001I'm going You make me have a seat right here. >> [laughter] >> Okay. 5 minutes. Thank you. check in at 6:45. We did check in with council. We are not able to hold the meeting unless we have tomorrow. So checking. Thank you. >> Thank you. Starting the meeting. All right. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. Welcome to the 125 and over to access translation and zoom. Please click on the globe icon at the bottom of the screen. and you're here in the auditorium and translation a headset in the back corner of the auditorium. I'm going to help you in a few minutes. [singing] We're going to begin the public comment agenda item. Members of the public are invited to speak to the board on any matter but not otherwise on the agenda that is within the
002subject of the west. Please prepare now and fill in and submitted card. We can find um if you're participating please raise your hand and participating by phone request has been turned in. The copies are placed on the order received. you call on speakers one at a time alternating between public comment here and then one on Zoom public comment generally last hour and the time allotted each speaker is two minutes in the meantime we're going to move on to the rest opening proceeding so I'd like to welcome everybody and we can do some introductions I'm president of school Good evening everyone for area school district. >> Good evening Melissa interum associate superintendent of operation. CB and CBC member. >> My name is Committee. Vice Chairman. I think I'm superintendent. >> I do want to acknowledge a
003special guest in the space today. We have city council for >> Thank you. Oh, we also have trust online. Okay. Next, we're going to move to that budget. If you are willing and able or able, please All >> [laughter] >> right. It's on her laptop. >> To the flag of the United States of America and to stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and land. We recognize that we press handle them and acknowledge them inhabitants of matter currently labor. I acknowledge that the burden of environmental exploitation and systemic injustice falls on labor black and brownness in the building of this country and its institutions. I remember that black and brown people are born and died in this land against the old generations. They also acknowledge the contribution of labor survivors for the centuries to
004the day of their labor inclar forced and undocumented in the buildings of the United States. >> They cannot understand me on Zoom. >> Okay. The other thing is you want to point the speak straight in for my head. [laughter] >> Is that better? That's how you use micron. Number five by the school district school board education is committed to the work of anti-racism conscious and active conscious and active effort to identify violence and correct racial inequities in systems and institutions who our schools and community racism explicit or inclusive standards in direct conflict to the fundamental principles of WCC USB education. To carry WC education into the future, we recognize that we must continually renew and reflect on racism and our new ideas to the times. Unjust ideas and policies and racial inequities have shaped us,
005our schools, and our society. We strive to uncover our conscious biases and practice anti-racism as individuals and board members. We challenge ourselves to persist through the discomfort necessary for growth and learning, to deepen our listening and our examination of racism and aggression, and to develop a strong understanding of how our personal experiences and feelings fit into a larger picture of continual aggression. Each member of our school board individually and collectively is responsible for creating and nurturing an anti-racist learning narrative where each student staff member and community partner is respected and valued member of the WCC USB community. We are uniquely positioned as our responsibility to identify and dismantle racist idea as caring equitable policies in ourselves and across the district. Therefore, we commit to supporting anti-racist policies, programs, practices for our children's education and wellbeing
006while building strong inclusive school communities. We commit to we commit to holding each member accountable towards these goals and moving the work of anti-racism program. We also commit to holding less controy standards of anti-racism in our schools or approved March 20th, 2024. six roll. [clears throat] >> Are we good to proceed? >> Uh, we're just figuring out how to make sure we get the screen and the audio working. >> Okay. Will you please take over? >> BS >> present. >> Online is clerusty is not present. Thank you. We also I'm pretty sure the people back there can't maybe speak up everybody. Thank you. Moving on to seven agenda review and adoption. Is there anything that either body like you would adjust or >> seeing none we'll proceed with the agenda as printed. Moving now to
007a public comment. Members of the public are invited to speak to the board on any matter that is not otherwise on the agenda that is within the sub jurisdiction of public school district. Follow comment will last 1 hour. The time allowed each speaker is 2 minutes. Additional speakers remain at the conclusion of 1 hour comment. The time allowed per speaker beyond first hour is generally one minute. Individuals wishing to speak to WCC USDC public comic card were participating by Zoom. Individuals need to raise their hand in the zoom out prior to the beginning of this agenda. If you are calling in by vote, press star 9. State and time shall not be transferred from one person to another and there must substitution of speakers. Speakers can also make public comment again for each discussion and
008action item on the agenda after setup presentations. The public will have 10 minutes for it and one minute for speaker protocols are so above apply. The public comment period is safe space for diverse view points may be expressed similarly without interruption or intimidation. Please listen attentively to each speaker and respect their time at the podium as if it were your own. Be open to a different point of view if one is offered. Due to the Brown Act, board members cannot discuss items that are not on the agenda and do not visually respond to items presented in public comments. >> Is there any? >> Yes, we have three. >> Yes, there are three items. Is there time? They start. Okay. All right. Hi, my name is Christina Veronian. Um, I teach fourth and fifth grade here
009at Lake. Welcome to Lake. Yay. We have new facilities. They're fantastic. I'm very grateful for them. I would like to remind you though that there are over 20 schools in this district that still do not have air conditioning or airflow in their classrooms. So teachers are really experiencing terrible working conditions, especially the hot months, as well as horrible learning conditions for their students. So yay for us. That's fantastic. And let's not forget that we really need to revisit the proposal that we made in our contract about a temperature maximum. Um, something I did want to touch on really quick. Um, I'm not really appreciating the messaging going out on Parent Square right now. Um, there have been some things said about students being harmed if teachers were to go on strike, insinuating the teachers are
