a
011tribute to the adults that are working with them the leadership at the site the the work that's happening between compass and golden oak they recently had 10 students go back into general ed 11 students actually and so that's something that hasn't been happening and so it's really a collaboration between compass and golden oak and the general ed teachers as well being willing to have students provide rich opportunities for them and that visit to the planetarium really shows the impact that's having on these kids their behavior was fantastic their care for each other it was just it was quite a day so i was i was really pleased to get that letter okay the next one is a spotlight on linwood elementary so linwood elementary had two teams compete in odyssey of the mine the state
012competition in moreno valley one of our teams placed second in the technical problem our other team earned first place in the performance problem and are on to the new state champ are the new state champions the same team also earned first place in spontaneous category congratulations to our student coaches miss krueger miss marsh and mrs yates both teams have qualified for the world finals in iowa the second place odyssey of the mind team winners uh pictured from let me go back here there we go picture from left to right or jasmine torres kai uh takahana boring sofia rios mason yates bristol dempsey avery long and michael plantenberg so congratulations to these students as well also state champions pictured from left to right or gabby paper zitchie edie honley arwa i'm going to mess this up
013sophie definitely julia villegas cameron chapman and brock white so a round of applause for those students as well [Applause] we also had odyssey mind team at shannon ranch so congratulations to the shannon ranch odyssey of the mind teams they also qualified for the world finals in iowa so pictured rosalind casares spencer cook candace combs madeline shaffer and scarlett tepethy again another team going to the world finals a spotlight on redwood ranger choir so congratulations to the young men of redwood rangers redwood high school's ranger choir in their concert with the sequoia symphony orchestra on april 2nd they performed a work by an american composer george clinton who was in attendance entitled the rose of senora a violin concerto in a style of a spaghetti western the men's choir collaborated with the symphony orchestra the amazing
014violin soloist soloist holly mckay and composer george clinton their performance was met with a standing ovation by the symphony audience please help me congratulate these young men from redwood high school we are so proud of them and also director mel carrillo [Applause] we also wanted to spotlight our high school winter guard so we had a south valley winter arts association championships the guard high school scholastic a gold second was golden west for the guard high school scholastic regional a silver eighth was el tiamante high school for guard high school scholastic region a bronze was sixth place was mount whitney high school redwood completed in a different circuit the san joaquin valley color guard and percussion review based in fresno the redwood winter guard placed third in the scholastic a division so congratulations to those groups
015[Applause] with the south valley winter arts association championships for high school discussion percussion excuse me percussion high school scholastic region a first place was mount whitney high school percussion high school scholastic a silver third place was el diamante high school for percussion high school scholastic a gold third was golden west high school um redwood again competed in a different circuit redwood winner percussion placed first in the scholastic a division so congratulations to all of our group they did quite well and with that i wanted to do another reminder that ridgeview middle school it will be putting on high school musical on may 5th through 7th so be sure to get your tickets and attend that event so again congratulations to all our groups a lot of great things happening in our district any questions oh
016okay what is this so it looks like they threw this in on me um so we had a western day last friday here at the district office and these are some pictures of of our folks dressed in western it was a fun day um if you all know my lifestyle i rode in here on a horse as a cowboy and i'm probably gonna ride out that way so it's been a long time since i wore my cowboy hat to the district office so thank you all mr cardoza i would just thank you delia and monica for putting this up there um as we all know mr curtis is going to be leaving us soon and so we are celebrating him from last friday all the way through the end of the school year and so
017he was roping this weekend so that's why we had western day and then many of us went out and watched him rope a bit so it was exciting fun times thank you all i appreciate that any questions or comments from the board thank you sir i just want to say uh yeah just congratulations to all our teams and you know i was able to actually go out to the show before the uh winter championships and we had a board planning session on the day of championships and just seeing all these groups um work tirelessly whether it was dance or percussion or winter guard i know board member blair's daughter participated with redwood and just they put in so many hours of work for you know one run-through of five to seven minutes eight minutes or
018a musical and um just really seeing the look of joy and um you know happiness on these students faces when they walk off the floor or out of the gym it's just an amazing experience so really grateful for all of the support of also our parents and directors and staff that help make all these productions and activities happen so thank you on that i'm going to jump in also for odyssey of the mind i don't think it's a surprise they're going to worlds both those teams um being at linwood previously i they put in so many hours those teachers um classified parents students are there every single day after school and so we have a great tradition in this district of odyssey of the mind and congratulations to linwood and shannon ranch for sure our
019next item on the agenda is general public comment general public comment on any school related topic may be heard at this time the board asks that any public comment on an item listed on tonight's agenda be addressed at the time the item comes up for discussion by the board pursuant to board policy the board may limit individual comp public comments to no more than three minutes and individual topics to 20 minutes it is recommended you begin your comments by stating your name i have one person here uh crystal reynolds good evening board and interim superintendent cardoza my name is crystal reynolds and i am a mother of three with two children in the district um i had a couple concerns i just wanted to bring forth um some of them are actually from other community
020members that have reached out um one of them is regarding again the phone calls during the meetings um and um i had another mother that was asking about that and i mentioned that that has changed since the the coveted policies have changed but i was just curious as to if this could be something reinstated just for general public comment is there an ability to allow for phone calls just for general public comment where somebody that maybe has to work or has no child care can make a comment because they want to be here but they can't so um i just wanted to bring that to your attention another um concern has been about the safety task force uh i believe that was mentioned months ago and there's been some concerns and some questions as if
021that's going if there's anything going with that so that was one other thing the last thing i wanted to address was there was an email that went out to the usd parents on april 18th regarding the sb 510 bill that took into effect i believe on january 1st 2022 which is now requiring the billing of private insurance companies for all testing that was conducted during the pandemic uh federal funding i guess with h hrsa will no longer cover the testing therefore it appears that the private insurance is going to be billed for mandatory testing and which was implemented by the district um for those for staff for volunteers for um big events like dances and stuff so my question is what happens to those families that do not have coverage if they don't have medical
022coverage what is going to happen to them are they going to be billed um privately or what's going to happen there there's a lot of questions regarding that and i think there just needs to be some clarification for your constituents other than that i think that's it so thank you any more public comment okay superintendent can you have staff work on these two questions that came up thank you our next item on the agenda is consent agenda would any board member like to pull an item off of consent agenda i need to pull item twenty item two closure twenty those are twenty okay anyone else no i don't see anyone else moving so i was going to motion to approve the uh mr viegas do you need to abstain i do not i did not
023see that i'm playing question on the warrantless so i do not believe anything i'm saying today okay mr do you need to abstain on an item okay all right go ahead uh motion to approve the consent agenda without the one enclosure enclosure 20. okay all second okay so we have a motion we have a second we can have real calm student board member compost yes board member blair yes board member case berseleno yes board member gabey yes i vote yes president guerrero yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes motion carries 7-0 student board member voting yes thank you our next item on the agenda is set as uh enclosure number 29 resolution resolution we have to do 20. oh that's right item number 20 the snailer just in transparency my daughter-in-law is on
024that list so i'm going to abstain from voting would you like to make a motion i would like no i can't i got to abstain motion to approve enclosure 20. all second all right all in favor let's see student board member compost yes student i'm student board member board member case for selena yes board member gavey yes i vote yes president guerrero yes board member naylor abstains board member viegas yes board member blair yes motion carries six one abstention student board member votes yes okay our next item on the agenda is enclosure number 29 resolution school nurse day whereas school nurses play a significant role in improving student health and outcomes whereas children come to school with a variety of health conditions varying from moderate issues to multiple severe and chronic health illnesses that have
025a profound and direct impact on their ability to learn and whereas today's school nurse has an expanded role of disease prevention promoting wellness providing access to health care for all of our students to stay healthy and safe and ready to learn therefore the visalia unified school district hereby recognizes may 11 2022 as school nurse day and recognizes the positive impact that our school nurses have on student health and well-being every day i'll make a motion to approve a second okay miss blair motions case personal seconds board um student board member compost yes board member gabey yes i vote yes president guerrero yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes board member blair yes board member casper soleno yes motion carry 7-0 student board member voting yes our next item on the agenda is enclosure