010the ones doing this harm to the students. The teachers are not the ones doing the harm to the students. We care for the students every single day. I am on the negotiating the bargaining team. I have been in every single meeting for nine months with the district trying to make this happen. We need to come to a solution to an agreement. That is your choice. You can make an end to that. If you do not want us to go on strike, please make an agreement with us. Come to terms. Pay the teachers better. Give us the classroom size that we need. The temperatures come out. Thank you. My name is Canon. I've been teaching at Lake for 27 years. Also been here. So when I look, we love our beautiful new building, but when I
011look back when my old portable stood, we were talking about this last week. We were happy there. We have been doing the same teaching, the same load of students. It brings home the fact that we are and always were the heart and soul of our school. It's not the building. It's the students, the teachers, the support staff, and our beautiful community of families. I had Patricia K's kids and we had her grandkids. I had someone who suddenly had. That's what community is. The WCCUSD's mission statement and Lakes's mission statement both include striving for high standards, creating lifelong learners, and putting students first. So, our schoolboard members and teachers have the same three goals. Putting students first means investing in the people teach and support them in every day. As we celebrate our beautiful new school,
012we must also fight for what happens inside. We need smaller class sizes, special education support, and fair pay that brings teacher stability. Class civil civil leads to brighter teachers. Students first is our commitment. Let's honor it. Thank you. All right, Mark. Good evening, President Reaggler, trustees, superintendent cotton. Um, I want to echo uh the gratitude um uh that we've heard from the teachers about this facility. It's truly life-changing for the students that learn here and for for our members that work here. So many worries and concerns about physical conditions and hazards. Temperatures have been taken off their shoulders so they can focus 100% on providing quality instruction to their students. We need this for every school site in West Contraosta, not just the ones that were higher up on the list. There are 20 schools
013in our district, mostly in the cities of Richmond and the city of S Pablo, that did not have air conditioning or adequate air ventilation for our students. This causes many, many days, upwards of 20 days a year where students can't learn. They can't stay in their classrooms. They're taken downstairs told to lay on the grounds get cooler. Um, this is not a sustainable situation yet. We've had no sense of urgency from our district administration today. And this of course predates Superintendent Cotton, so this is not not on her watch. Um, but it is something we need to work towards. We have a proposal in our uh, union negotiations that we agree to a temperature range that is acceptable, that's within the law. the law has changed and now you can't have indoor temperatures over a
014certain level um because it violates the law. But we've had no willingness for the maintenance and operation executives to engage meaningfully about how we're going to address this. We have many ways to do this. We have many cities and that the county government um and other private uh uh funders where we could look to resources to provide relief to our students. The other thing I want to say is Lake is successful because it works with number a number of international educators and they're in a precarious situation right now. They want security to do not exist within sight without international educators. They deserve a path to legal permanent residency and that's something within your hands. Superintendent President Reckler, let's work together to make this a stable, safe place for our nonimmigrant uh educators. And that concludes
015public comments. Thank you to everybody who gave public comments today. Okay. So number one, the site tour has already been completed. We did that before starting the meeting because we did not form. And now we'll move on to B2 which is the session in accordance with California Education Code 15280B the citizens plan committee fulfills its mission for preparing and publishing an annual report to ensure accountability and transparency. This report reviews and reports on proper expenditure of bond funds ensuring that money is spent on authorized projects in accordance with voter intent. The CEO will update the board on its progress in completing the 21 2021 2022 2023 and 2024 annual grants >> again. um CDOC acting chair. So um I wanted to talk a little bit about the history uh recent last few years history of
016the CDOC and our membership and how that has challenged us to um uh produce reports um in accordance with the the law that president uh recited. So um we're on this side of the table. We're all on the teeers. Um, and if anybody's [clears throat] interested in joining our our crew, uh, there are warm seats waiting for you. Um, let us know. And so, anyway, you know, there was a a period of time where the uh the CDC was um understaffed, if you will, or the the um the number of members didn't meet uh the requirement by law. And so we've been digging out of the hole in terms of beefing up uh our our volunteers and membership of the CDOC. Um there was also a period of time where the CDOC was not operating.
017Um not sure how long that was. Um about a year at least. Um and so because of that we uh we fell a lot behind on these reports. Um for uh just general uh you know understanding of of the requirement uh this body oversees the bond expenditures of the district and uh we issue a report every year that says yes the district is in compliance with the language uh stated on the ballot that passed the bond with the voters passed the bond. Um I will I will say you know one thing about um our work and um you know the some of the bond language at least the more recent bond language is is so broad that the only real uh thing that uh we'll be looking at we be looking at where the district
018may be out of compliance is is not in in which school they invest in or what types of things they invest in but really are the are the are the dollars going to the capital program or are they going to the operational side of running the school district remain teachers and obviously the bond program doesn't fund that. Um so um I just wanted to offer those that that background a little bit. Um and you know the commitment that we will get get ahead of this and and finally produce these reports. Uh and we'll do that with the support uh and empowerment that we that we get from our partners that on the school board. Anybody else have comment? That was beautiful. Beautiful. I couldn't have said it better myself. I couldn't have said that better
019myself. Thank you so much. Too many questions. >> So I have some ideas for you. First is can you maybe collapse 21 22 23 and just say we weren't here the committee was disrupted within that numbers and seal those up and then just concentrate on 24 >> I was actually going >> [clears throat] >> actually very much agree with that. Um and I was going to email and request that as I was speaking to Don um before his departure um it was said that because we were not here. We can't produce those CB reports. >> I thought that Lorraine was working on one from a previous year and I have not been able to acquire that from her. So it only makes sense for us to pick up and move forward where we are now.