026number 30 resolution california day of the teacher whereas america's greatest strength has always been an educated citizenry and whereas that educated citizenry is directly attributable to our system of free and universal public education that provides an educational opportunity for all students and whereas the foundation upon which the system of public schools rests in the classroom teacher and whereas the classroom teacher is challenged daily to reach out to every student regardless of ability interest in learning social or economic background special needs race religion creed ethnic origin to provide the assistance and guidance necessary for successful adult life and whereas the classroom teacher is a key to the intellectual and occupational preparation of individual students citizens who collectively determine the quality of life in america in california and in this community whereas the red the work of
027the classroom teacher immeasurably affects the future lives of all students and whereas the classroom teacher deserves the deepest respect and admiration of the citizens of this community now therefore be it resolved that may 11 2022 is recognized as california day of the teacher in california by in the visaya unified school district for the purpose of providing public recognition and appreciation for the dedication and contribution of the classroom teacher not only in this community as a whole but to each of us as individual citizens motion to approve miss nader i'll second second by ms caseburg all in favor president guerrero yes board member i'm sorry i mean um student representative compost yes okay and president guerrero votes yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes board member blair yes board member case for soleno yes
028board member gaby yes i vote yes motion carries 7-0 um student board member our next item on the agenda is enclosure number 31 resolution classified school employee week may 15 through the 21st california legislature recognized the important contribution of classified school employees and named the third full week of may classified in schools classified school employee week to honor these contributions and whereas many classified employees serve in a paraprofessional capacity providing direct assistance to certificated faculty in the classroom and giving students the type of individual attention and support they need to succeed academically and whereas other classified employees perform vital secretarial clerical computer technical and health support function without which the local school site simply could not operate and whereas still other classified employees are involved with the cafeteria and other nutrition related programs serving california
029students many millions of meals and snacks each year and whereas yet another group of classified employees provide school transportation service skillfully moving more than one million students each day from home to school and to school related activities and whereas many classified employees perform grounds custodial maintenance services ensuring that thousands of school buildings and grounds statewide are clean safe and well maintained whereas by supporting the learning environment classified school employees are crucial partners with teachers parents administrators and school boards in public education now therefore be it resolved that by sale unified school district board of education does hereby proclaim the week of may 15th to 21st 2022 as classified school employee week in recognition of many outstanding contributions and services provided by the district's classified employees i'd like to make a motion to approve a second
030motion by mr villegas second by ms nader all in favor board member board student board member compost yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes board member blair yes board member kasper soleno yes board member gabey yes i vote yes board member uh president guerrero yes motion carries 7-0 student board member voting yes okay we're going to move on to focus on student learning library media services update and closer number 32 valerie sata library media manager thank you good evening board president guerrero members of the board and interim superintendent cardoza valerie cida district library media manager and i'm here to present the annual district library media services update so always great to be here with you and especially in april which is school library month and um and to have a pretty large cohort
031of our school library librarians in attendance tonight too so thank you guys for joining and [Applause] um thank you for not heckling me either um so um as part of the curriculum and instruction team we have our why that many of our my colleagues have um shared many times with you guys and so the presentation tonight will be aligned with that as well as our collective commitments in the cni department the focus area that i'll be looking at and discussing tonight is the last one building and maintaining library collections and resources that support the state standards and promote literacy and inquiry i'll be getting into that into three sub-goals for library services tonight before i do that i just want to kind of ground our presentation tonight in some of those guiding organizations frameworks and
032documents that really help speak to the work of modern um librarians and so this future ready librarian framework which is part of the future ready school initiative which is the core program of the alliance for excellent education provides some powerful um powerful infographic there that illustrates many of the realms of future ready librarians so highlighting things such as the work in building instructional partnerships curating digital resources and tools designing collaborative spaces cultivating community partnerships and ensuring equitable device access so those are just some of those areas that modern school librarians are involved in and then the aasl the american association of school librarians has our national school library standards which delve into more of the domains regarding inquiry for students and and research and those information literacy skills that we're always working to develop within
033our students and lastly the california model school library standards are broken up into two one are standards for the students which are very much aligned with what you would see for aasl for information literacy skills and a continuum k through 12 and then also the model school library program standards with which has their recommendations for what we would have for staffing one teacher librarian per 785 students one full-time para and then access so libraries open 36 hours flexible schedules resources including 28 books per student one new book per year per student and other things such as services such as the integration into curriculum um the reader's advisory or guidance that librarians are to provide and then just all around having you know good foundational policies plans procedures in place as a district so i'm going
034to get into really our three goals and and the meat of things for by celia unified any questions or anything there i just wanted to make sure that's a good time to pause or should i move along any questions keep going move along okay so for goal one um for library goals that are nested under our district goals it would still be nested under goal one providing library services that inspire and support the reading lives of learners and a culture of literacy some of the statistics that speak to this would be our collection statistics it's really important for us to have robust collections that really that really speak to our students and help them become better learners and um and to love literacy so we have over 580 000 items in our collection which is
035a growth year over year of 10 percent um it's a lot to move in a district our size with 41 print and collections and libraries we have over 490 000 items in print and while that is a little bit of a contraction from last year that's 3 000 more items from 2020 and the average copyright date for our print collection is 2009. modern school library standards would ask that two-thirds of our collection is 15 years or younger so we're always going to have you know modern classics and things that kind of pull that copyright average down a little bit but we're always happy to be moving uh you know into really recent titles and what's current and relevant for our students so always making moves around that and then our digital collection grew um from
03619 000 to 90 000 um year over year so we've made a lot of moves there and been working really hard to put really great collections in front of our kids that are digital and they keep uh they keep the demand for sure going there in terms of our collection development priorities and we focused on the expansion of beginner reading sections as well as high low collections high low collections are high interest low readability so for our students that were coming with reading gaps after the pandemic these were particularly important collections that we were developing to target them to really give them really enticing engaging material that was at that was age appropriate but was also at their reading level and we expanded we will be expanding year after year our dual immersion collections over
037at vista at mountain view so we started with k last year with classroom and school library collections and we'll continue to grow that with each grade that they add on and then for those teachers that were participating in tcoe readership they received and we helped curate classroom collections for their classrooms as well as augmentation to the school library our big belief here is that really books should be mirrors windows and sliding doors and by that we mean we want our kids to see themselves and their community in books we want them to have a portal into the the bigger world and also to have empathy by being able to engage in with other points of view and perspectives and what they see in in books for circulation statistics um we had quite a jump in
038circulation from last year as last year we were working through challenging times of access so we were doing a lot of curbside circulation and we were doing a lot of mobile services once students were on campus last year this year was more of a return to regular services and we had over 975 thousand items circulate um as of right before spring break so we're going to get to a million and we're probably there so nice job um and this is also um if we look at 2020 when i was here and i was here in march right like 11 days after kids went home so it had been a regular year up until then our print circulation is still 30 of an increase over that year which was a pretty apples to apples year and
039then our digital circulation is up um 200 percent from 20 20 and 72 from last year so so we're making good moves and um our it's fun to to see our digital circulation take off as it is really that 24 7 access for our students right and that's an important component as we're always trying to create book floods for our students and that's one of those ways as adults a lot of us prefer print our kids they pretty they seamlessly toggle a lot of times between those two and then aside from statistics a lot of the other things that our librarians at the district level and at the site level have their hands in are the things you see here which are literacy nights we love to go and plug in and tell them about
040sora and connect them with the digital resources for our families and the vlc and then a lot of our site librarians have taken to book tasting activities to help launch book clubs in the classroom which are really neat giving kids more voice and choice around what they're reading and then other activities such as read across america activities that you'll see a lot of site librarians actively involved in sometimes coordinating for their sites our author visits this year we're still virtual but we're hoping to move those back right into physical world next year and then vlc once it came back online in october we had started monthly story time and craft time by december she has a really great um a great kind of group of kids that are there and i think her next one
041is may 4th and tipper will be there and uh it's at 2 30. so please come otherwise a lot of our sight librarians have their hands in book fairs another way to increase book floods home library book giveaways we saw those this year as well as the expansion of summer library services so where there were elementary summer schools we had summer library services last year so that was 13 additional sites we'll do the same this year and then we also have moves around some mobile library services in the community for goal 2 this is the goal around supporting learners information literacy skill development and integration of student research in the curriculum so we've added this year some of these research databases to the fold and these ones particularly focus on science and there's an elementary
042middle and a high school research database that were added this year to enhance academic research that was added to this this more lengthy list we've been growing this list of research databases um which now for some of us that remember them like when we were in school they were a little clunky you had all these like passwords you're like what do i how do i get in i'll just go to google so they seamlessly um they they seamlessly now connect with clever integrate through clever and google authenticate in the background making that a much more easier way to research and find those really qualitative resources and then goal three for us is ensuring that library environments support the social emotional development of the whole child we feel strongly that the school library should be heart
043the heart of the school that it should really help to cultivate positive culture on campus it should be a space for students to feel like they belong um and should be a safe haven for them so in our last five years we have had five new libraries come online and by cell unified um sequoia and creekside were our last two that we built which were very exciting to see both of those schools get libraries um and then we had eight revitalization projects some of those were larger such as the one at ivanhoe which was kind of like a complete gut and complete modernization others were a little bit more like mini modernizations we just finished crestwood and lynnwood last summer but really great moments for those schools to have elevated modern spaces for their students
044and then we've been working through genrification projects taking our print fiction collections and moving them from what is the old school alpha by author way of browsing just fun for shelving but not fun for browsing and moving it instead to um to having our sections by genre so just the way we would browse in a bookstore just the way that we think that things should be laid out in a retail store they should be grouped together because they're like you have your historical fiction in one area your mysteries your fantasy etc helps you really connect and know more about your own reader profile as well as get to work outside the box and explore new genres and so these are our genre genrification projects that have been completed in black they were completed before 2021
045this year you can see the eight of them that we completed maybe nine and we have just a few more to go and many of the librarians here tonight have played a crucial role in helping us make those moves for our students um other than that our new library designs really as well as our um our revitalizations are all about being responsive to the needs of today's learners so we're excited that we have six more modernizations in the works for next year and continue to kind of elevate and bring a new standard for what our libraries look like and how they function for our students and with that i would just like to say one more big thank you to our library staff they are phenomenal they do amazing work and um and we we
046appreciate you guys being here and work you do day in day out so thank you so much [Applause] can you have him stan i'd like to see sure absolutely will you guys stand [Applause] are there any questions or comments from the board i just have a comment um i want to thank the librarians because when i visit schools that's the first place i want to go visit and you are part of the school culture i want to thank you for taking in kids during recess before school after school arts and crafts i mean you guys are amazing and i want to thank you jessica appreciation definitely just want to echo that um you know my experience our library it was not a quiet place that i remembered from school it was like a center of
047activity it was one of the most exciting places on campus and um our library media clerk who's over there hiding over there miss jones she that i mean the culture of literacy was in such great part to her she knew i think she knew every kid what book they were reading what their level was when they were should transition into chapter books i mean it was amazing and all of those kids felt connected to the library so just thank you to all of them because i know that there's you know all of them do those sorts of things one question going back to slide seven where it was the california model school library program yes how close are we um we are where's the improvements we need to make we are definitely making strides in
048terms of hours the school libraries are open so this year we had we went from five hours at elementary sites to seven hours um so those were great moves for us those are kind of temporary-ish moves but we're hoping we'll become more permanent we're doing a great job in terms of collections where we are putting in one new book per student per year so those are great we are at 28 we're in the 20s for how many books we have per student um in most of our elementary sites it's a harder thing in the secondary world because when you have 2 400 kids on campus to have 28 books you just you would need entire new wings of libraries so um digital helps for sure with that um we have room to grow in terms
049of staffing so you know um in terms of credentialed librarians but there is a shortage of those in california so we're not unique in that um it just is one of our you know possible next steps any other questions or questions i just want to say sorry um just thank you so much for being here valerie and i just love seeing the librarians here too um this first goal i loved it so much provide library services that inspire and support the reading lives of learners and the culture of literacy and i just thought i've been taking my kids to the vice learning center since they could walk and just that what an amazing resource that is for our city and that you know our your kids don't have to be a part of vice unified
050school district yet they just need to live in the city so our library is used by anyone that lives in our city and it's just such a special place and to have those reading rooms with games and christy and marsha make it so special and when we couldn't go into the library yet i would call them and they would like put it in a bag behind the i mean it was just so cool you guys are so cool and um just that you've been um inspiring my kids and um creating a culture of literacy since before they became students in usd so i just want to thank you guys for that thank you trustee blair i was just gonna shout out to you to your twitter uh feed i know that you guys i don't
051know who's responsible for that but um is it kudos to you for that as well thank you yeah we try to stay active yeah absolutely i also want to echo all the thanks to all of our wonderful librarians and staff i remember visiting houston and looking at some of the renovations that they've made in the last couple of years investing into just the way they present the books to students and it's just amazing i had two questions thinking through a sort of equity lens which i appreciate that the commitment to equity in your presentation and all these actions i'm wondering one do we have any sort of um mobile library i know that's something that's you know happened during covet and um thinking about i think the vlc is awesome but how do we also
052come to families and individuals who you know transportation is a barrier and then my second question is are students allowed to check on materials over the summer and what does that look like um and you know do they retain access to all the digital um you know library and services and for how long yeah absolutely the beauty of moving one to one is that our students have their chromebooks over the summer so they're going to have seamless access to all of those digital resources um from databases to the expanding digital library with sora so that that is there 24 7 and remains there so that's a great thing because that is part of meeting them where they're at um the other part of mobile library services is definitely something that we've been working with mr
053sullivan and his department to help go to some of those especially those areas that are more isolated that access is an issue and so we're working on some services in june and july to expand to those communities thank you i just had one one point i just want to thank the librarians because being from a site it's a safe haven for a lot of our kids and i just appreciate your patience and and welcoming arms and just having those kids hang out even during your lunch hours you know you give up a lot of time and it takes a lot and your websites during the pandemic were amazing so just thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your hours you put in and for the fact that you just you know um
054embrace our kids they need that thank you what day is your um what you have a weekly um story hour at the blc so right now it's monthly but i i know that um our vlc librarian would love to expand it beyond that but for now it's monthly it's may 4th um at 2 30 2 30. we look for that wednesday that early release so that families can pop over um and yeah it's at 2 30. okay well thank you and thank you to all the staff for all your work and all the things you do thank you very much our next item on the agenda is enclosure number 33 state sale of civic engagement brandon gridiron administrator of equity and student services good evening war member guerrero members of the board interim superintendent cardoza
055i would like to invite actually our students up tonight tonight is actually an opportunity uh to uplift youth voice and uh promote student agency and so that's what we'll be doing tonight um over the last couple years we've partnered with the civic education center and their school democracy program to create opportunities through civic engagement for our students to give back to their community and to address issues that are important to them and tonight we have an opportunity and i'm privileged to welcome our students to present to you a proposal for state civil civic engagement which gives us an opportunity to recognize all of our students in our district for the great work that they're doing and their civic duties and responsibilities to their community and so with that being said i'm going to turn it