020>> And if I can add, one of the things that we can do at staff is we can pull the required bond financial and performance audits for each of those years as well as the fiscal year financial reports. And I can just put those in packets and provide them so that each one of those fiscal years is kind of wrapped with those materials, you know, for inclusion and work. [clears throat] >> And then there's something else I wanted to say just >> Oh, yeah. Is there anything that anybody can do? Do you need resources besides your time and brain power? Um are there um trainings um books on how done examples from other school districts like anything that we can staff can help you with I will mention adding all my steps today [laughter] that
021um acting chair has asked for some training and so one of the things that we can do in providing that administrative ative support is pull some different examples and kind of help identify the components to be [clears throat] included. >> Well said. Um so training will be great. Um I also think that we need um some time to agenda the discussion on how we want to to tackle this. I think it's a great suggestion to to collapse and combine these reports given that none of us were on the board for three of those years. Um I think I joined in 23. Um so so thank you for the suggestions. Um also maybe some time with legal counsel. Um I don't have formulated questions yet but I do think we would benefit from uh being able
022to ask some questions to district legal counsel. that would be great if they could come to one of our meetings. Um and then and then just just you know high level for for our group. Um you know in the past these reports have been so dense and so um you know well written um but they're also you know the point is to get the message about how the district is spending money uh out to the community. And you know if I could show a hand of anybody in the room that's read one of these reports there one two three on this side of the room. You know the point is to get that information out. we need to think about how how we to make it more relevant, right? And you know, even even as
023far as you know, going beyond uh or doing something in addition to a paper report, we looking at technology, looking at social media, looking at ways to get the the message out there because that's the point of it, right? We can we can do a one page report that says the district was in compliance. you know, here are some here are some things that we think could be uh could strengthen the bond program. Uh but then, you know, at the end of the day, what we really need to do is figure out how to get the message out to the community and do it in different variety of ways. So, we can talk about that. Um, one thing that we did talk about you led this was was dividing up so that we we each
024individual COC member has some set of aspects of the board that he tack and I think to your president's question. I guess I don't think there's anyone here who wouldn't take assistance from, you know, some kind of I know I know there's, you know, staffing is an issue with the district, but but we certainly would I think well to have dedicated or part-time dedicated some district staff who who might kind of help facilitate them, not just and provide resources um when needed. Um I think that would be welcome. Um and I think we all want to get this done and we're fantastic. And I think part of the problem has been you know like for me relatively new don't have the history with with the district board um have never been involved in offering annual
025report before for CBOC but I know there are resources out there districts it's easy to find things online um AI is helpful so I think we're trying to get >> absolutely the update on us giving up all of the chapters that has to be revised. Um so we can still um move forward with our chapter. But now we know what you're doing and we'll just take the other work into our votes or give it to them because that's what putting the glossery together and you know um pictures all of those things. So I have to take all of those and just kind of it's helpful to know what year to focus on appcate. because we don't just want to turn anything in. We want to make sure that what we turn in is accurate and
026it does speak to um where those funds are going and how they're being sent and that we are showing the communities that it is being put in its proper place. And so I echo what all of the members have said over on CB is that we are committed to um getting it done. Um but kind of having that guide and being able to navigate um the way student get successfully completed I think is following what we're trying to get done. Thank you. Thank I want to start by saying thank you all for volunteering your time. I know it's not easy work uh especially you know getting started. Um I really like this idea of doing almost like an executive summary. Um my experience has been probably the previous years that it can be pretty overwhelming
027to others writing 100 things that are wrong and 100 things that are right. Um and then it's difficult for I think for us the board then think about priorities that we want staff to focus on our students has been staff go out and fix everything which then also doesn't allow us to have accountability right we're not thinking about top three things that should be really focusing on so I think that's a really good idea I mean of course we have to fix all of them I mean they do it but I think that would be really helpful and I think each year it would also be helpful for me to hear the top three things that COC needs from the district to do your job better. Um, some in the past has been also a
028laundry list of things, right? I think every district has a lot of needs, right? Uh, because we are on their staff because we uh don't have the resources that other districts have, but I think it's really important that you all are able to do your job, right? training. I think it's an easy thing to something like hours for legal counsel, right? Um I don't think we can just provide you know unlimited hours for legal council but I think having you know the chair and the president figure out like pay like you know twice in semester like a meeting with legal council to answer all but I think those things are doable right we need to be able to have I think as for me just a short list of things this year in order to
029achieve this right so that would be my ask um but I Yeah. >> I think one of the things that we need to make sure is there's a difference between compliance and culture. You want to change the culture of the CDOC. You do that by coming to the board for scanning reports. You do that by advertising all the beautiful uh they're not flyers the the newsletters that come out that does newsletters about here newsletter about lake and speed and this so those are kind of things you can do but compliance is very important what do you legally have to do to be a coc to maintain your coc status to then implement the vision and the mission of what the coc is I think because everybody's relatively new that compliance part and then culture will
030come. That's a lot for the district to come in and help changing and shifting the culture of the CSC. I'm complete public comments. [clears throat] Is there any public comment? Thank you. There were a couple of comments here that were not quite accurate on the number of of years from CBC to the meeting. That's not accurate at all. I go back and check the records. I have right here. In 2021, there was one meeting that was missed. In 22, there there was uh three meetings that were missed. In 23 there were four meetings that were canceled for lab forum. In 24 there were two meetings that cancelled forum and then one meeting just didn't happen. So you're only talking about five meetings over the past four years. So that's not really an issue. There was
031a time when they there was resolution passed by CDC say we're not getting the support they felt they needed and so they said we're not meeting that but that was not included in the past five years. Okay. As far as the annual reports right now, there's only two annual reports that are outstanding. One of them that former chair is in work. She said in import there's there's a there's one that's being worked on right now. But other than that, they did turn in. Have they been shared with you? That's not up to us to do that. You have staff is supposed to be doing that. Communication department supposed to be doing that. Uh but for one reason the other may not to be in front of the but they're not as far behind as you