056over to andrew who's going to start us off okay so starting with assembly build 24 which was instituted in 2017 it was instructed to the california department of education that there should be a development to or of criteria to award certain students who have demonstrated excellence in civic education it is the intent of the legislature to establish a state seal of civic engagement to encourage and create pathways for students in elementary and secondary schools to become civically engaged in democratic institutions at all levels our adoption process we have identified our team thus the people you have standing before you we developed a board resolution and developed a local criteria so we are postponing our third step into this process just for this year seniors to have the opportunity to um get the seal since they
057have shown if they have shown civic engagement through their years of high school and the next step would be to requesting stigma from the cde and distribute to the students for adoption criteria the first of which or it is um the second criteria would be the completion of the first criteria would be a student must demonstrate academic processes as evidenced by meeting of the requirements for graduation or a certificate of completion the second criteria would be the completion of grade level the history social science course requirements of their equivalent and world history us history american government and economics was passing grade of c or higher although the g minus is a passing grade we have come to the conclusion that we believe that a c minus shows more of knowledge of civic mindedness for those
058pursuing a certificate of completion and demonstration of academic improvement via evidence and portfolio of student work in our third adopter criteria the student must participate in at least one or more student-led civic engagement projects that address real world problems uh where the student where the students are able to engage in civic needs or or problems considered very responsive take action and reflect on their efforts examples of this may include an individual class or group project that addresses a civic issue and works towards efforts to serve a civic need or community involvement associated with co-curricular and extracurricular opportunities these may include but aren't limited to clubs community or school related organizations they must identify a problem in the community and work to solve it additional examples of adopted criteria would be high school projects that address
059community or social issues and take active measures to resolve problems and individual small groups participation in a task that engages students in the community identifies issues or needs and works to find solutions to real world problems four criteria number four they must be able to demonstrate civic knowledge skills and dispositions including american civic values and democratic principles through self-reflection some suggested opportunities for reflection would be class or community presentation with variety of presentation options or a written reflection for criteria number five the students must exhibit character traits that reflects civic mind mindedness and a commitment to positively impact the classroom school community and or society evidence of character should be verified by letters of recommendation or other media one peer and one adult who have witnessed the civic minded activities are allowed to recommend the
060students for this seal which will be on diplomas and transcripts the next steps needed in our process are to secure adoption of the criteria by the governing board request and distribute insignias to students who already qualify for the seal this spring and develop processes by which students can fulfill the locally adopted criteria to earn an ssce by next school year we also need to identify additional team members who are interested in contributing time and effort into the seal train those interested team members and staff and implementation hi my name is jose reyes and now we would like to present before you are wise and what we would like to see to be approved i'll start off by stating first i would like to still to be approved since i believe that we should acknowledge those
061who have put the time and effort um to better our community i'm annette andrade and i want this seal to be approved because i am a first generation aspiring college graduate who comes from a single parent household and i believe that this seal will not only recognize myself but also others who engage in a civic academy my name is alyssa aceves and here's my sister jaden assembes and since our grandparents moved to the u.s our dad has started his own business and continues to make his parents proud my sister and i hope to make him proud by receiving a degree from a respected university as will be the first in our family to attend college we hope this golden suit will help us be recognized by these universities my name is kalise curtis and my
062why would be with the seal were acknowledged a further step for the things we've done in our community from our own work those recognized academically or for extracurriculars are given a chance to receive a further acknowledge accomplishment and along especially for first generations and minorities from lower income households my name is alexis valencia and my want and why would have to be but i want to be able to show that i can create change and that anyone in the community can create change and that through reflection we can show that we are able to work through college and be able to create the change that we need in the community thank you my name is kira safan and i believe it is important to have this seal approved because as my colleagues said it helps
063us get better opportunities in college and it also helps us with employment hi crystal najera want this deal to be approved so that the students and my fellow peers who have put in time and effort into civic engagement get recognized for the urge for their achievements and it can also help students who are applying to colleges with low acceptance rates i'm andrew cox as previously stated and my reasoning as to why i would like the state seal of civic engagement to be implemented is to actually carry on the legacy that my grandpa left and he was philip cox the first he was on the board of supervisors and then went to becoming vice mayor until his unfortunate passing last year he instituted program the program known as the step up program which helped students and
064pupils dealing or struggling with addiction to actually get over it and because of that i would like to carry on civic activities like implementing the state steel civic engagement in his legacy and with all of that we would like to ask today for this state seal to be approved so that all seniors or a lot of seniors who are graduating who have already met the requirements will be able to receive their state seals because of the no not really focus on the sat and the act this year and because of that this seal would make it look better for them when applying to jobs or to colleges do you have any questions so are there any questions or comments from the board miss camonia um can one of you guys um i'd love to hear
065about one of your projects or your community service that you've done this year hi um personally i'm an intern for a hill project organization and one example would be the policy work that we've done i've come to a few city council meetings myself to urge for a buffer between youth sensitive areas and tobacco retailers and we actually got that passed it was a thousand foot buffer so that would be one of the examples we've done in our community thank you megan i had a question about the steel so i understand it goes on the diploma is that what it the high school diploma and so um it's not something that like you can put on your college application then like prior to or set on their transfer yeah so it actually will be something on
066their transcripts as well which would be recognized by the university wonderful and thank you guys for coming i know it's not easy to put on a presentation and that was um very very well done miss blair yeah you guys did a great job um i'm just wondering would the seniors that came and spoke at um the senior voice does that does that also count as part of the criteria so yes honestly um and one of our students is here tonight um and those students the seniors last year and our seniors who or who graduated really were our first group to really uh engage in the civic engagement work and their recognition was just a sash but one of the things that they left with this group to continue the work is to eventually apply for
067the state civil civil engagement and many of the students here tonight were part of the development of this criteria with the hopes of being able to recognize those seniors who have contributed to that work over the last few years both in our heel project both the senior voice we have a lot of students in our community who are seniors that are doing things already right and this is one way to be able to recognize them and honestly it's something that they can look back on as their time in the usd and say hey i contributed to that um and honestly as i always tell them is that you know when my kids graduate i'll remember that as well and so they'll benefit from it and so it just goes on and on um but yeah
068kudos to the team and actually before i want to recognize our teachers as well if you can stand this task force yes [Applause] so the task force that we put together was actually made up of students and teachers um and dr minkler and dr morris over here from the civic education center helped us in the creation of this pro this criteria and working with other districts that they've worked with who've adopted similar criteria and as i understand it i believe we're one of the only districts who included students in the process um and because it's for our students and we want to uplift youth voice and student agency we believe that was important so i do want to give credit to our students for a job well done for all the commitment and hours they
069put in [Applause] just real quick so the process is that they do an application and then who um determines and sends away for the seal i guess the process yeah so tonight is the approval just of the criteria so once that's approved of the criteria is approved then we send that off to the state the state will then say yes we approve your criteria and then from there we will form a committee who would review all of the students who are eligible we're actually going to be meeting next week to create an application we really want to get that out to all of our students who potentially would be eligible for this year to have their names submitted to develop a committee to review all of that so when the state actually accepts if they
070do i believe they will but if you accept tonight they accept um when we send it to them then once they accept we will just submit the names and then they will send those seals over to us any other questions or comments i would be happy to motion to approve we have a motion by ms casper soleno is our second second by miss nader all in favor student board member compost yes gordon board member viegas uh yes and i also just want to thank all of you and i know some of the comments were around like you know this is going to be great for college applications which is wonderful and and you all deserve that but going beyond those measurable benefits it's just benefits to the community you look at research and civic engagement