032get out of here. >> Hello Um, this is my first time at one of these meetings, but I was just curious, is there a website where I can find out more information about specifically the role you guys do? It sounds like it's very important. >> Yeah, sure. How can you get ideas for your project? So maybe the one comment I'd like to make is like thank you very much for your service. People who've been around for a little bit know let's say for those of you who are new I think you have the most difficult volunteer job all the volunteer jobs it takes a while to get it but you were all I know you can do it and I know you can do absolutely great reports and I have [clears throat] full confidence and
033it's just what do you need to get that done? Um, I've seen some examples of really good reports that are like a page. Um, and I hear your head. So, it seems like Yeah. Yeah. They're great. >> And I can to show you, but they like you can really see what they're doing and it's very compact. So, Yeah. [clears throat] >> I just wanted to answer that question. Um where you can find information um on how to volunteer on different boards and committees. It would actually be um on our WC page and then there's an entire tab for boards and committees and you can go down. It's currently being worked on. It's being updated but it should be complete soon. But that's where you'll find more information. And if there's nothing else, we'll close out
034B2 and link to B3, which is um the CC website, and we'll pass it over. >> Okay. So, um thank you for the comment about the website. the next item here. Um, you know, our and I'll say in a moment just to say the role of our committee is I said it before, but just to super clear is to ensure that the the district is spending the bond revenues that are tax dollar from from the residents of of the districts um on the appropriate things that that the bond language stated. Um, and so Um and and one of our very important roles is to make sure that that message of how programs being run and where the money is going and maybe why some of the the schools got chosen and some didn't. You know,
035all that type of information is available for the public and for our community members. The the website is an obvious place to get that information out. So the functionality of the website is super important and critical. um the user friendliness, the timeliness, uh the ability to navigate through the website and the resources are on are all very important. Um so we have had this discussion um in prior years. I think the last joint meeting, one of the last joint meetings last year, we had um the communications director. Uh so we've had great partnership and support in this space. I think um we're eager to help um provide content and also uh potentially some um not design direction but some wish list items around how we we would like our website to show up. Um so
036um you know that's it would kind of open up the discussion in that regard. I I'd also like to understand kind of where we're at with the current state of the development or revise of the website. I know it's in a greater context of the whole district website revised. Um and then D we can talk a little bit about the process of what what the district needs from us uh what staff needs from us uh and what we can expect when we provide advice um for posting on the website. Um there has been a lot of stuff there has been a lot of resources posted on the website. Um I think we'll we'll also need to talk about from you know from our perspective on what's critical and how to present things so it's easy
037to navigate uh because a lot of information is always not the best way to just if it's a dumping ground it's not it's not always uh effective for for people to to get what they need. So, um, yeah, that's just my opening comments. Anybody? >> I was just looking at the website. Um, I just Googled WWC and we didn't because right now it says contact DNS, which he's probably happy to answer, but but he's not sharing unfortunately. Um, so, you know, I think this is an area where maybe we we could work with with district staff, someone assigned um to talk about updating website. Obviously, there are some immediate updates need to be done. Um, but also, you know, I think one of the most important things to be on there is going to be
038these reports. Hopefully, we'll have an update on there soon. Um, and I think, you know, it would be good to probably regularly or at least quarterly or annually um meet with with staff to talk about, you know, making sure the website is up to date. It's got accurate information and is, you know, and has the basic program information. >> So, I'll share quickly um that um Um our director of PS um is not with us tonight. Um she sends her apologies. She looks forward to continuing to partner with the CBSC. And we have with us here tonight via Zoom, one of the team members from Palms, Missing um and um is definitely going to be a partner in looking to update the website. So we want to thank her for being here today. Um, and
039I know she'll be sure to report back um to Miss Boris. Um, should I pass it to the board? >> Um, I I would of course love to hear from about an update. Um, I do have to say that apart from maybe just academics, facilities, one of the biggest questions that I get award when um, and bonds are one of the biggest things people bring up because they see the property bill, right? And they're really interested in what they're paying for. Um, so I always send the website which I'm not really right much to look at. So I would be super interested to hear for development and hear your thoughts of what it should look like. Um for us to honestly send community for resources, right? So I spend quite a bit of time informing
040community of what we're doing. Um and um I think that would be just very very helpful. So I would love to hear that. >> And I have a question. It's probably preparation for this meeting. I went to the site and there were kisses in preparation for this meeting. I went to the site and there were many broken links for um annual reports and agendas and many things were broken. Would you be able to give us an update on uh what's transpiring with that that website? Yes. Thank you, President Reckler, Superintendent Cotton, CVOC, and Board of Education. Hello. So, at this time, yes, I will say that there was some significant issues with the migration over from the old Blackboard site to this new site, final site. Um but we are working to resolve those issues
041and um we are set for a launch of the new CBOC website coming on December 4th or 5th this year. And yes, >> there are several steps that need to happen before we can launch it in its full uh capacity, but at this point we are uh migrating files over and trying to make sure that we have what we need. And then we would like to work very closely with CBOC to um update content on pages, relink links that have been broken and lost and make sure that everything is in workable condition once that happens. So a person, someone who is a representative of CBOC can work very closely with the communications department. Um and I have a process outlined for how that can actually happen. So, I also have on this call I can
042share a mockup of the actual page, the front page, and give you an overview of how it can be used and um if that's something you'd like to see. >> Okay. All right. Let me share my screen. Let me know when you see my screen [laughter] because I can't tell exactly. Okay, hold on. All right, I see one moment. Okay. Okay, this is a mockup of the CBOC website and how it will look actually when it is launched. Although we do need uh approvals. Um so I would like to work with someone in advance to make sure that we have approval of this mockup done um along with the comm director of communications who is not here today. But I can just give you a quick like spin of what how this site functions and
043how it could work really well. Um it's very much in line with how the ex it exists now in the CBOC website in terms of navigation. You have about meetings, reports, training, library, and calendar. And some additional features that are on this site that uh are on the district site and all the school sites as well is the ability to locate schools up here in the corner and a find it fast, which is very much improved over the old Blackboard site. um find it fast uh quick fast quick search um when you're looking for items. So as we scroll down these are some of the major points that you have traffic uh from people in the community uh meetings agenda packets reports library and minutes and meeting recordings here on YouTube. So this will click
044through click through to YouTube. So these are your major buckets and these are easy access along with your navigation up here at the top. Just want to point out also that this translation here is something that is really easy to access there. I can't show you right now but there are 15 or more translations that can be done. Um these are the major translations that were given to me um through the department or sorry through the um K through2 and educational services department of the the languages spoken in the department that are listed here for people to translate throughout our community. If you scroll down we also have an ability to put news out here on your own CBOC feed. Um we do have a parent square link here. can be removed or uh I
045know that CBC probably I'm not sure how involved you are with parent square but socials are also here as well as an opportunity we can just um remove those if it's only news that you would like and you can also have your items posted here like meetings and different things um we can have a conversation about how you'd like to present in your news section. So down here at the bottom um we also have uh in contact information. These this is also the social information and quick links. We want to keep these under eight eight links per se, but these are also links that can lead to different parts of your site that can help you out a great deal. This is the first page. This is the homepage. To go deeper into the site
046right now wouldn't um wouldn't really help us. But uh if you would like to give us feedback on this, my suggestion is is that you create a Google doc and share it with the communications department and list items that we can work on to help improve and uh collaborate collaborate with you on. Uh that's how I've been moving forward with other department and school sites. And so I think that would really help here. Something to let you know that I've done is I've taken I've created actually a Google a Google document that has every single page in the current CBOC website and I've migrated all of the information from those pages onto the Google site. So all of the messaging and links that are on the current site are on that document and we can
047work directly on that document to make changes. There are many links that are old, outdated, broken that need to be fixed and I do need the help of CBOC as CBCOC Leia is on to work with me to reconnect some of those links. Um, yeah. Do you have questions for me? I see hands. >> Um, extensive. Thank you so much for for the presentation. It looks good and I definitely welcome uh the opportunity to engage. I think we have some members on our committee that are very excited about this this uh topic and um past as well. So, we'll we'll definitely be in touch. >> Anybody else? I guess you commenting public com. >> Thank you very much. About 16 years ago, I was involved with setting up the first CDC website. That personally was
048not handled through the district because through the SDI oversaw our construction projects and then the district kind of booted in but that all went home. So we we lost our website that we had at the time. But in my opinion being on the CBC for a long time. We have two areas to be concerned about. first is being able to to transfer all the data from the current site on the old site or the new site, excuse me. But one of the problems on that, you know, a lot of bad information on there, a lot of draft minutes, for instance. You know, it's not that they weren't finalized, it's just nothing's ever done to to publish the finalized person on there. Okay, that also missed a lot of other information and Miss Desmond had been
049in touch with me and asked me if I can go back and search while she only asked for about 500 items and we just sold a couple hours ago on that and I'm doing it down fill some of the bullets. But then the second is the maintenance of it means that we can't say well in five or six years. No, it needs to be done every single month. When you you got a new agenda packet and you got a set of minutes that have been finalized, you got an annual report, get them posted on there so that when people do go on, they find easy access. People get frustrated very easily. They go on the website can't find anything. >> That's right. That's the problem we got with almost all the pages on that site.
050It's a train transition page or page. We go there all see page four that doesn't exist anymore. You get frustrated look at your 10 or 15 sites and they say but that will be changing. We know that just there's still >> Marie um I want to say the new website the map that we just showed um it look very nice and thank you that'll make it more clear I'm trying to look for information um I just request that maybe there can be a page where it shows here are your board members because you guys work very hard and I appreciate what you guys do your name I know what contact email you have is fund. Um yeah, just to make sure that's up there so that people can contact you because um you're doing a
051great job. Thank you. [clears throat] comments on that. >> Thank you. Uh first I appreciate the work that's being done now and started looking at it on December 4th or 5th. Um one thing for the wish list long term I would love to see videos short videos about this is what the CBC is being our chair committee members. Uh why do you do this work right? Why is it important? Uh also the history of the Cos. I think we could do short videos explain to the general you know community most 99% of people I believe are not going to go in and read a report right or click the links of u you know all these for things that we get but they'll look at a quick video um so I would love to see
052that in the future but thank you miss it um and if maybe you could go to the COC's December meeting potentially to get feedback email would be great. Thank you. >> Um, some of the things that I want to reiterate has already been said, I think you do need to have a landing spot for your membership. Who are the members now? How you become a member, those type of uh key key informationational points. Also, if you go to the uh LCAP, they play a video about what is LCAP in the very beginning of all their meeting. this a schoolhouse rock type video. It just tells you what it is, where the funding comes from, what is it supposed to do, what does it look like. It grounds everybody. So he had some u a schoolhouse
053rock type of video that's just on the web page for that you play at the beginning of your meetings because your meetings are recorded just to give a quick grounding uh framing that you need to know about what you're getting ready to listen to and what you're getting ready to uh be a part of. >> The other two things I'm sure that are on there is what you do and then what you have done. >> This is where the money this is the money you have. This is where the money has went. This is the projects that have been done because of the bond money. All of those simple things are helping to educate and to navigate. And that's the key to all of our organizations inside the bigger organization. How do you educate and
054navigate someone through it? I'm complete. >> Um these are all interesting. And I think good ideas and I think speaking for myself and probably most of the board here I think we we agree. Um but I want to remind you it's not our money. We're actually just volunteers overseeing that the district is is being proven and spending district money. Um and to my knowledge we don't have any paid staff and I don't think we have budget to do these kinds of things. So we're talking about making nice videos and things like that. I think we begin to um you know it's got to come from from district. So >> yeah and just follow that I think um if we can again support you know we can produce content and send it over and then putting