071and how that increases trust in the community you know social capital individual success but really community success and so thank you for doing that work of community building not only with each other but with you know local representatives with folks on the community and i look forward to this precedent that you're establishing for so many other future students at vasily unified to take advantage of uh and to maybe inspire them to take on a new project and you know have that service to the community and be engaged in their communities so thank you board member blair yes board member case beerus soleno yes board member gabey yes and i think we should have more student board reports um and i'm gonna vote yes but i also want to make a comment come home after college
072okay and be part be part of our community so i vote yes president guerrero board member naylor yes and i want to thank you for coming because i love to have students do board reports it just warms my heart so thank you so much for coming out and speaking to us tonight motion carries 7-0 student board member voting yes um with that in mind our next item on the agenda student representative report miss uh gabby campos from mount whitney high school starting off with vcis vcis started state testing this week the vcis award night will be held on monday may 2nd at 6 o'clock at the lg el de malte theater nine vcis students participated in the district-wide s.a.t school date today and vcis students are taking the state commentency exam on may 5th to
073earn their certificate or certified nursing assistant certification moving on to el de malte high school el demonte high school hosted a rally for their spring sports last friday the theme of the rally was cars they honored baseball their baseball softball dive swim and track teams el de malte high school's link crew is hosting dude be nice this week there will be dress up days such as dressing up as your favorite celebrity or meme their lunchtime activity is a full week of basketball tournaments the friday before spring break el de malte hosted takeover this activity was meant to remind students of the efforts on vaping are the effects on vaping and how it can harm a person in so many ways there was music and a car show and a lunchtime carnival el de marte high
074school's girls basketball team had a meeting yesterday to see who was interested in joining their team moving on to golden west high school golden west asb is gearing up for their spring sports rally this friday the three the theme is outer space golden west is hosting prom next saturday at the convention center moving on to mount whitney high school mal whitney is looking forward to the takeover event with q 97 on may 11th that will highlight vape and drug prevention mount whitney is currently celebrating their annual mr pioneer with an additional of miss pioneer this week this will be their first time mount whitney will have a mr and miss title mount whitney drumline took first place in a state competition and mount whitney is looking forward to their first virtual performance performing arts assembly
075on may 4th where they will showcase all their performing and visual arts programs redwood high school this past week redwood and their had their asb had their first ever student and teacher week asb got balloons chips blow pops and many other things and was able to give them out to appreciate them and make students and teachers feel loved redwood also ended the week with their traditional car show hosted by the junior class for the show being back after three years it was a huge success they had over 28 registered cars vendors and games and it was a great friday with many smiles on campus redwood had their student equity meeting last week where students talked about dress code and their thoughts on bringing it back with a board member that's it thank you thank you
076and we do appreciate your reports that keeps us in tune with our high schools okay thank you very much and we'll move on to board member reports requests uh how about miss uh catalina blair um so i wanted to say i got to visit mount whitney on thursday april 6th and i'm just continuing to be impressed by the excellence of the staff in our schools and um seeing bob aguilera there he loves he loves being the principal of that school um and then i got to attend an equity forum with mr brandon gridiron um on april 7th which was really it was such a great thing to do um we focused on the behavior mental health and social media in in schools um we had at the he had two different forums i believe one
077in the morning and one one in the evening i went to the morning one um and i had some there were people that were retired staff that were present there were parents um there was a current counselor there um and the form the forum was really interactive um and i i just wanted there to be more people there i just thought gosh this is so the way that brandon had it um set up he had different posters on the wall people took markers and went and wrote down problems that they see problems that they know about problems that maybe their own kids are having with mental health with social media with bullying with all these different things and then we kind of came together and came up with the ideas it was civic engagements it's
078exactly what these kids are talking about and the way that we can have a healthy community is by coming together for for that purpose and helping our students so um the only thing that i wish that we could do is um have more students attend so um i'm hoping that we can um have more of those equity forums and really make them at a time when um more students are able to be there good skates for selena yeah i visited um the compass program and the selc i think i'm saying that right with mr cardoza and um i just wanted to thank the principals and the staff for showing us around it was a really great experience i attended a luncheon today with several of the people here for csf it was really nice to
079see our students doing really well and heading off to college next year just all over the place really and looking forward we have a lot of events on the calendar for the next couple weeks so i'm looking forward to those two thank you mr villegas thank you i was also able to attend an equity forum alongside port clercomoyen uh and kudos to mr gridiron for facilitating a great session we also got to participate in some of these uh activities around mental health social media uh behavior and ideas that we had right so i know one of the ideas proposed was sort of having a mental health fair destigmatizing mental health right that's huge for our students how do we let students know that these resources are available and you know work towards eliminating that sort
080of stigma and building these collective visions and goals for the district for our students i was also able to visit the visitero and spend some time and have a conversation with principal uh marroquin there and it was just really great in the short time that he's been there just efforts at um you know speaking to parents and communicating with them through different mediums so one thing i thought was really interesting and awesome is that you know he has this sort of weekly podcast that keeps parents informed i know he was able to have a conversation with our incoming superintendent uh shrum and so i just think that's fantastic and the more ways we can connect with parents and keep them engaged about what activities are going on in their schools as is something to be
081applauded i love walking into you know the gate with just the mascot um just right on there and this effort to sort of rebrand and promote divisadero as a space for all students where all students can succeed i also wanted to say happy national school bus drivers day to everybody we passed that resolution at our last board meeting was really happy about that i got up really early this morning and was able to ride along two of our bus routes with uh our wonderful drivers karen and omar and it was just really fantastic seeing the way they interacted with students the very first you know smiling face that they see uh asking them how they are parents waiting alongside their students you know greeting bus drivers um you know making sure students are safely able
082to cross the road stopping at our railroad tracks and i've got to say like i don't think i'm a terrible driver but just knowing that you know you've got to stop at every railroad track and there's a very sharp turn and just the way they are so professional about everything that they do uh was just wonderful and i also want to thank our district transportation team uh for all their efforts and um you know serving our students especially i know a lot of these drivers uh went through some very tough challenges during uh waves of kovit in which they were doubling up on routes and how to take measures to ensure all of our students were safe and continue to take these measures to ensure that our students are safe so i just really want
083to echo my deep appreciation for all of our folks in transportation and i know we're also working towards ensuring that all of our buses have um ac eventually right i know we've purchased some electrical buses as well and are making steps um towards that and so i really applaud that just because i know it gets really hot in the summer and spring and so and finally i i also wanted to highlight and inform community members i know everyone's really excited i want to thank all of our teachers you know this is the time of the year where we're working with students everyone's excited around graduation and specific to that i want to let parents families and community members know that if a student cannot afford to purchase a graduation gown or does not want to
084purchase one that we as a district will provide that for every student and so just making sure that students are aware of this and families are aware of this i'd like to ask staff to remind principals and site leaders to ensure that families are equipped with this information to ensure that every student gets to participate and walk across that stage if they're eligible and not have to worry about that cost of you know purchasing a gown and that concludes my board report thank you snailer yeah i was um i had the opportunity to visit mountain view elementary and and look at their dueling immersion program the principal amy jones was amazing she told me i toured with um interim superintendent mr cardoza and claudia redondo also met us there um man it it was a
085great it's a great program i i encourage us to expand this to other schools the kids you know we went into uh miss fiero's room and then there was mrs perez and those kindergartners were all engaged and they were all excited and they were repeating it in spanish and all the months and the years and the days and i just it was mind-boggling i just thought oh my gosh they are just such amazing teachers and um you know mrs jones gave us a tour of the school and they have this huge garden um that mr medeiros is has put in into um in to this huge area it was a big garden i just thought oh my gosh that is so nice and their heart program accesses it and it's a way for kids to
086learn about you know the crops and you know trying to grow things and and the science part of it and the water part of it and just it was really amazing and it was beautiful um i also want to say happy um national bus driver's day i was not able i had to work so i'm not able to get out there but i just know that our bus drivers are doing such an amazing job and keeping our kids safe so thank you there i also attended which was interesting it has nothing to do with school but the tulare county voice at the cafe 210 and it was about vicelia's building boom and you know are we having healthy growth uh versus fresno 2.0 and just talked about the rings you know and the tiers and