055it together and editing could be you know we can meet in the middle in that respect pretty easy for us to record ourselves doing something or doing a site visit or whatever. uh the whole editing and making it smooth. I think that supports >> okay to close and move now to E4 discussion upon financial reports. M is going to take this item. This is not about how to read the reports or any reports. This is strictly about the reduction of reports and I'll turn over to >> Thank you. We have a presentation that's going to come up in a second and I'll just name a couple of the resources that we have available to you tonight. Um, we do have a copy of this presentation as well as the full suite of financial reports for
056our previous month. And we also have the full suite of the fiscal year reports for the fiscal year that has closed, which is fiscal year 25, which goes from July 1st of 2024 through June 30th, 2025. Next slide, please. So there's a couple of different uh financial reports that we provide and we provide them essentially two ways. So, one of the ways that we provide them is through an online reporting portal using KBY software and a system called accountability. And then there's also a suite of reports that we do more manually um in our office. And so this kind of highlights some of the different components from our PMP that talks about our financial reports. Next slide. Going to move a little bit quickly through the slides. So this is not about um reading the
057reports but I imagine we might have a broader audience tonight. So we've provided some information about the terminology. Next slide. And here's the suite of reports that we provide. So the first one that you see the consolidated budget status reports those are all available on our online reporting module which is links there on the left hand side. At any point any member of the community can log on to that module and review program and project reports at any time. The reports that you see below that. So the ones that are on the consolidated budget status are prepared by staff. Next slide. >> And so this is just the detail of the different reports that are provided. and we're going to kind of just zoom through the next set of slide which will give you a
058snapshot of each one. So this is a report that comes out of accountability which is a software that we use to do multi-year um budget projections. Our financial reports go all the way back to fiscal year 2000. Next slide. This is a subsection of that report. So if you wanted to just look at the master plan. Next slide. This is a subsection of measure R. So everything that we track is tracked separately by bond measure. Next slide. The next one, the bond program spending to date by site. This is an annual report on slide nine that is created inhouse and it encapsulates the full bond program um essentially on a sheet of paper. So it rolls all of the financial reports up to a site level. Next slide. This is a multi-year cash flow. So
059report 13 identifies the overall program all the way to June of 2029. And the notes along the right hand side are referenced with additional detail within. This is also a report that's done manually within our office. Next slide. This is the variance report because our reports reflect so many fiscal years at this point almost three decades. Um in historical information and projection forward we provide a monthly variance which gives you just the change that's happened from month to month. Next slide. >> This is our AP checklist and so this is the exact detail of every bond dollar that is spent. Um, one of the key objectives of the citizens bond oversight committee is to review the expenditures of the bond program. And so this identifies how every single dollar is spent. Next slide. And then
060these are similar reports, but these are the ones that been recently provided that represent the entire fiscal year and encapsulate all of the different approvals by the board. So kind of accelerating to the end, there are some additional staff reports that are provided um the newsletters and the project status reports and um thanks to some great recommendations from currenters, there is some additional um socials that are posted as well. And now we'll open it up for questions and comment. Thank you. So the CDC, are you getting the reports on a regular basis when you need them? >> So I believe staff tries to provide them monthly and we don't get them monthly. Um, so you know, that's one issue. I think we should as a as a committee talk about what's uh what we need.
061I don't I'm not sure that we need it monthly. Um, and especially as we think about the context of staffing and burden on staff. I will say I served on the CDC in Oakland um for three years prior to joining uh the facilities department in for Oakland Unified and uh I my saw my colleague who was putting her course together in the CDOC and it took her 40 straight hours. Um, I'm not, you know, not to say anything about the tools or software that she had access to, but I do think I don't know what it looks like on our on our side here, but I do think it's uh labor intensive. We got to make sure that um that the the effort is matched with the need and and that's something a discussion we
062can have. Yeah, I understand that. I think it has been a problem for >> quite some time. Often times we either don't get the reports or don't get them time or don't get them complete manner. But but you know again I think it's not for lack of the part of of staff the way they try to get them to us and I'm not entirely sure what the issue is but the truth but it has been an ongoing problem without it. Uh, Miss P, I was wondering if maybe you have some thoughts on the issue. Uh, I would be interested. I already know your other staff, but I was wondering if you you could respond to that so we can all two things. One, what's going on in the department, but also what do you need
063from the board and the district in general to be able to support? >> Thank you for that. Um, so when we last met at the joint board and CBOC, we did talk about this topic. And so one of the things that we did was we brought in a retired resource to help us um really kind of shore up the process, the training, and the procedures for the financial reports. Um, since then, we've been able to produce them with a better cadence. One of the ways that the CBOC has really partnered with us is the CBOC meeting was essentially the second Monday. And part of our process in producing these financial reports is doing a full reconciliation. We want to make sure that everything is perfect, but we can't run final reports until the end of
064the so I would say the reconciliation process takes about two days. That's something we would do whether we run the reports or not. That's how we ensure that the reports are accurate. Um once the full reconciliation has been made, any variance has been identified and resolved, then we can go into writing the reports. So actually doing the manual reports doesn't take a lot of time. It's the reconciliation that takes a couple of days and we would do that anyway. One of the other things that we've done is we've partnered with accountability to find different components that could be automated. So while financial data is really critical and we don't want a script pulling in data, we know that if we run it check that's pretty clear. And so um we're working on the automation of
065bringing the warrant information into the accountability system from MUNS which is our district financial software enterprise system. So that that's one less manual step. Um the other thing that's happened is we truly have a dedicated team member who's focusing on this at this time. Um he was here earlier tonight. I wanted to embarrass him a little bit and shout out to him. Um, Superintendent Cotton was his principal at one point and he has joined our team and this has really become a focus. So, I think to your point having a dedicated staff member who is trained and able and focused on it. We know what he's doing that first week of every month has really enabled the reports to happen. He's the one who's authored all the fiscal year reports. So I think the challenge
066for us becomes something that it's always been when it works it works and you have a cadence and it's on time and if you have a change in staffing how do we replicate the process so that if the person changes we don't lose that frequency. Um, but since our last joint meeting, we have been able to produce the full suite of reports for every month and we've provided the fiscal year reports going back three years. So, we've now cut ourselves up and I just want to shout out to Alonzo and appreciate him for his great work and dedication to these reports. >> How many hours? At the I think at the last meeting you said that it took 40 hours to produce the reports. just performing the house. >> No, actually now he's got it
067down to 2 days. So, um that's about 15 hours for us, but that's not including the reconciliation. So, um before the reconciliation happened and then the preparation of the reports, the revisions of the reports to make sure that they were accurate and complete did take about a week. Um now the reconciliation is about 3 days running the reports about two days and as they have come to me there have been very little revisions needed which has really set up the process and also in partnership with the CBOC um we changed the date so instead of being the second Monday it's the third Monday which allowed us to complete the reports and make sure that they were in the packet for posting. So, we appreciate that partnership and that extra week because sometimes the first day
068of the month falls on a Friday and then it's virtually impossible um depending on how it goes to have them ready in the old model. >> I just wanted to ask a quick question. Um I know that you said that you all were looking for areas where you can um automate certain parts of reports that are being viewed or granted. Have you identified those areas and you have that automation started now with the new um support that you have? So, one of the other transitions that we made, excellent question, is last year, last fiscal year, um, we had a consultant that was assisting in some of the data entry and production of the financial reports and we've now pushed them in house. So, we have a team member that's doing that work. Um and so
069in that transition um of kind of moving towards having an in-house person do it um the consultant essentially hasn't been involved. Um we wanted to make sure that we had fully kind of onboarded and moved forward with in-person staff doing it and house district staff doing it which we completed. The consultant has provided a script um that essentially will take the actuals which will be the warrants list and then import that directly into the system. We haven't done that trial run yet but it's available. I said question about the the accounting support you get presume [clears throat] I don't know if you have a a CPA or an opinion on that they will interact with us something >> it's an excellent question And spoiler is the next topic. >> Okay, we'll go to comments. >>
070Thank you very much. One of the best things about being the old guy in the room as I can tell you that over the decades the CBOC has worked very closely with staff to try to do that trim down the number of reports that they asked for each month a lot more than the five that they asked for right now. There's a suite of reports that they feel that have felt over the years were necessary to go get the information they need to properly oversee uh the bond program. And one of the problems is that things change very rapidly. And so, you know, changing the meetings every other month, getting the reports once or something like that, a lot can happen in a short period of time. And because we're always getting information that is
071at least a week, two weeks, three weeks late at the end of the month, we don't get it until the the third Monday. And so what do we do to try and then it's another two or three weeks before the CDC chair goss about that? It's all done meal by then. So it it is important to to try to figure out what they actually need and that's why it's important to look back on the past. What did the how did we get to this point? Uh I can fully appreciate what Melissa and her staff have been going through. I try to work with her as much as possible when I'm CBOC chair. I know what she was going through and I I can find a house of labor. They the bell rings at the end
072of the day and go home. you you stop your daytime job and you put on family shoes, okay? But I couldn't stop her at 10:45 at night. She'd be sending me reports, but she doing a great job, but there's only so much that you can do with a limited advantage that you have. And with no disrespect to staff or the board, CBOC is supposed to be an independent body, okay? They need to decide what they need to be properly oversee it and not be given direction or have a soft heart to say well you know the board is not providing facilities teams enough manpower to get the job done. That doesn't cut it. It's up to the district one way or the other to find the job done. Um, Marie on I just wanted to
073say um I really enjoy reading the project report emails that come out. I know some came out this morning. Um they're very clear reading. I can understand it as a parent and um I see your name on them. Thank you so much. Uh yes. So I feel really updated knowing what projects are going on. There's even pictures and schedules included and a little timeline. I really appreciate the clarity and being um open to letting us as parents and educators know what where our money is going, what the projects are, and what the status is. Thank you. >> Sometimes there are videos in those newsletters. [clears throat] Any final comments? I would request that you take each report and critically examine it and figure out if you need it. Maybe you do, maybe don't times have
074changed since the world was invented and maybe things are not valid anymore. Maybe you need something else. And so one thing I would like to see is just you know what does this do? Why do we review it? Do we need it? Um to help with the management of the results. Thank you. >> Yes certainly do that. Um, when I [clears throat] think about, um, at the end of the day, what I think our community members, uh, want to know is how much money has the district spent on my school? Uh, and so thinking about putting ourselves in in their shoes um, and [snorts] giving them the information so they can ask you guys the tough questions about how resources are prioritized. I think that is what should um be part of this validation process
075if we think about the information we're reviewing and how we're translating for a community benefit. >> Yes. Okay. We'll move to E5 which is discussion and updating of the 16 haveation consultation for 21 minutes. >> Terrific. So two resources for this. You do have a PowerPoint as well as a guide of recommendations that looks like this. So we're going to quickly run through this. Um next slide. So to your great question. There are number of that the bond program goes through. So there is a district-wide financial audit uh which is due in December and the bond program as a fund of the district is included in that and then by ed code there are two bond program specific audits that are done. One is a financial audit and the other is a performance audit and
076I have some of the ED codes referenced there and a slide at the end um of the full text. There are some supplemental audits that have also been done that we'll get into in just a second. But I know one of the questions that was asked >> I'm sorry we have very little time. Can you just jump to the FAI and update us on that? >> Sure. So we will go to let's just continue to walk down the slide. So background on the FAI and implementation task force was created. Keep going. There was a task force created. Keep going. We're going to kind of move along. Keep going. Those are the members of the committee. Part of the um there were 112 recommendations that were made. And so of those recommendations, many of them were