087how we're very our city is very very systematic on how we're building out by celia but what was nice to hear is one of the um they had a panel and one of the members of the panel um was part of the realtors association he said you know right now we are in a building boom and houses are being sold before they're ever ever even being built they're contracted out so that was good news for us as a district because we have a lot of building going on and which means that we're attracting people in to the valley and in addition to that we have a lot of industrial businesses that are coming to visalia because of the cost and also it brings in jobs and it brings in people and so for our district
088is what i'm thinking that's a good thing because the more people we bring in families um our ada will stay stable and so i thought it was a it was a good meeting and i really enjoyed it thank you scabie thank you um first i want to kind of shout out and acknowledgement of our curriculum director claudia ardon diaz she was recently honored as the tulare county hispanic leadership network administrator demonstrating exemplary leadership and impact and she's going to be honored she's not here tonight but um she's hiding back there oh there she is yay [Applause] congratulations very very well deserved um and then um you know kind of on our student board represent thank you for bringing up all the like dress up days and all those little informal things we do thank you
089to our staff that still go out of their way that takes extra time to put on but just even this morning great it was i think crazy dress day just seeing kids even just mismatched socks you know it's something that connects them to school and we hope that they come there for the great math lesson but a lot of times they come to see their friends and for the fun and then we get to teach them once we get them there so thank you to our staff that um like i said we know that takes extra time and um but it's just really such a fun thing um at schools and even that they're still doing those at high school and those kids are getting into it uh and lastly the um championship track meet
090was last friday and i got to be out at grappety for that and be on the infield and what was probably the most impressive was first seeing our staff out there and they're not just cheering their school on they are cheering every kid on and seeing those kids win lose doesn't matter like they have a stadium out there cheering for them and every one of those kids feels like they are an olympian out there um some of them i don't even think they it doesn't even matter what place they are but they have um you know that time where everybody's just cheering for them and it feels it's such i mean just such a great atmosphere and to see the kids cross the line and congratulate each other and go up to the first place
091winner and say congratulations and um you know those relay teams it's just such a nice event but what's really impressive is not even just the athletic part of it because many of the kids it's like their first time i think ever even picking up a shot put or something like that some of the kids i think they're about as big as the shot put but they are just out there for school spirit and kind of camaraderie and of course going to the snack bar and running around so thank you again i mean i think they're out there till the adults um you know past 10 o'clock at night on a friday and so we really appreciate that the one thing i will throw in though is is there a way we can look into some
092of our schools have um high jump equipment at their schools and i know this is something we kind of have gone through for years and then the pandemic so now we're kind of back at it um but some of the kids like literally at the track meet was the first time they ever tried to jump over the high jump because um they just don't have the equipment and again i know we've been we didn't even have track so it's not um it's something that just kind of jumped up this year but i don't know if it's something through extended day um funds or how i mean our staff is smart and can be creative um and maybe even i don't know if there's you know rotating pe teacher or coach that can kind of show
093them because some of these kids are quite athletic but it's kind of hilarious to see them that first time they're just like throwing themselves over this high jump bar but i know some schools already have it to practice with or some are close enough to a middle school to go practice or a high school but um just you know it is such a great event for kids so if we can at all look into kind of getting everybody one of those or whatever we can do and that's it thank you skamonia i uh went to the csf breakfast i mean uh lunch in today and we have really smart kids like kids that are going to uc's csus i'm going to major in nuclear physics and and you know when i was watching this and
094listening to these kids we prepare our kids so thank you teachers and staff i it was really good to see um this afternoon um thank you bus drivers i know even some of our bus drivers during cova delivered library books i think so yeah thank you bus drivers for all you did in covid and yeah we just really appreciate you so that was fun this morning um we got to visit highland uh yesterday um that has a beautiful front office and that staff is very dedicated to that um school community i was really impressed um and you know like even there's a brother-sister team like the kids see have the sister one year and then fifth grade they have her brother i mean these this is a real community and i was very impressed with
095that school um i also attended the equity forum in the evening with uh board member viegas um a lot of people ask me about equity what does that mean you know what is you know they they're a little there's a little bit of fear involved and so i just want to invite people to come because we had one community member and then two board members and so i just want to welcome anybody that wants to come it's good to have those conversations it's good to see what's going on in the district and i am looking forward to this friday our ribbon cutting at our family engagement center so i'm looking forward to that this friday thank you on april 6 i went to the crystal apple awards i do not have a list of the
096teachers there but we had several teachers from our schools that were given awards and the teachers there were nominated by students it was the nice event and it was in person this time which was really good um also on the 18th uh i went to an elrise board training i'll rise board training 101 and that was for tulare county office of education and you know that gets back to what what uh ms nader was talking about dual emerging different types of literacy that we can do with our english learner population what not it was a very good training and i i i'm glad i went um i also went to the central valley education coalition and uh there had we had a discussion on medical billing and uh there's some good things going on there
097in terms of reimbursements and whatnot and there was a discussion also in terms of our our funding lcff alcap and how the state's working on those formulas and there's some discussion in terms of infrastructure and the possibility of more infrastructure this year i believe and i'm looking at nathan because he also attended the meeting you know so it was a good meeting it's uh it's a coalition here from the central valley and uh our our tulare county superintendent of schools was also present there and then i uh went to the golden west lamar softball game i like to go to the games mainly because my granddaughter plays softball and i had a real good it was a real good experience i sometimes miss these games like i missed one tonight you know but hey we
098gotta take care of business here do our board business i uh also went to the transportation department breakfast it's always good to see our bus drivers and see what all they do and what's all involved and those routes are interesting i've been on them before and uh you know the bus drivers they know all our kids everybody they pick up they know the families they stop there and they go the extra mile to help our kids that are are needing our transportation as mentioned earlier today there was a california scholastic federation uh luncheon today where we recognized our our students and uh that is a wonderful event and you know when i'm sitting there next to mr cardoza i told him we haven't done this in three years you know it was good getting our
099kids out there and then you kind of reflect a little bit and you think well you know what the last two years this is what those classes missed you know that type of stuff so i'm glad we're getting back to some normalcy i've been in discussion with mr glepman who heads our national honor society at golden west and you know i i'm going repeat a request i made two months ago and that is that we look into an expansion of this program district-wide to our high schools the cost is minimal it's uh three thousand dollars but we're talking about our four traditional high schools and possibly more because we also have vtec and we have bcis and sequoia high school so it what's important here is that uh there is civic engagement in that okay
100it's part of the requirement for this national honor society and we had a pilot program going on at golden west and i'd like to see it expand it to our other high schools okay that's it with my report and i'll turn it over to mr cardoza our internal superintendent for his report thank you thank you president guerrero so a lot of things were said today i got to do some visits with some of the board members i wanted to highlight the visit to highland elementary school highland has a warm place in my heart for high then i was principal there for a few years four years i guess it was but the culture there felt really good we walked in quite a few classrooms so kudos to principal paredo and the staff there creating a
101culture of engagement and kids that really felt comfortable and just felt good to go back there and see that type of environment there so kudos to highland elementary school i also wanted to mention that redwood high school received this today the ranger choir and chamber orchestra will be performing antonio vilhalde's famous choral and orchestral work of gloria on thursday april 28th at the visaya presbyterian church the chamber orchestra they'll be performing some other events works as well the con concert begins at 7 pm admission is free so it's a good opportunity to go listen to some great music and thank mr carrillo for sending me that information um the last thing i just want to talk about is tomorrow is administrative professionals day and so i think it's real important that we recognize the work
102of our administrative professionals i wanted to raise this book here that you see and you'll see us as board members we have staff that publishes one of these every two weeks and so thank you to delhi and monica and leah and susan and kylie and all of our other administrative staff our print shop that gets this on thursday afternoon and has it in the on the porch of our board members on friday so um just want to recognize those folks they make us all look really good up here so thank you dalia monica that's my report yeah where uh dahlia corrects us now and then we're not following our agendas [Laughter] okay stop dismissal our next item on the agenda is administrative panel recommendations uh enclosure number 34 is there a board member that would
103like to make um a motion i'll motion all second who said that okay miss kaby second bye me ms blair all in favor okay student board member of stains um board member blair yes board member kasper soleno yes board member gaby yes i vote yes board member guerrero yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes um motion carries 7-0 student board member of states so um just miss compost you're welcome to stay but you also if you need to leave right now that's okay too but you're welcome to stay okay okay our next item on the agenda is recommended suspension suspended expulsions and closure number 35 is there a motion motion to move the stainless steel second second by miss case per selena all in favor um student board member of stains and you
104you know you're abstaining because it's your peers yeah okay um board member case bear saleno yes board member gabey yes i vote yes board member guerrero yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes board member blair yes motion carries 7-0 student board member of states okay we're moving on to our general agenda and the next item on the agenda is the health insurance renewal rate for 2223 and closure number 36 kevin mays coordinator hrd and uh congratulations on your new position thank you well i appreciate that so good evening board president guerrero board members interim superintendent cardoza and community members which may have all left so they possibly knew i was up here to present um with that my name is kevin mays um i am the director of human resources and tonight i
105am here to give an update on our health benefits renewal rates for 2022-23 school year um this is information only by the way so a little bit about the insurance committee who we are what we do the committee's comprised of different folks from our bargaining unit members buddha csea and management within the district office in addition to those folks we do have our brokers from aj gallagher who do come and support those community members with information in regards to health insurance the committee is comprised to really gather the information that's obtained through the information that's presented to the projections of the coming fiscal year and what that insurance rate might look like we take the insurance rates we make the best recommendations to impact the health benefits for our existing staff members and the employees
106who have retired so that we can come with the most viable you know health benefits plan for all members so we are a self-funded insurance group so every april we set our funding rates established for the next fiscal year based on a projection of our past 12 months of claims part of those projections are derived through what's expected to you know increase in insurance cost essentially and those costs and increase our variables such as administrative costs and other you know portions of increases that do come about in relation to the insurance increases these next few slides will cover a few of our different employee groups on the left hand side it's just a breakdown of what's accounted for and the current insurance rates the left column is our current rates for 2021 and 22 school
107year the next column is a renewal comparison so as you can see in this slide we currently are sitting at 16 494 with an expected increase of 180 dollars what that results in is about a 1.1 percent increase for our certificated staff members the next slide is in relation to our classified employees they have a base plan and what we call a plan b if you would um that allows our staff members to make an election for their health benefits based on their deductions and what they want their co-insurance to look like so the costs do vary with that our projected cost will increase about 228 for the base plan and what that looks like is a 1.7 increase and that's the recommendation of the insurance committee the plan b does have an increase as
108well but a slight um increase in comparison to the first so this is sitting at a 1.6 and again these rates are really derived based on what the contribution is by the members and how those plans are elected in terms of the the co-insurance the deductibles and things like that and this last group is our management group um also an increase here of about 252 dollars from our current year's insurance contribution that is a 1.7 increase which would take us up to about 15 606 dollars so this next slide is kind of a breakdown of all of the bargaining unit groups to include management for both certificated and classified the result on the very right hand side is a balance and what i want to note there is this isn't a increase or balance indicated
109directly to our staff members these are just balances to identify the increase from our current rates to our projected cost um and these are also subject to change depending on enrollment status for um for example certificated staff who may enroll their style their spouse additional you know dependents up to three so depending on what is enrolled for those certificated members that number does change so the balance just as an employee contribution is six or 768 excuse me so that is subject to change based on enrollment and i think we do have a good percentage of staff who do enroll spouses and children at this time the third column is our current with a projected cost to the left so it's just kind of reiterating the first four slides that we kind of discussed for each
110group that third column is currently what our contributions are divided amongst the annual contribution deductions for our staff members so that's really the numbers that currently impact each employee i'm again subject to dependent enrollment and spouse enrollment for certificated this slide is a reiteration of the difference in cost per those increases for each bargaining unit the one thing that i do really want to highlight here is that it's an overall increase of about 1.4 percent as a blended increase to the the school district if you would um this does correlate to about a six hundred thousand dollar increase in insurance cost um how that cost is really both broken up and covered throughout the district is still subject to change based on negotiations with our labor partners so to also reiterate the groups will have
111an encountered range of 1.1 to 1.7 percent per unit and that is it so i'm happy to take any questions if there are any questions or comments from the board i have a comment excuse me with everything that's gone on during the last two years health related covet and everything i think that the increase was unexpected in terms of that it was so small and you know i'm i'm glad that that we didn't get really hit hard one percent i think we can deal with that absolutely i would agree yeah so um that is our first read right informational information only okay well thank you thank you mr mason you're welcome okay our next item on the agenda is we're going to have a public hearing on the resolution to approve selection of battery energy
112storage system supply and installation and best services contractor now i want to say that we've already voted on voted on this but we did not conduct a public hearing and we're here to provide a vote to reaffirm steve peng our director of operation facilities is a presenter tonight yeah so i will open the public hearing sir yeah this public hearing is to uh for the california government code section 4217 which allows public agencies uh including school districts to enter into an energy services contract which includes energy services contract for the supply and installation of battery energy storage projects this public hearing is to affirm the agreement and associated cost savings which this project saves roughly about a half a million dollars a little under for redwood high school so this is strictly for redwood we
113will be coming back at a later date for four other sites so and we never received any public comments um we had it posted in front of the district office for the last three weeks um with no comment so okay so right now uh we require a motion motion to reaffirm thank you all second second motion by case mercedes second by mr vegas all in favor student student board member compost yes board member gabey yes i vote yes president guerrero yes board member naylor yes board member viegas yes board member blair yes board member kasper saleno yes motion carries seven oh student board member voting yes thank you i will now close the public hearing and we'll move on to our next item on the agenda which is another public hearing however this is the
114first read this is a resolution adopting school facilities needs analysis to increase developer fees the presenter mr axel condo internal auditor and joining him via zoom mr ken reynolds president of school works incorporated and closer number 38 open a public hearing good evening board president uh guerrero board members i'm interim superintendent carradosa members of the public my name is axel condo and i'm honored to serve as the district internal auditor um today i am with mr ken reynolds who is on zoom and um we are here to present the 2022 justification study as well as the school facility need analysis that was done on by mr reynold and school wards on behalf of the district um this is for information only on may 10 the item will come back again to the board as a
115different agenda so that it could be put to a vote and with that we've engaged in discussion with the building industry association for a few weeks already they had they do have the study and once we have the chance to meet um we will inform the board as well mr reynolds take it away i do have a quick powerpoint to share with you all right tonight we're talking about both the level one and level two developer fees and of course developer fees are a common source of funding for facility projects a majority of districts collect level one and a few with significant needs are also able to collect level two fees based on a special analysis called the school facility needs analysis the new level one rates that were approved by the state allocation board
116this year are 4.79 per square foot for residential projects and 78 cents per square foot for commercial industrial projects and so this chart here shows that inflation adjustment increase that occurred in february 2022 again these rates are adjusted every two years but we got a 71 increase in residential fees and a 12 cent increase in commercial fees and again a lot of that is just due to the 17.45 increase in school construction costs compared to two years ago the level 2 fees are a more special analysis that is looked at looking at all the local factors and the significant impacts that the district has and the state requirements in order to collect level 2 fees that you meet include the number of portable classrooms you have it's at 25.3 percent of your teaching stations it's
117which exceeds the 20 percent requirement and then your capital facility debt which can include bonds and cops is at 35.7 percent of your bonding capacity and we need a minimum of 15 to meet that requirement and the last bond you passed was in november 2018 which is just barely within the last four years and so that is applicable to this study but a year from now that will fall off the list but you'll still meet two requirements and the analysis that we do looks at the amount of development that's happening what the costs are and what the size homes are being built and how many students are being generated from those homes and so what the only real difference that was done this year compared to last year is we look at your current enrollment