077included in the program management plan. Next slide. Okay. So, um let's go ahead and jump to the handout that you have before you. So, there's a resource that's been provided tonight. Um and there's an updated presentation if by chance it can be found while we walk through this. This spreadsheet has 112 recommendations on it. It identifies a brief description of the item. It identifies 80 items included in the PMP and then there's a static column for the FAA. Many of the items have been implemented using the PMP. The last column is the third party verification. The board has approved three different third-party verification of implementation audits. Phase one, phase two, and phase 1.5. So phase one and phase two were completed. So in the third party verification column if it says implemented partially implemented or
078not implemented that is the status from phase one or phase 2. If it says phase 1.5 it's because that item is being reviewed by a third party auditor. when you look at the items uh the status identified um in the column for westa and it identifies implemented it'll let you know essentially how that items been implemented. So in the presentation that was provided tonight on slide nine it identifies categories of implementation some of the items they're um belong to legal and so the auditors name those as undetermined there are a couple that are obsolete or completed. [clears throat] The reason why they're osed is because these audit recommendations look back so many years. And so there are programs and positions that are no longer being used. And the audit specifically names adjust the job description
079for this position. Make sure somebody's trained in this program. And if we're not using that program or have that position anymore, it's clearly an obsolete recommendation. That doesn't mean that we didn't do anything. It means what we did was we really tried to implement the intention of the recommendation. There's also a number of recommendations that called for the items to be audited. So a number of the recommendations kind of cascaded and it said do this, do this, do this. Now go and audit and make sure that those things have been done. A lot of the items that are identified as implemented and audited are reviewed in the annual audits that are done by third party auditors. There's a couple of items that have been completed by the IT and HR team. And then there were
080two policy items in the recommendations. One of them is the CC policy which has been adopted by the board. The other policy is the district business ethics policy which is an item that superintendent Cottonman and I have discussed and one that we would like to bring to governance to take another look. Um and then there were also a number of items that had to do with governance and so it was things like training for board members. Um of the 76 items included in the PMP many of them have a staff implementation. Um and so at this time I will have a question. We are at 8:26. Would you like to stand for 10 minutes to 840? Okay. So we'll go to 820. Um okay. Thank you for the presentation. What does it take to wrap
081the sub and ship and publicly are done. So my recommendation would be that a final no more than four page report with this in as an appendex would be provided to the board. There are a number of items that based on their nature are never going to be verified by a third party auditor. Um, but the spirit of the recommendation has been implemented by staff and it is documented. Um, and it's something that can be reviewed. I think part of the value of the audit itself wasn't just to say that a recommendation was made, we did it, we're done. The whole point of the program management plan and kind of the whole point of the change was let's learn from this. change and even if the program stays even if the program changes the implementation
082of the recommendation is a loss. >> Um there are a couple of recommendations that are forward looking for example there's one that says if you have future ballot measures this is language to consider. So I think that in a concise report we could identify what we've done to implement it. um provide the categories kind of as they're referenced here and as they're identified in that chart and then make final recommendations of recommendations that were made that should be followed and keep an eye out for in the future because you can really only implement them when you implement them. We'll say that every year in our annual bond performance and bond financial audit, the auditors use the PMP to verify that we're doing the work that we say that we do. And on many of the
083forms and resources that we use, it references the audit items. This is actually a print out of the 300 pages. Every form that we use, every process that we follow, it's in here. And it's in here to ensure that no matter who's implementing it, we don't lose the internal controls that were intended by the audience. >> Thank you. Questions. >> Thank you. So, um, sounds like that's a good, uh, well, thank you for asking that question, President Dler. And um Mr. Thank you for the responsive, you know, providing a concise report on um on what was completed. Um on on slide five, the implementation task force has a uh box for a CBOC member. I'm wondering what the current status of the implementation task force is. would it ever officially close out? Uh or [clears
084throat] can we may can may I suggest you know that this body does come together close out in relation to this final report. >> So I think that's a great recommendation um of the members named there. the last time I'm standing. >> Um, and we would have to modify the committee slightly, but I think we could also name that in the report as some of these positions no longer exist. But I do agree with the intent of the recommendation, which I think is that a report should be produced and it should be a draft and it should be reviewed and group should really review it and have the opportunity to provide feedback. Um, and I think the PMP was written side by side with the CDC. So, I'd be happy to produce the draft and
085before it was made final create the opportunity to receive that feedback so that it can be questions. >> That will be brief. going again here. I think I listened to that presentation. It was informative. Uh this goes back a few [clears throat] years. Unfortunately, the CBSC members were around during that time. None of the board members were around during that time. So, you don't really know what was in that prison investigation. You don't know what. More importantly, you have no idea what was not in that FI because they ran out of money before they talked to anybody that knew anything. Okay, I know that one firstand I'm still waiting for my followup interview with the accounts. Yeah, that's why 9 years now interviewing me is from things about immediately scholarship program. But it was the
086CBOC that discovered that nearly 40 items of those recommendations that were that staff said were complete were complete and that brought all the additional costs to find out just how complete they were. So but my comment is not to the the board to sweep things under the rug. It's to the COC. You need to be better informed about this. You need to be able to pay attention to to what's what is necessary on there before just sprinkling water and singles could there at one point this is going to cost the district $3.2 million. It got stopped before it got that far. This and this was extremely disruptive not just to our district but Wall Street Journal starts writing articles about us uh and New York Times. That is not good. You have no idea how
087many state and federal agencies were knocking on our door. You do not want the FBI, the SEC, the IRS, uh the the state attorney general, the the district attorney knocking on your front door. I think we're online. You don't want that. So, we want to be make sure we get this thing done right. That's all my recommendation. Don't just sweep on the room any other comments. >> All right. Meeting to see. Um, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. Thank you for your work. Again, I think it's the hardest volunteer job in the district. I know you guys for sure and the truth. I want to thank the board for for trusting us this and I want to thank Don Gazney who who put a lot of hours of time
088passion and knows more about the history of the B program than I think anyone combined. So I just want to acknowledge that and I certainly appreciate I think as well at 8:35 p.m. Thank you everybody. Let me ask um are