118compared to your capacity and last year with the drop in enrollment with the pandemic impacts we actually had a little bit of space available whereas this time with the increase in enrollment there was no space available for students from the new housing developments oh and anyway so yeah the bottom line is the amount justified for the level two fees is five dollars and 46 cents again which is just a little bit higher than the 4.79 you can collect for level 1 fees and so we just give some examples here of what the impacts are on the average cost impacts when a new home is built and we estimate what your income is over the next five years to be about 31 million in total revenue for your level 2 developer fees based on the projected
119development projections which again are subject to change based on the market but as you know it's a pretty strong market currently and then of course the allowable uses of your developer fees can include new school projects acquiring portables or modulars if needed expanding your existing school buying land for future schools and of course making payments on projects you've already completed sometimes there's questions that come up on our school capacity in our report in our demographics report we showed the capacity was thirty thousand just over thirty thousand whereas in the level two developer fee study will show it's just under twenty 29 000. and that again one is based on the state's standards which has a special formula on which portables are counted and they use their own loading standards whereas in our demographic study we're
120looking at the district standards and counting all of your classrooms that are being used for classrooms whereas the state looks at all classrooms our demographics is looking at the ones that can be used for classrooms but excluding ones that are needed for special programs anyway the numbers come out very similar overall [Music] but there is just a slight difference because of the different methodologies and so again some final notes the level one rates go into effect 60 days after board approval whereas level two rates go into effect immediately a level one study is valid uh basically for a two year period because those rates only change every two years whereas a level two study needs to be re-adopted every 12 months because that's when it expires and so again our overall proposed increase is a
121dollar and five cents over the current rates and again a lot of that is due to the 71 cent increase in level one fees and the balance is again just what the local numbers are justifying in order for what you need to collect to pay for 50 percent of the impact of new housing developments and with that i'd like to open up any questions any questions or comments from the board ms nader does once you if you if the board decides to go with the level 2 does that stay in effect forever or so that it works so the the funding is only for 12 months then you have to go back and look at it again and restudy okay so this is only for a 12 month yes we we have to justify it
122every every year we have to justify it for the increase yes okay thank you any other comments questions i have a comment it goes back to that presentation you attended when the realtor said there's a boom going on okay so uh this is our first read you're gonna come back and then at the next time you come back we're gonna do a vote right yes that's okay so uh i will close this publication unless there's other comments or questions public hearing is close thank you thank you okay our next item on the agenda is enclosure number 29 mount whitney cafeteria hvac this is the first read mr steve peng a director of operations facilities good morning or sorry good evening you're still cooking huh yeah i know stop cooking from this morning um sorry uh
123good evening board president guerrero interim superintendent mr cardoza and members of the board i'm steve pena director of facilities um today we're just going to give you some information on mount whitney cafeteria hvc project um this project is replacing the outdated boiler chiller system that we have on the cafeteria building uh we will be installing uh modern heating basically hvac new package units on on the building uh we will be removing and reinstalling new ductwork uh and mechanical so the existing system is an old boiler chiller system which is that one right there and what we look at and that swamp cooler there that is over the kitchen what we will be doing on the design portion there's uh the old system there's a the the chiller side and then the heat exchange which basically
124provides uh cold on this side and heat for summer winter months and this would be the new system similar to what we have on all campuses throughout the district i think we still have four other campuses that have an outdated system which we will be bringing here in the coming months uh two other projects you just passed uh approved one uh last board meeting for pinkham and so we're doing uh mount whitney this is for the architectural agreement to not construction this is the design our plan would be to implement the construction over next summer for the cafeteria building so um with that said any questions it's kind of simple the whole project works your comments from the board thank you it is so needed um i just appreciate that we're going to be doing
125this for mount whitney thank you okay well thank you we'll move on for our next item and i believe you're the presenter yeah that would be for redwood jam modernization and closure number 40. again good evening i said evening this time no morning uh good evening uh board president guerrero interim superintendent cardoza members of the board i'm steve pena director of facilities so we are going to discuss redwood high school gym uh today we just received approval from dsa and it is currently out to bid with a contractor right now so that was some exciting news we've been hoping to get approval from dsa division state architect last week but it has been delayed um but we finally got approval today and we have a contractor bidding it um so uh here here it is
126so work to be done uh we are going to be adding new bleachers and new hardwood floor as part of the project those uh contracts of equity have actually already come to the district for approval so you've already approved the hardwood floor and the bleachers you've also approved the hvac units that will be installed on this project um that kind of mentions the the same thing same uh system as far as cooling heating um and then the restoration of locker rooms and lobby restrooms um and so i'll show you some pictures on what it looks like now um this is their existing uh gym so the floor it looks pretty good in this picture because it's shiny and you see all the lights but really it is a beat up floor i mean this floor
127has been there for i think close to 70 years uh if i'm not mistaken um so this floor is really old and needs it so similar to whitney for those that have been into whitney's gym we installed a new floor there as part of that project so we'll be doing the same here we will be adding new bleachers here for compliance so ada uh bleachers as well so those wood bleachers you see will be going away and we will be installing uh they're kind of like the new uh bleachers that we have at uh ridgeview which are the plastic seats um it'll have i think rhs on the on the bleachers too so kind of a cool little thing um here is the wood floor that it's not this is just one of the renderings
128this isn't the complete floor um to my knowledge i think we're just putting an r right here in the center um but this would be the the court layout as far as what we would be doing uh as part of the project and so uh the boys and girls locker room i don't know what happened there but uh the the boys and girls locker room so we'll be getting new lighting we will be removing this insulation and putting in new insulation all these outdated restrooms that are not compliant we will be demoing these cmu walls making compliant restrooms and sinks which we will now shrink down the amount of stalls so i think right now they have close to seven i think we go down to four based off of uh providing access to the
129sinks and to the restrooms so here's a lot sorry sorry chuck nathan's asking for the same color scheme i don't think we're going to go with it but let's see oop there we go so lobby restrooms um we will also be updating these these are the first ones that you walk into to the right and left of in the kind of fourier there so these will all get updated same thing we will lose these cmu walls put in new tile uh floor walls um sinks and that goes for both men's and women's restrooms in that lobby we will be doing minor scope in the lobby um not a whole bunch but it is some paint new lighting stuff like that so any questions questions or comments miss camonia how long does it take to get
130an approval from the ds csa yeah division state architecture yeah it kind of varies it depends if it's a big project like this it could take four to five months our whole process from start to finish when for instance mount whitney we just approved that well hopefully we will next next board meeting but pinkham it'll take close to 12 months to get approval by the time we design and get approval uh cde approval you know so that we get state funding back um so it's it's a 12 month process from start to finish from design to approval and then roughly construction could take anywhere from you know two months to six months kind of depends we also have that two-month period of bidding so really it's like a 14-month process from start to finish right
131so have we have we put the construction out to bid for the this project yes it is currently out to bid now so next week i will be bringing this back for approval and so that that's kind of just more of an informational this time so next time we'll be bringing the contract for approval the reason i ask is because um got some emails from pinkham teachers um about you know like how come we don't get our you know hvac you know fixed for i think it's a year right yeah yeah i think our plan is to do it next summer so that's because it takes 12 months for the you know the the design design and approval yeah that's just good knowledge so now yep i can explain why yeah yeah but i i
132think that pink and we have it's operational right now correct yeah it's a functional boiler chiller system yeah pinkham is has been fine this year there's there have been no issues with pinkham and i did respond to the site and the staff member that had the questions thank you okay so this is the first three you'll be coming back next board meeting for the second reading for approval of a contract for the bids okay thank you mr all right thank you have a good evening okay thank you our next item on the agenda is notice of intent to employ certificate personnel and approval of variable term waiver requests for speech language pathologists enclosure number 41 dede samovia assistant superintendent hrd good evening and with your approval i will stay here my seat and present this
133last item we have this is an intent to employ a speech and language pathologist for our district they're on a variable term waiver because they have yet to complete their full credential um and please note that the salary which looks tiny is just for the remainder of the school year okay so i'm asking for approval to go ahead and hire this is there a motion to move um second motion by mistake or second by ms blair all in favor president guerrero yes oh sorry student board member compost yes okay and present girl voted yes board member kneeler yes board member viegas yes board member blair yes board member case berseleno oh she's not here absent okay and board member gaby yes and i vote yes motion carry six um one absent and student board member
134votes yeah no more items on the agenda the sport meeting is adjourned